The tetralogy of Wang Ding Jun’s memoirs—Zuo Tian De Yun, Nu Mu Shao Nian, Guan Shan Duo Lu, and Wen Xue Jiang Hu—not only erects an monument in biographical literature but also starts up the discussions on the Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. In the heated debates, the focus has always been on historical authenticity and collective memories of the events, and it seldom discusses the narrative strategies and the structure of Wang’s autobiographical writings.
This dissertation primarily depends on textual analysis with special focus on the narrative motives in each of Wang’s work, and deals with how he employs “the conception antecedency” to determine the contents and the narratives of his memory writings. This dissertation wishes to explore the attributes behind Wang’s use of historical evidences in his memoirs in each period. Is this to examine the authenticity of his personal memories? Or is it to find the gap between personal memories and collective memories? Or is it to exemplify the historical consequences that he actually experienced?
The grand scale and the great ambition in Wang’s memoir writings offers a structure for systematic autobiographical writing. This also sees a threshold for future researchers to further theorize Wang’s autobiographical writings.