Liu Bannong

Liu Bannong joined Chen Duxiu at Peking University in 1917.[1]

He studied in England and France from 1920 to 1925. In 1920, he left China to study linguistics abroad, first in London, then in Paris. He gained his PhD at the University of Paris, with research done on Chinese tones.[2]

After he went back to China, he taught in the field of phonology at colleges in Beijing,[1] and taught Vernacular Literature (xiaoshuo 小說) in the Department of Humanities and National Literature (wenke guowen men 文科國文門) at Peking University.[3]

He was the elder brother of the musicologist Liu Tianhua.[4]

He died of an acute illness after a linguistic field-trip, at the age of 44. Lu Xun wrote a short memoir about Liu (憶劉半農君) after his death.[5]

Liu began writing poetry in vernacular Chinese in 1917, and was credited with having coined the Chinese feminine pronoun ta (她), which differs from masculine ta (他) and neuter ta (它) only in writing, but not in pronunciation, and which he made use of in his poems.[6] The usage was popularised by the song Jiao Wo Ruhe Bu Xiang Ta (教我如何不想她 "Tell me how to stop thinking of her"), a "pop hit" in the 1930s in China.[7] The lyrics were written by him and the melody by Yuen Ren Chao.[8]

During his time in Paris, he compiled Dunhuang Duosuo (敦煌掇瑣 "Miscellaneous works found in the Dunhuang Caves"), a pioneering work about the Dunhuang manuscripts.[9]

Liu returned to China in 1925, and began teaching in colleges. He collaborated with Li Jiarui (李家瑞) to compile Songyuan Yilai Suzi Pu (宋元以來俗字譜 "The vernacular characters used from the Song and Yuan dynasties onwards"). Published in 1930, it was a key work in the standardisation of simplified Chinese characters.

In 1933 Liu Bannong conducted an interview with Sai Jinhua. He wrote The Wife of Zhuangyuan: Sai Jinhua, which he called her "true story".[10]

Invited by Chen Duxiu, Liu Bannong became an important contributor to the influential magazine New Youth (Xin Qingnian) during the May Fourth Movement, starting from 1916.[1]

He suggested four areas of literary reform in 1917,[11] and proposes to differentiate the concept of literature in Chinese (wenxue) from that of language by resorting to the English definition of literature. More importantly, to clarify the concept of literature, he translated an amount of English linguistic contexts (literature, language, tongue, and speech).[12]

"What is literature? This question has been discussed by many authors. One might argue that 'literature conveys Dao.' But Dao is Dao; literature is literature." —Liu Bannong 劉半農 , "My View on Literary Reform: What is literature?" ( 我之文學改良觀 ), 1917.

Liu was a pioneer in Chinese photography.[13] He called for a photographic style which would be technically advanced but rooted in Chinese tradition. This call was an inspiration to younger photographers such as Lang Jingshan, who established a style of photography which incorporated the aesthetic of Chinese landscape painting.[14] Liu held the opinion that photography should express the author's conception and emotion. This is referred to as "ink and wash painting."[15]

Liu was an active member of the Beijing guangshe (Beijing Photography Society).[16]

Liu has published Bannong tan ying (Bannong on Photography). In which he combined technical instructions with a theoretical discussion of photography, which was the first appearance in China.[17]

• New Culture Movement
• May Fourth Movement
• Lu Xun
• Chen Duxiu
• Chinese literature

• (in Chinese) Yang Jianmin (楊建民), "The story of Liu Bannong and she" (劉半農與"她"的故事)
• W. W. Norton, The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature: Writings from the Mainland in the Long Twentieth Century