Su Manshu

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).

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).

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.

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.

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.

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 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.