Luo Niansheng

The Chinese poet, translator and Hellenist, Luo Niansheng (also known as Lo Mao-Te, 1904-1990), was a specialist in ancient Greek drama. Born in the province of Sichuan, Luo Niansheng moved to Beijing in 1922 to pursue his education at Tsinghua University. Later from 1929 to 1933, Luo attended Ohio State University and Cornell University to study English literature and Classics. After his education in the United States, Luo went to Greece to continue his studies at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), making him the first Chinese student to study in Greece. [1]

After studying in Greece for a year, Luo returned to China, where he taught English language and literature, and the History of Ancient Greece at Peking University, Sichuan University, Wuhan University and Tsinghua University.

After the birth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC, 1949), he was offered a research position at Peking University until 1964 when he was appointed a member of the Institute of Foreign Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he stayed the rest of his life.

Luo’s contribution to classical studies in China is enormous, especially in ancient Greek literature. In 1936 he began to translate ancient Greek dramas with the help of English and Russian translations and commentaries. At time of writing, almost all widely available Chinese translations of Greek tragedies and comedies are either translated by him or revised by him. He translated the plays of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, as well as the Poetics and Rhetoric of Aristotle. Luo’s contribution extends beyond translating and introducing “Western Classics” to a wider audience in China. As Chen and Zhao (2014) describe:

“Luo’s translation [of Prometheus Bound, published in 1947]  was a landmark event in the introduction of not only Greek tragedy but Western literature to the Chinese canon of literature.” [2]

His translations, which he wrote in both prose and verse, were produced on stage in the 1980s. He therefore contributed to the expansion of Chinese theatre and the cultural integration of Western and Chinese dramatic genres. In 1986, with the help of his theatre director son Luo Jinlin, Luo Niansheng produced a Chinese version of Oedipus Rex in both Beijing and Delphi, and then participated in the production of Antigone in 1989. He was also involved in an experimental production of Medea as a Chinese Opera. [3]

His most ambitious work and contribution to classical studies in China is his Ancient Greek-Chinese Dictionary (2004), which he did not finish before his death in 1990. It is still considered standard in the study of ancient Greek in China, as it is the only ancient Greek dictionary available in Chinese. Towards the end of his life his interest turned to Homer’s Iliad, which he hoped to translate into Chinese verse. [4]

Luo did not actively engage in politics. As a student, however, he was influenced by the May Fourth Student Movement. In his autobiography, he claimed that he was always discontent with the nationalist rule of the Nationalist Party of China (KMT), and he spoke out against the KMT when he was a student at Tsinghua. [5] He was also part of the New Culture Movement to ‘modernise’ Chinese literature. Although he published in both progressive and conservative magazines, he was surrounded by leftist writers and was also considered one of them. This tendency did not fade after returning to China as a professor. His connection to other leftist writers became only closer after his return. During the Sino-Japanese War, he openly criticised the KMT government alongside other leftist writers. He lost his professorship after he rejected a forced request to join the KMT in 1944.

Despite his preference for communist policies over nationalist policies, his affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), however, is ambiguous. Despite his hostility towards KMT and friendship with many leftist writers, he did not join the CCP, even if he tended to agree with and support their policies. He attended the first National Literature and Art Congress in 1946 where he met leaders of the PRC such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. In this meeting and following contacts with the CCP officials, the government officially showed appreciation of and encouragement for the contributions Luo made to the development of classical studies in China. [6]

Luo was one of only a few of the intelligentsia who survived the Anti-Rightist movement and Cultural Revolution. He was the only member of the Institute of Foreign Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who was not denounced during these movements. Luo himself wrote:

“During the “anti-Rightist”, they did not drag me out; during the ‘Cultural Revolution’, I was not on their mind”. [7]

Classical studies in China, therefore, were not disrupted during these political turmoils but slowly progressed through efforts of individual classicists such as Luo, rather than through any concerted institutional effort. In a letter written to his colleague Wang Huansheng in 1978, Luo lamented the fact that too few of their students learned ancient Greek, making the establishment of a postgraduate programme impossible.

 

This profile was written by Kevin Lee.

[1] Vogeikoff-Brogan, N. (2020) “‘Mr. Lo’: The First Chinese Student at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1933.” Archivist’s Notebook. Retrieved April 11, 2023,  https://nataliavogeikoff.com/2020/10/04/mr-lo-the-first-chinese-student-at-the-american-school-of-classical-studies-at-athens-1933/

[2] Chen, R. and Zhao, L. (2014) “Translation and the Canon of Greek Tragedy in Chinese Literature” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, vol. 16, issue 6. Purdue University Press.

[3] Huang, Y. (2018) “Classical Studies in China,” in ch. 17 in Receptions of Greek and Roman Antiquity in East Asia, edited by Almut-Barbara Renger and Xin Fan.

[4] Huang, Y. (2018) “Classical Studies in China,” in ch. 17 in Receptions of Greek and Roman Antiquity in East Asia, edited by Almut-Barbara Renger and Xin Fan.

[5] Luo, N. (2004) Works, Niansheng Luo, Vol. 10.

[6] Zhao, S. and Luo, J. (1992) “Life of Luo Niansheng,” Contemporary Chinese Social Scientists, Vol. 1.

[7] Luo, N. (2004) Works, Niansheng Luo, Vol. 10.

See also:  Mutschler, F. (2018) “Western Classics at Chinese Universities—and Beyond: Some Subjective Observations,” ch. 21 in Receptions of Greek and Roman Antiquity in East Asia, edited by Almut-Barbara Renger and Xin Fan.