Allegorizing the existential crisis in modern China. Qian Zhongshu’s philosophical novel “Fortress Besieged”
Allegorizing the existential crisis in modern China. Qian Zhongshu’s philosophical novel “Fortress Besieged”

Summary/Abstract: Beginning with an overview of the interconnection between literature and philosophy in modern Chinese literature, this paper analyses the novel Fortress Besieged (1947) written by Qian Zhongshu, a polyglot Chinese scholar of East-West comparative literature and philosophy. It compares the novel’s overarching allegory, i. e. a fortress besieged, in juxtaposition with the philosophical allegories about the mutability and limitations of human life. It concludes with a reflection on the seminal influence of this novel in contemporary Chinese society where “fortress besieged” has become an everyday word referring to one’s existential crisis.

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