Yang Jiang (1911-2016)

 

Yang Jiang (1911-2016), a renowned Chinese playwright, novelist, scholar and translator, died peacefully at the age of 105 on May 25.

 

Scholarly achievements
Yang served as a research fellow at the Institute of Foreign Literature under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). She was made an Honorary CASS Member for her remarkable literary achievements.
 

Yang began her career in literature as a playwright. In the 1940s, two of her comedies, As You Wish (1944) and Taking True for False (1945), were huge hits. Focusing on young petty bourgeoisie, she unfolded a sophisticated world to the audience with her vivid portrayals of all kinds of people in society. Behind her humor lay deep seriousness and sadness.
 

After 1949, Yang shifted her focus to writing and translating. Her short novels give telling accounts of various characters. Her only long novel Baptism (1988) presented typical portraits of the lives of ordinary people after liberation. Her works are witty, yet profound and realistic.
 

Her prose, though written in simple language, is affectionate. After the deaths of her husband Qian Zhongshu (1910-98), well known for the novel Fortress Besieged (1947) and considered one of China’s greatest writers, and daughter Qian Yuan (1937-97), a reputed professor of English at Beijing Normal University, she worked out We Three (2003), in which she movingly recollected the life of her family.

Yang also was a brilliant translator. Famous Chinese translator Zhu Guangqian (1897-1986) praised her as the best prose translator in China.
 

Chen Zhongyi, director of CASS’s Institute of Foreign Literature, said that Yang was adept at translating English, French and Spanish.
 

She only began learning Spanish at the age of 48 and translated literature while studying the language. She was the first Chinese person to translate the Spanish classic Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616).
 

Her Spanish translations laid a solid foundation for later Spanish literary translation in China, Chen said.
 

“Yang’s rich, deep life philosophy is as invaluable as her works. Her love for her family and country, her unfading dignity, her high sense of cultural and intellectual responsibility, and her tireless engagement in scholarship have made her a role model for young scholars. Her death has drawn significant attention because she represents the positive energy necessary for current social and cultural life,” said Dang Shengyuan, Party secretary of the institute.

 

Simple life
Unaffected by literary celebrity, Yang led a simple life. Her home is sparsely decorated, with white walls, concrete floors and old furniture.
 

The sitting room also functions as a study. On the bookshelf close to the door sit 20 neatly arranged volumes of the Manuscripts of Qian Zhongshu, alongside foreign language reference books. The photos of her husband and daughter are placed at the center of the shelf in plain sight.
 

There is a small desk in the sitting room. It was at the desk where she translated Plato’s Phaedo at the age of nearly 90, wrote Reaching the Brink of Life (2007) at 96 and produced a sequel to Baptism at 103.

At the desk, she also devoted tremendous time and energy to organizing massive quantities of Qian’s manuscripts, thus preserving her husband’s valuable legacy. The Foreign Language Notes, which was part of the Manuscripts of Qian Zhongshu and didn’t come out fully until early this year, is inseparable from her endeavors.
 

Keeping a low profile, Yang declined most visits in recent years. Reading and writing are what her life was all about. She loved reading all her life. When she was young, she said that if she didn’t read for a week, she would have lived “in vain.”

Even after she turned 100, she still read every day. If she was in good health, she would do some work. She transcribed Qian’s works with a brush many times every single day.
 

“Qian and Yang coordinated well with each other. Their academic achievements have added a splendid chapter to contemporary literary and academic history,” Dang said.

 

Going home
Yang thought lightly of death. “I have reached the brink of life. I am not sure how much farther I can go ahead. Life is beyond control, but I am rather clear that I am about to ‘go home.’ I have to remove the filthiness I tainted myself with in the past 100 years,” she said at her 100th birthday.
 

After Qian passed away, Yang donated all of the royalties from her works and those of her husband in the name of her family to her alma mater Tsinghua University and set up a “Love Reading” scholarship, totaling approximately 20 million yuan.

According to her will, all of the precious cultural relics, calligraphy and paintings they collected will be donated to the National Museum. Other properties will also be donated to the State.
 

“The life of Yang was a continuous pursuit of perfection. Her works constitute a priceless intellectual legacy for young scholars. By rereading them, we can experience the historical scenarios she went through and view the world and people with her,” Dang said.
 

Now, Yang has “gone home,” reuniting with her husband and daughter.

 

 

 

Lü Sha is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.