Sea of Regret

Cover of Henhai, collected by Jilin University

Sea of Regret or The Sea of Regret (Chinese: 恨海; pinyin: hènhǎi; Wade–Giles: Hen-hai) is a 1906 novel in 10 chapters by Wu Jianren (Wu Woyao). Set in the turmoil surrounding the Boxer Uprising of 1900, the plot involves two couples, whose arranged marriages cannot be completed. The husband-to-be of one couple dies from opium addiction, and his brother’s bride-to-be becomes a prostitute.

The novel was one of the best sellers of the decade and is taken to be a response to foreign-inspired attacks on traditional Chinese marriage.

There are two English translations:

• The Sea of Regret translated by Patrick Hanan, published by the University of Hawaiʻi Press in 1995. In a review by Jie Lu, of the University of the Pacific, Hanan was praised for his translation, cultural context, and commitment to remaining true to the original. Hanan later wrote a collection of essays, Chinese Fiction of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century (Columbia University Press, 2004), including an essay in which he reflects on the meaning of the original story, specifically, its cultural significance, and reiterates the techniques used by Wu Jianren in The Sea of Regret to convey that to readers.
• Sea of Regret: China's First Modern Love Story translated by Douglas Lancashire and Edel Lancashire, published in 1998 in the UK

Background

Wu Jianren claimed that he dashed off his 1906 novel in ten days. It became one of the most famous novels of the period. Patrick Hanan explains that Sea of Regret was Wu’s response to Stones in the Sea, a novel published a few months earlier, under the pseudonym Fu Lin. Stones in the Sea is narrated by the hero of a tragic love affair to dramatize the conflict between the traditional Chinese system of arranged marriage and the wishes of the young people involved. The story emphasizes the rights of the young people rather than their responsibilities to their families. Wu Jianren felt that this seemed to emphasize sexual passion or even lechery rather than love of parents.

Michael Egan argues that the plot determines the character and therefore the characters are subordinate to the plot, rather than the character determining the plot, as the case is in traditional novels.

Themes

Free marriage:

One of the main themes of the novel is the concept of free vs. arranged marriages. These themes are expressed with the huge toll on the main couple in the book, Dihua and Bohe who were arranged to be married when they were young. Dihua puts the ideas of marriage, and the strict moral codes around engaged couples even during the life and death situation of the boxer uprising. As Dihua is forced to choose between her duty to follow traditional marriage and the vow she is supposed to keep to her fiancé she starts breaking down.  The similar fate befalls Bohe’s brother who’s fiancée becomes a prostitute.  Both of the couples break up.

Family:

Dihua throughout the story has to choose between doing what is needed to survive and following societal norms to ensure her family's honor.  In one scene Dihua is unsure whether or not to sleep using the sheets that her fiancé uses.  This dilemma is confusing to her mother because she is more focused on survival.  Similarly Dihua works hard throughout the book to keep her idea of family and tries her hardest to keep her ill mother alive.

References

• Doar, Bruce. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, ISSN 0156-7365, 01/1982, Issue 7, pp. 199 - 201 (Available on JSTOR)
• Hanan, Patrick (1995). The Sea of Regret: Two Turn-of-the-Century Chinese Romantic Novels. Lin Fu and Jianren Wu. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0824816668.
• Hanan, Patrick. “Chapter Nine: Specific Literary Relations of Sea of Regret.” Essay. In Chinese Fiction of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, 183–98. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
• Hegel, Robert E. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), ISSN 0161-9705, 07/1983, Volume 5, Issue 1/2, pp. 188 - 191
• Lu, Jie. “Patrick Hanan. The Sea of Regret : Two Turn-of-the-Century ...” Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報 , January 1, 1999. https://commons.ln.edu.hk/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=jmlc.
• Yee, Cordell D. K. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). Journal of Asian Studies, ISSN 0021-9118, 05/1982, Volume 41, Issue 3, p. 574
• Huters, Theodore. “Bringing the World Home” (Book). University of Hawaii Press Chapter 6.
• Wu, Yenna. American Journal of Chinese Studies 14, no. 1 (2007).

Further reading

• Egan, Michael. "Characterization in Sea of Woe" in: Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena (editor). The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press; January 1, 1980), ISBN 0802054730, 9780802054739.