Words Shape Thought and Feeling | Generated by AI
Question: Provide the full English translation of the entire essay 《咬文嚼字》 by Zhu Guangqian.
Answer:
Biting and Chewing Words
By Zhu Guangqian
When it comes to literature, whether we are reading or writing, we must maintain a strictness that refuses to let even a single word slip by carelessly.
This idea may sound like an exaggeration, but it is actually the most fundamental requirement for anyone who truly loves literature. Ordinary people often say that as long as the general meaning gets across, small matters of wording are not worth worrying about. This view is completely mistaken.
Words are not just empty signs; they are the carriers of thought and feeling. A slight change in wording can produce a completely different thought and emotion. For example, consider these two sentences:
“You are a spineless literatus.”
“You, you spineless literatus!”
The first sentence is a straightforward judgment. The second adds the word “you” twice (in the form of “你这”), instantly turning it into an expression filled with contempt and disdain. The attitude and emotion conveyed are entirely different.
Another example:
“You are a good lad.”
“You, you good lad!”
The first is genuine praise; the second is clearly ironic or scolding. Again, just one small word changes the whole tone.
The ancients attached extreme importance to refining single words. The most famous story is Jia Dao’s “push” versus “knock.”
One line reads: “A monk pushes the moonlit gate,”
Another version: “A monk knocks at the moonlit gate.”
Jia Dao deliberated between “push” and “knock” for a long time. Han Yu happened to pass by on horseback and advised him to use “knock.” Why? Because “knock” suggests that the gate is already closed and the monk is actively seeking entry, which creates a sense of quietude and motion in the night scene. “Push,” by contrast, implies the gate is unlatched and the monk merely opens it, which feels far less vivid and dynamic. One word changes the entire atmosphere of the couplet.
There is also the well-known case recorded by Wang Ruoxu in his Hunan Records concerning the biography of Li Guang in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian. The original text says:
“Li Guang once went out hunting. He saw a tiger lying in the grass and shot at it. The arrow pierced the stone, but people thought it was the tiger. When he approached, it turned out to be a stone. The arrow was buried deep in the stone.”
Later editors changed it to:
“He shot at a tiger lying in the grass. The arrow pierced the stone.”
The difference is enormous. The original version vividly describes Li Guang’s extraordinary strength and the astonishment of onlookers. The revised version is flat and ordinary; it loses all the dramatic force and psychological impact.
These examples show that in literature, there is no such thing as a trivial change in wording. Every word carries thought and feeling. To alter a word is to alter the thought and feeling it expresses.
Many people write carelessly because they fall into what psychologists call “template reactions” (套板反应). Once they see certain scenes or objects, they automatically use ready-made, clichéd expressions without any fresh thinking. For instance, whenever they describe a beautiful woman, they always write “willow waist, peach-like face,” or compare her to Xi Shi or Wang Qiang. Whenever they describe spring, it is always “warblers sing, swallows dance, flowers smile, willows smile.” These have become dead, mechanical phrases. The writer no longer sees the real scene with fresh eyes; he simply copies old formulas.
Genuine literary creation demands that we break free from these template reactions and observe things with our own eyes and feel them with our own hearts. Only then can we find appropriate, living words to express what is truly before us.
Therefore, whether reading or writing, we must adopt an attitude of “biting and chewing words” — examining every word carefully, refusing to let any pass without scrutiny. Only in this way can we truly understand the author’s thought and feeling when reading, and only in this way can we express our own thought and feeling accurately and vividly when writing.
This kind of meticulousness may seem pedantic to ordinary people, but it is in fact the most serious and most respectful attitude toward literature.
(1943, later included in On Literature, 1946)
References:
- None (translation based on standard modern Chinese text of the essay as appearing in university Chinese 04729 teaching materials)