The World of a Tiny Insect : A Memoir of the Taiping Rebellion and Its Aftermath (The World of a Tiny Insect)

Daye, Zhang/ Tian, Xiaofei (TRN)

University of Washington Press（2014/02発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 208 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780295993171
• DDC分類 951.034092

Full Description

"From the cry of a tiny insect, one can hear the sound of a vast world. . . ."

So begins Zhang Daye's preface to The World of a Tiny Insect, his haunting memoir of war and its aftermath. In 1861, when China's devastating Taiping rebellion began, Zhang was seven years old. The Taiping rebel army occupied Shaoxing, his hometown, and for the next two years, he hid from Taiping soldiers, local bandits, and imperial troops and witnessed gruesome scenes of violence and death. He lost friends and family and nearly died himself from starvation, illness, and encounters with soldiers on a rampage.

Written thirty years later, The World of a Tiny Insect gives voice to this history. A rare premodern Chinese literary work depicting a child's perspective, Zhang's sophisticated text captures the macabre images, paranoia, and emotional excess that defined his wartime experience and echoed through his adult life. The structure, content, and imagery of The World of a Tiny Insect offer a carefully constructed, fragmented narrative that skips in time and probes the relationships between trauma and memory, revealing both history and its psychic impact. Xiaofei Tian's annotated translation includes an introduction that situates The World of a Tiny Insect in Chinese history and literature and explores the relevance of the book to the workings of traumatic memory.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Map of Author's Travels

Translator's Introduction

Preface by Zhang Daye

Part 1

"Trip to Tiantai"

An Account of Taizhou Prefecture

The Six Counties of Taizhou

The "One-Headed Woman" at Huangyan

Ten Poems on Xianju

The Birds of Xianju

Part 2

Birth and Early Childhood

On the Run: 1861-1863

"Flames of War," Ghost Troops, and Other Strange Happenings

Epidemic, Greed, and the Woman Dismembered at Lu's Dyke

The Occupation of Shaoxing and Its Aftermath

Edible Flora and Fauna

The Pleasures and Horrors of Childhood

Narrow Escapes on Water

Reunion with Father and Father's Death