94 years ago today, on June 19, 1931 (May 4, 1931, the lunar calendar), Pearl Buck's work "The Earth" was officially published. If the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to a number of famous and outstanding writers such as Roman Rowland, Tagore, Shaw (Bernard), and Frances, then the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Pearl Buck, a low-class best-selling author. Pearl Buck, formerly known as Pearl Saidenstrick Booker, was born in 1892 in Virginia, USA. Both parents are missionaries sent to China by the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Pearl Buck came to China with her parents when she was a child, grew up in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, and studied scriptures from China teachers since she was a child. At the age of 15, she attended a British boarding school in Shanghai. Pearl Buck is the China name she gave herself after imitating the famous prostitute "Sai Jinhua" in the late Qing Dynasty. It can be seen that the famous prostitute "Sai Jinhua" has a special status in her mind. At the age of 17, Pearl Buck returned to the United States to study psychology at Randolph-Meikang Women's College in Virginia. After graduation, she lived a short teaching life in the United States and then came to China to teach English at a missionary school in Zhenjiang. In 1917, Pearl Buck married missionary John Losing Booker and also engaged in missionary activities. Later, she taught English and English literature at Nanjing Jinling University and Southeast University. Pearl Buck began writing in 1922 and first published her work in the American monthly "Atlantic". In 1925, she returned to China again to attend Cornell University. After obtaining a master's degree, she came to China and began to write novels. In 1928, the world-famous Northern Expedition broke out in China. Pearl Buck stood on a reactionary stance and hated revolutionary war. So when the Northern Expedition Army entered Nanjing, she was worried that her life would not be guaranteed and hurriedly left China. In 1931, her best-selling book "The Earth" was published by John Day Company in the United States. The release of this book made her a famous best-selling author. "The Earth" also won the Pulitzer Prize in the United States the following year. This novel is one of her representative work "House on the Earth" trilogy. The other two are "Sons" written in 1932 and "Family Separation" in 1935. She is called a "China hand" by some people, but her works describing the style of China society do not reflect the destiny of the China people, do not touch the essence of China society, just fabricate certain individual phenomena. Lu Xun once pointed out in his letter to Yao Ke on November 15, 1933:"Only when the Chinese do things in China can the truth be seen. Just like Mrs. Booker, who was once welcomed by Shanghai, also claimed to regard China as the motherland. However, looking at her works, it is after all the position of an American female priest who grew up in China. Therefore, it is not surprising that she calls 'Jialu' because what she thinks is just a superficial situation. Only by doing it can we leave a truth behind." As Lu Xun pointed out: "Her works" express the "position of an American female priest who grew up in China." We can also see this from the synopsis of the novel "The Earth": a poor farmer named Wang Long married a girl from the landlord Huang's family as his wife. The two worked hard and gradually accumulated savings. They wanted to use the money to buy land. The descendants of the Huang family squandered their money and sold the fields piece by piece, while Wang Long bought them piece by piece. Unexpectedly, during the famine year, the victims robbed Wang Long's home. Wang Long had to flee to southern cities and make a living by pulling rickshaws and begging. At this time, Wang Long was hoping that it would rain and return to his hometown to farm. No revolution would help. During a riot among the poor, Wang Long made a fortune. So he returned to his hometown, bought cattle and farmland, followed the example of the landlord and married his aunt, and later moved into a mansion in the city and married an 18-year-old girl as his second wife... A story like this is obviously divorced from the nature of China's society at that time and was fabricated based on a number of very individual incidents. However, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938 was awarded to such a writer. Holstaume, then chairman of the Nobel Committee, said in his report on Pearl Buck: "This award decision is more appropriate than many previous decisions." The Swedish Academy of Literature also commented: "Because of her rich and vivid epic depiction of rural life in China and her biographical masterpiece." Obviously, this evaluation is extremely unfair. Among the contenders for the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature were Silenpe, who won the prize in 1939, Janssen, who won the prize in 1944, Hesse, who won the prize in 1946, as well as Italian historian Croce, Greek poet Paramas, and British novelist Herkensch. Pearl Buck unexpectedly rose from the ground and became a world-renowned figure. This not only surprised the world, but even Pearl Buck herself did not think of it. Before the official notification telegram from Stockholm reached Pearl Buck, reporters already knew of the news. They flocked to Pearl Buck's apartment to interview her and passed on the "good news." Pearl Buck herself was surprised at first. She said: Before the telegram from the Swedish Academy arrived, she would rather believe it was a misunderstanding or a low-level joke. Whether Pearl Buck meant her words, only she knew. What we know is that when she clearly learned of the telegram that she had won the Nobel Prize in Literature, she immediately decided to go to Stockholm to receive the award. Pearl Buck wrote a total of 85 works in her life, including novels, biographies, children's literature, political commentary, etc. In 1933, she translated "Water Margin" in English and renamed it "All Brothers in the Four Seas". Lu Xun expressed dissatisfaction with this move. He said: "Recently, Mrs. Booker's translation of" Water Margin "is quite good, but its title means 'all brothers', which is inaccurate, because people in the mountains do not treat everyone as brothers. "(With Keshu, March 24, 1934) In 1934, Pearl Buck divorced Booker and entered the editorial department of John Day Company in the United States. The following year, she married Cha Walsh, the company's boss and editor-in-chief of Asia magazine. In his later years, his works such as "Letter from Beijing" and "The Three Daughters of Mrs Liang" clearly reveal their hostile attitude towards New China. Pearl Buck died in 1973.