Lin Shu

Collaborating with others, he translated from English or French into Literary Chinese over 180 works, mostly novels, drawn from 98 writers of 11 countries.

The young Lin Shu held progressive views and believed that China should learn from Western nations in order that the country might advance.

His friend Wang Shouchang (王壽昌) (1864–1926), who had studied in France and hoped to distract Lin from his bereavement, suggested that together they translate into Chinese Alexandre Dumas's La Dame aux Camélias.

Progressive intellectuals realized that the effect of translated literature on the public could be exploited for their reform agenda.

[1] Lin Shu is also known widely as a guwenjia (古文家 master of ancient-style prose), which also casts him as an anchor of the traditionalist cultural politics.

[4] As a famous translator, Lin Shu has used his imagination to communicate with the invisible text and collaborate with the foreign authors.

In his essay, Qian Zhongshu quoted Goethe's simile of translators as "geschäftige Kuppler", which stated that Lin Shu served well as a matchmaker between Western literature and Chinese readers, as he himself (a most avid reader of western books) was indeed motivated by Lin's translations to learn foreign languages.

The following is Lin's rendition of the famous opening of David Copperfield: 大偉考伯菲而曰：余在此一部書中，是否為主人翁者，諸君但逐節下觀，當自得之。余欲自述余之生事，不能不溯源而筆諸吾書。余誕時在禮拜五夜半十二句鐘，聞人言，鐘聲丁丁時，正吾開口作呱呱之聲。(Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.