User:Yuanmao1118/Su Manshu

Su Man-shu (Su Jian, Hsüan-ying, Su Manshu) (1884-1918) was a writer, poet, painter, revolutionist, translator, and monk. He was born as Xuanying in 1884 in Yokohama, Japan. He later adopted Su Manshu as a Buddhist name. His father was a Cantonese merchant, and his mother was his father's Japanese maid. He went back to Guangdong, China when he was five while his mother stayed in Japan.

Early Life

Su Man-she was born out of wedlock in Yokohama in 1884. He became a Buddhist monk three times during his life; once at the age of 12, later in 1899, and again in 1903. In 1898, Su returned to Japan to study in Yokohama under the support of his cousin. In 1903, Su transferred to Shinbu Gakko military school and joined the Chinese revolution group there. On May 2, 1918, Su Manshu died of stomach disease in Shanghai at the age of 34.

At Yokohama Overseas Chinese School, Su began painting landscapes and gave many painted pictures to friends and lovers over the next ten years. Su's combination of western and traditional Chinese painting makes a picturesque style of painting. In 1912, Su published an autobiographical love novel, Duanhonglingyan Ji ("The Lone Swan"), which was regarded as "the first successfully work in the early modern China". He also wrote many translations, mostly poetry such as by George Byron, but also a highly criticized translation of Les Miserables.

Important Works

Books

• The Lone Swan (Chinese: 斷鴻零雁記; pinyin: Duan hong ling yan ji)

The Duan hong ling yan ji was translated into English by George Kin Leung as The Lone Swan in 1924. And a Japanese translation is also available. This unfinished novel, serialized in the ``Pacific Ocean Post`` (pinyin: Tao ping yang bao) in 1912, depicts being torn between two arranged betrothals from the Su's point of view, the first with Xuemei (Chinese: 雪梅) of China and the second with Shizuko (Chinese: 静子) of Japan. Eventually, neither of these things was accomplished, and he was still a wandering Buddhist monk.

Translations

• Selected Poems of Lord Byron (Chinese: 拜倫詩選)

The Selected Poems of Lord Byron was published in the Chinese empire Hsuantung first year (in 1909) and translated into Chinese in the form of classical Chinese poetry such as The Isles of Greece and My Native Land, Good Night

• Les Miserables

The Les Miserables was published in the Chinese empire Guangxu 29th year (in 1903). It was serialized in 國民日日報 (English: The National Day Daily ) with a translated title 慘社會 (English: Miserable Society) in Shanghai. It was not faithful to translate the original work and its plots were fabricated and disorderly changed since the 7th chapter.