BEAUVOIR (de), Simone (1908-1986)

BEAUVOIR (de), Simone (1908-1986)

Autograph manuscript (fragments) with an autograph letter signed addressed to her typist for La Longue Marche – Essai sur la Chine
[Paris, 1956] 15 p. in-4° on graph paper
Two autograph envelopes, stamped with postmarks
Usual fold marks, numerous corrections and words crossed out by Simone de Beauvoir

A few of the last surviving pages from La Longue Marche – Essai sur la Chine, the account of the official trip Simone de Beauvoir took to China with Jean-Paul Sartre at the end of 1955

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The present corpus unfolds in three distinct movements:

The first section is headed “2 to 5 September 1955” and paginated 25 to 30 (including one leaf numbered “bis”). It corresponds to the “Preliminaries” and opens with the travelers’ observations in the waiting room at Orly Airport. Simone de Beauvoir draws a striking contrast between, on the one hand, those bound for Boston, dressed impeccably—almost to the point of caricature—and, on the other, those modestly clothed, preparing to depart for Moscow on an “official expedition.” The philosopher takes notes on the Soviets, Hungarians, and Czechs at the Moscow airfield, as well as on a South African, also an official guest of the Chinese government, with whom the couple converses. This travel account is enriched with glimpses of the landscape and reflections on the Western presence in Mongolia since the 17th century, particularly that of scholars and monks.

« Comme Paris est loin ! Derrière moi le temps et l’espace se sont si bien embrouillés, le système de nos besoins – faim, soif, sommeil – et de toute ma vie a été si radicalement lissé qu’il me semble non avoir fait un voyage mais terminé un rite de passage, long, fatigant, et qui m’a jetée insensiblement ailleurs. J’écoute l’aimable discours qu’on nous adresse en chinois et qu’un interprète traduit. Les porteurs de hautes fleurs écarlates, la moiteur de l’air, la forte odeur végétale qui monte de la terre me suffoque. […] Jusqu’ici quand je pensais à la Chine, je pensais à une histoire, une civilisation, un régime […] mais la Chine n’est pas une entité politique ; je devine avec joie, qu’elle a un ciel, ses couleurs, ses arbres, une chair »

On 16 December 1956, she sent a second fragment, paginated 476 and 486 bis. It corresponds to Chapter V, “Culture.”
« Sous les Mandchous, la décadence du monde féodal se réflète dans la littérature ; elle commença à s’évader des règles formelles ; des genres nouveaux se développèrent. Le roman devint autre chose qu’un divertissement […] Le Rêve de la chambre rouge entre autres est caractéristique de cette période »

On December 18, 1956, she sent a final fragment, paginated 757, 781, and 782. It corresponds to Chapter VIII, “Cities of China.”
« Elle fut la capitale des Song dont le règne coïncida avec le plus beau moment de la civilisation chinoise, et on la considère comme l’Athènes de la Chine. […] Les maisons ne ressemblent pas à celles de Pékin. Au lieu de se cacher derrière des murs, elles exhibent des façades de deux à trois étages, garnies de fenêtres »

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An official guest of the Chinese government alongside numerous other European intellectuals, Simone de Beauvoir traveled to China with Jean-Paul Sartre from September 6 to October 6, 1955. The following year, in April 1957, the philosopher published her essay, praising a country that had just completed its revolution. Speaking of her work, she wrote:
“This book is not a reportage: a reporter explores a stable present, whose more or less contingent elements serve as keys to one another. In China today, nothing is contingent; everything draws its meaning from the future they all share. The present is defined by the past it surpasses and the novelties it announces: it would be a distortion to regard it as static. It is only one stage of this ‘long march’ that is peacefully leading China from democratic revolution to socialist revolution. It is therefore not enough to describe it: it must be explained. That is what I have tried to do.”
The manuscript itself has been lost; these fifteen leaves are the last surviving fragments of the work. The envelopes confirm, unsurprisingly, that she was working on it in 1956. Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir notes that the material belongs to an earlier version of the final text. Simone de Beauvoir removed almost all of the pages numbered 25 to 30, substantially reworking her “Preliminaries.”