A Translator in the Shadows of Early Republican China Lin Shu's Position in Modern Chinese Literature an Overview

Once ostracized and relegated to a mere marginal position in the history of modern Chinese literature, Lin Shu 林紓 (1852-1924) has now become an important and relatively well-known figure. This paper summarizes existing research on Lin Shu's translations and the controversy between the vernacular and the classical language, emphasizing the achievements of Chinese and Japanese scholarship during the past century. For practical reasons, results have been divided chronologically into four categories: (1) Criticism of Lin Shu before 1924; (2) Early Chinese Scholarship (1924-1935); (3) Late Chinese and Early Japanese Scholarship (1935-1960); (4) Renaissance of Studies on Lin Shu outside China (1960-2000). This periodization is supplemented with a brief excursus on the current state of Lin Shu studies.