Su Manshu
Illustration — Portrait of Su Manshu Su Manshu (1884–1918) was a Chinese writer, poet, painter, revolutionist and translator; his original name was Su Xuanying. Su had been named as a writer of poetry and romantic love stories in the history of early modern Chinese literature. However, he was most commonly known as a Buddhist monk, a poetry monk, "the monk of sentiment" and "the revolutionary monk".
Also recorded as Zigu
Su Manshu

不詳 · 《拜輪詩選》卷首,泰東圖書局出版 · Public domain
- Born
- 1884 · Yokohama.
- Died
- 1918 · Shanghai.
- Nationality
- China · Republic of China
- Occupation
- poet · journalist · painter · translator · writer
- Languages
- Chinese
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Portrait of Su Manshu Su Manshu (1884–1918) was a Chinese writer, poet, painter, revolutionist and translator; his original name was Su Xuanying. Su had been named as a writer of poetry and romantic love stories in the history of early modern Chinese literature. However, he was most commonly known as a Buddhist monk, a poetry monk, "the monk of sentiment" and "the revolutionary monk".
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Su Manshu (1884–1918) was a journalist, painter and poet, among other activities, a national of China and the Republic of China. The journalist was born in Yokohama and died in Shanghai. Languages used include Chinese.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Su Manshu. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
gnd · 118952684 · wikidata · Q1150818 · wikipedia · Su Manshu
In this article
Education
Education
Su was born out of wedlock in Yokohama, Japan in 1884. His father was a Cantonese merchant, and his mother was his father's Japanese maid. His ancestral home was in Zhongshan city, Guangdong Province, China. He died at the age of 34 due to a stomach disease in Shanghai.
Su had a good master of painting and language. He mastered many languages—English, French, Japanese and Sanskrit. In 1896, he went to Shanghai with his uncle and aunt to study in the British con-cession when he was thirteen years old. Later, in 1898, he went to Yokohama, Japan, to study at the School of Universal Harmony (Da Tong School 大同學校). In 1902, he continued to study in the special program for Chinese students at Waseda University (早稻田大學).
Career
Career
Su was the most famous prose translator and his masterworks include Selected poems of Byron and Les Miserables. In 1903, he serialized his incomplete translation of Les Miserable World in The China National Gazette (國民日日報) and then published it in 1904. Su also translated quite a few poems by foreign romantic poets from Lord Byron and then published a collection of the translations entitled Selected Poems of Byron (拜倫詩選) in 1908. In 1911, some of these translations were published again in an anthology entitled Chao Yin(Voice of the tide). In 1911 or 1912, Su wrote and published his first as well as a most celebrated semi-autobiographical romance novel, Duan Hong Ling Yan Ji (The Lone Swan).
Duan Hong Ling Yan Ji
Duan Hong Ling Yan Ji
The Duan Hong Ling Yan Ji (Chinese: 斷鴻零雁記; pinyin: duàn hóng líng yàn jì) was written in classical literary styles and translated into English by George Kin Leung as The Lone Swan in 1929. The novel depicts tragic love stories between a young man and two young ladies, both of whom wholeheartedly fall in love with him. The young man is a monk just like Su, who cannot marry either of the two young ladies, which results in a tragic ending. The similarity between the novel with The Dream of the Red Chamber has led scholars to conclude that Su was much influenced by it. And The Lon Swan is one of the forefathers of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school.
Selected Poems of Lord Byron
Selected Poems of Lord Byron
The Selected Poems of Lord Byron (Chinese: 拜倫詩選; pinyin: bài lún shī xuǎn) was published in the Chinese empire Hsuantung the first year (in 1909) and translated into Chinese in the form of classical Chinese poetry such as The Isles of Greece and My Native Land, Good Night.
Les Miserables
Les Miserables
The translation of Les Miserables was published in the Chinese empire Guangxu 29th year (in 1903). It was serialized in 國民日日報 (English: The China National Gazette) with a translated title 慘社會 (English: Miserable Society) in Shanghai.
New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement
New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement
Su was involved in revolutionary activity against the Qing Dynasty writing articles and papers. His poems integrated the core of classical Chinese literature and his collocation influenced the New Culture Movement in the early years of the Republic of China. His novels echoed those of the May Fourth Movement writers in criticism of the traditional family. Like writers such as Hu Shi, Wu You and Ba Jin, Su depicted family as an arena beset with cruelty, where authorities abused the younger generations for their own self-interests. He showed how family authority can inflict pain on young people by preventing their desire for romantic love. Although he focused on the pains of the sentimental characters’ personalities, he advocated that individuals could pursue what they wanted.
Su Manshu quan ji
Su Manshu quan ji
Su Man-shu quan ji was written by Liu Yazi and Liu Wuchi, is a collection of Su Manshu's works, including poetry, novels, letters, miscellaneous essays, poetry translation and novel translation. The book is the most comprehensive collection of Su's literature works.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1884
Su Manshu born at Yokohama.
1918
Su Manshu died at Shanghai.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Yokohama.
Birth place
Shanghai.
Death place
Buddhism
He became a Buddhist monk three times during his life; once at the age of 12 in 1895, later in 1899, and again in 1903, and adopted Su Manshu as a Buddhist name. He studied in Japan and traveled to many Buddhist countries including India, and Java. In 1895, Su fell ill and nearly died due to lack of care from his family, which resulted in his resorting to Buddhism. However, Su did not follow the rules of Buddhism so he was expelled. In 1898, Su suffered a serious setback in his romantic relationship with a Japanese girl named Jingzi. Jinzi's family forced her to leave Su, but she could not bear the great pressure and soon died. After facing this suffering, Su resorted to Buddhism again as a spiritual consolation for a short period. In 1913, Su felt disappointed about the political and social situation, in which the Qing government perpetually banned anti-government remarks in the revolutionary newspaper. So he returned to the temple in Guangdong for the rest of his life.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1150818: Su Manshu
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Su Manshu”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 118952684, Su, Manshu.
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Informations, Chine. Su Manshu. chine.in.
- 2.Liu, Jane Qian. The Making of Transcultural Lyricism in Su Manshu's Fiction. Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. 28. 2. 43–89. 2016. 1520-9857.
- 3.Chiang, Ivan Yung-chieh. Su Manshu's English Prof iciency Reexamined. 編譯論叢. 11. 2. 129–162. 2018. 2071-4858.
- 4.Tze-Ki. Beyond the May Fourth Paradigm: In Search of Chinese Modernity. Lexington Books. 2008. 978-0-7391-1122-2.
- 5.Su, Manshu. The Lone Swan. Commercial Press, limited. 1929.
- 6.Gunn, Edward. The Languages of Early Republican Fiction in the Context of Print Media. Comparative Literature: East & West. 4. 1. 37–57. 2002-03-01. 10.1080/25723618.2002.12015323.
- 7.Tang, Ke. CONNOTATORS, BLENDED SPACES, AND FIGURES OF GRAMMAR: REFLECTIONS ON TRADITIONAL CHINESE POETICS THROUGH A SEMIOTIC STUDY OF SU MANSHU'S POETRY. The Journal of East West Thought. 9. 3. 1–19. 2019. 2168-2259.
- 8.Su, Manshu. Su Manshu quan ji. Bei xin shu ju. 1929. 35133296.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 118952684, Su, Manshu.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,705 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Stuart DavisArtist
- Stuart SempleArtist
- Stylianos SchichoArtist
- Su HanchenArtist
- Su ShiArtist
- Su'ad SalimArtist
- Suad al-AttarArtist
- Subhash AwchatArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Su Manshu?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.