Full Name Li Jiaxiang 李家祥 Name Li Jieren | Role Writer Died December 24, 1962 | |
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Born 20 June 1891 ( 1891-06-20 ) Chengdu, Sichuan Books Ripple on Stagnant Water: A Novel of Sichuan in the Age of Treaty Ports, Ripples Across Stagnant Water | ||
Li Jieren (Chinese: 李劼人; pinyin: Lǐ Jiérén; June 20, 1891 – December 24, 1962) was a Chinese writer and translator. A native of Chengdu, his works are celebrated for their local flavor and realistic portrayal of Sichuan during the late Qing period.
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Life
Born Li Jiaxiang (Chinese: 李家祥; pinyin: Lǐ Jiāxiáng) in Chengdu to a family of humble means, he did not begin formal schooling until the age of 16. He graduated from the secondary school attached to the Sichuan Higher School (a predecessor of Sichuan University) in 1911 and published his first work of fiction in 1912. From 1919 to 1924 Li studied in Paris; he would later become the first to translate the works of French writers such as Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, and Gustave Flaubert into Chinese.
He is best known for a trilogy of long novels set in his native Sichuan and published during the 1930s. The first and most widely acclaimed of these was translated into English as Ripple on Stagnant Water (Chinese: 死水微澜). His fiction is considered among the finest examples of Chinese literary naturalism.
Li was active in the literary field of Republican China throughout the 1930s and 40s as a writer, editor, and French-Chinese translator. After the establishment of the PRC in 1949 he held various government positions in Sichuan, including that of vice mayor of Chengdu. He died in Chengdu in 1962.