The Great Flowing River: A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan

　　一部反映中國近代苦難的家族記憶史

　　一部過渡新舊時代衝突的女性奮鬥史

　　一部台灣文學走入西方世界的大事紀

　　一部用生命書寫壯闊幽微的天籟詩篇

 

　　巨流河，

　　位於中國東北地區，是中國七大江河之一，被稱為遼寧百姓的「母親河」。

　　南濱渤海與黃海，西南與內蒙內陸河、河北海灤河流域相鄰，北與松花江流域相連。

　　這條河古代稱句驪河，現在稱遼河，清代稱巨流河。

　　影響中國命運的「巨流河之役」，發生在民國十四年，當地淳樸百姓們仍沿用著清代巨流河之名。

 

　　本書的記述，從長城外的「巨流河」開始，到台灣南端恆春的「啞口海」結束．．．

　　作者齊邦媛的父親齊世英──民國初年的留德熱血青年，九一八事變前的東北維新派，

　　畢生憾恨圍繞著巨流河功敗垂成的一戰，

　　渡不過的巨流像現實中的嚴寒，外交和革新思想皆困凍於此，從此開始了東北終至波及整個中國的近代苦難。

　　作者的一生，正是整個二十世紀顛沛流離的縮影。

 

　　本書嘔心瀝血四年完成，

　　作者以邃密通透、深情至性、字字珠璣的筆力，記述縱貫百年、橫跨兩岸的大時代故事。

　　獻給──所有為國家獻身的人。

 

　　本文取自天下文化出版《巨流河》

Heralded as a literary masterpiece and a best-seller in the Chinese-speaking world, The Great Flowing River is a personal account of the history of modern China and Taiwan unlike any other. In this eloquent autobiography, the noted scholar, writer, and teacher Chi Pang-yuan recounts her youth in mainland China and adulthood in Taiwan. Chi’s remarkable life, told in rich and striking detail, humanizes the eventful and turbulent times in which she lived.

The Great Flowing River begins as a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of China’s war with Japan. Chi depicts her childhood in pre-occupation Manchuria and gives an eyewitness account of life in China during the war with Japan. She tells the tale of her youthful romance with a dashing pilot that ends tragically when he is shot down in the last days of the war. The book describes the deepening political divide in China and her choice to take a job in Taiwan, where she would remain after the Communist victory. Chi details her growth as an educator, scholar, and promoter of Chinese literature in translation and her realization that despite her roots in China, she has found a home in Taiwan, giving an immersive account of the postwar history of Taiwan from a mainlander’s perspective. A novelistic, epoch-defining narrative, The Great Flowing River unites the personal and intimate with the grand sweep of history.

　　Chi Pang-Yuan is professor Emeritus of comparative literature and English at National Taiwan University. In collaboration with David Wang, she published The Last of the Whampoa Breed: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora (CUP, 2003) and Chinese Literature in the Second Half of a Modern Century: A Critical Survey (Indiana University Press, 2000).
 
　　John Balcom is professor of Chinese-English translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He has translated a number of books, including Wintry Night by Li Qiao, The City Trilogy by Chang His-kuo, and Taiwan’s Indigenous Writers: An Anthology of Stories, Essays, and Poems.