Biography in English

Lin Yü-t'ang (1895-), scholar, writer, and journalist. In the 1930's he was a leader of the movements to use social satire and to adapt Western newspaper prose to Chinese journalism. Beginning with the publication in 1935 of My Country and My People, he established an international reputation as a writer of popular books in English about China.

A native of Lunch'i, Changchow, in Amoy, Lin Yü-t'ang was a third-generation Christian and the son of a Chinese Presbyterian minister. He w^as brought up in a pleasant but strictly religious family atmosphere and at the age of 13 was sent to the Changchow Middle School. It was decided that he should enter the ministry, and, as a first step, he was sent from middle school to the Protestant College of Amoy. In 1911 he entered St. John's University in Shanghai. During his first 18 months at the university he studied at its institute of theology, but he became increasingly disinterested in his studies and finally decided to renounce Christianity. He was graduated from St. John's with a second-class degree, a precocious command of English, and a proportionately weaker foundation of classical Chinese. After leaving St. John's in 1916 he became professor of English at Tsinghua University and married Liao Tsuifeng. In 1919 Lin decided to go to the United States for further study. He went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he studied at Harvard for one year and received the M.A. degree in absentia in 1922. In 1920 he went to France and worked for the French YMCA until 1921, when he went to Germany and attended the University of Jena for one term. At the beginning of the new academic year, he enrolled at Leipzig University, where he remained until 1923 and received his Ph.D. His thesis was entitled "Altchinesiche Lautlehre" [old Chinese phonetics]. After returning to China in 1923, Lin Yü-t'ang became a professor in the English department of Peking University; he also taught at Peking Normal University. He soon became associated with liberal intellectuals and in 1926 he and some 50 other professors were blacklisted by the authorities and ordered to leave Peking. During his last six months in Peking, Lin served as head of the English department of the National Normal University for W'omen.

Lin went to Amoy, where he became dean of the college of arts and letters in the university. In the spring of 1927 he became secretary to the ministry of foreign affairs in the Wuhan government. When the new National Government was established at Nanking in 1928, Lin retired from politics. For a time, he helped edit an English-language magazine. The People s Tribune, which set forth the views of Wang Ching-wei and his followers. Lin then went to teach English in Soochow at Tung Wu University and at the Shanghai College of Law. He also became a director of the K'ai-ming Bookstore and, consequently, the editor of several English-language manuals. In 1930 he assumed direction of the foreign-language section of the Academia Sinica and took charge of philological research. It was probably during this period that he conceived of a tonal spelling system for Chinese, an idea subsequentlydeveloped by Y. R. Chao (Chao Yuen-ren, q.v.) into Gwoyeu Romatzyh [national romanization]. He also served as secretary to the Kuomintang veteran Wu Chih-hui. From 1924 to 1931 Lin was a regular contributor to the literary weekly Yü-ssu [fragments], edited by Lu Hsün and his brother Chou Tso-jen.

In 1932 Lin Yü-t'ang founded the Lun-yü pan-yüeh-k' an [analects fortnightly], which made his reputation in China. The magazine specialized in humor and satire and enjoyed considerable success, although Lin was attacked by rightists for mocking national sentiment and by leftists for trying to dull national conscience with ribaldry. Lin declared that the function of the magazine was to criticize, and he continued to publish it until 1935. During that period, his articles from the Lun-yü pan-yüeh-k' an appeared in English in the China Critic, a Shanghai weekly published by a group of Chinese intellectuals including Chang Hsin-hai, Quentin Pan, Hu Shih, and D. K. Lieu. In the spring of 1934 Lin started his second magazine, Jen-chien-shih hsiao-p'in-wen pan-yuehk'an [this human world], a semi-monthly magazine devoted to short essays. One aim of this publication was to develop a simple prose style for popular needs. In 1934 Lin launched the YU-chou feng [cosmic wind], a fortnightly publication specializing in the American digest type of article. It was attacked by leftist intellectuals in the Shun Pao [Shanghai news daily] literary supplement and thereby received some profitable publicity. It continued publication until the end of 1935, and its contributors included Kuo Mo-jo, Lao She, and Chou Tso-jen.

In 1935 Lin became associated with T'ien Hsia Monthly, an English-language magazine published by the Sun Yat-sen Institute for the Advancement of Culture and Learning. This journal earned a high reputation for its quality and content, but it was forced to cease publication when the Sino-JapSnese war broke out. Lin's first book in English, My Country and My People, was published in New York in 1935 and was an instant success in the West. It was translated into French in 1937, into Chinese in 1938, and into German in 1946.

Lin Yü-t'ang left China in 1936 and arrived with his family in New York to find himself in great demand as a writer. His second book. The Importance of Living, appeared in 1937. It was translated into French in 1948 and into German in 1955. In 1939 Lin published The Birth of a New China, a personal account of the Sino-Japanese war, and Moment in Peking, a novel of contemporary life which has affinities with the Hung Lou Meng tradition and is thought by critics to be one of his better books. Lin left the United States in 1940 to return to China, but became ill in Hong Kong and had to return to the United States. He finally arrived in China in 1943. He lectured on Chinese culture at Central University and visited Kweilin, Hengyang, Changsha, Shaokuan, and Kunming. He became involved in a literary dispute with the writer Ts'ao Chü-jen, who was vigorously supported by the magazines T'ai-pai and Alang-chung. This dispute typified the uneasy relationship which developed between Lin and Chinese literary-academic circles in wartime China and which resulted in his return to the United States.

In the United States, Lin produced many English translations of Chinese works and wrote novels, essays, plays, and travel books. His novels include A Leaf in the Storm (1942), a novel of war-torn China; Chinatown Family (1948); The Vermilion Gate (1953); Lady Wu (1957); and The Red Peony ( 1 96 1 ) . Among his collections of essays are Looking Beyond (1955); The Secret Name (1958), studies in Communism; and The Pleasures of a Non-Conformist (1962). His tragicomedy, Confucius Saw Nancy was published in 1937. A study of the capital of Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing China, Imperial Peking, appeared in 1961. Lin's translations constitute a large part of his literary production and are among his best achievements. Many of them appeared in the Tien Hsia Monthly and other Shanghai pubhcations in the 1930's. His masterpiece of translation is Six Chapters of a Floating- Life, a beautiful English rendering of the Fu-sheng liu-chi of Shen Fu (ECCP, II, 641-42), which appeared in 1935 in the Tien Hsia Monthly. In 1947 Lin edited and annotated a translation of Mao Tse-tung's New Democracy which appeared under the title ''Democracy,'' a Digest Bible of Chinese Communism. In 1951 he published Widow, Nun, and Courtesan, a translation of three Chinese stories—Lao Hsiang's "Widow Chuan," Liu O's "A Nun of Taishan," and his own "Miss Tu." He published a collection of earlier translations in 1960 as The Importance of Understanding: Translations from the Chinese. Lin also compiled several "wisdom" books: The Wisdom of China and India (1942j; The Wisdom of Laotze (1948); and On the Wisdom of America (1950). In 1967 he published The Chinese Theory of Art. Lin accepted an invitation in 1954 to become chancellor of the new Xanyang University in Singapore, for which he recruited his own academic staff. The venture was not a success, and Lin became involved in a dispute with the authorities over policy and finance. He resigned with severance pay at the end of six months and returned to the United States by way of Europe. In New York, Lin joined the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, where his wife was active in church work, in December 1957. A year later he publicly announced his reconversion to Christianity, and in 1959 he published his testament entitled From Pagan to Christian.

In his earlier Chinese writings, Lin Yu-t"ang contributed to the development of new journalistic style. His witty use of English and droll exposition of Confucian philosophy blended with Laotzian passivity, endeared him to many Western readers. Lin's first two books remained the definitive interpretations of Chinese, society for more than a decade in the West. Although he earned a reputation as an Eastern philosopher abroad, Lin was never regarded as an original thinker in Chinese literary circles.

Lin Yü-t'ang and his wife had three daughters Ju-ssu (Adet), born in 1923; T'ai-i (Anor), born in 1926; and Hsiang-ju (Meimei). Using the names Adet and Anor Lin, the elder sisters wrote Our Family in 1939. In 1940 they produced a translation entitled Girl Rebel, the Autobiography of a Woman Soldier. And in 1941, together with Meimei Lin, they wrote Dawn Over Chungking. Adet Lin also published The Milky Way, and Other Chinese Folk Tales.

Biography in Chinese

林语堂

原名:林玉堂

林语堂(1895—),学者、作家,新闻记者。三十年代中成为幽默文学的首领,并倡导在中国新闻界运用西方的新闻文体。自从1935年出版了《吾国与吾民》之后,就以用英文写作有关中国的通俗作品而知名。

林语堂原籍福建漳州,先辈三代都是在厦门的基督教徒,他父亲是长老会牧师,早年在愉快但虔信宗教的环境中长大,十三岁时进漳州中学。他家里要他成为牧师,所以他从中学转入厦门的天主教教会学校。1911年进上海圣约翰大学,最初十八个月中,在神学院读书,但渐渐对此不感兴趣,最后决心不入基督教。他在圣约翰以第二等成绩毕业,擅长英语而中文较差。1916年离圣约约翰大学后,在清华大学任英语教授,并与廖祖芬结婚。

1919年,林语堂去美国进修,他到马萨诸塞州的剑桥进了哈佛大学学习一年,于1922年缺席获得硕士学位,1920年去法国在法国基督教青年会工作到1921年,然后去德国进耶納大学一学期,后又进来比锡大学,1923年获得哲学博士学位,他的论文题为《中国古音韵》。

1923年,林语堂回国任北京大学英语系教授,同时又在北京师范大学教书,不久与当时的一些自由知识分子结识,1926年他与五十名教授一起被列入黑名单奉命离开北京。他在北京的最后六个月中,任国立北京女子师范大学英语系主任。

林语堂去厦门,任厦门大学文学院院长,1927年春去武汉,任武汉政府外交部长秘书。1928年,国民政府在南京成立,他退出政治舞台。他曾一度帮助编辑代表汪精卫等人政见的英文杂志《人民论坛》,以后去苏州东吴大学、上海法政学院教英语,又任开明书店经理,其后,又主编了些英语读物。1930年主持中央研究院西文部,并负责语言学研究工作。约在此时,他设想了一种中文拼音方案,以后由赵元任发展成为“国语罗马字”。他还曾担任过国民党元老吴稚晖的秘书。1924—1931年间经常为鲁迅及其弟周作人所编的文学周刊《语丝》撰稿。

1932年,林语堂以创办《论语半月刊》而在国内知名,该杂志专门刊登幽默讽刺的文章而大为成功。但右翼作家批评他嘲弄国民精神,左翼作家则批评他用庸俗的东西腐蚀民众的心灵。林则声称他办杂志意在进行批评并将它一直岀版到1935年。在此期间,他在《论语半月刊》上发表的文章常常又以英语刊登在《大陆报》上。《大陆报》是由潘光旦、胡适、等知识分子所办的一份在上海出版的周刊。

1934年春,林涪堂又创办了第二种杂志《人间世小品文半月刊》,出版目的在于推厂适应大众的一种简易文体。同年,又创办了采用美国文摘风格的《宇宙风》半月刊,这份杂志,受到左翼知识分子在《申报》文学刚刊上发出的攻击,并由此而获得某些名声。它一直出版到1935年末,其投稿人包括有郭沫若、老舍、周作人等。

1935年,林语堂与中山文化教育馆出版的英语杂志《天下月刊》有了联系,这份杂志以其内容而获得好评,但自中日战争爆发后被迫停刊。1935年林语堂第一本用英文写的书《吾国与吾民》在纽约出版后,在西方当即风行。1937年译成法文,1938年译成中文,1946年译成徳文。

1936年,林语堂全家离开中国去到纽约,那时美国正需要他那样的作家,1937年出版了二本英文书籍《生活的意只》,1948年译成法文,1955年译成德文。1939年出版了记述他个人在中日战争时期的经历的《新中国的诞生》以及《瞬息京华》,后者是采用《红楼梦》的笔法描写当代生活的小说,评论者认为这是林语堂最好的一本著作。

1940年林语堂离美回国时因病留在香港,后又去美国,但终于在1943年回到了中国,在中央大学作了有关中国文化的讲演,又访问了桂林,衡阳、长沙、韶关、昆明等地。他卷入了《太白》和《芒种》杂志热烈支持的作家曹聚仁的文学争论之中,这个争论说明了他与战时中国文学界的关系不相协调,因此林语堂又回到美国去了。

林语堂在美国翻译了不少中国作品并写了一些小说、论文、剧本、游记。他写的小说有;《风波一叶》(1942),—本描写遭受战难的中国的小说:《华人城》(1948),《硃漆大门》(1953),《吴夫人》(1957),《红牡丹》(1961)。论文集有《向外瞻望》(1955),研究共产主义的《秘密名 字》(1958),《非国教徒的欢乐)(1962)。他的悲喜剧本有1937年出版的《子见南子》。1901年出版的《帝城》,是一本研究元、明、清朝的京城的书。林语堂的翻译作品是他文学活动中的重要部分而且是他成就最高的部分。其中很多在三十年代上海的《天下月刊》和其他出版物上发表,最成功的译作是沈复的《浮生六记》的一部漂亮的英译本,在1935年的《天下月刊》上发表。1947年他编辑和注解了毛泽东的《新民主主义论》译文,题名为《“论民主”:中国共产主义的精粹》。1951年他编辑出版了一本名为《寡妇、尼姑、情妇》的书。1960年出版了早年译作《理解的重要性:中文译文集》。他还编过几本“幽默”丛书:《印华幽默》(1942),《老子幽默》(1948)《论美国幽默》(1950)。1967年他岀版了《中国美术理论》。

1954年应邀任新加坡新南洋大学校长,为此他聘请了自己的师资人员。此行并不成功,因他与当局就方针和财政问题发生了争议,就职六个月后,他领取离职金,辞职经欧洲去美国。1957年12月加入纽约麦迪孙街长老会教堂,其妻积极参加该建工作。一年后,他改信基督教,1959年出版了他的遗嘱《由异教徒成为基督徒》。

林语堂早期的中文作品,对发展新的新闻文体作出了更猷,他机智地运用英语,取笑儒家哲学,把它和老子学派的消极无为揉合在一起,这使西方人士感到很亲切。他最初的两本书为西方人士具体地描示了中国社会,其影响持续了一个世代之久。他在国外虽被认为是一名东方哲人,但在中国国内文学界却从未被人看出是一个真正的思想家。

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