Why is Shao a "seriously underestimated" cultural person?

How many years have passed, Shao has always been a vague existence in our left-leaning literary axis. However, in the modern cultural history of China, Shao, as a poet, translator and publishing activist, is indeed a man of the hour.

This Shao Gongzi is well-dressed, distinguished and has a distinguished family background. Grandfather Shao Youlian was a former Shanghai Daotai, grandfather Sheng Xuanhuai was the most famous Westernization official in China's modern history, and grandfather Li Hongzhang was the most famous official in North Korea. Shao's wife Sheng is Sheng Xuanhuai's granddaughter. A hundred years ago, in Shanghai, the Sheng family was a veritable rich family, living in luxury and having a tradition of poetry and calligraphy.

Shao met her cousin Sheng after the funeral. He photographed her, wrote a love poem and changed her name. Shao Yunlong, whose real name is Shao Yunlong, saw "Yu Pei Qiong Ju" in The Book of Songs, so he took words from Xun Mei and Du Du to show his love for Sheng. 1927, Shao and Sheng held a wedding in Kaidun Hotel, which was unprecedented. Literary and art celebrities Yu Dafu, Xu Zhimo and Liu Haisu all came to congratulate. The wedding photo of "Shao, a writer studying in Britain, and a niece of Shengsi" published on the cover of Shanghai Pictorial has become a popular fashion in Shanghai for a while.

Shao devoted his life to publishing, writing poems, opening bookstores, printing magazines and printing houses, and successively published more than a dozen publications such as The Roar of the Lion, Golden House, Crescent Moon, Poetry Magazine, Pictorial, The Analects of Confucius, People's Weekly and Vientiane. 1938. During the occupation of Shanghai, Shao Jian never wrote words that humiliated the country and traitors, but he was still a little depressed and sent his feelings among small squares. From March 1943 to April 30th 1 2008, I wrote 60 speeches about China stamps in just two months. Shao Xunmei talked about the last stamp of the Republic of China (before the war) from the first stamp of the Qing Dynasty according to the historical evolution and the postal history of China, and the output was amazing. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Shao participated in the stamp fair and later served as honorary consultant. In the stamp exhibition, he happily exhibited his collection of "red stamps and green stamps", which caused a great sensation in the postal industry.

After 1949, Shao's energy was basically spent on translation. He has translated Prometheus Liberated, Family and the World, mary barton and Detective Tom Thayer. His translation achievements are mainly reflected in the translation of English romantic poetry and drama, including the poems of Byron, Shelley and Tagore.

As early as the early 1930s, in order to adapt to the humorous features of The Analects of Confucius, Shao also humorously translated the American best-selling novel A Gentleman is Good. The first sentence is: "Paris is good. Dorothy went to Paris on a slave trip yesterday. It's really great. It's very kind of the French. " Shanghainese who can appreciate the fun of Suzhou dialect will be amazed when they see this translation. Translator Li Wenjun recalled: "When I was a small editor at 1957 and 58, I once asked him to translate several short stories, including erskine Caldwell's short stories and two memoirs written by Jack London, so I wrote several letters with Mr. Shao. It's just that the word is vigorous and handsome, and it has a lot of personality. Judging from the translation he handed in at that time, his understanding of the original text was accurate and his writing was beautiful, which was completely excellent. Mr Xun Mei also translated excellent works from Chinese into English. For example, the wonderful chapter "Cui Cui" in Shen Congwen's "Border Town" was translated by him and Xiang Meimei, many years earlier than the full English translation after the founding of the People's Republic of China. "

After entering the new era, Shao changed from a famous son to an "supernumerary" translator. The beautiful and light life in the past no longer exists and becomes heavier and heavier. He was put in prison on trumped-up charges, and three years of hungry prison life tortured him into a different person. When his daughter Shao saw him, she could hardly recognize him: "The last father I saw was an old man. He was hungry, weak, with gray hair, purple face and out of breath, leaving only a handful of bones. Only his blinking right eye caught my memory and made me sad. "

According to his old friend Qin, an unprecedented cultural catastrophe began. Wang and I (a young translator who has translated foreign literary works such as Pride and Prejudice) have successively entered the bullpen. All actions are supervised. Later, I heard indirectly that Xun Mei had been hospitalized twice. At the beginning of l968, my family told me and Wang through some unknown channels, and longed for me and Wang to meet him. In spite of all difficulties, Kelly left with a bag of biscuits and a bag of fruit, but I didn't. I am not as timely as Kelly in friendship. 11In March of 968, Wang was put on five big hats for no reason; On the night when Wang was criticized, he burned coal in his kitchen and committed suicide. Xun Mei was very sad after hearing the terrible news. A month later, he followed the king underground, alas!

Shao was once ridiculed by Lu Xun as a "rich boy"; Shi Zhecun said: "Xun Mei is a good man, rich but not arrogant, poor but not begging."