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Nanxiu's Stories
Miss you
I so wished you would write an autobiography Qian laoshi! Many times on our way to Chinese grocery stores, while I drove you would tell me some stories of past. I would say 写本自传吧! But you just smiled. Thinking back, I'd always marvel at the courage you exemplified through life.
Amelia Ying Qin
December 30, 2022
Some memories of Nanxiu
It’s a great shock to know that Nanxiu has passed into the beyond. She was one of that generation of intellectuals who survived the Cultural Revolution and came to graduate school ten or so years late, and it was my good fortune to sit in classrooms with her— an infinitely more experienced, better-read, and more committed scholar than I could be at age 24. I learned from her in all sorts of ways. We grad students jokingly referred to her as our 姐姐 and as 南方的秀才, and she really was both. She was able to capture and pass on the subtle clues of Ming loyalist women who wrote 詩 and 詞 that were seemingly casual but hinted at much more below the surface. She gave me a sense of Nanjing and its lingering history. I remember watching a tape of 河殤 with her when it was new and coming to understand the urgency of historical critique for contemporary Chinese people. Our circle of friends also spent four or five days aghast in front of the television in early summer 1989, sharing the feeling that history and our ideals were being reversed. She moved on from tragedy and waste by writing brilliant scholarship. Her books, packed with learning and insight, draw us into the world of those Six Dynasties intellectuals, nonconformists, rebels, and survivors who pronounced a few immortal sentences (later recorded in 世說新語) before disappearing into the disasters of their times.
A few years ago, Nanxiu came to an art opening in Houston for my friend the artist Mel Chin. The global-health activist Paul Farmer was there too. I can't imagine a more brilliant assembly than those three. I always expected to see more of Nanxiu. If anyone has a recording of her operas, I would love to hear it. I will never forget her or the many lessons she taught me through her words and through her life.
Haun Saussy
December 30, 2022
南开大学教授
惊悉著名学者，美国莱斯大学钱南秀教授遽归道山，十分震惊，非常悲痛。南秀教授硕士毕业于南京大学，师从著名学者程千帆先生；博士毕业于美国耶鲁大学，师从著名学者马瑞志先生（《世说新语》英译本译者）。南秀教授在中国汉魏六朝文学，尤其是《世说新语》研究方面造诣颇深，成果卓著。我与南秀教授相识于2000年南开大学召开魏晋南北朝思想与文学国际学术研讨会，并随会议组织一同游览盘山，相谈甚欢。19年后，又在南秀教授的母校南京大学一同参加第三届世说学会议，再次畅叙友情。本想疫情结束后多多交流，不想竟成永诀！痛哉痛哉！南秀教授走好！[流泪][流泪][流泪][合十][合十][合十]
宁稼雨博士
December 29, 2022
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