Hakin

Japanese: 巴金 - はきん

Chinese author. His real name was Li Yaotang. His pen name was Fu Gan. He also went by many other pen names, including Ouyang Jingrong, Wang Wenhui, Bi Jin, You Yi, and You San. He was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to a family of high-ranking bureaucrats and landowners. During the Cultural Revolution that began with the May Fourth Movement (1919), he was exposed to new ideas and began to look critically at his family, who were feudal landowners. Since 1923, he has studied in Shanghai and Nanjing, and in 1926, he aimed to enter Beijing University, but gave up due to illness. He stayed in Beijing for two weeks to study for his entrance exams, during which he read Lu Xun's "The Outcry" at length, and opened his eyes to literature. From 1927 he studied in Paris for a year, where he interacted with anarchists, and participated in the relief movement at the time of the Sacco-Vanzetti Affair. During this time he wrote his debut novella "Damnation" (1929), which tells the theme of love and death of a young anarchist, and quickly became famous. His pen name, Badu Jin, is said to have been chosen in memory of Kropotkin, the author of "The Origin and Development of Ethics" (Part 1), which he translated during his stay in France, and of fellow student Badu Enbo, who committed suicide there.

After returning to China, he published "Family" (1931), which was modeled on his childhood home. This work, which vividly depicts the collapse of a large feudal family in the waves of a new era, had a great influence on the young people of the time who were still under the shackles of feudalism. He then wrote "Spring" (1938) and "Autumn" (1940), completing this long novel that he called the "Torrent Trilogy." In 1944, he wrote the medium-length story "Resting Garden," which can be considered a sequel, and in 1945, he wrote "Cold Night," which depicts the conflict between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law and the intellectual who is troubled by it, continuing to explore the issue of the family. It is well known that in the 1930s, when he was criticized by leftists as an anarchist, Lu Xun defended him, saying, "Ba Jin is a passionate, progressive writer, and one of the best writers in the world." He came to Japan under the name Reitokuzui from November 1934 to August 1935, and studied Japanese while living in Yokohama and Tokyo.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the China Writers Association (becoming Chairman in 1984), and as editor-in-chief of the magazines Literary Monthly and Harvest, he was involved in nurturing young writers, while also writing prolifically essays and reportage. During the so-called "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1977, he was severely criticized and persecuted as a bourgeois writer, but in 1977 he regained his honor and resumed his writing career. The fruits of this work include "Creative Memoirs" (1981) and five volumes of "Essays" (1979-86). In particular, in the latter volume (the fifth, "Untitled Collection"), he expresses his determination to pass on the tragic lessons of the Cultural Revolution to future generations and "never let this tragedy be repeated," and proposes the establishment of a "Cultural Revolution" museum for this purpose, which attracted worldwide attention.

Prior to the Cultural Revolution, he visited Japan in 1961, 1962, and 1963 as the head of a Chinese writers' delegation, and after the Cultural Revolution, he visited Japan in 1980, 1981, and 1984 as the head of a writers' delegation and as the head of the Chinese delegation to the 47th International PEN Convention (in 1980, he became the first president of the China PEN Club). The 26-volume "Complete Works of Bajin," begun in 1958, was completed in 1994.

[Tatsuma Shosuke]

"Cold Night" translated by Tatsuma Shosuke (included in "Shueisha Edition World Literature Collection 72", 1978, Shueisha)" ▽ "Bajin Zuisouroku" translated by Ishigami Sho (1982, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Untitled Collection" translated by Ishigami Sho (1988, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "When the Lilacs Fall - Bajin Short Stories" translated by Yamaguchi Mamoru (1991, JICC Publishing Bureau)" ▽ "Ikien" translated by Okazaki Toshio (Iwanami Shinsho)" ▽ "The House" translated by Iizuka Akira (Iwanami Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

中国の作家。本名は李尭棠(りぎょうとう)。字(あざな)は芾甘(はいかん)。筆名はほかに欧陽鏡容(おうようきょうよう)、王文慧(おうぶんけい)、比金(ひきん)、余一(よいち)、余三(よさん)など多数。四川(しせん／スーチョワン)省成都の大官僚地主の家に生まれる。五・四運動（1919）に始まる文化革命期に新しい思潮の洗礼を受け、封建的地主である生家に批判的な目を向けるようになった。1923年以来、上海(シャンハイ)、南京(ナンキン)に遊学、26年北京(ペキン)大学進学を志したが病気のため断念した。受験のため半月間北京に滞在したが、このときに魯迅(ろじん／ルーシュン)の『吶喊(とっかん)』を熟読、文学に開眼した。27年から1年間パリに留学。アナキストと交流をもち、サッコ‐バンゼッティ事件に際しては、その救援運動に参加したりした。この間に処女作となった中編『滅亡』（1929）を執筆。アナキスト青年の恋と死をテーマとしたこの作品によって一躍名を知られるようになった。巴金という筆名は、滞仏中に翻訳した『倫理学の起源と発展』（上）の作者克魯泡特金(クロポトキン)と、同地で自殺した巴恩波(パーエンポー)という留学生仲間を記念してつけたものという。

　帰国後、生家をモデルとした『家』（1931）を発表。新しい時代の波のなかで崩壊していく封建的大家庭の姿を如実に描き出したこの作品は、なお封建的桎梏(しっこく)のもとにあった当時の青年たちに大きな影響を与えた。その後、『春』（1938）、『秋』（1940）と書き継いで『激流三部作』と名づけたこの大長編を完成させた。さらに1944年にはその後日物語といえる中編『憩園(けいえん)』を書き、45年には嫁と姑(しゅうとめ)の確執、その間にたって悩むインテリの姿を描いた『寒夜(かんや)』を書いて、家の問題を追究し続けた。1930年代、彼が左翼からアナキストと批判された際、魯迅が「巴金は情熱的、進歩的作家であり、屈指の好作家の一人である」と弁護したことはよく知られている。1934年11月から35年8月まで、黎徳瑞(れいとくずい)の名で来日、横浜・東京に滞在して日本語を学んだ。

　新中国成立後は、中国作家協会副主席（1984年に同主席）に就任、雑誌『文芸月報』『収穫』編集長として青年作家の育成に当たる一方、主として随筆、ルポルタージュの方面で健筆をふるった。66～77年のいわゆる「文化大革命」時期にはブルジョア作家として厳しい批判と迫害を受けたが、77年に名誉を回復、執筆活動を再開した。『創作回想録』（1981）、『随想録』全5集（1979～86）はその成果で、とくに後者（第5集『無題集』）に収められた『「文革」博物館』（1986）は「文革」という悲惨な教訓を子々孫々に伝え、この悲劇を「二度と繰り返させない」という決意を述べ、そのための「文革」博物館の設立を提唱したもので、世界の注目を集めた。

　文革以前の1961、62、63年に中国作家代表団長として来日、文革後も1980、81、84年に作家代表団長、第47回国際ペンクラブ大会中国代表団長（1980年、中国ペンクラブ初代会長に就任）として来日した。1958年に始まる『巴金全集』全26巻は94年に完結した。

［立間祥介］

『立間祥介訳『寒夜』（『集英社版世界文学全集72』所収・1978・集英社）』▽『石上韶訳『巴金随想録』（1982・筑摩書房）』▽『石上韶訳『無題集』（1988・筑摩書房）』▽『山口守訳『リラの花散る頃――巴金短篇集』（1991・JICC出版局）』▽『岡崎俊夫訳『憩園』（岩波新書）』▽『飯塚朗訳『家』（岩波文庫）』