SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper attempts to give a relatively accurate picture of Hsu Chih-mo's life with emphasis on the literary side as the title suggests. A generally chronological order is observed throughout the discussion. Chapter one covers the first period of Hsu's life, stressing his Cambridge days. Chapter two gives an account of Hsu's love life, literary works and activities in the first two to three years after he returned to Peking from abroad in 1922. Chapter three is a continuation of the previous one, up to the year 1926. Chapter four deals with Hsu's last years in Shanghai, with a special note on his disillusionment with love and life, and the final "revival" shortly before his death. Hsu is treated primarily as a poet rather than an essayist in this paper and his poetical works are examined separately in the relevant sections, i.e., chapters two, three and four. Some incidents and activities in Hsu's life are investigated in greater detail than others with a view to either (1): correcting erroneous or inaccurate impressions which have almost been perpetuated in both journalistic writings and even scholarly works concerning Hsu, or (2): demonstrating facts hitherto little known to the world so as to illustrate some important points which would otherwise remain unclear. Quite a number of Hsu's poems and articles, long forgotten or practically unknown because they have not been included in any of his collections, have been exhumed, and dozens of unpublished letters by him have been used in this biography.