In 1978, Jiang Xuemo, a professor in economics with the Fudan University in Shanghai, was invited to reactivate school's official journal after he had served as a campus road cleaner for several years during the chaotic Cultural Revolution. During those days, he always recalled the last sentence from
The Count of Monte Cristo: All human wisdom is contained in two words: wait and hope.
Jiang was very familiar with the fictitious character – the Count of Monte Cristo. He saw the movie in 1936 when he was still a college freshman. He found the English version of the book at Sichuan University library in 1939 and immersed himself in the book. He then felt an impulse to translate the book into Chinese, although it has more than one million words.
Jiang started his translation in the mid-1940s. The translation took him a year and a half to finish and was based on the English version published by Everyman's Library.
Jiang's Chinese version was published in China in 1947. The People's Literature Publishing House reprinted the book in 1978, which was very popular among readers.
In 1979, Zhu Longxia read the Chinese version of the book when she was still a junior secondary school student. She was fascinated by the love, revenge and friendship described in the book. Zhu chose to major in French at Fudan University after she finished high school.
Lu Baokang, a senior correspondent for Wenhui News, spent two days going through the novel; reading the book changed many of his ideas. Lu felt that the merciless persecutions during China's Cultural Revolution were similar to what happened under the Jacobin regime during the French Revolution. Lu considered the book as his starting point to learn about French revolutions and history.
Also in 1978, Jiang completed the textbook Political Economy while acting as the editor in chief. The book has been unexpectedly popular, reaching a circulation of 18 million with 13 editions in the past 30 years. The textbook has contributed to training new business talent.
"The publishing house has benefited from the book. It would really have made a fortune if royalty on books existed at that time," Jiang once said in a joking tone. He died of illness in July 2008 at the age of 90.
Both theoretical reshaping and cultural nourishment were necessary for China in 1978; this explains why the two books of totally different tastes have been recorded as best sellers in the past 30 years.
(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, October 26, 2008)
