Wang Wang Wei

A Chinese poet and scholar from the late Qing to the early Republic of China. His pen name was Jing'an and his pen name was Guandang. He was posthumously given the posthumous name Zhong. He was born on December 3rd. He was from Haining, Zhejiang Province. After failing the imperial examinations, he went to Shanghai in 1898 to work at the Times Newspaper, while studying Japanese and English at the Eastern Literature Society, run by Luo Zhenyu. His teachers included Fujita Kenpo (Toyohachi) and Taoka Reiun. In 1901 (Meiji 34), he studied abroad at the Tokyo Physics School. The following year, in 1902, he returned to Japan due to illness and helped edit the Educational Magazine, edited by Luo Zhenyu. From this time on, he developed an interest in the philosophies of Kant, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, and his interests eventually extended to literature and education. Over the next ten years, he was a prolific writer and translator in all of these fields, and his most notable work, "A Commentary on Dream of the Red Chamber," is based on Schopenhauer's aesthetics and positions "Dream of the Red Chamber" as a tragic work that was lacking in Chinese literature, and is considered the first systematic modern criticism in China. He collected these works and published them in the "Jing'an Essay Collection" (1905). He also wrote "Human Speech" and "Considerations on Drama of the Song and Yuan Dynasties" (1912), which are still considered classics today.

After the Xinhai Revolution, he followed Luo Zhenyu to Kyoto (1911-1915), but it was around this time that he left literature behind to study history, and produced great works in archaeology, oracle bone studies, phonology, and other fields, including "Liusha Du Jian" (1913), "In the Yin Divination Citations: Thoughts on the Former Gong and the Former Wang" and "Continued Thoughts" (1917). In 1925, he became a professor at Tsinghua University, but on June 2, 1927, before the National Revolutionary Army entered Beijing, he committed suicide by jumping into Kunming Lake in Beijing. It is said that he died for the Qing dynasty, but many people doubt this. His works are included in "Wang Zhonggong's Relics" and "Kandou Collection".

[Toramaru Ito March 18, 2016]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、清(しん)末期から中華民国初頭の詩人、学者。字(あざな)は静安。号は観堂。没後に忠(ちゅうかく)と諡(おくりな)された。12月3日生まれ。浙江(せっこう／チョーチヤン)省海寧の人。科挙に失敗したのち、1898年上海(シャンハイ)に出て時務報館に勤め、かたわら羅振玉(らしんぎょく／ルオチェンユイ)が主宰した東文学社で日本語、英語などを学ぶ。師に藤田剣峯(ふじたけんぽう)（豊八(とよはち)）や田岡嶺雲(たおかれいうん)がいた。1901年（明治34）東京物理学校に留学。翌1902年病気で帰国し、羅振玉主編の『教育雑誌』の編集などに従う。このころからカント、ニーチェ、ショーペンハウアーらの哲学への関心を深め、やがて興味は文学や教育にも及ぶ。この約10年間、これら各分野にわたって著述、翻訳に健筆を振るうが、なかでも『紅楼夢評論』は、ショーペンハウアーの美学に基づき、『紅楼夢』を中国文学に欠けている悲劇の文学と位置づけたもので、中国における最初の体系的な近代批評とされる。それらを集めて『静安文集』（1905）を刊行。また『人間詞話(じんかんしわ)』や、今日も古典的名著とされる『宋元(そうげん)戯曲考』（1912）を書いた。

　辛亥(しんがい)革命後、羅振玉に従って京都に住んだ（1911～1915）が、このころから文学を離れて歴史学の研究に進み、『流沙墜簡(りゅうさついかん)』（1913）、『殷卜辞(いんぼくじ)中所見先公先王考』『同続考』（1917）をはじめ、考古学、甲骨学、音韻学などにわたって大きな業績を残した。1925年清華大学教授となったが、1927年6月2日、国民革命軍の北京(ペキン)入城を前に北京・昆明池(こんめいち)に投身自殺した。清朝に殉じたとされるが、疑う者も多い。著作は『王忠公遺集』『観堂集林』などに収める。

［伊藤虎丸　2016年3月18日］

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