New Literature in Chinese : China and the World [1 ed.] 9781443876414, 9781443899406

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New Literature in Chinese

New Literature in Chinese: China and the World By

Zhu Shoutong

New Literature in Chinese: China and the World By Zhu Shoutong This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Zhu Shoutong All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-9940-2 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9940-6

CONTENTS

Preface ...................................................................................................... viii Chapter I ...................................................................................................... 1 “New Literature in Chinese” I.1. New Literature in Chinese in the Overall Field of the World Literature .......................................................................................... 1 The Definition Theoretical Advantages Practical Value Conclusion: Prospects Envisioned I.2. Academic Space in Modern Chinese Literature and the Possibility of New Literature in Chinese ......................................................... 31 Chinese Modern Literature I.3. Cultural Belongingness of New Literature in Chinese .................. 45 Conceptual Compensation of New Literature in Chinese to Chinese National Literature Cultural Belongingness of New Literature in Chinese and Its Necessity Academic Significance of Cultural Belongingness of New Literature in Chinese I.4. The Significance of Cultural Ethics of New Literature in Chinese .. 57 New Literature in Chinese and Cultural Ethics The Theoretical Paradigm of Cultural Ethics: the Universality of Cultural Ethics Cultural Ethics and Diasporic Writers’ Homesickness Complex Cultural Ethics and the Research on New Literature in Chinese Chapter II ................................................................................................... 74 China and Its New Literature II.1. The Negative Background of New Literature in Chinese and its Influence ............................................................................. 74 Historical Desolation Vernacular Literature

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The Weak Opposition Consequences of Lacking a Negative Background II.2. The Area Background of New Literature in Chinese: Its Early History ............................................................................. 88 The May 4th New Writers’ Consciousness of Areas The Uniqueness of the Area Background of the May 4th New Literature II.2.1. Important Contribution toward New Literature in Chinese: The Area Background of Guo Moruo’s Writings ......................... 103 Temporal Background Area Background in Japan Area Background of Guo’s Hometown II.3. The Thoughts of the Scientific Factors in New Literature in Chinese ......................................................................................115 Science as the Ideal Type outside Tradition Construction in New Literature Overflowing of the Notion of Science in the Progress of New Literary Tradition Paradoxical Relationship between Science and New Literature II.4. New Literary Stories in Chinese: Flaunting of the Thematic Meaning........................................................................................ 137 From a Short Story to Flaunting in New Literature in Chinese The Habitual Practice of the Flaunting of Meaning The Relative Flaunting of a Theme Conclusion: A Proper Dose of Flaunting Chapter III ............................................................................................... 149 New Literature and New Media in Chinese III.1. The Recognition of the Nature of Drama and the Canonization of New Drama in Chinese ............................................................ 149 Recognition of Dramatic Nature and the Canonization of New Drama in Chinese Facing the Tradition: Renewed Recognition of the Nature of Drama Introspection on Thunderstorm and a Second Deviation from the Nature of Drama III.2. New Literature in Chinese and Its Media-orientation ............... 173 Effects of the Theater-oriented Form of Drama Effects of the Literature-oriented Form of Drama Effects of the Media-oriented Form of Drama

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Chapter IV ............................................................................................... 187 China and the World Literature and Culture IV.1. Brandes’ Exemplary Role in New Literary Criticism in Chinese The Entry and Acceptance of Brandes in China Brandes’ Influence on New Literature in Chinese ........................ 187 IV.1.1. The Emigrant Literature and Georg Brandes’ International Influence: Toward New Literature in Chinese.............................. 196 Exile and Literature Emigrants and Currents of New Literature in Chinese IV.2. Irving Babbitt and New Literature in Chinese and Modern Chinese Culture: Allure, Encumbrance and Demonization .......... 208 Allure of Babbitt to Chinese Intellectuals Coloration and Encumbrance of Babbitt by Xueheng Intellectuals Liang Shiqiu and Demonization of Babbitt in China IV.2.1. New Humanism and New Confucian Humanism: The Influence and Correspondence of Ideational Rationality ...... 228 Various Traditions of Ideational Rationality and Humanism Different Schools of New Confucian Humanism Ideational Rationality in Confucianism and New Humanism Appendix ................................................................................................. 263 On the Status quo of the Academic Norms of Social Sciences and the Humanities in China Academic Research: New Literature in Chinese Academic Evaluation and Literary Research Facing the World: Cultural Emotion and Academic Research Index ........................................................................................................ 270

PREFACE

A huge discipline termed “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” has been studied in universities, institutes and writers associations in mainland China. However, this term will lead to three embarrassing situations for research. First of all, how should one determine the belonging of “Overseas Chinese Literature” or “The World Chinese Literature”? If “Chinese” here is understood as a national concept, it runs counter to the modifier “overseas”. So I put forward the concept and term of “New Literature in Chinese”, which makes it clear that “Chinese” means the Chinese language. Secondly, the term “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” suggests that it should cover literature in languages of other ethnic groups in China, such as literature in the Uighur language, literature in the Tibetan language, literature in the Mongolian language, and literature in the Korean language. However, the scholars who are engaged in the research of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature have been used to working with only the Chinese language. Most of them cannot even read literary works in other ethnic languages. In the short run, this situation can hardly be changed, so I suggest that scholars in the field work conscientiously on literature in Chinese, which falls within their linguistic and academic capabilities. Thirdly, since “modern” and contemporary” are temporary terms, “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” should comprise literary writings in the traditional Chinese language and traditional Chinese literary genres, for example, modern classical poetry, traditional opera, etc. However, scholars in the field of “Modern and Contemporary Literature” rarely research on literatures in the traditional Chinese language and classical genres, even though these literary works were created in modern and even contemporary times. Moreover, from the 1920s to the 1950s, Chinese writers and critics seldom used such terms as “Modern Chinese Literature” and “Contemporary Chinese Literature”. For these pioneers, “New Literature” used to be the major label of their creative or critical writings in the vernacular Chinese language. In my opinion, the pioneers such as Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Zheng Zhenduo, Mao Dun, Cai

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Yuanpei and Chen Duxiu, who were all giants of the New Literature and New Culture Movement, are correct in their advocating the concept of “New Literature”. Whether “modern” or “contemporary”, they are temporary concepts. However, “New Literature” is tied to literary property and classification. “New Literature” is opposed to “Old literature”; the latter is namely the traditional literature in Chinese. It is well-known that the advocates of New Literature and New Culture had done a lot to criticize Old Literature and Old Culture as their advocating foundation during the May 4th Period. Thus, I seriously propose “New Literature in Chinese” as a formal concept and term to replace “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature”. I have discussed and even argued for it in this book. “New Literature in Chinese” will be the most precise and succinct concept. It does not only combine “Modern Chinese Literature” and “Contemporary Chinese Literature” into one, but also incorporates modern and contemporary Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao literatures. No political problems accompany such a concept because it focuses on literary language – the “Chinese language”. In this book, I have expounded on the same tradition among “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature”, “Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Literatures”, and “Overseas Chinese Literature”. They need to be combined into one. As for “Chinese Literature in the World”, we must face the lexical ambiguity of the keyword “Chinese”, so it also has to be set aside. I have discussed the importance of language to literature, especially in the current world, and its status in the evolution of Chinese culture. Language is so important for literature that it can formulate thoughts, feelings and images in literary writing; it can also bear and carry cultural thinking, and even embodies cultural thinking routines and methods. Literature is a form of art created through a linguistic act and presented through the carrier of language. Sociologists have confirmed that the property of literature as a part of a “Speech Community” is bigger, more obvious, and more important than its property as part of a “political community”.1 In the world, there is English Literature, French Literature, German Literature, Russian Literature, and so on. We know that in concept, they are different separately from literature in English, literature in French, literature in German and literature in Russian. The concept of “Chinese Literature” is in the same situation. The concept of “Literature in Chinese” 1 Bloomfield, Leonard. “A set of postulates for the science of language”. Language 2:153-4 (1926).

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is quite different from it. It is now important that we should turn to world literature. Only “New Literature in Chinese” would be a peer to literatures in different languages in the world as a whole and could build an alliance to combine “Modern and Contemporary Literature”, “Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Literatures”, and “Overseas Chinese Literature” or “the World Chinese Literature” into one. The concept of “New Literature in Chinese” has brought about new problems, which require immediate and serious attention; for example, how to deal with the literary creations in Chinese by writers from ethnic minorities in China and international writers, especially those who are not native Chinese speakers. However, it is more important for us to give an equal status to the overseas writers writing in the Chinese language. Some scholars intend to identify overseas literatures in Chinese as foreign literatures, as opposed to Chinese literature, which means that the writers of the Chinese language will be treated the same as foreign writers. For example, since the famous poet, Luo Fu is now a citizen of Canada, he would be viewed as a Canadian poet and his writing would be treated as works of Canadian Literature. It is ridiculous for us and for these writers. Cultural ethics teach us that: even though he does not belong to China or Taiwan in nationality, in terms of cultural belongingness, his creative contributions are part of New Literature in Chinese. When we label such literature as “Overseas Chinese Literature” or even “Chinese Writing of Foreign Literatures”, the cultural ethics stand out in double senses. Firstly, excluding overseas writers who use the Chinese language and identify themselves with Chinese culture, especially Chinese New Culture, is harmful to ethnic cognition and cultural cognition in terms of cultural ethics. Secondly, for overseas Chinese writers, excluding them from the grand framework of Chinese literature is unacceptable in terms of cultural ethics. As a result, it is more reasonable to use the concept of “New Literature in Chinese”, a generalized concept which seldom causes ambiguity, when we deal with overseas Chinese literature and a large number of overseas Chinese writers. In the history of New Literature in Chinese, there emerged several literary phenomena such as movements, activities, controversies, societies, trends, schools and so on. Everything above could show us a regular pattern in modern literature and modern culture in China. In this book, I have analyzed the negative background of New Literature in Chinese. The negative background refers to factors playing a negative or passive role in the emergence of New Literature in Chinese. According to normal logic and conventional reasoning, these factors as constituents of the negative

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background are regarded as unconstructive or harmful because they are incapable of directly supporting or encouraging the emergence of New Literature. But, in the history of New Literature in Chinese, especially during the beginning phase, the actual unfolding of the history of New Literature was the result of a complicated integration, involving various factors, both positive and negative. Many negative factors which were seemingly insufficient to sustain, or were supposed to impair, New Literature and New Culture actually contributed to them. As for the background of New Literature in Chinese, the researchers have focused on the time background and its temporal significance. I here submit a new notion named the area background. The area background is the spatial and regional elements in literary conception and cultural writing that provide references and evocations. Sometimes, this kind of spatialregional element can be directly written into the work. Generally speaking, this element frequently carries with it very strong cultural, ideological and political meanings. Actually, it is the area background that more directly unfolds the colorfulness and variety of New Literature in Chinese, so its cultural, ideological and political implications are equally palpable. Democracy and science have been considered two flags of the May 4th New Literature Movement and New Culture Movement, but I think that they are not of equal importance in the history of New Literature in Chinese. The democratic trend does constitute the core spirit of New Literature in Chinese and it is nearly a reflection of all the factors that represent modern ideas. However, science fell into a status as a disharmonious factor in the construction of New Literature. The pioneers during the May 4th Period took Old Chinese Literature and Traditional Chinese Culture as the enemies against science; therefore, they needed science as a weapon so that they could defeat and overcome the old laws, the old rites, the old ethics, the old religion and the old politics embodied in Old Literature. In fact, the spirit of science, rather than science itself, played an essential role in it. The most important view was that science led to substantial awareness overflowing everywhere, and restricted the spirit of civilization. The achievements of New Literature in Chinese were deeply affected in general after the scientific awareness was introduced into literature, which led to the loss of the religious atmosphere and the disappearance of fantasy. Science is a very complicated issue in New Literature in Chinese. New Literature in Chinese has contributed a lot to creations and experiences. However, it also has defects, which prevent it from making greater achievements. I have used the keyword “flaunting” here to

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comment on some writers’ creative writings. There seems to be too much flaunting in the thematic expression in their novels and stories and too little flaunting in plot and character relationships. Likewise, flaunting in plot and character relationships is especially indispensable in drama. However, Cao Yu and other playwrights advocated realism and virtually gave up flaunting in plot and character relationships, which leads to the relatively low accomplishment in new drama in Chinese. The development of New Literature in Chinese owes a lot to foreign literary and cultural influences. Although a lot of research has been carried out into foreign writers and thinkers’ influences on New Literature in Chinese, there are still some important pretermissions to be made up for. That is why I have been devoted to the studies of New Humanism by Irving Babbitt and classic criticism by Georg Brandes, which have been largely unexplored in past research. Nonetheless, New Literature in Chinese belongs to the world. It has come to the world and has made a great contribution to the world. It has given many literary giants to the world, among them: Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Cao Yu, Xu Zhimo, Mu Dan, Wang Meng, Mo Yan, Jia Pingwa, Kwang-chung Yu, Keneth Pai, Jin Yong (Louis Cha Leung-yung) and so on. In this study, I would like to research them, review their writings and discuss their merits in an academic way. This book is so light, but it bears the weight of more than ten years of my academic endeavor and thinking. My friends helped me a lot, especially with English expression; I am very grateful to all of them. Zhu Shoutong 31 March, 2015, University of Macao

CHAPTER I “NEW LITERATURE IN CHINESE”

I.1. New Literature in Chinese in the Overall Field of the World Literature The research on literature in the Chinese language has a long history and glorious tradition. After a century’s development, New Literature in Chinese, as a rapidly developing research discipline, has become well grounded and has found its place in the broad horizon of world literary research. But, until now, the discipline has been variously labeled as “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature”, “New Chinese Literature”, “Chinese Literature in the 20th Century”, “Literature in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao”, “Overseas Chinese Literature”, “World Chinese Literature” or “Chinese Literature in the World”. These labels also appear in the Chinese official disciplinary catalog, and very often overlap with each other, the ambiguities of which lead to great confusion. As a result, scholars in the field often get lost in the confusion and have to narrow down their scholarship to one field, thus failing to establish their academic identities. Although there is no positive correlation between academic identity and academic achievement, the failure to put these disciplines in array and integrate them within a broader framework has hindered the further development of the discipline. It is believed that academic operations run under the guidance of constructive rules and directive rules, with the former being core rules.1 The above-mentioned forms of “New Literature in Chinese” are a result of flouting of the constructive rules, which leads to the malfunction of the directive rules. Accordingly, the academic norms in the field of New Literature in 1

Yang, Yusheng and Zhang Baosen, An Introduction to Academic Norms. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2004. 76.

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Chinese remain to be developed and perfected. This chapter is an attempt to build up a norm, which includes constructive and directive rules. What is common to the above-mentioned disciplinary labels is that the modern Chinese language is the language used in everyday contemporary life, a language that differs from traditional Chinese. No matter whether literary works are produced in the Chinese mainland or overseas, this linguistic feature is what integrates them. By integrating the different labels into “New Literature in Chinese”, this intends to pave the way for the further development and possible perfection of the academic norms in the field.

The Definition “New Literature in Chinese” as an academic term originally referred to Chinese new literature, which appeared after the May 4th Movement in the late 1910s and early 1920s. It stands in contrast to Old Literature in Chinese, and intends to overthrow and replace. The term “Chinese New Literature” had been used by Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Zhu Ziqing, who are all masters of the New Literature and the very first researchers in the field. In the late 1920s and the early 1930s, Chinese New Literature as a course appeared in the curriculum of Chinese universities and schools. Zhu Ziqing taught “Research in New Literature” in Tsinghua University,2 while Zhou Zuoren lectured on “the Origins of the Chinese New Literature”.3 The term was officially established in 1935 when the series books The Anthologies of Chinese New Literature were published. With the passage of time, it was gradually replaced by a new term “Modern Chinese Literature”, which seems to be more accurate and academically sound. The latter has gained wide acceptance after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, because the term both underscores the new political entity and the temporal feature. As its counterparts, “Classical Chinese Literature” and “Early Modern Literature” cropped up as disciplinary terms. In fact, in the transition process of “New Literature in Chinese” from “Chinese New Literature” to “Modern Chinese Literature”, besides political and temporary factors, the social and cultural mentality of the particular era also play an important role. When “Chinese New 2

Zhu, Ziqing, “The Outline of the Chinese New Literature Research” A Series of Literary and Art Research. Shanghai: Shanghai Press of Arts and Literature, 1982. 3 Zhou, Zuoren, The Origins of the Chinese New Literature. Peking: Renwen Press, 1932.

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Literature”4 was newly established as a term, there was a team of scholars who put forward the term “Literature in Modern China” to rival it. The earliest and most representative among them was Qian Jibo who published A History of Literature in Modern China in 1933, which should be the forerunner of Modern Chinese Literature. Dissatisfied with the term “New Literature”, Qian Jibo complained that this so-called New Literature was the result of “Hu Shi’s pompous propaganda with the goal of achieving fame for himself”.5 He disagreed with Hu Shi that Chinese literature after the Founding of Republican China should be termed as New Literature. Instead, he claimed, the so-called New Literature was only a part of the overall literary scenario. The major achievements in the field were made in the sphere of classical literature. The writers in both spheres were modern literary writers. In spite of Qian Jibo’s prejudice toward “New Literature”, his disciplinary term seems to be more academically well grounded than the later orthodox term “Modern Chinese Literature”, because the literary creation in the classical Chinese language was excluded from the studies of Modern Chinese Literature. In recent years, a few literary history books such as Huang Xiuji’s The History of Chinese Literature in the 20th Century embodied a similar academic awareness.6 It is important to point out that Qian Jibo’s substitution of Modern Literature for the New Literature was not due to his awareness that the concept Modern Literature would be in a better position in the development of literary discipline. Instead, it was due chiefly to the popularity of the word “modern” in 1930s 4

The tendency to replace “Chinese New Literature” with “Modern Chinese Literature” was obvious in the 1950s and 1960s. The Compilation History of the Chinese New Literature reveals that in the first half of the 1950s, all the three books in the field were entitled with “new literature”; in the second half of the 1950s, three went on using “new literature”, while the other five were entitled with “modern literature”. In the 1970s, nine books in the field were published in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, most (except Sima Changfeng’s The History of the Chinese New Literature) used “modern literature” as the keyword. See: Huang Xiuji. The Compilation History of the Chinese New Literature. Beijing: Peking University Press, 1995. 550-553. 5 Qian, Jibo, The Literary History in Modern China. Changsha: Yuelu Press, 1986. 472. 6 Huang Xiuji claimed: “Ren Fangqiu’s A History of Modern Chinese Literature is the first among a large number of books sharing the same title. Ren Fangqiu’s book was published in May 1944 by Henan Xiangfeng Press.” See: Huang Xiuji, The Compilation History of the Chinese Literature. Beijing: Peking University Press, 1995. 100.

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China. It was an era when China, tortured by continuous wars, opened the door widely for a short time to the outside world, and when Shanghai as China’s cultural center was permeated with everything associated with modernity. In that era, the English word “modern” as well as its Chinese counterpart ᪙ⲫ were the keywords of the cultural domain. As a part of modern culture, Modern Literature came to the forefront. It became inevitable to be going to replace the New Literature. As is known, the journal Modern Literature was one of the most important journals in the 1930s. It was more symbolic than its precedent which was entitled New Literature. The change of keywords signified the transition of the disciplinary terms. It is said that Yang Zhensheng began a course termed “Modern Literature” at Peking University in the 1930s. 7 Without the academic standstill caused by the Japanese invasion, the works termed History of Modern Chinese Literature would not come out as late as 1944. Because of the social and cultural mentality at first, and then the requirements of political expression, there appeared a trend to name the main body of New Literature in Chinese as “Modern Chinese Literature” from the early 1930s. In the late 1950s, the term “Modern Chinese Literature” finally prevailed over the term “Chinese New Literature”. Paradoxically, at the same time as this happened, the term “Contemporary Chinese Literature” 8 started to erode the field of “Modern Chinese literature”. It was originally termed “New China Literature” or “the Literature after the Founding of the People’s Republic”, which clearly signified its ideological implications. The erosion climaxed around the 1960s when “Contemporary Chinese Literature”, with the help of the political advantage of the government, surpassed “Modern Chinese Literature” in both scholastic and critical terms and became a more influential critical term. It is obvious that the term “Contemporary Chinese Literature” better represents a new era in both ideology and literature, which is so overwhelming that any scholar in the field seems to be unable to possibly transcend it with his own subjective terms. Though the concept 7

Xiao, Qian. “My Sideline Is to Be a Bridge Between the East and the West”. Historic Data of New Literature 2 (1992). 8 It is generally agreed that the following two books might serve as symbols: A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature, collectively written by the Chinese Department of Huazhong Normal College, was published by the Science Press in 1962. The Contemporary Chinese Literature from 1949-1959, collectively written by the Chinese Department of Shandong University was published by the Shandong People’s Press in 1960.

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“Modern Chinese Literature” has clearer denotation and connotation in terms of definition, “Contemporary Chinese Literature” enjoyed more political and ideological advantages. A balance should be achieved between them. With the combined efforts of academic administrative bureaus and literary researchers, the new term “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” emerges. In fact, it is a rather random and temporary combination of two terms. However, ever since its emergence, it has been the most authoritative and more prescriptive term in the field. Its dominance has been felt not only on the mainland of China, but also in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and even in overseas Chinese communities.9 The term “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” has serious problems, because the combination concept of the old and new terms does not necessarily lead to the self-abasement of academic studies, like the so-called academic terms “British Literature” and “American Literature” which have been widely used and recognized. One problem that is hard to tackle is how to translate it into other languages, especially into English. It is evident that in English there is no clear-cut distinction between “modern” and “contemporary”, with the former covering the latter semantically. Hence, the English equivalent of “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” conveys little more than “Modern Chinese Literature’’ per se. In addition, in the context of Chinese language, there is no wide recognition of the distinction between the two periods— modern China and contemporary China. Hence, the rather random combination of the two terms lacks academic seriousness. However, the term has been used for such a long time that it has become conventional and people tend to take it for granted without second thought; its influence has even extended to overseas academia. What is more unbearable lies that the label “modern and contemporary” has even been attached to the world literature—there are books such as A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary World Women Poets. It is an abuse of discourse. In spite of its long-standing usage and dominance in the official academic catalog, the term “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature’’ is not at all appropriate because it also covers the literature of other ethnic nationalities in China. China has always been a country with 9

Professor David Der-wei Wang from Harvard University has accepted the concept. In the preface of Such Glamours, he points out: “Urban life and literary history are the chief areas of the studies of Modern and Contemporary Chinese literature.” See: David Wang, Such Glamours. Shanghai: Shanghai Press, 2006. 1.

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many nationalities: “The Chinese as a nation, from its very beginning, is an integration of lots of tribes and nationalities (including ancient tribes and nationalities, and the present day 56 distinct ethnic groups.) In the past thousands of years, Chinese history is a history of interactions and exchanges among these nations, thus unfolding a most colorful and most vigorous cultural panorama. So China is a blood-bound and culturally bound multi-national country”. It follows that “the literature in the Chinese language, whether it is traditional literature or new literature, is just a part of China’s literature, though it is the major part”.10 The scholars in the field of China’s literature have consciously, or unconsciously, narrow down their academic domain. As a result, its name does not match its nature. Diachronically speaking, the term “Modern and Contemporary Literature” will literally cover any literary creation in traditional Chinese produced in the 20th century. This is what Qian Jibo did in his literary history, which leads to problems in the internal relationship of the literature in China because the nature and name do not match for a second time. This is the second dilemma researchers have to face. Based on the two dilemmas discussed above, the so-called Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature is, in fact, New Literature in Chinese. As a matter of fact, the past decade has seen considerable efforts in instituting the notion of “New Literature in Chinese”. A consensus is about to be reached. At the end of 2003, a seminar was arranged by the editorial panel of The Academic Studies of Southeast China, in which “World Chinese Literature” was subject to “an open-ended interpretation”. The paper entitled “A Tentative Notion: Literature in the Chinese Language” explores the possibility and necessity to use the notion of “Literature in Chinese” from a specific perspective, the perspective of the external relationships of the so-called Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature. Although Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao are indiscerptible parts of China, the literature of these regions has been excluded from the field of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature. It is embarrassing to note the peripheral yet privileged status of the literature of these regions in the past academic practices. It is also the case for Chinese literature overseas. As a result, “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature” and “World Chinese Literature” are not proper and inclusive terms. “Literature in Chinese’’ is an attempt to integrate the various terms, but its domain is 10

Yang Yi, Leading to a Broad View of Literature. Hefei: Anhui Education Press, 2006. 17.

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not clear-cut enough and seems too broad. As for the terms “Literature in Chinese in the 20th Century” and “Literature in Chinese in Modern China”, although they contain the connotation of “literature in Chinese”, they are still not inclusive enough, spatially and temporarily speaking. The problem lies in the fact that the old-style literature in Chinese is excluded from such terms. The redundancy of them is another problem.11 In fact, the legitimacy of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature has long been questioned and there have been many attempts to modify it. A good case in point is A List of Books on the History of Chinese Literature edited by Chen Fei. There are 184 books listed, among them only 4 are entitled Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature, 22 are entitled New Literature, 93 are entitled Modern Literature, and 53 are entitled Contemporary Literature, while 12 are entitled The 20th Century Chinese Literature or Centennial Chinese Literature. All these terms overwhelm the most popular and official term “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature’’ in both number and proportion, and “Modern Chinese Literature” and “Chinese New Literature” are preferable choices for most books. The statistics reveal that most scholars are well aware of the sloppiness of this term, although they have not openly challenged it. Their gesture might be a reflection of sophisticated taciturnity, a servile obedience to official norms, or deplorable negligence.12 Such mentalities lead to the institution of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature as an academic concept and the name of a discipline. In spite of its lack of seriousness and logic, it has long been established and it has long guided the academic studies and the development of discipline. The academic inertia, which it brings about, seems hard to be overcome. 11

Such kinds of statements appeared in a number of important papers and monographs, including The Ten-year Development of Literature by Shao Quanling in the 18th Issue of The Newspaper of Arts and Literature in 1959, and The Glorious Achievements of the Socialist Arts and Culture in New China by Mao Dun in People’s Daily on October 7, 1959. New Chinese Literature in the Past Decade, collectively written by the Institute of Literature by China’s Academy of Science, was published by Writers’ Press in 1960. 12 It is important to point out that the data collected in the book is not only incomplete, but also erroneous on some occasions. A case in point is The New Literary History edited by Wang Ning and published by Tsinghua University Press. As a systematic introduction to the new theories in literary history, it has little relationship with New Literature in question. However, Chen Fei included it in his book. See: Chen Fei, The Summaries of the Histories of Chinese Literature. Zhengzhou: Daxiang Press, 2004. 2092-2106.

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Yet it is high time for academia to overcome this inertia and take the discipline, its concept and name, seriously; and the conceptual mistakes ought to be corrected. As mentioned above, in previous decades there have appeared many academic concepts and disciplinary names related to “New Literature in Chinese”, including “Modern Chinese Literature”, “Contemporary Chinese Literature”, “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature”, “the 20th Century Chinese Literature”, “Literature in Modern China”, “China’s Literature in Modern Chinese”, “the 20th Century Literature in Chinese”, “Literature in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao”, “Overseas Chinese Literature”, “Literature in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and the Overseas Chinese Literature”, and “the World Chinese Literature”. For a very long time, they were entwined and overlapped with each other, resulting in chaos and confusion. None of them is comprehensive and clear-cut enough to cover all these concepts, thus ending such chaos and confusion. The term “World Chinese Literature” may transcend and cover the other concepts, but it is a shame to find that “it is still within the research framework and route of ‘Literature in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and Overseas Chinese Literature’”. 13 Pragmatically, it fails to cover the chief domain supposed to be occupied by Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature. Moreover, Chinese Literature as the keyword proves to be inadequate in emphasizing the difference between New Literature and Old Literature. 14 Thus, the only notion that can comprehensively cover the above-mentioned concepts and terms, and will not lead to chaos and ambiguities, is the term “New Literature in Chinese”. Based on the linguistic facts of literary creation, it delimits the boundaries, clearly and strictly, of New Literature. It also self-evidently reveals its connections with and differences from Old Literature in the Chinese Language, and, when compared with other literature in other languages, demonstrates its relationship and its heterogeneous nature.

13 Liu, Denghan, “Chinese Literature: A Transcending Construction” Transcultural Poetic Probe. Ed. Jiang Shuzhuo. Guangzhou: Jinan University Press, 2007. 325. 14 Please refer to Huang Wanhua, China and Overseas: Literature in Chinese in the 20th Century. Tianjin: Beihua Culture and Arts Press, 2006; Cao Wanshen, China’s Literary History in Modern Chinese. Beijing: People’s University Press, 2007.

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Theoretical Advantages To define literary domains according to a nation, race or ethnic group, though strongly ideological, does not need ideology as the major motivation, and often turns out to be a natural academic choice. Therefore, in the concepts listed above regarding Chinese New Literature, those with words such as “China” or other political terms make up the majority. These definitions of literary geographical domains, based on nation or government, are self-evident if political or historical factors do not complicate the relationship between the notion of nation and that of region. However, no matter how natural to define and conceptualize of the literary domains based on nation or regime, or how complete to retreat from the ideology in this process, once academic concepts or names of disciplines are established, these definitions inevitably enter academic systemization management or the institutionalization of higher education. Consequently, these definitions are endowed with certain political connotations in accordance with their ideological backgrounds. Ideological and political factors can facilitate literary researchers in perceiving and evaluating the value of a certain regional literature at a certain time. However, a loose grasp of them can also give rise to certain harmful influences on academic rationality and artificially divide the unified literary creations of the same “Speech Community” into various “political community” plates with fissures and gaps.15 According to the linguistic theory of Leonard Bloomfield, “Speech Community” refers to the groups communicating with the same language, which is obviously different from “political community” (such as nations). Literature is a form of art created by the linguistic act and presented through the carrier of language. The property of literature as a “Speech Community” is bigger, more obvious, and more important than its property as a “political community”, no matter whether it is seen from the internal process of creation or the outer effect of acceptance. Only under certain historical circumstances, such as the fall of a nation and other disasters, will the creation of literature naturally arouse political passion. Generally speaking, literary creators find it hard to turn to the “Grand Narration”. They would rather become submerged into the cultural meanings of certain social factors to meditate upon and represent the personal aesthetic experience of the time, which would not affect the 15

Li, Kai, A Star in Modern Structuralism – An Introduction to Bloomfield’s Language. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press, 1991. 36.

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integrity of the same “Speech Community” because of the different nationalities or political regions. In fact, even at times when the national and political consciousness become prominent, like the era of China’s anti-Japanese war, there was no clear national gap or any regional fissures either on the mainland of China or in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macao, or even the remote south Pacific regions. All the Chinese literary creations were full of the same passion, which represents the integrity of a “Speech Community” in its contribution to Chinese literature. The practice of literary acceptance shows that, generally speaking, what literature brings to the reader first is not the author’s nationality or its national or ethnic consciousness, but the language style and language itself, which is used to think, create and present. Linguists observe that a “Speech Community” might contribute to the world a unique yet united language style. Thus, it can be seen that the literature as an academic concept is intellectual work which are better grouped together based on “Speech Community”, instead of being defined by national or political communities. Compared with other concepts, “New Literature in Chinese” enjoys the advantage of overcoming the regulations and restrictions of national plates and political regions; hence, New Literature studies can get rid of the politicalized academic prescriptions and find new academic paths to explore the laws of Chinese aesthetic expression. Sociological studies show that a person’s name usually functions as a hint or correction in shaping of his character. So do the academic concepts and names of disciplines. An influential academic concept or the name of a discipline will imply or emphasize its academic expectation through its embedded keywords or its tension, thus functioning as a self-evident model for the respective academic researchers. An academic concept with the keyword of “China” will certainly reinforce national consciousness, while that with the keyword of “modern” or “contemporary” etc., will surely introduce the political connotation and the huge changes of the time. However, the concepts and terms of “Chinese (language)” and “New Literature” obviously weaken these kinds of academic expectation and guide researchers into the layers of socio-linguistics, culture and aesthetics in Chinese aesthetic expression. This fully reveals the formation of New Literature in Chinese, its history and its future, by making a broad chronological and synchronic comparison with the old Chinese literary tradition and the heterogeneous linguistic and literary forms. Those who are academic-minded usually blame the ideological factor in literary studies, but this orientation not only results from political control but also from those academic concepts centering on national motifs

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like “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature”. Western scholars have observed that even in those nations claiming academic and cultural independence from politics, the national or group consciousness in the academic concepts and names of disciplines still leads to the politicalization of academics. Harold Bloom, who proposed the famous “anxiety of influence”, “creative misreading” and other concepts of literary criticism, pointed out the severe reality that “literary teaching has been politicalized in universities of the world today”, taking the USA as a reference point.16 By “politicalization”, Bloom here refers to the improper intensification of national or ethnic consciousness. In Bloom’s views, a classical narration without the limitation of a nation or groups could be extremely creative, in which he can freely talk about Homer, Dante, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Proust or Franz Kafka. This contemporary scholar on western classics sadly discovered that literary categories classified according to national or ethnic groups, rather than cultural standards, will give rise to the academic regulations dominated by national or racial consciousness with the least cultural connotations. Louis Althusser realized more clearly than Bloom that the national systemization of the education in literature will inevitably lead to the politicalization of concept and culture, including literary studies. He pointed out in “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”: “The Marxian concept of ideology was always meant to respect and to rehearse and flex the paradox of the mere semi-autonomy of the ideological concept”. “The classical Marxian concept (including the very word ‘ideology’ itself, as opposed to its reality) often broke down in precisely this respect.” “Those seemingly idealistic things all need the careful interpretation as the information for the basic structures like universities of multiple mechanisms and official institutions.” On these, Jameson commented: “The structural concept of Althusser often forms a rebuttal for the materialized specialization of capitalist subjects; therefore, it is in essence an excuse for counter-politics”. 17 They all pointed to the American educational and academic systems, which dared not or would not speak of politicalization, and their criticisms and allegations together show such a situation: once connected to a national system, the 16

Bloom, Harold, A Chinese Preface to Western Classics. Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2005. 2. 17 Jameson, Fredric R. “Postmodernism and the Market”. Socialist Register. Vol. 26 (1990): 95-96.

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materialization of academic disciplines will necessarily take on some ideological flavor. It is especially true in China, a political space always emphasizing ideology. Particular literary contents and creative environments make certain the fact that the so-called Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature cannot avoid ideological valuation, but this should not become an excuse for ideological interference with literary studies. Despite the various attempts to avoid the reinforcement of ideological elements in literary studies, the evasion of national consciousness in academic concepts or names of the disciplines, and the efforts to carry out academic exploration from linguistic and cultural perspectives, can reduce the ideological property of literary research. At the very least, it can weaken the researchers’ habits of ideological valuation formed under the suggestion or requirement of certain concepts. Indeed, even a literary historian without any political intentions, once he realizes that his research of literary history is defined by a national or ethnic group, is prone to decide that the country’s literary history is complete recording of the most sublime achievements in the national spirit. Once it comes to “the most sublime spirit of a nation and race”,18 the academic perspective will inevitably be led to the external aspect of literature and become involved in ideological criticisms. Ideology is, of course, important to literary studies, but it is not the whole of it, and cannot be the only perspective for literary studies. Sophisticated literary research is supposed to reveal internal laws of literature. Literature as a linguistic art is more closely related to linguistic forms, especially the aesthetic forms of linguistic expression and their development. This is the reason for choosing the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” after reflecting upon several concepts with a distinct national consciousness. Literature is the art of language, and all literary issues can and should be traced back to the linguistic elements. So is the case with New Literature in Chinese. The definition and academic illustrations should go beyond national consciousness to enter the Chinese language level. In his article “Requirements of the New Literature”, Zhou Zuoren defined an ideal new literature, and one of his assumptions is that this kind of new literature “should not be racial, national, local or familial”, but it “should belong to the humankind as well as the individual”.19 The theoretical significance of this statement lies in its denial of the national and racial 18

Zheng, Zhenduo, Illustrated History of Chinese Literature. Beijing: Beijing Press, 1999. 5. 19 Zhou, Zuoren, Classic Works of Zhou Zuoren. Haikou: Nanhai Press, 2001. 16.

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bases for literary classification, despite the fact that it is still untenable to replace the national property of literature with common humanity and individuality. Actually, literary critics are now much more inclined to confirm the point that the cultural connotation of a literary work often has a deeper significance than its national consciousness, though literary scholars usually ignore another important issue: any culture represented by a literature has an unimaginably close relation with its linguistic conveyance. Western critics have long discerned that, generally speaking, every literary form takes culture and language as its archetypes, traditions or resources, none of which is separable. Some theorists, who eloquently declare that culture will replace language to be the focus of attention, bear the critical logic of regarding culture and language as “a particular medium”. Such a “medium is language”. Despite the author’s conversion, the language remains firmly idealist,20 which actually falls into a dilemma of logic. Indeed, a literary archetype is not simply the representation of a culture, because it can never go without the linguistic carrier; the cultural archetype of literature is inseparable from the linguistic expression as a carrier. The cultural archetype deposited and accumulated in a foreign literature is always closely related to the classical tradition in that language. If translated into Chinese, many notes should be added to help people understand. Besides a lot of information, the symbolic meaning and aesthetic flavor of this cultural archetype will undergo fragmentation, deformity and loss. It is the same with the cultural archetypes in Chinese literature to foreign readers. Rene Welleck once remarked, “Language is a material of literature as stone or bronze is of sculpture, paints of picture, or sounds of music”, and language “is itself a creation of man and is thus charged with the cultural heritage of a linguistic group”.21 This statement hits the nail on the head and reveals the phenomenon that cultural archetypes and cultural traditions will finally be condensed into language. Because a certain language brings certain information and images of its cultural tradition, the high-level literary communication among different languages becomes a rather complicated issue. Therefore, those theories of “literary untranslatability”, though radical, are somewhat reasonable. An 20

Geoffrey B., Williams, The Reason in the Storm—A Study of the Use of Ambiguity in the Writings of T. S. Eliot. Lanham: University Press of America Inc. 1991. 177. 21 Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature. 3rd ed. London: Peregrine Books, 1963. 22.

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extension of this reasoning seems to challenge the influential theory of Goethe’s “World Literature”, and this challenge is not necessarily unscrupulous or unorthodox. Since Dionyz Durisin, a leading Slovak literary theorist, published his monograph Theory of Inter-Literature Process, the theory of “World Literature” that transcends the linguistic prescription began to receive increased debate, and researchers now show much interest in Durisin’s theory of “inter-literariness”22; the symbolic dividing line of the inter-literature is, of course, language and culture. Therefore, the first question of “inter-literariness” facing researchers of New Literature in Chinese should not be whether it belongs to “China’s” modern and contemporary Chinese literature, but whether it is written in Chinese and whether it demonstrates the cultural message and cultural identity conveyed by the Chinese language. The emphasis on the close relationship between the cultural archetype and the linguistic carrier is the common ground between Northrop Frye’s theory of archetype and Althusser’s “homology” theory; hence, they have become widely used terms in the current literary and cultural analyses. Homology is “fully possible only when we have a presumed identity among phenomena in different traditions”.23 From the same perspective, Derrida defined the writing forms including literary creation as the cultural center with the language as the carrier and confirmed that, “the latter is omnipresent and always controls the concept of writing”. 24 This is a reliable academic revelation of the inner laws of development of literature, which shows that language always acts as a decisive factor whether for the historical form or for the value form of literature. Thus, the differentiation of “inter-literariness” is deeper and more accurate when it is based on language categories than on national or political categories. The reasons can be analyzed from the perspectives of the natural context, style and cultural community. In the first instance, the same language naturally forms the same context, and literature written in the same language objectively forms a 22

Galik, Marian. “The World Literature and Interculturability”. The Journal of Xiamen University 2 (2008). 23 Miner, Earl, “Some Issues of Literary ‘Species, or Distinct Kind’” Renaissance Genres—Essays on Theory, History and Interpretation. Ed. Barbara Kiefer Lewalski. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1986. 29. 24 Derrida, Jacques, “On Language”. See: J. E. Elliot, “From Language to Medium” New Literary History. Vol. 1. Ed. Wang Ning. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2001. 106.

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natural integrated whole that cannot be divided by national classification or political alienation. Therefore, the same kind of language (that is, the same “Linguistic Community”, rather than the same nation or the same political entity) becomes the criterion of the categorization of the same “literary community”. All the literature written in the modern Chinese language, no matter whether it is written on the mainland or in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao or in other political regions, no matter whether it is published in China or overseas, all belong to an integral and inseparable body of New Literature in Chinese. The national or political division is only needed when a work is undergoing ideological analysis or when a critic is making a summary of a local color. What’s more, to a researcher of New Literature in Chinese, this kind of categorization does not bring any emotional pleasure, nor represents the rationale of academic logic. Secondly, the obvious consistency of the same language on the flavor, aesthetics and symbols in literary expression forms the major features of a literature. These kinds of literary styles and aesthetic characteristics often make more essential contributions to human civilization than a national literature as well as its folk tradition in the common sense. Some linguists assert that the overall style of a language is completely in accordance with the national culture of the language: “Language style first of all refers to the total of all its differentiating features of a certain language among all the languages of the world. This can also be called the national style of a language”.25 The aesthetic experiences and accomplishments of human beings require different languages, even all languages, to demonstrate themselves. In this huge and abundant accumulation, literature in Chinese objectively appears in an unified form and differs from literature of other languages; as long as they are not Sinologists, for the international readers, the Chinese literary works they read, appreciate and accept are the contributions of Chinese language. They neither need nor can judge whether the Chinese works are from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao or places outside China. In fact, as far as New Literature in Chinese is concerned, the Chinese writing all over the world bears and develops the great tradition of the May 4th New Literature. The huge aesthetic expressiveness and the gradually maturing style of modern Chinese brought about by this tradition are more and more obviously embedded into the aesthetic memory of human civilization, and every Chinese writer 25 Wang, Xijie, “Language Style and National Culture” A Collection of Papers on Style. Ed. Cheng Xianghui and Ni Yunhan. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 1994. 110.

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makes his contribution and shares the glory. As already mentioned, in the third instance, the so-called national manner (in China it is usually called “Chinese manner”) or folk color that forms this kind of contribution to the human civilization is no more than the linguistic representation of the cultural archetype. Any culture, especially the community culture represented by literary works, is conveyed through linguistic expressions; a culture has many different forms such as national, racial and social forms, etc., but the most practical cultural form is the aspiration and flavor of a “community” conveyed by the same kind of language, that is, the cultural identification of the same language. “Language and culture are not only the image of the social environment people live in, but also the essence of people’s identification.”26 Culture, as the essence of people’s identification, is still conveyed and demonstrated through language. Thus, the essence of a nation’s cultural identification finally boils down to language. Driven by various mentalities, many immaterial cultural heritages of China’s traditional civilization are understood or interpreted as the common heritage of different nations in East Asia, but the spiritual and cultural heritages that are expressed in Chinese, namely texts in classical Chinese, cannot be appropriated by any other nations or other languages. With Chinese language employed as a rigid carrier, the splendid cultural traditions like Confucian doctrines will not be identified in other cultural systems. As an art of language, literature is the liveliest part of the cultural identification in one linguistic community, and the national manner and cultural style represented in literature is finally fulfilled by language itself. In different regions, New Literature in Chinese may express different social and life experiences. However, the theoretical basis and even the ethical basis of the aesthetic treatment and value judgment which come from the life experiences in such regions are still the conventions of the new culture. What’s more, these two bases also form innovative thinking of the new culture that is closely related to the May 4th new literary traditions and condensed in the modern Chinese language. In spite of the indelible influence of exotic cultures and literature on the New Culture and the New Literature, modern Chinese and its modern way of thinking have experienced a creative transformation through literary creations. What has been handed down and become spiritual heritage must be the finished 26 Poole, Ross, “National Identity and Citizenship” Identities: Race, Class, Gender and Nationality. Ed. Linda Martin Alcoff and Eduardo Mendieta. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2003. 270.

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product of the classic expression of modern Chinese. Though the Chinese word “ ᒭ 唈 (you mo)” is transliterated from “humor”, it has been creatively transformed when it is used in modern Chinese. The Chinese information makes it no longer the exact equivalent of the English word “humor”, and no other word in Chinese can evoke the same rich and vivid image as “you mo”. This is but a typical example of the cultural influence on vocabulary, and the creative transformation that is reflected in personal portraits, scenario depiction and narrative strategy is more common. In the early 1980s, literary historian Tang Tao made the following incisive statement on the phenomenon that western literary influence should fit the language style of Chinese: “There is a natural elimination process when the Western thoughts and foreign forms are combined with the aesthetic habits and artistic tastes of the Chinese people…it is not unprecedented in the literary history that the inability to fit the Chinese language and life pattern causes failures (of acceptance of western thoughts and foreign forms)”.27 He listed, as examples, the unpopular symbolic poetry of Li Jinfa and the failed introduction of the sonnet form. Due to the profoundly and remarkably decisive function of language to the quality of literature and the “inter-literary” relationship, when a literature is defined as a science or a discipline, the linguistic categorization should be made first. Only under this premise can other qualities be reckoned with; this is the logic and reason for more appropriate and more scientific concept of “New Literature in Chinese”. This is also the academic advantage of this concept in comparison with other existent concepts, like “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature”. New Literature in Chinese, according to the theory of genetic epistemology, represents the essence of Chinese vernacular literature. What its historical and its present development demonstrate is still the elevation of the level of artistry and aesthetic capability of modern literature in Chinese. Therefore, practically speaking, to design and initiate the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” from the perspective of the Chinese language is in accordance with the historical development and the future trend.

Practical Value As an academic concept, “New Literature in Chinese” is firmly supported by a strong theoretical base; and as an independent discipline, it 27

Tang, Tao, “Western Influences and National Style” Western Influences and National Style. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1989. 22-23.

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enjoys significant practical value. During its infancy, New Literature in Chinese unprecedentedly highlighted the importance of language itself. As it grew up, the dispute was virtually focused on the choice of language between the classical and the vernacular. The new elements of New Literature in Chinese depend on the aesthetic construction of modern Chinese language. As a matter of fact, differentiating literature by using language as the criterion has been widely adopted and recognized as being efficient in the concept design and application in cases of foreign literatures and has proved to be feasible in the academic field and educational undertakings in China. From the linguistic perspective, New Literature in Chinese, in accordance with its historical development and contemporary expansion, integrates domestic and overseas writings in the Chinese language and reflects the experiences shared by all Chinese writers around the world. More importantly, the concise notion, with its powerful force, is able to cope with the trend of development in modern Chinese writings in different regions and at different times, with all of them being combined into an academic integrity. Theoretically speaking, the cultural archetype of literary representation is inseparable from the language, which serves as the carrier; therefore, the most reliable criterion evaluating various categories of literature lies in the language itself. Practically speaking, the decisive role played by the modern language in the formation and development of the New Literature has not received due recognition. Diachronically speaking, the substantial development of the New Literature normally finds its best expression in the improvement of the artistry and craftiness of modern Chinese literature. The improvement has often been accompanied by the increasingly fierce debates on the issue of the Chinese language. Synchronically, New Literature in Chinese in different regions or even different countries displays a similar Chinese language strategy and artistic level during the same period. The former reveals that language is the essential character of New Literature in Chinese, while the latter demonstrates the excessively high degree of crystallization in the notion of “New Literature in Chinese”, which goes beyond regional and national constraints, both of which jointly explain the historical reasonableness and practical feasibility of the concept. Researchers have noticed that the birth and initial development of the New Literature should be attributed to the widespread application of vernacular Chinese. During the May 4th Movement, the New Literature, which broke from Old Chinese Literature by abandoning the bondage of deeply ingrained classical Chinese in a high-profile fashion, was

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catapulted to prominence. The emergence of new literature, in terms of its form and appearance, at least, benefited from the victory of the language revolution. A new language, first and foremost, is the primary indicator of the New Literature. Hu Shi was always inclined to summarize the achievement of the New Literature from the perspective of the contribution made by vernacular Chinese. Indeed, the New Literature exponents had long reached the consensus that the ideological reform should be prioritized. However, how should the ideological reform relate to literature? The answer lies in the fact that literature is the instrument that disseminates thoughts and ideas. As the content of Old Literature was enveloped in classical Chinese, some radical forerunners of the New Literature used to advocate the practice of “eliminating classical Chinese language”, something that Cai Yuanpei believed was hard to implement. However, he deemed it practical to eliminate classical Chinese.28 In order to encourage people to embrace new ideas and concepts, first of all, the habit of using classical Chinese should be removed; meanwhile, the way of thinking in vernacular Chinese, which was said to be filled with the modern spirit and messages of the global civilization, should be consolidated. Therefore, ideological and social reforms entailed the construction of the New Literature, which in turn was reduced to the adoption of the modern language, i.e. vernacular Chinese. This is the dynamic quality and inborn mission of New Literature in Chinese. With regard to the language quality and its relationship with the mission of the New Literature, the seemingly superficial understanding of the forerunners was, in fact, much deeper than what successors thought and criticized. Initially advocating vernacular Chinese, Hu Shi later had it elevated to the status of “the national language”, equating the “national language of literature” with the “literature of the national language”, an assertion that has ideological seriousness and prospective standardization.29 Obviously, his concept of the “literature of the national language”, apart from insisting on the usage of vernacular Chinese, placed emphasis on its popularization, which endowed “New Literature in Chinese” with self-explanatory implications in terms of language standardization. His plain yet famous thought of literary evolution, known as “each generation has its own 28

Cai, Yuanpei, “General Preface” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Shanghai Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 7. 29 Hu, Shi. “The Literary Evolution and Theatrical Reform”. La Jeunesse 5.4 (1918).

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literature”, was focused on the language, which was said to evolve from the classical to the vernacular, in the case of Chinese, with the former eventually being replaced by the latter.30 His work entitled The History of Vernacular Literature, in his own words, revealed such a valid issue in line with the concept of literary evolution, i.e. when did classical Chinese die? His consistent thought decidedly defined the quality of the New Literature: “It is imperative that vernacular Chinese be used if the New Literature is expected to emerge in China, a literature which expresses the meanings as well as emotions in modern times and represents the degree of the social civilization”.31 Hu Shi is not alone in making the statement above; his ideological persuasions and theoretical findings were shared by other the New Literature exponents. It is generally acknowledged that Hu Shi devoted more efforts to advocating vernacular Chinese, and his major contribution to the New Literature lay in the language reformation, while his comrade Chen Duxiu placed more emphasis on the revolution of literary content. However, the initial driving force of the New Literature in Chinese did not and could not separate the literary content from the language form in such a pedestrian manner. Chen Duxiu, for example, argued that vernacular Chinese could not be separated from the New Literature, which essentially means “the vernacular form of literature”.32 According to him, the construction of the New Literature, first and foremost, depended on the advocation of vernacular Chinese. In this regard, he adopted a firmer stance than Hu Shi, who hoped to initiate a debate concerning the reformation of vernacular Chinese, and he stated that he “welcomes comments and criticisms”.33 Chen Duxiu, however, flatly rejected such an ambiguous attitude by claiming that, “revolutionalizing classical Chinese and establishing the authority of vernacular Chinese allow for no public discussion and criticism”. 34 Obviously, he displayed stronger determination and greater enthusiasm than 30

Hu, Shi, The Literary History of the Vernacular Chinese. Shanghai: Oriental Press, 1996. 1. 31 Hu, Shi, “A Reply to Huang Jueshen on Eclectic Literary Reform” The Selected Works of Hu Shi. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1998. 86. 32 Chen Duxiu defined “democracy” as follows: “Democracy is political governance by people, economic socialism, social equality, moral philanthropism, and vernacular language in literature.” “What is the New Culture Movement?” La Jeunesse 7. 5 (1919) 33 Hu, Shi. “A Modest Proposal on Literary Reform”. La Jeunesse 2.5 (1917). 34 Chen, Duxiu. “Correspondence”. La Jeunesse 3.3 (1917).

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Hu Shi. In fact, Chen Duxiu advocated vernacular Chinese by releasing a precursory newspaper Anhui Newspaper in Vernacular Chinese. Furthermore, he promoted education in vernacular Chinese and defined it as “the colloquial language that should be used nationwide”,35 ten years earlier than Hu Shi did. The circle of literary study has not been used to approaching the birth of the New Literature and the New Literature Movement from the perspective of language. This has led to such a significant historical fact being ignored; in a series of disputes concerning literary revolution, both parties, one representing the New Literature and the other representing Old Literature, concentrated more on the linguistic choice than on the thoughts of openness and modernity. For example, such pioneers as Yan Fu and Lin Shu, who advocated modern literature and culture, were among the first people to launch violent attacks against the New Literature. Instead of questioning the open-door policy and modern ideology advocated by the New Literature exponents, they intended to preserve the authoritative status of classical Chinese from being threatened by the “vulgar” language popular among the humble class. Similarly, scholars of different schools, such as the School of National Classics led by Huang Kan and Liu Shipei and the Jiayin School represented by Zhang Shizhao, accused the New Literature of adopting vernacular Chinese. Special mention should be made of the Xueheng Society. Scholars of the society, with their profound western educational background, also argued for literary reform and were not likely to become opponents of the New Literature, as evidenced by the statement of Mei Guangdi: “The necessity to build up a new culture is a common sense”. On the other hand, they held that both classical and vernacular Chinese are literary genres and opposed the practice of honoring the vernacular alone at the expense of the classical. Mei Guangdi went on to say that, “Different literary genres have their own advantages and independent value. Therefore, they should not be mixed up. How can we cast away all the others and champion vernacular Chinese alone?”36 Besides, scholars of the Xueheng Society made use of “the modern sense” to criticize the exponents of vernacular Chinese as advocating “literary dictatorship”. 37 Hu Shi published New Culture Movement and 35

Chen, Duxiu. “Education in the National Language”. Anhui Vernacular Newspaper Issue 3 (1904). 36 Mei, Guangdi. “On the Advocates of the New Culture Movement”. Xueheng 1 (1922). 37 Yi, Jun. “On the Literary Revolution and Literary Dictatorship”. Xueheng 79

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Kuomintang and suggested that all the government documents, news reports and commentaries should adopt vernacular Chinese. In response, scholars of the Xueheng Society unanimously pointed out that seeking aid from the political powers to fulfill the ambition of the dominant use of the Chinese language was a sign of academic failure and literary dictatorship. Other scholars who showed their conditional support of the New Literature, such as Ren Shuyong and Zhu Jingnong, also voiced their grievance over the radical abolition of classical Chinese.  The May 4th period witnessed frequent debates over the language in New Literature in Chinese, which not only helped to establish the legitimacy of modern Chinese language as the medium of literary representation, either subjectively or objectively, but also provided new writers with the stimuli, either positive or negative, to continuously improve their artistry and proficiency in using the modern Chinese language. This accelerated the maturity of vernacular literature and elevated the overall standard of New Literature in Chinese. At the initial stage of the campaign to advocate vernacular Chinese, many people including Zhang Shizhao clamored about the difficulty in using the vernacular; however, very few writers were unable to use the vernacular at the end of the 1920s ˉ the only exception were those who complained out of a strong mood of resistance. A comparison between the vernacular poems in New Poetic Attempts by Hu Shi and those of Xu Zhimo reveals an amazing improvement in the artistry and proficiency of literary representation of modern Chinese language. The improvement should be attributed to the frequent debates on the language of New Literature in Chinese. The debate on the language of the New Literature did not come to an end in the wake of the May 4th Movement. It continued on an irregular basis with the discussion of “the literary dictatorship of the vernacular Chinese” during the late 1920s, “the popular language” debates in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Latinization campaign during the 1930s, as well as the exploration of the national form of the New Literature between the 1920s and the 1930s. Even the dispute over the classical and the vernacular, which appeared to have been settled long ago, has shown signs of revival in recent years. All of the historical facts above demonstrate that New Literature in Chinese centers on a couple of key issues concerning the Chinese language. At the point when the New Literature came into being, and at every crucial phase of its evolution, the major debates were (1933).

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embroiled in the issue of language. When the language issue is not prominent, ideological issues may emerge, which, settled or not, do not exert any substantial impact on the development of the New Literature and its internal laws. Along the path of New Literature in Chinese, every success and progress achieved in the expression of literary language and the creation of literary images are directly associated with settling the issues of the Chinese language in different forms and on different levels. Other issues, such as ideology and corresponding social and cultural connotations, vary a great deal in different political regions, but the literary standard manifested in Chinese language is similar synchronically. This is a strong testimony to the statement that the development of literature in Chinese has a direct link with the literary expression of the Chinese language, and there are no such ties between New Literature in Chinese and ideology. It is true that literature indeed depends, to a certain extent, on the representation of ideological elements. This, however, is incapable of deciding the literary standard after all. The elements that make up the literary standard include the linguistic artistry and proficiency in expressing the experience, mentality and emotion, and the improvement of both derives from the accumulated writing experience of writers, on the one hand, and theoretical debates over the literary language, on the other hand. At the initial stage of the New Literature and in the 1920s and the 1930s, the literary practice of the modern Chinese language, apart from extraordinary contributions made by a small number of linguistic and cultural masters, concentrated on the construction and removal of the so-called “Tones of New Literature”. Generally speaking, with the enhanced proficiency of vernacular Chinese, the expression of emotions as well as the mode of narration gradually improved. Such an enhanced literary standard cannot be separated from waves of discussions and debates concerning the issues of the Chinese literary language. From the 1940s to the 1950s, the disputes over language gradually faded into silence, resulting in the slow improvement of an artistic level in literary representation. In terms of the improvement in the artistry of literary representation and the proficiency in the Chinese language, New Literature in Chinese witnessed the most conspicuous achievements during the 1920s and further progress and maturity in the 1930s and the 1940s. Later on, the pace of development slowed down. This is the reason why many argue that the works of the highest literary standard nowadays do not match the brilliant literary classics written in the 1930s. Such a literary phenomenon, if depicted with a curve reflecting its historical development, echoes

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perfectly the degree of dedication to the issues of literary language by literary figures. The development of New Literature in Chinese at different historical stages, in particular the capability of language expression, remains even in different regions and mirrors the same landscape of the time. Such a phenomenon can be attributed to the mutual influence of New Literature in Chinese in different regions. However, the root cause lies in the internal elements of the modern Chinese language and the function of their growth, maturity and the development frequency. The latter may help to account for such a literary phenomenon, i.e. the literary standard and the landscape of the time manifested in the Chinese language are quite similar in the mainstream literature across the Taiwan Strait, despite the escalating ideological conflicts. For example, the characters on both sides in the narrative literature feature powerful political coloring; the language used by the characters in their own roles has been deliberately exaggerated, and even the colloquialisms adopted in the literature across the Strait have a lot in common. It came to readers as a big surprise that, in spite of some differences in the idiomatic expressions out of a 30-year-long separation, literatures both on the mainland and in Taiwan, which are at a similar stage of development, are able to communicate efficiently with each other in terms of literary description and representation. In recent years, new Chinese poems across the Strait have been filled with a postmodern clamor, in which the strategy and order of the Chinese language experience some degree of alteration. However, the alteration reveals a similar tendency whether inside or outside the mainland (Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, as well as overseas). These demonstrate the general situation and the basic rules in the comprehensive development of New Literature in Chinese. The development of New Literature in Chinese as a whole transcends the boundary of any specific country or region. This fact requires academic circles, on the basis of re-evaluating the intimate relationship between Chinese language and the New Literature, to break down the existing system of concepts centered around the national consciousness, and to restore the system of concepts with language at its core. Meanwhile, it is high time we recognize and adopt “New Literature in Chinese” as an academic concept and the name of a discipline. The concept accurately reflects the comprehensive development of New Literature in Chinese in every aspect and bridges the manmade chasm resulting from state boundaries, political alienation, as well as regional separation. Therefore, under the academic premise of the explicit consistency between connotations and denotations, New Literature in Chinese as a separate

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discipline, which transcends the geographical boundary, overcomes the political instability and opens up into a scientific and stable space for further development in future academic circles, can be established in a harmonious, unified and balanced way. The increasing number of scholars specializing in the New Literature have realized the academic tendency to grasp the literature in Chinese by removing the national or regional demarcations. Take the history of literary criticism for example, “The number of works on literary critical approach covering modern and contemporary times have been increasing gradually since the 1990s, not only on the Mainland, but also in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Recently, the people in the academic circles have proposed compiling works on literary criticism during the 20th century from a panoramic perspective that features the modernization of literature as a whole by covering both modern and contemporary periods in time and covering the Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong as well as Macao in space, i.e., a history of national literary criticism”. 38 Although “the whole nation” is a term widely accepted, “the whole of Han (Chinese) nationality” is more accurate as the basic components of New Literature in Chinese. Speaking of Han (Chinese) Nationality as a whole, overseas Chinese, in any case, should be taken into consideration. Therefore, the most reliable way of integrating writings in Chinese both at home and abroad is to create such an academic concept as “New Literature in Chinese”, a term with the Chinese language as the focus of attention. In fact, the Chinese language provides domestic as well as overseas writers with a literary destination and spiritual support. Therefore, the academic acknowledgment of the New Literature is not purely theoretical. In specific contexts, the literary passion for the mother tongue can weaken or even replace fairly sensitive national consciousness. During the 1950s, Tse-tsung Chow, together with other overseas Chinese students in New York, established “the White Horse Literary Society”. It was very active in writing modern Chinese literary works and won high praise from Hu Shi, who described it as “the third literary center”, the other two being the Mainland and Taiwan. 39 Hu Shi would not include the literary phenomenon that occurred in America as Chinese literature, let alone 38

Huang, Manjun, New Literary Tradition and Classical Interpretation. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2005. 86. 39 Based on Tse-tsung Chow’s memoir. See: Wong Yoon Wah, “The May 4th Movement Ignored: On Tse-tsung Chow’s New Poetic Movement Overseas”. Literature and Philosophy 10 (2007): 614.

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mainstream Chinese literature. What he tried to arrive at was that the White Horse Literary Society should be regarded as the third center of the New Literature writings in Chinese language, which was on an equal footing with the other two on the Mainland China and in Taiwan. When making the above statement, “China” in his mind was no longer confined to an explicitly political concept, but had a cultural and literary denotation. The fact that Hu Shi mistakenly referred to the Chinese language as “China” in his casual talk coherently demonstrated his blurred national consciousness and sharpened language sensitivity. As far as those overseas writers with Chinese ancestry are concerned, the only source of emotional comfort lies in the recognition of their literary works as part of the literature in Chinese. After all, the geographical distance and their nationality, objectively speaking, prevent them from occupying a position in China’s literature when homesickness can only be poignantly expressed far away from their motherland. In this sense, the statement that “[the] Chinese language is my home”, made by Hualing Nieh Engle, an overseas Chinese writer, sounds particularly sincere, affectionate and authentic.40 New Literature in Chinese is not alone when it is defined in terms of language; the same is true with literature in ancient Chinese and foreign literatures in the perspective of Chinese scholars. Defining literatures on the basis of language turns out to be more scientific, more accurate and more powerful than that of nationality. Lu Xun compiled teaching handouts when he was giving lectures on A Brief Literary History in China in Xiamen University, whose title was later on changed to An Outline of Chinese Literature in Ancient Times when he moved to Sun Yat-sen University, thus playing a significantly pioneering role in initiating the tradition of naming China’s literature from the perspective of language. Senior researcher Cheng Qianfan specializing in ancient Chinese literature, together with his student Cheng Zhangcan, both of whom particularly emphasize the importance of the naming of academic concepts, jointly compiled an ingenious book on the literary history a couple of years ago entitled The Literary History of the Chinese Language of the Chengs.41 Among hundreds of similar works, their history book, being exceptionally meticulous and conscientious, has established their unique position with the “literary history of the Chinese language” as the key concept. The 40

See: Rao Pengzi, Overseas Chinese Literature and Comparative Literature. Beijing: China Press of Social Science, 2005. 104. 41 Cheng, Qianfan and Cheng Zhangcan, The Literary History of the Chinese Language of the Chengs. Shenyang: Liaohai Press, 1999.

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concepts of “Chinese national literature” and “the literary history of the Chinese language” apparently sound more accurate, scientific and appropriate than the concept of “Literature in China”. The latter is characterized by the consciousness of nationality, while the former term modestly yet authentically demonstrates that their research objectives lie with the ancient literary works written in Chinese, excluding other literature in the Chinese history or written in other languages within China. Indeed, part of the literary history of the Chinese language literally extends beyond the category of the literary history in China. For example, before Lin Chuanjia, Huang Ren embarked on compiling The Literary History in China, and German, Japanese and even Korean scholars had already produced several similar works such as The Literary History in China. Japanese and Korean scholars are not accustomed to defining the literature in China in their works from the perspective of the Chinese language, probably for the purpose of defending their own culture, because a significant portion of traditional Japanese and Korean literatures should be included in the literature in Chinese. Some of them hold that their own language and literature grew up in combat with the literature in Chinese and, as a matter of fact, some Koreans composed their own literary history revolving around the battle between the literatures in Chinese and in Korean.42 In the mind of Chinese literature researchers and professors of literature, in particular, the literary history around the world ought to be classified in terms of nationality, such as British literature, American literature, French literature and Russian literature, to name just a few. Actually, the situation is particularly complex, and a more popular practice to distinguish one literature from another is to use the language as the criterion, namely the literature in English, the literature in French and the literature in Russian. Only in this way will literature be systematically organized and its many variations fully displayed. Literature in English in the common sense include British literature, American literature, Canadian literature as well as Australian literature, together with the literature in the regions under British colonial domination. The Chinese tend to make no distinction between English and British literature when it comes to understanding and translating literary works, thus making the two terms even more confusing. For example, in the Chinese version of the American 42 See: Korean author Liu Junbi, “The Possibility of an East Asian Perspective—A Comparison of the Literary Historical Narrations in China and Japan” New Literature. Vol. 3. Zhengzhou: Daxiang Press, 2005. 81, note 1.

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author John Albert Macy’s A Story of the World Literature, chapter 14 deals with the literature in English.43 It can be easily detected that both the author and the translator, amid the confusion, have made painstaking efforts to differentiate between “British literature” categorized by nationality and “the literature in English” characterized by language. Furthermore, it should be noticed that three-quarters of the books listed adopt “the literature in English” as the key concept, a strong testimony of the public preference toward “the literature in English” instead of “British literature”. In fact, the concept “English literature”, in most contexts, should be understood as “the literature in English” rather than “British literature”, which normally includes American literature and writings in English in other countries. For example, having noticed that “English literature” in Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art compiled by Charles Mills Gary does not refer to “British literature” alone, the Chinese translator rendered it into “Ying Mei Wenxue” (British and American literature), which, however, is still unable to cover everything in the book.44 Therefore, it would be better to translate it into “the Literature in English” defined by the language instead of nationality. In the same vein, such concepts as “the literature in French” and “the literature in Russian” sound more inclusive and connotatively explicit compared to “French literature” or “Russian literature”. Sometimesˈliteratures covering several languages and extensive connotations cannot be defined along the basis of nationality; for example, The Literary History of Sanskrit by Jin Kemu45 includes literary creations in India, Pakistan and other regions where Vedic and Pali are used, involving such religious beliefs as Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Brahmanism and Islamism as well. To define literature in terms of the language involved has become an academic fact and trend; it is also the academic achievement people readily recognize. In the face of such an academic trend and achievement, there is every reason to juxtapose “the literature in Chinese” with “the literature in English”, “the literature in French”, “the literature in Russian” and “the literature in German”, etc. in an attempt to broaden its historical and global literary horizons and enhance its power of inclusion. 43

Macy, John Albert, A Story of the World’s Literatures. Trans. Shu Jiyue. Taiyuan: Shanxi University Press, 2006. 345-346. 44 Gayley, Charles Mills, The Classical Myth in British and American Literatures and Arts. Trans. Bai Ta. Shanghai: Century Press Group, 2005. 45 Jin, Kemu, The Literary History of Sanskrit. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1964.

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Considering the internal state of the literature in Chinese, the disparity in the age when writers compose their literary works, as well as the division of academic research, it is highly necessary to put New Literature in Chinese within the overall field of the literature in Chinese. The concept “New Literature in Chinese”, in comparison with traditional literature in Chinese, possesses a new style, a new tradition, and assumes the responsibility of integrating new literary writings in the Chinese world. Both academic practice and the development of academic discipline demonstrate that emphasizing the importance of language while undermining the national consciousness does not exert any negative impact. The disciplinary title “Chinese language and literature” designed for undergraduates majoring in Chinese has been in use for dozens of years, and its accuracy and soundness has never been questioned or challenged. To have “New Literature in Chinese” as a branch discipline subsumed into the discipline “Literature in the Chinese Language” seems to be necessary.

Conclusion: Prospects Envisioned The establishment and application of “New Literature in Chinese” as an academic concept and the name of a discipline have cleared up, in a neat manner, the chaos and ambiguities of the previous concepts and names. They have also substantially weakened the ideological anticipations and political implications, which inevitably go hand-in-hand with the conventional concepts that have nationalistic hues. The use of the term has claimed a bigger theoretical space for the discipline and its future development. It is also true that the application of the concept will bring about a series of theoretical and practical issues, which might be solved through accurate interpretation and a scientific grasp of the concept of “New Literature in Chinese”. An extremely sensitive issue that might come out of this new name is that the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” seems to weaken the national consciousness. Meanwhile, the central status of Chinese literature on the Mainland of China will inevitably be challenged. But a comprehensive and scientific study of New Literature in Chinese will shatter these assumptions, which are chiefly groundless. Whether in terms of academic topics, academic catalog or disciplinary institutions, the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” would not overshadow or replace the research of literature of various political entities and the research of

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their historical developments. In other words, making a synchronic study of the whole of each individual block of New Literature in Chinese will not affect or impede the research on the national or regional literature in modern Chinese. A comparison can be made here: John Albert Macy’s A Story of the World Literature, in spite of its cosmopolitan ambition, has to make a block after block exposition after differentiating between British Literature, French Literature and German Literature, etc., although apparently he was very reluctant to adopt this approach. When researchers present a panorama of New Literature in Chinese, it is not difficult to see how New Literature in Chinese on the Mainland China will stand up at the center more prominently than ever before, either in terms of traditional radiation or in real influence, when compared with New Literature in Chinese in other regions of the world. Those who cast doubt on the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” might put forward a second challenge. That is, by defining New Literature in linguistic terms—in the Chinese language, in this case—and expounding the central role of Chinese in New Literature from both the perspectives of literary theory and literary practice, will the advocates of the new concept be trapped by a sort of linguistic determinism? The language determinism developed by German linguist Humboldt and American linguist Sapir, among others, argues that language affects and determines thoughts. At first glimpse, language determinism runs counter to the basic proposition held by materialists that the society determines social consciousness and human thoughts. But, as far as a member of society is concerned, is his language not an embodiment of his social existence?46 Hence, language determinism is, in fact, not as horrible as people imagine and it does not fall into the domain of idealism. More importantly, the conceptual affirmation, linguistic focus, and the ensuing denotation of New Literature in Chinese essentially offer an academic and theoretical rationale. This is not a designation of the research domain and research approach. Grounded on the premise of New Literature in Chinese, the research in question has every reason and right to proceed in every way possible and, in real research, the linguistic factor might be set aside. The concept of “New Literature in Chinese” is meant to broaden the horizon of the discipline, whereas any ensuing academic restrictions are the result of misunderstandings. The concept of “New Literature in Chinese”, with its advantage of 46

See: Chang Baoru, Psycholinguistics of the Chinese Language. Beijing: Knowledge Press, 1990.

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clearing up the ambiguities and chaos brought by the concept of a nation-state literature, has brought about new problems, which require immediate and serious confrontation. For example, how to deal with the literary creations in Chinese by writers of the ethnic minorities in China and international writers is another problem. It is encouraging to see that this academic mission does not seem so formidable when we notice the publication of The Selected Works in Chinese of the Taiwan Native Ethnic Minorities47 and the relevant critical works of the Korean Xu Shixu (Hu Sai-ho in Korean), who writes poetry in modern Chinese. Such problems might crop up in future, but to solve them will not be that difficult, while the problems and complications involved when is proper to employ the conventional concepts and names are tougher to solve. There will be further academic missions that they will have to undertake, having failed so far to do, a fact that helps consolidate the legitimacy and effectiveness of the concept and the name of “New Literature in Chinese”.

I.2. Academic Space in Modern Chinese Literature and the Possibility of New Literature in Chinese When the new topic “New Literature in Chinese” was raised and aroused the attention of academic circles, some scholars were afraid that it might take the place of, or obscure, the research of Modern Chinese Literature. In reality, there was no need to worry. The initiator of New Literature in Chinese insists that the new topic emphasizes the historical dimension in Chinese literature. This dimension tends to be more explicit, less ambiguous, more concise and not conceptually exclusive. The other conventional concepts and terms in the history of Chinese literature, including “Modern Chinese Literature”, will still exist. In fact, New Literature in Chinese is based on the disciplines of Modern Chinese Literature, Contemporary Chinese Literature and Chinese Literature in the World, all of which are mature disciplines. New Literature in Chinese exists and prospers in academic spaces left unexplored by the mature disciplines above and in those waiting to be further discussed and expanded. Although Modern Chinese Literature, as the most mature and stable discipline, has been researched the deepest, there are many academic 47

Shun, Dachuan, ed., The Selected Works in Chinese of the Taiwan Native Ethnic Minorities. Taipei: Taiwan Sculpture Press, 2003.

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meanings, issues and spaces to be developed. All these are the purposes and targets of the studies of New Literature in Chinese. The term “Modern Chinese Literature” may be conveyed in three keywords: Chinese language, modern, and literature. Their academic meanings are awaiting deeper discussion and further expansion from the perspective of New Literature in Chinese.

Chinese We have discussed Modern “Chinese” Literature ever since the initiation of the New Literature Movement. However, the concept and term of “Chinese” is too vast for further research, but the space is large enough to allow the existence of New Literature in Chinese. The initiator thinks that its sense of nationality should be replaced by a sense of language. Only in modern times did the concept of “Chinese” become so clear, remarkable and accurate without dispute. Before that, it had always been used in a figurative or an incomplete sense. Even in the contemporary literary age, the political and cultural misinterpretations and ambiguities of the concept of “Chinese” are much more conspicuous than those in modern times. “Modern times”, with the clearest and most remarkable concept of “Chinese”, generally refers to the period from the May 4th New Culture Movement to the Founding of People’s Republic of China. “Modern Chinese Literature” is the most traditional academic term to be used for literary studies of this period. Many people have used it, and modern and contemporary Chinese literature is termed “Modern Chinese Literature”. There is little doubt that “Modern Chinese Literature” as an academic term has popularity and conventionality, and that it attains considerable cultural acceptance and academic identity. As a concept and term, “Modern Chinese Literature” at least reflects and strengthens the sense of “Chinese” academically and culturally. People in the academic field and other intellectual circles enjoyed using “Chinese” as an academic and cultural word very much since China had left behind the Qing Dynasty and entered the Republican period of China. If the concepts and terms of some disciplines such as “History of Chinese Literature” were modeled on “China Literary History” from Japan, we may say that after the period of Republic of China, the use of the word “Chinese” was chiefly due to people’s sensitivity and self-identification

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with modern China. As a result, keywords that should be modified by the word “Chinese” as a language are replaced by the word “Chinese”, which stresses national identity. Even in Hu Shi’s famous work History of Vernacular Literature, a work done from the linguistic perspective, he put forward a premise in the introduction, “We should know that vernacular literary history is the history of Chinese literature”. Therefore, New Literature in “Chinese” is defined as “China’s” new literature. The concept and term are dominating the academic mainstream in China. For instance, there are history of Chinese philosophy, history of Chinese fiction, history of Chinese literary criticism and debates on Chinese literature, etc. The movement of language revolution, which started in the late Qing dynasty, could not stop the trend that the patterns of academic and cultural utterance are ruled by “China”, which emphasizes the national identity. Consequently, the concept Modern Chinese Literature, which developed from China’s new literature, has had a solid historical foundation. Actually, the word “Chinese” contains more historical and cultural implications, whether as an academic term or as a cultural utterance; nonetheless, few scholars have paid attention to its sense of multi-nationality and even less to its significance. When we talk about the history of China’s new literature or the history of Modern Chinese Literature, the literature in other ethnic minority languages in China is not covered. On the one hand, it is due to our own limitations, which few scholars in the two fields can make a study of them in minority languages. On the other hand, this is because of a blind zone in thought: many understand “Chinese” from the perspective of cultural history and ignore its spatial sense. In other words, it is understood longitudinally rather laterally. Especially in cultural topics, people are accustomed to using “Chinese” in the historical sense. Only in topics concerning nationality and border, etc. will people be reminded of its spatial sense. Naturally, when we research Modern Chinese Literature, the more specific sense of “Chinese” is its historical sense rather than its geographical and ethical senses. There are many realistic drawbacks if we understand “Chinese” in this way. In fact, we cannot really master Modern “Chinese” Literature, just as we are not accustomed to mastering it either. To keep on doing research on Modern “Chinese” Literature, we must transcend the traditional understanding of “Chinese” and understand it completely, accurately and thoroughly on a spatial level. When we understand modern “Chinese” from the angle of history and culture, our point of view is used to focusing on the centers of the New Literature and

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New Culture Movements such as Beijing and Shanghai. As for other regions, their cultures and literature are mentioned only when specific topics are raised; for example, topics about writer groups of Northeast China, Sichuan, East Zhejiang and South China, etc. The literature of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao are often neglected. In spite of efforts made on them, the results have not been satisfactory and the literature of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao have not been integrated completely within Modern Chinese Literature. In the history books of Modern Chinese Literature, the literature in these regions should be an indispensable part, but in fact the literature Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao are relatively independent, for their special status as political, cultural and literary spaces and districts. There are two other kinds of literature, which are even more complex: the one is the literature in anti-Japanese democratic base areas and liberated areas, and the other is the literature in Shanghai Concessions and the areas ruled by Kuomintang. The complexity of the history of Modern Chinese Literature is mainly reflected in its spatial structure. Although there are a variety of cognitive differences in the research on the history of Modern Chinese Literature, the spatial complexity has not been sufficiently recognized for a long time. The literary constructions of the New Culture and the New Literature Movement developed via the “Left-wing Literature” and the “Anti-Japan War Literature”, and then they coexisted in three spaces and districts mentioned above in different periods of the 1940s. The literature of the three spaces and districts directly inherited the tradition of the May 4th New Literature and further developed the literary achievements of the 1930s. In spite of that, they showed their own paths stretching into different political climates and cultures. In fact, in terms of space and district, to grasp the meaning of “Chinese” in modern culture and literature, there is still room for us to enhance our academic cognition. For example, besides Beijing and Shanghai, is there a third center that can be found in China's New Literature and New Culture? If there is, where is this third center? Li Jieren, a famous writer, pointed to a third center in his discussion of “Chuan Bao” (a newspaper of Sichuan) in the May 4th Period and in his discussion of the city Chengdu: “At that time, Chengdu was really one of the three major cities in the New Culture Movement in China”. He took it for granted that Beijing and Shanghai were the other two centers, “Beijing is like the central nervous system. Shanghai and Chengdu are just like the

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eyes playing a part in reflecting”.48 There is no doubt that Beijing and Shanghai were the centers of the New Culture Movement, and Shanghai in a new literary sense may be more prominent as a center.49 Apart from these two cultural centers, people will probably think of Nanjing (the political center at that time), Tianjin (the city of modernization and openness), Guangzhou (the hotbed of democratic revolutions), and even Wuhan (the place where the national revolution happened), any of which could be the third new cultural center in a certain sense. However, the remote city of Chengdu can hardly be considered as the third center, not to mention the proposition that Chengdu should be understood as a peer of Shanghai. Li Jieren, as a participant in the New Culture Movement in Chengdu, may have stressed the importance of the city when evaluating it in the history of the New Culture Movement. However, as one who experienced the Movement of New Culture and Literature, Jieren had a deep understanding of it and made theoretical contributions to socio-cultural movements for a long time, so his observations and assertions are more than an emotional expression. In particular, he had a long experience in Chengdu and observed much of its social life, and he was very experienced in describing it in huge breadth and depth. Chengdu, the city thus defined by Li Jieren and the place where the New Culture Movement happened, is worthy of much attention. In fact, from Ba Jin’s Torrent trilogy, it is clear that a new cultural and new literary atmosphere was very strong in Chengdu at that time. It is reasonable that Li Jieren treated Chengdu as a center of China’s New Culture Movement and compared it with Shanghai. More importantly, our discussion is reminiscent of the supposition that “Chinese” is not just a historical concept but also a spatial concept; the spatial layout of modern Chinese literature and culture should be taken fully into account. To grasp the sense of “Chinese” in Modern Chinese Literature, we should keep in mind those boundless areas inhabited by the minority nationalities. This is where Modern Chinese Literature is different from New Literature in Chinese. Furthermore, the scope of New Literature in Chinese is a new literature written in Chinese all over the world. So, Modern Chinese Literature must cover the whole of “China” in modern times. China in modern times included not only Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner 

Li, Jieren, “Wang Guangqi in the May 4th Movement” Collected Works of Li Jieren. Vol. 6. Chengdu: Sichuan Literature &. Art Press, 1986. 89  Zhu, Shoutong. “On Shanghai as a Center of Modern Chinese Literature”. Academic Monthly 6 (2004).

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Mongolia, and the other ethnic minorities, such as Guangxi, Ningxia autonomous regionV, but also Outer Mongolia, which had not been split at that time. In his work “Nostalgia”, Kwang-chung Yu wrote, “Give me the leaf of red begonia / the begonia as red as blood / painful as the boiling blood / it is the feeling of nostalgia / Give me a leaf of red begonia”. Here, the leaf of the “red begonia” indicates the shape of the territory of China in modern times. It was a visualized metaphor of the historical fact that whole Mongolia used to belong to China. In the 17th century, living Buddha Ku Lun, a religious leader of Mongolia who had a very good personal relationship with (mperor Kangxi, made the decision that Mongolia pledged allegiance to Qing. Mongolia had been part of China until the National Government admitted that Outer Mongolia was independent in 1946. On February 11, 1945, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the Yalta Agreement acknowledging the sovereignty of Mongolia. Therefore, studies of Modern Chinese Literature should take into consideration the literature in Mongolia before its independence. For instance, D. Natsagdorj’s novel Hao Qin Fu and his poem “My Motherland”, especially his influential play Three Mountains, as well as T. Damdinsüren's novel Abandoned Girl, etc., all have good reason to become the object of studies in Modern Chinese Literature. Therefore, the field of “Modern” “Chinese” Literature should cover all regions of “begonia”. Concerning major issues such as national system and border, we must remain cautious and admit the reality recognized by international laws; however, at the same time, we should maintain a respect for history. In the understanding of Chinese literary territory, we should recognize the principled distinction between “modern” and “contemporary” Chinese literatures. The “begonia leaves” territory should be the scope of modern Chinese literature, while “Jin Ji Ti Xiao” (gold chicken crowing in the morning) is the imagined territory of contemporary Chinese literature. For quite some time, some scholars have advocated redrawing the map of Chinese literature. 50 Although this is the operation of traditional Chinese literary study, it gives us inspiration for the study of modern Chinese literature. If the “Chinese” literary map is redrawn on the basis of modern Chinese literary study, our research can only reach part of the map. It requires us to make efforts to stretch our academic perspective out to those vast regions compared to “begonia leaves”. 

Yang, Yi. “On the Methodology of Re-picturing the Chinese Literary Map”. Social Science Front 1 (2007).

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Therefore, the most prudent approach is to limit our research honestly within our academic capability, limit it to what we can do and, at the same time, devote our full energy to promoting New Literature in Chinese. Thus, those non-Chinese literary writings and related works fall within other disciplines, which will appeal to experts who have a particular academic background.

Modern New Literature in Chinese uses the word “new”, a word which has habitually been used by advocates of the New Literature based on the theory of literary evolution; it is used to avoid the more popular and classic word of “modern”. The word “modern” in our academic discussions is like huge dough fermentation, filled with bubbles that are so volatile they will cause academic controversies instantly, which, paradoxically, leaves a large space for the academic development of the New Literature in Chinese. As an academic category, the core word in the term Modern Chinese Literature is “modern”, which is both a temporal and literary concept. The academic study of Modern Chinese Literature must take both aspects of “modern” into consideration. More and more researchers of Modern Chinese Literature have focused on and highlighted the quality of “modern” in modern literature, that is, literary modernity. Modernity in literature is a hot topic that has been discussed for a long time, causing a lot of academic debate. However, there are few valuable results of this debate because most of the arguments concerning modernity should be conducted in the areas of sociology, political science, history and cultural studies. Interestingly enough, scholars of literature, especially those of Modern Chinese Literature, are keen on the topic of modernity and keep discussing it, so we can anticipate predictable results: their discussions are often weak, irrelevant and immature. As for modernity of Chinese culture, some scholars have put forward nine propositions, namely: modernity of science and technology, modernity of polity, modernity of thinking, modernity of morality, modernity of education, modernity of law, modernity of academic science, aesthetic modernity and modernity of language.51 This seems to be the 51

Wang, Yichuan. “Modernity Literature: The New Tradition of Modern Chinese Literature”. Literature Review 2 (1998).

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most comprehensive conclusion of modernity of modern China, but literary modernity cannot be covered. The modernity of social customs is the embodiment of literary modernity, isn’t it? Modernity of economy is the content of literary modernity in theme, isn’t it? When will modern society, a society that is nourishing Modern Chinese Literature, achieve the indicators above? How will the indicators of modernity be seen or be recognized? These issues are very complicated to literary theorists; even they themselves find it difficult to answer. Because of the complexities, some modern literature researchers deny the existence of modernity of Modern Chinese Literature. They claim: “Chinese literature of the 20th century is not characterized by modernity; modernity is not an innate feature of modern Chinese literary history because Chinese literature was experiencing a transition from the classical to the modern stage”. 52 This point of view is plausible because it champions the independence of literature by opposing the viewpoint that ideology is an essential aspect of modernity. It is quite an academic judgment on modernity. Nevertheless, the facts of literature do not just follow a brilliant literary theory; they must truthfully reflect the literary history and even the social history. Once China steps into the modern cultural and historical period, its literature, including its theories and creations, will inevitably walk up the road of modernity. But the question remains: what characters is modernity endowed with and to what degree? Facts speak louder than words. With this historical awareness, I want to simplify modernity; that is to say, I think that it is only “an atmosphere of times for the construction of a new literary tradition”, an atmosphere that “lays emphasis on the integration of an awareness of independence with a cosmopolitan awareness”.53 This understanding of literary modernity in China seems crude, but it helps clarify the difference of its acceptance in different periods. Our history of literature reveals the fact that opening the door to the West and the world is the basic characteristic of Chinese society in modern times, a process that can be understood as the result of modernization in China. However, the opening was enforced and not as effective as some other nations at the beginning. China was forced to open its door under aggressions and enslavements, passively accepting the world's most 

Yang, Chunshi. “Literary Modernity and Modern Chinese Literature”. Academic Monthly 5 (1998) 53 Zhu, Shoutong. “On the Modernity of New Literature of China”. Academic Monthly 3 (1997).

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advanced institutions, systems and thoughts. It is a different case in the later decades of the 20th century. Faced with the task of modern construction, the intellectual elite began to take the initiative to open China up to the world and start a positive acceptance of the impact and baptism of world literary and cultural trends. On the publication of La Jeunesse, its editor Chen Duxiu advised young people to become “self-reliant rather than submissive”, “progressive rather than conservative”, “aggressive rather than passive”, “cosmopolitan rather than parochial”, “attentive to real benefits rather than attentive to rhetoric”, and “keen on science rather than intoxicated in fantasies”.54 Driven by the passion of initiative, the torchbearers of the New Culture Movement raised two flags, one of democracy and one of science: “introduce and support Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science...only these two gentlemen can expel the darkness of China’s politics, morality, academia and ideology”. 55 This claim was straightforward and unprecedented. It is important to notice the difference in the mentality and attitude of acceptance. We can see that advocates and writers of Modern Chinese Literature were studying and learning hard from world literature and were proactively building a literature which would merge alongside the world literature. This is the basic attitude of modern writers, which is the basic guarantee for the modernity of Modern Chinese Literature. Research on Modern Chinese Literature in a certain sense needs to answer the complex questions about literary modernity. The answer is bound to be different to different people, so almost all the answers are impossible to get a common recognition. It seems to be an academic dilemma and the only way to step out of this dilemma is to take up the research of New Literature in Chinese. When people use the term “new literature” instead of “modern literature”, such a complex manipulation in the literary study of modernity will be made easy, because they can bypass literary modernity and focus on the new and old of both contents and forms of Chinese literature, so that their boundaries will be easily marked. Having dealt with the discussion of literary modernity flexibly, to complete the academic tasks of modern Chinese literature, we must define the concept “modern period” and grasp its connotations and denotations more clearly. Actually, it is not easy to do that either. Some people tend to regard the May 4th Modern Chinese Culture Movement as the starting point, while some choose to take the 1911 Revolution as the start. Many 54 55

Chen, Duxiu. “A Call to the Youth”. La Jeunesse 1.1(1915). Chen, Duxiu. “A Defence of La Jeunesse”. La Jeunesse 6.1 (1919).

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people simply count the start of the modern period from the advent of the 20th century, yet others even push it back to the Hundred Days Reform (which occurred in 1898) or even to the Opium War (1840). The lower limit of the modern period is generally considered to be the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1949), and there are people who insist that the lower limit be extended to the present, thus eliminating the differentiation between the modern and contemporary periods. The understanding of the “modern” period embodies the entanglements of social, historical, political views and literary perspectives. Different understandings are bound to show a different academic picture of Modern Chinese Literature. With the use of the academic expression “Modern Chinese Literature” (which is quite common and even established by regular usage), all literary phenomena that occurred in modern Chinese history should be incorporated into the academic area for research. Thus, traditional literary writing in the modern period will naturally become the research object of the history of Modern Chinese Literature. In the field of Modern Chinese Literature, we not only need to study the New Literature but also research the traditional literary writings from this period which were influential and valuable. For example, the classical poetry of Mao Zedong, Lu Xun, Yu Dafu and Liu Yazi, etc. should be given a high degree of attention and proper evaluation as the fruits of modern literary history. In a special historical period, such as the literary movement during the Anti-Japan War (hereinafter “war”), the traditional poetry by modern writers and scholars was a special genre for expressing national attachments and reflecting the integrity of writers as well as their adherence to traditional Chinese culture. In this sense of modern literature, the traditional Chapter Novels, the school of “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly” in the Republic of China (and its boom in the war), the North School of Martial Arts that stands in contrast to the South School, and Li Dingyi’s (Huanzhu Louzhu) The Swordsmen from Shu Mountains, which was very influential on general readers, etc. should all be included in the field of modern literature. In addition, the creation of traditional opera that emerged in the modern period and the writing of folk literature during the war are also worthy works for literary historians to collect and analyze. In fact, the traditional literary writing genres are very rich and complicated. Why should the classical poetry and Chapter Novels be covered, while other genres excluded? It is another very complex academic problem, which is also extremely hard to solve. Thus, if we are setting aside the conventional concept and term of “Modern Chinese Literature”, we can effectively avoid the complex

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academic controversies and practical complications that go with it. By adopting the new concept and term “New Literature in Chinese”, which is clear in its denotation and connotation, we can follow the relatively simple line of thought to trace the historical development of New Literature in Chinese and discover its inner laws of development.

Literature Whether the term used is “Modern Chinese Literature” or “New Literature in Chinese”, we must treat literature as the major object of research. Therefore, it is worthwhile exploring what makes up “literature” in the scope of literary history. It goes without saying that the main object of literary studies is literary creations, which are incarnated in the works of modern genres. There is a huge harvest in the creation of Chinese literature in modern China. Lu Xun’s Call to Arms and Wandering and Yu Dafu’s “Sinking”, as the representatives of short stories, are groundbreaking and classic, both in content and artistry. Ba Jin’s Torrent trilogy, Mao Dun’s Midnight, Lao She’s Four Generations, and Lu Ling’s The Landlord’s Sons and Daughters are the masterpieces of China’s modern full-length novel, characterized by a narrative style of Roman-Fleuve. Goddess by Guo Moruo overturns the poetic proposition that writing poetry is no different from writing prose, advocated by Hu Shi, and consequently opened up a new way to express modern emotions in new poetry. Meanwhile, Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, Ai Qing and Mu Dan were well versed in the nature of the new poetry in Chinese and were well known for using rich and spiritual imagery. Tian Han elevated new drama in Chinese to maturity, Cao Yu reached the peak of new Chinese dramatic creations by modeling them on Western drama, and Zhu Ziqing, Zhou Zuoren and Lin Yutang’s essays set up emotional, spiritual and humorous styles, respectively. During this period, the emergence of new media literature, especially film literature, also had a profound impact on the overall picture of Chinese literature in modern China. Based on a summary of the major achievements of modern literature, the study of important writers in the sense of personality, aesthetics and the study of writers’ schools in the sense of literary style should become the major concern of the historical study of Chinese literature. Research of writers and schools is actually an extension of their literary creations, which has always been the object and core of Chinese literature in modern

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times. Nonetheless, literary creations are by no means the only object of literary history, and they are not equal to literary works. “Literary works” is usually considered as another name for literary creations. In fact, the concept of “literary works” should include more general works of literature. Not all literary works are literary creations. The strict definition of literary creation is that it is a writing activity of using language as a medium to create artistic images based on the writer’s aesthetic experience from life and aesthetic imagination in mind. Not all writers have the responsibility of creating artistic images. Some works written following literary theory, literary criticism, academic writing, social criticism and criticism of civilization, etc. are not literary creations but are general works of literature, which should not be excluded from the field of literature. Therefore, the study of literary history should not only concern literary creations but also take those such as literary theory, literary criticism, and literary research writing into consideration. What follows is an organic part of the history of Chinese literature: the literary theory of evolution of Hu Shi, Symbols of Depression translated by Lu Xun, Psychology of Literature and Art by Zhu Guangqian, the modernization theory of new poetry of Yuan Kejia, the literary criticism of Li Jianwu and A Ying, Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Fiction and his Outline of Literature in the Han Dynasty, etc. Moreover, critical writings on the non-literary topics of modern writers should also be the research object of the history of Chinese literature. Literature is a vast and comprehensive field that includes three basic noumena: the creation noumenon, academic noumenon and criticism noumenon. “Creation noumenon refers to the literary creation, which is based on the writer’s life experience, and expresses his aesthetic response to his empirical experiences of the world; it has a serious purpose in mind—to produce certain aesthetic effects on society in a specific period; it intends to create a literary norm and attain the status of a classic. Academic noumenon is the works of literary theory and literary history studies, which not only contributes to the accumulation of civilization, but also provides literary thoughts of different times. Criticism noumenon sets social, cultural, and civilization criticism as the main object and content of literary activity. It is actively involved in the society and times by presenting social criticism, cultural criticism and criticism of civilization from the perspective of literature.”56 In the era of Chinese literature in 56

Zhu, Shoutong. “On the Criticism Noumenon of Modern Chinese Literature”.

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modern times, creation noumenon is undoubtedly the basic form of literature. Because of the special political climate and cultural environment, the criticism noumenon is also the main literary form in this period. Cultural enlightenment magazines like La Jeunesse and Renaissance, besides advocating a new literature as their chief mission, had a more important task in mind: criticizing the traditional culture, the old moral code and social phenomena. It was a non-literary criticism of Chinese traditional ideology and culture. Lu Xun was interested in cultural and ideological criticism in La Jeunesse. Denunciations, including “informal essays” published in La Jeunesse, constitute an important part of his early writings. He was later involved in the formation of the Yusi Society, which specialized in social criticism and criticism of civilization. Lu Xun played a role of mentor for the influential “Yusi style”, which is a typical style of non-literary critical writing. In his later years, Lu Xun concentrated on essay writing. His literary criticism was minor and the vast majority of his later works were criticisms of events, current and historical, and all kinds of social phenomena, which belong to the typical criticism noumenon writing. Criticism noumenon covers not only literary criticism but also the social and cultural criticism of writers who perform their responsibility for criticism. Such works should be regarded as literary texts but not creation texts. Therefore, as regards Chinese literature in the modern time, we must clarify the broad meaning of literature. Literature includes not only the literary creation, literary criticism and the literature of the academic field, but also the social criticism and criticism of civilization by writers. With the development of society and the enhanced awareness of social democracy, the “pure literature” era is long past when writers confined themselves to literary creations and literary criticism. They must also take the responsibility of social criticism, civilization criticism, cultural criticism and even political criticism while engaged in literary creations. These critical writings are also literary works, literary texts, as well as the object of the study of literary history. Contemporary literary theorists have been aware that modern literary writing has long been a complex study; it is not just an activity of creation. Derrida's thought of “literary action” provides an interesting clue, but it is not fully developed. Many people will pose the question that, since the criticism noumenon may be non-literary, how can it be identified as a Research on Literature and Arts 9 (2006).

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literary text? Of course, we should take into account the writer’s identity. Writers engaged in social criticism and criticism of civilization have their own unique identities. Their style, form, view and even their position of criticisms are unique, so these writings may and should be treated as a “literary criticism”, although they may be related to politics.57 Here arises a complex academic problem: how to determine the literary identities of writers? What are the features of critical writings by writers? In what way are they different from those written by authors with other identities? This is a huge potential issue of modern Chinese literary history. The ideal result of future studies on this issue will lead us to determine, in a neat and complete way, the literary nature and historical position of criticism noumenon in history. Criticism noumenon of Chinese literature in modern times has formed a deep-rooted tradition, which has created a very interesting literary landscape in the wider area of New Literature in Chinese. Bo Yang and Li Ao in Taiwan made their name chiefly on such kinds of writing. Based on the literary nature of criticism noumenon, we are able to make an accurate historical evaluation and a correct assumption of their works. It is also true for the works of Chinese writers from other regions of the world. In order to express their ideas and demonstrate their attitudes as ethnic groups, these writers, besides producing creations, have been making political, social and cultural criticisms with their status as writers. All these works can be covered in the field of literary research. Criticism noumenon is a great tradition of Chinese literature in modern times. But this tradition has not flourished in the field of contemporary Chinese literature. Because in 1949 Mainland China adopted the system of socialist ideology, the social division of the labor of writers has been clearer and the industry management has been more orderly, meaning that it is increasingly unlikely for a writer to go beyond literary creation to carry out criticisms. In the fields of New Literature in Chinese in Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas, it is common for writers to be engaged in non-literary criticism, so that the tradition of criticism has been carried forward successfully. It can be said that criticism noumenon has been an important tradition of New Literature in Chinese that has moved ahead uninterrupted. With the breakthrough in theory, the area of literature will be further expanded and the study of literary history will be faced up to more extensive objectives. We need a clearer academic definition of works in 57

Derrida, Jacques, Acts of Literature. London: Routledge, 1991. 6.

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literary initiations, movements and debates besides the criticism noumenon. In fact, they form the third noumenon: the academic noumenon. Because the rise and development of Chinese literature in modern times has been accompanied by conflicts with the old literary traditions and the traditional cultural practices and social and political constraints, its history is full of literary initiations, movements and debates. Previous studies of the history of Chinese literature have not ignored these issues but have treated these literary activities as the prerequisite and the context for literary creations. Actually, in a particular era of literature, especially the era of Chinese literature in modern times, works in literary initiations, movements and debates are far from forming the prerequisite or context of literature or the accessory of creations. They are literary activities, which are closely related to creations but independent of them. Especially in times of a remarkable confrontation between a new literature and an old culture, and in times of the rise of a totally new literature, which is typical of Chinese literature in modern times, these literary activities and works are often more profound and influential than literary creations, and thus have a more significant impact on the peculiarities and characteristics of literature in this period of literary history. This perspective does not intend to change the basic structure of the writing of the history of Chinese literature, but it can contribute to a more comprehensive, scientific and systematic understanding of the fundamental laws and values of New Literature in Chinese. It can also lead to an enhancement of the academic level of New Literature in Chinese, thus providing the possibility of theoretical enrichment of the history of New Literature in Chinese.

I.3. Cultural Belongingness of New Literature in Chinese This section of the chapter will discuss the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese by demonstrating a natural link between New Literature in Chinese and Chinese culture. The proposal and demonstration of New Literature in Chinese help to solve a series of confusing academic problems, including uniting global Chinese new literary writings strictly as one concept and condensing them economically into one discipline. This approach has proved to be effective in avoiding sensitive political complications and subordinate relationships in the modern time. However, there follows a rather sensitive question: is this new term overshadowing the nationality and implications of “Modern

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Chinese Literature”? It is certainly worthy of discussing such a question in order to eliminate unnecessary non-academic considerations. In the context of the popularity of immigration and realization of free and convenient residence, New Literature in Chinese breaks through the national and regional barriers by making an overall investigation, so that a series of problems including the cultural belongingness of diasporic Chinese writers can be solved. From this perspective, the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” will not weaken China’s core status in world Chinese culture; rather, it will strengthen it.

Conceptual Compensation of New Literature in Chinese to Chinese National Literature The advantage of “New Literature in Chinese” lies in its simple and clear generalization and its elimination of ambiguities embedded in other concepts. Whether in terms of language connotation or regional extension, the existing cracks and unavoidable ambiguities caused by “Modern Chinese Literature” and “Contemporary Chinese Literature”üterms which have been used for several decadesüare in need of repair and clarification with the use of a much clearer and simpler concept as “New Literature in Chinese”. From the perspective of language connotation, the people in the academic circles have been questioning for a long time whether the so-called “Modern Chinese Literature” and its research have been conventionally abandoning the literature of other minority groups in China. This abandonment is unavoidable due to the lack of academic preparations. Among researchers of modern Chinese literature, there are very few people who have mastered minority languages. They basically have no ability to integrate minority language literature into Chinese literature. As a result, they have no choice but to give up. Such abandonment, which was involuntary at the beginning, has become natural and conventional. It seems that New Literature in Chinese, as the main body, is the only object and only focus of Modern Chinese Literature. Earlier academic negligence is understandable, but it is unforgivable and intolerable academically if people rule out minority language literature from the field of Chinese literature. As far as most academic fruits of modern and contemporary Chinese literature are concerned—as far as the main research personnel and the general pattern of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and its systematic demonstration are concerned—the so-called research of

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modern Chinese literature is, in fact, only restricted to New Literature in Chinese. “New Literature in Chinese” shall be the simple and accurate generalization in this academic area. If we seek the truth out of fact, such a generalization makes clear language connotations, cultural characteristics, and the actual academic arena of modern Chinese literature, thus avoiding political complications and theoretical confusions that the conventional concept of “Modern Chinese Literature” might bring about. In the current academic schema of modern Chinese literature, even if the signifying meaning of nationality is taken into account and minority language literature is integrated into the research, the supplementation is still not effective enough. Due to the limitation of target readers and writers, the whole production level and art strength of minority language literature cannot be on a par with the literature in Chinese, a fact that leads to their small share in the development of the history of Chinese New Literature. Even if all minority language literatures are covered in the field of modern Chinese literature, the academic set-up of that period of literary history will not change much, which means that after micro-adjustment of adding minority language literature, the well-known “History of Modern Chinese Literature” cannot truly undertake the mission of describing the modern literary history in China. Under the current conditions and situations, “History of Modern Chinese Literature” can only reveal the history of New Literature in Chinese. It is an academic fact that we have to face up to. For a long period, under the name of “Modern Chinese Literature”, the people in the academic circles have actually been carrying out research on New Literature in Chinese. “New Literature in Chinese” reveals the academic confines of “Modern Chinese Literature” in a more accurate way. As far as extension of the academic concept is concerned, “New Literature in Chinese” breaks up the limitation in both senses of geographical and political “China”, and even eliminates the ambiguity it might cause in different contexts. In a much broader space, it unifies new literature of modern Chinese language. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao are integral parts of China; however, in the extension of conventionally used “Modern Chinese Literature”, such an unarguable geopolitical fact is more often than not neglected. Many scholars who are studying modern Chinese literature have not included the literatures in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao into their academic arena. Such abnormal phenomena keep cropping up, and embarrassments of this kind are even found in major research and editing projects sponsored by the Chinese authorities. With Hong Kong and Macao’s identifications with the Mainland culture and

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their increasing participation in it, and with the relaxing of the tensions between Taiwan and Mainland China, it is more and more unforgivable that the academic field of “Modern Chinese Literature” excludes the literatures of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Whether in the sense of geography or politics, “China” as a geopolitical concept and term is becoming more serious and consequential. Under this circumstance, adopting the Chinese language (Han language) as the key concept and term to reveal the cultural belongingness of modern Chinese literature easily circumvents the seriousness and sensitivity that go with the conventional term of “Modern Chinese Literature”. It is also a conceptual guarantee of the academic orientation of Chinese literature research in mainland China as well as in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Due to the concept of nationality, the literature in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao should be included in “Modern Chinese Literature”, while the conventionally called “overseas Chinese literature” shall be excluded. The exclusion is reasonable from geographical and political standpoints. However, when the academic scenario is becoming more and more complicated, many difficult-to-tackle issues arise. Firstly, the absolute mobility and relative stability of regional belongingness of overseas Chinese writers constitute an apparent paradox, which directly affects the belongingness of their literature. It seems that only the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” can solve this paradoxical relationship. With the emergence of “the earth village” and increasing mobility, it is becoming more awkward and even ridiculous to treat overseas Chinese writing as non-Chinese literature. Many Chinese writers live in different regions and countries, or temporarily reside in an exotic country before returning. As such, their literary creations also present a mobile pattern. Thus, categorizing their works as Chinese or non-Chinese from the aspect of nationality and region may seem arbitrary and ridiculous. Kenneth H. Pai has been a Chinese American for a long time. In the sense of national belongingness, his literary creations are part of the minority literature in the United States of America. But does this mean that we can exclude his creations from Taiwan literature and Chinese literature at large? Obviously, we cannot. On the one hand, Kenneth H. Pai made a name for himself in Taiwan at the very beginning. Many of his works were written and published in Taiwan and some of them have had a great influence on the mainland of China. Even though some of his works were written in the United States, his works as a whole have already constituted a significant phenomenon of Taiwan literature and Chinese literature. As a result, it is inappropriate to classify these works as non-Chinese literature or

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non-Taiwanese literature from the perspectives of creation place and nationality. On the other hand, as far as specific writers and specific works are concerned, if we ascertain national belongingness of literary works according to creation places and writers’ nationality, a writer’s works would be rendered fragmented in such a highly mobile world. What is worse, it will bring about many uncertainties. As regards works written in the process of immigration from China to a foreign country, should they be regarded as Chinese or exotic literatures? More and more exemplifications demonstrate that very few Chinese literary writers have developed a habit of mobility, so it is often very difficult to confirm their nationality. Even if the exotic nationality of writers, as well as the creation and publication places of their works, leave little room for doubt, can researchers of Chinese literature exclude overseas Chinese writers’ writings from the field of Chinese literature and categorize them as minority literature of a foreign country? It sounds alright from the perspective of law, but literature and literary laws tell different stories. Literature is the fruit of a culture. Apart from presenting a specific national awareness and political ideology, literature also reflects people’s cultural identification and their appreciation of life, through which the former are embodied in a complicated and in-depth manner. As a result, the confirmation of national principle and a writer’s personal political belongingness is never as easy as the confirmation of nationality and identity. In the 1950s, Tse-tsung Chow and overseas Chinese students established the “White Horse Literary Society” in New York and they were very actively engaged in Chinese literary writings. Hu Shi thought highly of the Society, calling it “the third Chinese literary center”,58 the other two being Mainland China and Taiwan. From the perspective of a national system, this is obviously a misjudgment because the White Horse Literary Society was set up and operated in the United States. If we do not make a literal interpretation of what Hu Shi said, what he meant by “Chinese” here is no longer a concept of nationality but just another appellation of Chinese culture and literature. Though it is not a well-defined expression, it is not hard to understand what lies beneath it: to overseas Chinese writers, it is a unique and sad way to express their homesickness from afar. Due to geographical and political separations, they cannot expect a place in the big family of Chinese literature in the national sense. Their sole 58

It is based on Tse-tsung Chow’s memory. See: Wong Yoon Wah. “The May 4th Movement Ignored: On Tse-tsung Chow’s Overseas New Poetic Movement”. Literature and Philosophy 10 (2007):614.

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solace is that their literary productions are still a part of Chinese literature in the linguistic sense and they might attract attention and obtain identification from China, their motherland, where the Chinese language is used daily. This is a unique expression of cultural belongingness of literature and literary writers, which does not necessarily have a strict logical relationship with national principles or rules.

Cultural Belongingness of New Literature in Chinese and Its Necessity The clear, deep and inevitable belongingness toward China’s language, literature and culture is the natural and sincere revelation of the mentality of overseas Chinese writers. This includes fervent expressions of cultural emotions and demonstrates a remarkable cultural rule. By using the concepts of “Literature in Chinese” and “New Literature in Chinese”, on the one hand, the barrier of a national frontier, real or imaginary, is removed, enabling overseas Chinese writers to express their belongingness to their hearts’ content. On the other hand, it will encourage and strengthen the sense of belongingness of Chinese writers across the world toward China, which is the center of Chinese culture. As far as New Literature in Chinese is concerned, the cradle of its culture, literature and the largest readership will no doubt lie in mainland China. As a result, its ultimate cultural belongingness points to the Mainland China. Although the conceptual expression of “New Literature in Chinese” replaces “China” with “Chinese” and relaxes the restriction of the concept of “China”, the central status of China instead gains conceptual strengthening, inarguable recognition, and even cogent promotion. Cultural belongingness is a complicated and common socio-psychological phenomenon, which has a close relationship with political belongingness and religious belongingness. The difference between them is that the range of cultural belongingness is broader and deeper, and the ways of expression are more intricate. All kinds of belongingness require concrete representations. Political belongingness and religious belongingness tend to point to certain icons or locations that are closely related to them. These two kinds of belongingness are often realized through belief. This is the inner rationale of people’s sanctification of icons like Jesus, Muhammad, Sakyamuni and political leaders and national heroes. This is also essentially the reason why Jerusalem and Mecca have become sacred places in believers’ minds. Cultural belongingness, on the other hand, is

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not based on belief as an agent of power nor the way of value realization, so there is no need for icons or devotions to them. In the cultural circle of Confucianism, if Confucius were worshiped as an icon, it would be a sign of the emergence of a Confucian religion, which would eventually lead to religious belongingness. In history, Confucianism had not developed in that direction. The cultural belongingness of Confucianism does not lie in the iconization of Confucius or Mencius, but in classical Confucian works, the Confucian value system expounded in them, cultural events, and the cultural complex accumulated through these cultural events. Cultural belongingness as a reflection of collective unconsciousness of ethnic groups and races is often related to a cultural complex, which is the result of cultural events. Its focus is often placed on a team of initiators of cultural events (rather than icons) and the place where they occurred. Besides, cultural belongingness is usually decided by cultural recognition and cultural conventions. The cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese is closely related to the May 4th New Culture Movement, to powerful and prestigious media of the period such as La Jeunesse, Renaissance, Fiction Monthly, and Morning Supplement, to cultural events such as “Down with the Confucianism”, and to the promotion and operation of vernacular Chinese. These important events contributed to the formation, development and success of the New Culture Movement and the New Literature Movement and the establishment of the great tradition of a new literature. Belongingness toward these cultural events usually does not go hand in hand with rational recognition. It has become a rich cultural resource and acted on people’s memory after historical accumulation. It decides the operative way and basic mode of New Literature in Chinese. It determines the developmental pattern, discourse connotations, and thought trends in the New Literature with new tradition and convention. The belongingness has become a deep-rooted complex, which is irremovable and inevitable for writers, readers and supporters of New Literature in Chinese. People who identify with and study new literature usually regard such cultural events and early operations of the New Literature as basic discourse resources. The value of the New Literature is often ascertained by the value system and literary trend of such cultural events and literary operations. This is the reflection of the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese. In different regions and different periods, the cultural belongingness and its degree of belongingness to New Literature in Chinese are different. New literary writers who move out of Taiwan will be culturally attached to Taiwan and its corresponding cultural events under certain historical

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backgrounds and political atmospheres. However, to such new literary writers, as long as they have sufficient knowledge and academic training, they should know that this belongingness toward the Taiwan literary world is only secondary. What shapes their spiritual resources and cultural complex, which in turn motivates their creations, are the earlier and bigger cultural events and operations of the New Literature. This historical memory has a close spiritual relationship with cultural events in the May 4th Period and those successive periods, with Shanghai and Beijing as major centers. In other words, the real belongingness of New Literature in Chinese points to modern China, the same spatial area where a series of cultural events occurred. The belongingness of New Literature in Chinese to the May 4th New Culture Movement and the New Literature Movement is so obvious that people in different regions and countries will naturally think of mainland China whenever New Literature in Chinese or its related concepts and terms are mentioned. Even if they have not taken into consideration the fact that the largest group of readers is there, or have not given a thought to the symbolic meaning of China as the home of Chinese culture and ethnic spirit, people will naturally lock their associations with the Mainland China. Whether from the sense of “looking for the root” or from a conceptual and linguistic point of view, there is no doubt that the Mainland China is where literature in Chinese belongs to. It is an unarguable realistic cognition. From this sense, the concept of “New Literature in Chinese” will not weaken the central status of “China” and its symbolic significance, but strengthen it at a self-evident level. The cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese has witnessed the vicissitudes of times. But its focus and direction have not changed at all, and it has become more mature and stable. Its maturity and stability are reflected in the fact that it has not turned into political or religious belongingness, which is characterized by icon worship. Although the New Culture Movement is the main cultural event which shaped New Literature in Chinese, its fathers have not been iconized. Although Chen Duxiu made a great contribution to the literary revolution and the New Literature construction, his historical significance is only recognized in historical cognition and study. Hu Shi was one of the forerunners of the New Literature construction. His advocacy of vernacular Chinese had a decisive importance for the New Literature construction. However, new literary writers criticized him from the very beginning. People’s memory of his historical achievements is always accompanied by criticisms of his cultural and literary mistakes. When he left the Mainland China for

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Taiwan, even after the cross-strait tension was relaxed, people would not associate the belongingness of new literature to the place where he lived in his later years. Lu Xun, who has been regarded as the torchbearer of new literature, has not been iconized in the history of the New Culture and the New Literature. After Lu Xun left Shanghai and Beijing, he stayed in Xiamen and Guangzhou for a while. When people study the literary history of that period, their understanding of literary centers will not change accordingly. It is true that Lu Xun is sacred and indisputable in many people’s minds. However, except under abnormal political atmosphere, the criticism toward Lu Xun would not be a cultural event. All of the above are reflections on the maturity of the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese. In conclusion, the belongingness of New Literature in Chinese is established on a cultural basis, not on political or religious one. It does not have icons as the focus or object of sanctification, and its attention is directed to cultural events and complexes, which are closely related to the tradition of New Literature. This is a sign that modern Chinese culture is becoming more mature. This is the fundamental reason why New Literature in Chinese revolves around mainland China.

Academic Significance of Cultural Belongingness of New Literature in Chinese Revealing and studying the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese is a subject that should be explored under present circumstances. The concept of “New Literature in Chinese” replaces nationality cognition with a focus on language, which eliminates the possibility of symbolic interpretations. As a result, many scholars show their concern out of their loyalty to China. In the academic world, the naming of a key concept usually takes a long time: the suggestion of a new name often carries with it too many complexities, especially when modern academic problems are usually politically sensitive. The demonstration of cultural belongingness to China and its necessity is helpful in overcoming the complexities of “New Literature in Chinese” and confining explorations to the academic field. The demonstration of the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese not only provides a guarantee of academic safety but also provides new viewpoints to the study of the history of New Literature in Chinese and new room for explaining related phenomena. As to cultural

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accumulations in the early stage of the New Literature and its influence on the overall process of the New Literature, the author made an analysis from the perspective of new literary tradition, which is termed “the Great Tradition of Modern Chinese Literature”.59 This analysis did obtain some achievements, but did not go deep enough. Although analyzing the tradition of the New Literature effectively solves the problem of equality between new Chinese literature and traditional Chinese literature, many factors in the tradition of the New Literature do not necessarily fit the inner laws of literary development, nor do they conform to the future direction of the New Literature. As a result, whether it is worth carrying on and carrying forward such a tradition becomes a sensitive subject that cannot be avoided. This is probably the academic sticking point, which blocks the way of making a further study into the tradition of the New Literature. The cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese is still related to cultural events and literary memories of the beginning period of the New Literature. Due to the unavoidable fatalistic factors, the concept of cultural belongingness will not become entangled with propositions such as inheritance and promotion. What it expresses or describes are historical memories, or a socio-cultural complex of a specific historical period. Thus, there is no need to make an evaluation of it today. However, evaluations will differ drastically, if people interpret the May 4th New Culture Movement, Literary Revolution and Vernacular Chinese Movement in the framework of literary tradition. Different evaluations and value interpretations can be tolerated if they are put in the framework of cultural belongingness. This explains why, in the historical study of the New Literature and the New Culture, we cannot give absolute credit to the May 4th New Culture Movement and the New Literature Movement, but that we also cannot turn a blind eye to these historical events. One reasonable explanation is that even though they have not shown the full value of the great tradition of the New Literature, they are the focus of cultural belongingness of the New Literature. As regards this focus, people can criticize, but they cannot ignore nor forget. All discourses, judgments as well as love and hatred have to start from it. Famous literary works, including those created by Lu Xun, reflect such a complicated attitude toward this focus. Such an attitude is the very representation of the cultural belongingness. Studying the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese 59

Zhu, Shoutong. “On the Great Tradition of Modern Chinese Literature”. China Social Sciences 1 (2002).

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enables the area background of the New Literature to stand out. Past research has attached great importance to the temporal background of literary creations and literary operations, but there has been little attention to the area background of literature. A writer may not clearly mention the time he was in, but his time will be reflected, implicitly or explicitly, in his creations; this is the temporal background, which has attracted a lot of attention in literary study. Similarly, the same rule can be applied to the area background. But the area background has usually been overlooked in literary study. To a literary subject, the temporal and area backgrounds of literature combine to form a complete reflection of his cultural belongingness. No matter where a writer goes or what circumstances he is under, his writings are always related to his original knowledge structure and his specific temporal and area backgrounds, no matter whether he identifies with such specific temporal and area backgrounds or not. If the temporal and area backgrounds of literary creation are closely related to a writer’s own temporal and area backgrounds, his original knowledge structure transcends the writer himself: it has a close relationship with the cultural memories of his time such as linguistic norms, thought patterns, etc. This is a noteworthy phenomenon of cultural belongingness. From this perspective, no matter where a new writer of Chinese is, at home or abroad, or what the temporal and area backgrounds of his literary productions are, he will regard the cultural events that started and influenced the New Literature, and relevant cultural memories, as shared temporal and area backgrounds. To new literary writers in Chinese, such cultural belongingness is their shared temporal and area backgrounds. Such backgrounds can only be related to cultural events and cultural memories of the New Culture Movement. This reveals the certainty of the belongingness of New Literature in Chinese to mainland China. The key difference between cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese and the common political belongingness and religious belongingness is that cultural belongingness refuses worship of icons. Even the founders and defenders like Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi, who passionately advocated and promoted a new culture and literature, do not become icons. It is also helpful in evaluating Lu Xun’s literary status. In many senses, Lu Xun has been regarded as the father of New Literature in Chinese. Every operation of New Literature in Chinese, various schools of creations and literary criticism can be traced back to Lu Xun as a spiritual resource. But Lu Xun has never been considered a personalized god, even though some people hold him in extremely high regard. Few people have upgraded this admiration to an ethical level. The social psychology and

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cultural phenomenon can be elucidated by the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese. If we go back to the writing scene—that is, to the cultural scene—the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese cannot be too obvious. If a writer, whose mother tongue is not Chinese and whose knowledge of Chinese culture is fairly limited, were confident enough to try his hand at writing in Chinese, he must have obtained his confidence from the Chinese world, including Chinese residential areas and the Chinese cultural circle, rather than from the readers of his motherland. And, eventually, he would seek authoritative approval from mainland China, which is where the Chinese cultural belongingness is attached. What leads to the exotic cultural belongingness? A sociopsychologist claims that: “One’s cognition of surroundings will enter his self-concept”.60 When one is writing in Chinese, he is imbuing his self-concept with factors related to Chinese surroundings. At that time, “self-concept is not only defined and represented by his social relationship, but also defined and represented by his physical surroundings”.61 Which means a writer who writes in Chinese will inevitably bring in what he feels and identifies with in a Chinese-speaking environment into his subjective horizon. In this case, residence outside China will lead to anxiety. “The major cause of anxiety may be the anticipation and fear of physical pain and rejection of the world.” 62 To overcome the anxiety and fear of rejection from the Chinese-speaking community, especially the Mainland China, a writer who writes in Chinese has no choice but to identify himself with China; in other words, his cultural belongingness will point to China. It is the same for writers who are writing in a foreign language in China. If a writer’s writing is not intended for language teaching, but instead as a kind of literary creation, his cultural belongingness will deviate from China, his homeland, and point to a country where that language is spoken, together with its cultural centers, events and memories, without which he cannot overcome his anxiety and gain the confidence that leads him to success. “Culture is a human creation, which covers material and spiritual products,

60

Deau, Kay, Sociopsychology in the 1990s. Trans. Yang Yuyun. Taipei: Wunan Book Company, 1997; 646. 61 Deau, Kay, Sociopsychology in the 1990s. Trans. Yang Yuyun. Taipei: Wunan Book Company, 1997; 647. 62 Argyle, Michael, Social Studies. Trans. Zhang Yunmei. Taipei: Torrents Book Company, 1997; 367.

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as well as social existence and spiritual phenomena."63 Language is part of social existence and it best represents the culture of a nation and the culture itself. Consequently, it is very difficult to avoid a sense of cultural belongingness when you are using a language to make literary creations. In the above demonstration of the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese, we have not yet tackled the theme from the austere angle of ideology, although demonstration from this angle will forcefully reveal the necessity of the cultural belongingness of New Literature in Chinese. When Chinese scholars are consciously staving off the angle of ideology to tone down the politics of nationality, American thinker Daniel Bell reminds us that regionality and utility have become the foci of ideology today: “What lay behind the old ideology is the pursuit of equality; broadly speaking, it is the passion for freedom. The new motivation of ideology comes from economic development and national power”.64 Although it is not indispensable to demonstrate the influence of New Literature in Chinese from the angle of national power, no one can deny it has a role to play in the development of the New Literature.

I.4.The Significance of Cultural Ethics of New Literature in Chinese How should we categorize other new literature in Chinese that were created outside China? A common way is to categorize them as “Overseas Chinese Literature”. However, when we label such literature as “Overseas Chinese Literature” or even “Chinese Writing of Foreign Literature”, the cultural ethics stand out in double senses. Firstly, excluding overseas writers who use the Chinese language and identify with Chinese culture, especially Chinese New Culture, is harmful to ethnic cognition and cultural cognition in terms of cultural ethics. Secondly, for overseas Chinese writers, excluding them from the grand framework of Chinese literature is unacceptable in terms of cultural ethics. As a result, it is more reasonable to use the term “New Literature in Chinese”, which is a generalized concept and seldom causes ambiguity, when we deal with overseas Chinese literature and a large number of overseas Chinese writers. 63 Zhang, Shangren, An Introduction to Social-historical Philosophy. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1992. 278. 64 Daniel, Bell, “The End of Western Ideology” Culture and Society. Ed. Jeffrey C. Alexandre. Trans. Wu Qianchen. Taipei: Lixu Culture Corporation, 1997. 346.

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New Literature in Chinese and Cultural Ethics Since “New Literature in Chinese” was proposed as an academic concept, it has gained substantial support and encouragement from the fellows in the academic circles. Meanwhile, it has also been questioned and doubted. 65 This is a normal academic phenomenon. Yet these controversies help us to reflect further upon related problems. When a renowned scholar expressed his conditional agreement with the concept of “New Literature in Chinese”, he said, “New Literature in Chinese is in fact Modern Chinese Literature”. Many scholars would find it a fair and doubtless statement. It seems to express an open-mindedness and generous tolerance. But, at the same time, it risks neglecting some serious cultural phenomena and overlooking some important psychological reactions. We insist on questioning from such a perspective of: how should we categorize modern literatures in Chinese that were created outside China? Of course, a common way to deal with this is to count all modern and contemporary literatures in Chinese that were created abroad as “Overseas Chinese Literature” or even “Chinese Writing of Foreign Literature”. I cannot agree with the categorization and instead I will discuss it from the perspective of cultural ethics. When I proposed the concept of “New Literature in Chinese”, the situation of my friend and renowned poet Professor Fu Tianhong provided me with remarkable academic confidence and, it seemed to me, a common sense approach.66 Fu Tianhong is a poet born and raised on the mainland of China. Later, he moved to Taiwan because his closest relatives lived there. For many reasons, he moved again to Hong Kong after he bonded with the new poetic circle in Taiwan, and, before long, he obtained permanent residence in Hong Kong. Once again, he moved to Macao, which had haunted him for more than 10 years. In 2005, after being invited to be a professor in Zhuhai College of Beijing Normal University, he sold his house in Macao and settled down in Zhuhai. He now lives on 76

The 8th Issue of Academic Research, 2010 presented a column discussing New Literature in Chinese. Wang Furen, Zhu Shoutong and Lu Zhouju took part in the discussion. In the 6th Issue of Theoretical Journal, 2010, a column was begun for the discussion of New Literature in Chinese. Huang Xiuji, Zhang Quanzhi, Zhu Shoutong, Li Yi, and Song Jianhua participated in the discussion. 77 As for the discussion of the common sense, please refer to my paper “On New Poetry in Chinese Language and New Literature in Chinese – Starting from Poet Fu Tianhong’s Literary Status and Academic Pursuit”. Macao Daily, 3 July, 2010.

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the mainland of China again, holds a Hong Kong ID and travels to Macao every week. If we have to identify this poet in terms of region, it will be futile to say whether he comes from the Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macao. We can only address him as a “Chinese poet”. Or, to be exact and fair, we should address him as a writer of “Chinese new poetry” and an activist of New Literature in Chinese. From this example, we get a clear idea that it is difficult and often embarrassing to identify writers or poets in terms of region. But it will be free of controversy if we identify them in terms of a language or their cultural belongingness. In this aspect, Fu Tianhong himself published a paper to present his ideas on this issue.67 When faced with other writers, such as the outstanding overseas Chinese writer Luo Fu, my academic confidence in “New Literature in Chinese” not only comes from empirical knowledge but also from the theory of cultural ethics. Indeed, it is easy for us to add a modifier “outstanding” to Luo Fu, but it is not at all easy in terms of cultural ethics when we address Luo Fu as an “overseas” poet. It is not a simple matter of whether the addressee is willing to accept this title or not; it is more about the question of whether we can classify diasporic writers as overseas writers when we are comfortably settled in the Chinese cultural circle. This is an issue of cultural ethics. From a legal perspective, there is nothing wrong with addressing diasporic Chinese writers as overseas writers. And most of these writers do choose to live overseas. For example, Liang Xihua, Tao Li, and Luo Fu reside in Canada, Zhao Shuxia lives in Switzerland, while Keneth Pai, Hualing Nieh Engle, and William Yeh live in the U.S. So, if we exclude these great writers from the circle of Modern Chinese Literature, it is completely sensible in terms of political identity. It is completely legal and leaves no room for ambiguity. However, from the perspective of cultural ethics, the issue is not that simple. It calls for a necessary adjustment of our academic horizon. “New Literature in Chinese” is able to overcome the limitations of regions and national laws and respond to our cultural- ethical concerns at the same time. In short, there is a right to categorize writers and poets strictly according to political territories and delimit the field of research and literary history according to such categorization. However, when we exercise this right, there is no doubt that we will hurt the feelings of writers who identify themselves with the Chinese tradition and are eager to contribute to Chinese literature. With the support of cultural ethics, we can 78

Fu, Tianhong. “Several Thoughts on the Concept of New Poems in Chinese Language”. Jinan Journal 1 (2009):41-44.

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use the Chinese language and culture as standards of identification and become more open-minded about writers who scatter globally but have the same linguistic background, though we might be condemned for nationalism. In this sense, compared with the conventional concepts, such as “Modern Chinese Literature”, “Contemporary Chinese Literature”, and even “Overseas Chinese Literature”, “New Literature in Chinese” has an additional significance of cultural ethics.

The Theoretical Paradigm of Cultural Ethics: the Universality of Cultural Ethics Now, in order to lay some theoretical foundations for our topic, we need to attend to a theoretical discussion on cultural ethics, which has been overlooked by sociologists and ethicists. We must first acknowledge that cultural-ethical problems are brought about by the diaspora. With the deepening of China’s reform and opening-up, in addition to the gradual actualization of a global village, the diaspora of modern Chinese writers has become a normal phenomenon (as a matter of fact, this phenomenon is more common in Europe). Because we are facing such complicated problems more and more often, cultural ethics must be introduced to examine such human behavior. The British philosopher George Moore once proposed that “The term ‘Ethics’ is closely linked with human behavior”.68 In fact, common human behaviors are always closely connected with ethical propositions. Therefore, the diaspora of intellectuals naturally relates itself to cultural ethics and raises new questions and challenges to cultural ethics. Some people think that the notion of cultural ethics refers to “the sum of behavioral norms and their inner necessity which people shall obey in cultural production and cultural living when they deal with other people and the society”.69 There is no doubt that this is a deeper thought than those who merely treat the cultural-ethical phenomenon as a general cultural-psychological phenomenon. However, it still perceives cultural ethics in terms of morality and norms and considers the idea as a set of values. As a very complicated social psychological phenomenon, the term 68 Fu, Tianhong. “Several Thoughts on the Concept of New Poems in Chinese Language”. Jinan Journal 1 (2009):41-44. 69 Zheng, Youxian. “On Cultural Ethical Norms”. Central Party School Journal of Fujian 4 (1999):42.

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“cultural ethics” refers to cultural-psychological tendencies, which people must obey in their cultural lives. Such cultural-psychological tendencies are closely linked with the subject’s cultural traditions, cultural belongingness, and cultural values. Besides, it determines people’s moral intuition and instinctive psychological reactions. As far as overseas Chinese writers—the most complicated topic in the field of New Literature in Chinese—are concerned, cultural ethics refer to their identification with traditional Chinese culture as well as new Chinese culture, their sense of belongingness toward the Chinese linguistic and cultural environment, and their wish to protect Chinese cultural values. All these constitute their ethical values, a cultural ethics which is marked by psychological mechanisms and social reactions. Many overseas Chinese writers have a similar experience. When they were living in the motherland, they were not satisfied and complained a lot; but once they left their country, they became the incarnation of Chinese culture. Actually, this is a cultural-ethical phenomenon: when people leave their home and enter a foreign environment, a strong sense of cultural ethics is aroused under a complicated cultural force field, which may boil down to the simplest cultural homesickness. Especially in modern society, a “force field constituted by culture is stretched [in] different directions”. 70 This complicated cultural force field tends to trigger the subject’s cultural-ethical longing for their motherland. Arif Dirik emphasized in Post-revolutionary Atmosphere71 that culturalism is, in fact, interlinked with cultural ethics, both of which rely on “the strength of tradition”. What cultural ethics display is exactly the strength of tradition, which nobody can ignore or run from. Now, let’s see cultural ethics as a specific social-psychological phenomenon. Seen from this light, the concept of “cultural ethics” is far more than just a cultural phenomenon in the aesthetic sense, but a kind of social-psychological phenomenon, which is bound up with tradition, accumulation and a deep sense of psychological belongingness. Locating cultural ethics in aesthetics, or even mass aesthetics, is another way of

70 Zukin, Sharon, The Cultures of Cities. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2004. 147. 71 Dirik, A., Post-revolutionary Atmosphere. Trans. Wang Ning. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1999. 187.

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understanding of cultural ethics.72 Since we are discussing cultural ethics, we should not be limited to the aesthetic angle, which is rather narrow. Sociologists have realized that, “Modern social issues, including social structural psychology, are all cultural issues. Since human society was formed, culture, which is created by humans, has been what distinguishes nature and human society, and it is even applied to control and reform nature”. Therefore, culture in the sense of ethics refers to common and key factors which, “in the history of western society, always play an essential role in distinguishing civilization from nature”.73 The idea of cultural ethics in mainstream society, in fact, often turns into culturalism, which is hegemonic in tendency. What such culturalism emphasizes is “the whole of some spiritual directions”. These spiritual directions will “lead to the restoration of social and historical issues, and become abstract cultural questions methodologically”.74 In this sense, the notion of cultural ethics is a rather common social and cultural phenomenon and an impressive social-psychological phenomenon. It should not be explained merely from the perspective of aesthetics or cultural appreciation. Cultural ethics as a social phenomenon or theoretical proposition has remarkable generality. To human beings, it is significant in its totality. Aristotle in Ethics regards totality as an essential element in ethics and points out that ethics deal with “the inherent stuff of every human being, which is the best and sweetest to him”.75 This is the ethical tendency for totality. Naturally, cultural emotions will show such a feature of totality. It is safe to say that the idea of cultural ethics refers to a general social culture and social psychology. But what puzzles people is that issues discussed within cultural ethics often stop at shallow layer of the research and are targeted to individual cases. It is not yet rigorous enough to be classed as an object of academic investigation. When “globalization and national sovereignty” become topics of academic research, people often talk about citizens’ welfare, external and internal security, religion, the transformation of social customs, national security and legal issues, etc. 72 Fu, Shouxiang. “Aesthetic Characteristic of Mass Culture and Cultural Ethics”. Literary Review 3 (2009):191. 73 Gao, Xuanyang, Contemporary Social Theory (1). Taipei: Wunan Publishing Company, 1998. 33. 74 Dirik, A., Post-revolutionary Atmosphere. Trans. Wang Ning. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1999. 187. 75 Humboldt, Wilhelm Von, On the Function of a Country. Trans. Lin Rongyuan & Feng Xingyuan. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1998. 28.

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But diasporic writers’ cultural-ethical needs that are related to national sovereignty and national images have seldom been discussed. Overseas Chinese writers and diasporic writers keep their cultural-ethical attachment toward their motherland even amidst the tide of globalization. This has great emotional significance when a country becomes a power in the era of globalization. People have pointed out that the “nation-state has traditionally played an ambiguous role. To the outside, after beating foreign cultures, it became a reliable representative of national culture. To the inside, it became a winner of identity and homogeneity and enabled local cultures to co-exist in the same national territory”. 76 However, people have neglected a more important point. To diasporic compatriots, national sovereignty means a strong power inherited from tradition, which can satisfy their cultural-ethical needs of identifying with a cultural tradition and a national psychology. Anyway, this is a cultural psychological phenomenon, which should be discussed in the research of globalization. A writer who echoed “Chinese immigrants’ feeling of homesickness” said, “I was once cautious to the proposition of ‘Zhongguo’ (China) and its current political situation. But let us think about our Chinese compatriots scattered globally. Although their living conditions have improved, they are still far from being treated equally. Under such pressure, the feeling of homesickness is becoming stronger than ever”.77 It is true that there is a close relationship between cultural ethics and homesickness for the motherland. In short, in the field of New Literature in Chinese, the cultural ethics we have discussed include two points. The first point is that overseas Chinese writers have a long-lasting cultural recognition of Chinese culture and have an emotional attachment to their motherland. Such recognition and attachment accumulate to a kind of cultural-ethical cognition, which prevents them from leaving their country culturally and emotionally. The start and end points of their literary works always fall in the arena of the cultural environment of their motherland or hometown. The second point is that, when facing such writers and their literary works, researchers should try to locate their academic status with understanding and sympathy, instead of just categorizing them as overseas writers and works. 76

Cheng, Hu, Globalization and National Sovereignty – Comparative Analysis. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2003. 140. 77 Yang, Changnian, “Chinese Immigrants’ Homesickness” Chinese Image in Asian Essays of Chinese Language. Ed. Zhong Yiwen. Taipei: Wangjuanlou Publishing Company, 2001. 1.

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Researchers should also pay full attention to their spiritual needs and value recognition in the light of cultural ethics, and respect their unbreakable cultural strings with the tradition of their motherland. By so doing, we are showing cultural-ethical concern for diasporic writers and their works.

Cultural Ethics and the Diasporic Writers’ Homesickness Complex As far as the diasporic overseas writers, especially sensitive poets, are concerned, it is very natural and essential for them to identify with Chinese cultural traditions from the point of view of cultural ethics. We can demonstrate such necessity from many angles. Although most theories of cultural psychology and diasporic community touch upon these aspects, it is hard to find one which takes into serious consideration the psychological phenomenon in cultural ethics. The cultural ethics are in the connected themes of “departure from the homeland” and “nostalgia for the motherland”. In the analysis of this traditional cultural phenomenon, “departure from the homeland and nostalgia for the homeland” has been a classic proposition. “Departure from the homeland” and “nostalgia for the homeland” constitute a chain of absolute significance. As far as overseas Chinese writers today are concerned, such a chain is still essential. Besides, in the context of globalization, such a chain is becoming more and more important, and more and more indispensable. In modern times, globalization is making people who “depart from the homeland” more strongly motivated to express the ethical spirit of cultural return. This is because “the fundamental force of modernization is economic force, which is related to modern industrial productivity”.78 With material needs becoming the top priority, the decline of traditional culture has been a crisis, which all culturally sensitive people could detect. Such a strong sense of crisis would more urgently arouse people’s desire to return to their own traditional culture. As a result, a postmodernist is more likely to withdraw into tradition. In addition, comparing “our culture” with “the other culture”, “in the era of globalization, there should be a prevailing wish of holding a respectful and tolerant attitude towards other civilizations and religions. Such tolerance is not at all indifferent

78

Luo, Rongqu, New Theory on Modernization. Beijing: Peking University Press, 1997. 143.

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tolerance, but a tolerance out of respect”.79 Such a tolerance and respect for other cultures, for either the subject or object of the national culture, requires people to hold a more respectful and more tolerant attitude toward their own traditional culture. The positive attitude enables them to stand on a cultural foundation that is most appropriate to them. Only in this way can they have qualifications to express their respect and tolerance of other cultures and religions. This is a mutually beneficial cultural relationship. Even though two cultures may be extremely different, they could form a relationship of mutual benefit. This is because the subject of cultural ethics has an “evolving force” of “self-development”.80 And, if a culture is meant to develop, the foundation must be based on a tradition and it must maintain sufficient confidence and develop an ability to face and respect even those competitive cultures. Tang Junyi put forward an ideal model of a cultural merger and the mutual benefit of cultures: “When countries in the world are trying to improve their culture, education and morality, they should be able to appreciate other countries’ improvements. The country which has more advanced culture, education and morality would gradually become a core country, which attracts people from other countries”.81 Generally speaking, cultural ethical psychology would make people of a culture unconsciously think that their own traditional culture is more “advanced”. Such a psychology leads to a sense of cultural superiority, which enables them to respect and tolerate other cultures, civilizations, and religions. In short, there is a sense of superiority because the cultural ethical psychology is working. Diasporic writers are no different from writers who “depart from their homeland”. After a comparison of different cultures, they would naturally or factitiously arouse a sense of superiority of their own culture. This is a typical reflection of cultural ethics by which they would feel and determine their identification and belongingness. Such cultural ethics determine that diasporic writers cannot regard themselves as real local residents, so their works cannot be categorized as foreign literature. French theorist Dumont made a summary about the cultural ethics of Germans who live in France or of the French who live in Germany: “Nobody can 79

Schmidt, Helmut Heinrich Waldemar, Globalization and Moral Reconstruction. Trans. Cai Fangguo. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2001. 74. 80 Horney, Karen Danielsen, Self-Struggling. Trans. Li Mingbin. Beijing: China Literary and Art Press, 1986. 14. 81 Tang, Junyi, Cultural Consciousness and Moral Rationality. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2005. 171.

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deprive himself of the nationality which they belong to. Consciously or unconsciously, people would consider their culture as the only ‘real’ thing, or regard it as a conscious mode of modernity, treating different cultures in other countries as variations”.82 Such cultural ethics is rather prevailing. From the cultural perspective, most people would not willingly regard themselves as “foreigners” after settling abroad. They tend to regard their own culture as the best and most “real” existence and think they have the qualification and right to criticize and judge other cultures. In other words, when faced with different cultures, they would naturally stand by the side of their own culture. We need to understand that they are “diasporic” yet “still attached to the homeland”, holding onto their ground of cultural ethics. As far as overseas Chinese writers are concerned, the cultural traditions that they belong to are profound (long-lasting traditional culture) and energetic (active new culture). They possess a strong syncretic power and a tolerant attitude. Living in a foreign country will more strongly arouse their cultural ethics. Such a feeling makes them more strongly or more urgently consider themselves as Chinese writers rather than writers living in China. We can take Hu Shi as a typical example. In the 1950s, Chinese students who studied in New York organized the “White Horse Literary Society”. They created works using Chinese and the result turned out very well. Hu Shi went so far as to claim that, “Baima (White Horse) Literary Society is the third literary and artistic center of China”.83 What he meant was that the Mainland China and Taiwan are China’s literary and artistic centers, and the literary society run by a group of young men constituted another center. From the geographical perspective, this society belonged to America since it was located there. However, in Tse-tsung Chow or Hu Shi’s mind, they never considered it as “non-Chinese”. They sorted such literary works into the arena of Chinese literature without hesitation. Such a fact powerfully demonstrates that, in the minds of writers or intellectuals, including Hu Shi, their culture is still embedded in their home country even when they are settling abroad. Their cultural ethics points to China. Renowned Chinese writer Hualing Nieh Engle has been living and writing in America for a long time. She was upset by this “homeless” 93

Dumont, Louis, A Collection on Individualism. Trans. Huang Baiqi. Taipei: Linking Publishing Co. Ltd., 2003. 173. 83 It is based on Tse-tsung Chow’s memory. Please refer to: Wong Yoon Wah. “The Forgotten May 4th Movement: On Tse-tsung Chow’s Overseas New Poetic Movement”. Literature and Philosophy 10 (2007):614.

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feeling when she left China. She has never considered America as her home country because her own cultural ethics prevents her from realizing her literary value in American culture. So she declared, “[the] Chinese language is my home”. 84 As a writer, she insisted that the Chinese language is her material hometown while Chinese culture is her spiritual hometown. These are normal expressions and typical reflections of cultural ethics. When people who “have left their own country” declare they are homeless, their inner pain is often hard to be understood by those who live in their own country. That is to say, if the complex toward one’s tradition is a typical reflection of cultural ethics, then people who “have left their own country” would have a stronger feeling of cultural ethics. The rationale is that certain emotions are often linked with conditional stimuli. “Emotions are determined by reinforced stimuli and complicated classical conditions.”85 When one lives in a foreign country, it is apparent that the stimuli that remind one of his traditional culture will be much more pronounced. Cultural ethics tend to be distinct from the feeling of the subject “I” who lives in a foreign country. “Everyone’s self has a double structure. On the one hand, it contains the self, which is shaped by the society; on the other hand, it includes the self, which is produced by one’s consciousness. The former self is the object (me), while the latter one is the subject (I).”86 People’s attachment to a cultural tradition and cultural identification are shaped consciously or unconsciously by social factors. They belong to the object (me). Once they are placed in a strange and different cultural environment, the subject “I” will be pushed to an obvious position, so that the subject “I” would develop a complex toward what the object “me” feels. When one lives in one’s own country, the familiar environment will make the subject “I” inconspicuous, so that people would not have that strong attachment toward the traditional culture. The concept of cultural ethics is nothing like social ethics. Social ethics is the synthesis of education and law—“a society is either founded on the essence of education, or on the essence of law, and they form the main 84

Indirect citation from Rao Pengzi, Overseas Literature in the Chinese Language and Comparative Literature. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2005. 104. 85 Strongman, K. T., Psychology of Emotion. Shenyang: Liaoning People’s Press, 1987. 42. 86 Mead, George Herbert, “Mind, Self and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist” Contemporary Social Theory (1). Ed. Gao, Xuanyang. Taipei: Wunan Publishing Company, 1998. 460.

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contradictions”.87 Moreover, cultural ethics has nothing to do with law. As a result, under normal social circumstances, cultural ethics is not necessarily reflected in people’s moral sense. In the cases of overseas writers, cultural ethics will become extremely intense because people would be especially “homesick” when “they have left their country”. Compared with overseas writers who write in Chinese, some overseas Chinese writers are passionate about writing in foreign languages. Writers who have done a wonderful job in this aspect are Maxine Hong Kingston and Ha Jin, for example. These Chinese writers might get inspiration from Lin Yutang, but the most important reason is that they aim to blend into American mainstream culture. Their works belong to the field of overseas Chinese literature, which is very far from New Literature in Chinese. Their success, of course, owes credit to their experience in China or Chinese traditional culture. But they were not demonstrating their cultural ethics toward China when facing presumptive or ideal American readers. Their works aim at provoking sympathy and acceptance from their presumptive readers who are Americans. So their ethics of creation must have been based on American cultural value. They belong to another cultural ethical realm and lie beyond New Literature in Chinese. However, they serve as a good reference. If the presumptive and ideal readers are set in the Greater China region, writers’ cultural ethics will point to China.

Cultural Ethics and the Research on New Literature in Chinese It is not necessary to equate the cultural ethics of overseas Chinese writers with Chinese patriotism. The writers’ cultural complex is much more complicated. One old writer gave us this warning: “Whoever regards writers as perfect men should be blamed as naïve”.88 It is just as naive if we equate complicated cultural ethics to pure patriotism. First, we need to know the necessity for thinking much of cultural ethics in researching into New Literature in Chinese of overseas writers. We must respect and treasure the cultural-ethical sense of overseas Chinese writers. Such respect and care, in turn, reflects researchers’ cultural ethics. Indeed, compared with other literary and historical paradigms, New Literature in Chinese provides an effective academic expression of cultural ethics by overshadowing the national identity. 87

Meng, Xiantang, General Ethics. Beijing: Qunzhong Press, 1988. 365 Cao, Juren, Fifty Years in the Literary World. Shanghai: Orient Publishing Center, 1998. 385. 88

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If we neglect the academic insight into cultural ethics, we will render unfair the academic judgments. For instance, many overseas famous writers, such as Luo Fu, are top overseas writers in terms of both literary achievements and cultural influence. However, in academic works of the history of contemporary Chinese literature or the history of modern Chinese literature, they are always put in an inconspicuous place, for the only reason that they are not “Chinese” in nationality. Just as has been said earlier, seen from the perspective of cultural identification and cultural belongingness, their cultural ethics always lean toward China. From the perspective of cultural ethics, they have never “left the country”, nor wanted to. But the way we write literary histories geographically pushes them out of the door of our country. It will undoubtedly hurt the cultural ethics of these writers, and do harm to our academic ethics. More and more researchers have already noticed the irrationality of such unfair treatment. They are trying to mend this defect within the framework of literary history. But writing the literary history from a geographical perspective restrains the efforts other people have made. The prevailing and most successful Chinese Literary History in the 20th Century,89 edited by Yan Jiayan, discusses poets Luo Fu and Kwang-chung Yu together under the title of “modernist poetic tide echoing on both sides of the strait”. However, because Luo Fu has been living in Canada since 1996, the critique and evaluation of him could not be compared to that of Kwang-chung Yu. Indeed, when Luo Fu settled down in Canada and became a research subject of overseas Chinese literature, his status in the Chinese literary circle dropped dramatically. Chinese literature became a cultural source for his creation. He has been pushed abroad by fate and endowed gloriously, yet wrongfully, with the identity of overseas Chinese writer. Of course, now we have the more mature terms of “overseas Chinese literature” and “Chinese Literature in the world” to provide a constructive supplementation of the Chinese literature proper. They cover all those overseas Chinese writers who are excluded from Chinese literature due to their nationality. However, we believe that many overseas writers, including Luo Fu, are unwilling to accept this passive academic reality, as their language, thought, emotion and experiences are all rooted in China. Their passion, life, spirit and sense of belongingness are also rooted in China. All of these leave an indelible Chinese mark. When our academic Yan, Jiayan, Chinese Literary History in the 20th Century. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2010. 89

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research removes overseas Chinese writers and poets from the field of Chinese literature, to which they belong and are accustomed, and with which they identify themselves culturally and spiritually, especially when we have no choice but to declare that these overseas Chinese works are not part of Chinese literature, we are undertaking a mechanical, academic severance and doing, quite probably, an enormous amount of damage to cultural ethics. When literary research circles identify the belongingness and nationality of overseas writers—whether they realize the ethical-cultural damage done to overseas writers or not—it shows whether they have a sense of responsibility to cultural ethics or not. If one pins down overseas writers’ identities from the perspective of nationality, the result would be simple, neat and unambiguous. But such identification is at the same time rude, careless and most probably ineffective. Even if a writer has sworn to be a citizen of a foreign country, it is nothing but a procedural expression of becoming a citizen. It does not mean that he has given up his deep-rooted cultural ethics. When a person who was born and raised in the countryside enters the city he has been dreaming of, he may express his love and identification with this new life and new environment without reservation. He may talk about the hard time and backwardness of the countryside, including wild winds, heavy rains and the muddy roads afterward, as well as the villagers’ ridiculous conservatism, short-sightedness and horrible living habits. Like other young men who have walked out of the countryside, he may swear that he would never go back. However, none of these will affect his cultural complex as a person from the countryside. Sometimes he will emphasize it in one way or another. At least, when facing with the insults and misunderstandings from urban residents, his cultural ethics will naturally lean toward the countryside. Standing on the side of urban residents and mocking the countryside is a kind of betrayal in terms of cultural ethics. It is really a painful experience for a peasant. Such an analogy does not seem to be very appropriate for describing the relationship between diasporic writers and their homeland. But it is close to what most people experience. Such a description is very important to the understanding of the new concept “cultural ethics”. A person in a diasporic community is not likely to develop a sense of belongingness to other countries. If such a sense grows, it makes sense in terms of social ethics and personal ethics, but it is severely opposed to cultural ethics. Second, we must understand New Literature in Chinese, thus, avoiding this embarrassment of the identification of writers.

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In literary research and other academic researches, identification of the study object is not usually difficult. However, when it is linked with an academic field, such an issue will become very complicated. As far as writers’ identification is concerned, as it involves the division of disciplines and even the establishment of a new discipline, its complexity has far exceeded our expectations. Many scholars are still having a hard time understanding the necessity of the academic discipline of New Literature in Chinese because we already have a variety of mature disciplines, including Modern Chinese Literature, Contemporary Chinese Literature and World Literature of Chinese Language. But, once we relate such issues to the identification of more and more diasporic writers, this complexity becomes self-evident. Just as renowned German sinologist Wolfgang Kubin said at the “International Conference on the History of New Literature in Chinese”, 90 we cannot be sure whether we should determine writers’ identifications according to their birth certificates, residence permits, or passports. The language which they are used to and which they rely on may be a more reliable base of successful categorization. It falls into the field of New Literature in Chinese. When the discipline is well established, citizenship and national belongingness will be blurred and relegated to a secondary layer. Cultural tradition and cultural belongingness will help to form a self-evident cultural community.91 In this community, all qualified and appropriate writers will be treated in the same way, naturally and ethically. That is to say, when we insist on categorizing writers, especially diasporic writers, strictly according to the administrative region of the states, we will encounter not only regional political issues (indeed, at some times and in some areas, writers’ identification is often made complicated by sensitive political issues), but also uncertainty of space and time. Of course, just as Kubin mentioned, we can check the writer’s passport or other registered materials to make sure of the time the writer changed his nationality or whether the writer has changed it or not. Yet still, many other troublesome problems arise. If the writer has not obtained another nationality and what he acquires is a permanent residence, or he lives in a foreign country in other ways, how do we deal with this situation, i.e. how do we determine his nationality? This problem may arouse more 90

It was held on 20-23 April, 2010, in Macao. Here, the author uses the proposition raised by renowned sinologist Marián Gálik. His lecture was translated into Chinese and published in Nanguo Journal of the Humanities 15 (2010). 91

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complicated and more trivial problems. For example, if a writer who obtained another nationality goes on living in his home country or moves to a third country, do his works belong to the literature of a foreign country? Another writer, who lives in a foreign country and has obtained another nationality, has his literary works published in his home country and his readership lies in his home country—is he a foreign writer? The problem is complicated because it may bring about many embarrassments that people will have to face. If we identify a writer from the aspect of his or her national background and administrative region in order to determine which academic field he belongs to, many arguments, big or small, may arise. Some arguments are out of people’s expectations, while others are not conspicuous or fierce. In comparison, the fellows in Taiwan and overseas literary research circles have paid due and often unconscious respect to overseas writers’ cultural ethics earlier than the mainland academic circles. For Chinese writers who live abroad, mainland scholars are used to addressing them as “overseas” Chinese writers, while in Taiwan, and other places we have mentioned above, people are more willing to address them as “diasporic writers”. In September 2001, a symposium on “Diasporic Community – World Chinese Literature”92 was held in Singapore. Western Chinese Literature researchers are more inclined to use “diasporic Chinese literature” to refer to overseas Chinese literature. In that symposium, the topic of “the relationship of diasporic writers’ home country and residence country” was discussed.93 “Overseas” is a very accurate spatial term. However, at the same time, it is an academic generalization, which neglects cultural ethics and cultural traditions. The word “scattered” is blurred, with the location being uncertain and unclear. If we use the word “diaspora”, it invokes Jewish memory of deportations and exiles. However, when it is compared with the word “overseas”, which literally means “outside”, it conveys a warm feeling of hometown and home country, reflecting a strong recognition and respect for cultural ethics. If arguments arise between these two terms, which are quite different in definition, political ethics would have to step in and replace cultural ethics. That is a non-academic situation, which nobody would like to see. As a result, the notion of “diaspora” is being accepted by the literary circle in mainland 92 Zhuang, Yongkang. “Within and Without: On Diasporic Literature in Chinese Language”. Union Morning Post, 9 September, 2001. 93 Madsen, Deborah. “The Double Negative Rhetoric—On the Diaspora Literature of Canada”. Nankai Journal 5 (2009):26.

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China. Mo Yan is very happy to accept such a concept. He pointed out at an international conference: “Diaspora indeed is a common phenomenon nowadays. Studying the relationship between this phenomenon and literature is really an important project”.94 Certainly, it doesn’t mean that all the problems concerning writers’ identities have been solved. To solve these problems completely, and to move “diasporic writers” out of the shadow of “overseas writers” and make them appear in the literary world without burden, we must not identify them according to their political and administrative region. “New Literature in Chinese”, which is more culturally ethical, is a better term to generalize and expound. In conclusion, in comparison with common generalizations of regional and national literature, New Literature in Chinese is more accurate and clearer. It also reflects more cultural ethical concerns. Cultural ethical perspective not only solves the problems of embarrassments and uncertainties of national and regional literature; it also reduces the sense of cultural drifting of diasporic writers, making sure that all writers in the same cultural community enjoy an equal status.

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Mo Yan. “Diaspora and Literature”. Literary Post, 20 March, 2008.

CHAPTER II CHINA AND ITS NEW LITERATURE

II.1. The Negative Background of New Literature in Chinese and Its Influence Amid fire and thunder, the outbreak of the May 4th Movement in 1919 was a fuse to trigger the birth of New Literature in Chinese. The soaring popularity of modern reformism, in addition to various innovative campaigns under the titles of revolutions in poetry and fictional creation sparked off by the popular trend of thought, became the prelude and greenhouse to the movement of New Literature in Chinese. Since China had been forced to open up its doors to Western powers several decades earlier, the humiliating situation continued while China’s national industries saw a transient prosperity. They gasped for breath when foreign pressures relaxed as a result of the internal conflicts among Western powers. Thus, a modernized order of social life was initially established, bringing in a consumer market for modern culture. Such a social reality became fertile soil for cultivating New Literature in Chinese. In addition, a great number of Western literary works, doctrines and ideas, including the widely accepted theory of evolution, made their way into China, serving as nourishment for the germination and development of the New Literature. Last but not least, Western Humanism was a mounting social mood at the time, also bringing fresh insights for the development of the New Literature. All of these constitute the historical background against which China’s new literature came into being. Yet, not all the factors leading to its emergence were favorable. According to what is essentially revealed by the Marxist principle of resultant interaction of different historical factors, there were many historical conditions of another type that contributed to its emergence, such as the long relative silence of Chinese thinkers, cultural stagnation, and the paucity of literary creations. At first glance, these factors seem to be harmful to the

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emergence and growth of the New Literature. If viewed from another angle, however, we might see that, just because of them, the development of the New Literature was effectively activated. They stimulated the emergence and growth of the New Literature passively, so they are regarded as the negative background of the New Literature. Generally speaking, in the formative process of a certain matter or movement, a negative background includes those factors that play a negative or passive role. They are alien to positive or promoting factors, which run against them by reinforcing the process. According to normal logic and reasoning, these factors as constituents of the negative background are regarded as negative or disintegrating ones because they are incapable of supporting or encouraging the formation or the emergence of that matter or movement. In some cases, they are a stumbling block that constrains or sets limits for the formation. Yet the actual unfolding of history or a social movement is often the result of complicated integration, involving various factors, both positive and negative. Many negative factors are seemingly insufficient to sustain, or are harmful to, a certain matter’s development. On the other hand, it is possible for some of them to stimulate its generative mechanism so that its positive performance is sparked off by its negative factors. Biological phenomena have proved that if a given population of organism has a natural enemy as a negative factor for its development, they will survive and prosper. With the elimination of the natural enemy, instead of flourishing, the population will face imminent extinction. In addition, immunological evidence shows that, apart from being an infringement on the host organism, an antigen as a negative factor gives rise to the antibody, a favorable factor for the organism. The performance of culture or history acts in the same way. Yuan Hongdao, a Ming Dynasty writer, suggested a proposition in his essay “A Preface to Collected Works of Xuetaoge”: “Regulations come from misdeeds and are perfected in excesses”.1 This is an admirable epitome of historical dialectics, although its demerit lies in his undue exaggeration of a negative factor’s role, meaning it can hardly be deemed a general law. People are usually accustomed to tracing the origin of the New Literature or literary revolution in terms of the positive background of the above-listed factors, asserting that they begot the movement of the New Literature and, in a certain sense, determined its direction. But it would lead to overstatements if we one-sidedly stress the positive background in 1

Jiang, Yingke, Collected Works of Jiang Yingke. Changsha: Yuelu Press, 2008.

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this way, which, for example, caused the leading thought of the May 4th Movement to be erroneously upgraded to being communistic. Of course, we are not sure if the negative angle presents a methodological self-consciousness; nevertheless, the introduction of the negative background is always helpful to gaining historical truth and is conducive to correcting all far-fetched conclusions and one-sidedness brought about by an overemphasis on the positive background. It goes without saying that the revelation of the negative background should avoid such far-fetched thought and partiality in a similar way. So, to achieve this goal, we need a more prudent and more sustainable demonstration.

Historical Desolation According to a well-established view, both the the New Culture and the New Literature of the May 4th Movement were deeply rooted in the fertile soil of ideological and critical activism. Yet, as shown by historical facts, both ideological and critical activism were the result of the New Literature Movement detonated by the literary revolution, while the movement and revolution themselves made their debut against a negative background, featuring ideological inaction and the withering of criticism. At the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese culture came into a state of historical desolation, although it had just seen a short-term culmination of action and excitement baptized by the reformist upsurge in 1898 and the 1911 Revolution. The once lively social mood and the elite with high ideals were sneered at by the hackneyed tunes of the folk literature in an ossified process. All the cultural prime that remained from the eventful 19th century, with its limited vigor and slight vitality, seemed to evaporate as a result of the tragic conclusion of the short-lived Reformist Movement in 1898. All vigorous and resourceful ideological legacies, including the advocating of reform trumpeted by Liang Qichao, very soon lost their luster and retreated into oblivion. Another example is the animated doctrine for poetic composition advocated by Huang Zunxian. It was spoilt and overrun by the vulgar comic sketches and the prevalence of sentimental romances in vernacular Chinese. During the two decades before 1919, when the May 4th Movement broke out, neither the qualified successors of China’s great literary tradition nor any giant thinkers capable of guiding the whole nation were in sight. On the contrary, the situation across the land had nothing but the unbearable desolation and grave-like stillness as depicted by Gong Zizhen in the previous century: “Ten

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thousand horses stand mute!” It is not surprising that even the young Lu Xun felt deeply worried by the omnipresent indifference in the populace of the time, and asked in well-founded anxiety: “Where are our spiritual fighters?” Acting as the mouthpiece of their epoch, a galaxy of fighting revolutionaries, such as Zhang Binglin, Zou Rong, Chen Tianhua, Qiu Jin, Sun Yat-sen and Zhu Zhixin, were exhausted in their single-handed struggle when shouting themselves blue in the face in vain. With these few exceptions, the whole intelligentsia, including the ideological leaders and cultural elites, seemed to be in a dormant state. So the first outcry of the New Literature and the literary revolution actually came from the barren wilderness of desolation and infertility. The absence of a spiritual keynote in a certain era often creates the need for ideological innovation and a revolution in thinking patterns. In the opposite direction, the impoverishment and dejection in the community of Chinese thinkers galvanized and encouraged the forerunners of the literary revolution, who, in spite of untimely haste and solid estrangement, made their way into the ideological wasteland, holding high the flag of literary revolution with full confidence and uttering strings of sharp, merciless and high-sounding but impertinent slogans and views. In Chen Duxiu’s article “On Literary Revolution”, the author was bold enough to prescribe a panacea for all social evils and maladies. In his eyes, “the brilliant inheritance of European civilization was regarded as a product of the revolution”. According to him, “there are revolutions in the fields of politics, revolutions in the fields of religion, and revolutions in the field of ethics, and in the field of literature and art, there are revolutions too!”2 Everything is revitalized through revolution and pushed forward. Such a native pan-revolutionary theory claimed the revolution to be all-powerful, and this viewpoint had earlier been put forward by a young revolutionary martyr called Zou Rong. Self-styled as the pawn of the revolutionary army, Zou Rong maintained in his agitating pamphlet “Revolutionary Army” that “the revolution is the common course for everything in the cosmic evolution” and “the self-evident truth of the world”. According to Zou Rong, “the revolution will turn China into a ‘pure land,’ and everyone of the Chinese nation will become a George Washington”.3 In addition, he hailed the revolution as “the most spectacular and most splendid thing in the world”. It is true that, during the first decade of the 20th century, in the era of inertia and aphasia, the only outcry from the wilderness was the call 2 3

Chen, Duxiu. “On Literary Revolution”. La Jeunesse 2.6 (1917). Zou, Rong, Revolutionary Army. Beijing: Huaxia Press, 2002.

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for political revolution and national emancipation, which might be heard from Zou Rong’s pamphlet. In other words, the political criticism and exposition of national democracy preached by revolutionaries of the time filled the gap left by the sheer apathy of the ideological elite. Yet, as we have ferreted out, such political criticism and agitators’ propaganda, lacking a profound ideological basis, give us an impression of over-simplification and partiality if they are regarded as ideological legacies of a given historical era. The initiation of the literary revolution not only inherited the two’s traits of simplification and partiality but also was agitated by the two. In the same way, Chen Duxiu concocted the so-called “three isms” in his work “On Literary Revolution” and made a negative evaluation of China’s traditional literature. In his radical means to reform Chinese literature, he was daring and resolute enough to comment on the worldwide cultural mainstream and to disdainfully evaluate the time-honored national inheritance of traditional literature. Although it experienced ups and downs in the throes of its birth, New Literature in Chinese developed rather smoothly. This may be proved by an anecdote in which two forerunners went to stage a comic two-man-show in a bid to win response from the public, which will be presented in detail. Indeed, if viewed through normal logic, it is reasonable for Chinese literary historians to deem the gloom and dullness of the domestic ideology to be a negative background, as it was not in favor of the literary revolution. As described in the “Preface to Call to Arms”, a collection of Lu Xun’s short stories, he sighed over the widespread public apathy: “Neither anyone comes to show agreement, nor anyone stands against it”.4 Such a situation of awkwardness and indifference gave the literary revolutionaries the feeling of being socially outcast. In order to break the annoying stalemate, they played a “shuanghuang” (a popular theatrical form of the two-man-show in Chinese folklore, in which one acts in pantomime and another hiding behind him does all the speaking and singing). The two “actors” in the show were Liu Bannong and Qian Xuantong. Yet, such a reality left a wider space for their rebellious activities and provided possibilities so that, at least, the concepts of the New Literature could be spread in a certain scope after, rather easily in fact, overcoming various obstacles. In the 1930s, Chen Duxiu observed in his “Preface to Science and the Outlook on Life”: “If Hu Shi had promoted the use of writings in the vernacular thirty years ago, his work might have 4

Lu Xun, “Preface to Call to Arms” Completed Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 2005.

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been refuted and wiped out by a single article of Mr. Zhang Shizhao. But, by now, who would lend an ear to Zhang’s well-informed opinion?”5 On one hand, the universal emptiness and inaction in the ideological elite of the time determined that Zhang’s viewpoints had already gone out of vogue; on the other hand, the ideological stagnation had created an unresponsive society, in which even a high-sounding view could not cause sensation in the public because nobody was for or against it, and no one had any interest in talking about it. This was an ideological dormancy of dullness and desolation. So the existence or emergence of any new thoughts was endorsed or acquiesced from the negative background, no matter whether they were galloping wildly or taking a rest for a while.

Vernacular Literature The outbreak of the literary revolution came at the time when China’s withered literary creation was at its nadir. Although the reality of feebleness could not provide a solid groundwork for cultivating the New Literature, it was the negative background that gave birth to New Literature in Chinese, and, under its aegis, the immature newborn brainchild advanced in big, proud, albeit sometimes uncertain, strides. The ages-old writings in the classical style then saw a substantial ebb in their creativity, providing room for the rejuvenation of the vernacular literature. First proposing a scheme for the literary revolution when he was abroad, Hu Shi apparently had sufficient self-confidence based on his correct estimate of the rapid and irrevocable decline of China’s ages-old classical literature. Just like what had been summarized by Hu Shi as an overseas sojourner, the poetic pieces in classical style presented by the mass media during the early years of the 20th century constituted a scene of imminent collapse as exposed by the progressive poet Liu Yazi. The poets of the time had depleted both their talents and their inspirations, creating nothing original, but only antiquated, prosaic or parodied compositions full of labored and ornate clichés in the outmoded form of poetic exchange or laudatory truism in response to an imperial edict, as feudal literati used to do. Other types of literary creation were in the same ossified state: as dead as a doornail and dominated by fake antiques. Confronting such a mundane and baneful banality having nothing to do with the refined taste 5

Zhang, Junmai, et al., Science and the Outlook on Life. Hefei: Huangshan Press, 2008.

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of true literature, did it really need any courage or brawn for a trailblazer to have a go at the literary expedition? Vernacular literature in China, such as ballad singing, had been reaching its climax in terms of popularity and artistic maturity far before the emergence of the writings in the vernacular were used as a standard written script. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, however, it still was plagued by under-development in its expressive capability and was notorious for its outspoken straight-forwardness and verbal rudeness, so that it was figuratively sneered at to “have the throat exposed as soon as a phrase in the vernacular was uttered”. In addition to its bad taste, the practical literary situation at the time provided a popular necessity, objectively calling for and appealing to the advent of a new literature, and even the latter’s immature stance was welcomed, endorsed and encouraged by the public. At the very beginning of the New Literature, literary works were mostly crude, primitive and childish in their artistic form. What is precious to us is that the fathers of New Literature in Chinese clearly understood the primitiveness of their works. They were bold enough to create such naivetl because they knew more clearly than any latecomers about the desolation of the epochal setting. When facing a literary desert they had reasons to deem their primitive contrivance a valuable creation, as well as a rewarding adventure epitomizing a new value, or being the value itself. Under such unproductive circumstances, a short story written with the dull and flat title of Is It Love or Suffering? showed its unique quality, grandiose style and outstanding effect because it conveyed a fresh air of contrivance in seriously mirroring the life of man. Later, it was praised by Lu Xun to be a fictional specimen never dreamt of by Shanghai novelists in the 1910s. The Great Event in Life was an unsophisticated dramatic work; in comparison with the commercialized Civilized Plays, and the old conventional operatic pieces, it had a purer taste and fresher style, thus becoming a harbinger of the new drama in Chinese. It is also true of the creation of new poems. It was a real venture for Hu Shi to compose his new poetic works in the vernacular, and the naming of his collection of new poems as New Poetic Attempts revealed not only the self-confidence cherished by the precursors of the New Literature but also the fundamental estimation of their own works. Although today we cannot label them “irresponsible” for advocating new poems without considering the consequences, at least we believe in the possibilities and reasons for them to take such hasty actions. To reach the state of “irresponsibility” required fearlessness in composing primitive works to make their debut. Such a

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mood found its expression in Hu Shi’s poem dedicated to his friends in Ithaca in September 1915: “I was rather bold when composing the poem”. This shows that the initiators of the New Poetry were supercilious in their bearing. Such a bearing must have come from a negative background: the universal infertility, the low spirits in the commonwealth of letters, and in particular in the community of Chinese poets of the time. In contrast with such a negative background, new writers became resolute and duty-bound to make various literary experiments. Without hesitation, they advanced in stubborn but unsteady strides, forging ahead until the New Literature was firmly established and went on walking forward along a predestined route. From its birth to its initial development, China’s new literature grew up in a multi-layered pattern. Each layer had its distinctive development powered or stimulated by the negative background. Concretely speaking, the state of unproductiveness and universal low spirit in the circles of writers and poets prior to the Literary Revolution promoted the emergence of the primitiveness of the New Literature. This primitiveness itself gave rise to a recessive background, against which relatively mature works of the New Literature made their appearance with more self-confidence. Very probably, this might be evidenced by the poetic creations of the New Literature, which were noted for their eye-catching accomplishments in initiating the course of the literary revolution. The composition of poetic works in the vernacular had to embody a prosodic principle, in the same way as writing a prosaic essay (prosaic-ism), due to the negative background when poets could do nothing but copy, whitewash and parrot. The New Poetry created by Guo Moruo was characterized by its freshness, burning passion, and typical reflection of the epochal spirit. In sharp contrast with Hu Shi’s poems in the vernacular, it made its debut in the literary arena as a specimen of prosaic-ism. Evidently, Hu Shi’s crude and naive vernacular creations became a powerhouse in driving the publication and re-creation of Guo’s new poems, which constitute one of the earliest landmarks and precious samples of the New Literature. Poets like Guo were inspired, leading to their recognition of the concept of the New Poetry. Before long, the New Poetry in Guo’s style was victimized as targets of criticism and repudiation by the late-coming poets because of their excessive prosaic-ism and unbridled expression of feeling. The versification of the New Poetry developed by Wen Yiduo and Xu Zhimo, the theory of the so-called “pure poetry” advocated by Mu Mutian and Wang Duqing, and other mature contributions by poets to the New Literature were an advancement against the “negative background” of Guo’s free verse, discredited by their lack of

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true poetic charm. In comparison with the New Poetry, fictional creation saw a less apparent and not so rapid progression in its development. One of the reasons for this lay in the novelists’ deficient understanding of their own creative primitiveness, so that they were unable to develop a desire to surpass the existing negative background.

The Weak Opposition Some positive background factors, seemingly in favor of the emergence and development of the New Literature, inversely exerted an unfavorable influence on the New Literature’s newborn quality and growth orientation due to the absence of some negative background factors, and this led to the innate defects in the New Literature’s fundamental characters and infrastructure. New Literature in Chinese was born in the caustic atmosphere of rebellion against the traditional literature, classical culture and feudalistic despotism. It adopted a clear-cut stance in the rebellion. If the rivalry against the three had been fierce and the oppression had been powerful, the negative background would have been more prominent. Yet, what had really been happening in history was in opposition to the people’s well-established impression: the New Literature was not burdened with such a negative background at its formative stage. In the aspect of language (here we concretely refer to the founding of the vernacular literature), the New Literature had never been impaired by many strong realistic opponents. At least, we may see this fact in Hu Shi, the most enthusiastic father of the vernacular literature in modern China. Around him, we may discover that the old writings in classical Chinese and their attachment to the old literature were never strong enough to form a negative factor strangling the emergence of writings in the vernacular. According to him, instead, the victory of the writings in the vernacular over those in the classical style was a smooth and natural process because it was completely reasonable and fully justified. So the New Literature, whose basic demand was to apply vernacular Chinese to people’s daily lives, almost never met a sizable or decent resistance from the traditional circles of letters at the key juncture when it was making its debut. The smooth birth provided ample space for the vernacular literature advocates, in which they indulged themselves with insufferable arrogance at the very beginning. One of the consequences of this self-indulgence was, first of all,

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an inclination to sanctify vernacular literature. As if treading on air, the New Literature in the vernacular came to the stage under the all-sweeping promotion and hectic agitation by Hu Shi and his self-confident colleagues. Bold enough to despise the time-honored and profound inheritance of classical Chinese, it dared to counterweigh the literary gems crystallized from the ages-old national legacy with hastiness and to irreverently trample down the Chinese nation’s cornucopian trove of voluminous literary masterworks. What makes things worse is that, they usually gave themselves airs and graces and looked down their noses at the priceless legacy of the national literature, then completely forgot the necessary self-regulatory norms and a rigorous construction for the New Literature. Judged from a linguistic angle, the advocates of the New Literature had trumpeted “a rush of stylistic diversity” disregarding any standardized norms for literary creation: many of them displayed their own syntactical traits and distinctive wording patterns in their works, in addition to their unique vocabularies and even their self-coined phrases, which were understood only by themselves. In the initial period, their stylistic achievements failed remarkably to promote the standardization of writings in vernacular Chinese. As a matter of fact, there had been relatively skilled and technically mature articles in modern vernacular Chinese in the newspaper Shen Pao at the very beginning of the 20th century. In striking contrast, 20 years later, some works of the New Literature were still hesitant and immature in their wording, either in an affected or pretentious tune, or having their own way in rhetoric and grammar so that the words in some masterpieces were spiced by a sour anachronistic flavor of antiquity more so than that of their predecessors at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the same time, many literary works were plagued by Westernized sentences as a result of blind imitation in the rush for “wholesale Westernization”. If viewed from a long-term perspective, sentence-making patterns in the European style can forcefully enrich Chinese writings in the modern vernacular and enhance their expressive capability. On the other hand, if viewed from the development principles of any modern language, Westernization in literary creation hampered the linguistic standardization and maturity of the modern vernacular as done by the sour doctrine of “return to the ancients”. A decade after the birth of the New Literature, the language in the vernacular literature gradually saw a trend of linguistic standardization as a representative system of modern Chinese. If, at the very beginning, the fathers of the New Literature had had to endure hardships in their pioneering work and been beleaguered and attacked from all sides, instead

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of only being scolded by Lin Shu and other weak opponents, they would have put more consideration into literary standardization, and the establishment of the written system of modern Chinese based on the vernacular would not have been so delayed. The primary target of the rebellion and revolution when the New Literature came into being was traditional literature. Yet, at least in the minds of the forerunners of new writers, traditional literature seemed disqualified to form a strong enough counter-offensive force to hit back. Acting as the negative background, it itself was in an irretrievable decline; the New Literature was destined to rebel and start revolutions, seeking survival amid the strife. Yet the target of rebellion and revolution was so feeble and insecure that, at the beginning, the New Literature was in disarray, i.e. the retreat of the negative background when facing the mounting rebellion led to a serious imbalance in the New Literature itself. Because history dramatically hid China’s classical literature, which once was the immediate opposite of the New Literature, a nihilist atmosphere toward classical literature held sway as soon as the New Literature charged forwards against the old. Such an atmosphere was unfair and irrational toward China’s fine literary legacy. Also, and more unfortunately, the New Literature lost its first chance to grow up healthily by absorbing the rich nutrients of traditional literature. As the supportive and restrictive role the national tradition played on the New Literature was negligible, it was hard for the New Literature to show the independent quality and style required of it to reach its own maturity. In the initial stages, the New Literature gave up its attachment to the national culture. This means it abandoned its own inherent advantages in the world literature and so eventually lost its qualification to hold a dialogue with the world literature. To dismiss the outmoded old literature and to welcome a new literature in all its forms with a thoroughly relaxed mood and stance was the dominant concept of values when China’s New Literature came into being as a predominant spiritual desire. The decline and retreat of traditional literature made way for or encouraged the impetuosity and frivolity of the New Literature. A new criterion for appraising a literary work became prevalent since the early years of the New Literature: anything new meant good, and, in this way, the artistic value of many of the works of the New Literature was over-estimated. It seems that history proceeds in line with a dialectical logic of the negation of negation. The weakness of traditional culture became a positive factor in boosting the rebellion of the New Literature. At the same time, this led to the incompleteness in the negative background, against

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which the New Literature came into being. It was the result of the absence of a heavy and oppressive pressure, i.e. the loss of several important components of the negative background, so that the New Literature was superficial or impetuous since its birth and was, for a long time, in a state without a paradigm. With the collapse of the original norms and the new ones still in their disordered state, many writers of the New Literature were hit by a syndrome of dislocated values, i.e. losing the sound judgment of outstanding literary works, so that some fictional works of little value were deemed to be monumental classics. In comparison, prosaic works seemed to be immune to such a syndrome and grew into the most developed outgrowth of modern literature. One of the reasons was that such a literary branch was immune to the influence of the fashionable bias that what is new is good during the transition from classical to vernacular Chinese and, therefore, received more nourishment from traditional literature. One of the convincing pieces of evidence is the work of Zhou Zuoren, who linked modern prose with Ming Dynasty essays in terms of artistic value at the beginning of his literary career. The late-coming prosperity of modern novels was closely related to the fact that the people were gradually and universally aware of the importance of writing norms in literary creation.

Consequences of Lacking a Negative Background In the various cultural layers, we can see a similar phenomenon: the weakness or absence of some elements of the negative background to some extent led to certain mutations, even disfigurements, in the framework of New Literature in Chinese. At the same time, the overlooking of such a phenomenon is misleading, as people would go astray when interpreting the brilliant history of New Literature in Chinese. Acting as the negative background against the New Culture since the May 4th Movement in 1919, Confucianism represented our nation’s cultural tradition. The slogan of “Down with the Confucian shop!” was an outcry of historical reverberation that is still in the minds of our people today. “The Confucian shop” at the time had its own bosses, but evidently not Confucius himself. As a matter of fact, they were apologists of Confucianism in its decline or the followers of Neo-Confucian disciples. They styled themselves as the sage’s successors but, as put by Chen Duxiu, they were actually “pedantic scholars in the countryside ignorant of anything new in the outside world” and defenders of the ossified dogmas

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of cannibalistic feudal ethics. Although Confucian teachings were deep-rooted, they were a dying ideology, of which the influence was kept intact only in the countryside as a customary force and unable to impose any impacts on the cultural elite as a rational and powerful doctrine. In spite of some countercurrents, such as the Collected Works in Defense of Confucianism6 compiled by Ye Dehui, their ideological feebleness was too weak to withstand the attack of new tide, and they could not even arouse a universal interest in their criticism among the personages of the New Culture. In a nutshell, Confucian ideology as the main component of the negative background against the New Literature and the New Culture, at least in the eyes of the New Culture advocates, was nothing but a paper tiger in the ideological confrontation. So, if viewed from the emergence and development of the the New Culture and the New Literature, traditional culture with Confucianism at its core will collapse at the first blow. The weak position of traditional culture poured fuel onto the soaring momentum of the large-scale invasion of Western culture. Among the ruins of the traditional ideology, Chinese people tended to deem European culture and its cultural background as a verdant oasis full of hope and vitality. Of course, such an inclination was in favor of the New Culture and the New Literature making their way into the expedition of modernization and globalization. At the same time, however, it gave rise to an inherent deviation of “wholesale Westernization”. Evidently, it is impossible for modern Chinese literature to really embark on the road to “wholesale Westernization”. With the exception of political and ideological considerations, it seems unlikely for Chinese to reconstruct Chinese culture and literature completely under the guidance of Western values. At the same time, however, it was just because of the decline and disintegration of traditional culture acting as the negative background that it seemed too easy for the New Culture to negate the traditional culture and the old literature. From the camp of the latter, the counterattack was hardly expected, so that in the eyes of many radical forerunners both traditional culture and old literature were disqualified for participation in the establishment of the New Culture and the New Literature. Therefore, the traditional culture in its weakened state not only hampered the sound emergence of the New Culture and the New Literature but also, to a certain extent, affected its own future development. At least, the reckless 6

Ye, Dehui, ed., Collected Works in Defense of Confucianism. Taipei: Wen Hai Press, 1971.

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negation of the traditional culture by the New Culture advocates led to a degree of estrangement between the Old Culture and the New Culture. Such an estrangement caused no damage to traditional culture, but, with the passage of time, its harmful influence on the development of modern Chinese culture became more and more remarkable. Probably due to their curiosity or yearning for the traditional culture, modern Chinese intellectuals suddenly showed a keen interest in the traditional culture. Because of the long estrangement, this interest seemed to be indiscriminate when taking in the traditional culture. In such a cultural context, New Confucianism became a new favorite of the Chinese readership overnight. Some scholars, such as Chen Yinque, originally not so popular among the public, came into the limelight like rising new film stars churned out by manipulative promoters. More surprisingly, the notorious sinophile crackpot Gu Hongming was extolled and showed off in the spotlight in the waning years of the 20th century. In fact, many defects in the development of China’s modern culture and new literature originated from the weakened state or absence of the negative background when both were in their formative stages. As people are not so accustomed to observing and considering social phenomena from the angle of the negative background, such a conclusion is always overlooked. Even if one reviews history from such an angle, it is possible to neglect historical truth, and without the revelation of the negative background ensuing from this, true academic discoveries will be far beyond reach. Regarding the status of the negative background vis-à-vis modern democracy, despotic politics in China was also in a weakened position in China during the period between the start of the 20th century and the outbreak of the May 4th Movement in 1919, so the progressive elements in the Movement felt the rebellion against the feudalistic rulers would not be an uphill task. Both in the modern culture and in the historical movements of the New Literature, the term “resistance” seemed to be too buoyant and too volatile. To some extent, this encouraged the ideals of anarchism to overflow and prosper among the intelligentsia. Anarchism evidently exerted a deep and harmful influence on modern Chinese literature. For a relatively long time in the 20th century, people used to measure the ideological value of a writer or a work by the sole criterion of whether or not a fictional creation culminated with a “rebellion”. Yet, the historical lesson for China’s New Literature is that the outcry of rebellion and its decimated straightforward implications oversimplified the literary reflection of the reality and possibilities in the ever-deepening process by

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which literature reflects and pursues the ideological meanings of life. New Literature in Chinese made its debut in a specific era when the traditional culture was in collapse and Western culture was making its way into China. During a drastic transition in which a variety of cultures converged, its cultural and literary backgrounds were very complex. The background’s positive and negative factors intersected and overlapped with one another. Their different layers affected the emergence of new qualities in the New Literature and the New Culture, forming many bewildering and enthralling sights on the cultural and literary landscapes. If we only one-sidedly stress the positive factors, our understanding of the complicated scenery will be over-simplified and we will be unable to appreciate or interpret the unique insights emerging from the negative background. With regard to the topic discussed in this chapter, the unique scenes are clear to us. At the eve of the great May 4th Movement, the unproductive state of China’s desolate ideology constituted the negative background, leading to an unprecedented fervor in cultural precursors when initiating the literary revolution. It was the dwindling creation in the old literature and the naivetl in the vernacular literature that resulted in the burgeoning rise of the New Literature. The absence of some factors in the negative background affected the in-depth exploration of China’s New Literature. The weakened state of traditional literature not only failed to suppress the New Literature effectively; it also contributed to its impetuosity and recklessness and delayed its linguistic and formal standardization. The main pillars of the negative background (traditional culture and feudal despotism) were in decline during the confrontation. This gave rise to a prejudice in the New Literature’s attitude toward national culture and its superficial and cursory understanding of democracy.

II.2. The Area Background of New Literature in Chinese: Its Early History Literary creations reflect the writer’s feelings and thoughts in a certain time and area, and the temporal background and the area background, from which these feelings and thoughts emerge. However, in the past literary research, much attention has been drawn to the temporal background rather than the area background. This academic tendency has negatively affected the achievements made in the research on the May 4th New Literature. In fact, the emphasis on the area background is one of the

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most important ideological and cultural attributes of the New Literature, although the sensitivity to the factor of the time is well accepted. Before the May 4th Movement, literary writers had noticed the relationship between the literature and the time. The arguments, such as “Songs and poems are composed for the age”, or “Each age has its own literature”, all stressed the temporal background in literature. The May 4th New Culture Movement initiated the tradition of exploring and discussing the reform and development of China against the vast vistas of the world. The new generation of progressive intellectuals developed the thinking habit of investigating the reality in China in the vast scenario of the world and even the universe, which they incorporated into their literary creations, investing the New Literature with a conspicuous area background. 7 Nevertheless, the researchers on modern Chinese literature have not been sensitive to this typical aspect of the New Literature. The studies on the New Culture and the New Literature have always attached great importance to the temporal background in literature, and somewhat ignored its area background. When reviewing Goddess in Creation Weekly, Wen Yiduo first discussed the spirit of the time and then elaborated on its local color,8 seemingly putting the temporal background and the area background in literary creation in an equally important position. But the local color he talked about focused on the cultural aspects, namely, the spirit of a traditional culture in China, rather than the spatial and regional elements as the background of writing. If the study of the temporal background in literature is often politicized, the study of the area background is also likely to be affected or obscured by cultural studies. In this sense, the cultural significance of the “Falstaff background” in Shakespearean literature diluted the significance of area, and Balzac’s “metropolitan life” and “provincial life” merely indicated a certain style of living. In literature, the area background has something to do with a certain social and cultural background and particular scenes depicted in the work, but they are drastically different and a line must be drawn between 7

“Spatial background” and “regional background” seem to be the counterparts of “temporal background”. However, the meanings modern Chinese attach to the two terms do not seem adequate to produce the equivalent to “the time”. So the term “area” is used instead in the sense of the coverage and presentation, hence the term “area background”. It is different from the term “area” in the sciences of aviation and aerospace; it doesn’t cover the areas on land, rather the area under control. 8 See: Wen Yiduo. “The Spirit of Times of Goddess”. Creation Weekly 4 (1923). See also: Wen Yiduo. “The Local Colour of Goddess”. Creation Weekly 5 (1923).

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them in the research. The area background refers to spatial and regional factors in literary conception and writing, carrying and representing in diverse ways with cultural, ideological and even political connotations. So far, the study of the historical background in the New Literature has become the routine academic premise. By contrast, the study of the area background in the New Literature must be traced back to the new writers’ ways to develop and display their consciousness of area and further clarify the patterns of the area background and their impact on the development of the New Literature.

The May 4th New Writers’ Consciousness of Areas What is the area background? It comprises the spatial and regional elements of literary conception and cultural writing, which provide references and evocations. Sometimes, this kind of spatial-regional element can be written directly into the work. Generally speaking, this element frequently carries with it very strong cultural, ideological and political meanings. It is especially true of New Literature in Chinese. The researchers of the New Literature are inclined to stress the temporal significance of these cultural, ideological and political elements, and much attention is paid to its role in the New Literature. Actually, it is the area background that more directly unfolds the colorfulness and variety of the New Literature, so its cultural, ideological and political implications are equally palpable. Ever since the modern enlightenment movement opened up people’s horizons and introduced global perspectives to China, Chinese cultural, ideological and political thoughts have been put into a worldwide area background. The May 4th New Culture Movement spared no effort in advocating “Mr. Science”, which brought the notion of “the universe” into cultural considerations and literary conceptions. Chen Duxiu argued that one of the chief defects of the traditional Chinese literature is “there is no room at all for the so-called cosmos, so-called life and so-called society”.9 He demanded that literature should represent the wide space and areas of the universe. His viewpoint greatly enhanced the consciousness of the area background in the debates and writings of the New Literature and achieved an effective extension in the global and cosmic sense, which invested the New Literature, both in theory and practice, with a very 9

Chen, Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 46.

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modern sense of time and space. His own literary thought highlighted the area background. In the paper “On Literary Revolution”, he compared “today’s solemn and splendid Europe” with China with its stagnant literature, arts and national spirits. Hu Shi, who considered literary issues mainly from an “evolutionary” or temporal dimension, also made frequent mention of Europe with its system of learning and Latin style,10 and his area background in the global perspective clearly had a great effect on his literary views. When criticizing vernacular Chinese and the New Literature, even Lin Shu had to make an allusion to Charles Dickens: “Charles Dickens in England has always cursed Greek, Latin and Roman as the dead stuff”11, which shows that he had to illustrate his own idea with the help of the global area background. Lin Shu thought that this trend started with Liang Qichao; in fact, it became prevalent during the May 4th Period. The area representation and imagination characterized by a global perspective and cosmic consciousness brought forth the charm, style and vigor of the May 4th Period. The spirit of the period was exemplified by Guo Moruo’s poetry writing. From Wen Yiduo’s criticism on, no one has doubted that Goddess was typical of the vivid representation of the spirit of the May 4th Period. However, few people have noted that this spirit was displayed and laid bare by a global and cosmic area background. The most fervent and most imaginative cantos in Goddess embrace the whole world and the whole universe in the delineation of areas. “Good morning” depicts the poet’s great zest in the new era by opening his arms to embrace the world and summoning up places and areas in the world, which are either in order or chaos. Then the poet ardently greeted “Good morning” to, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Great Wall of China, Russia in the far north, the Pamirs to the west, the Himalayas, the Ganges, the pyramids along the Nile, Belgium and Ireland in Europe, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the islands of the Pacific, Washington in the USA and Fusang to the east. The poet displayed his wild association with the whole world in terms of space and areas, conveying a great delight in freedom in both poetic conception and expression. The overwhelming emotions stood for 10

Hu, Shi, “Literary Thoughts in Historical Perspective” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 59. 11 Lin, Shu, “An Appendix to Lin Qinnan’s Works” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 172.

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an open age and the breath and spirit of a rising nation. If the global expression in areas comes spiritually or phenomenologically from a global consciousness of the modern enlightenment movement and horizontal thinking, the poems with the earth as the subject matter, such as “Earth, My Mother” and “Blow the Trumpet when Standing on the Horizon of the Earth”, undoubtedly belong to the free, turbulent and cosmic thinking unique to the May 4th Period. When the earth was conceived and eulogized, the area background that the poet and readers had in mind surely goes beyond the earth and extends to the vast and infinite universe! “Phoenix Nirvana” sings and wails when facing “the boundless universe” and “The Heavenly Dog” is yelling, “I’m going to swallow the whole universe!”, which demonstrates macrocosmic and unrestrained consciousness of area background, entirely modern and akin to the May 4th-Period. In the May 4th Period, few writers released their strong poetic feelings like Guo Moruo. But the global consciousness of areas found its expression under some poets’ pens in a more gentle way. The poems of the farewell, such as “Farewell in Huangpu” by Kang Baiqing and those by Zhu Ziqing, earnestly convey a world background. The poems composed by Wen Yiduo during the May 4th Period, especially those written after returning from America, such as “Ode to the Sun”, incorporated the “local color” of the traditional Chinese culture into the global consciousness of areas. The spirit of the age was also presented. The tradition of representation of the cosmos initiated by Guo Moruo was influenced externally by Walt Whitman and internally by Qu Yuan. More importantly, it was inspired by the open-minded, progressive and scientific spirit of the age. This tradition represents a valuable literary achievement at the beginning phase of the New Literature. The tradition was carried forward in subsequent phases of literary creation. The starting lines of the poem “Beast, Beast, Beast”, written by Wu Mingshi, read: “Four billion suns are burning, a great fire will last forever in the universe. The space without the fire is full of shining stars. ... Nebulae flee at 7,000 miles a second, to run, run out of the universe”. These lines embody a global way of thinking. The modern life expanded spatially in such a way that the May 4th new literary creations acquired a global background, which was easily ascertained in the novels written by the new literary writers like Yu Dafu, Xu Dishan and Zhang Ziping. Even in a microcosmic sense, the emphasis on the global background could be viewed as one of its defining characteristics, when we take into account the fact that the New Literature is supposed to serve life. From the Renaissance Society to the Literary Research Association, the new literary writers were inclined to regard

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“serving life” as the mainstream consciousness of literature. Even Lu Xun was ready to accept and reiterate the doctrine in his works. Just as Zhou Zuoren said, the literature that aims to serve life is “the writing which records and studies life’s problems based on humanitarianism”. 12 A truthful record of life had to say goodbye to the “Mr. Somebody” style in traditional literature—characters, scenes and plots of life must be detailed, vivid and colorful, as Chen Duxiu put it, “laying bare the feelings and the world”. 13 Hu Shi once blamed Chinese traditional fiction for “being miscellaneous notes”: “Somebody, in some place, has a great talent by birth ... One day, he visits a garden, and encounters a lady, a goddess in his eyes”. He called this “the stereotyped fiction”,14 because there were no individualistic depictions in this sort of fiction, always beginning with the old wife’s tales: a person’s name, birthplace and identity. Although the fiction made clear the character’s birthplace, it had nothing to do with the development of the plot and failed to construct the area background. The vernacular novel Lady Bofan by Lin Shu is a good example. It starts with the hero’s birthplace and hometown in an unusually detailed way: “Bo Shilu was born in Luxi, Chenzhou. His grandfather Dafeng, after passing the imperial examination, was appointed an official in Jinan. Shilu went with him to Shandong, and settled in Jinan, so he might be deemed a resident of Jinan”. The problem is that neither the plot of the story, nor the character’s personality and destiny, has anything to do with regions mentioned above. When discussing the literature of the May 4th Period, Wu Fuhui pointed out convincingly that the following writers are credited with the establishment of the May 4th new style: “Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren and Shen Yanbing accomplished the introduction of Western literary theories, and Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary and Yu Dafu’s Sinking were the first fruits of the New Literature! The fiction was renovated; the same was true with the new poetry, the new drama and British-style essays. The entire reform of the vernacular language was carried out with an unprecedented scale and depth”. From “the circulating kiosk of ‘Domestic and Foreign Books and Newspapers’” in Family by Ba Jin, one could perceive “the degree to which the remote Chengdu was influenced by the May 4th 12

Zhou, Zuoren, “Literature for Man” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 196. 13 Chen, Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 46. 14 Hu, Shi, “On Short Stories” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 272.

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Movement”.15 This detailed and vivid description of the area background in the novel shows just how much momentum the new style had gained. In fact, in Lu Xun’s classic works, such as The True Story of Ah Q, Blessing and Kong Yiji, the generalized and stereotyped “Mr. Somebody style” disappeared completely. Instead, there entered life-like characters, the plots with rich and appealing details, and the individualized language which speaks of the character’s personality. What’s more important, the area background came to the foreground with its ambience of the age and its rich regional culture. The small yet unique areas like Weizhuang, Luzhen and even Xianheng Tavern, together with Lu Xun’s own name and works, have already become the canonical terms in the New Literature. The new literary writers did not fully realize that the vivid presentation of the area background with its rich cultural connotations had become a basic feature and sign of the new literary style and the New Literature. Nevertheless, they used to observe the budding new literary writing against the area background in their criticism. In August 1921, Shen Yanbing analyzed more than 120 short stories released between April and June, basing his statistical analysis on the area background. “The lion’s share are about love between men and women, more than 70 in total; only 8 are about the rural life; only 3 are about the working people’s life in cities; not more than 9 about family life; 5 about school life; about 20 about social life (petty figures in the city).” 16 Although life scenes depicted in the fiction are somewhat different from the area background in literary creation, it is sufficient to justify the idea that new writers developed a preliminary area consciousness to observe life and even literature itself, that they were paying much attention to space and regions; temporal factors did not prevail, as most people have imagined. “Literature for Man” advocated by Zhou Zuoren revealed the two-sidedness of the space and areas in the New Literature: “For one thing, it is the face, namely the ideal life or the life people wish to attain; for another thing, it’s the side face, namely the common life or inhuman life, which can be objects of research”.17 Of course, Zhou Zuoren was not putting forward such an argument from the angle of space and regions, but 15

Wu, Fuhui. “Why Not Return to the Turning Point: One of the Questions about Modern Literary History”. Literary Controversies 7 (2007). 16 Lang Sun. “Reviews on the Writings in April, May and June”. Fiction Monthly 12.8 (1921). 17 Zhou, Zuoren, “Literature for Man” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 196.

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it could be used as a methodological reference to help penetrate the tension between two spaces within the area background of the New Literature. Possibly inspired by Ibsenism, the writing of the New Literature alternates between two kinds of areas. One is the realistic space where the story happens and characters live and act, like Jizhao Hutong and Public Library where Juan Sheng of Lament over the Dead live and stay. The other is the ideal or idealized space where characters wish to attain and live, or the scenes of “the ideal life”, in Zhou Zuoren’s words. A case in point is Juan Sheng’s dreamland: the turbulent ocean currents the fishermen struggle against, the trench where the soldiers fight to the death, the concession where the speculators stream around, and the forest where the outlaws overrun. For Juan Sheng, the realistic space is in conflict with the idealized spaces, which becomes so intense that it is tearing the character’s heart and the author’s soul with almost equal force. The two-way movement and the conflicting soul are caused by the conflict between the force of the realistic area and the idealized area. This is the most anxious state of writing of the May 4th new writers, represented by Lu Xun, which is a unique way of conception and the most outstanding contribution to literature. Of course, this could simply be reduced to the conflict between the ideal and the reality, but the specific and culturally oriented representation of area background is more consistent with the literary principle than an abstract presentation of the ideal and realistic spirit. What is more important, the idealized area is not necessarily the ideal area. Just as Lament over the Dead indicates, the trench, the concession, mountains and forests and the sinister ocean are no more than the places of adventures and stimuli the character dreamed of; they are not necessarily the ideal place in the character’s mind. Lu Xun’s perception and penetrating illustration of Ibsen’s The Doll’s House reveal that the idealized area is far different from the ideal state of life. Nora is not content with the family life and yearns for the outside world. For her, the outside world is the space she is looking for in her dream, relative to the area of the moment—family. However, the idealized area is not the ideal place. Before women gain economic independence, Lu Xun argued in his famous speech in, “What Happens After Nora Leaves Home?” There are two choices waiting for Nora after she leaves home: one is degradation, and the other is coming back home. The pessimistic tone makes it clear that the fictional figure’s idealized area is far from the ideal state. Lu Xun was not the only person to develop the area background during the May 4th Period. In the sense of going beyond the conflict between the

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ideal and the real, many new writers also presented the conflict and torture of the characters’ emotions and soul caused by the two-way movement between the realistic area and the idealized area. The Seashore Friends by Lu Yin was a work full of vivid descriptions of areas, and more attention was paid to the consciousness of areas than the stories written by her contemporaries. Yunqing comes to the seashore she once visited. When she sees the house of “the seashore friend”, she sighs: “The seashore friend! When will you come back?” She is only separated from Lusha for a year or so, so the length of time is not enough to trigger such feelings of vicissitude and the heaving of sentimental sighs. The problem lies that, the vast distance in space: “The visitor stands before the house, but the hostess is far away” reinforces such sad sentiments. Several young ladies in the story are very sensitive to the separation of areas; they are sentimental about the forthcoming end of the summer vacation. “Lusha will return to Shanghai, Lingyu to Suzhou. Yunqing and Zongying will stay in Beijing, on the eve of their departure... in the sunset glow, they sing a song, bidding farewell: Peach blossoms float over the pond / the old friends travel far away, Remain silent but sentimental on leaving, Cherish the emotions in the different places! When shall we get together again? I Wish to change into waves to send you away, Look for you at the ends of the earth.” In a similar way, the song expresses the bitterness of the separation from the area rather than the vicissitudes in the temporal sense. The main storyline is the construction of a house by the seashore, also in the hope of constructing an idealized area. It is a scene they yearn for, which is not at all ideal. “We wandered by seashore the whole day, and found such a nice place. To the left stood a cave of white jade, to the right ran a clear brook, in the middle rose several small houses for us to live in after retirement. ... I wanted to leave there a souvenir for my love to console my boring life”, disclosed Lusha in her letter. The boring life needs comfort, and the small house in the wonderful place by the seashore is no more than the memory of their emotions, rather than an ideal place for rest. Even so, only a few of her friends come here to shed tears. Their misfortunes and yearning for the seaside house constitute the never-ending swirls of feelings in the heart of the characters and the author. The Prospect and Dreamer of the Sea by Sun Lianggong also shows the same emotional swirls: the realistic area is suffocating, whereas the idealized area is gloomy. The pitiful people suffer the torture of emotions and the tension of ideas against the area background. It is a two-way movement, so intense that it reaches the point of splitting up. This feeling also found its expression in what Lu Xun summarized as

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“Rustic Literature”. The works falling into this category made it clearer that the two-way movement against the New Literature background could not simply be reduced to the conflict between the ideal and the reality. In the preface to Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Short Stories, Vol.2, Lu Xun summarized the works about the hometown written by Jian Xian’ai from Guizhou, Pei Wenzhong from Yuguan and Xu Qinwen from the East Zhejiang in this way: “Those who move to Peking committed their heart-felt feelings to paper, either subjectively or objectively; what has been written, in fact, belongs to rustic literature; on the side of Peking, they are the authors of sojourn literature. But this is different from what G. Brandes called ‘literature of emigrants’, the author himself rather than the story written by the author is the sojourner, so what we perceive is a lurking homesickness, rather than an exotic ambience to expand readers’ horizon or to show off his horizon”.18 These writers’ works about their hometowns, of course, depict the people and customs of their hometowns, but their feelings were rooted in Peking where they were sojourning. Thus, the “lurking” homesickness is virtually the pain caused by the conflict of the emotions and the soul due to the two-way movement between the area of the hometown and the realistic area of Peking or cities. Neither of them has any direct link to the ideal state.

The Uniqueness of the Area Background of the May 4th New Literature The intentional breaking away of the May 4th New Literature from traditional Chinese literature left many cracks behind. Agreeable or intolerable, they are always very noticeable and difficult to ignore or forget. The most explicit, splendid and unarguable crack lies in the huge difference in historical backgrounds composed of different kinds of political and cultural climates and styles of living, whereas some cracks appear to be implicit. This is the difference in the area background, which has not been discussed in the relevant studies. The discovery of the difference in the area background between new literature and traditional literature will help us to grasp the characteristics and spiritual essence of the New Literature more accurately and deeply. Traditional literature was also created against a given tempo-spatial 18 Lu Xun, “Preface to Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Short Stories. Vol.2” Qiejieting Essays. Vol.2. Complete Works of Lu Xun. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981.

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background, so it brought with itself a typical area background. The long-lasting “The Ode of Departure” was a poem with the strongest expression of the area background, whose extension of the areas exerted direct influence on Guo Moruo and Wen Yiduo in the field of the New Literature. The description of the space and regions and the boundless imagination in Guo Moruo’s Goddess and Galaxies left such a deep impression in the New Literature that Wen Yiduo immediately thought of him when attempting to study poems in a perspective similar to that of the area background. The literary tradition initiated by “The Ode of Departure” displayed the depiction and imagination of the areas from a vertical dimension of “quest up and down”. Quests “upward” refers to leading the horse he rode to Xian Ci to drink water, and letting it stroll freely in Fushang; breaking a branch from the sacred wood to clear the dust on the surface of the sun, and making friends with the god of thunder. These are miracles performed in the heaven of the later generations. The same is true with the next line: “I order the gate-watching god in the heavenly palace to open the door for me and to lean against the door of the heaven to look at me”. Quests “downward” refers to the desire to live with the god Peng Xian. According to Wang Yi, Peng Xian was a virtuous minister in the Yin Dynasty who drowned himself; he was said to dwell in a place full of ghosts and water, or the netherworld and hell. The traditional Chinese literature boasts two traditions: the tradition of “The Ode of Departure” and the tradition of The Book of Songs. Even the literature that followed the tradition of “The Ode of Departure” did not create by fully simulating this kind of the area description and imagination. However, the thinking pattern of the heaven-earth-hell framework undoubtedly reflects the traditional way of cultural thinking and has a direct link with the mythological. According to mythological thinking, “primitive humans lived and behaved amidst things and objects … while they were feeling the existence of these things and objects, they added new things and objects”, 19 thus, they fully believed that there were other worlds outside their own. This kind of primitive thinking emphasized observing the world from a cause-effect logical perspective and insisted that “there is no haphazard thing”; meanwhile, it was indifferent to the natural cause—it was too impatient to perceive “what leads to or does not lead to” a certain phenomenon.20 So the different worlds were understood as relevant and having cause-effect links, which resulted in the concept of 19 20

Levy-Bruhl, Lucien, Primitive Thinking. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1997. 58. Levy-Bruhl, Lucien, Primitive Thinking. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1997. 372.

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areas similar to the heaven-earth-hell pattern, represented by the Chinese traditional notion of “biluo huangquan”, which literally means “heaven and earth”. The concept of areas in the vertical dimension had a widespread and profound influence on the traditional Chinese literature and even the novel The Dream of Red Mansions, whose unit of thinking went far beyond Lucien Levy-Bruhl’s “collective appearance”, was not an exception, although some modifications were made in the literary and poetic fashions. Therefore, Chen Duxiu condemned the old Chinese literature because its themes did not transcend emperors and the powerful, gods and monsters, and individuals’ fortune and prosperity. 21 Qian Xuantong pointed out that “nine out of ten” traditional Chinese novels were “either the works teaching people to do bad things”, “or the absurd rumours about monsters and ghosts”.22 Radical as the words were, there were grains of truth in them. In fact, the same is true of the traditional Western literature. From Dante’s Divine Comedy, the counterpart of “The Ode of Departure” in the West, Cai Yuanpei discovered such literary and aesthetic features: “Although its contents follow the heaven-hell stereotype, the figures he depicted all have their own personalities, not confined to the models set by the church”.23 It was clear that, in Cai Yuanpei’s eyes, “the stereotype” in the traditional Western literature was the spatial arrangement of “heaven-hell”, which is similar to that of traditional Chinese literature, represented by the vertical spatial thinking mode. At the beginning of modern times, the multi-layered spatial frame was abandoned; instead, one that observed the world horizontally and macrocosmically was constructed. Whether it be Kang Youwei’s “Da Tong Thought” (which basically means an Ideal World), which had been “invested with new meanings of Humanism of modern times”, or Liang Qichao’s elucidation of “the globe” and “all countries”,24 or Sun Yat-sen’s 21 Chen, Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 46. 22 Qian, Xuantong, “A Letter to Chen Duxiu” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 51. 23 Cai, Yuanpei, “General Preface” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 4. 24 Liang Qichao said in “On the Formulation of a Constitution”: “There are ten powerful countries in the world. In terms of political system, Russia takes the form of monarch dictatorship, the United States of America and France adopt democratic constitution, and the other countries adopt constitutional monarchy”.

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claim that “The world tide runs forward powerfully and vigorously”, they all shifted their eyes from the paradise of the vertical world to a horizontal plane, which embraced the whole world. The change of the area background in literary and cultural writings symbolizes a change in the way of thinking and even in the value system. The vertical way of spatial thinking of heaven-earth-hell paradigm leads people’s ideas, beliefs and spiritual sustenance to an oracular state in the upper world, aiming at a culmination in morality and the salvation of the soul. The result was “the models set by the church” summarized by Cai Yuanpei. By contrast, the horizontal way of spatial thinking of “the globe” or “the world” paradigm expands our horizon to every corner of the globe, enabling us to make synchronical comparison and critical examination. We tend to make comparisons and contrasts between China and foreign countries in the political, social, cultural and literary fields. Similar to the spatial thinking of the traditional literature, the area background envisioned by the enlightenment writers at the beginning of modern times could be divided into the realistic area and the idealized area. Chinese traditional literature tended to regard the everyday scenes of life as the realistic area, and the very scene that served as the background and the source of aspiration was the paradise. At the beginning of modern times, a new cultural thought became dominant: the present-day China was taken as the realistic area, and the advanced West was taken as the idealized or even ideal area. The Western literatures and cultures were earnestly turned into legends and even deified. Liang Qichao’s essays used to bring such Western legends vividly to readers: “An amazing French peasant girl named Joan defeated 100,000 British soldiers. What leads to the miracle? The only explanation is ‘inspiration’”. 25 The West was deemed the fountainhead of advanced culture and spirit; hence, the idealized or ideal area the author aspired after. His exploration and imagination of China, his criticism and design of Chinese political institution were conducted, without exception, with the West as the frame of reference and the source of aspiration. In other words, the West was the ideal area background he wished to reach for. The May 4th New Culture Movement, as the direct ideological and cultural foundation of the New Literature, kept in line with the beginning period of modern times in the understanding of area background. “From today on, any activity and any policy in China have global significance. 25

Liang, Qichao, “Inspirations” Complete Works of Liang Qichao. Vol. 1. Beijing: Beijing Press. 1997. 376.

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Although the youths in China are burying themselves in classics, they have no alternatives but to open their eyes to observe the world”, declared “The Announcement of La Jeunesse”.26 It reveals that this “global” perspective evolved from the enlightenment thoughts of area background. “Open the door of China to the world, and never lock the door”, advocated Chen Duxiu in “A Call to the Youth”.27 At that time, the cognition of the area background of Chen Duxiu and his comrades drew near to that of their predecessors. They regarded the advanced areas of the world as their idealized or ideal area, shedding light on the backwardness and darkness of the realistic area of China. In contrast with China, where nationals “are listless” and “the national power keeps declining”,28 “solemn and splendid Europe”29 certainly became the idealized and ideal area. Hu Shi attempted to employ Ibsenism to guard against nationalism and patriotism, in case they distracted the Chinese from the visionary sight of the world civilization. “Ibsen had never embraced nationalism, nor had he been a patriot in the narrow sense. …I think when Ibsen was dying (in 1906), he was becoming a cosmopolitan”, analyzed Hu Shi.30 An identification with the civilized world developed into the mainstream of thought of the New Culture, which put the new cultural intellectuals and their predecessors on the common ground: looking upon the civilized world and Europe as the idealized area or ideal area. The notion did not change until 1919. “We believe that there are many irrational elements in politics, morality and economy in all the countries in the world, which are detrimental to further development,” “A Declaration of La Jeunesse” clearly stated.31 This signifies a sensible attitude toward the civilizations in other countries and an end to viewing the idealized area of the civilized world and Europe as the ideal. New intellectuals and new writers declared clearly and calmly that the idealized area as the macrocosmic reference was not consistent with the ideal area as the 26

Chen, Duxiu. “A Call to the Youth”. La Jeunesse 1.1 (1915). Chen, Duxiu, Collected Works of Chen Duxiu. Hefei: Anhui People’s Press, 1987. 7. 28 Chen, Duxiu, “Some Words to the Youth” Collected Works of Chen Duxiu. Hefei: Anhui People’s Press, 1987. 7. 29 Chen, Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 44. 30 Hu, Shi, “Ibsenism” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 188. 31 Chen, Duxiu. “A Declaration of La Jeunesse”. La Jeunesse 7.1 (1919). 27

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spiritual harbor. Lu Xun’s sharp criticism of Ibsenism penetrated into the heart of the problem, and Lament over the Dead and his other works sketched the contours of a new framework of area background. Thanks to Lu Xun’s groundbreaking effort and the successive efforts of Yu Dafu and other writers, the New Literature world ultimately terminate the unity of the idealized area and ideal area, which had persistently dominated the traditional literature and the literature of the beginning period of modern times. The heroes in Yu Dafu’s Sinking and Zhang Ziping’s She Is Sadly Gazing at the Sky over the Motherland suffered oppressions and humiliations in Japan and looked back upon China as the idealized area. However, their homeland was too poor and backward to be the land of happiness. Therefore, in the delineation of the area background, the May 4th New Literature, equally beginning from Lu Xun and developing through Lu Yin, Sun Lianggong and other rustic writers, foregrounded the two-way movement between the cruel realistic area and the idealized area (which is hardly ideal) as well as emotions in conflict and souls in agony that the two-way movement brings about. This is the manifestation of the most profound and most potential values of the May 4th New Literature, and also the most powerful and most unique contribution in the aspect of area background. The new area background is totally different from the area background in the traditional literature, and there is a remarkable discrepancy with the literature and culture of the beginning period of modern times. The spatial thinking in the traditional literature was structured in a vertical way with the upper level being the heaven. It not only stood for the idealized area but also the highest level of belief; it is self-evident that it stood for the ideal. Although the literature and culture in the beginning period of modern times were used to arranging the area background in a horizontal pattern, the areas in the civilized world tended to be viewed as the ideal area and the visionary land of happiness, appealing to people’s spiritual identification. In the spatial thinking in the traditional literature and the literature in the beginning period of modern times, the idealized area and the ideal area simply overlapped with each other. In actual creations, this simplification could be understood as the relationship between the ideal and the reality. The May 4th New Literature represented by Lu Xun shattered the visionary sight or the picture of the land of happiness in the idealized area, which serves only as a reference to lay bare the soul. Thus, the works created were likely to become complex and profound; works of emotional loss and spiritual anguish. Nevertheless, with the surge of the revolutionary tide in modern China, the visionary sight became a necessity in literary depictions, even in the

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illusory sense. The presentation of the area background in the manner of the two-way movement of the May 4th New Literature was challenged. With the intrusion of the political significance, the idealized area abundant in modern literature regained the color of the ideal and the heaven, and the depiction of the area background in literature returned to a simple formula: heaven versus hell, heaven versus earth, the land of happiness versus the flooded land. The depth and complexity of much of the modern and contemporary literature are no peer when compared with that of the May 4th New Literature in many ways. And the same conclusion can be drawn from the exploration of the area background in modern and contemporary literature: invested with ideal and even sacred implications, the idealized area becomes an absolute visionary sight, which leads to the simplification and even abstraction of literary handling. As a result, the emotional conflicts and spiritual anguish brought about by the two-way movement of the area background in the May 4th New Literature were nowhere to be found.

II.2.1. Important Contribution Toward New Literature in Chinese: The Area Background of Guo Moruo’s Writings Wen Yiduo once published two essays to review Guo Moruo’s poetic anthology Goddess, one focusing on the “spirit of times”, and another on the “colour of areas”. 32 It has become an incontrovertible truth that Goddess is a mirror of the spirit of times, which has been widely accepted and quoted in academia. By contrast, his discussion of the color of areas has been ignored, as found in the research on Guo Moruo’s Goddess or on the poet himself. The same rule applies to other writers and their works. In fact, people are used to viewing literary phenomena from the temporal perspective, while they tend to turn a blind eye to the area background. Even though the “color of areas” suggested by Wen Yiduo points to the colors and factors in the traditional Chinese culture, and the manifestation of the local customs and people are made in the context of the world literature, his attempt to weigh a literary phenomenon from double perspectives, temporal and spatial, is very meaningful for the scholars coming after him.

32

See: Wen Yiduo. “The Spirit of Times in Goddess”. Creation Weekly 4 (1923). Also see: “The Local Colour in Goddess”. Creation Weekly 5 (1923).

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With the increasing influence of the “Cultural Tide” on the research of Modern Chinese Literature, that research which studies writers and their works from the angle of area culture has kept increasing. Cases in point are those discussing Lu Xun, Guo Moruo and Zhao Shuli respectively in the contexts of Zhejiang Culture, Sichuan Culture and Shanxi Culture. It is a pity that so many valuable findings have not led to the establishment of a conceptual frame of the “area background”, as opposed to the “temporal background”. It seems that scholars have cared so much for culture, a big and charming word for them, that their analysis of the relationship between the “areas” and writers’ creations are chiefly conducted in terms of cultural atmosphere and cultural psychology, and so they fail to notice the functions of the general area background in the writers’ conception of works. The functions, as it were, should not necessarily be discussed within the framework of culture.

Temporal Background Like the temporal background, the relationship between the area background and a writer’s creation expresses itself at three levels. Firstly, the features of areas are directly laid bare in the work, similar to the temporal background depicted as the symbol of the time. Secondly, the representation and imagination of areas in the work do not come directly before us but the writer is clearly aware. It is similar to the presentation of the temporal background: it is not directly set forth in the work, but the writer knows for sure which age he is writing about. Thus, area elements become solely the background for writing, just as the temporal background does. Thirdly, the work does not describe the area background, and the writer does not realize it either. Instead, it is embedded in the writer’s conception of the work, subconsciously giving way – just as some writers find with the temporal background – to eventually play an essential role in the piece of work. The temporal background directly represented in the work of a writer or a poet may be relatively monotonous, while what is presented as the area background could be very rich. The time and knowledge of the period that a writer or a poet has undergone or has mastered can be very limited, but the areas and the area awareness he has experienced or have developed can be rather extensive, both of which can be directly exploited as the area background in his work. If well exploited, the area background can be made an advantageous perspective in academic research.

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Compared with the contemporary writers and poets, the area under Guo Moruo’s pen is vast and boundless. It reflects his frequent visit to diverse areas, unrestrained imagination, rich historical knowledge, exceptional talent and imposing manner. Although we cannot claim that the width of the area background represented is in proportion to a poet’s talent, descriptions of extensive areas and their customs, even the mere mention of names of areas, will add much information to a work, enlarge readers’ horizons and arouse their cultural memory to broaden their imaginative space, thus enriching the expression and enhancing effects of a work. In fact, this way of writing had been valued in traditional Chinese poetry. It is well evidenced in The Book of Songs, whose varied styles and life-like representations were built up through “feng” (folk songs) of different areas and states, in which local customs, people, and names of the areas had always been included and emphasized in the poems. “Take care of the father at home, serve the lord in the palace and learn the names of birds, beasts, grass and trees”, said Confucius when illustrating “xing, guan, qun, yuan” (inspiration, observation, solidarity, complaint)—four basic functions of The Book of Songs and poetry at large. Later generations have been bewildered by the last part of the sentence. In fact, it is intended to increase the information of the work, broaden readers’ vistas, evoke their cultural memories and bring the work closer to life. Its effect is similar to that achieved by an extensive description or mere mention of areas and their customs. Whether he was conscious of this or not, Guo Moruo’s works, especially his early poems, attach great importance to various kinds of area factors. Take Goddess as an example. It is interesting that Guo Moruo rarely represented scenes, customs, or people from his hometown, which forms a sharp contrast with Lu Xun, whose hometown was always the focus of his work. With Zhuangzi’s transcendentalism and Whitman’s unbridled spirit, the areas in Guo Moruo’s works feature everywhere from the famous earthly places, such as the Yangtze, the Huangpujiang River, vast seas, the Pacific, the Arctic, the Dongting Lake, the Bohai Sea, Shouyang Mountain, Yang Fortress, Hangu Fortress, the south of the Yangtze River, Korea and Japan, to the boundless spaces such as the moon, the Earth, the Galaxy and the cosmos. In a broad sense, they helped to broaden the spatial imagination of modern Chinese people and symbolized the beginning of an unprecedented writing style in the history of modern Chinese poetry. Indeed, the expanding spatial vistas and the global and cosmic way of thinking emerged as a brand-new thing in literary criticism and creation

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ever since the beginning period of modern times. The modern enlightenment school of thought widened the Chinese people’s horizons and introduced global perspectives into China, and Chinese cultural, ideological and political thinking began to be linked with the worldwide area background. Sun Yat-sen realized from the political perspective that, “The world tide runs forward powerfully and vigorously. Go with the tide, you stand; go against it, you fall”. Besides, Chen Duxiu and other literary revolutionaries thought about China and literary and cultural issues on the global scale. As previously mentioned, when Chen Duxiu compared the situation of European countries with China in his essay “On Literary Revolution”, he indicated that since the Renaissance, “revolution” has not been confined to politics, but it has extended to religion, ethics, literature and arts, and he further emphasized his argument that Chinese literature could only evolve out of Chinese Literary Revolution.33 Hu Shi, like Chen Duxiu, would also seek theoretical support out of European experiences, when he argued for his literary reformist thoughts on vernacular Chinese literature. There is no doubt that Darwinian Theory inspired him greatly. Though Hu Shi focused on Chinese literary evolution, he referred to the fact that when authoring a book, European scholars in the 16th and 17th century usually employed both slang of their own countries and Latin. 34 His global perspective substantiates his views that there is an evolution in literary creation. Even Lin Shu related his views on vernacular and traditional Chinese to Charles Dickens’s criticism on Greek, Latin and Roman. These literary revolutionaries’ viewpoints became the predominant theoretical trend in the May 4th Period. Chen Duxiu incorporated the concept of “the universe” into his thoughts on culture and literary construction. His pursuance and construction of universal concept is based on his criticism on traditional Chinese literary forms, of which royal literature, classical literature and literature of recluses are typical examples, which confine political scholars’ minds to a narrow area and observe the trend of world, society and literature with arrogance. 35 This global perspective and 33 Chen, Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 46. 34 Hu, Shi, “Literary Thoughts in the Historical Perspective” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 59. 35 Chen, Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 46.

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cosmic consciousness have great impact on the spirit of the May 4th Period, characterized by bold and unrestrained imagination and enthusiasm about science, democracy, revolution, literature and other parts of society. Therefore, Guo Moruo’s poetry, especially Goddess, tends to be referred to repeatedly for its undoubted status as the representation of the zeitgeist of the May 4th Period. The zeitgeist in Goddess is also embodied in Guo Moruo’s other poems written at that time, which suggests the expression of the zeitgeist had become an urgent and important task for him. He wrote with the pride of a “Creator”: “I know our time and opportunity has come / I will be working harder in creation.” Guo Moruo claimed that he aspired to be a peer not only to Chinese writers—such as “Uncle Ya” (the alleged author of Book of Songs) in the Zhou Dynasty; Qu Yuan in the Spring and Autumn Period; Li Bai and Du Fu, the masters of poetry in the Tang Dynasty; Guan Hanqing, a notable playwright and poet in the Yuan Dynasty—but also to world writers, such as the ancient Indian poets of the Vedas, Dante of The Divine Comedy, Milton of Paradise Lost and Geothe of Faust. The “creator” in the eyes of Guo Moruo is the Big Self, the creator of the world and cosmos, as legendary as the Chinese God of Creation, Pangu. The spirit of creation expressed by Guo Moruo, his desire to follow the examples of literary sages all over the world and his praise for the Big Self of creation, reflects his global awareness and cosmic consciousness. In addition to the spirit of creation, the zeitgeist represented by Guo Moruo expresses his rejoicing at the renaissance, as “Phoenix Nirvana” sings: “Anything and everything is come to life again!” This passion is also fully expressed in his poetic play “Dawn”: “The Garden of Eden has come back! Let us celebrate the rebirth of heaven and earth!” Guo Moruo also fervently chanted “revolution” in that period. To him, “revolution” was not a concept with clear political content and it had nothing to do with the Communist revolution that prevailed later in China; rather it is a transformative social movement. His poem “A Mad Song of Cosmic Revolution”, a prologue written for Zhu Qianzhi’s work Revolutionary Philosophy, sings a song of “the irresistible tide of eternal revolution”, “What a great revolution in the universe! / Metabolism is the process, and / Alternation of seasons is the performance, / Thunders and storms are its herald, / Rosy dawns and sunsets are its banner.” These lines clearly reveal that Guo Moruo’s conception of revolution is a typical “Pan-revolution”. By dint of this subversive and enthusiastic word, he praised the irresistible tide of the age.

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In that age of cosmic consciousness, Guo Moruo, as a Chinese poet, took great delight in singing the song of “cosmic revolution”, world peace and national equality. In his period of Goddess, he wrote a poem “A White Sheep in Wolves” and gave an account of what prompted him to write the poem. On October 5, 1920, the Fifth World Conference of Sunday School was held in Tokyo, and more than 2,000 religious figures from all over the world attended the conference. When an old pastor surnamed Bai (which literally means “white”) from Korea was making a speech, he was interrupted and dismissed by the host, because he mentioned ten million Koreans who were suffering in extreme misery under Japanese aggression. The indignant pastor shouted: “All brothers and sisters, pray for my poor compatriots!” Guo Moruo indignantly cried out for the old pastor: “Where is freedom? Where is humanity? Where is equality? Where is religion?” “They are wolves in sheep’s clothing” “birds of prey with retracted claws”. He called for Koreans, as well as Chinese who were in the same dire straits, to resist and revolt: “Hold fast a sword! Hold fast a pistol! Hold fast a bomb!” He even made such an extreme call: “Throw away [your] Bible! Pick up a Rifle!” This is the core spirit of the May 4th Period, which was voiced in New Literature in Chinese. It was the shout of the age, conveyed by the modern Chinese language, and found widespread resonance. It is the manifestation of the passion for creating, the joy at renaissance and rehabilitation, the howl of the revolution, and the call for resisting. It conveys a cultural awareness, a national consciousness, and more importantly, a universal and cosmic consciousness. It is the keyword and subject term of that age, which is best presented and represented by Guo Moruo.

Area Background in Japan Guo Moruo’s writing was inspired by the spirit of the times and was marked by the area background. In his poetic and fictional writings, he based his feelings and ideas about life on certain areas, which are often implicit in his work only as the background. Sometimes, he made clear mention of and eulogized certain places in poems like those collected in Goddess. However, more regularly, he regarded spatial elements as the object of attachment and the element for reference, which convey his affections and feelings about life. In Goddess and his other works of the same period, only several poems clearly represent the customs and scenes of the port of Hakata in Fukuoka, Japan, where he was living at that time.

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The poem “Waves of Tears” composed in 1921 conveyed his passion for Hakata, where he had lived for a long time, while the majority of the poems written at the same time did not depict the scenes there. In fact, the area background of the seashore in Hakata has exerted a more profound impact on Goddess than people realize, and has even become an inseparable part of his style. It is generally believed that the style of Goddess is wild and violent. In fact, most poems in it are peaceful, tranquil, fresh and enchanting. The poet once said: “I like peace and tranquility by nature; for example, I like Tao Yuanming’s poems, and as for the poems written in the Tang Dynasty, I like Wang Wei’s, those of the tranquil type”. Only after the May 4th Movement did his talent in poetic creation “break out immediately”.39 Although the poems of the wild and violent style constitute the most outstanding and most valuable part of Goddess, they are not the entirety, nor even the biggest part of the collection. There are 53 poems besides “Prelude” and 3 poetic plays in the anthology, out of which more than 10 poems typically display what Guo Moruo called “masculine rudeness”, accounting for less than one-third of Goddess. In “How I Write Poems”, the poet made special mention of 9 poems of this kind, including: “Blow the Trumpet when Standing on the Horizon of the Earth”, “Earth, My Mother”, “Ode to the Bandits”, “Good Morning”, “Phoenix Nirvana”, “The Heavenly Dog”, “Light in the Heart”, “Coal in the Stove” and “Lessons of Cannons”. Moreover, “Standing on the top of Mt Fudetate Looking Afar”, “Sea Bathing”, “The Morning after Snowing”, “Sing Half-awake under the Plum Tree”, “I’m a Worshipper of Idols” and “Ode to the Sun” are equally of the same vigorous and unrestrained style. Even when the poems such as “Sunrise”, “Death in Triumph”, “Evening”, and “Rebirth”, with less obvious “masculine rudeness”, are taken into account, the total number is no more than 19. Strictly speaking, out of 19 poems, “Light in the Heart” and “Coal in the Stove” which Guo Moruo mentioned should not fall into this category. So only 17 poems are characterized by “masculine rudeness” and about 10 poems manifest the straightforward and uninhibited spirit of the time, which account for one-fifth of the anthology. By contrast, four-fifths of the poems assume a “peaceful and tranquil”, fresh and enchanting way of writing. Guo Moruo traced his peaceful and tranquil style of poetry to his peaceful and tranquil nature and his long-term preference for tranquil 39

Guo, Moruo, “How I Wrote Poems” Collected Works of Guo Moruo. Vol.11. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1959. 147.

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poems, and he attributed the passionate and unrestrained style to the inspiration from the May 4th Period. He offered a convincing explanation, but it is far from the sole explanation. In effect, the key factor determining the unity of the two styles in Goddess is the special area background of the port of Hakata. He used to claim bluntly that Hakata was the area background for many of his works. “Reminiscence of the Nature” written in the 1930s recalls his literary activities and life in Hakata, saying “his feelings for nature are purely oriental”. This refers to “the nature, people and things in Japan” experienced “as a student in Kyushu University”. It is a sort of “natural sentiment”, and “the prostitutes and actresses gather there to bring out the aroma of the south”. This was, of course, a sweet and warm memory. When the poet Pu Feng asked Guo Moruo whether the description of nature in his poems had something to do with the most beautiful sceneries in Sichuan, his home province, Guo Moruo categorically denied it by saying Goddess and Galaxies “were written in Hakata in Kyushu, Japan. They are tinted with the thick local colour there, and they have little to do with Sichuan”.40 Pu Feng was fully aware of the beauty of Hakata and concluded that, “the poet” Guo Moruo “loves Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei’s poems and he resided in Hakata in Kyushu, Japan, how can we blame him for singing for it?”41 Pu Feng hit firmly on the point; it was the tranquil and beautiful Hakata area that helped to shape Guo Moruo’s bright and enchanting style of poetry, coupled with the influence of Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei. Some people may take it granted that the inspiration of Hakata to Guo Moruo came from the stormy sea and terrifying waves, which have nothing to do with freshness and brightness. Actually, there are not so many terrifying waves in Hakata as other bays, thus, what Guo Moruo appreciated there was chiefly the tranquility and beauty of the bay. He made it clear in A Decade of Literary Creation that “Hakata looks like a lake”. Uminonakamichi “separates the beach in the outer sea from the port of Hakata”, so “there are actually no winds and no waves in Hakata; it is more peaceful than the water of Lake Tai”. He emphasized in “Reminiscence of the Nature” that Hakata Bay often “looks like a tranquil and clear lake”. Guo Moruo wrote a letter to Chen Jianlei, talking about his tranquil life in Hakata: “The mild sunlight hits the green grassland before the window, the fishing couples dry their .

40 Guo, Moruo. “Talks with Pu Feng about Poetry Composition”. Today’s World 1 (1936). 41 Pu, Feng. “On Guo Moruo’s Poems”. The World of Chinese Poetry 1.4 (1937).

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net there, and birds chirp in the sky to disperse the clouds”.42 In “Waves of Tears”, he wrote, “I cannot forget the tranquility of the ten-mile-long woods of pine.” The tranquil and natural scenery and the peaceful living pace in the special area of Hakata deeply impressed Guo Moruo, and it was reinforced by what he had absorbed from the poems of Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei. Additionally, he drew inspiration from Tagore’s poems. All these factors contributed to his bright and enchanting style of poetry, which was established in Goddess and fully displayed in Galaxies. On the other hand, the few vigorous and powerful poems in Goddess, which are known for their violent and unbridled style and enormous impact on the era, are also closely linked to the special area background of Hakata. Temporally speaking, Hakata is like a smooth and clear lake most of the year. Yet during the period between summer and autumn, especially the typhoon season between September and October, roaring gales and turbulent waves often occur. This explains why “Blow the Trumpet when Standing on the Horizon of the Earth” and “Sea Bathing” were written in September 1919. Spatially speaking, Hakata inside Uminonakamichi is usually peaceful and tranquil, but the vast bay outside the narrow road in the middle of the bay is often arrogant and turbulent. “Blow the Trumpet when Standing on the Horizon of the Earth” clearly demonstrates the spatial experience of the outer sea in Hakata. Even if terrifying waves are rampaging in the bay of Hakata, standing on the bank one can only see mountains and islands surrounding it and the road in the middle of the bay. He can blow the trumpet there, but he is not likely to feel like he “is standing on the horizon of the earth”. Standing on the bank of the outer sea, on the other hand, is somewhat similar to “standing on the horizon of the earth”. He integrated his experience of the violent scenes of “the sea” into the poem, said Guo Moruo in “On Rhythm”. “Those who have not seen the sea or the vast sea may consider the poem too violent”.43 Readers who have no idea of the spatial structure of Hakata Bay will not care about the difference made between “those who haven’t seen the sea” and “those who haven’t seen the vast sea”. This is not a wordy expression, since it clearly states that the poet had a double concept about the sea: the sea inside the bay and the sea outside the bay. Furthermore, he stressed that the poem was based on his experience of the “sea” outside the bay. In essence, the sceneries in Hakata are the major area background of Goddess. Hakata not only provides the area for his literary creation and 42 43

Guo, Moruo. “Reminiscence of the Nature”. Modern Times 4.6 (1934). Guo, Moruo. “On Rhythm”. Creation Monthly 1.1 (1926).

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emotional expression but also contributes to the formation of his writing style of the period, which is binary opposition. It is a combination of two different styles; one is violent and unrestrained, and the other is peaceful and tranquil. The binary opposition has two sources: his poetic talents and the inspiration of Hakata.

Area Background in Guo’s Hometown Although the area background of Hakata does not necessarily emerge in each of his poems written at that time, Guo Moruo was ready to acknowledge that Hakata was the area his ideas and feelings were attached to. Literary conception is the thinking process of a writer, and its complexity is often beyond his experience, imagination and understanding. The area background he is conscious of plays a crucial role in his writing. The same is true with what he is not conscious of. According to Guo Moruo, the major area background of his writing was not Sichuan but Hakata in Kyushu, Japan. But Sichuan was his hometown and its influence on his writing is inevitable, of which the writer was not aware. In other words, sceneries and customs of his hometown are the potential area background for the writer’s conception, but they are often beyond the reach of the writer’s consciousness. Scrutinize his poems, and we can perceive the traces of this potential area background. In fact, Guo Moruo made mention of Sichuan in his prose, when recalling his childhood and adolescent life, and in his novels and plays. On other occasions, he seldom wrote about Sichuan or Leshan. This does not mean that his choice of area background had nothing to do with his hometown. When he moved to the Spring Village in Saga, he found the scenery there was similar to that of Shawan in his hometown and decided to settle down there. This is a spontaneous and strong expression of his nostalgia for the area background of his hometown. The memory of local sceneries, customs and people of one’s hometown will last forever in a person’s mind, let alone a poet with strong emotions like Guo Moruo. His hometown was Leshan, where “Mt. Emei boasts the most beautiful scenery in the world”. The special area embedded in the writer’s memory will subconsciously permeate through his artistic creation and indirectly influence his description of areas, even if that area itself is not directly represented. Some critics have earlier discovered the great impact of the beautiful Emei on Guo Moruo’s writing: “Guo Moruo was blessed with

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literary gifts, sincere feelings and intense sentiments. The greatness of Mt. Emei and the sceneries of Japanese islands always touched his heart, fueled the flames of his affections and stored love in his soul. All of these he unknowingly incorporated into his poems”.44 Pu Feng had the same sensitivity when he asked Guo Moruo for an answer, but he was dismayed. The reason is that Guo Moruo wanted to emphasize the more obvious influence of Kyushu, Japan, as his area background. A close reading of some of Guo Moruo’s poems can throw light on his exploitation of his hometown, its sceneries and landscapes as the potential area background. The correct interpretation of these poems depends on the perspective of the potential area background. “Climbing the Mountains” in Goddess demonstrated his nostalgia for the sceneries of his hometown, though he was not conscious of it. The poem reveals his feeling when he climbed the hills near Dazaifu, which is presented in the “plum blossoms” and “the bronze horses in the temple”. The poet pictured Dazaifu and the hills nearby in this way: Ah Ah! White clouds float over the mountains, In four directions extend mountain ridges, Which are too high to climb at a breath.

Those who are familiar with Fukuoka and Dazaifu are aware that the areas around Dazaifu, Nakagawa are almost plains. There are some small hills, like Mt. Treasure and Mt. Sangun, which are located in the natural park, but there are none of the spectacular scenes described by the writer. What the poet described, as a matter of fact, was not the area around Dazaifu but the sceneries of Mt. Emei in his memory. The towering Emei is known for its sea of clouds, so we can see “white clouds float over the mountains”; its height is 2,600 meters above sea level, so it is too high to climb at a breath. The poet did not point out that Mt. Emei was on his mind, but readers can get a glimpse of the spectacular mountains in his hometown through his exaggerated descriptions of the small hills around Dazaifu. “Standing on the Top of Mt. Fudetate and Looking Afar” is another case in point. “Mt. Fudetate lies in the west of Moji, Japan. Climbing up 44 Zhou, Kaiqing, “After Reading Guo Moruo’s Galaxies” Collected Researches on Guo Moruo (II). Ed. Wang Xunzhao et al. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press, 1986. 238.

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the mountain and looking afar, all the ships in the sea and vehicles on the land come into view”, wrote the poet in the preface to the poem. This mountain should be very high. The short story The Last Days of Spring pictures Mt. Fudetate more splendidly: “In the north of Moji stands a steep peak called Mt. Fudetate. The moon hangs high above the peak, like a reversed exclamation mark facing the sky”. This is an imaginary fabrication, because the story is a description of the hero’s meeting with Lady S in a dream. However, it complies with what is described in the preface to “Standing on the Top of Mt. Fudetate and Looking Afar”. The study made by Professor Masaaki Iwasa, a famous Japanese sinologist, shows that “Mt. Fudetate in the poem, located in Moji district to the north of Kyushu, Fukuoka, rises only 100 meters above sea level”. It is unlikely to have such open vistas and leave so towering an impression because “‘Fudetate’ in Japanese means ‘pen container’ or ‘pen rack’, so Mt. Fudetate is actually Mt. Pen Rack. In the Meiji Period, several peaks of it were connected with each other and made it look like pen racks”,46 this is how the name came into being. Guo Moruo used to travel by ship in Moji, and he must have some idea of Mt. Fudetate. So he was not supposed to take in the literal meaning. Why did he make it appear so towering and spectacular? The only explanation is that his exaggerative imagination of this mountain is mingled with his memory of Mt. Emei. Seen from afar, the Buddha’s Peak of Mt. Emei really resembles a reversed exclamation mark facing the sky. Mt. Emei once again became the potential area background for the poet’s conception. Landscapes and sceneries of the hometown as the potential area background are sometimes embedded in the deep structure of thinking, so deep that it is hard to be discovered by writers and readers. This phenomenon itself indicates the profound and complicated existence of the area background. The story In the Moonlight also drew on the life and experience in Japan as the area background and as the subject matter. Although it is not autobiographical, the story of the fictional hero Yi Ou is similar to that of Guo Moruo. Yi Ou’s move and experience in the library share a coincidence with Guo Moruo’s departure from Okayama. Landscapes and sceneries in Guo Moruo’s hometown as the area background are too deeply hidden in the story to be discerned. In the story, the kind-hearted Yi Ou examines the mistake he made in teaching poems in the Children’s Theater two years ago: the misinterpretation of “⭠⭠” 46

Iwasa, Masaaki. “The Writing Backgrounds of Several of Guo Moruo’s Poems”. New Experiments in Poetry 1-2 (2003).

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(flourishing˅ in “⊏ইਟ䟷㧢ˈ㧢ਦօ⭠⭠” (South of the River is the right place to pluck lotus, and lotus leaves are flourishing and luxuriant). “I thought that lotus flowers grow in the plots of field, one plot after another.” The misinterpretation is, of course, designed for the development of plot—to reveal Yi Ou’s remorse. However, the design of the mistake reveals the habitual way of thinking of the people who were born and bred around Mt. Emei. Only people in the mountainous area will regard “⭠” as small plots of fields and imagine lotus flowers are growing in these fields. The people living in the plains like Jiangnan will not think that way. They will not describe lotus flowers as “growing in the plots of field, one plot after another” to stress the number and luxuriance of lotus flowers, because plots of fields in the plain tend to be larger and hence not so visible. To be exact, Yi Ou’s mistake reflects the author’s hidden and evasive way of thinking, which is based on his hometown. The landscapes of the hometown as potential area background lie deep in his work in an unexpected way. To sum up, Guo Moruo’s writings embodied not only the temporal background and the spirit of the times but also the area background and its potential state. Together with the excellent representation of the spirit of the times, his successful presentation of a vast and gigantic area background led to his outstanding style. He attached great importance to the area background in literature and acknowledged its effect on literary creation, thus connecting his sources of aesthetic style with area backgrounds like Hakata. But, deep in his literary conception lies the potential area background of his hometown, of which he was not conscious. The discovery of these factors is of considerable value and significance in accurately interpreting his works and profoundly analyzing his literary creations.

II.3. The Thoughts of the Scientific Factors in New Literature in Chinese Democracy and science, the two flags of the May 4th New Literature and the New Culture Movement, were called “Mr. De” and “Mr. Sci” by Chen Duxiu. The democratic trend does constitute the core spirit of New Literature in Chinese and it is almost a reflection of all the factors that represent modern ideas. However, science acquired a status as a disharmonious factor in the construction of the New Literature. The pioneers during the May 4th Period believed that the soul of European

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culture contained science by all appearance and that there was no separation between science and arts; instead, they could be regarded in harmony. They took the old Chinese literature and the quintessence of Chinese culture as the enemies against science; therefore, people needed science so that they could overcome the old law and discipline rite, the old ethic, the old religion and the old politics in the old literature. In fact, the spirit of science played an essential role in it and only the democratic idea could overcome it independently. The most important view of mine is that science leads to the substance awareness overflowing everywhere and restricts the spirit of civilization. Such is the case of Irving Babbitt’s New Humanism animadverting science. The rise of social science between the 1920s and the 1930s impacted on the development of the New Culture very deeply. The achievements of New Literature in Chinese were affected profoundly in general after the science awareness was introduced into literature, which led to the loss of the religious atmosphere and the fantasy of a miraculous world. Ever since Chen Duxiu personified democracy and science as “Mr. De” and “Mr. Sci” in a humorous and vivid way, people have considered them as two flags of the May 4th New Culture. Meanwhile, they became the two standards of value and the basic theories that are considered as the two traditions of the New Literature, reflecting the basic rules that make up the modern essence of New Literature in Chinese. Undoubtedly, democracy and science were the most important keywords in the New Literature Movement, and they did play a part in the New Literature construction. But if people made a symmetrical understanding and confirmation of their spirit in new literature and new tradition, they would easily be blinded by some theories and conceptual mistakes proposed by the New Literature protagonists, which further blocked their correct understanding of the historical development and rules of the New Literature. Regardless of whether it is the New Culture Movement or the New Literature advocacy, almost all ideological factors representing a humanity aspect and political concepts can be summarized broadly as democracy. The new literary ideas, such as freedom, equality and philanthropism, individuality, Humanism, populism and socialism, which were advocated during the May 4th Period, can all be covered by the word “democracy”, a broad yet not profound concept. However, there were certainly some difficulties in the process of connecting science with well-known ideas of the New Literature. In fact, people cannot offer detailed academic analyses when they are discussing scientific factors in the tradition of the New Literature. They would probably create a vague connection between

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science and democracy or blur the idea of science as scientific spirit so as to be kept away from macro rational mastering of new literature, or exaggerate scientific factors of the New Literature as spectacular wonders. Actually, the disharmony between literature and science is the theoretical fact that ideologists have to face and it is also the basic subject that modern thinkers such as new humanist Irving Babbitt tried their best to demonstrate. The latter one elaborated and advocated modern Humanism education by opposing science and literature, and also criticized Bacon’s idea of “knowledge is power” and “scientific naturalism”. He even treated Bacon’s scientific naturalism as “the scientific and utilitarian naturalism”, which “achieves its logical continuation in the sentimental and romantic naturalism of Rousseau”.47 Babbitt was also against both “the positivist and the utilitarian movements”: they are inspired mainly by “scientific humanitarianism, and sentimental naturalism”.48 So is New Literature in Chinese. Insist on the form of literature, and art will naturally move away from science. And science cannot be treated as the main tradition of the New Literature. Of course, there are scientific factors in the New Literature: the clamorous at the very beginning, the occasional experimentation later on, and various detailed descriptions of some sensitive writers. 49 However, these scientific factors are far from constituting an absolute tradition of the New Literature. Even many scientific contents are not positive factors for the New Literature construction. In the process of the New Literature construction, the retreat, conversion and evolution of science from new literary tradition has been a long blinded phenomenon of the New Literature development. It can even be a historical rule waiting to be concluded.

Science as the Ideal Type outside Tradition Construction in the New Literature Compared with the long-standing and well-established traditional literature, the elementary foundation of the independent development of 47 Panichas, George A., “Introduction” Irving Babbitt’s Representative Writings. University of Nebraska Press, 1981. XVIII. 48 Babbitt, Irving, Literature and the American College. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1908. 33. 49 The most representative and most systematic monograph in this subject is Liu Weimin’s Science and Modern Chinese Literature. Hefei: Anhui Education Publishing House, 2000.

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New Literature in Chinese is the formation and confirmation of a new tradition. Although there is a lack of theory50 concerning the conceptual connotations and denotations of the new tradition, new literary historians’ enthusiasm at revealing this tradition (or rule, in a more obviously dynamic sense) is always vigorous and stimulated. The main reason for summarizing scientific factors as a new literary tradition is certainly the long-standing and detailed exemplification of such an academic stimulation. There is no doubt that advocates of the New Literature Movement did consider the importance of scientific factors at the beginning of designing the tradition of the New Literature. Chen Duxiu clearly stated that the criticism and negation of old literature are co-requirements when he proposed the idea of “Mr. De” and “Mr. Sci”: “If advocating Mr. De and Mr. Sci at the same time, then the national quintessence and the old literature must be opposed”. 51 If this discussion only revealed the relationship between “Mr. Sci” and the old literature from a negative and critical perspective, and did not state the relationship between “Mr. Sci” and the New Literature construction from a positive perspective, then after Cai Yuanpei’s explanation and demonstration, the characteristics and status of science as a key factor in the New Literature construction obtained theoretical confirmation. Firstly, Cai Yuanpei identified the “the New Literature Movement” as a product of the Renaissance, and the retrieval of European culture as “science and art”: “modern scientific art in fact is rooted in Renaissance period”. He then argued that the spiritual characteristic of the “Renaissance Period” is the unification of literature and science. Take Leonardo da Vinci, for example: “He is the greatest artist in the Renaissance period” and, at the same time, “he is a scientist and engineer”. Cai even traced this back to the Roman literature period, revealing internal certainty of the contribution of both literature (art) and science. Finally, considering the Chinese New Literature Movement, he believed that there would be simultaneous innovation that was “going from literature to art, and then to science”.52 50 Up until now, “On the Great Tradition of Modern Chinese Literature” is still the representative paper discussing traditions of New Literature in Chinese. It was written by Zhu Shoutong and published on Social Sciences in China 1 (2002). Apparently, once one delves into actual connotations of traditions in New Literature, the elements of “science” cannot be revealed in terms of traditions. 51 Chen, Duxiu. “A Defense of La Jeunesse”. La Jeunesse 6.1 (1919). 52 Cai, Yuanpei, “General Preface” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature:

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Cai Yuanpei was still discussing the relationship between science and literature, artistic tradition and reality from an external viewpoint, and he did not discuss the decisive meaning of science for the new literary tradition from an internal perspective. Chen Duxiu even did not establish a direct relationship between science and the New Literature that he advocated from a positive sense. He only confirmed the value of science to old literature criticism from the perspective of a critical weapon. Internalizing science as a traditional factor of the New Literature and considering science and democracy as a natural ferment of the development of new literature are mere interventional understandings due to people’s lack of an internal logical certainty. In most cases, people would neglect that the advocacy of science by the advocates of the May 4th New Literature was mostly beyond literature itself. They did not demonstrate such a fact in the sense of science and felt that the theoretical phenomenon of scientific factors externally intervened in the New Literature as some sort of sourced, absolute and decisive factor of the traditional establishment of the New Literature. As a result, it is firmly believed that “Mr. Sci” is “one of the souls of the May 4th New Literature”;53 “among the rich ideas introduced from the western world around the May 4th Period, the advocacy of democracy and science and the spreading of socialist and communist ideological system constitute a clear main route, internally deciding the characteristics and development of the New Literature”. 54 Factors including the scientific factor, democratic factor and even socialist ideological factor together constitute internal factors of the new literary tradition. In comparison, “the May 4th New Literature Movement which upheld the flag of democracy and science” is an external description. Taking advantage of science containing a co-action of internal and external factors, new literature said goodbye to old literature, walked away from classical Chinese, and created new traditions such as “fresh and vivid” vernacular poems and novels.55 The

Theoretical Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 3-4. 53 Liu, Weimin, Science and Modern Chinese Literature. Hefei: Anhui Education Publishing House, 2000. 20. 54 Feng, Guanglian, and Liu Zengren, “The Advocacy of Science and Democracy and the Implementation of Literary Revolution” A History of Chinese New Literature. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1991. 27. 55 Guan, Aihe. “A Review of Researches on Early Modern Chinese Literature in the 20th Century”. Zhongzhou Periodical 6 (1999).

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assertion that takes science as a basic traditional factor of the New Literature is not solid. Although similar deductions can be made from the statements of the pioneers of the New Literature, such as Cai Yuanpei, and corresponding cases of the New Literature production can be easily obtained, Cai Yuanpei only demonstrated a historical connection and possibly a real connection between literature and science from the perspective of methods and ways of development of literature and science. Take “A Madman’s Diary” and “Mount Buzhou”, for instance. Methodologically, Lu Xun borrowed scientific methodology of psychiatry and Freudian psychology. There are obvious differences between the borrowing of science in literary methodology and internalizing science to the overall design of new traditions of literature in literary ontology. Why did advocates of the New Literature introduce scientific factors into the criticism and methods of literature, misleading people into thinking that science and democracy are two internal factors and main impulses of the New Literature? The reason is that this massive cultural reformation movement needed ideal concepts to represent core values. And the culture movement and westernization trend raised the concept of science. Science was seen as the representative of a strongly inclined cultural cognition of modern civilization. The advocacy of science neither came out of the theoretical need of a construction of literature nor as a requirement for an internal rule of literature. As a result, it cannot be internalized as the “soul” or the “internal” factor of the development of the New Literature, not to mention an essential element of the tradition of the New Literature. People such as Cai Yuanpei took science as a new factor of literary Renaissance, reflecting a subjective intervention of a conceptual processing: assigning science a kind of extraordinary cultural meaning and making a conceptualized docking with the ideal new literature. As a matter of fact, it happens all the time in new thought operation. When a notion reflecting a positive value is well accepted in theory, its connotation would not be a meticulous study subject. What people would like to do is to introduce this notion into hot advocacies of new thoughts and internalize it to be a core value. The result is turning it into an interventional tradition of new thoughts. Take the core value of “Humanism” during the Renaissance era, for example. In Italy in the 15th century, it was used only to address a teacher of classical language and literature, and the subjects they taught were mainly grammar, rhetoric, history, literature and philosophy, etc., which were collectively called “studia humanitatis”. “The Renaissance term for what they taught was studia humanitatis, which we translate as

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‘the humanities’”. 56 The teaching of these subjects required reading classical Latin texts, which were written before Jesus Christ was born. However, cultural elites of that period were willing to explore more than the “retrieval of classical knowledge”; they introduced “anthropology” and even “human studies” to the field of Humanism, which enabled Max Weber to call this broad Humanism “ideal type”57 and turn it into a traditional factor of Renaissance value. Cai Yuanpei and Hu Shi once thought of concluding the May 4th New Literature and its tradition as Humanism. 58 But Chen Duxiu’s concept of “Mr. De” and “Mr. Sci” established the expressive model of “ideal type” in the theoretical world. The simplicity, vividness, era sensation, and almost totally open theoretical tolerance of democracy and science enabled them to become an ideal expression of “ideal type” in the New Culture and the New Literature Movements. Indeed, to elites who meant to reform, science was a kind of “ideal type” at the beginning of the New Culture, and it even precipitated to become a conceptual ethics, a natural theoretical basis of people’s judgment of value. There was a deep historical reason and realistic certainty for science intervening into the New Culture, styling itself as an “ideal type”. Firstly, modern reformation elites, especially Liang Qichao and Huang Zunxian, all connected civilization and power of the western world with science. In the 1920s, Liang Qichao was still working on demonstrating the relationship between the “scientific spirit” and the western culture.59 Such a conceptual basis enabled science to obtain some sort of positive meaning of “ecumenical” and enabled the advocates of the New Culture to develop an “ideal type”, which they could rely on and 56

Bullock, Alan, The Humanist Tradition in the West. London: Thomas and Hudson, 1985. 12. 57 Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1976. 147. 58 Please refer to: Cai Yuanpei, “General Preface to Anthologies to Chinese New Literature”. In 1993, Hu Shi delivered his famous speech entitled “China’s Renaissance” at Chicago University. When he discussed the May 4th New Culture Movement and its significance, he said: “It is after all a humanist movement”. Quoted by Zhu Weizheng. “What is Humanism Spirit?”. Exploration and Contention 10 (1994). 59 Liang, Qichao. “Scientific Spirit and Eastern and Western Cultures”. Morning Post. 24 August, 1922.

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carry on. Secondly, western scientific thoughts, such as Darwin’s theory of evolution, did take the lead of advanced cultural concepts and Freud’s psychological science actually influenced the cognition and mastery of art and literature. To the New Culture and the New Literature, science as “ideal type” had a radiant meaning of a cultural field. Thirdly, at the beginning of the New Culture advocacy, Chinese society was full of superstitious activities such as witchcraft and divination, etc. When breaking down these superstitious customs, people in the new cultural field, such as editors of La Jeunesse, needed to rely on science. Science as the representative of modern advanced concepts certainly became “ideal type”. In such a conceptual and theoretical field, the notion that “science saves the country” would be dominant. People concluded that: “If we want our nation to be strong, we have to advocate science and education”.60 However, it would still be exaggerated if we believed that “scientism” was formed in Chinese modern ideological history.61 Science is merely an “ideal type” advocated by new cultural advocators and other reformation elites. For the New Literature that was under construction, this “ideal type” was only an external reference, a critical weapon, which would be instrumentalized by initiators as a kind of idea-construction and writing method. It has never been internalized as a valuable factor with a rich traditional meaning. Chen Duxiu who strengthened science as “ideal type” and further called it “Mr. Sci”, introduced scientific subjects and related thoughts from the perspectives of the conceptual design of the New Culture and personality cultivation of modern youth, not from the perspectives of the design and construction of the New Literature. What he really paid close attention to was the “refreshing and lively” vitality, the liberation of “personality”, the advocating of “actual stuff” in the sense of social improvement, and the overcoming of “virtual stuff”. “Actual stuff” basically means science, just as “virtual stuff” is equal to “imagination”. “It is science, not imagination” is another way of expressing “It is actual, not virtual”. As a result, science naturally became the flag they would love to uphold. In Chen Duxiu’s opinion, “recently the blooming of science in Germany” not only led to “blooming of material civilization” but also led to “a change of the social system and people’s thoughts”. The final result was that “all political implementations, anticipations of education, 60

Fang, Xiaoyue. “A Letter to Hu Shi”. La Jeunesse 3.2 (1917). Guo, Yingyi, Scientism in China’s Modern Thoughts. Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 1995. 61

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fashions of literature and art are all for maximum use of materials and improvement of life”.62 Discussing literature and technology hand in hand and taking the real value as “maximum use of materials” obviously departed from the way of literature itself. Such logic would naturally rely heavily on science. This view of science has neither been inherited by the New Literature, which means it did not become a mainstream view of new literary tradition, nor gained prevalent recognition among advocators of the New Culture and the New Literature. For example, Lu Xun mainly advocated and put his thoughts in shaping nationals’ souls from the perspective of the New Literature. He advocated for “rejecting materials, embracing soul”, and would rather rely heavily on the power of culture and even poetry, giving them both high appreciation, but not “the ideal type” of science in Chen Duxiu’s mind. Upon this topic, Lu Xun had always remained extraordinarily awake. He did not introduce science into the mainstream of the New Literature construction and remained alert to the scientific factors in literature. As a result, he had been reflecting on the intervened effect on literary theories resulting from science such as Freud’s “seemingly scientific but actually arbitrary argumentation”.63 However, he did not deny the era meaning of the “ideal type” of science. He devoted himself to studying science, wrote papers on science education such as “History of Science”, confirmed the social and era value of science, and often criticized superstitious phenomena in social culture. All these show that Lu Xun was willing to use the “ideal type” of science as a critical weapon in the battle of the New Culture. No matter whether it is used as a critical weapon or as a notion of value advocation, science as an ideal expression of “ideal type” in the May 4th Period, regardless of whether it is from the value construction of concepts or design construction of themes, had not become essential content for the May 4th New literature, not to mention becoming decisive content. Therefore, except for using it as a critical weapon and an application of literary methods, science has neither become an internal factor nor the mainstream of new literary tradition. Because the New Literature only treated science as a critical weapon and literary composition methods, of course, it would experience frustrations in analyzing the internal motivation and development rules of science in new literary tradition. 62

Chen, Duxiu. “A Call to the Youth”. La Jeunesse 1.1 (1915). Lu Xun, “Foreword to Symbols of Depression” Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 10. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 232.

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People’s misunderstanding toward internal certainty of scientific factors of new literary tradition, in a large part, is due to the confusion of the huge influence of science as “ideal type” in the New Culture Movement. There are many internal connections between the New Culture Movement and the New Literature Movement; however, the literary characteristics of the New Literature mean that it cannot possibly be in the same construction as the New Culture. Science is the “ideal type” advocated by the New Culture but it is impossible to be internalized into the core value of the New Literature.

Overflowing of the Notion of Science in the Progress of New Literary Tradition Science, especially since it was personified as “Mr. Sci”, has gained the highest possible praise as an idealized type among modern Chinese thinkers to such an extent that nobody dared to challenge the traditional and deterministic meanings of science or “Mr. Sci”, even from the perspective of literatureüan art that affects the human spirit and shapes the human soul. This is true of all of the value systems that have been “idealized”. Due to this fact, people, under certain circumstances, tend to treat this “ideal type” as the ideal expression of values. They are likely to add to it nearly all types of positive value thinking, placing the connotation of such a notion in a state of progressive overflowing, while the intrinsic connotation of the notion itself, more often than not, is neglected. It is a fate that science has faced in the further development of the New Literature. The constant overflowing and increasing ambivalence of the connotation have made it more and more alienated from the intrinsic connection with the New Literature. As science was viewed as the “ideal type” in the New Culture Movement, people involved in that movement no longer attempted to investigate the connotations of science; instead, they added to the notion of science all types of positive values and affirmative ideas, resulting in the authority or even supremacy of science in discourse and, at the same time, in the vagueness and ambivalence of the notion of science. Hu Shi, in his summary of the debate over science and outlook on life, pointed out incisively: “In the past thirty years, there is a term that has almost reached the status of supremacy in China. People, whether they understand it or not, whether they are conservatives or reformers, dare not to express their attitude of contempt to or make light of it in public. That term is ‘science’.

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As to why the whole nation clings to this superstition or blind faith and how much value this brings to us, it is another issue. It can at least be said that since the Reform Movement, which was launched in 1898, nobody who claims to be a reformist in China has ever had the guts to brazenly blaspheme ‘science’ in public. It was not until the publication of Impressions of Europe by Liang Qichao at the 8th or 9th year of the Republic of China that science was officially declared ‘bankrupt’ in the Chinese writings”.64 In the above statement, Hu Shi, on the one hand, portrayed the “supreme status” enjoyed by science as the “idealized type” which was worshiped as such all over China; on the other hand, he also pointed out that people, whether they “understand science or not”, dare not blaspheme it, that is to say, few people would ever try their hands at figuring out the meanings behind science before clamoring for it. Hu Shi even went so far as to reveal that while making an issue of “Mr. Sci” in his “A Defense of La Jeunesse”, Chen Duxiu only had “a vague idea of the definitions of ‘science’ and ‘democracy’ (or ‘Mr. De’)”.65 In his earlier “A Call to the Youth”, Chen Duxiu came to the following obscure “scientific” conclusion: “What is science? It is the notion that we have of things; it is the totality of the objective phenomena, and it is the rationality rather than the subjectivity”.66 The above definition is really a mess, as it contains both objectivity and subjectivity, and both totality and logic. But it is comprehensible. If it can be said that Zhang Junmai (or Chang Chun-mai, Carsun Chang) attempted to use the “objective science” and the “subjective outlook on life” as the basic grounds to separate science from the outlook on life,67 then Chen Duxiu tried to forge a relationship, on the basis of the omnipotence of science, between science as the “idealized type” and other new cultural constructing blocks, such as the outlook on life and notions of art, in an attempt to search for some theoretical grounds that connect literature and science. One of the important rules that guides the process of human thinking is that when people wish to promote some “ideal type”, they tend to attach to 64

Hu, Shi, “Preface to” Science and Outlook on Life. Shanghai: Yadong Library, 1923. 2. 65 Hu, Shi, Hu Shi’s Personal Reminiscences. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 1993. 187. 66 Chen, Duxiu. “A Call to the Youth”. La Jeunesse 1.1 (1915). 67 Zhang, Junmai, “Outlook on Life” Science and Outlook on Life. Shanghai: Yadong Library, 1923. 4-6.

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it all kinds of positive values, resulting in the overflowing and fuzziness of the relevant concept; on the other hand, when people wish to get rid of some value, they are likely to add to it all kinds of negative values, leading to the fragmentation of the concerned concept. The inevitable outcome of making science into the “ideal type”, to be propagated as part of the New Culture Movement, is that it inevitably comes from the addition or even reinterpretation of some positive values, leading to the fact that the essential properties of the original connotations are constantly being weakened and softened, whereas the various added positive values take up the opportunity to usurp the dominant position in the process of reinterpretation of “science”. Therefore, even though the promoters were indulged in clamoring for science during the construction of the New Literature, its connotations, as a matter of fact, were miles away from the true meaning of science. By the time Chen Duxiu started to promote science in his “A Call to the Youth”, he had already deviated from the essential connotations of science in his interpretation of the concept. That is why he took to the methodology of critical thinking. He pointed out: “If you attempt to correct this mode of thinking that lacks common sense, if you plan to change your groundless faith, you have nothing to rely on apart from science. Science can explain the truth, and it seeks proof for everything before it confirms. Although this process is slow, it is down-to-earth. On the other hand, those who use only their imaginations will get nowhere. As there is an infinitude of objects in this universe, there are many fertile fields in the realm of science, waiting for us to claim.”68 This mode of thinking, based on proof-finding rather than imagination and fantasy, is apparently not fit for literature, as the connection with such humane and sociological propositions as common knowledge and belief is based on its deviation from the core connotations of science. From the very beginning, science was treated as an ideal weapon of criticism. What the promoters of the New Culture Movement were concerned about was its effect on the fields of ideology and culture, and, for this purpose, they piled upon science with almost anything of positive value that could exert some influence on ideology and culture. In the “Editor’s Words” of the first issue of Science, a magazine launched at almost exactly the same time as Chen Duxiu’s La Jeunesse, the topic of science was viewed in the following way: “Although Science magazine takes upon itself the spread of new scientific knowledge all over the world, we refrain from 68

Chen, Duxiu. “A Call to the Youth”. La Jeunesse 1.1 (1915).

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introducing that which is too profound for fear that it might cause difficulty in understanding, as science is still at the stage of germination in China. For every subject we introduce, we will try our best to stick to its root and expound it in detail so that our readers can follow and build up their knowledge of science step by step”. In addition, “although history, biography, fine art and music do not fall into the realm of science, we will still keep them in our magazine, as they are connected with the national characteristics of our people and as our people are in dire need of them”.69 As the boundaries of science have been expanded to include history, biography, fine art and music, the marriage between literature and science becomes quite natural. As a matter of fact, literature was customarily incorporated in the term “fine art” at that time. What writers believed that science could be useful for the New Literature is, first and foremost, the application of modern scientific methods and psychological approaches in literature. And this is also what the critics who treated science as the spiritual tradition of the New Literature enjoyed talking about in their discussion. Apart from Lu Xun, who applied the psychological and psychoanalytic approaches to his fictional creation, Guo Moruo also injected some modern scientific elements into his short story “The Remainder of the Spring” and quite a few of his poems. However, all of those literary creations are nothing but the most superficial or roughest understanding of science. What is more, none of those scientific elements has turned into the intrinsic properties of the New Literature, not to speak of becoming the tradition in its development. The employment of scientific elements in some representative literary works is clearly academically far from turning the scientific elements into the traditional elements, which could then influence the development of the New Literature, although people are reluctant to acknowledge such a distance when they discuss the scientific tradition in the New Literature. What is even more important, according to Zhang Junmai, is that subjects concerning the human mind, such as psychology, are not strictly science: “As the scientific law of cause and effect cannot be effectively applied to the study of the areas concerning the human body and mind, sociology and history, these subjects cannot be called science”.70 Although Zhang Junmai was too harsh and too bigoted when 69

Science, No.1 (1915):1. Zhang, Junmai, “A Second Talk about Outlook on Life and Science as a Response to Ding Zaijun” Science and Outlook on Life. Shanghai: Yadong Library, 1923. 67. 70

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he defined the concept of science strictly from the experimental point of view, his definition proved coincidentally from another aspect that the understanding of science by the people of the New Culture and the New Literature circles was too crude and too broad. More and more advocates for the New Culture and new writers were convinced that, armed with a rough and ready understanding of science, they could combine science with the tradition of anti-superstition typical of the New Culture and the New Literature Movements, in an attempt to reinterpret science from the perspectives of the humanities, science of thinking and sociology. This is obviously the dominant way of thinking during the May 4th New Culture Movement that viewed the humanistic rationality as a scientific concept. When Chen Duxiu advocated the “independent” spirit and called on the young people to “hold onto their own beliefs” in his “A Call to the Youth”, he was actually trying to persuade the youth into doing away with superstitions or blind faith. His advocacy for the humanistic rationality, however, is misunderstood as an emphasis on science in the subsequent the New Culture and the New Literature Movements. Liu Bannong held that the most important task for the construction of the New Literature was to get rid of superstitions or blind faith. The public attributed science’s victory over superstitions to the scientific rationality, without knowing that what the author emphasized had always been the humanistic rationality. The statement, “I believe that when I do something, I always keep ‘me’ in mind”71 is an extension of Chen Duxiu’s “holding onto their own beliefs”. Zhou Zuoren was fully aware of this point. He pointed out too that the construction of the New Literature must be based on the abolition of superstition or blind faith in tradition. However, the eradication of blind faith was not equal to the construction of scientific perspectives or the law of the scientific rationality. What needed to be constructed was a new “religion”, a new “faith” and a new “god”. “At a time like this, a man of letters is an ‘iconoclast’. But he still has his new religion, in which the ideal of humanitarianism is his faith and the will of man his god”.72 Instead of crediting the faith after the eradication of blind faith to science, Zhou 71

Liu, Bannong, “My Ideas on Literary Reform” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Theoretic Construction. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 66. 72 Zhou, Zuoren, “The Requirements of New Literature” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Literary Controversies. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 144.

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Zuoren attributed it to humanitarianism and humanism. It can thus be seen that science failed to play a crucial role in the process of the New Literature Movement that aimed to do away with the superstition or blind faith and shatter the icons, as was commonly expected. Not only did science fail to really reach the level of core values in the traditional structure of the New Literature, it was progressively fantasized, obscured and blurred in the progress of the New Literature and the New Culture Movements. Without knowing it, science was made to take up the function that originally belonged to the humanistic rationality. This is probably the theoretical foundation for the debate over science and metaphysics after the May 4th Movement subsided. In a vague but sensitive manner, Zhang Junmai, who launched the debate, raised the issue of purifying the notion of science, believing that not only should science be extracted from the categories of humanistic ideals and historiography, but that it should also be liberated from such disciplinary traps as psychology, physiology and various other human-related disciplines. No matter how extreme and biased his viewpoint was, he apparently sensed that after being tempered in the New Culture and the New Literature Movements, the notion of science had already been obscured and inundated. Actually, the fuzzy understanding of the notion of science did not start from the New Culture Movement. In his On the Art of Poetry, Qian Zhongshu said that although Huang Zunxian paid great attention to science at his time, he was only “able to talk about the Western systems and things, in addition to some knowledge of such disciplines as acoustics, optics, electricity and chemistry”. However, “he was unable to appreciate the subtleties of the Western science. That is why you see only new elements instead of new wisdom in his poetry”.73 The same is true of the literary creations of writers in the age of the New Literature Movement. The presence of science in these literary works was mostly for the purpose of decoration, indicating something new, but not necessarily the new wisdom embodied in science. All the wisdom presented in the literary works is still within the category of the humanistic rationality. If it can be said that the movement of literary revolution was still at the stage of borrowing the concepts of science in terms of the “idealized type”, then the revolutionary literary campaign started to incorporate science completely in its humanistic rationality, to the point of wholly ignoring the essential meaning of science. Although the notion of science had become a 73

Qian, Zhongshu, On the Art of Poetry. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Corporation, 1993. 23-24.

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more sensitive issue among the people in the cultural and literary circles after the debate over science and metaphysics, this did not prevent science, as the “idealized type”, from continuing to represent the positive values. The great reputation or even the fashionable concept of science did not fade as a result. After the debate over the revolutionary literature, Lu Xun had more faith in the Russian literary theories and called them “scientific theories of the art”. When the Guanghua Book Company in Shanghai planned to launch a series of Scientific Theories of the Art in 1930, Lu Xun submitted his translation of Art and Social Life or Unaddressed Letters written by Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov.74 There and then, “science” was totally separated from its original meaning of “Mr. Sci”, for it had taken on the meanings of sociology and human sciences. As a matter of fact, judged from the perspectives of the traditional operation of the New Literature or even from the perspectives of the original proposition of the New Culture, science, by the time it was promoted as the “idealized type”, had already taken on a strong sense of humanistic social science, which was fit for the basic goals and values of the cultural reform and the progress of the New Literature. At the same time, such a sense went hand in hand with the intrinsic rules of literature. In the transition from the literary revolution to revolutionary literature, the New Literature, in its handling of the notion of science, actually went through the process of a progressive overflowing of the natural sense of science, followed by a more humanistic sense of science, before a complete humanization of science was attained. Although science as such had always had a strong power of appeal, the notion of science, during the progress of the New Literature, was constantly kneaded and mixed with other elements. Such a theoretical fact made science unable to produce any real significant influence in the development of the New Literature. Therefore, judged from the progress of the New Literature, science, plagued with the overflowing and even mutation of its notion, could not possibly become the main vein or dominant property of the new literary tradition. The main veins and dominant properties in the new literary tradition can actually be attributed to the system of thought covered by the broad concept of democracy. The notion of democracy is actually the starting point as well as the point of return for the humanization of the 74

Plekhanov, Georgi Valentinovich, Art and Social Life. Trans. Lu Xun. (It was the first of the series of Scientific Theories of the Art). Shanghai: Guanghua Book Company, 1930.

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notion of science.

Paradoxical Relationship Between Science and the New Literature Concepts taken as the “ideal type” must be able to withstand historical ablation and generalization, which means, on the one hand, they will encounter the fate that people attach all positive values to them; on the other hand, they shall preserve their own property of value after ablation and generalization in order to avoid overflowing and ambiguity. Democracy is eligible as an “ideal type” since theorists who have a political tendency would like to attach their own positive values to it. But this attachment has a limited effect of ablation and generalization on the notion of democracy, not to mention a complete negation of democracy. Science takes strict regulation as its conceptual basis and is closely connected to practical facts. Its flexibility as a concept is far weaker than democracy. As a result, it cannot withstand historical ablation and generalization. This overflowing and ambiguity will directly lead to a negation of itself. This is the paradox which science has to face as an “ideal type”. Honestly speaking, just as some scholars have proved that science as “practical rationality” has a certain logical relationship with the New Literature and its theoretical development,75 science as an “ideal type” has to face a theoretical dilemma: no matter whether it is in the sense of creation or theory, the relationship between science and new literature is more often than not paradoxical. In the creation of new literature, modern scientific knowledge and methods were unreservedly and prominently introduced. But these scientific vocabularies and methods only reveal the modernity of new literature technically, showcasing the new looks and atmosphere which science has brought to new literature. Any creation in the aspect of technique or in the sense of instrumental rationality, if not accompanied by a deepened internal spirit and upgraded aesthetic appreciation, and by the unique life experience of exploration, could not be of real significance in the history of literature. Lu Xun’s short story “Mending the Heaven” was not elevated because of the description of the “awakening of sex”; similarly, the emotional presentation of Goddess was not upgraded due to 75

Song, Jianhua. “Logical Relationship between Practical Science Rationality and the May 4th New Literature”. Literary Review 1 (2007).

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the images of bodily dissection such as the vertebrae and nerves. In the entire development of New Literature in Chinese, very few works became classical works because of the scientific factors involved. Even if the germination of subconsciousness is taken as a reflection of a scientific factor, it only means that the creation of the New Literature uses such scientific factors technically. Furthermore, few works of the stream of consciousness have an outstanding status in the history of Chinese literature. The passionate spatial-temporal descriptions in “Beast, Beast, Beast”, such as “the sun is burning fiercely, the universe is always a fire catastrophe”, “a middle-sized planet is 100 times bigger than the earth” in the Galaxy, etc., are full of scientific elements, but these elements are external to the works’ plots, refined thoughts, and shaping of characters. It is only an external display of a universal sense and broad-mindedness, which possess a strong flavor of modernity. That is what it all adds up to. New Literature in Chinese has not even formed the tradition of scientific fantasy and missed the best opportunity to build a bridge between literature and science. From the perspective of the actual creating experience of the New Literature, the scientific methods, particularly psychological methods, have strengthened the internal ground of characters’ actions, and deepened and enriched the complexity of characters’ inner worlds. However, they also seriously weaken characters’ emotional and humane beauty, which leads to an academic tendency of substituting emotional beauty with the truth of human nature in the sense of psychology and even physiology. Following the “Reverse Transition” rules of psychology, people analyzed that in Ba Jin’s Home, Juehui adopted an escapist attitude when Mingfeng came for help before she committed suicide.76 It is certainly true that this enriches Juehui’s psychology, and is compliant with the typical presentation of “this one”. But such an analysis leads to the result that scientific elaboration is imposed on characters and writers. The beautiful affection between Juehui and Mingfeng, and their democratic ideal, would be ruined if analyzed by psychological science. Moreover, psychological elaboration is not scientific enough in philosophers’ minds such as Zhang Junmai. To them, real science does not have a direct connection with human nature. As an advocate of naturalism, Shen Yanbing was one of the few critics who introduced science into literature at the beginning of the New Literature. Scientific factors in the works he approved were very 76

Please refer to: Lan Dizhi, Classics of Modern Literature: A Symptomatic Analysis. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2002.

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suitable for illustrating the paradoxical relationship among science, human nature and emotional beauty. The paragraph of description came from Andreyev’s play presented by Shen Yanbing. Here is the description: “One day, the oldest son of a writer died in a battle; and the second son was also missing. His wife told him about this. He criticized his wife that she did not take things philosophically. In the whole universe, one person dies in a second. What is so surprising if one dies?” 77 This story carries the coldness typical of Andreyev. The “scientific analysis” which conveys a somber atmosphere seriously challenges the beauty of human nature and human affection, which literary works should convey. Here is the risk of using scientific methods to write or analyze literary works: it is very difficult for scientific factors to enter the internal structure of literary works that display human nature and human affection. Why is it so difficult for science to enter the internal structure of the creation of the New Literature and to become an internal dynamic of self-development of the New Literature? It is because of the following fact: if science is not presented in science fantasies, it will not turn into an “ideal type”, nor is science related to human nature, affection and beauty. Even scientific thoughts and spirit can only be taken as external factors of literature, and play the role of restricting the construction of literature or constituting some kind of paradoxical relationship. When scientific thoughts become an external factor and pose as a positive cultural way of literary display, it might come up as a negative factor, which will “tarnish literature”, “throw literature in hell”, and “block the growth of literature”. If this factor became part of the “preaching school of literature”,78 it would block the development of literature more severely. At the beginning of the New Culture Movement, the voice of science was rather loud, but the pioneers had already realized that elements such as morality and science were not the “ideal type” for literature. They had an obvious paradoxical relationship. Even if advocates of the New Culture were not writers themselves, they were scholars who knew literature very well. For example, Chen Duxiu had his own research on Chinese drama and had a very high accomplishment in classical poems; Cai Yuanpei had a unique understanding of A Dream of Red Mansions and was also well known for his proposition of aesthetic education. They all knew very well that 77

Shen, Yanbing, “What is Literature?” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Literary Controversies. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 157. 78 Zheng, Zhenduo, “On the Construction of New Literary Viewpoints” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 161.

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literature is the creation of heart and mind. Literature can make it without science, but cannot survive without imagination. Although advocates of the New Literature used science as “a critical weapon” to criticize old literature, they did not throw doubt on the conception and creation of old literature. They concluded that the positive aspects of Journey to the West are that “it is ridiculous while affectionate, humorous while philosophical”.79 That is why both Hu Shi and Qian Xuantong regarded it as a “first-class novel”. The new cultural rule of “scientific, not imaginary” apparently did not apply here, which resulted in the fact that the advocates of the New Literature would not and were not willing to use science to evaluate literature. More writers of the New Literature would be willing to accept that literature is “imaginary, not scientific”. Zhu Ziqing said, “Feeling and affection is the material of creation, while imagination is the marrow of creation”.80 Moreover, in Hu Yuzhi’s mind, the excellent works will “always include imaginary characters and things”.81 Although these points, which value imagination, are not specially set against science advocacy, objectively it reveals the paradoxical relationship between literature and science. If it were the case that, under the context of advocating democracy and science, people could unveil a limited logical relationship between science and literature, then it would be easy to find out that from the perspective of the construction of the New Literature whether there is a paradoxical relationship between science, art and literature. Zhou Zuoren made an explicit explanation about this when he said, “Science and art are different”. As a source of literature, Zhou Zuoren thought that the value of myth is “fantasy and personal interest”, not “facts and knowledge”. He emphasized several times that, “it is known to all that art and culture are not records of history or science. If people believe that humans can be turned into stone after hearing a story of [a] fossil, they are certainly fools. Or they would still be stupid if they try to discard superstition by relying on science, and argue about the irrationality of the story of [the] fossil”.82 He was discussing the paradox of scientific cognitive method and literary method. 79

Qian, Xuantong, “A Letter to Hu Shi” Anthology of Chinese New Literature: Literary Controversies. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 79. 80 Zhu, Ziqing. “On the Truthfulness of Literature and Art”. Fiction Monthly 15.1 (1924). 81 Hu, Yuzhi. “New Literature and Creation”. Fiction Monthly 12.2 (1921). 82 Zhou, Zuoren. “A Defense of Myths”. Morning Post. 29 January, 1924.

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Some writers of the New Literature seemed to be unwilling to admit the paradoxical relationship between scientific and literary methods, while instead trying to find a way of integration. Shen Yanbing devoted much of his effort to this integration. He proposed his point of view in an article “What Is Literature?”: “According to realism in the New Literature, materials must be precise and serious, and description must be faithful. For instance, if you want to talk about Mount She, you have to be there at least once. You cannot make things up”.83 It seems that he was not discussing how to encourage imagination or fantasy for literary creation. Rather, he was investigating the basic rules of scientific inspection. Considering that he took literary method and scientific method as one, obviously, he was the “fool” criticized by Zhou Zuoren. Lu Xun must not have learned this lesson from Shen Yanbing. Otherwise, he would have rejected this kind of scientific literary methodology. Lu Xun once explicitly expressed that literary method and scientific method are different, saying, “People think that writing a historical novel requires reading and searching piles of documents since extensive evidence is needed. Though some people ironically call it ‘professor novel’, in fact it is very hard to write one”.84 Apparently, in Lu Xun’s opinion, it is impossible and unnecessary to bring textual research into literature because such a “professor novel” is nothing but a scientific monograph. Its literary characteristic would naturally be impacted fatally. Lu Xun always insisted in separating science and literature. From the perspective of aesthetics, he kept warning people about the possible interference of “scientists’ assertiveness” with literature. The reserved and mechanical literary methodology of Shen Yanbing obviously did not come from the cultural tradition advocated by “Mr. Sci” in La Jeunesse but from the literary concepts of naturalism, which he believed in. He accepted the core spirit of naturalism from the French writer Zola and the critic Taine. This school of naturalism from Europe aimed to “build literature on science belief”. It advocated treating literary creation as a scientific experiment, which evidently had a close relationship with science worship in the science boom era. Zola even claimed that novelists’ descriptions should not only “objectively” record facts but also fit in and be qualified to demonstrate the “scientific rules”

83

Mao Dun, “What is Literature?” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Literary Controversies. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House. 1935. 9. 84 Lu Xun, “Preface to Old Tales Retold” Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 2. Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House, 1981.

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such as genetics.85 Such a mechanical literary methodology and literary concept advocated by new writers obviously led to a paradoxical relationship. Thus, at the beginning of the New Literature period, even though Chen Duxiu stood for naturalism (he labeled works of Wilde, Hauptmann and Zola as Naturalism Literature) and Shen Yanbing devoted his great passion to promoting European naturalism, real defenders of naturalism among new writers were very few. Conversely, starting with Cheng Fangwu, criticizing naturalism gradually became a fashion in the literary circle. This criticism, on the one hand, was aiming at the vulgar tendency of naturalism; on the other hand, it was targeted at the scientific process of literature.86 From then on, naturalism gradually became the representative of vulgar literature. What is worse, it has even become a label of pornographic description in critics’ and readers’ eyes, and has been criticized for a long time. Contrastingly, realism was regarded as an “ideal type” of the New Literature from the very beginning. The great difference between realism and naturalism is that the latter is often understood as emphasizing science and scientific experiment. Apparently, naturalism experienced historical distortion and simplification in the development of the New Literature. Its fate also shows that the emphasis on science might be stigmatized in the historical development of theories as it stands against the “ideal type” of literary theories. As a matter of fact, early in the 1920s, Japanese naturalism, which had a direct influence on New Literature in Chinese, had already weakened its advocacy of “scientification”, aside from its emphasis on subconsciousness. However, the violent and simple criticism of naturalism would not acknowledge this difference. The stigmatization of naturalism stands in sharp contrast to the promotion of the school of realism. In the development of New Literature in Chinese, science and literature are theoretically opposed, which severely restricts and blocks the participation of “science”, or “Mr. Sci”, as the core theme in the New Literature. This also leads to the result that “literary scientism” is “not completely carried out” in the modern “cultural situation”.87 In fact, it has never been carried out. This is the tragic historical fate of science in the 85

Zola, Emile, “Collected Works of Experimental Fiction” Naturalism in Literature. Shanghai Art and Culture Publisher. 1992. 139. 86 Zola, Emile, “Collected Works of Experimental Fiction” Naturalism in Literature. Shanghai Art and Culture Publisher. 1992. 139. 87 Fang, Weibao. “Narrative Disenchantment: Chinese New Literature in the Context of Science”. Literary Review 2 (2007).

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New Literature, which is also the reflection of the paradoxical relationship between science and literature. Some people say that the political culture enforces the formation of “hegemony of scientism over literature”, which leads to a complete disappearance of “ghost stories” and “myths” from modern literary texts. This is a misunderstanding. Of course, it is the power of ideology that results in “materialism” in New Literature in Chinese, but this power has nothing to do with “scientism” because science has never been the hegemonic power in the development of new literature.

II.4. New Literary Stories in Chinese: Flaunting of the Thematic Meaning The flaunting of meaning often turns a story into an allegory. Contemporary Chinese readers have long rejected allegorical teaching, not to mention such pretentious flaunting; no wonder there has been an alienation of Chinese readers from the contemporary Chinese literature represented by short stories. Contemporary Chinese fiction has inherited the tradition pioneered by Lu Xun of putting the flaunting of meaning ahead of the flaunting of plot. Sometimes, the effort is entirely devoted to flaunting the thematic meaning at the cost of plot. The hope of the Chinese contemporary short story is to achieve a good balance between flaunting of the concept and flaunting of the skill. It is needless to say that we have very good short stories that demonstrate a proper dose of flaunting.

From a Short Story to Flaunting in New Literature in Chinese There is a short story entitled “Broken Windows”, which was published in Chinese Writers in the 1st issue of 2011, written by a Chinese writer called Xiao Hang. There is no evidence that it has any connection with the American movie which bears the same title, although both portray the changes in humanity and confusions of social life in a manner of solving puzzles. The story tells of something happening in the present day and portrays several characters that bear the zeitgeist of contemporary China. On a business trip, Zhao Xiaochuan runs into Huang Jia, a girl who often manages to visit different places to sketch landscapes by accompanying rich people on their touring trips. Zhao Xiaochuan, a successful businessman, was charmed by Huang Jia during a game. He changes the

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rules of the game by providing a residence for Huang Jia at an attractive place. Huang Jia tells him about her observation of the broken window phenomenon, which inspires Zhao Xiaochuan to navigate his way out of the difficulty of his business. Even Zhao Xiaochuan’s wife feels grateful to Huang. Huang Jia’s interpretation of the broken window phenomenon is like this: the world is running on its course, when a window breaks; the managers come, the cleaners come, the repairmen come, the sales people come. Everyone seems to be mobilized by the broken window and everyone has something to work on; GDP is created. Just like digging a ditch in the ground and then covering it over, although nothing has changed, the value is doubled. This is not a fine piece of literature that can represent the achievements of contemporary Chinese short stories. Yet it indeed represented the new fashionable lifestyle, a new concept of living, and a new interpersonal relationship of China today. And it continues the tradition of short story writing in its structuring of the story, revealing the spirit of short story writing. Fashionable and avant-garde in appearance, traditional and hackneyed in spirit, this is the basic feature of contemporary Chinese short story writing. It is a typical representative and, in fact, this story received the Year-Award of Mao Tai Cup for Selected Short Stories. The “broken windows theory” mentioned is but a very general popularization of a common sense concept in economic theory. Only literary writers ignorant of economics or the characters in the maze of the plot take it as a panacea for a business and for the treatment of the sufferings in life. When the author and many other people in life take this most common social-economic principle as a profound way of doing business, a mysterious epiphany occurs and the story, therefore, presents a form of flaunting of meaning. Doubtlessly, everyone’s writing will convey some ideas and sometimes convey what the author wants to convey beyond the story proper. Such ideas are important to help deepen the thematic significance of a work and enhance the quality of a work. However, when this significance becomes exaggerated and spills over the framework of the story, it can harm the credibility of the story, the characters and their relationships, and it can affect the quality of the work by alienating the reader from the story. There is such a tendency in contemporary Chinese short story writing. Similar to the piece by Xiao Hang, they attempt to contain all stories and characters within certain ideas and meanings, then let this flaunted power of meaning determine the development of the plot and the fate of the characters. It has become a common model for short story writing in China. All the characters and

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plots in “Broken Windows” are designed to prove the “broken windows theory”. The theory not only transformed Zhao Xiaochuan’s enterprise and life but also changed the previously hostile relationship between Zhao’s wife and Huang Jia into a spiritual bond. The theory becomes a divine revelation that has a mysterious, magical power. When all plots and characters are ridiculously transformed and subverted by the flaunted meaning, the story becomes weak and the characters perverted. The work appears ridiculous to a common reader and becomes, at most, a pretentious fable. Indeed, the flaunting of meaning often turns a story into an allegory. Contemporary readers have long rejected allegorical teaching, not to speak of such pretentious flaunting. No wonder there has been an alienation of Chinese readers from the contemporary Chinese literature represented by short stories.

The Habitual Practice of the Flaunting of Meaning Any fictional work, especially a short story, cannot do away with flaunting, as it must express the meaning in a limited narrative space. In order to fulfill its mission, the writer needs to structure the story and its plot with exaggeration and necessary flaunting to portray characters and their relationship, so as to express the meaning and significance of its theme. At the turn of the 20th century, flaunting became a fad for fictional production. Successful writers mostly use the method of flaunting on the plot and rarely do they use it on the thematic meaning of their work. On the contrary, they often try to contain the thematic meaning by flaunting the plot so as to restrict the meaning tacitly. Such practice makes the plot and characters interesting, subtle, and meaningful on the one hand, and prevents a banal allegorizing tendency of the stories on the other; in the meantime, it makes the story dramatic. No one has ever given a definition to the flaunting of the plot. However, Hu Shi, the Chinese literary critic who first discussed the value of short stories in the history of modern Chinese literature, gave a positive affirmation in his famous piece “On Short Stories”: “A short story is a piece of writing that portrays a spectacular part of reality with the most economic literary methods and gives the reader abundant pleasure”.88 The “most economic method” means to portray the most “spectacular” part of 88

Hu, Shi, Collected Works of Hu Shi. Vol. 3. Beijing: Peking University Press, 1998. 46.

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a story in a very limited volume. Flaunting of the plot is the inevitable method. Hu gave two examples by two French writers, Daudet’s “La Dernière Classe” and Maupassant’s “Le Siège de Berlin”. The former story used very economic strokes to portray the shock experienced by an innocent boy who had his last class of French. A common lesson in a common classroom was flauntingly portrayed as the ending of an age, of a nation, and of a historical period. The story teems with patriotic meaning, but its theme was not flaunted and it still sticks to its original track. The outstanding American writer O’Henry is another master writer who uses the flaunting of plot to suppress the flaunting of the thematic meaning. The Gift of Magi and other short stories by him that enjoy a lasting reputation are all like this. In the story, the husband sold his most treasured watch to buy a comb for his wife to show his love for her, while the wife sold her beautiful hair to buy her husband a box for the watch. The gifts of these two beautiful people who make sacrifices for each other become useless items. The dramatic plot and scenes sing high praise of the beauty of humanity and sighs for the hardship of life, but the writer expressed the meaning tacitly and limited the flaunting of the meaning. The author flaunted the plot, presenting the coincident happenings with exaggeration, letting the significance of the story emerge naturally. People may challenge the contrived plot, but they cannot deny its success. However, the artful flaunting, if used to convey ideas and morals, will achieve a negative effect. This is a lesson we draw from O’Henry’s “The Last Leaf”, also a very popular story. The author endows the leaf painted by the artist with too much meaning, thus causing the flaunting of the thematic meaning, the result being an allegorical falsity of the fatal ending of the character instead of a dramatic charm. This short story with a flaunting theme has enjoyed quite a lot of popularity in China, and has brought some negative impact on the writing of contemporary Chinese short stories. Sun Guanmao published a short story entitled “A Paper-smith in Wulong Tan”89 following the example of “The Last Leaf” in flaunting its thematic significance. The story goes like this: a skillful paper-smith gradually loses business in modern day life and does not have much income. His son constantly complains about not being able to get all the electric appliances for his wedding due to the poverty of the family. The paper-smith cannot bear his son’s nagging. After he confined himself to his room and worked hard for several days, he 89

Sun, Guanmao, Gifts from Satan. Nanjing: Jiangsu Literature and Art Press, 1998.

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presented a full room of fine furniture and electric appliances. Of course, they were all made of paper, but the likeness dazzled the young man. The old man thus teaches the young man a lesson: all luxury items in life are like paper things that have only a flashy appearance. A down-to-earth life is most important and valuable. In order to flaunt the meaning of life, the story fabricated the breathtaking effect of the unbelievable skill of the paper-smith. Just as O’Henry did in “The Last Leaf”, he fabricated an unbelievable story of the artist who exhausted his life to paint a leaf for the sick girl, in order to flaunt the true feeling of life. This is not flaunting of plot, as the intention of the author was not to convince the reader of the truthfulness and the shocking effect of its plot, instead he tried to express the significance of the theme. The flaunting of the thematic meaning is undisciplined when the reasonableness and truthfulness of the plot are sacrificed in order to strengthen the thematic ideas. It is permitted to have proper plot flaunting in literary creation. No one should demand absolute truth from a writer. But the flaunting of meaning is risky, no writer has reason to believe that he/she is more qualified to teach and educate the reader. Modern and contemporary Chinese literature has developed a tradition whereby a writer is often posited as a spiritual guide, a social elite, a teacher of life, or even an engineer of the human soul. His works naturally attempt to dig deep into the meaning and flaunt the significance. They are never contented with a tacit representation of the ideas and thoughts, and often flaunt them to such an extent as to harm the artistry and naturalness of the work. “A Small Incident”, the well-known short story by Lu Xun, was such a classic. From a small traffic accident is drawn a big lesson about national affairs, about the spiritual shock to an intellectual, and about the inquiry into the original sin of an intellectual. The very simple plot with very simple characters was endowed with the task to bear great meanings. Its naturalness and reasonableness as a story come under challenges. Contemporary Chinese fiction has inherited the tradition pioneered by Lu Xun of putting the flaunting of meaning ahead of the flaunting of plot. Sometimes, the effort is entirely devoted to flaunting the thematic meaning at the cost of plot. This tendency was common before and during the Cultural Revolution and lasted beyond to become a pattern. From “I Love every Green Leaf” by Liu Xinwu to “Joining the Party” by Zong Fuxian, the stories show no interest and patience in organizing the plot and telling a story; instead, they are interested in flaunting the idea behind the story. Both stories represented the grand ideas of the age with insignificant

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characters and simple plots. It is not to say that such ideas and themes should not be addressed; rather, they should be represented through important events that are compatible in scale. Trying to express big and powerful ideas with a banal story will inevitably lead to the empty flaunting of ideas. They ignore the packaging by plots required of a short story, falling short even of the requirement for a fable. The ridiculous manner of preaching reminds one of the model of “speech makers” of the earlier modern drama in China. Later, the literature of reform also carries this kind of preaching; the heroes often give direct long speeches to readers. Few writers devoted sufficient effort to telling a story and designing a plot, their only motive and goal seemed to be the flaunting of a certain idea. Of course, contemporary Chinese short stories have long departed from this foolish habit of flaunting political ideas. However, the method of flaunting the ideas is still habitually adopted, especially in the writing of short stories. The previously mentioned “Broken Windows” is proof of this. The flaunting of an understanding of life is still a flaunting of ideas, even though it is no longer on the track of political flaunting. It still gives the reader the impression of being contrived and far-fetched. Xu Yigua’s “The Rain Wets the Smoke” is striking and shocking in title. In order to flaunt the bitterness and spiritual strength, he sacrificed, time and again, the artistic effect of the story. Cai Shuiqing, a very promising talent, leads a banal life. On a stormy night, he killed a taxi driver just because the driver refused to cross a swamp to take him to his destination. At the trial, the judge was secretly chewing gum and the defendant murmured, “The rain wets the smoke”. Everything looks absurd. A shocking murder case is linked to a trivial life to create an absurd effect. Absurdity is represented in literature to foreground the thematic meaning. In this story, the reasonableness of plot is sacrificed for the presentation of the absurdity of life. It shows a typical flaunting of the ideas. Ai Wei’s “Thief” is similar. The story tells of how a family experienced different types of thieves, unnaturally pulling all different types of stealing together to one family. It attempts to call on the reader to reflect on common humanity, but the writer’s interest is focused on the flaunting of ideas that cannot be realized by the simple and bizarre plots. This is similar to what is usually called “ideas overpowering images”. It is especially true for a short story because it is limited in content, in the complexity of its plot, and in the scope and depth of the meaning. With such understanding, one may stop to dig for infinite meanings in the limited plot of stories, without treating them as boundless rich gold mines.

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In general, compared to a novella or a novel, a short story has flaunting as its key method of artistic creation, if it has any important generic features and creative methods. One cannot do without flaunting to develop a complete story in a limited space, to arrange interesting plots, to depict the psychology of the character, and to give an account of a relationship. This is the flaunting of the plot. If one tries to express profound ideas and thematic significance in a short plot structure, it will lead to the flaunting of thematic meanings. A successful short story should have a proper measure of flaunting and try to avoid the flaunting of meanings.

The Relative Flaunting of a Theme As we can see, the flaunting of the plot is important and necessary for a short story, due to the limitations of its narrative space. A short-story writer should take every opportunity to use this privilege by employing the device of flaunting consciously and moderately, so as to achieve a satisfactory aesthetic effect. An important lesson to be drawn from the contemporary Chinese short stories is that the excessive flaunting of the thematic meaning may lead to the consequence of emphasizing the theme at the cost of aesthetic pleasure. A reaction to this may be giving up flaunting completely to portray life in its plainness. Such approaches have constantly received high evaluations. In his “Tragedy with Much Ado about Nothing”, Lu Xun praised Nikolai Gogol’s famous novel The Dead Souls for its portrayal of “the very commonplace happenings, or even tragedies of nothingness”.90 But what Gogol portrayed and what Lu Xun praised are not really the banal, uneventful, and trivial things of life. Instead, it tries to embody the tragedy of the characters in the banal tragedies of the nothingness of everyday life by flauntingly describing the erosion of the will of the characters and of valuable things by the banality of life. “The Public Humiliation”, a short story by Lu Xun himself, has the same kind of flavor of “tragedies of nothingness”. It abandons any attempt to construct a story but presents a suffocating social reality and an anatomy of the weak souls of the people through plotless, almost static scenes. However, it is still not depiction without flaunting. The lifeless silence and indifference of the onlookers, when put together for display, have a certain degree of flaunting, but such a flaunting is not far-removed from reality and so it is easy to be accepted 90

Lu Xun, “Tragedy with Much Ado about Nothing” Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol.6. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 371.

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by the reader. Contemporary Chinese writers well understand that giving up flaunting expressions may win them higher reputation, as readers of literature are tired of the flaunting of thematic meaning. The novel Once the Power in Hand by Nan Tai is but a very common specimen of the Political Office fiction that was popular several years ago. Yet it was praised by some critics for depicting a “tragedy of much ado about nothing” and “showed artistic excellence in fictional writing”. Just as the same critic pointed out that it has to be about something if the author portrayed “the everyday uneventful farce, uneventful lower level politics, the habitual, strange, and perverted politics”91, the same kind of praises were given to Chi Li’s “Shout out When You Are High”, a story that has many flaunting features from its title to its content. If the criticism of the flaunting themes shows a rather tolerant critical principle, the praise of the avoidance of flaunting plots implies an abandonment of the pursuit of fine stories. The belief in the original state of life encouraged postmodernist literary production. This tendency to deny the necessity of the flaunting of plot exaggerates the spiritual meaning contained in the everyday reality of the banal life and sadly ends in an awkward flaunting of ideas. Therefore, a disciplined flaunting of plot is necessary for fiction, especially short stories. Limited in the scope of its content of life, in the numbers of characters and the simplicity of the relationships among them, a short story can express adequate meaning and significance only through a certain degree of flaunting in the design of the plot. A literary work has to carry sufficient ideas and meanings. Being content with a description of common and banal episodes from life and still trying to express important ideas will inevitably lead to the loss of balance between a weak plot and an overbearing theme. This imbalance causes the flaunting of ideas. Successful short-story writers should moderately strengthen the flaunting of the plot to mitigate the flaunting of the ideas and the thematic meaning. Contemporary Chinese short-story writers and critics often do not seem to understand such principles. One-sidedly emphasizing the original state of life and rejecting any flaunting of the plot, they entrust the ideas and thematic significance to rather plain events in life and thus unintentionally cause the flaunting of the thematic significance. Such cases often appear with those famous writers. “Two Chefs” by Su Tong tells a story of how Chef White and a poor Chef Black of the Good Blessings 91

http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/wxpl/2009/2009-11-25/79599.html.

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Restaurant go to the house of Chen Family for a home banquet. Every detail is true to life and the intention of the author is buried in the details. The skillful manipulation of the details does not lead to the flaunting of the plot, but is displayed through the uneventful story. The story, of course, has a lot to express: the warmth of humanity, the hardship of life, the sincerity of family love, and the wisdom of life. However, the richer and more complex the themes, the more folds the story needs to have in order to store the meaning; otherwise, the theme and meaning will be exposed nakedly, directly and abruptly. Yu Hua’s “I Don’t Have a Name” is more or less similar in this aspect. Lai Fa is an orphan who never uses his name in his life. People bully him and use all kinds of insulting names to address him. Only a certain Mr. Chen feels that Lai Fa should be treated with dignity. He constantly asks people and Lai Fa himself to use his real name when he is asked to run errands. When his real name is used, it is used by a village thug Xu Ahsan to ask Lai Fa to summon his dog to be butchered. The story penetratingly exposes the weaknesses of character in everybody, including Lai Fa: no one cares about the dignity and welfare of the others and they only care about how they are addressed and treated. This selfishness makes the dignity of people superficial excuses. The idea is shockingly profound and it demands a shocking and well-conceived story to convey it. However, the story gives up a flaunting of the plot in an attempt to pursue the sense of commonness and even triviality of the narrative. The result is the flaunting of the ideas. In short stories that try to avoid flaunting plots, the thematic meaning is either flaunted passively or evaporated. Dai Lai’s “A Flash” provides a lesson in this respect. In the story, the couple Luo Yang and Shang Yun each have a lover and they still keep the marriage stable, even though Luo Yang knows, through the dish “Pork with Dried Cabbage”, that the intruder into their life is no other than his fellow classmate. “Luo Yang felt a deep vault in his stomach. He sat down at the dining table and found that there were more dishes than usual. He had no appetite, but he ate anyway. Shang Yun was talking about PTA meetings. Luo Yang clearly knew that this was his life, one that he was familiar with and could not change. He would keep on living like this.” Such a plain narrative, such a helpless lament, and such a dull life: even the presence of the lover of his wife could not stir his life a bit. The whole plot is without flaunting, and the thematic meaning expressed through this postmodern life and the anti-fictional narrative is thin and boring. It is void of meaning and significance. Pan Xiangli’s story of a similar theme, “Vegetable and Water”, also depicts an extra-marital affair and the indifference of the

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protagonist. Its theme is as plain as is conveyed in its title— flavorless and boring. There are many examples of how to portray life in a natural and simple manner, and thus to avoid the flaunting of plot, in the excellent works of earlier writers such as Fei Ming, Shen Congwen, and Wang Zengqi. However, they all showed strenuous effort in the depiction of the flavor of life and the situations in reality. So the meanings of their works are neither superficial nor flaunting. The young Chinese writer Wei Wei is determined to learn the skill from the early writers, and she created a contemporary pastoral lyric with her “The Village, Poor Relatives, and Love”. “A city woman leans against an old tree. She is surrounded by a vast space, with no one in sight. Above her head are the blue sky and the white clouds, under her feet solid earth. Wind comes from the wheat field. The warm and cool smell of earth and the plants penetrates her nostrils.” The whole story is resonant of this tone, without exciting or spectacular plots. The simplicity of the plot is in sharp contrast with the thickness of the mood. The flaunting of mood keeps it at a distance from the plot and becomes a hidden flaunting. Yet this is still a relative flaunting of the thematic meaning. The flaunting of mood rarely appears in the writing of earlier masters. They did not directly express their feelings, feeling for home, native village, and native land; more often, they hid it deep in the plain narrative, keeping the feeling contained in the narrative of the story. It seems that, without a proper understanding of the concepts of “flaunting the plot” and “flaunting the theme”, and their relationship, one cannot appreciate the charm of a good story. Nor can he learn from and inherit the treasure from the literary tradition in contemporary China. Many successful stories by Fei Ming, Shen Congwen, and Wang Zengqi have plain and uneventful plots, and they often avoid flaunting in their narrative tones and styles. The authors also skillfully suppress the flaunting of the mood and the thematic meanings. They try to create a certain kind of aesthetic scene. The key to writing fiction, in particular short stories, is to suppress the flaunting of the thematic meanings, the ideas, and the mood, even if suppressing the flaunting of the plot does not work.

Conclusion: A Proper Dose of Flaunting A proper dose of flaunting means that sometimes it is necessary for the plot to be flaunting, but it is dangerous for the meaning to be flaunting. A successful short story that has a controlled flaunting plot to express the

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non-flaunting meaning is best kind for creation. The hope of the Chinese contemporary short story is to have a good understanding of the various kinds of flaunting and to achieve a good balance between them. Needless to say, we have very good short stories, which demonstrate a proper dose of flaunting. A good example would be “Andrew’s Night” written by Tie Ning. This story’s main plot is: Andrew is about to leave the can factory, but suddenly he has the thought of dating his co-worker Xiufen Yao, who he has always wanted to date. Yao says yes and, one night, they agree to meet at the apartment of Yugang Li, Andrew’s best friend. Li gives his key to Andrew and tells them they have three hours at his apartment. But even though he has been there millions of times, Andrew cannot find Li’s apartment; it is like his own, but he cannot find it. “He looked up at the buildings, they all look the same at night, he looked up at the windows under the light.” He spends three hours trying to find the apartment. It didn’t bother him at all to drive to Li’s apartment next morning. This is the typical ending of O’Henry, which is that the plot is interestingly flaunting but the meaning is not. Andrew lost his mind when he was impulsive, happy and uneasy. It is the long emotional depression—when human nature faces extreme happiness—that can cause the spirit to become dazed. The story is the sigh for the humble human’s sadness, is the praise for human nature’s simplicity, and is the sympathy for the petty characters’ loss and the hardness of their emotional life. The plot is flaunting, the meanings are all lined together, and the meaning is very strong because of the plot. Fang Fang and Zhao Mei are both good at using flaunting plots in their short stories. Their success lies in their use of the flaunting plots to express the non-flaunting meaning, but the meaning was there. Zhao Mei’s “Ms. Wu and Mr. Somebody (Moumou)” tells a story of an affair and a murder. The main character is Ms. Wu. After Mr. Moumou’s wife committed suicide, her relatives sued Ms. Wu, as the rumor said that Mr. Moumou has had an affair with Ms. Wu. But it turns out that Ms. Wu is still a virgin. Through a series of inconceivable flaunting plots and events, it ends in embarrassment for her accusers. The most embarrassing part is that Ms. Wu became part of the story. So the sympathy for the innocent people and the critique of the morals were expressed both deeply and naturally. The critique was penetrating, but the meaning was not flaunting. Fang Fang’s “The scenery” somehow can be related to Lu Xun’s “Public Humiliation”, but she uses flaunting plots and events. She was even just as Baudelaire says: “I clearly see the strange world behind the vast living settings and the darkest side”. The strange world is a flaunting world ahead of plots and

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events. Lu Xun’s critique and sarcasm was in the portrayal of the strange world, yet you cannot tell it. Fang Fang recently wrote a novella called “A Resounding Melody”. It lends support to our flaunting theory. It is about a retarded child Ali’s love and worry for his dead mother. The dirge played at his mother's funeral became to him his mother’s image. So every day he goes to a park at East Lake to play the dirge in order to stay close to his mother and not to disturb his neighbors. He would meet his mother through the dirge every day. Suddenly, one day, the roadworks beside East Lake block the road to the park. The writer and the characters protest it, asking what is the point of roadworks if it causes so much trouble for people’s daily lives? You can tell from it that the most part of the novella was great. The plot and characters and the psychological description were expressed from flaunting. The family love draws tears from everyone. As the readers’ tears are about to fall down with the dirge, the flaunting of the plot and the characters are at their best. Yet, the emotion and meaning are not the object of the flaunting; it is the writer’s skill. But at the end of the story, a statement was abruptly made that the reconstruction of the city should take the disadvantaged group into consideration. At this point, the plot cannot hide the ideas, so weakness in the plot and the emphasis on the ideas break the balance, causing the meaning to flaunt and decreasing the artistic effect. From the same writer and the same piece, one can draw the truth of literature: not only do we need the plot to be flaunting, but we should also encourage it. Yet when the ideas expressed outweigh the plots, we need flaunting skills to enrich the plot, so as to deepen the structure and expand the hidden space. In any case, especially for short stories, the flaunting of the meaning is detrimental to the artistic effect. Only when we understand this, the creation of the Chinese contemporary short story can obtain an aesthetic and artistic self-consciousness and can have a bright future.

CHAPTER III NEW LITERATURE AND NEW MEDIA IN CHINESE

III.1. The Recognition of the Nature of Drama and the Canonization of New Drama in Chinese Since the introduction of Western drama in the age of Civilized Drama one hundred years ago, the Chinese theatrical stage has changed fundamentally. Modern drama, especially dramatic creation, has become the mainstream of theatrics from which Chinese movie and TV series were later on derived. However, new drama in Chinese seems to have completed a hundred years of reincarnation and has become a spent force, both in creativity and operation. As a significant genre, modern drama has been marginal under the impact of contemporary media. Some even say that it “has already disappeared from the Chinese social life”.1 In fact, there is no direct connection between the prosperity of contemporary dimensional media and the marginalization of new drama in Chinese. In a sense, the development of the movie and TV series can stimulate the creation of drama effectively. Just as Martin Esslin once said, “Despite the apparent disadvantage against the rise of mass media, drama still has tremendous and increasing point, which is just because of the spread of movie and TV series”.2 The great need of drama for movie and television should have stimulated the development of dramatic creation; however, this did not happen in the area of Chinese modern dramatic creation, largely because the classical accumulation of Chinese modern drama is not readily prepared in experience and practice. Besides, the foundation has not been laid for the recognition of the nature of drama in theory. 1

Xu, Ben. “Drama and Public Life”. Literary Controversies 3 (2012). Esslin, Martin, “Foreword” Absurd Theatre. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 2003. 2

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As early as the 1930s and 1940s, the literary creation and cultural operation of new drama in Chinese became mature. It is well known that modern novels and new poetry, which developed comparatively late, have an enduring stability and lasting power after their mature stage, even in the age of multi-dimensional media. However, an obvious lack of classical accumulation and achievement found in new drama in Chinese may lead to a weak artistic lifespan and may shrink in creativity after its maturation. To explore the reason behind this, people often attribute it to the “politicization of drama”.3 Nevertheless, the internal and profound reason lies in drama itself. The whole circle of new drama in Chinese has endured two major frustrations in the understanding of dramatic nature. These are, namely, the efforts of the critics of old drama and the promoters of new drama to replace dramatics with literariness, and the formation of a concept system deviating from dramatic characteristics, with Cao Yu’s self-criticism on Thunderstorm being the representative. To reveal this, though unable to prevent drama from declining, the general rule in the development of Chinese modern drama will be investigated deeply and the history and destiny of Chinese modern drama can be discussed theoretically.

Recognition of Dramatic Nature and the Canonization of New Drama in Chinese As an important genre of Chinese literary art, new drama must obey the rules of artistic canonization developed since its birth. Generally speaking, artistic genres with deep foundations are easier to obtain classical achievement with than others, but if they were put in the aspect of new drama in Chinese, it would not be the case. New drama in Chinese has a deep foundation but the classical achievement is not as satisfying as with other genres. The reason is that people are slow or frustrated in recognizing the nature of drama. Artistic canonization requires constructing “lasting and outstanding” value in works.4 However, any lasting and outstanding construction in value should obey certain artistic rules and reflect certain artistic nature. Just as some comments emphasize 3

An Kui. “Modernization and Nationalization of Chinese Drama in the 20th Century—A Discussion with Mr. Dong Jian and Fu Jin”. Drama Monthly 4 (2002). 4 Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., Springfield: Merriam-Webster Incorporated, 2003. 228.

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that it must be under the conceptual foundation of “obeying the artistic and literary rules”,5 the slowness and failure in recognizing the nature of drama can hardly ensure the adherence to artistic rules, which is the immediate cause for the unsatisfying classical construction of new drama in Chinese. Compared with other genres in new literature, new drama in Chinese has a deeper historical foundation. Chinese traditional opera with a long history and an abundant accumulation has high relevance to the formation of new drama in Chinese. It rose from the modern drama movement and its own achievement at the beginning of the 20th century, making preparations for the fast development of modern plays in aspects of concept, creation and artistic practice. The practice of modern drama separates new Chinese drama from the traditional singing pattern, making it step into the appreciation age of reading and acting. Many a man of letters including Bao Tianxiao has taken part in the creation of scripts, which separates new Chinese drama from the performing pattern of character leading, thus making it contact the world with the literary age of script leading. Dramatic concept, performing and creation experience promoted by modern playwrights like Ouyang Yuqian are all the outcomes from the participation in modern drama. New drama once had tremendous influence and emotional appeal, giving it the pioneering role in the literary promotion. The operation of modern drama commercialization evoked the amateur play campaign. When modern fiction, modern prose and Chinese new poetry were waiting for the appearance of modern standard Chinese in their early times, new drama had already been played for over 10 years on stage with fluent standard Chinese. Among the genres of new literature, new drama was not only the most prepared and profound but also attracted the most attention from the new literati. When Chen Duxiu was investigating the development of European literature, he realized that the significance of drama would exceed that of the novel and poetry by claiming that, “the most important in Europe is drama, rather than out-dated poetry or fiction”.6 However, according to the facts in the history of new literature, “first-class” drama was no rival to the other “second-class” genres in the way of classical achievement. The creation of modern novels has the most obvious harvest, resulting in definitive classics by Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Shen Congwen, Lao She, 5 Tatarkiewicz, W., Six Western Aesthetic Conceptual Histories. Trans. Liu Wentan. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2006. 6 Chen, Duxiu. “On European Art History”. La Jeunesse 1 (1915).

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Li Jieren, Xu Xu and Qian Zhongshu, etc. Modern prose also obtains classical outcomes with Lu Xun’s prose poems Wild Grass and his essay design, as well as stylish creations by Zhou Zuoren, Lin Yutang, Liang Shiqiu, Zhu Ziqing, and Yu Dafu. Meanwhile, modern poetry has had classical and significant contributions by Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, Ai Qing, Mu Dan, Bian Zhilin and Feng Zhi, etc. On the topic of epoch-making value and influence, canonical works in modern drama have a comparatively small number, with only Cao Yu, Lao She and Tian Han’s works as representatives. From the Modern Drama Movement to the New Literature Movement, new drama in Chinese has been seeking ways to break away from traditional opera and to link with western opera. In this process, through imitating outstanding western dramatists like Ibsen, Wilde and O’Neill, there have appeared some really great works. In the 1920s, the most active campaign was the Southern China drama campaign with Tian Han as the leading figure, whose works are far from being great dramatic works. Even his Death of a Famous Actor didn’t show the epoch-making charm, in spite of its classical significance. The 1930s and 1940s used to be the golden years for new drama in Chinese. At that time, Cao Yu’s dramatic creation was spoken of highly by others, and he kept on looking for ways to best illustrate drama so that he created a much-told story to have innovation in almost all his works. Xia Yan had also been active in drama creation, such as Under the Roof in Shanghai and Grass at the End of the World, both of which showed their innovative thoughts. The romantic dramas by Yu Ling and Wu Zuguang and historical dramas by Guo Moruo, Yang Hansheng and A Ying shone upon each other, providing the abundant and profound harvest in this period. Despite this, Li Jianwu, both a playwright and commentator, was not satisfied with the classical achievement of new drama in Chinese, claiming in the 1940s that, “dramatic literature is still beyond maturity”, pointing out that new drama in Chinese was still in the stage of imitating western drama. Even among the classics of new drama in Chinese, works like Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm, which has always been evergreen, are just too few. On the other hand, many great works could only cause a sensation in a specific period, while afterward nobody mentions them anymore. Take Under the Roof in Shanghai, for instance. It made quite a stir at one time, but was then left out of the play collection without opposition from the author.7 The drama circle has a common view on the classical value of 7

Xia, Yan, On Creation of Under the Roof in Shanghai. Shanghai: Shanghai Art Press, 1996.

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Thunderstorm, but has different opinions on classical recognition of Cao Yu’s creation. Mao Dun once implicitly pointed out that Cao Yu’s creation after Thunderstorm might need to be discussed as “whether good or not”, and until Beijing Men he thought that Cao Yu’s style “came back to where he was”, adding that in this play “there are also unsolved questions”.8 Since there have been so many different views on the understanding of classics in new drama in Chinese, the weak accumulation of new drama in Chinese can be seen more clearly, and it has a lot to do with the vague recognition of the nature of drama. Modern playwrights have little self-awareness, passion or creative ideas on the nature of drama, which leads to a lack of clear classical construction concept in the development of new drama in Chinese. To make things worse, the internal artistic rules have become vague, which also has a negative influence on the birth and accumulation of classics. During the history of Chinese modern literature, brand-new styles were often easier to evoke the passion of discussion, yet for pre-existing ones it is the other way around. In the period of the New Literature Movement, it has been over a decade since new drama in Chinese came into prosperity. What was left for people were criticism and introspection, let alone recognition of the nature of drama. When the new novel appeared, the literary circle was aware of the importance of probing into the theories of it. Well-known articles like Hu Shi’s “On Short Stories” offered valuable opinions on the recognition of the nature of the short story. When poetry was in its infancy, Tian Han, Guo Moruo and Zong Baihua’s “A Collection of Three Leaves” made deep exploration into the nature of poetry, and Guo Moruo’s “Extended words” published in Creation Quarterly had a lot to do with the comprehension of new poetry. Comparatively, discussions on drama did not begin until the 1960s. In La Jeunesse, theoretical explorations on drama focused on introspections of opera history and criticism of the old opera. Issue No.4 of its fifth volume was particularly renamed “The Special Issue on Opera Reform”. Qian Xuantong held the opinion that western drama was real while Chinese old drama belonged to the “mask category”: “The real drama is surely the western style rather than the mask category”.9 As for the stylish characteristics and artistic nature of the “real drama”, they are key factors in exploring the nature of drama. Promoters of the New Literature even believed that the nature of new drama was free and natural: “Chinese drama had been trying to break 8 9

Mao, Dun. “On Reading Beijing Men”. Liberation Daily. 12 August, 1942. Qian, Xuantong. “Casual Thoughts”. La Jeunesse 5 (1918).

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away from the restrictions of opera, but due to severe conservatism, it failed to reach the state of being free and natural”.10 As for questions such as why western drama had the “real” dramatic characteristics, or what drama natural characteristics were, the answers didn’t seem to be clear and had the tendency to become conventional patterns of being “meant for life”. If we didn’t consider whether this kind of nature theory fits in with the artistic rules, such emphasis on the fracture between modern drama and traditional opera would no doubt cause conceptual confusion in constructing standard artistic rules. As time went by, people would realize that new drama in Chinese was based on Chinese traditional opera, and modern drama was “growing from our land” under the guidance of “foreign opera art form”, i.e. it is “developed by both absorbing western drama and inheriting from Chinese traditional opera”. 11 After an accumulation of thousands of years, the traditional opera had come to the state of maturity with classical songs, large audiences and stable patterns of appreciation. Active contact with traditional Chinese opera and an emphasis on the connection between modern drama and traditional opera will often signal a respect for artistic dramatic rules and a desire to get back to the nature of drama. Departure from the traditional opera and exaggerating the differences between modern drama and traditional opera will probably lead to a departure from the artistic dramatic rules, leaving modern drama lost in the concept. The recognition of dramatic nature has never been an easy task to solve, for literary theorists and aestheticians have never agreed upon it. However, if playwrights have lost interest and passion in probing into dramatic nature and artistic dramatic nature, they cannot have self-awareness in drama creation, thus, their works will hardly ever be classical. The lack of the operation of new drama in Chinese can be analyzed in many ways, but the essential factors are the slowness and misunderstanding of dramatic nature. Of course, as many people have noticed, frequent modern dramatic campaigns and social operations may be disturbing to drama canonization. The disturbance falls in the continuous interference and covering. Since the birth of modern drama, on account of the over-estimation of drama’s social role, many playwrights devoted themselves to dramatic creation; in addition, dramatic campaigns 10

Hu, Shi. “Literary Progress and Dramatic Reform”. La Jeunesse 5 (1918).  Zhao, Mingyi. “A Random Talk about 30 Years’ Dramatic Movement”. Dramatic Forums 3 (1957).  11

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and ideological trends have been ceaseless. From the “Dramatic Revolution” in the late Qing Dynasty to “Ibsen Mania” in the New Culture Movement, from the public dramatic campaign and Southern China campaign to the national opera movement and amateur play campaign, every movement brought about many popular works but most of them were no more than temporary energy for the operation, and then they were left behind in history. The accumulation of new drama in Chinese has been difficult in history, let alone innovation and inheritance. Some drama historians have found that the operation of dramatic history is often filled with this rebellion: “Dramatic history is one full of rebellions and reactions, but the new types are challenging the old and the old ones have laid the foundation for the new”.12 However, it does not fit in with the new drama in Chinese. Accumulated drama cannot serve as the foundation for dramatic innovation, which is usually neglected and abandoned. This is extremely harmful for the classical accumulation of drama. The more severe point is that ceaseless ideological trends have become disturbing factors in playwrights’ creation and recognition of dramatic nature. Drama is particularly strict on inheritance, yet the interference of movements and the impact of ideological trends make it unrealistic to recognize the dramatic nature. The apparent lack of inheritance often results in a lack of normal accumulation, which, in turn, has a negative effect on the classical operation of dramatic literature.

Facing the Tradition: Renewed Recognition of the Nature of Drama What the promoters of the New Culture Movement and modern playwrights find most unsatisfying about the traditional opera are its “masking” style, fictional plot and exaggerated characters. Actually, they are all about flaunting in creation and acting. From the perspective of enlightenment and revolution, they firmly state that literature, including drama, should reflect life, plot and characters essentially and naturally. On the part of literature, this point of view belongs to Chen Duxiu’s “realism” of the three points, which means “clear and popular social literature”,13 revealing the significant mainstream value in new literature. The stylized 12 Stern, J. L., Theory and Practice of Modern Drama. Beijing: China Drama Press, 2002. 1. 13 Chen, Duxiu. “On Literary Revolution”. La Jeunesse 2 (1917).

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performance and old ways of the script in traditional opera fit in quite well with the stubborn style of old literature, where criticism and denial should be given from the perspective of the Cultural Revolution and cultural innovation. The significant historic value of those promoters of new literature lies in their being engaged in literature, art, culture, and politics on the level of literary criticism. Such criticisms are so powerful that they are able to shake the thousands-of-years-long cultural roots despite general opinion. As for the dramatic art itself, the criticisms are worth inspection. The characteristics of dramatic art concern whether dramas are suitable for performance and whether plot and character contain a reasonable amount of flaunting. In particular, flaunting, such as necessary coincidence and legend, should be found in creation and performance, which are the most obvious and brightest artistic charms of drama. We can say that flaunting should be applied in non-dramatic styles, and an overdose of flaunting can be applied in special art forms like acrobatics. So reasonable flaunting in creation and performance is just the way to distinguish drama from other literary and artistic genres. Drama is drama in itself. The most important nature of drama is the reasonable flaunting in performance and plot through imitation and fictional methods to reach the goal of art performance. There has long been a dispute on the nature of drama for they are restricted in stylistic characteristics or even structural significance of dramatic literature. For example, Blunteur regarded the nature of drama as conflict; Archer held the opinion that the nature of drama is crisis; Diderot and Sartre said it should be situation. The popular views above eliminate the difference among drama, fiction and poetry, and fail to treat drama as an art form independent from and transcending literature. As a classical style in narrative literature, fiction also has “conflict” to link plots and “crisis” of the main characters to push the plot forward; as the typical style of lyrical literature, poetry also needs “situation” to store poetic flavor. The “action view” has almost touched upon the core of dramatic nature, but dramatic “action” is not only about the things characters do in the drama, but also the process of action in plot and character. This kind of process often calls for flaunting in performance and plot. Reasonable flaunting is the key factor to distinguish it from reality and other literary genres. According to Martin Esslin, the flaunting of the dramatic nature is in fictional plots: “I believe that one of the major characteristics of drama and major charm is that the play on stage is pure fiction”.14 Fiction in drama not only refuses 14

Esslin, Martin, Dramatic Analysis. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1981.

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the challenge of daily life, but should also include reasonable flaunting, despite being somehow absurd. Just as Zola said, “You may lie on stage, and absurdity can flow in the script…if there is no happy lie to comfort the exhausted audience, there is no need for drama to exist”.15 Some also say that flaunting in dramatic nature lies in performance: “What modern drama has been striving for is no other than the vivid communication between performers and audience to restore the creative space”.16Some Chinese scholars even believe that reasonable flaunting of roleplay is the ultimate reflection of drama. If “there had not been painted roles and clowns, the reality in drama might have been impaired”.17 These views can all be regarded as precious ones to reveal the dramatic nature. In other words, reasonable flaunting of dramatic nature should focus on the plot, characters and relationships between them, which are all on the performance level. It is because fictional plot and the masking style of the traditional opera can attract large numbers of audiences through the years. Of course, under such circumstances, any purely “entertaining” views on drama, even from masters, should be given a warning sign. Brecht was one of them, who thought that, “Drama is to reflect inter-personal communications or imaginary events, whose goal is for entertainment”. He emphasized that, “making people entertained is the mission of drama. Just like any other art forms, this mission always goes along with special dignity”. Besides, katharsis in an aesthetic psychological sense “is not only from entertaining pattern, but also develops with the aim of entertainment”.18 All these statements obviously highlight extremes, but they point out the need for flaunting in plot and performance. This illustration fits in well with the Chinese traditional opera that Brecht showed great interest in. Meanwhile, it joins up with the artistic rules of expressionism in modern art history. In this sense, the Chinese traditional opera, though denied by the new literati, is approved by the world’s dramatic and aesthetic circles, thanks to its plot construction and performance style. Moreover, it is regarded as one of the famous “Three Systems” in a theoretical sense. Obviously, Chinese traditional opera cannot be considered perfect, so 15

Zola, Emile, Naturalism and Dramatic Stage. Beijing: China Social and Science Press, 1982. 16 Kawateke, N., Dramatic Introduction. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1983. 6. 17 Ren, Erbai. “Opera, Drama and Performance”. Dramatic Talks 1 (1957). 18 Brecht, B., Dramatic Instruments. Beijing: China Social and Science Press, 1982.

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the criticism of the old opera from new literature promoters has theoretical value. For example, such indecent customs as over-emphasis on gagging and stunting in old opera, vulgar thought and style in popular drama, as well as low-taste performance should be abandoned. Thus, the promoters of new literature’s total denial of old drama no doubt have these points in mind. But, if absolute denial was given to style and masking in performance and criticism was carried out to the extreme, dramatic flaunting would be repudiated. Without flaunting in plot and characters, drama would stray far from its nature, which may lead to nothing. In Wen Yiduo’s opinion, it “cannot stand performing”. This view is the summary of Wen Yiduo’s observation on experimental forms of new drama in Chinese before 1926, which actually points out why new drama in Chinese failed to show its nature. He was also very unsatisfied with flaunting in thought: “Literature, especially dramatic literature, is easy to get involved with philosophy. The works we have got lately certainly contain issues like philosophy and complaints, but they just cannot stand performing”. Therefore, such a play as Zhuo Wenjun is no other than “dramatic literature with thought”, and a lot of “strange works” came into being. Thus, “there is almost nothing left for drama”. He came to the conclusion that “script is the last thing to offer as the memorandum of drama during history. But now script comes before drama. This kind of drama-into-literature type is considered to be progress in drama. Who can predict that drama is declining when it gets involved with literature? The ultimate goal of art is to reach the state of the ‘pure form’; however, literature is far from it”.19 As Wen Yiduo was not a significant playwright, he could hardly cause a stir in the development of drama. Nevertheless, his views showed that recognition of the nature of drama was trying to get back to normal. Revealing “literariness” is the initial attempt of new drama, with The Great Event in Life by Hu Shi, Shrew by Ouyang Yuqian and Zhuo Wenjun by Guo Moruo as representatives. These works show a flaunting in thought instead of flaunting in the relationship between plot and characters; furthermore, they replace literariness with dramatics. The reason why they are remembered is that they are the achievements of literary attempt, whose spirit is to express and promote new thought. Hu Shi’s The Great Event in Life criticized old-fashioned thought by means of the “Nora” pattern by Ibsen, so that independent marriage and personality were 19

Wen, Yiduo. “A Wrong Way of Drama”. Drama Edition on Morning Newspaper. No.2. 24 June, 1926.

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widely made known. But the plot is so simple and characters so weak that the whole play is full of dialogue. The purpose is to criticize the old thought and promote the new, but the design is rather poor: if the feudal thought of being matched for marriage had its pertinence at that time, the patriarchal clan system between the Tians and the Chens seems outdated and absurd. This play set an example for dramatic attempt and experimental preparation as it tried to replace flaunting in thought with flaunting in plot. Ouyang Yuqian’s Shrew is also a “Nora” play, whose simple plot and character relationship were designed for expressing modern thought and ideas. Yu Suxin, the “shrew”, dares to challenge the traditional family order and warns the “concubine” that she was “abducted” by her husband: “You will never escape from him. Even [if] you did, you’d end up nothing. So it’s better for you to learn something from me and you’ll be independent after all”. The penetrating thought is similar to the point made in “What Happens After Nora Leaves Home?” by Lu Xun. The heroine in Zhuo Wenjun announces to the old generation: “The out-dated rituals are what have kept you for so long and they are no restrictions for youth and women like me!”20 These plays had a strong sense of the epoch and the strong modern elements revealed an overdose of the flaunting of modern and historical characters. Besides, the whole situation is set-up to convey the main idea, so it shows obvious flaunting in thought, which has become the creation focus and performance core. The plot, characters and design for various structures and situations are united in the flaunting of thought—there is nothing dramatic. Therefore, the “nothingness” in drama results from a wrong recognition of the nature of drama. Wen Yiduo’s introspection came nearer to the key concept that the creation of dramatic literature should keep the flaunting of plot of the old drama or fiction: “You need to show what the audience like if you want them to watch. The topics of a play can be anything popular like love and murder. It’s got to make a sensation”. Of course, the murder here is just an instance, which is to show the fictional and exaggerative factors that the audience is in favor of. Apparently, his “stand performing” view is about flaunting. This view, which shows appreciation to plot and materials, is much better than those extreme points claiming that, “old drama comes from nothing but vulgar novels”, for it comes nearer to the core of dramatic nature. Wen Yiduo’s introspection is not alone. Before him, Song Chunfang 20

Guo, Moruo, Zhuo Wenjun. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1984.

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also highly praised the western well-made play, revealing his understanding of dramatic nature. The well-made play is a kind of drama popular in Europe in the 19th century, famous for its complicated and delicate plot, weird and nervous scenes, and theatrical effects achieved by flaunting. The representative playwrights were Eugene Scribe and Victorien Sardou. Well-made plays place so much emphasis on dramatic flaunting that they break away from the restrictions of society and nature. Moreover, stylish creation and performance marketing add to criticisms. Zola was very unsatisfied with the characteristics of the well-made play for it was “extremely exaggerated”. But according to Song Chunfang, the well-made play was valuable because of flaunting, and it “focused on the writing of script”.21 Concentration on the script will inevitably lead to reasonable flaunting. In the early 1920s, there was a precious self-awareness in drama, which came close to the recognition of the nature of drama, although no clear concept came into being at that time. The criticism of new drama for “non-dramatics” and its failure to meet the audience’s need fit in very well with the important view held by English drama theorist William Archer: “The only true definition of dramatics is the fictional performance that can attract audience in the theatre”. Audiences are attracted by good plays and the key factor lies in flaunting through plot and performance. Wen Yiduo and Song Chunfang identified them as critical to new drama. In the meantime, playwrights unwittingly started to re-examine traditional opera in the process of trying to explore the nature of drama. Dramatic nature reflects the objective artistic rules. As long as drama is probing for progress, it will, sooner or later, get nearer to the flaunting in plot, character and performance. Since the traditional opera reflects nature to some extent, calls for it to refer back to the old drama in creation would be as loud as the condemnation of the old drama. This is what used to be called the first classical construction of new drama. In the midst of denouncing the “masking style”, the National Drama Movement attracted people’s attention. This movement was pushed forward by men of letters with interest in the traditional opera, including Yu Shangyuan, Zhao Taimou, Wen Yiduo and Zhang Junmai, etc. The core value is the departure from flaunting in thought and meaning and the promotion of new drama characterized by impressionism, abstract performance and symbolism. Yu Shangyuan once defined “national drama” as “Chinese 21

Song, Chunfang, Song Chunfang’s Plays. Shanghai: Zhonghua Book Company, 1923.

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drama using Chinese material for Chinese to watch”. In the article “Art in Performance”, he claimed that the key was the recovery of “impressionistic” drama; namely, the essence of “abstractness, symbolism and nonfiction” of Chinese traditional opera should be recovered because it was nearest to the nature of drama. Yu Shangyuan didn’t realize the relationship between impressionism, abstractness as well as flaunting and dramatic nature, so he just explained the necessity of being abstract, symbolic and impressionistic from the perspective of dramatic art and reality: “Though drama is too close to life, its value must be estimated from its degree of abstractness”.22 Since drama is the “ultimate literature”, it is a special literature. Generally speaking, average literature can reflect life in a realistic way, but because of the performance characteristics, drama must reflect life in a duly exaggerated way. Lu Xun once criticized flaunting in modern fictional creation: “All embarrassments would come to one person on one moment”.23 However, it is necessary in drama. Because it resorts to performance, drama has to flaunt plot and emotional factors. If all the calamities and embarrassments come at one moment, it can be understood and believed. This is decided by the nature of drama because drama is not simply a direct reflection of life but a concentrative and exaggerative art to present, through performance, certain elements in life including plot, character and encounters. In a sense, the so-called “drama” should draw a reasonable distance from life. In the understandings of new culture promoters, drama is a genre meant “for life” in terms of value. It should also reflect life as realistically as possible. Yet playwrights who have a true understanding of drama have a different idea. Zhao Taimou, participating in the National Drama Movement, was unsatisfied with the phenomenon of “literariness-orientation”, and he thought that the outcome would be “western drama”. Though being “closest to life”, it cannot be as pure as the national drama. 24 They promoted the movement not to reject western drama and honor the traditional drama, but to blend in some traditional factors with creation and performance of new drama, which is to make new drama in Chinese achieve the quality of real art. 22

Yu, Shangyuan, National Drama Movement. Beijing: New Crescent Bookstore, 1927. 23 Lu Xun, Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Short Stories. Vol.2. Shanghai: Shanghai Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 24 Yu, Shangyuan, National Drama Movement. Beijing: New Crescent Bookstore, 1927.

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The promotion of national drama was to develop flaunting in plot and performance of the new drama. To be honest, from the perspective of new culture promotion, the traditional opera, which has the characteristics of flaunting in plot, would lead to a weak representation of reality. According to Ouyang Yuqian, traditional drama excluded script literature, while new drama is a literature of flaunting in thought: “It can change the social trend by developing an ideal or solving a problem”. Meanwhile, he thought, “Songs, plays and legends since the Yuan Dynasty had their own merits”.25 It is because they reflected flaunting in technique and plot. Therefore, with the emergence of the National Drama Movement, new drama in Chinese became used to referring to traditional opera in plot, character and performing, and the dramatic plot, character and performance were made to depart from real life. Yu Shangyuan and Gu Yuxiu successfully recomposed The Continuous Hatred and A Legendary Pipa in America about the topics of Beauty Yang and Cai Bojie, because they made use of classical flaunting in plot and character. Though departing from real life, they were regarded as drama. As a sympathizer of the National Drama Movement, Xu Zhimo, a poet, had a deep interest in the national drama. In his prose, he sometimes quoted sentences and songs in drama. It is because of this interest that he created Bian Kungang with Lu Xiaoman, a traditional drama fan. This is a new drama with coincidence in plot and exaggeration in character, just as a traditional drama would have had. With flaunting of plot strengthened, plus the talent of the poet, it is truly a successful work. Though they were not participants in the National Drama Movement, some playwrights found that drama is different from other genres. Drama must be able to stand performance and have flaunting in plot and character; it must also make use of certain traditional resources denied in the period of the New Culture Movement. It is hard to deny that new drama based on the traditional opera increased tremendously several years after the New Culture Movement. 1919 to 1922 was the beginning period, marked by the release of The Great Event in Life. In this period, it was rare to see new plays modeled on classical plays. Hong Shen included The Great Event in Life, Night of Killing Tigers, Lady Orchid, A Moral Obligation, Parent-Teacher Association, Good Son, and Yama Zhao, etc. into Anthologies of Chinese New Literature, none of which has any relationship with traditional opera. From 1923 to 1928, new plays—those influential works in particular—often have some relationship with traditional opera. 25

Ouyang, Yuqian. “On Dramatic Reform”. La Jeunesse 4 (1918).

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For example, Guo Moruo’s Three Rebellious Women is filled with the charm of traditional opera in both material and concept. In the late 1920s, Yuan Changying’s Peacocks Fly Southeast, Ouyang Yuqian’s Pan Jinlian and Tian Han’s Death of a Famous Actor all have traces of traditional opera. This dramatic atmosphere gave rise to the National Drama Movement. In fact, during the New Culture Movement when traditional opera received destructive criticisms, it was still considered an effective resource of new drama in Chinese. In Ouyang Yuqian’s words, it had “its own merits”. Certainly, it was not calling for the recovery of the traditional form and style but appealing to traditional flaunting in plot, character design and performance style, aiming to improve the dramatic quality of the new drama in Chinese. If Ouyang Yuqian and others had used modern material, they were aware that the traditional opera would help modern drama in its construction in the movement of national drama. They started to pay more attention to getting material from traditional opera and added modern ways of flaunting in the traditional plot to strengthen the dramatic connotations. Ouyang Yuqian’s Pan Jinlian is a typical work pursuing this aim. The characters and plot are based on traditional operas and fiction, and the playwright inserted modern factors, especially the characters’ personalities and language, to strengthen the fate and dramatics of these characters. For example, the beautiful and tender Pan Jinlian splits her clothes in the face of Wu Song who holds a blade in his hand: “My burning heart is right in the white chest! You take it! I cannot be with you this life. Even if I am reborn to be a cow, I will slice my leather to make you shoes; if I am reborn to be a silkworm, I will weave my silk to make you clothes. I love you, even if you kill me!” The one-time jezebel has become a fearless and bold pursuer of love. She “threw her arms on Wu Song and her eyes were burning with passion”. Therefore, the personalities and actions of the characters are raised to the utmost, inspired by modern emotion; meanwhile, the tragic sense also reaches its peak. The real “drama” appears, and the nature of drama is successfully revealed, through reasonable flaunting. Without any theoretical illustration or announcement of experience, new drama in Chinese waved goodbye to flaunting in thought and went on to pursue dramatic nature, flaunting in plot and flaunting in character, which are the major features of traditional opera. Tian Han once avoided climax in plays such as Return to the South, One Night in Café and Night Tales in Suzhou, but he also wrote Death of a Famous Actor, which is related to traditional opera in numerous ways. As the most mature play by

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Tian Han, it is similar to Ouyang Yuqian’s work in that they both flaunt the plot and character, and even the characters’ fates. He imitated the poetic flaunting in Fleur Du Mal by Baudelaire, and Liu Zhensheng suddenly ended up on stage to catcalls from the audience. The plot may not stand close investigation but the flaunting shows the dramatic element. Previously, it had been rare to see intensive plots, a focus on action or climax in Tian Han’s plays. Though full of poetic ambience, they were still boring for audiences to watch. It was the same when Return to the South was staged. When audiences walked out of the theaters, they wondered, “What was the play all about?”26 Yet it is very different with Death of a Famous Actor, which has broken away from the poetic ambience and succeeded with flaunting in plot and character portrayal. The South China Drama Movement ended up with political “self-criticism”. 27 Meanwhile, the South China Club walked out of poetic tradition, which was replaced by reasonable flaunting in plot, thus returning to the dramatic nature and contributing much to the operation of the Chinese new drama canonization. The general rule of new drama canonization is its reference to traditional opera. Even the amateur movement should conform to the dramatic nature, or it would find it difficult to develop. Remember the fate of the Amateur Movement, which emphasized literate and poetic characteristics? “There was said to be dozens of amateur troupes in Shanghai, but there were really a few which were active. The movement cooled down after a tempest.”28 The value of drama must be determined by the theatrical charm and disciplined by the dramatic rules, which are the necessary requirements of drama. Upon the birth of new drama in Chinese, it devoted itself to flaunting in thought and significance. With the revolution anxiety of new culture, it was difficult for dramatics to stand out. In the following years, in spite of a lack of theoretical awareness, playwrights and critics pushed forward the notion of flaunting in plot and character, thus equipping some of the works with a dramatic quality, making it possible for them to be performed in theaters. Such power comes from the internal rule of dramatic art.

26

Chen, Baichen, “On the Future of the Chinese National Drama Movement” Chen Baichen on Drama. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1987. 27 Tian, Han. “Our Self Criticism”. South China Monthly 2.1 (1930). 28 Gu, Zhongyi. “The Fate of Chinese New Drama Movement”. New Crescent Monthly 4.1 (1931).

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Introspection on Thunderstorm and a Second Deviation from the Nature of Drama By referring back to traditional opera, dramatic flaunting was acknowledged in the dramatic circle for the first time in modern history. If seen from the point of view of creations, it was the initial achievement of the canonization of new drama in Chinese. What’s more, artistic foundations had been laid for the emergence of classical playwrights like Cao Yu as well as the maturity of the new drama in Chinese. However, the canonization of Chinese drama didn’t develop as smoothly as expected. On the contrary, some problems appeared; many playwrights abandoned the pursuit of dramatics and turned to one-sided realism. This phenomenon has a lot to account for, among which was the confusion in the introspection of the classics by playwrights like Cao Yu, leading to a second frustration on the recognition of the nature of drama. The successful plays, including Thunderstorm, resulted from an unconscious adherence to the dramatic rules and nature. Thunderstorm is still deemed the best and classical play in the history of new drama in Chinese after 70 years. Nevertheless, it has never become an example that other playwrights would follow, rather, it was considered a lesson that even the creator Cao Yu needed to learn. In spite of its enormous success, its triumph was very limited and requires deep introspection. Thunderstorm is the representative of the successful operation of Chinese dramatic rules. In the meantime, it shows the lack of self-awareness of playwrights in recognizing the dramatic nature, which was mistaken for “theoretical awareness”, thus bringing about much frustration in the creation of new drama in Chinese. There is something accidental to the appearance and success of Thunderstorm. When Cao Yu wrote this play, he didn’t “think that this play would be performed, so for the convenience of readers, characters’ personalities got fully explained”. 29 According to Benjamin Bennett, “there is a tension between script and performances”. Certainly, Cao Yu didn’t expect that tension and, thus, there was no design beforehand. That this play could survive for so long and become so successful is beyond the author’s intention and his expectation. On one hand, it reveals Cao Yu was not that kind of author to create according to plans; he would discover a path with his own experience and understanding of new drama, which is different from the traditional opera in both creation and performance. On 29

Cao, Yu, Thunderstorm. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1999. 125.

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the other hand, it is the flaunting in plot and the relationships among the characters that really mattered to the success of this play, of which Cao Yu was not aware. Thanks to the experience of playwrights like Tian Han and Ouyang Yuqian, the artistic branch caused by flaunting in thought was successfully avoided in the creation of the play. The theme of Thunderstorm is still within the framework of destiny tragedy, which is 2,000 years old. The plot and relations are so complicated and weird that, in one day, all the absurdities and embarrassments burst out in one family, which involves obvious display and exaggeration, including: a woman who mysteriously comes back to a house that she escaped 20 years ago; another woman having an immoral relationship with her stepson, and a third woman having an affair with two brothers at the same time, who is the envy of the wife. Meanwhile, the father and husband faces the betrayal of his wife and three sons, who are the outcome of his wrongful deeds when he was young. Overwhelming coincidence cannot stand the test of truthfulness. But this is drama! Dramatics reveal the nature of drama, which includes reasonable flaunting. People usually use “dramatic” and “dramatically” as an attribute or adverb to describe coincidences and accidents, which illustrate that the key to “dramatics” lies in concentration as well as flaunting. The success of Thunderstorm lies in the concentration of the playwright’s imagination, originality of the plots, and the unexpected flaunting in character relationship. It meets the requirement of the “pure dramatics” and of the “pure presence” by western critics like Samuel Beckett: “Beckett’s theatre intends to exploit a ‘pure presence’” or “it instead means to expose it as an illusion”.30 In fact, this is where dramatic nature lies. This play is the most famous one; it is one full of dramatics. It should be the model for playwrights to follow and learn from. In the history of new drama in Chinese, it has always assumed the ultimate position in theater. Upon its birth, people saw it as “a play with great significance” because “much effort has been spent on plot”.31 Later on, when reviewing the history of modern Chinese culture, it was stated that people believed Thunderstorm “will last forever”.32 30

Gendron, Sarah. “‘The Death of a Dynasty’, Presence in Drama and Theory: Samuel Beckett and Jacques Derrida”. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Spring 2004. 24. 31 Li, Jiangwu, “On Thunderstorm” Li Jiang’s Criticisms of Drama. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1982. 32 Wang, Meng. “Forever Thunderstorm”. Reading 5 (1998).

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However, Cao Yu himself wasn’t content with, and even despised, Thunderstorm for “it resembles drama too much”. He said: “After finishing Thunderstorm, I became tired of it. I hate the structure for it resembles a play too much. I have used too many techniques”. The problem is that this is not his confession but his understanding and introspection of the dramatic concept. The one who triggered the introspection was Chekhov, who made Cao Yu “intoxicated in his profound art”. Cao thought Chekhov “wrote a great play where every character has his own life without too many exciting scenes. The plain plot and ordinary characters have grasped my heart, taking my breath away and making me faint in the sad atmosphere”.33 Chekhov was a great writer of the short story in the first instance, but Cao Yu was attracted most by his plays, and it was obviously the appeal of literature that led him to move from drama. He predicted that “Chekhov’s play cannot be performed in China; even [if] it were performed, few people would watch”34 because Chinese audiences want “interesting stories, and dramatic and exciting scenes”.35 These are the natural and normal elements of drama and what Thunderstorm has offered to us. But, in Cao Yu’s introspection, they are not worth mentioning. This introspection, to respect literariness and reject dramatics, would be a disaster in his pursuit of drama. In his later plays, like Sunrise, he discarded the “coincidental”36 plot, namely the “dramatic” factors, and suppressed the flaunting in plot and characters, in a bid to construct dramatic works in line with literariness. His script became more like a novel, for he gave special attention to plots and scenes that turn away from dramatics. In Act 3 of Sunrise, the description of a prostitute is dissociative of the main plot and character relations, but Cao Yu placed emphasis on this part: “To be frank, the only realistic act in Sunrise is the third one. In the short 35 pages, I spent much time and effort…there are too countless sad stories to be told; if only I had Balzac’s ability”.37 His introspection and statement were certainly precious, but they seemed to be the conceptual introspection on literariness or presentations on the media. He once said the story of “the poor little thing” matched the reality best: “Facts are everywhere, for example, in the newspaper”.38 The model in 33 34 35 36 37 38

Cao, Yu, Sunrise. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1994. 196-197. Cao, Yu, “Epilogue” On Beijing Men. Shanghai: Shanghai Art Press, 1986. Cao, Yu, Sunrise. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1994. Huang, Zhigang. “From Thunderstorm to Sunrise”. Light 2 (1937). Cao, Yu, Sunrise. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1994. Cao, Yu, Sunrise. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1994. 187.

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his mind was the novel, the style of Balzac, even the stories from the news column, but not drama. Hence, his dramatic concept returned to the state of “literariness” assailed by Wen Yiduo. The point is that introspection and understanding were not restricted to Cao Yu. Playwrights and literary historians spared no efforts in overestimating this introspection. With Cao Yu’s introspection and understanding of dramatics, both dramatic and critical circles showed their resentment for the “dramatic” tendency. Sunrise was said to be better than Thunderstorm, for Sunrise suppressed flaunting in drama. A critic argued: “If Sunrise is better than Thunderstorm, it is because there are much fewer coincidences in Sunrise than in Thunderstorm. There are not so many coincidences in life. Coincidence drama was called legends in old China, which were extremely dramatic and not at all realistic”.39 They did not realize that flaunting in plot, especially coincidences, and legendary plots are the expression of dramatics. Li Jianwu, both a playwright and critic, also said, “The story does not matter in drama, but life matters a lot. What we want is facts of life, of which the story can only offer a small part, for a story doesn’t have the same flexibility as life”.40 Apparently, after Cao Yu’s introspection, Li Jianwu’s comment showed that he had drifted away from his dramatic concept when he wrote It is No More Than a Spring. This play has a humorous and comedic style along with bold plots and weird character relations, which is more “dramatic” than “realistic”. That was a time when realistic theory was more important than dramatic nature. “The play should be the most realistic when it is being put on stage. The background and characters are all reflections of reality. In other words, all the characters must come from all walks of life”.41 “Realism” was given primary importance in the article “Writing skills of Li Chuangwang” by A Ying. Chinese old drama was called legend in old times, which exposed its dramatics. Based on that, being “realistic” and being “dramatic” are set in opposition to each other. After abandoning “dramatic” display and exaggeration, being “realistic” has become the criterion of drama. Therefore, however magnificent Qu Yuan was, it received much criticism for not being realistic, which led to Guo Moruo’s decision to stick to reality in his later creations. After finishing Peacock’s Gallbladder, he claimed, “The affairs about the Yuan and Ming dynasties are mostly 39

Huang, Zhigang. “From Thunderstorm to Sunrise”. Light 2 (1937). Li, Jianwu, “On Civilized Drama” Li Jiang’s Criticisms of Drama. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1982. 41 Mao Dun, On National Drama Form. Shanghai: Shanghai Art Press, 1981. 40

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real”.42 In the 1940s, Li Jianwu went on upholding his “non-dramatic” viewpoint when he commented on Under the Roof in Shanghai, and was eagerly thinking about “how to save drama from flaunting”. This kind of concept led to his estimation that “Xia Yan’s During One Year is the most brilliant one”, for it was more realistic than Under the Roof in Shanghai. As for Xia Yan, he used to have a deep understanding of reasonable flaunting and put forward splendid views: “Drama is basically the dramatic part [of] life. The magnificent plots and outstanding characters are the real parts of drama”. However, this view was changed by himself. He claimed that the pursuit of “dramatics” and “magnificent” flaunting would draw drama nearer to the “farce”. Therefore, he preferred “realistic” drama: “Events begin from themselves, and actions start from themselves”.43 Actually, after some time, playwrights came to realize the significance of reasonable flaunting. Nevertheless, with “realistic” theory in advantage, they remained highly sensitive and avoided upholding “dramatic” flaunting. For example, A Ying wasn’t satisfied with Li Chuangwang, which was rendered into a “realistic and plain legend”; in contrast, he had wanted it to be a “legend full of appealing plots and sensational effects”.44 Yet in the theoretical atmosphere of criticism, he chose to adhere to the “realistic and plain” route. After all, in the trend and atmosphere of “realism”, everyone seemed to avoid the “dramatic” concept. All the dramatic theories returned to the theoretical basis of criticism against the traditional opera, and life and reality were deemed core values. It might be interpreted as a progress in literary concept, but literariness is not equal to dramatics. Using a literary concept to replace a dramatic concept will no doubt bring about damage to drama and dramatics. That is what history was. From the micro perspective, though Cao Yu created the masterpieces of Sunrise, Wilderness and Beijing Men after Thunderstorm, the use of dramatics were fading gradually on the whole. Among them, Wilderness is exceptional, for it imitated Emperor Jones by O’Neill, which adds charm by means of flaunting the characters’ psychology. It really deserves the status of a classic in the history of new drama in Chinese. Compared with Thunderstorm, his other works lack 42

Guo, Moruo, “Postscript” Peacock’s Gallbladder. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1979. 43 Xia, Yan, On Historical Drama. Shanghai: Shanghai Art Press, 1996. 44 A. Ying, On the Writing Skills of Li Chuangwang. Beijing: Sanlian Joint Bookstore, 1979.

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dramatics: coincidences, accidents and fictional elements are not enough in terms of flaunting. Cao Yu seemed to have shifted his writing from being “dramatic” to being “realistic”. Later works like Metamorphosis and Bright Sky are so realistic that the playwright himself sensed the end of his career: “After finishing Metamorphosis, I have withered”.45 Though he preferred Sunrise, Thunderstorm was and still is the most well received and popular play. From the macro perspective, in the middle and late 1920s, the trend to respect dramatic rules and dramatic tradition and strengthen dramatic flaunting was formed. But under the influence of Cao Yu’s introspection of “resembling drama too much”, the trend was brought to an end. Though in the 1930s many classical works were created, most of them took on a literary style rather than a dramatic one. From then on, people took Thunderstorm as an example and criticized the “dramatic” factors. Disregarding the “dramatic” factor has become common sense. Under its influence, literariness has become the normal pursuit while dramatics has turned into a minefield. The non-dramatic plays became the mainstream and “realistic” creation was on the rise. An interesting and somewhat shocking phenomenon also needs our attention. Due to the pushing power of dramatic laws since the late 1920s, flaunting can be found in many plays written around the 1930s; however, the 1940s and the following decades witnessed a decline. This change almost synchronized with the introspection on “dramatics”. Tian Han’s Spring Song promoted flaunting in plot to a higher level than Death of a Famous Actor. Under a romantic background, Gao Weihan, a young overseas Chinese, got his memory back that had been lost in the war with the help of love. The fictional flaunting is apparently dramatic. However, in Walking with Beauties, this kind of flaunting was greatly reduced in spite of a better and richer content, which led to a weak expression of dramatics. Xia Yan’s Under the Roof in Shanghai has a strong flaunting in character relationship and personal fate, but his later works like Fascist Germs and Grass at the End of the World resemble those of Yu Ling and others in the suppression on dramatic flaunting. Guo Moruo’s early works have powerful flaunting in plot, thus, they are splendidly dramatic. The heroine in Qu Yuan is a vivid example. After being degraded, Qu Yuan was let off by creating “On Lightning”, which shows flaunting in psychology. These are the indispensable elements in dramatic plays. But on the whole, the flaunting in this play is somewhat crude in detail, such as the framing of Zheng Xiu, which was disgraceful, and the play shows plain and weak 45

Wang, Meng. “Forever Thunderstorm”. Reading 5 (1998).

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dramatic conflict and personal fate. As for his later historical works, dramatics were greatly reduced, thus making these plays mediocre. Arthur Miller once criticized Cai Wenji for the unsatisfying performance: “I think this play is quite boring. I think the story is drawn too long in the first hour”.46 He was saying that the development of the plot is too slack and lacks flaunting, which Cao Yu agreed with. A Ying’s historical plays on the Southern Ming Dynasty and Yang Hansheng’s historical plays on Taiping Tianguo have stronger literary flavor and authentic historical descriptions, so much so that dramatic flaunting is not apparent enough, which has made them no peer to classics like Thunderstorm. Creations by Chen Baichen and Song Zhidi are satires in some way with obvious flaunting in plot and characters. However, these works are too close to reality and have extemporaneous tendency. They can hardly be deemed classics. To our disappointment, their later comic creations reduced flaunting in plot, which is characteristic of comedy. It is not surprising that some works of certain playwrights lack dramatics. If the concept to suppress dramatics and idolize literariness becomes the mainstream of thought, there is no doubt that the classic operation of new drama in Chinese will be seriously affected. Some influential plays, like Lao She’s Teahouse, are actually placing literary values over dramatic ones and there is very limited dramatic flaunting. As for the relationship of characters and the design of plot, stress is placed on an authentic historical description and the representation of reality, which often excludes reasonable flaunting. Lao She confessed, “Someone thought that Teahouse is weak in dramatics and suggested developing the story of encounters of Kang Shunzi and participation of Kang Dali in the Republican revolution, which would have made it more interesting and dramatic. I appreciate the suggestion, but I couldn’t accept. If I did, my goal to bury the three periods would fail”.47 Lao She had so deep an understanding of drama that he knew it would be better to have reasonable flaunting. Yet he just couldn’t allow it, for he had the literary and historical duty to bury the three periods, so he had to set the dramatic rules aside. This play covers three historical periods in Chinese history and flaunting is constructed through the stretching of time. The audience’s attention is drawn to the fate of characters who have lived through such a long time, which does not help much in strengthening the dramatics of this play. 46

Miller, Arthur, Meeting Cao Yu in China. Hong Kong: Young Companion Bookstore, 1980. 67-68. 47 Lao She, Answering Questions on Teahouse. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1981.

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Flaunting in plot and character relationship, which is often carried out by means of coincidence and fiction, and flaunting in performance are certainly not the whole of drama. However, they are the representation of dramatic nature and characteristics that determine the dramatic charm. If coincidence and fiction were rejected from dramatic creation and the idea became a consensus, plays would become “non-dramatic” rather than “less dramatic”. In the process, critics of new drama in Chinese have also played a role. Needless to say, since the rise of new drama in Chinese, whether they are dramatists or not, critics have become used to commenting on drama from the point of view of literariness. In the period of the New Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu and Fu Sinian did so on traditional opera; Huang Zhigang, Chen Huangmei and Zhou Yang did so on Thunderstorm, too. If dramatists criticize themselves for being “too dramatic” in creation, then critics are much more willing to comment from the perspective of literariness rather than dramatics. Besides, other factors, such as requirements on realism and modern literary theory itself, all lead to the dissolution of reasonable flaunting. Even such a reputed playwright and commentator as Li Jianwu treated realistic life as the “whole” of drama and denied the significance of storytelling. 48 How could other commentators give attention to the theoretical issue of the dramatic nature if they were not professional dramatists driven by the trend of the time? Dramatic creation and the canonization of the dramatic works certainly won’t follow a solid rule, nor will they follow the order of critics. However, the denial of “dramatics” and forced obedience to realism has become too strong a trend both inside and outside the dramatic circles. This dramatic concept corresponds to the concept of “drama for life” during the May 4th Period, and to the ideological demand that drama should serve the present politics in the long run. It is so deep-rooted and powerful that it became a common phenomenon that most Chinese modern plays are non-dramatic plays, which cannot be put on stage. It is difficult for the canonical operation of new drama in Chinese to have a self-conscious and long-term development, and the dramatic classics which can be both read and performed, which can stand the test of time, have become the rare resources in the history of new drama in Chinese. Drama should be “dramatic”, and there should be reasonable display and exaggeration in plot and character relations. This can be encouraging in 48

Li, Jianwu, “On Civilized Drama” Li Jiang’s Criticisms of Drama. Beijing: China Drama Press, 1982.

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escaping from realistic life and absorbing elements unsuitable to be judged by truthfulness. The following examples are well known: “Hamlet-style strange behavior”, “witchcraft in drama” of Maeterlinck, and “magic transformation” as the premise of drama proposed by Nietzsche. Only when enough attention is given to such factors as coincidences, accidents and obvious fiction, can the nature of drama be revealed. Only when the dramatic nature is revealed and appreciated, can drama become truly dramatic.

III.2. New Literature in Chinese and Its Media-orientation Drama has always been an elegant and orderly revelry, closely connected with times and contemporary media forms. Certainly, it could often be considered as a “state ceremony”; 49 however, even in an abnormal era of a revolution, such a “ceremony” still contains a primary element of revelry with elegance and order. Generally speaking, theater as a cultural existence is inseparable from the participation of certain groups and certain artistic and technical patterns, thus constituting a kind of public cultural order. In the West, needless to say, be it classical tragedy or the subordinate form of satura and folly, drama has an intimate relationship with traditional fetes and ceremonies. At its inception, the classical Chinese play was said to be related to fetes, folk festivals and performances celebrating a number of occasions; at the same time, it linked itself with rites of the court. This means that the ancient Chinese drama was a kind of revelry with elegance and order for the ordinary people and the government alike; for this reason, the popular concept of “Singing Grand Drama” implies the idea of revelry in a Chinese style. Drama has obvious socio-cultural attributes. Compared with other art forms, the individuality and creativity of its practitioners is vastly reduced. Drama has to weaken its literariness and get itself prepared for the pragmatic nature of the theater and the media, and it will sacrifice this literariness when situations call for it. Wang Guowei in his Drama of Song and Yuan Dynasties has noted that literariness as the single nature of drama is bound to be incomplete; “the complete meaning must be accompanied by speech, action and singing, so as to perform a story.” Wang Guowei’s concern here is the complexity and uniqueness of drama 49

Hu, Zhiyi, State Ceremony: A Cultural Perspective on Modern Chinese Revolutionary Drama. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008.

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as a theater-oriented genre. In its historic development (mainly in the realm of performing arts), the theater-oriented drama gradually gave way to the literature-oriented drama, with its thought and literary value highlighted. Here we see that the writing of the play has become the most important element of artistic creativity; the cultural function of the operation of drama also yields new interpretations. As time went by, the involvement of the modern media, especially with the multi-participation of multimedia, has weakened the significance and value of the drama as a genre of art as well as a literature-oriented form. Drama reverts itself back to an art for the public audience, with the consequences that the performance-theater nature is no longer strong and the media has played a bigger role. Thus, the theater-oriented, the literature-oriented, and the media-oriented are the three cultural forms of drama in its socio-historical development, each with its own psychological phenomenon.

Effects of the Theater-oriented Form of Drama Drama is an art with a particular vehicle, the theater; its script and the literary value are necessary, though they are of a preparatory nature. Theater as a vehicle is what Wang Guowei maintains as the combination of the speech, the action, the singing and the like, which means performance and stage. Actors and their acting skills (in both traditional Chinese drama and Western opera, singing skills are also very important) are the most direct manifestations of the theatrical art. Stage and other related elements are also requirements of the theater-oriented form. The audience of the traditional drama performance, while well aware of the story of the play and even well-versed in the literary text to the point of memorizing passages by heart, usually does not pay close attention to the content of the drama. Instead, they have their eyes and ears attuned to the actual performance and the theater (including the singing, the action, the costume, the facilities and rules, and the atmosphere of the entire surrounding), relatively ignoring the script and its literary significance. That is to say, in the traditional theater-oriented form of drama, the sense of immediate involvement and the sense of rites become the key effects of drama appreciation. In China, theatergoers do not themselves dress up and behave gently, as do their counterparts in the West where the ladies and gentlemen prepare to go to the theater as if going to a grand festivity. Rather, the Chinese people go to the playhouse wearing casual clothing and even slippers and, during the performance, they eat snacks,

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drink tea and wine, make good or bad comments on what they see and hear, and, at times, even sing along with the performers, often in excited moods. Apparently, the traditional Chinese audience has no less enthusiasm and heightened spirits than the performers on stage. When actors perform, they expect instant responses from the audience, which are desirable cheers and applauses. This constitutes part of what happens in the theater where there are certainly the essential ingredients of music accompaniment, the setting, the stage design, and so on. There are also negative comments, to be sure, yet all the sundry responses are inseparable from the whole of the theatrical fares. This phenomenon of the traditional Chinese theater demonstrates that the audience’s focus of appreciation of the drama is on the artistic or even the technical aspects of the performance, neglecting the literary text and the spiritual value of the drama. When the audience walks into the theater, they are already aware of the play to be performed and are concerned with the plot and the characters of the play, but such interests would not exceed the performing skills and styles of the actors. Exactly for this reason, in the traditional theater culture, the status of the playwright is extremely low, especially in the mind of ordinary theatergoers. On the other hand, actors and the roles they play in the drama are of great importance. Whether a play is successful in its ticket-office or not depends mostly on the actors and not the playwright. Traditional Chinese drama surely differs from its Western counterpart in this way; the latter is characterized by its “writer’s theatre” tradition: “Starting from the Greek tragedy, reading the play has a dimension much wider than its performing, and reading is much more enduring than performing; therefore, drama has become an inseparable part of literature”. The traditional Chinese play, however, “was ruled out as part of literature, and since the theater is mainly actor-oriented, the script is considered merely as a practical piece of writing for performing purposes, which is not composed for a wide readership”.50 The theater is mainly for the actors and the drama is mainly for performance: this statement aptly sums up the effects of the traditional Chinese theater-oriented form of drama. Simply put, this is a drama culture in which form is more important than content and theater outweighs literature. In such a drama culture, the 50

Ma, Sen, Drama, the Art of Dream. Taipei: Xiuwei Information and Technology Co. Ltd., 2010. 183.

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performance of the actors is a key factor of success; its decisive influence accounts for more than fifty percent in the successful operation of the theater. A playwright’s scriptwriting, of course, cannot be ignored. However, the facts are that firstly, the scripts, such as the zaju (ᵲࢗ) dramas written by Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, and Tang Xianzu, cannot directly be put on stage. The scripts need to go through the re-creative adaptation process and be made practical for actual performance. In this regard, the influence of the playwright and his original script play an insignificant role in the actual theatrical operation. Secondly, a script often produces several different stage versions and, in the long term, will be used repeatedly in theatrical actualization. Thus, the importance of a creatively written script accounts for a very small proportion in theatrical operation. In traditional theater, playwrights occupy a lower status than the actors and even the audience, while the role of the audience is clearly of greater significance than the playwright, even though the audience have neither names nor considerable social status (except those rich people who are able to become amateur performers and then acquire certain cultural status). The general audience is only the “silent majority” culturally; but they are silent only in their fame and status, not in their voice and influence. They are very good at producing a variety of sounds in the theater: they applaud, they shout, they make noises; they express their own evaluations of the play in a frank manner, sometimes with much exaggeration, which is familiar to the theatergoers and the performers alike. Such sounds and din not only affect actors’ emotions but also, in some way, change the pattern of the performance and even direct the development of the plot. In short, audience’s reactions and the emotional atmosphere in the theater exert a greater influence on the performance than the original playwright of the script. Therefore, if we conduct an analysis of the theatrical performance as a whole, we would find that among the three elements, i.e., the playwright, the performers and the audience, the strongest impact on the performance is from the performers and other related factors, such as the stage, while the audience comes next, and the playwright has the least impact. Such a theater-oriented form of drama culture has a nature of collective revelry. Restrained by Chinese culture, the revelry is orderly and under control. It is, thus, a form of mental structure in which everyone participates or feels that he has the right to participate; it is not an actual description of an outward behavior, free and boundless.

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Effects of the Literature-oriented Form of Drama In the study of new drama in Chinese, effects of this genre have been particularly emphasized. The focus is mainly on the script itself and on the playwright; a dramatist, in this sense, is the playwright, and an audience of the drama has more or less become the reader of it. Although people still respect and appreciate modern actors, the latter no longer have influences comparable to those of the traditional actors, many of whom enjoyed great fame. Modern actors might even fade out from the performing arena without the help of such new media as the movie and television. Under these circumstances, they would neither have an audience as amateur performers nor Āfansā in the contemporary sense. The reason we are now able to list such names as Yu Shizhi, Zhu Xu, Ying Ruocheng, Gu Yongfei, Su Min, Pu Cunxin, and other famous present-day drama actors, is mainly because they have benefited from the existence of the movie, television and other new media. Even if we view them in terms of the theatrical art, these highly successful actors are no longer portrayed as a certain kind of people who master specific skills. Each of them with his excellent performance captures the audience’s attention. Still, in the realm of modern art, their creativeness is not comparable to the brilliant creativity as the literariness that the dramatic text possesses. In the main, it is the reading of the dramatic text that influences the audience. For a modern classic in drama, the audience viewing the performance in the theater is only one part of the reception of the dramatic work and is usually not an important part of it. More often than not, after viewing the performance of the drama, one would turn to the text of the original play; this is the case even with today’s new media, hence the good sales of original plays or literary texts adapted from popular media programs. This overwhelming dependency on the text in the act of reception would hardly be imaginable in the era of the theater-oriented form of drama. In that era, the script or libretto was only meant for occasional reference, an act of popular taste considered by the literati as even more lowbrow than the conduct of chasing after actors and participating in the theatrical revelry. Such a situation is marvelously described in the novel Dream of the Red Mansions. In the Grand Garden of Dream of the Red Mansions, actors performed publicly for its inhabitants the scene with the famous lines from Peony Pavilion (which is a famous drama about love by the Ming Dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu): “What day is it today so beautiful and enchanted; whose garden is it where we now have pleasures!” and “girls pretty as

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flowers and years flowing away as water”.51 In one episode in the novel, during the imperial concubine’s ceremonial homecoming activities, she designates two acts, “Wanderings in the Garden” and “Wakening from the Dream”, from the same drama to be performed, which are her favorites.52 When the plays are rehearsed, the singing and the accompanying music all flow into the ears of the sentimental Lin Daiyu, who is in her chamber. While such plays of love can be performed in the Grand Garden where the youth of the Jia Family reside, the reading of these kinds of works is prohibited. In the novel, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, two protagonists in love, could only read the classic love-story West Chamber secretly. Both being love stories, Peony Pavilion has a bigger “killing power” than West Chamber for the former’s strong sentiments of love and its bold depiction of sensuality. However, youth in the Grand Garden could openly view the performance of Peony Pavilion but are not allowed to read the text of West Chamber; the reason for this phenomenon does not lie in the different degrees of “obscenity” between the two works, but lies in the different forms in which they exist. In the novel Dream of Red Mansions, the play Peony Pavilion appears as a theatrical form with its particular effects and is tolerated and accepted, while West Chamber appears as a literary text with its particular effects and, as a result, has the chance of being censored and destroyed. The difference between their acceptance and censorship is hard to draw clearly, but it is important. Lin Daiyu and her companions are vested with their rights to watch the drama, enjoying the fine performance of the actors; yet they are not allowed to read and recite the text of the drama, for reading and spreading the text has its particular effects, inviting sensitiveness and even danger for the young people. It is in this sense that during a wine-drinking activity when Lin Daiyu in a confused and hasty condition mentions the line “What day is it today so beautiful and enchanted” (one of those famous lines sung in performance, as quoted above) her bright female companion Xue Baochai immediately rises to vigilance and reprimands Lin later on. It is interesting to note that Xue is the only one on that occasion to be aware of the line; it suffices to say that, since dramas in those days were presented in the theater-oriented form, its literature-oriented form was mostly overlooked. The most obvious characteristic of new drama in Chinese, in terms of 51 52

Please refer to: chapter 23, A Dream of Red Mansions. Please refer to: chapter 18, A Dream of Red Mansions.

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a cultural pattern, is its existence as a literature-oriented form, with effects being different from those of the traditional theater-oriented type. Writing and reading the script, as well as its being accepted and studied, has become the most important element of new drama in Chinese. Jiang Qing, one of the “Gang of Four” during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), once expressed her agreement with a popular saying that “the script is the essence of a play”; the saying aptly describes the essence of the literature-oriented form of drama. The issue of when this form of drama began to appear and bloom is still a subject for research; we may venture to say that this form came into existence in the process of the modernization of Chinese drama, as Western culture set foot on Chinese soil. Ma Sen, a renowned playwright, opines that this form of drama has a close relationship with traditional Western drama as “writer’s theater”, and that this form of drama, wherein “reading the play has a dimension much wider than its performing, and reading is much more enduring than performing” (as quoted above) took shape after the May 4th New Culture Movement. In the Anti-Japanese War period (1937-1945), drama in its literature-oriented form rose high and “rode with the novel, both being works for mass reading”. Ma Sen points out that this new form of the Chinese drama has become “a new tradition”.53 Here we should realize that the beginning of this new form ought to be dated back to the age of the “Civilized Drama” when the long journey of the modernization and westernization of Chinese drama started. In this journey, the core ingredients added to Chinese drama are new cultural values and moral spiritualism in the composition of the dramatic text; the “civilized drama” also follows the western ways of performing. Although scripts of the “Civilized Drama” were rather weak in terms of literary merits, and footprints of the old drama could still be detected in certain scripts, efforts to emphasize the thought and substance of the writing and thus downplay the theatrical elements could be clearly seen. A number of famous writers such as Bao Tianxiao joined forces in penning the script, and the achievement in upgrading the quality of script writing was obvious; ironically, such endeavors have resulted in a lack of attention paid to the art of performance and consequently to the decline and fall of this type of Chinese drama. Be that as it may, a new age of Chinese drama, the literature-oriented form, was ushered in. The New Culture Movement launched a large-scale attack on traditional Chinese drama, Chen Duxiu, Liu Bannong, Qian Xuantong, 53

Ma, Sen, Drama, the Art of Dream. Taipei: Xiuwei Publisher, 2010. 288.

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Zhou Zuoren and Zheng Zhenduo, et al., all airing their voices. In this movement of the modernization of Chinese drama, criticism of the old was to promote the new—so doing as a conceptual correctness of the “new culture”. There was also a re-examination of the contents of traditional Chinese drama, which “helped fueling sex and violence among the mass”. Additionally, the patterns of performance were denounced for “presenting the true pictures of savagery and cruelty”.54 Furthermore, advocates for a new Chinese culture reprimanded the old drama as theater of the “face-painting school”, where the characters are “non-human humans” who talk in “non-language language”; all these should be abolished and the Western “true drama” invited in.55 It is noteworthy that “true drama” in their argument should “bring light into darkness” and should be able to “reform the society”; meanwhile, as regards performing, amateurism was encouraged, with the organization of “Amateur Stage” as the beginning of the new “true drama”. They claim: Amateur Stage is most suitable for students and people who already have their occupations. The venue should be at school, or occasionally at some borrowed places for the performing arts; admission should be free of charge, or there should be minimal charge; the scripts for performances should be of great value and in accordance with the ideals of the advocates; the script can be an original one, an adaptation or a translation of a foreign work. The spirit of Amateur Stage is drama for the ordinary people, and it must be relevant to social issues and be revolutionary.56 The idea of Amateur Stage has thus established the concept of the literature-oriented form of drama, a concept vastly different from that of the traditional theater: the labor of the actors became secondary in importance, and they even demanded that in acting, amateur actors should exclusively be used. Furthermore, it was proposed that only venues other than ordinary theaters should be used. All these point to the great importance of the script and its thematic substance. As a consequence, the status of the playwright reached its highest level; his influence and decisive power in the operation of the drama far exceeded those of the actors and even exceeded the two forces of the 54

Chen, Duxiu. “A Letter to Zhang Houzai”. La Jeunesse 4.6 (1916). Qian, Xuantong. “Random Essays”. La Jeunesse. 5.1 (1917). 56 Zheng, Zhenduo, “The Beginning of the Movement of Enlightenment ” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Literary Controversies. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935. 55

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actors and audience (reader) combined, while all the rest concerning the operation of the drama were downgraded. The audience accordingly became passive receivers of the play, who were due to be enlightened, exerting no power in the writing of the script at all. Zhang Houzai maintains that the “face-painting school” in traditional Peking opera has completely different “rules” from those of the literature-oriented form of drama, i.e., the former has its unique formulaic contents. The rules could not be changed, for example, while on stage, “in pain, one must have his back down facing the ground; in anger, one must blow his long beard; the rich man must pop up his chest; the poor guy must diffuse his hair”. Zhang labels the above formulaic gestures as the “art of acting”,57 which no doubt invite criticism and even intolerance from practitioners of the modern literature-oriented form of drama. Whether they are new culture advocates who criticize the old drama or relatively conservative defenders of the old drama, they have a certain theoretical bias. It is observed that advocates of the new culture are more seriously biased, quite often with extreme arguments. Why is there such bias and extremity? The reason is that advocates of the new culture see the problem from the angle of the literature-oriented form of drama, neglecting the difference in principle between the two forms: the theater-oriented and the literature-oriented. Thus, we may say that Zhang Houzai’s view is a rather balanced one and the criticism of the old drama from the new culture advocates tend to be over-simplified and crude. Since the creation of the text is of the greatest importance, advocates of the literature-oriented form of drama would neither encourage nor tolerate the dramatic sub-genre of the theater-oriented form, with its excesses of revelry as described above. In this new form of the drama, the audience and the reader are deemed passive receivers, subjects for enlightenment, education and moral instruction. Such a dramatic culture can be summed up as a “culture of enlightenment”. An expert on modern Chinese drama has this to say about this new form of drama: “New drama in Chinese has gone through three periods in its development taking a total of about 40 years: the beginning (the late 19th and early 20th centuries), the growing (in the first 20 years of the 20th century), and the maturity (the 1930s). Spirits of modern enlightenment go along with it, like a beacon banishing the darkness and ignorance of the human mind; and lead this new art striding 57 Zhang, Houzai, “My Ideas of Traditional Chinese Drama” Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Literary Controversies. Shanghai: Liangyou Publishing House, 1935.

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forward despite obstacles on the [way]”.58 The enlightening and leading functions, with their social and cultural significance, aptly define the so-called “culture of enlightenment”, as previously mentioned. Like reading works of literature, reading scripts of the new drama means that the reader is “far from the maddening crowd”, void of all the din and noises of the theater-oriented form of drama in the past. The reader’s mind is nurtured and he is spiritually and culturally upgraded. When literary classics are treasured and read, levels of literacy rise, and hence a “culture of enlightenment” is strengthened, which is a “positive energy” cherished by any society. In an age stressing enlightenment, propaganda, or didacticism, drama, as a literary genre, should play a more direct role than that of other literary genres. For the wide audience of the new drama, elements such as the revelry of the old drama would become taboos; on the other hand, functions of the new drama (the literature-oriented form) are emphasized and even exaggerated.

Effects of the Media-oriented Form of Drama Almost simultaneously with the rest of the world, China has moved out of the era of “culture of enlightenment” and entered the age of the media when drama is no longer a vehicle for uploading creative arts with philosophical and intellectual powers. In the past, drama, as a literature-oriented form, reigned supreme; it was a leader in cultural fashions and an entity focusing on the cultural life, having produced such plays with socio-cultural effects as the famous Thunderstorm, Qu Yuan, Teahouse, Where There is Silence, Bus Stop, and Chronicles of Sangshuping. The media era weakens the attention paid to drama from the sectors of artists and academics; it would be neglected if not for the help from the new media. Drama has merged its new form with the effects that the old forms (the theater-oriented and the literature-oriented) did not possess. The contemporary media-oriented form of drama has already deconstructed the theater-oriented one. In old times, performers’ acting and singing skills were of vital importance, Mei Lanfang, Zhou Xinfang and other famous masters being the best examples. Since the introduction of microphones and other audio-visual equipment into the performing arena, their highly artistic acting and singing skills cannot be fully and 58 Dong, Jian, “On the Enlightenment of Modern Chinese Drama” Interpreting Drama. Ed. Shen Weiyuan. Shanghai: Literature and Art Publishing House, 2008. 299.

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fluently released. The multi-electronic devices in this age of the media, in an overwhelming manner, have rendered the traditional performing art and skills “mediocre” and old-fashioned. As the new multimedia high-handedly “invade” and occupy the cultural life of people, the effects of the theater-oriented form of drama are being neglected more and more, day by day. Furthermore, the old form is freely doctored, adapted or transformed into sundry related forms, as those TV “sounds with images” programs demonstrate. This provides us with evidence that drama no longer relies on the theater-oriented form, a form that is no longer even respected. The media’s effects on the media-oriented form of drama, in the same way, have led to the deconstruction of the literature-oriented form. In olden days, when electronic media was not well developed, people read books and newspapers as part of their cultural life, watching lively drama and movies for a change. For a long time, people were accustomed to obtaining food for thought from drama and movies; such activities provided them with mental and emotional nutrition. In the age of multimedia, reading works of literature and other cultural materials mainly takes place on the Internet and via other electronic media, with traditional print media shrinking in circulation. When the theater-oriented form of drama has already declined and the print media readership is dwindling, it is apparent that the literature-oriented form of drama is helplessly weakened as a cultural force, though this sub-genre of drama still maintains its life as a unique artistic type in this era of multimedia. Effects of the media-oriented form of drama have subverted or weakened those of the literature-oriented form of drama; nevertheless, viewed from the angle of socio-cultural development, this phenomenon has its positive significance in history. As the literary critic Terry Eagleton points out, enlightenment culture under the effects of the literature-oriented form of drama will inevitably face this dilemma: “Once culture is grasped as a culture of enlightenment, it will posit a duality between higher and lower faculties, will and desire, reason and passion, which it then instantly offers to overcome”.59 As postmodernist culture has become a dominating power, people’s concept of this dualism faces challenges, while the idea of pluralistic values is encouraged unprecedentedly. In this multimedia era, enlightenment culture is bound to fail, repeating the fate of didactic culture; all forms of ideology have become closely connected to the spirit and ideal of multiculturalism. 59

5.

Eagleton, Terry, The Idea of Culture. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2002.

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Under this circumstance, the literature-oriented form of drama characterized by its enlightenment culture is fading out and losing its liveliness. In this sense, the effects of the media-oriented form of drama have become ways and means to overcome dualism in terms of value and thought. We are currently experiencing the effects of the cultural media: plays are still being performed on stage but they cannot leave themselves unassisted by media packaging and promotion. A play with the help of the media may, amidst the many contesting forces of the arts, still be popular, but the audience would no longer be in the mood for old-fashioned revelry, although they might still feel a sense of revelry with elegance and order. New theatrical works are still being produced, which must come with the promotional fanfares of the media, and in this regard could barely succeed in catching the audience’s attention, putting paid to the thought and emotional powers of the works. In these days of dazzling media, although certain works can still shine with their spiritual forces, people in the main are watching the performance with the mentality of a circular-spectator. Crowds and crowds of circular-spectators in this media-dominating era view drama as an object with excitement, showing various gestures and passion for it; however, they do not get into the heart of the object, for they are far away from the real appreciation of the art and they suspend the pleasure of understanding. Their behavior seems the same as that of the netizen who, although constantly moving the mouse, browses the Internet without ever noticing the result of their searches. In the new media age, people generally have a circular-spectator’s mentality, be they Internet fans or mobile-phone users. They are curious about everything in the media; they watch the happenings without caring to appreciate anything. Nor do they concern themselves with whether what is presented is correct or wrong, brilliant or mediocre, classical or nonclassical; they do not even care whether what is presented makes any sense logically or not. Furthermore, they see no difference whether they understand what is presented or not. In this present age, the media-oriented form of drama fares in just the way described. The audience is made up of circular-spectators, people not different from those at a public square looking at some interesting but trivial happening. In this same manner, we see that certain dramas are heatedly received while the audience virtually does not understand what is presented on stage. Enthusiastic about things one does not know or comprehend is a typical and important characteristic of the circular-spectator mentality,

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which has quite a long history as far as the appreciation of drama is concerned. For all its vagueness and difficulties, dramas of the modernist or postmodernist veins have attracted a considerable audience who simply do not know and comprehend them (some of the playwrights do not truly understand their works either). The audiences watch with passion, accompanied by various gestures, these “fashionable and famous” plays as circular-spectators, showing nothing but the psychological mechanism of self-deception and snobbishness. The rise of the “Small Theatre” in Taiwan in the years between 1986 and 1987 was almost a preview of an era in which the literature-oriented form of drama was fading out and the new media-oriented form fading in. Labeled by some as “modernist imagery drama”, it “replaces the tradition of the literature-oriented form of drama (i.e., the drama or the experimental play) with its anti-narrative structure and imagistic-theatrical language”,60 and ushers in the new media era. A conscientious writer and critic, Ma Sen admits that he could not understand the plays of the “Small Theatre”. With adequate intellectual courage and acumen, Ma Sen refuses to be a circular-spectator of this type of drama. The circular-spectator mentality is also evidenced by the feverish receptions of foreign-language dramas. Lin Kehuan once reported that, in 2003, “foreign performance companies vied for Beijing’s theater market” and a scenario emerged that “there were large-scale performances with nearly ten thousand or even tens of thousands [of] spectators per show”. Those performing groups were from Austria, Germany, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria and so on. 61 Those plays were not staged in the Chinese language, not even in foreign languages relatively familiar to the Chinese people, like English. The audience are, in this sense, circular-spectators. One may look at the phenomenon this way: it is a kind of “cross-culture theater” where the spectator need not understand the language that is used in the performance; as one critic puts it: “The transmission of the theatrical culture has its procedural pattern. It is authentic with all its original flavor of the national drama; also, even though there might be the language barrier, the authenticity and originality of the play can still attract audience”.62 Why this is so, the quote did not explain. Actually, this is 60

Ma, Sen, Taiwan Drama—From Modernism to Post-Modernism. Taipei: Foguang College of Culture and Humanities, 2002. 126. 61 Lin, Kehuan, The Declining Time of Drama. Hong Kong: International Association of Theatre Critic, 2010. 15. 62 Shi, Guangsheng, Crosscultural Theatre: Transmission and Interpretation.

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exactly what the theory of circular-spectator mentality can demonstrate: the object is not to be understood and comprehended, but merely to be looked at. What Shi Guangsheng terms as “theater culture” can be better described as “square culture”, wherein the circular-spectators gather. Square Culture is for the circular-spectators. Over the years, quite a number of plays have gained feverish popularity and enjoyed box-office success with the fanfares of the media. Spectacles like this might continue to appear in the future, but we would not assert that the media would provide dramas with a huge room for development and a bright future. Under the effects of the media, audiences of the drama are but circular-spectators.



Taipei: Shulin Publisher, 2008. 12-13.

CHAPTER IV CHINA AND THE WORLD LITERATURE AND CULTURE

IV.1. Brandes’ Exemplary Role in New Literary Criticism in Chinese Eighty years ago, a Chinese literary critic who admired Georg Brandes declared enthusiastically: “Brandes does not belong to Denmark; he belongs to the world!”1 As a researcher of Brandes from the distant Orient, I would like to reiterate that which my predecessor said, “Brandes as a great literary historian and critic, he not only belongs to Denmark, North Europe and Europe, [he] also belongs to the world at large. In this sense, he also belongs to China to which he had little access”.

The Entry and Acceptance of Brandes in China The modernization of Chinese literature is marked by the fact that in the early years of the 20th century, China was becoming actively responsive to and absorptive of international literatures. The old literary framework of literature, which lasted 2,000 years, was shattered, thus paving the way for the revival of Chinese literature. Lu Xun, the pacesetter of modern Chinese literature, went so far as to claim that the fact that young readers were exhilarated by the fruits of modern Chinese literature, mainly represented by his short stories, was due to “the long negligence to the introduction of European Continental literatures”.2 What he meant is that if China had introduced European literature on a greater scale, they would have responded otherwise. Lu Xun’s attribution of the achievements 1

Zheng, Zhenduo. “Brandes: A Modern Critic from Denmark”. Fiction Monthly 14.4 (1923). 2 Lu Xun, Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol.5. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 238.

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of modern Chinese literature to the influence of European Literature is a reflection of the status quo and a representation of the common mentality of the time. Driven by such a humble mentality, foreign writers were often idolized in China. Such idolization was oriented not alone to West European writers, but also to writers of the underdeveloped nations in North and East Europe. A fact, however, merits attention. The idolization was directed mainly at foreign writers without covering literary critics and historians. It may be the case everywhere—literary critics and historians are usually less fortunate than writers, especially poets: A literary critic’s achievement must be greater than that of a poet or novelist as he becomes known throughout the world. People everywhere are more inclined to amusement than didactic lessons. As a result,  novelists and poets have much easier access to fame than literary critics.

China is no exception. It is at the very time when Brandes was introduced to China that the observer made this comment with the intention of demonstrating the eminence of Brandes as a world literary critic. I am making this quotation with the same intention. In the first half of the 20th century, China was quite open to international literary critics and historians. A team of them with political backgrounds, such as Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Bogdanov, Pulihanov and Sinclair, found their way into China side by side with another more academic team such as Freud, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hakuson Kuriyagawa and Taine. Compared with both teams, Brandes was the most outstanding one. His unique position in China is largely due to the fact that Brandes was probably the only foreign literary historian Lu Xun—the father of Modern Chinese Literature—adored persistently. Lu Xun was once fascinated by the theories of Freud and Nietzsche, but it was not long before he became skeptical of them, the former for his perversion of psychoanalysis and the latter for the fuzziness of philosophy. Besides, these two pioneer theorists’ influence on China and the world at large is not within the field of literary criticism. Among the literary critics Lu Xun admired, Hakuson Kuriyagawa is worth mentioning, in addition to those leftist Soviet and Japanese critics introduced in Scientific Literary Critical Series edited by Lu Xun. Lu Xun translated Hakuson Kuriyagawa’s masterpieces and, for a time, he used to make quotations of 3

Zheng, Zhenduo. “Brandes: A Modern Critic from Denmark”. Fiction Monthly 14.4 (1923).

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Hakuson Kuriyagawa’s theory of “melancholy symbolism”. In spite of Lu Xun’s introductions and compliments, the influence of this Japanese critic who died in the Kanto Earthquake in China is all but meager. It is a different case for Brandes. Owing perhaps to the barrier of language, Lu Xun did not translate any of Brandes’ work. But his keen interest in Brandes is persistent, rivaling that which he showed to Hakuson Kuriyagawa. Lu Xun had a psychological identity similar to Brandes, which was furthermore tied to his reflections on the destiny and future of modern Chinese literature. It is rare for Lu Xun to comment on a writer or critic without reserve, but Brandes is an exception. What is more important, Lu Xun’s admiration of Brandes was shared by many of his contemporaries—Brandes was the most highly lauded that anyone could expect in a foreign country. All those who had read Brandes or become acquainted with his theories were one voice in their positive evaluation of him. In “Brandes: A Modern Critic from Denmark”, written by Zheng Zhenduo, a leader of the Society of Literary Research (the largest of its kind in modern China), Brandes was listed among the greatest critics of the world, along with Lessing, Arnold and Taine. In an article concerning the translation of Western literary terminology, Brandes was side by side with other literary masters such as “Aristophanes, Dante, Hugo, Balzac, Tennyson, Arnold, Strindberg, and Moulton”.4 Apart from the great poets and novelists mentioned, most of these critics have not been well accepted in China; some of whom have been subjected to skepticism and challenge. Arnold is one example; his literary theory finds little appreciation and response even today. As for Taine, his ideas of literary criticism have in turn been the object of criticism. Brandes’ acceptance in China, both in width and depth, can only be deemed a miracle given the fortune of his Western counterparts in China. Attention to Brandes in China is, first of all, due to his contribution to Danish and world literature. In the 20th century—at a time when modern Chinese literature was in the making—a critic who had a share in the shaping of a national literature naturally became an envy. Zheng Zhenduo, in an article entitled “The Modern Scandinavian Literature” published with the pen name Xi Di, pinpointed Brandes’ status as the initiator of modern Danish literature: “It is with the emergence of Brandes that the Denmark modern literature started”. 5 This point, put forward as a 4 Zheng, Zhenduo. “A Suggestion about Checking Literary Terms”. Fiction Monthly 12.1 (1921). 5 Xi Di. “The Modern Scandinavian Literature”. Fiction Monthly 20.8 (1929).

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common sense of world literature rather than an open-ended topic, was readily acknowledged by the team of Chinese literary historians. Zheng’s statement might be traced back to a paper published 8 years ago entitled “The Modern Scandinavian Literature” written by a Japanese critic Shungetsu Ikuta and translated by Li Da, a communist theorist, which foregrounded Brandes’ position as a pacesetter in modern Danish literature.6 Zheng Zhenduo’s knowledge of Brandes could be derived from more than Shungetsu Ikuta’s introduction. It is surprising to note how much more the Chinese literati knew about Danish literature and Brandes than their contemporary counterparts. Even since the reform of the Fiction Monthly, the first Chinese journal of serious literature, the introduction of East and North Europe had been one of the key commitments of the journal. That there is a Brandes Era in Danish literature was a common sense to literary figures related to the Journal. It may be corroborated by a paper written by Shen Yanbing, published on the same issue with Li’s translation, on J. P. Jacobsen, in which Shen acknowledged Brandes’ role in shaping Danish “naturalism” and his decisive influence on the three Danish literary masters: J. P. Jacobsen, H. Drachmann, and S. Schandorph.7 Zheng Zhenduo and Shen Yanbin, as key figures of the Society of Literary Research and Fiction Monthly, advanced the principle of a “literature for life” and directed the literary currents then with such critical essays as A Review on Literature,8 The Integrity of Literature,9 A Review on the Works of Spring,10 and On the Works of April, May and June.11 Without declaring themselves openly as leaders of the new literary movement, they thought of themselves as guides. Given their role in modern Chinese literature, it is easy to understand their admiration of Brandes as the pacesetter of modern Danish literature. 6 Ikuta, Shungetsu. “The Modern Scandinavian Literature”. Trans. Li Da. Fiction Monthly 12.6 (1921). 7 Shen, Yanbing. “Great Danish Writer Jacobsen at the End of the 19th Century”. Fiction Monthly 12.6 (1921). 8 Note: Series Talks about Literature served as fillers in the early 1920s’ Fiction Monthly, most of which were written by Zheng Zhenduo. 9 Zheng, Zhengduo. “A Review on Literature”. Fiction Monthly 13.8 (1922). 10 Shen, Yanbing. “A Review on the Works of Spring”. Fiction Monthly 12.4 (1921). 11 Shen, Yanbing. “On the Works of April, May and June”. Fiction Monthly 12.8 (1921).

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Brandes’ Influence on New Literature in Chinese There is no doubt that Brandes’ acceptance in China is mainly due to his achievements in literary criticism, represented by his Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Shortly after his death, there appeared in Fiction Monthly an introduction of him,12 with special emphasis on Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature and An Impression of the Russian Literature, a fact that might be considered as a continuation of Brandes’ acceptance in China dating back to the beginning of the 20th century by Lu Xun and other pioneers. Chen Gu wrote on The Orient (the fifth issue, 1920), dwelling alike on the accomplishments and influence of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Shen Zemin, the brother of Shen Yanbing and an early communist, made a special study of Brandes’ An Impression of the Russian Literature and dipped into Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature in passing, hoping that the work could be translated into Chinese as early as possible. 13 The above references to Brandes indicated that Brandes and his literary critical works were already known in China at the time, but a detailed introduction of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature was still lacking. Lu Xun’s insight into Brandes distinguished him from his contemporaries. He stressed another aspect of Brandes, that is, his pungent criticism of the isolation and outdatedness of the old Danish literature and his motivation to revive Danish Literature. Lu Xun’s involvement in the New Culture Movement around 1919 led him to acquire a deeper understanding of Brandes. Deploring the decline of Danish literature, Brandes noted: “The literary creation came to a literal halt. Whatever problems in the society failed to inspire the writers. Beside some reflections on the press, there was little attention to the social affairs. We see little works of originality. It is all the more coupled with a failure to attend to the intellectual status quo of the foreign countries. The spiritual deafness, as a result, leads to a ‘dumbness’” (quoted from Brandes’ Preface to Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature).14 Brandes’ alleged comment, at least in terms of its keywords “deafness 12

Hong, Tu. “Brandes”. Fiction Monthly 18.6 (1927). Shen, Zemin. “Brandes’ Impression of the Russian Literature”. Studies of Russian Literature. Fiction Monthly (1921). 14 Lu Xun, “From Deafness to Dumbness” Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol.5. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 277. 13

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and dumbness”, however, did not appear in the prevalent version of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, whether in the preface to the book or in the first volume, The Literature in Exile. It might have been included in the Japanese version Lu Xun had read or it was simply a slip of memory, or it could have been based on the preface to the second volume, in which Brandes did make some comments on Danish Literature. Whatever the case, Lu Xun thought that Brandes’ criticism of Denmark applied to China, not only to the Chinese literary circle in the 1930s, when the essay was written, but also, probably more aptly, to the 1920s, when Lu Xun and his colleagues were shattering the isolated, conventional literary framework. Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu and Zhou Zuoren jumped to the agreement that the old literature was static, dead and inhumane, and Lu Xun went further to claim it was “man-eating”. In the eyes of Lu Xun and his colleagues, the case of China was even more desperate than that of Denmark. After two Sleswick-Holstein wars, Denmark cut its ties with Germany both in practical and ideological terms. The cultural gap between Denmark, France and Britain was also further widened. “The roaring waves of the new world currents rolled past their threshold. But they kept a blind eye and deaf ear to them. What glimmered faintly in their literature was still the old-fashioned Romanticism. Conservativeness dominated the Danish critical, philosophical and political psychology, making them all the more lonely and out of place.” “At the time, a man to resume the traffic, a man to introduce and transpose the foreign ideologies was indispensable. Brandes was just the man.” 15 An essay entitled Modern Danish Literature—Before and After Brandes written by Henry, translated by Shen Zemin, made a similar remark: The superman comes—it is Brandes’ hope to foster the growth of young Danish writers by introducing the modern European literatures. His proposition is unmistakable: the old Danish literature is dying by being so pretentious and unrealistic.16

It is Brandes’ role as a Prometheus that struck Lu Xun, his Oriental counterpart. They were on the same wavelength in their criticism of the status quo and their paving of a new literary route. Overtly, Lu Xun might 15 Zheng, Zhenduo. “Brandes: A Modern Critic from Denmark”. Fiction Monthly 14.4 (1923). 16 Ibid.

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have even regarded himself as a Chinese Brandes. That might partly account for the fact that Brandes found better acceptance in China than other literary critics including Taine, whom Brandes himself adored. There were some Chinese writers who would have liked to compare themselves to foreign writers, for example, Guo Moruo as Goethe and Tian Han as Schiller. Up until now, however, there have been no literary critics who have made a similar comparison to foreign critics. The absence of brilliant critics was a great shame to Lu Xun, Yu Dafu and other Chinese writers. In a sense, the ready acceptance of Brandes in China is an embodiment of their enthusiastic anticipation of indiscriminate and insightful critics. Yu Dafu’s comment on Brandes might serve as an example. Deploring the absence of great critics, he claimed: “Only if there was one Brandes in China, the so-called critics dominating the journals today would be pushed back to gutters, competing food with maggots”.17 There is no doubt that Yu Dafu’s abuse was not targeted at the critics of the Creation Society, to which he was affiliated. The number one critic of the Society Cheng Fangwu, however, was relegated to such a wretched position by Lu Xun. Chen declared, “I have no interest in well-known writers; it’s my job to elevate writers from obscurity”. Lu Xun made an allusion to Chen, claiming such a job could only be accomplished by Brandes and critics of his status. To bear out his view, Lu Xun said, “It is due to Brandes that Ibsen and Nietzsche came to be known”.18 Lu Xun’s comments on Brandes’ discovery of Ibsen and Nietzsche are well corroborated. Brandes, Life and Career, a book written by Boyesen and translated into Chinese by Zheng Zhenduo indicated as much: “When Brandes was writing the first part of his book On Ibsen, Ibsen remained obscure and his name was barely mentioned in his own country”. 19 Likewise, in the case of Nietzsche, Henry translated by Shen Zemin claimed: “On one hand, Brandes introduced Ibsen to Denmark and Germany; on the other hand, he discovered Nietzsche and made the ideology of superman known throughout the world”.20 Lu Xun’s confirmation of Brandes as the greatest literary critic could 17 Yu, Dafu. “Selfish Views on Arts and Literatures”. Creation Quarterly 1.1 (1922). 18 Lu Xun, Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol.5. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 389. 19 Zheng, Zhenduo. “Brandes: A Modern Critic from Denmark”. Fiction Monthly 14.4 (1923). 20 Ibid.

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be further borne out by the fact that even at a time when he turned to leftism, he recommended to a young man Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. In a letter to Xu Maoyong, dated December 20, 1933, he wrote, “I have little to say about the literary histories. So far as I know, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature by G. Brandes, in spite of its humanistic orientation is worth reading. There are Japanese versions included in the Archives of Spring and Autumn, of which six volumes have been published (80 cents per book)—I. The Literature in Exile. II. The Romanticists in Germany. IV. The Naturalism in Britain. VI. The Young German Writers, with one volume for I and II, and two volumes for IV and VI. The third and fifth are yet to come”.21 Lu Xun’s recommendation was most sincere. As a patron of young writers, he was always hesitant to recommend books. He was afraid of books, including his own, which came wrongly recommended and which might have a negative impact on young people. At the time, Xu Maoyong was one of the young writers Lu Xun patronized; naturally, what he recommended must be those he held dear. When Lu Xun was involved in a polemic with the New Crescent Society, with Liang Shiqiu as a representative, Humanism was one of the major topics, to which Lu Xun was convinced that it was class-related and should not be accepted readily without deeper analysis. In spite of it, he did not hesitate to recommend Brandes; what’s more, he spared no efforts in listing the titles of the Japanese version of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, all of which could only lead to the conclusion that Lu Xun’s admiration of Brandes was without reserve. What he recommended was all he had of Brandes—he had bought six volumes of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature on August 19, September 21 and October 7, 1933.22 Owing to the persistent and sincere introduction of Brandes by such Chinese masters as Lu Xun, Shen Yanbin, Zheng Zhenduo and Yu Dafu, Brandes became widely well known in the Chinese literary circle and the introduction of Brandes became a spectacle in China. In addition to the 21

Lu Xun, Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 12. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 303. 22 Yao, Xipei, “Scandinavian Culture Nourishing Lu Xun” Research on Lu Xun’s Collection of Books. Beijing: Chinese Cultural and Literary Union Press, 1991. According to this paper, when he studied in Japan, Lu Xun bought and read about 50 books on Scandinavian culture. All of them were in German, including Nordische Portrats aus vier Reichen, and many books were edited or written by Brandes.

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above-mentioned introduction, the following facts merit mention. Lin Yutang made a translation of Brandes’ Ibsen and His Love Letters.23 Zhang Wentian, who later became a communist party leader, wrote Brandes on Byron, basing it explicitly on the 4th volume—Naturalism in Great Britain. Zhang deviated from the original and adulterated it with his own opinion while transposing. Other translators and introducers include Sun Lianggong, Jiao Juying, Chen Xiaohang, Bai Ning, as well as Zhao Jingshen, whose translation of the Milky Way into Niunailu (Way Made by Milk) has been a well-known translation scandal. The first complete Chinese version of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature was produced by Han Shiheng. In the 1930s, the first four volumes were successively published by the Chinese Commercial Press in Shanghai as part of the Zhongshan Classic Series. In the 1950s, based on the volume 4, volume 5 and volume 6, he finished writing three books—Biography of Byron, Biographies of French Writers, and Biography of Heine respectively—all of which were published by the International Cultures Press. The first complete Chinese version of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, though rudimentary, was put out. The giant project of the translation of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, in a refined and accurate manner, did not come until the 1980s. The People’s Literary Press organized the translation and publication of the great work, enlisting the support from the first-rate translators in China: Zhang Daozhen, Liu Banjiu, Xu Shiguo, Jiang Fen, Zhang Zhimo and Gao Zongpu. They were based on the English or German versions and made cross-references to the two linguistic versions where necessary. The foreword to this book clarifies that the publication will be of great significance to both Chinese academic and literary circles, a notion that could be directly traced back to the Lu Xun’s recommendation of Brandes.24 It was the first time that Brandes’ Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature was presented to the Chinese readers in a complete, accurate, vivid and readable manner. With the largest number of potential readers, Brandes could be said to acquire a global influence in a strict sense.

23

Lin, Yutang, Brandes’ Ibsen and His Love Letters. Shanghai: Shanghai Spring Tide Press, 1929. 24 Please refer to: “Preface to” The Main Literary Currents in the 19th Century. Vol.1. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1997. 5.

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IV.1.1. The Emigrant Literature and Georg Brandes’ International Influence: Toward New Literature in Chinese Through his outstanding works, the great literary critic Georg Brandes attained international influence throughout the world. Among his books, The Emigrant Literature, the first volume of his Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, which is his magnum opus of the six volumes, was the most important factor in Brandes’ worldwide influence. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, “emigrant” literature together with “exile” (which featured in the eye-catching title of the 9th chapter in this book), were the keywords which aroused readers’ interests. This volume (and only this volume) was translated into Hebrew in 1919 (Di Štremungen in der literature fun XIX johrhundert…Paa Jidisj af A. Rikilis. Warsԁ, 1919). Aside from this factor, Brandes devoted his burning passions to these volumes. Therefore, The Emigrant Literature moved many more people to read it and to be introduced to it. Many translations of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature focused on the first volume. Julius Moritzen’s A Guide to Georg Brandes’s “Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature”,25 which is a popular reader in a compact size (format in 1/64, with only 96 pages), devotes the largest space to introduce the first volume with more than 23 pages (the others were introduced in only 14 pages on average). In China, Lu Xun and other famous writers paid special attention to the first volume of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Georg Brandes, the great Danish literary critic, earned international fame through his time-honored works of literary criticism, a level of fame that is usually reserved for just a few. His fame is chiefly attributed to the six-volume critical work, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, among which the first volume—The Emigrant Literature—is the most prominent one. For one thing, what “the emigrant Literature” covers and evokes reflects a point of interest not only for Europeans but also for people across the world. No wonder it would attract immediate and lasting attention. With its sensitive and sensational topic, readers from different backgrounds are keen on reading, discussing and promoting it. For another, the literary and historical narrations and comments are imbued with 25

Moritzen, Julius, A Guide to Georg Brandes’s Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Girard Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1924.

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Brandes’ own sensuous and poetic experiences and inspirations. By integrating literary criticism and literary creation itself, Brandes as a person surfaced in the text. This is the critical style of Brandes, which is mirrored most conspicuously in The Emigrant Literature. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that, without the sensational topic of “the emigrant literature” and its ensuing backlash, Brandes and Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature would not have achieved international recognition in such an immediate and grand manner. It is especially true in the modern Chinese context, in which his influence has been so lasting and profound.

Exile and Literature At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, Brandes was actively involved in criticism. During this period, the word ‘exile’, which features in the title of chapter 9 of The Emigrant Literature, became one of the words in which readers found the most interest and fell into a deep obsession with. Due to this obsession with exile and the relevant emigrant literature, writers of the time and the 19th century at large, more often than not, chose exile, expatriation as well as travel as their themes of creation; they quickly became an ordinary, if not normal, way of life and creation style of writers. In addition, when Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, especially its first volume, The Emigrant Literature, was becoming influential worldwide, the way of writers throughout the world did not change at all; instead, the way of life was becoming even more prevalent, for political turmoil and racial conflicts were on the rise. It is true that some philosophers and literary critics who are exceptionally sensitive and sentimental. Martin Heidegger, for example, tended to mediate in a Kantian manner on the metaphysical question: Where does man come from and where is he going? In this line, they would think of all ways of life of writers as an anxiety of being “on the way”, a sense of insecurity of being uprooted, a fate of being in spiritual exile and self-expatriation. In the secular sense, the exile mentality of writers is usually embodied in the passive exile and expatriation and a self-imposed exile, self-expatriation or travel. Works created with such a mentality could be subsumed under the emigrant literature. It is also acknowledged that the emigrant literature is not only a special theme but also a genre of literature, one that projects its spiritual and thought

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dimensions and sheds light on the reality and the spirit of an age. As is pointed out in the preface to Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, the first volume was so called because Brandes had observed that “exile”, as a theme of the age, characterized the century and the narration of the century: “The great upheavals, the wars of Republic and the Empire, jostled the peoples of Europe together, and made them acquainted with each other. But the men most profoundly influenced by foreign surroundings were those for whom these great events meant long, in some cases life-long, exile”.26 The familiarization of nations, especially among poets, entails that many of them were forced to leave their homeland and went in exile in search of the greater horizons of Europe. The exiles which lasted more than one or two years, even ten to twenty years made many writers susceptible of such notions and sentiments as homesickness and spiritual home. The great emotional and spiritual trauma found expressions in their works. These are rudimentary aesthetic qualities and stylistic features of the emigrant literature. The social and cultural significance also lies in these aspects. The word “exile” tends to evoke people’s sentimental and poetic interpretations of the literary histories: while wandering around the Greek Isles, Homer created the epic of the Troy; Ovid was sent into exile around the bay of the Black sea by the Roman Emperor, and died in an alien land; and after being defeated in the political struggle of the Medieval, Dante was driven out of Florence, and it is during his exile that he finished the classical Divine Comedy. Before the coming of the 19th century, the great French writers such as Voltaire and Rousseau were forced to go into exile because of their promotion of the enlightenment. During their exile, they were faced with hardships and created their texts of life and literature. Likewise, ancient Chinese literary stories seem to be related to exile and expatriation. The great Chu poet Qu Yuan created “The Ode of Departure” after he went into exile, which has become a prototype of a tradition of literary creations. The poets of the later dynasties, such as Jia Yi, Du Fu and Li Bai, followed suit, each of whom wrote their own masterpieces on their exile and expatriation. So it seems that the emigrant literature exists in all nations and all ages. If due academic attention is devoted to the emigrant literatures, its cultural and academic implications will be made clear. As a critic who excelled in sensuous expression, Brandes did not delve 26

Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol. 1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 3.

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deeper into the cultural and academic significances of the European literatures of the 19th century; however, it is obvious that he felt strongly about them. As a result, the first volume of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature was devoted to emigrant literature. What is even more eye-catching is that, among the six volumes, volume one is the only one not confined to one nation. Although The Emigrant Literature deals with French writers, Brandes emphasized: “The emigrant literature, although French, develops beyond the frontiers of French”. 27 In fact, having discussed Rousseau as the spiritual resource of the emigrant literature, the book goes on to discuss J. W. Goethe’s Werther and the Werther Craze, which falls outside the domain of the French Emigrant Literature. The remaining five volumes deal with the French Romanticists, German Romanticists, English Naturalists, and the Reaction in France and Young Germany, respectively, all of which are confined to one particular nation. This schema reveals the special importance of The Emigrant Literature in Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature: it not only serves to initiate the work, but also lays bare the thematic thread that runs throughout the work. Though Brandes himself didn’t seem to cherish a clear idea, there is no doubt that the Emigrant Literature, in Brandes’ opinion, is the history as a whole in that time. “The literary history of a whole continent during half a century obviously does not begin at any one single point. The point of departure chosen by the historian may always be described as arbitrary and fortuitous; he must trust to his instinct and critical faculty, or he will never make a beginning at all.”28 It also has a crystallization of the spiritual quality of the 19th-century literature as a whole. Brandes’ logic is as follows: the emigrant literature could be traced back to Rousseau, but the impact of Rousseau went beyond the national boundaries and a particular age: “It is astonishing to see the extent the great literary movements in all the principal countries of Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century were influenced by Rousseau.”29 This evidences the spiritual link between the literatures of the European countries in the early 19th century and emigrant literature. That is why Brandes hinted that what is “naturally connected with the Emigrant 27

Brandes, Georg, “Conclusion” Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 28 Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 29 Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901.

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Literature is that German Romanticism by which Mme. de Stael was influenced in the last period of her activity, and the influence of which is also to be traced in Barante. The whole group of books to which I have given the common name Emigrant Literature may be described as a species of Romanticism anticipating more especially the great Romantic School of France”.30 Indeed, the century with which Brandes was confronted is characterized by an emigrant literature, which was increasingly universal and generic. Due to a variety of reasons, many famous writers have been in exile, on or against their own will. Victor Hugo, the realist and romanticist, was exiled by Napoleon to Guernsey Isle in the English Channel. His exile led to The Miserable World, the unmistakable hallmark of French Literature of the age, which was not finished on the French mainland. Baudelaire, another outstanding poet of the age, left his footsteps in Mauritius: his death in Belgium in 1867 left his will to go back home unfulfilled. While E. Zola was once in England to avoid prosecution, Oscar Wilde was driven from England to France owing to his notorious antics, both of whom were regarded as great naturalists in China’s May 4th Movement. Lord Byron’s travels abroad were extremely fruitful, not only because he finished his well-known travelogue, but also because he called on the Greek people and the oppressed people of the other countries to rise up, whose significance went beyond literature proper. The Dane H. G. Anderson, at the beginning of this self-expatriation, followed the route of Swedish singer Jenny Lind; later, he became so accustomed to the way of life and writing that he started to write his works, taking a Jew—a very famous Jew named Ahasverus—in exile as his theme and his hero. The Danish writer from the little town of Odense was, in fact, so infatuated with this way of writing—writing in exile—that he made a well-known statement: “Travels are the spring of spiritual reinvigorating”. In Russia, where turmoil was more rampant than in any other European country, living and writing in exile seemed to become normality for the majority of established writers. These included, N. V. Gogol, who went into exile in 1836 and finished his masterpiece The Dead Souls in Rome, Italy; I. S. Turgenev, who passed away in France in 1883, with his heart craving for his homeland; and F. M. Dostoyevsky, who spent more than 10 years in Siberia, from 1849. The reasons that led to the exiles, self-imposed or forced, are extremely varied. This is no place to probe into 30

Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901.

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the reasons as well as the actual cases of individual exiles. What counts at this point is that the exile, as the contents and target of representation, is no more than the writer’s distancing from the language, spirit, culture, conventions of the home country. In such a literature in which emotional stress triggers literary creation, exotic landscapes and flavors don’t matter a lot. What goes with the anxiety of exiles is, paradoxically, an unprecedented sense of spiritual freedom. These exceptional embodiments and expressions of such emotions are the essence of the emigrant literature. Faced with the literary status quo, it is only natural for a sensitive and outstanding critic, like Brandes, to respond academically and emotionally. Hence, the term “the emigrant literature”, which Brandes meticulously picked out, conforms to the literary realities of the 19th century. This crystallized and refined label serves as a good title for the first volume of Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature; the volume has played its due role both as an introduction to the work and the mainstay around which other volumes revolve. The emigrant literature was viewed by Brandes as the most representative literary phenomenon of 19th-century literature. On one hand, his viewpoint results from his insight into the literary scene of the age. On the other, his viewpoint results from his identity as a Jew, who, as a race, have an in-depth understanding of the word “exile” and the spiritual state it represents. There is a theory regarding exiles, a theory which takes a metaphysical viewpoint, deeming exiles an embodiment of language and spirit rooted in human culture. Its roots can be found in the Oedipus tragedy of classic Greek mythology: it is a self-imposed, futile and sad exile, driven by fate. In the case of Brandes, his understanding of the word and the concept is related more to the national sentiment and the collective memory of the Jews as a nation race. The counterpart of exile is diaspora, which refers, in a literal sense, to the exile of Jews. After their imprisonment in Babylon, the Jews left Jerusalem and went into exile in alien regions. Besides denoting the state of life as a Jew, diaspora also means the reunion of Jewish communities in regions outside its homeland (Palestine or the present-day Israel). As for the Jews and the Jewish culture, the significance of diaspora lies not only in geographical disseminations and reunions but also in religious, cultural, philosophical and national implications. It is with such a background that Brandes, a Jew himself, understood the word and responded to it. His sensitivity and sentimentality are, therefore, not hard to understand. What is more important is that when he started writing The Emigrant Literature, Brandes himself was unfairly treated and driven on a long journey of exile; his sweeping and penetrating criticisms maddened the authority and the

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clergy. Labeled an “unfaithful Jew”, he was discharged from a teaching post in Copenhagen University, whereupon he had to move to Berlin in 1877. He did not come back home until 1883 and it was not until 1902 that he was restored to a faculty position, when Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature had already been finished. It is safe to claim that the two processes—writing and traveling abroad—ran parallel to each other for this critic. The exile, as a way of life for writers, is represented in a thorough and pervasive manner in The Emigrant Literature as well as in Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature at large. It is also the way of life of Brandes himself. Consequently, Brandes was so responsive and so emotional in his criticism in The Emigrant Literature. It is only natural that Brandes, as a member of the Jewish people who are culturally in exile and geographically homeless, showed special passion and burning zest in the book. The emotional tone of the book echoes throughout Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature.

Emigrants and Currents of New Literature in Chinese After Brandes completed The Emigrant Literature and the other volumes of Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature, Europe and the world were still immersed in the literary age and context of the emigrant literature. It is said that at the turn of the 20th century, the exile, as a theme, was pervasive in music, painting, movie and drama. That is why the works of Brandes achieved international impact; his works are marked by the theme and narrations of the exile. It is also noted that Brandes made a broad interpretation of the concept of “exile”: the exile covers not only self-imposed exiles abroad, namely to “foreign countries”, but also exiles into “remote provinces” within a single country, for example, in France.31 Seen in this light, at the turn of the 20th century, there were a large number of emigrant writers. Even such Irish writers as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, both of whom were born in Dublin, are regarded as emigrants in the context of English literature, to which they made great contributions. Special mention should be made of Beckett. As a Jew, he was instilled with an emigrant tradition. Joseph Conrad, who also contributed a lot of the English literature, was an emigrant writer from Poland. At the beginning of his emigration to England, he even knew very 31

Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 5.

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little English. In the same age, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, all of whom are masters of the American literature, were once emigrants abroad. In the context of German Literature, the world renowned and influential R. M. Rilke was a poet from Austria. There is no need to elaborate on the fact that these masters, without whom the literary scene of the 20th century would not be as brilliant, are emigrants. They are A. Schnitzler, M. Proust, F. Kafka, Thomas Mann, Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie and A. I. Solzhenitsyn, to mention a few. With their joint efforts, the new century Brandes was facing would also be safely labeled as the century of emigrant literature. I have made no mention of Russia. After the Russian Revolution, especially after the year 1922, when the movements of Cleansing and Expatriation occurred one after another, legions of Russian writers and artists went into exile. Given the above-mentioned factors, it is certain that The Emigrant Literature, as well as Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, would not remain in oblivion. They will be under the spotlight in the literary critical arena. As early as 1919, The Emigrant Literature—only this volume—was translated into Hebrew.32 A similar version was published in Israel.33 This was no accident. Owing to the above-mentioned reasons, The Emigrant Literature is more popular than other volumes. It is especially popular among those who have experienced exiles and cherished memories of exiles. They are keen on reading and discussing it. As a matter of fact, the focus of many versions of Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature34 was on the first volume. The first complete Japanese version was translated by Junsuke Suita. It was based on the German version, Die Hauptsromungen der Literatur des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (1914), co-translated by A. Strodtmann, W. Rudow, A.V.D. Linden.35 With the first volume as his focus of attention, Junsuke Suita devoted the greatest energy and zest, and the title of the first volume is most eye-catching. The Japanese version had a great impact on Lu Xun and other modern Chinese writers. Since, the Chinese version has largely adopted the Japanese title using the Japanese-style “currents” rather than the Chinese-style “mainstream” as the keyword. It is worthwhile to point out that Lu Xun’s 32

Note: Di Тtremungen in der literature fun XIX johrhundert…Paa Jidisj af A. Rikilis. Wars€, 1919. 33 Note: Rashe ha-zramim be-sifrut ha-me’a ha-19 (1952), printed in Israel. 34 It was published in 1938. 35 It is obvious that Brandes preferred the German version translated by Erich Reiss Verlag in 1924. In January 1924, he wrote a preface to the book.

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zest in Brandes has been underestimated in the field of modern Chinese literature. He not only purchased and read critically the Japanese version but also recommended it to young writers.36 Besides, he made a point of recommending the first volume and emphasized its special significance.37 In addition to the Japanese version, Lu Xun also read the German version published in 1924. Lu Xun quoted: “In deploring the languishing of the Danish literature, Brandes said that the literary creation almost came to a stand-still. Whatever problems, social or human could not raise people’s concern except in newspapers and periodicals there are no arguments elsewhere. Literary aerations are rare to see. As for the spiritual life of the other countries, there is little introduction. The spiritual ‘deafness’ leads inevitably to ‘dumbness’”.38 Lu Xun’s quotation could not be found in the present-day Chinese version of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. It might be found in the Preface to the German version. Similar to the German version, the Czech version also lays special emphasis on the first volume.39 A booklet entitled A Guide to Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature was published in Kansas, America in 1924. This is a 64k-type condensed and simplified reader. In its total of 96 pages, 23 pages are devoted to the introduction of The Emigrant Literature, with the other volumes averaging 14 pages. Compared with other volumes, it is obvious that The Emigrant Literature has the fewest pages. The book seems to testify to the fact that. in the eyes of readers, researchers and promoters, the academic value of the first volume is the highest of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. 36

In 1933, Lu Xun purchased the Japanese version of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature (Volumes 1, 2, 4, 6). During Lu Xun’s stay in Japan in the 1900s, he purchased 50 books on Scandinavian culture, all of which were German versions. Among them was Henrik Ibsen (in which were attached Ibsen’s 12 letters to the author) written in 1899 and 1990, Volume 6 of Literary Series edited by Brandes, Nordische Portrats aus vier Reichen. After Lu Xun returned to China, he went on purchasing Brandes’ works. On 5 July, 1926, he bought once again Henrik Ibsen and three books of Impressions written respectively in 1867, 1882 and 1889. 37 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 12. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 303. 38 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 5. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 27. 39 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 12. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 303.

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The charm of The Emigrant Literature lies not only in the foregrounding of the concept of “exile” and “the emigrant literature”, but also in the crystallization and promotion of another key theme of the age—revolt, which was even more inspiring than “exile”. Through an analysis of the emigrant literature, Brandes came to this conclusion: “the French Emigrant Literature inspired by Rousseau” aroused a passionate reaction against Voltaire and the Classical literature he championed, and “the reaction begins”, “but here the reactionary are still everywhere mingled with the revolutionary currents”.40 The revolt Brandes spared no efforts to promulgate was both “cultural and political”; he began The Emigrant Literature with these sentences: The passage of the eighteenth into the nineteenth century was accompanied in France by social and political disturbances of hitherto unknown force and magnitude. The new seed sown by the great ideas and events of the Revolution at first made little or no growth in literature. It was unable to shoot up, for, with but brief interval between, two destroying tyrannies, the dictatorships of the Convention and of the Empire, passed over France, annihilating all personal freedom as they went... During both these great despotisms it was only far from Paris, in lonely country places where he lived a life of death-like stillness, or beyond the frontier, in Switzerland, Germany, England, or North America, that the Frenchman of letters pursued his calling.41

In France, these “two destroying tyrannies” wiped out individual freedoms. Writers had no choice but to flee and go into exile to take refuge from the looming catastrophic fate. During the reigning of the two tyrannies, only when he fled Paris to lead a death-like peaceful life in a quiet country or left France for other countries, could he make his literary creations. Needless to say, vehement political revolts must be part of their creations. Consequently, Brandes unconditionally supported, hailed and advocated those emigrants and their literatures, by claiming: “The lmigrl, as already remarked, inevitably belongs to the opposition”.42 That means it is inevitable that these emigrants stood on the side of adversaries. 40

Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. ix. 41 Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 1-2. 42 Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 4.

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Likewise, he proved that “the emigrant literature was marked by a deep agitation”.43 To the writers and literary critics of the 20th century, Brandes revealed to them a most valuable and universal literary tradition, to which they responded sympathetically and passionately. This should be the chief reason why The Emigrant Literature and Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature were universally acknowledged. In the context of modern China, the case is slightly different and the reason tends to be overstated. It is true that the modern Chinese writers, with Lu Xun as their chief representative, attached special importance to the spirit of revolt of literature. “Literature should be aimed at revolting against conventions and triggering concrete actions.”44 This is a classical conclusion Lu Xun drew about the literary spirit of the Western Romanticism, and this is a spiritual value with which Lu Xun and most other Chinese writers identified themselves. But Brandes did have an impact on Lu Xun and other Chinese writers. In “On the Satanic Poetry”, a long paper by Lu Xun that used classical Chinese language, Lu Xun expounded on the spiritual value of revolt by quoting Brandes on several occasions. While he was responding enthusiastically to the Satanic spirit Brandes promoted, he was all the more moved and impressed by Brandes’ critical zest, which was said to “be burning with the will of freedom”.45 Through Brandes, Lu Xun and other Chinese writers of the age had a renewed understanding of the Swedish playwright Ibsen. While the Ibsenism promulgated by Hu Shih was committed to the movements of women’s liberation and individual liberation, Lu Xun was cautious about these ideals. He wrote “What Happens After Nora Leaves Home?” to point out the risks and absurdities in persuading women to leave home. What Lu Xun learned from Ibsen was the spirit of revolt, Nietzsche’s spirit of “combating the majority”, as well as the advocation of “the revolution in people’s heads”, all of which are related to Brandes who served as a spiritual medium between Lu Xun and Ibsen. As early as his Japanese years, Lu Xun purchased Brandes’ Henrik Ibsen, to which was attached Ibsen’s twelve letters to “his old friend G. Brandes”46 written during the 43 Brandes, Georg, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. Vol.1. London: William Heinemann & New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. 44 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 1. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 45 Zhu, Shoutong, “Chapter 1” A Guide to Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press, 1993. 46 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 7. Beijing: People’s Literature

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years of 1889 and 1890. In the biography of Ibsen, Brandes quoted Ibsen in saying: “The politicians aim at political revolutions, which are superficial and peripheral. There is only one effective revolution —revolution in people’s heads.47 Ibsen exerted a great influence on Lu Xun, and his influence went beyond Lu Xun. They remind us of the grand theme of the reconstruction of the Chinese cultural spirit in the 20th century. As a contemporary of Lu Xun, Zheng Zhenduo noted that Brandes, in his lifetime, was under vehement attack from the Danish conservatives because he was strongly rebellious in his academic studies and his spiritual pursuits. Even after Brandes died, some of his researchers, including Boyesen, expressed regrets over his spirit of revolt while paying tribute to him.48 It can be seen that the spirit of revolt is the key element and feature of Brandes’ literary criticism, which is directly connected with Brandes’ fundamental understanding and clarification of the emigrant literature. The promotion of the spirit of revolt and attention to the emigrant literature is key to Brandes’ reception in the field of modern Chinese literature. They were what attracted Lu Xun’s attention. There is a positive correlation between the Satanic spirit Lu Xun championed and the Brandes’ spirit, which is embodied in Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature and his other works of criticism. In addition, Brandes’ attention to the emigrant literature had a direct impact on Lu Xun. Lu Xun, the founding father of modern Chinese literature put forward a notion of “the countryside literature” or “folk literature” in his “Preface to Anthologies of Chinese New Literature: Short Stories Vol. 2”. Though it is obvious that the notion is related to the emigrant literature, Lu Xun made a point of claiming, “There is a distinction between ‘the countryside’ literature” and the emigrant literature Brandes put forward. Although Chinese writers stayed in cities, away from their own hometowns and villages, their themes remain focused on country life. So there is a vague homesickness toward their native towns and villages in their stories: there are exotic tastes to cater to readers but no exotic landscapes to broaden the

Press, 1981. 164. 47 Yao, Xipei, “Lu Xun and the Scandinavian Culture” A Study of Lu Xun’s Collected Books. Beijing: China Cultural Association Press, 1991. 48 Zheng, Zhenduo. “A Critical Biography of G. Brandes”. Fiction Monthly 14.4 (1923).

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horizons of readers.49 Although Lu Xun made a distinction between these two genres and Brandes’ emigrant literature served only as a reference for Lu Xun’s “countryside literature”, Lu Xun was not making a negative evaluation of Brandes’ viewpoint. Rather, if you read between the lines, it is not hard to realize that Lu Xun was cherishing a dream that “countryside literature” could attain the high plane achieved by emigrant literature. Jorgen Knudsen, Danish critic, noted The Emigrant Literature, which initiated Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, “was a milestone in the Danish histories of literary criticism and culture studies”. It is, in many aspects, the most representative text through which to understand Brandes’ ideas of literary criticism.50 The former statement represents the perspective of a Dane, and was made within a national context. The latter is conducive to a better understanding of the academic value of The Emigrant Literature for readers and researchers across the world. In fact, the former could be complemented and modified in an international context: The Emigrant Literature, with its international influence, is also a milestone in the world history of literary criticism in the 20th century.

IV.2. Irving Babbitt and New Literature in Chinese and Modern Chinese Culture: Allure, Encumbrance and Demonization Irving Babbitt, the great American Humanist, became bound to the modern Chinese culture even though Babbitt himself was not aware of it. His erudition and glamor charmed a dozen Chinese young scholars into Harvard University to seek instruction from him. He influenced his Chinese students tremendously—these future participants in the construction of the modern Chinese culture. Among them, the best known are Wu Mi and his Xueheng (The Critical Review) colleagues as well as Liang Shiqiu, the best-known humanist intellectual of the 1930s. The Xueheng Society (or The Critical Review Group), the best-known conservative society in 1920s China, introduced Babbitt to China amidst the mass fervor of the New Culture Movement through writings in classical Chinese. Their introduction tinged Babbitt’s Humanism with 49 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 6. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1981. 247. 50 Jorgen Knudsen, Georg Brandes – den mangfoldige. Gyldendal, 2005. 35.

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Chinese-styled conservatism, a negative term at a time when new was fashionable. Their use of classical Chinese further alienated Chinese readers from Babbitt’s theory. This resulted in people’s misunderstanding about Babbitt and Babbittism; in fact, the Xueheng Society’s coloration encumbered Babbitt. It was Liang Shiqiu who first detected the encumbrance brought about by the Xueheng Society on Babbitt. Liang who had displayed a romantic tendency and had been recalcitrant toward Irving Babbitt converted himself into a firm follower of Babbittism after his acquaintance with Babbitt and his works. Liang Shiqiu used Babbitt’s theory as a weapon against Lu Xun, the best-known and best-respected Chinese writer in the 20th century, in a way that Babbitt scorned. Babbitt was pulled into a camp that was hostile to Lu Xun, an event that has led to a lasting demonization of Babbitt in China. As a matter of fact, Babbitt’s theory contained elements that Lu Xun advocated. But, because of encumbrance and demonization, Babbitt’s Humanism has had no chance to be properly introduced, let alone accurately expounded in China. This is the fatalistic role of Irving Babbitt that has played, indirectly and unconsciously, in the construction of the modern Chinese culture.

Allure of Babbitt to Chinese Intellectuals Babbitt was a magnet to most of the Chinese intellectuals at Harvard University in the 1910s and 1920s, who were drawn in by his erudition and glamor. Mei Guangdi was one of the first Chinese who took Babbitt as his professor. After graduation from Northwest University, he continued his studies at Harvard University. After reading Babbitt’s works, Mei Guangdi thought of Babbitt as a modern saint and was determined to be a student of Babbitt.51 In comparison to other Chinese students, he had a most intimate connection with Professor Babbitt. His academic record preserved at Harvard University admittedly shows that he was under the supervision of Babbitt while he was studying at the graduate school of Harvard.52 In 1924, when he returned to Harvard University to teach the Chinese Language, he had frequent contact with Babbitt. Based on Mei Guangdi’s introduction, Babbitt discussed and expounded in his works 51

Hou, Jian, “The Origins of Liang Shiqiu’s Humanism: Irving Babbitt” Ode to Autumn (a book dedicated to Liang). Ed. Kwang-chung Yu. Taipei: Jiuge Publishing House, 1998. 71. 52 Note: Card No. Library Bruear G86817, Mei Kuangti’s folder, in Pusey Library of Harvard University.

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Taoist theory about humanity, justice, propriety, wisdom and faith, and the outlook of “non-action (Wu-Wei)” and Taoist impacts on the modern Chinese culture. 53 Another student who had a close relationship with Babbitt was Wu Mi, the founder and key figure of the Xueheng Society. Babbitt’s signature as Wu Mi’s supervisor can still be found on Wu Mi’s study plan at Harvard.54 In the late 1990s, studies on Chen Yinque, a renowned historian and a close friend of Wu Mi, were raging in China, which led to a revived interest on Wu Mi—a long-forgotten figure in mainland China. Some studies on Wu Mi contain false information and even distortions. Instead of gleaning facts, some scholars have resorted to conjecture. A case in point is when and how Wu Mi got to Harvard. It is often asserted that Wu Mi’s entry to Harvard was due to two factors—Mei Guangdi’s invitation and Wu Mi’s admiration for Babbitt.55 Wu Mi’s self-styled bosom friend Yao Wenqing, in Anecdotes of Wu Mi, gives such a description: “Wu Mi attended Virginia State University when he arrived in America. Later at the call of Mei Guangdi, Wu Mi turned to Harvard for further studies with Babbitt as his professor”.56 Yet research into the problem reveals that it is not at all the case. Wu Mi’s Self-compiled Annals has a clear and detailed description of his meeting with Mei. It was only after Wu arrived at Harvard that he, through the introduction of his Tsinghua College classmate Shi Jiyuan, got to know Mei Guangdi: “If I had not come to Harvard to study, I would not have the chance to meet Mei Guangdi in America”.57 From this, it can be seen that the hearsay that Wu Mi got to Harvard at the call of Mei is pure speculation; it is upsetting to see such gossip spreading so quickly. The acceptance of Wu Mi by Babbitt as a student might be owing to Mei’s recommendation. Wu Mi’s September 9, 1918, diary entry reads in part: “The university authorities have arranged Prof. Babbitt to be my

53

Babbitt, Irving, On Being Creative and Other Essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932. 255. 54 Plan of Study, Wu Mi’s folder, in Pusey Library of Harvard University. 55 Li, Jikai, ed., Interpreting Wu Mi. Beijing: China Social Sciences Literature Publishing House, 2001. 152. 56 Huang, Shitan, ed., Memories of Mr Wu Mi. Taiyuan: Shanxi People’s Publishing House, 1990. 37. 57 Wu, Mi, Wu Mi’s Self-Compiled Annals. Beijing: Sanlian Joint Publishing House, 1998. 176-177.

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adviser——following my request”.58 Irving Babbitt was Wu Mi’s adviser and the only adviser. One researcher claimed: “At Harvard, Wu Mi had two advisers—Irving Babbitt, a famous professor of French literature, and Paul Elmer Moore, a famous literary critic”.59 This could not be further from the truth. It is true that Paul Elmer Moore was Irving Babbitt’s academic partner and close friend, and Wu revered Paul Elmer Moore as much, as is indicated in Wu Mi’s diary entry of July 24, 1919: “Since I came to this university this summer, I have been reading Shelburne Essays by Paul E. Moore, apart from my courses. There are nine volumes altogether, and I have just finished them today. I have benefited a lot from his teachings”.60 That is why Wu Mi often mentioned the two together in his later works. For example, one of Wu Mi’s poems contains the line “I’ve benefited from the teachings of Babbitt and Moore”,61 and a verse “I learned about Humanism from Babbitt and Moore when I was young”. With these words taken alone, a reader may well be misled that Wu had two advisers at Harvard, but in fact, Paul Elmer Moore was only his spiritual mentor, not an adviser in the literal sense. It is true that, in his early years, Paul Elmer Moore worked as a teaching assistant at Harvard, teaching Sanskrit, but he later left to work with a newspaper in New York; he was never a professor at Harvard. How could he be one of Wu’s two advisers? Wu’s diary makes it quite clear: “He (Moore) is my adviser’s close friend and they both are the greatest scholars in America today”.62 It might not be feasible to cross the Pacific to find out Moore’s curriculum vitae, but a writer who works on a book on Wu Mi should not evade the trouble of consulting Wu Mi’s diary. Any reader, even if he thumbs through Wu Mi’s diary and his Self-compiled Annals, will not possibly come to the conclusion that Paul Elmer Moore was one of Wu Mi’s advisers. More surprisingly, the scholar who holds wrongly that Moore was one of Wu’s two advisers wrote not only a book about Wu Mi, but 58

Wu, Mi, The Diary of Wu Mi. Vol. 2. Beijing: Sanlian Joint Publishing House, 1998. 14. 59 Li, Jikai, ed., Interpreting Wu Mi. Beijing: China Social Scientific Literature Publishing House, 2001. 245. 60 Wu, Mi, The Diary of Wu Mi. Vol.2. Beijing: Sanlian Joint Publishing House, 1998. 38. 61 Wu, Mi, Wu Mi’s Poems and Poetic Criticism. Taiyuan: Shanxi People’s Publishing House, 1992. 250. 62 Wu, Mi, The Diary of Wu Mi. Vol.2. Beijing: Sanlian Joint Publishing House, 1998. 38.

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also essays on Wu Mi’s diary. It is as ridiculous as rendering Utopia to “Pia of Uto” or English to “Lish of Eng”.63 During that period, there were also other Chinese scholars who, allured by Babbitt’s thinking and personality, turned their eyes to Harvard and went to pursue their studies there. One of them is Tang Yongtong, a very famous scholar in modern China. Yue Daiyun, a top Chinese scholar in comparative literature, surmises: “Tang Yongtong, who had studied philosophy at Hamline University, transferred to Harvard to work on Buddhism, Sanskrit and Balinese. Obviously Tang was attracted by Babbitt, because Babbitt focused much of his attention on the study of Buddhism while he was also proficient at Sanskrit and Balinese”.64 She does not give any direct evidence here, but as the daughter-in-law of Tang and a serious and trustworthy scholar, her remarks should be reliable. If her surmise is credible, I wonder if it applies also to Chen Yinque. In 1919, he entered Harvard to “study Sanskrit and Balinese under the guidance of Lanman”.65 Charles Rockwell Lanman was a famous expert in Sanskrit. It is possible that Irving Babbitt as a thinker was another attraction for Chen Yinque. Thanks to such precursors as Mei Guangdi and Wu Mi, and thanks to their direct or indirect influence, a growing number of Chinese scholars came to know about Babbitt, thus choosing Harvard. Zhang Xinhai and Lou Guanglai who later became a top official and a renowned scholar, respectively, came to Harvard on Wu Mi’s recommendation. In his September 18, 1919, diary entry, Wu Mi writes: “Since the first two months this spring (lunar calendar), they two (Zhang Xinhai and Lou Guanglai) wrote me several letters asking about literature and I informed them much about it. They expressed great admiration after they had read books by my adviser Babbitt, and then they decided to transfer to Harvard”.66 By contrast, Liang Shiqiu was indirectly affected by Mei 63

Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol.1. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 378. Lu Xun satirized Xiao Chunjin, a scholar of the Xueheng Society, by imitating his awkward and archaic style of writing, which forcibly cut a noun into two parts, e.g. “Pia of Uto” out of Utopia. 64 Yue, Daiyun, “The Chinese Conservatism in World Cultural Dialogue” Interpreting Wu Mi. Ed. Li Jikai. Beijing: China Social Scientific Literature Publishing House, 2001. 10. 65 Liu, Yihuan, Chen Yinque: A Master of Traditional Chinese Learning. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing House, 1996. 98. 66 Wu, Mi, The Diary of Wu Mi. Vol.2. Beijing: Sanlian Joint Publishing House, 1998. 73.

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Guangdi, Wu Mi and the like. Namely, it was through the journal Xueheng, which was created and run by them, that Liang came to know about Irving Babbitt and his Humanism. As a youth who “was swept off his feet by so-called ‘Tides of New Thinkings’”, he disagreed with Babbitt at that time. He chose Harvard on account of Babbitt; his original purpose was not to study under Babbitt but to “challenge” him.67 So tremendous was the impact of Babbitt’s theory and so powerful his spiritual charm that a young and vigorous challenger was, in a short period of time, turned into a pilgrim whose admiration was beyond description.

Coloration and Encumbrance of Babbitt by Xueheng Intellectuals Lin Yutang was another modern Chinese writer who received instruction from Irving Babbitt at Harvard University. Although he did at last “refuse to accept the parlance of Professor Irving Babbitt”, and even defended Spingarn, the rival of Babbitt,68 he said, “when at Harvard, I was studying at the Comparative Literature Research Institute. My professors then were Bliss Perry, Irving Babbitt” and admitted, “Under the guidance of Bliss Perry, Irving Babbitt…and the other renowned professors, I have acquired genuine learning”. Undoubtedly, Irving Babbitt became the focus of attention for the Chinese scholars who were studying at Harvard at the time. As a central subject about Harvard, Babbitt was at the core of their Harvard Complex. It might be a little exaggerated to claim that, “As far as Americans are concerned, it is Irving Babbitt who has exerted the greatest influence on Chinese literature”. 69 However, Lin Yutang, who had studied under Babbitt and later freed himself from his influence, frankly admitted, “The influence that Irving Babbitt exerts on modern Chinese literary criticism is profound and swift”.70 The comment is pertinent and accurate. With the energetic puff and advocacy by Mei 67

Liang, Shiqiu, “On Irving Babbitt and His Thought” Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taibei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 2. 68 Lin, Yutang, Autobiography of Lin Yutang. Nanjing: Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, 1995. 29; 80-81. 69 Hou, Jian, The Origins of Liang Shiqiu’s Humanism: Irving Babbitt. Ode to Autumn (a book dedicated to Liang) Ed. Kwang-chung Yu. Taipei: Jiuge Publishing House, 1998. 74. 70 Lin, Yutang, Autobiography of Lin Yutang. Nanjing: Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, 1995. 80.

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Guangdi, Hu Xiansu, especially Wu Mi, and the latecomer Liang Shiqiu, the theory of Irving Babbitt has been one of the sources of the modern Chinese literary criticism. Babbitt involuntarily, and probably unconsciously, became deeply involved in the vortex of modern Chinese literary controversies and, therefore, has formed an intellectual phenomenon that cannot be neglected in the history of modern Chinese culture. How was Babbitt, and for that matter Harvard, colored in China at the time and in the decades to come? They were gloomy and old fashioned, refusing the brilliance and vigor of the age by procrastinatory obstinacy. Leafing through La Jeunesse, the very journal which started the New Culture Movement, and the articles by Hu Shi, the leader of the Movement and China’s ambassador to America during the Second World War, one could see a sharp contrast: Hu Shi, Lu Xun, and their comrades represented the rising and the bright aspect of the age, while Mei Guangdi, Wu Mi and Babbitt’s other students, as well as Babbitt himself and even Harvard, represented the gloomy and declining aspect of the age. The contrast was made even more striking at the time when the New Culture Movement was eradicating the darkness of the old culture and leading to a new epoch of luminosity. Leafing through Xueheng, the antithesis of New Youth (La Jeunesse), one can also sense that at the time when the New Culture was marching in all its glory toward cultural modernization, Xueheng, which was associated with Babbitt and Harvard, could only embody gloom and outdatedness. As for the case of Liang Shiqiu, it could not be truer. At that time (the 1930s) when the proletarian literature was raging with full power in China, he stood out alone as a Don Quixote to claim that literature has never belonged to the majority and the universal humanity is the core of literature. In so doing, he singled out Irving Babbitt—his “western Buddha”—as his inspiration. Running counter to the tide of time, Liang could not be more fortunate than his predecessors, Mei and Wu. Harvard University, as a first-class progressive and aggressive institute of higher education, after several renderings of its Chinese students, was painted gloomy and old-fashioned. Irving Babbitt as an academic giant who advocated tolerance and understanding, through the impersonation of his Chinese disciples, became a conservative, cunning and adamant old fellow in the eyes of Chinese intellectuals. It is true that Wu and Liang introduced Babbitt and Harvard to modern Chinese literary and cultural circles. But, due to their misreading or misunderstandings, deliberate or not, both Babbitt and Harvard were Wu-and-Liang-tinged, appearing excessively gloomy and obscure in the

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modern Chinese cultural history. As mentioned before, the introduction of Babbitt and his ideas to the Chinese literary circle were credited to the Xueheng Society. It is paradoxical that it is Liang who pointed out that Babbitt was misread and distorted by Wu Mi and other Xueheng people. In his university days, he read the books and periodicals of the Xueheng Society and had a general knowledge of Babbitt and his ideas. He argued that Babbitt’s “theory did seem to go against the tide of the age as it decried current malpractices, but its essence lay not at all in obstinacy or pedantry. It is regrettable that his ideas were encumbered by the classical Chinese language used in introduction by intellectuals of Xueheng, resulting in the failure of its due influence. This is unfortunate”.71 So it was the case. The journal, Xueheng, was begun in early 1922, edited by Mei Guangdi, Wu Mi and Hu Xiansu, with Wu Mi serving as the backbone throughout. The main purpose of the journal was to “spread the quintessence of Chinese inherent culture, and absorb new knowledge”, thus achieving a balance between Western culture and Chinese classical culture. It stressed, in particular, “expressing thoughts of the West with Chinese characters”. 72 Here, “Chinese characters” refer to Chinese classical language, as opposed to the vernacular language promoted by Hu Shi and other modernists. Hence, standing opposite the new culture and the new literature is the key feature of the journal. Xueheng had been attacking the new culture and the new literature from the first issue to the last (the seventy-ninth), for more than 10 years. In the first issue, there was an article entitled On Architects of the New Culture by Mei Guangdi and in the last there was one entitled On the Literary Revolution and the Literary Dictatorship by Yi Jun. In effect, Xueheng made itself the headquarters of modern Chinese conservatism. Once the flag was fluttering, old-type scholars from all fields of all ages—adherents of the former dynasty with scholarly honor as well as retired or deposed officials—came together around Xueheng. Those pedants who were used to writing old-style poetry excitedly found ample room for their abilities—they were Huang Zunxian, Qiu Fengjia, Wu Mei, Kuang Zhouyi, Chen Baozhen, Chen Sanli and others. They often had poems or articles published in Xueheng. Among them, the successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations of the Qing Emperor Guangxu period alone would exceed ten—Yang Zengluo, 71 Liang, Shiqiu, “On Irving Babbitt and His Thought” Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taipei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 2. 72 Wu, Mi. “The Orientation of Xueheng”. Xueheng 3 (1922).

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Tan Shoukun, Zeng Guangjun, Zhou Zumou, Yao Hua, Shen Zengzhi, Chen Fuchen, Wang Shitong, and Chen Zengshou. Added to the list of contributors were scholars who came back from abroad after finishing their studies. Keen on the traditional “Chinese characters”, they used classical Chinese to introduce foreign thoughts and translate foreign works. For example, Wu translated foreign novels in the Zhang Hui style (a traditional Chinese novel with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its contents). He translated Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and turned the beginning into “a prologue” which was entitled “Headmistress Sending Words to a Student’s Parents to Curry Favor, A Student Throwing a Dictionary away to Give Vent to Her Fury”. He also translated The Newcomers in such a Zhang Hui style, heading the first chapter with “Fables Satirizing the Society, Heroic Man Rebuking Adultery”; the second chapter with “Falling in Love and Dreaming a Good Dream, Sin Ends Down and Out” was completely tuned to the old style. 73 The unnaturalness in their attempt at the impossible, namely, to express the new and foreign in classical Chinese, cramming the new into the old framework, was too conspicuous and unsightly to be ignored, leaving behind such jokes as “Pia of Uto”. The editors and contributors of Xueheng voluntarily took the stand in opposition to the mainstream Chinese intellectuals at the time. They embodied datedness, staleness and gloominess as aptly as perceived by Liang. What made Liang upset is that this ossified “special flavor” negatively affected the image of Babbitt, and also that of Harvard in China. Wu and the others declared proudly that they graduated from Harvard University and Babbitt was their advisor, showing off this relationship whenever there was a chance. In addition to a portrait of Babbitt, they published a picture of Sever Hall in the inserts of Xueheng, an obvious example to publicize the close relationship between the editors and Harvard University, as Xueheng normally published only the portraits of writers and thinkers but not buildings. Besides Sever Hall, a panorama of Oxford University appeared once. Sever Hall was picked out because that was where Babbitt used to teach.74 The portraits of writers and thinkers in the inserts also revealed Babbitt’s preferences. The portraits of Confucius, Socrates, 73

Please refer to: Xueheng, No. 55, No.1 and No.2 released in 1926 and 1923 respectively. 74 Hou, Jian, The Origins of Liang Shiqiu’s Humanism: Irving Babbitt. Ode to Autumn (a book dedicated to Liang) Ed. Kwang-chung Yu. Taipei: Jiuge Publishing House, 1998. 70.

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Sakyamuni and Jesus were printed in a striking manner, and even Voltaire’s portrait appeared on several occasions; Rousseau’s portrait was also published in Xueheng, only to be accompanied by a Chinese version of Sainte Beuve’s “On Rousseau’s Confession”, corresponding to the critical stance of Babbitt. The editor’s note attached to the translation echoed Babbitt in condemning Rousseau for being responsible for “the evils of society”: “the social disorder today goes partly to Rousseau”; Rousseau “was the virus of civilization”. Rousseau seems to serve as a target.75 In fact, Xueheng’s use of obsolete and abstruse classical Chinese in the translations and interpretations of Babbitt’s works seem to be the most direct and serious encumbrance to him. Wu Mi and his partners spared no efforts in introducing Babbitt in Xueheng. They published many essays on him, including “Babbitt’s View on Humanistic Education in the West and the East”, “Contemporary Western Humanism”, “Babbitt’s Humanism” (a translation from a French paper, “l’Humanisme Positiviste d’Irving Babbitt”, by Louis J.-A. Mercier, in la Revue Hebdomadaire, Vol. 30, No. 29, 1921), “Babbitt’s Ideas on Democracy and Leadership” (“the Introduction” of Babbitt’s Democracy and Leadership, translated by Wu Mi), “Irving Babbitt ‘What is Humanism?’” (from Babbitt’s Literature and the American College, translated by Xu Zhen’e), “Babbitt’s View on European and Asian Cultures” (“the chapter V, Europe and Asia” of Babbitt’s Democracy and Leadership, translated by Wu Mi), “Babbitt on the Cycle of Modern Poetry” (from a paper by Babbitt reviewing G. R. Elliott’s “The Cycle of Modern Poetry”) and “Babbitt on Benda and French Ideas”, to name just a few. They also translated and introduced Babbitt’s two academic companions, More and Stuart P. Sherman. In their own works, they quoted Babbitt’s words frequently. All these left an impression that Xueheng was a Chinese branch of Babbitt’s Humanism. But this image was foisted on him. He was regarded as being as conservative and obsolete as the Xueheng people by Chinese readers, and he was regarded as the spiritual guide and intellectual source by the Xueheng people. Babbitt’s Humanism is in a way similar to European Humanism, prevalent in and after the Renaissance, with both emphasizing the integrity of humanity, the balance of development, the normalcy of life and the

75

Xueheng, 18 (1923).

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essence of ethics.76 But Babbitt was more open-minded and systematic, and put more emphasis on self-cultivation and temperance. According to Babbitt, life can be divided into three categories: instinctive, human and religious. Instinctive life is indispensable but should not be developed to an extreme; human life is what we should stick to at any moment; religious life is, of course, the noblest but shouldn’t be exacted. As a result, people were in urgent need of inner control and religious adjustments,77 but the aim of which was not what was preached by Confucius, that is, pursuing ethical codes—denying oneself and returning to propriety—but the acquisition of the freedom of will in its highest sense. Some people claim freedom of will is one of the basic propositions of Babbitt’s philosophy because he tended to quote Dr. Johnson’s words: all theories are targeted against freedom of will but all experiences lean toward it.78 In fact, Babbitt has put conservatism into the order of freedom.79 On the other hand, although he believed in Aristotle’s theory of mimesis, and admired and embraced ancient oracles, he protested against blind imitation of and rigid adherence to them. In his On Creation, he advocated mimesis embedded in creativity, which is regarded as the development of Aristotle’s principle of imitating according to what it should be instead of what it is.80 From the above, we can see that the essence of Babbitt’s Humanism is not in the imitation and restoration of the ancients, but in freedom of will and creative mimesis in a higher sense. Just as what Liang had pointed out, its essence lay not at all in obstinacy and pedantry though it did seem to go against the tide of the age as it decried current malpractices. Furthermore, some American scholars asserted that there was a tinge of modernism in it, or even regarded it as one form of modern philosophy.81 There is little difference between Babbitt and Matthew Arnold. They were misunderstood by their contemporaries not because they were less modern but because 76

Liang, Shiqiu. “Irving Babbitt and His Humanism”. Modern Times 5.6 (1934). Liang, Shiqiu, “On Irving Babbitt and His Thought” Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taipei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 5. 78 Manchester, Frederick, Irving Babbitt: Man and Teacher. New York: Odell Shepard G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1941. 77 & 110. 79 Wightman, Richard & James T. Kloppenberg, A Companion to American Thought. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1995. 53. 80 Brennan, Stephen C. & Stephen R. Yarbrough, Irving Babbitt. Farmington Hills: Twayne Publishers, 1987. 90; 95. 81 Grosselin, Dom O., The Intuitive Voluntarism of Irving Babbitt. Latrobe: St. Vincent Archabbey PA., 1951. 117. 77

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they were outpaced in modernity.82 The conservatism of Babbitt’s Humanism lies in the fact that he deemed traditions and historical memories to be the stabilizing elements of society and politics, standing against the Utopias of radicals.83 His theory did not aim at the revival of the outdated schemes; Babbitt’s Humanism was rich in a both modern and historical sense. But its Chinese version promoted by his Chinese disciples—Xueheng intellectuals—acquired a gloomy and gray tone of obstinacy and pedantry,84 which, to Liang, who admired Babbitt, could only be upsetting and disheartening. Liang further blamed the Xueheng Society for their encumbrance of 82 Panichas, George A., The Critical Legacy of Irving Babbitt. Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1999. 27. 83 Wightman, Richard & James T. Kloppenberg, A Companion to American Thought. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1995. 53. 84 In this article, I avoid the use of “New Humanism” to refer to Irving Babbitt’s thought, for I find in my research that the term, though comparatively prevailing, is unfit. According to D. O. Grosselin, it is theological humanism that was once called “New Humanism” and Irving Babbitt’s thought is usually simply termed “Humanism” or “American Humanism”. He also observed that only once Irving Babbitt labeled his thought “New Humanism” the purpose of which was to distinguish his thought from Scientific Humanism (Dom Oliver Grosselin, The Intuitive Voluntarism of Irving Babbitt, p.5, St, Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA., 1951). It is also significant that both the Xueheng Society in the 1920s and Liang Shiqiu in the 1930s did not use the term “New Humanism” when they introduced the thought of Irving Babbitt. Some American scholars argue that to add “New” before Irving Babbitt’s “Humanism” was the result of a later fashion, which produced such terms like “New Education”, “New Freedom” and “New Criticism” etc. (Milton Hindus, Irving Babbitt, Literature, and the Democratic Culture, p. 3, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1994). Therefore, “New Humanism” is actually not an appropriate label for Irving Babbitt’s thought, and many scholars avoid the use of it. In 1986, a memoir (Irving Babbitt in Our Time, George A. Panichas and Claes G. Ryn eds. The Catholic University of America Press) was published in America to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. Among the nine papers in the memoir, only Russell Kirk’s “The Enduring Influence of Irving Babbitt” mentions “New Humanism” once (p.20), and another thesis “Irving Babbitt & Benedetto Croce” written by Folke Leander discusses the relationship between “New Humanism” and “Neo-humanists” (p.85). All the other researchers, however, use terms like “Humanism” or “Irving Babbitt’s Humanism”. Considering this, I think that it might be more proper and also more explicit to use “Irving Babbitt’s Humanism”.

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Babbitt and his theories: When Xueheng was started, I was still a university student, one who was swept away by the wave of so-called modern thought. At that time, I shrank back too, after reading Xueheng, in which the classical Chinese characters that scrawled all over the paper kept people from further probing into its content. In this way, Babbitt and his thoughts were cold-shouldered in China.85

That is true. At the time when Xueheng began its publication, vernacular Chinese achieved a decisive victory over classical Chinese. Tsinghua College students like Liang Shiqiu who were versed in classics would shrink back from Xueheng, let alone the literary youth and common readers. They would withdraw and stay at a distance from it. Even if Babbitt’s Humanism were as lauded as the Bible, readers’ interest would not be aroused. Hence, however hard the Xueheng people taxed their ingenuity in order to preach and advertise Babbitt’s theory, they would only face a cold shoulder and even a long face from common readers in their robes of classical Chinese and in their pomp of pedantry. Plausibly and volubly, Liang pointed out that it was the Xueheng people who encumbered Babbitt and held up the influence of Babbitt’s Humanism on China. As a student of Babbitt at Harvard and an active preacher of Babbitt’s Humanism, Liang was obviously content with his own efforts in spreading Babbitt’s theory throughout China. He arranged the publication of Babbitt and Humanism with the New Crescent Bookstore. What is more, he used Babbitt’s Humanism as a theoretical weapon when he was waging a heated and noticeable controversy against proletarian writers with Lu Xun as their representative. Liang defended Babbitt and his Humanism in his debate with Lu Xun almost single-handedly. Due to his efforts, Babbitt’s Humanism became one of the best-known ideologies in China at that time.

Liang Shiqiu and Demonization of Babbitt in China Liang’s efforts marked the end of the cold reception Babbitt’s theory met with in China but also the beginning of the demonization of Babbitt in China. Xueheng’s classical Chinese was indeed a road-block and severely impeded the spread of Babbitt’s ideas throughout China, but this 85

Liang, Shiqiu, “On Irving Babbitt and His Thought” Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taipei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 2.

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unpopularity freed Babbitt from criticism. It was surely better to be treated coldly than to be abused. In this sense, compared with the Xueheng people, Liang couldn’t shirk his responsibility and it was Liang who led to the demonization of Babbitt in China. There is no doubt that it was Lu Xun who did most to demonize Babbitt. As a firm rock in the midstream among the leftist writers, Lu Xun waged a tit-for-tat struggle against Liang. Liang was foremost a critic of the New Crescent Society, the most influential liberal society in the early 1930s with Hu Shi as its spiritual leader. The eye-catching debate, which lasted almost one decade, was partly rational; for example, the debate on the human nature and class nature of literature was essentially founded on a theoretical basis. It could also be very irrational, and the evaluation of Babbitt is a case in point. Lu Xun criticized Babbitt with biting sarcasm in the debate, but he was seldom concerned with the latter’s ideas and thoughts. In his famous essay Rousseau and Taste, Lu Xun admitted that he had not read Babbitt in the original and knew of Babbitt only from a scan of Japanese material. He criticized Babbitt only because Liang and others “chewed over Babbitt somewhere in Shanghai” for the purposes of manifesting their special taste. It was Lu Xun’s intention to spoil their “taste”. He was courageous enough to give a snort of contempt toward Babbitt without reading Babbitt in the original and even came to the extreme to classify Babbitt as a member of the New Moon Society: My translations do not intend to offer comfort for the reader. On the contrary, they usually offer to readers discomfort, even oppression, aversion and detest. Those who can offer comfort came from the New Crescent people’s works and translations — Xu Zhimo’s poems, Shen Congwen’s and Ling Shuhua’s short stories, Chen Xiying’s essays, Liang Shiqiu’s criticisms, Pan Guangdan’s eugenics, and also Babbitt’s Humanism.86

This, of course, couldn’t be a reasonable way of debating, but Liang 86

Lu Xun, “‘Rigid Translation’ and ‘Class Quality of Literature'” The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol.4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996.197,198. These people were all members of New Crescent Society, which was represented by Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo and Liang Shiqiu, etc. Xu Zhimo was the most famous poet at that time and died in an airplane crash in 1931. Shen Congwen was a famous novelist, and so was Ling Shuhua, a very beautiful woman, who was Chen Xiying’s wife. Chen Xiying, mentioned later, was a professor who was against Lu Xun for several years. Pan Guangdan was a Chinese scholar.

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was being equally unreasonable. He said, “Those people like Lu Xun had never read Babbitt”, this might have been a fact, but he continued with spite and said, “Lu Xun could never understand Babbitt”. His words were swayed by his personal feelings.87 Since the argument about Babbitt by both parties was largely unreasonable and could hardly be credible, it is necessary to clear up the cause of the debate. This cause, which would happily be accepted even by Liang himself, was Liang’s enthusiastic introduction of Babbitt in the late 1920s and early 1930s, following Wu Mi and his Xueheng partners in the early and mid-1920s. In essence, Lu Xun targeted Babbitt simply because Liang Shiqiu, Wu Mi and others were such enthusiastic exponents of his. Lu Xun said, “It was also the case in literary circles. We knew little (about world thinkers) and we have equally little material to widen our horizon. Liang Shiqiu has the theory of Babbitt, Xu Zhimo of Tagore and Hu Shi of Dewey”.88 Prof. Dewey had his Experimentalism and Prof. Babbitt had his Humanism from whom “they imported scraps and fragments and by so doing they turned out to be earthshaking Chinese scholars”.89 As a matter of fact, Lu Xun was not at all pleased with this type of blind argument. He was always anxious to learn about Western theorists as they are. He criticized “the Chinese Franz, Chinese Babbitt, Chinese Gilbert and Chinese Gorky and the like” because these people were eager to advertise “their own stock” while neglecting the translation of the original.90 These “foreign devils” thus became, in a roundabout way, the targets of Lu Xun’s pungent satire, among which Babbitt was the most outstanding, as Lu Xun identified Liang as “a disciple of Babbitt”.91 For the second time in ten years, Babbitt was encumbered by his Chinese disciples—this time by Liang Shiqiu. Lu Xun was not a born opponent of Babbitt and would, in all probability, have struck a sympathetic chord with the latter, had he known 87

Liang, Shiqiu, “On Irving Babbitt and His Thought” Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taipei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 4. 88 Lu Xun, “A General View of the Present New Literature” The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 134. 89 Lu Xun, “See If We Could Degrade Ourselves” The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 547. 90 Lu Xun, “Read Some Books” The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 5. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 470. 91 Lu Xun, “The Conditions of the Literary Circle in Dark China” The Complete Works of Lu Xun Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 285.

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Babbitt’s theory better. Babbitt argued against scientism and pragmatism rising from the modern times and singled out Humanism to taunt and challenge scientism, which coincided, to a large extent, with Lu Xun’s view of “spurning the material and developing the spiritual”. Babbitt believed that “humanists both in the East and in the West, as the minority groups will stick to their principles and oppose the viewpoints of the majority, which are labeled democratic but in fact mediocre”.92 Lu Xun proposed in On Cultural Bias the idea of “instating the individual and ostracizing the mob”, censuring the suppression of the few elitists by the majority. Lu Xun sounded like an oriental humanist himself. Lu Xun regretfully compared the decline of Chinese culture to the change from the warm spring to the withering autumn, which comes close to Babbitt’s view of devaluing the modern ideologies starting with Rousseau and paying due homage to the oracles of ancient times. Babbitt admired people “who behave themselves like ‘men of honor’” in Confucius’ phrase or those who held oneself with civility and severity as Aristotle put it. Lu Xun had similar ideas—he anticipated the emergence of “men of nobility and reason”. However, we need some caution here. In view of a noticeable difference, Lu Xun’s ideology might be divided into the earlier and later phases. But Lu Xun did not conduct such a clear “direction-switching” as men like Guo Moruo and Tian Han. Guo Moruo was a famous Chinese poet and revolutionary, he expressed himself heavily in his early poems and turned to expressing proletarian feelings in the middle of the 1920s. Lu Xun did not announce a self-negation like Tian Han, a Chinese dramatist, and published Our Self Criticize, turning to revolutionary writing in the beginning of 1930s. Both Guo Moruo and Tian Han advocated Art for Art’s Sake in the early 1920s but switched abruptly to Marxist art ideology in the mid-1920s. Even if Lu Xun did not embrace the imported theories similar to his, he would not turn indifferent or hostile to them. For all the above-mentioned similarities Babbitt and Lu Xun shared, Lu Xun was more likely to be sympathetic and empathetic to Babbitt. It should be true when we take into account the fact that Lu Xun always went all out for an honest introduction of foreign ideologies, whether they were for or against his own. So it is safe to conclude that Liang was to blame for the fact that Babbitt became an opponent rather than a friend to Lu Xun. In a word, Babbitt was a scapegoat. 92 Babbitt, Irving, “The Humanities Education in China and the West” a speech by Irving Babbitt in Sept. 1921.Trans by Hou Jian. Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taipei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 15.

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Of course, being an opponent of Lu Xun was not an offense. However, what Lu Xun imposed on Babbitt were more pointless attacks and ironies than serious comments and critical analyses, which were no doubt unredressed injustices and unexpected calamities for Babbitt. As for Babbitt, as a Chinese idiom goes, “being a teacher of one day means a lifelong father”, and so it seemed justified for him as a professor to bear the wrongs his students might incur. However, a question arises: was the relationship between Liang and Babbitt really so close? Based on data accessible to us, during his stay at Harvard, we can see Liang did attend Babbitt’s courses, read his books and have personal contact with the latter, but no evidence showed that there existed between them any relationship beyond that of a foreign student and his professor. The only one fragment of their face-to-face conversation that Liang could extract from his memory was how Babbitt gave instructions and a positive evaluation on his English assignment “Wilde and his Aestheticism”, which could only serve to show that the Liang the student and Babbitt the professor were not close at all. Liang was “stroking the tiger’s whiskers” as a Chinese proverb goes, by submitting such a report to Babbitt as he knew clearly that the latter simply abhorred such extremely romanticized writers as Oscar Wilde. Wasn’t Liang inviting embarrassment by so doing to displease Babbitt? Receiving the paper, as Liang later recollected, “He was struck with a surprise at the first sight of the title, as if I were coming to ‘stroke the tiger’s whiskers’ on purpose”.93 Then Babbitt exhorted him to “have infinite caution” for such a topic.94 Babbitt’s reaction, at least, indicated that he did not know much about this obstinate Chinese student. His admonishment was no more than an elder’s advice to a young man. When explaining why Babbitt knew so much about, and showed so much interest in, the Chinese traditional culture, Liang listed some of the possible answers as if enumerating his own family’s valuables. He said, “Babbitt’s mother was born in Ningbo, China”95 and on another occasion, added, “Babbitt’s father was born and grew up in Ningbo”.96 Though his 93

Liang, Shiqiu. “How I Began to Write Literary Reviews”. China Times: World 12 March, 1978. 94 Liang, Shiqiu, “On Irving Babbitt and His Thought” Irving Babbitt as a Master. Ed. Liang Shiqiu et al. Taipei: Julang Publishing House, 1977. 3. 95 Liang, Shiqiu. “Irving Babbitt and His Humanism”. Modern Times 5.6 (1934). Ningbo is the name of a city in Zhejiang Province. 96 Liang, Shiqiu, Liang Shiqiu’s Views on Literature. Taipei: China Times Culture Publishing Co. Ltd., 1978. 5.

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versions differ, his intention to show his intimacy with Babbitt was obvious—he was trying to show he even had good knowledge of Babbitt’s family background. It’s a pity that both versions are hearsay. Babbitt’s mother died when he was still a child and she had nothing to do with China. His father had never been to China, either. Among Babbitt’s family members, the one who did have any relation with China was his wife Dora May Drew. Dora’s father had held a post in Tianjin, China; he got married and settled down in Shanghai. Dora was born in Shanghai and lived there for several years. Perhaps Liang had heard scraps about Babbitt’s relationship with China and, therefore, given far-fetched interpretations of it by saying that Babbitt’s mother was born in China or his father grew up in China. As a matter of fact, it would not take much effort for those with a close association to Babbitt to exemplify Babbitt’s keen interest in China. It was said that Babbitt’s house was decorated with Chinese objects: a Chinese dragon embroidered on the lampshade and Chinese silk accoutrements hanging on the wall.97 It seemed that Liang could only express his “close” relationship with Babbitt through hearsay, a fact that would only serve to show how distant this relationship actually was. Not knowing clearly a foreign professor’s extraction is a matter of little account; not having intimate relations with a professor does not matter much either. But that Liang feigned being his “friend” owing to the professor’s prestige does say something about Liang Shiqiu’s personality. In addition, posing as Babbitt’s disciple and resorting to his ideas, thus implicating the innocent professor in a dispute, could not be said to be justified. It would be beneficial and illuminating to make a comparison between Babbitt and Liang Shiqiu in terms of personality. Babbitt was a loner both in special (at Harvard) and temporal (early 20th-century) terms. He was sticking to his principles and made no concessions to his dissidents. This did not prevent him from keeping his gentlemanly generosity and tolerance. He showed due respect to his rivals in spite of discrepancies in thoughts. Hence, he acquired the title “Saint of New England”. At Harvard, his students were not encouraged to agree with him or oppose others; they were free to be classicists, romanticists, realists, naturalists, or decadents.98 Even his rival Henry Louis Mencken confessed in his Prejudices that 97

Panichas, George A., The Critical Legacy of Irving Babbitt. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1999. 200. 98 Manchester, Frederick, Irving Babbitt, Man and Teacher. New York: Odell Shepard G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1941. 110.

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Babbitt did even “respect his enemy”.99 Whereas Liang Shiqiu, who had also written his Prejudices, apparently disdained to emulate Babbitt. Treating Lu Xun insolently, he wrote insulting articles such as “Lu Xun and Ox”, and when asked by his students of Qingdao University on the dispute between Lu Xun and himself, he “smiled without answer, wrote four Chinese characters ‘Lu Xun and Ox’ on the blackboard”. The students “smiled” while he himself remained “self-possessed”.100 More deplorably, in his debate with Lu Xun, his words were sometimes tinged with such cruelty as to put his opponent to death. It is the disgusting practice of Liang to insinuate that Lu Xun “accepted subsidy of rubles (the currency of Soviet Union) from some party (here he was referring to the Communist Party)”. Lu Xun responded in his biting essay The Capitalists’ Stray Cur that such “criticism” was, in fact, political reporting that such a “profession (of reporting) is more contemptible than that of the executioner”101üthis is by no means a slander. Once, Liang Shiqiu read in the journal Bud (edited by Left-wing writers) an article claiming that Lu Xun “jibed at everything except one ism and one party” and he inquired emphatically, “Could this ism be Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s three Principles of the People (the official ideology of the time)? Could this party be Kuomintang?” 102 In an age when there was a life-and-death hostility between Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Liang was literally pushing his rival to death. It was more than a matter of indecency; Liang was behaving akin to a murderer.103 At the time, Liang was still a young man of 30, so he might not have been sophisticated enough to know too much about the status quo. He might have become so irritated by Lu Xun’s pungency that he lost all common sense, dreaming of putting his rival to death through the hands of the Kuomintang authorities. In a sense, if we were generous enough, he could still be forgiven to a certain extent. However, in his old age, and when Lu Xun had passed away for more than 99

Hoeveler, J. David, The New Humanism—A Critique of Modern America, 1900-1940. The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 1977. 16. 100 Zang, Kejia, “To Mr Liang Shiqiu” An Idling Man in His Private Room. Ed. Liu Yansheng Shanghai: Orient Publishing Center, 1998. 15. 101 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 247. 102 Liang, Shiqiu. “Lu Xun and Ox”. New Crescent Monthly. 2.11 (1929). 103 It is no alarmism. In the early 1930s, the secret agents of Kuomintang Party did plan to assassinate Lu Xun, but the plan was later stopped for certain reasons. See: Zhou Haiying (Lu Xun’s son), Seventy Years Life with Lu Xun. Haikou: Nanhai Publishing House, 2001. 5.

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half a century, instead of repenting his past wrongdoings, Liang was triumphant by raving that, “Lu Xun himself proclaimed there was one ism he did not attack, and when enquired what was this ism, and whether it was Communism, Lu Xun gave no answer”.104 Thus, Liang appeared more offensive than ever. It is Liang Shiqiu, claiming himself as Babbitt’s disciple, who maculated and spoiled the moral image of Babbitt by his contemptible deeds. Undoubtedly, Lu Xun was acrid, especially to Liang Shiqiu and Babbitt. There is a grain of truth in Liang Shiqiu’s statement that Lu Xun was an “‘official of pen knife’ who was skillful at biting writing” with “concise and stinging diction”. 105 Although Lu Xun confessed his poignancy and stated, “I hope I could avoid that poignancy”,106 he never declared himself tolerant and forgiving. On the contrary, Lu Xun claimed that he despised those who assumed themselves tolerant. The last words he left for his wife and son were, “Never stay close to those who claim to be tolerant and against revenge,” as for his enemies, he would “forgive none”.107 Acrid as he was, Lu Xun carried out his principles, which, without a doubt, would not have been comfortable for others. By contrast, Liang Shiqiu regarded himself as a gentleman like Babbitt; he had written articles to call on people to act as gentlemen by “treating enemies as friends”.108 There is no doubt at all that he did run against what he preached. If Babbitt had known what Liang Shiqiu did, he would have been very disappointed, and would have labeled him as he had labeled Schopenhauer ——as “a bigot that could never live up to his own advocacy at all”.109 Babbitt’s Humanism is characterized by its rich spiritual and ideological resources. If properly and rightly introduced into China, it might have positive impacts on the modernization of Chinese culture. Deplorably, owing to the above-mentioned encumbrance and demonization, 104

Liang, Shiqiu, About Lu Xun. Taipei: Taiwan Ai’mei Literary Publishing House, 1970. 4. 105 Liang, Shiqiu, About Lu Xun. Taipei: Taiwan Ai’mei Literary Publishing House, 1970. 3. 106 Lu Xun, The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 185. 107 Lu Xun, “Death” The Complete Works of Lu Xun. Vol. 4. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 1996. 612. 108 Liang, Shiqiu. “Gentleman”. New Crescent Monthly 1.8 (1928). 109 MacCampbell, Donald. “Irving Babbitt”. The Sewannee Review, April (1935).

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Babbitt’s Humanism, as an ideology, did not have a niche in the temple of Chinese culture. It is a shame for Babbitt and his Humanism. It is also a shame for Chinese culture.

IV.2.1. New Humanism and New Confucian Humanism: The Influence and Correspondence of Ideational Rationality In the history of modern Chinese thought, a group of scholars of the Xueheng Society, together with New Confucianists, used to advocate “Humanism”. As suggested by those who intended to confirm their point of view, this school of thought has been called “New Confucian Humanism”. “New Confucian Humanism” is different from traditional Humanism of the Renaissance and is much closer to the New Humanism proposed by Irving Babbitt. New Humanism stresses reason, inner-check, and respects the tradition and classics, all of which agree well with Confucianism. New Confucian Humanism, especially the Four Levels theory proposed by Feng Youlan, which is similar to the Three Levels theory suggested by Babbitt, corresponds well with New Humanism in essence and thought. Irving Babbitt, the first advocate of American New Humanism, had a particular respect for Confucius, making his Humanism very Confucian. Babbitt’s respect for traditional Chinese culture and his emphasis on “inner-check” and “controlling oneself and observing the way” enabled him to get closer to the deepest ideational level of classical Confucianism. At the same time, Neo-Confucianist and Neo-Confucian researchers in the 20th century were very happy to hold the flag of Humanism. They termed their system of thought “Real Humanism”, 110 “Confucianist Humanism”,111and “Neo-Confucianist Humanism”.112 However, denotations of “Neo-Confucianism” have not been agreed upon and some important modern phenomena of Confucianism have been excluded. As a result, using New Confucian Humanism to sum up this trend of thought in China and the world seems to be more inclusive. Although New Humanism has not had a direct influence on New Confucian Humanism, they have many 110

Tang, Junyi, “Humanism in the World and China” Chinese Humanity and Contemporary World. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005. 411. 111 Xu, Fuguan, “The Completion of Humanism” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Vol. 2. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 2002. 174. 112 Tu, Weiming. “The Ecological Transmission of New Confucian Humanism – Enlightenment to China and the World”. History of Chinese Philosophy 1 (2002).

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things in common. So when talking about Humanism in the context of modern China, these two schools can be easily related together. The conceptual basis of academic connections between these schools is the shared characteristics of Humanism, as well as their theoretical grasp of Humanism at the levels of instrument rationality, value rationality, and ideational rationality. Both schools construct their theories on these three rationalities. However, the correspondences between these two schools are mostly reflected in ideational rationality.

Various Traditions of Ideational Rationality and Humanism New Confucian Humanism has double sources of Humanism. One is the inherent Confucian Humanist tradition; the other is the western Humanist tradition, which can boil down to Irving Babbitt’s New Humanism. The absolute influence of Confucian Humanism and the relative reference of western Humanism make obvious the characteristics of ideational rationality of New Confucian Humanism. Inspired by the Frankfurt school’s classification of thoughts into instrument rationality and value rationality from the functional perspective, scholars in the social sciences and humanities seem to acquire encouragement and confidence. In academic arenas like cultural studies and cultural researches, which tend to lean toward the latest theories, Max Weber’s advocation of value rationality and its corresponding expressions have been very popular. It is a shame that when people use value rationality and its corresponding academic expressions, they seem to forget that these propositions were used to dissect social and economic problems. Using them to probe into literary concepts or cultural notions seems to be generalized and simplified. It is known that instrument rationality is founded on the basis of social operations and economical functions, while value rationality is founded on the basis of theoretical buildup. Before value rationality was formed, ideational rationality should have been under accumulation and refinement. Ideational rationality as a former morph of value rationality, having similarities to theoretical propositions in classical philosophy, was, in fact, playing the role of the ideational basis before value rationality was formed as a universal value. Its direct result was presented as a conceptual morph. Max Weber invented value rationality and attached great importance to it. Although he did not propose a theoretical basis of ideational rationality, he did notice it. He introduced the concept of “ideal type” from sociology

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in the sense of value rationality, claiming that “ideal type” was promoted and advocated by value rationality, regardless of the fact it was borrowed from history or sociology. 113 When proposing “ideal type”, he also proposed natural rationality in the relative sense. 114 Although natural rationality is not equal to ideational rationality, it exists as a former morph or basis of value rationality. It is clear that although Weber did not demonstrate the key importance of ideational rationality on his academic elaboration of social economy and history, he would not exclude the possibility of the existence of a former morph or ideational basis, which is “ideal type”. Besides, Weber proposed “faith ethics” in the process of demonstrating value rationality and defined the conceptual premise of value rationality. As a matter of fact, Weber neither had a clear understanding of value morph as ideational rationality nor could he state it fully, because he had a difficult time grasping the essence of an unfamiliar ideational rationality of China’s Confucian traditions. It is like a heathen who knows nothing of God. Weber understood “China’s Humanism” or Confucianism as “ritualism”.115 In a translation released in Taiwan, its Chinese equivalent is the “characteristics” of “the system of etiquette of China’s Humanism”.116 Of course, in China’s traditional ethics of Confucianism, there existed many thoughts and ideas of etiquette. But if we generalize China’s traditional culture as ritualism, it would be obviously too exaggerative. Not to mention that China’s traditional culture had other key concepts of faith, filial duty, and sense of honor. What assigns “etiquette” with significance is ideation and value, rather than “ritualism” in the sense of ceremony. As regards “etiquette” in China’s traditional Humanism, it is often simpler than those of other countries in the East and West. Weber noticed the important status of “etiquette” in Confucianism and explained it simply as “rituals”: “Those who are traditionally educated will participate in classic rituals with proper etiquette”. Actually, he could not name what was included in classic rituals. He was making an exaggerated 113

Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Youth Culture Ltd., 1991. 32. 114 Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1976. 147. 115 Weber, Max, Confucianism and Taoism. Trans. Hong Tianfu. Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Press, 1995. 127. 116 Weber, Max, Chinese Religions: Confucianism and Taoism. Trans. Jian Huimei. Taipei: Yuan-Liu Co. Ltd., 1996. 175.

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imagination of “etiquette” in Chinese traditional culture in a completely careless way. Perhaps he himself was aware that he could not make his theory of ritualism reasonable based on his imaginations. That is why he admitted that even if in the remote era, China’s etiquette put more emphasis on value rationality and even ideational rationality: “In contradiction to passion and flaunt of feudal knights in ancient Islam, what we find in Chinese are self-control, inner-check, and carefulness, especially suppression of passion of any forms (including inner pleasure), as passion will disturb the inner peace and harmony. And the latter is the source of all goodness”.117 It shows that Weber found that etiquette in China’s Confucianism was more primarily and more essentially reflected in value rationality and even ideational rationality, rather than instrument rationality. Even at this point, some Chinese scholars could not attain Weber’s awareness and claimed: “The biggest flaw of Confucianism is lack of instrument rationality”.118 Instrument rationality is the premise of an ideational system applying to social operation. The feasibility and practical value of the ideational system are often realized through this level of rationality. Value rationality is the conceptual premise and theoretical basis of instrument rationality. It is the fundamental value and primary constituent of an ideational system and it reflects value preference, logic direction and even will of thought. However, the ideational premise and basis that determines this preference, direction and will can never be overlooked. That is what we call ideational rationality. Although ideational rationality is always under an unstable and immature condition, it presents one or several kinds of thoughts or attitudes that are full of significances and potentials. These thoughts and attitudes enable it to keep a critical attitude and freedom toward value rationality and instrument rationality. It does not have direct connections with concrete social operations. It is neither socially operational nor can it be used as faith, slogan or proposition. Usually, it remains at the level of thinking and logic, representing a deeper and more reticent ideation. Weber noticed that “cautious self-control, inner-check and carefulness”, as well as “suppression of any kinds of passion (including inner pleasure)” were important elements in China’s Confucianism, showing his grasp of such ideational rationalities as sincerity and peace of mind in traditional 117

Weber, Max, Confucianism and Taoism. Trans. Hong Tianfu. Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Press, 1995. 182. 118 Meng, Peiyuan. “Aims and Instrument – A Theoretical Topic of Confucianism and Modern Civilization”. Beijing Social Sciences 4 (1997).

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Confucianism. But he was not aware that the ideational rationality and value rationality that he discussed are not exactly the same. As a result, he could not possibly notice the correspondence of ideational rationality and New Humanism. The fundamental distinction between Babbitt’s New Humanism and traditional Humanism lies in the fact that, in New Humanism the significance of ideational rationality is greater than the significance of value rationality. Humanism has always shown conceptual characteristics of value rationality. It might use the human-oriented attitude as the value dimension of social operation and cultural construction. Or it might use humanity and individualism as the value dimension of individual rights and dignity. Thus, in the criticism and design of social civilizations, it demonstrated strong propositions and advocacies. It is certain that Babbitt had some propositions and advocacies in his New Humanism. But there was a tendency to fall to the side of criticism, construction and adjustment in terms of ideational rationality. So it is certain that we could not expect such a school of thought to have a real impact on society. Although it was active civilization criticism and social criticism, it restrained its stand on the value and identity of literary criticism. To a large extent, it reflected the characteristics of literary criticism. Literary critics should be very happy coming across philosophers. Philosophers have now walked out of a coldly abstract shadow and become more literary. As a matter of fact, their transformation in becoming more literary has reached a certain level, which is as if literary scholars should praise the great philosophers in reverse, and advocate the pursuit of becoming a good philosopher as the basis of becoming a good literary scholar. Babbitt explained it through the following example: “The man who wishes to be at once modern and civilized will not oppose the Baconian or Rousseauistic one-sidedness, a mere appeal to the past, but a more accurate definition. Aristotle was, according to Bacon, the ‘vile plaything of the words’”.119 What Babbitt wanted to express was that philosophers seemed to have gone beyond value rationality and become engaged in the construction of ideational rationality during literary criticism. When this kind of rationality comes closer to literature, it withdraws further from social practices. Almost all New Humanists, including Babbitt’s Chinese apprentices like those scholars of the Xueheng Society, were unfolding their critical, cultural or social thoughts from the point of view of literature. This demonstrated the 119

Babbitt, Irving, Democracy and Leadership. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1924. 218.

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prevalent literary angle and literary feeling of thinkers from this school. From such an angle and feeling, they were destined to be only good at inspecting the inner universe and constructing ideational rationality, rather than promoting and applying their ideas as a “force of notion”, which is characteristic of value rationality. When Babbitt elaborated on his Humanist thoughts, he emphasized ideational rationality. He believed that “the humanists, as we know his historically, moved between an extreme sympathy and an extreme of discipline and selection, and became humane in proportion as he mediated between these extremes”. Humanists stress the ideational state of humanity, not actual social life. Consequently, the excellence in man, “As Pascal puts it, is his power to harmonize in himself opposite virtues and to occupy all the space between them (tout l’entredeux). By his ability thus to unite in himself opposite qualities man shows his humanity, his superiority of essence over other animals”. Babbitt reiterated it again when he said, “Man is a creature who is foredoomed to one-sidedness, yet who becomes humane only in proportion as he triumphs over this fatality of his nature, only as he arrives at the measure which comes from tempering his virtues, each by its opposite”.120 What kind of attributes should man acquire? Upon this ideational problem, Babbitt’s thoughts coincide with China’s Confucian propositions: “The humanist is equally on his guard against the excess of sympathy and the excess of selection, against the excess of liberty and the excess of restraint; He would have a restrained liberty and a sympathetic selection”.121 Babbitt was unfolding his thoughts on the full basis of ideational rationality and was establishing an inner moral construction. The ideational rationality of a justified mind, sincerity and inner refinement is the rudimental spirit of Confucian culture and New Humanism; the correspondence of Confucius’ theory of self-refinement and Babbitt’s inner-check is, in fact, the most important and most fundamental ideational correspondence. That is where New Humanism and New Confucian Humanism meet. Of course, the connotations of China’s traditional Confucianism are very rich. It covers much more propositions than Babbitt agreed on and advocated from the perspective of ideational rationality of New Humanism. Confucianism includes instrument rationality, value rationality and 120

Babbitt, Irving, Literature and the American College. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908. 22-23. 121 Babbitt, Irving, Literature and the American College. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908. 60.

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ideational rationality, as well as all-around spiritual essence. But New Confucianism as an offshoot of Confucianism does have many correspondences and compatibilities with New Humanism at the level of ideational rationality. On the one hand, ideational rationality is the common ground of New Confucian Humanism and New Humanism. On the other, it is ideational rationality that distinguishes New Humanism from Old Humanism, New Confucianism and traditional Confucianism. Moreover, it helps people to ascertain the inner relationship between Neo-Confucianism and New Humanism, which is of great significance today. The Xueheng Society was the earliest and most enthusiastic introducer and advocate of Babbitt’s Humanism in China. Meanwhile, it had always respected and advocated New Confucian Humanism. The advocacy of Confucianism of the Xueheng Society apparently came from the inherent Confucian sentiment and Confucian interest of this group of literary scholars. There is no denying that Babbitt’s appreciation of Confucianism also played a part in their advocacy. In modern Chinese literary history, the characteristics of Confucianism and New Humanism of the Xueheng Society are very outstanding. The literary propositions and cultural notions of the Xueheng Society, in fact, are a typical combination of Confucianism and New Humanism. To some extent, the Xueheng Society also demonstrated ideational rationality and a conceptual paradigm of New Confucian Humanism. Scholars inside the Xueheng Society, of course, constructed the ideational barrier and spiritual core of New Confucian Humanism. Surrounding it there were also the most persistent, the most sincere and the most outstanding Confucians and Humanists who were open to traditional Confucianism. They may have sincere praise and clear acceptance to show for New Humanism or a natural spiritual consistence and ideational sameness of New Humanism. Though we could not say that such a cultural combination was the extent of the literary group of China’s New Humanism, it did constitute the earliest and most obvious group of people of New Confucian Humanism in Chinese modern history. Actually, judged from the modern definition of “Confucianism” and the basic spiritual direction of New Confucians, people’s concern with Humanism has far exceeded the range of traditional Confucianism even if people like literary scholars from the Xueheng Society did not explicitly accept Babbitt’s New Humanism. These people’s concern with Humanism is more open and modernized. Their Humanism is rather different from the traditional Humanism, which emphasizes humanity’s natural characteristics; instead, it is closer to the New Humanism proposed by

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Babbitt, which advocates modern rational spirit and classic cultural interest. If we regard literary scholars like Wu Mi, Mei Guangdi and Hu Xiansu from the Xueheng Society as the center, the modern corresponding matrix of China’s New Confucian Humanism and New Humanism would be the Xueheng Society. Although this group of literary scholars was not so large, its influence reached a wide range of areas. It was an outstanding group in the 1920s with obvious literary tendencies. There were mainly two kinds of people (or people who possess characteristics of both kinds) in this group. One kind was those who once studied at Harvard University and were influenced by Babbitt’s New Humanism, directly or indirectly, like key literary scholars from the Xueheng Society. Although Chen Yinque and Tang Yongtong were not counted as core scholars of the Xueheng Society, nor were they interested in Xueheng business, they belonged to this kind of literary circle. The other kind contained those who had nothing to do with Harvard University and Babbitt but had experience in old Chinese learning and Confucian teaching. As a group of people out of time, they found a proper platform to express their Humanistic thoughts on Xueheng. It is doubtable that both kinds of people could be called New Humanists. But those who can absorb foreign culture and carry forward Confucian culture, especially those who insist on the core value of Confucian culture in the sense of ideational rationality, (which refers to New Confucian Humanists in the perspective of ideational rationality) would have more points of correspondence with New Humanism objectively. Wu Mi interpreted Babbitt’s Humanism as “Confucian”, showing that his understanding toward New Humanism coincided with his Confucian Humanism. From Wu Mi’s statement, we could see that Babbitt’s New Humanism revealed a kind of uncertainty toward Wu Mi’s theory of purifying the world. The modal verbs used are “may” or “might”; their theoretical value lies neither in actual operation in the sense of instrument rationality, nor in the distinct characteristic of value rationality, nor its great influence, but in a kind of insistence on ideational rationality. In this aspect, Chen Yinque might read Babbitt’s mind, though he never expressed his willingness of accepting Babbitt’s theory. Chen Yinque had been living in the world of ideational rationality all his life. As for instrument rationality and value rationality, which had been applied to real social operations or cultural movements, he showed his worries. This might have something to do with his family history. His grandfather, Chen Baozhen, participated in the Tongguang Reform with

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Guo Songtao and Feng Guifen, which led to a great disaster for his family. Chen Yinque had second thoughts about this reform, but only on the level of ideational rationality. He believed that people such as Chen Baozhen and Guo Songtao “sang highly of western ways”, while Kang Youwei integrated “Jin Wen Gong Yang Zhi Xue” ( Ӻ ᮷ ‫ ޜ‬㖺 ѻ ᆖ ) with “Confucius Reform” to promote reform. The thoughts of these two reforms were, in fact, quite different.122 This influential reform had a great impact on his family. But regarding this reform, what he was concerned with was only the source of the thoughts, showing that he was used to thinking and criticizing any important issues from the perspective of ideational rationality. This way of thinking was far removed from instrument rationality and value rationality, which would later help him to decide that he would make academic study his career and step back to be a refined literary researcher after having been a successful historian. It seemed that literature-orientation has returned to New Humanism. Guarding himself ideationally was not equal to getting far away from reality or escaping into the ivory tower. A biographer described Chen Yinque as follows: “After returning to China, Chen Yinque devoted himself to studies and never got involved in politics; to issues concerning the society and culture, he seldom made comments. But he was not a scholar trapped in the tower of ivory. He had his own principles and stands. He never hid them, and never changed them because of snobbishness”.123 Never getting involved in politics was his avoidance of instrument rationality; just a few comments on social culture in public were his alienation from value rationality. His insistence on his own principle and standpoint was an obvious presentation of ideational rationality. This is an accurate and apposite grasp of Chen Yinque as well as the spirit of New Confucian Humanism, which Chen belonged to. Because of such an exact grasp, the author has the nerve to call Chen Yinque “a well-rounded Confucian” and “a great Humanist”.124 One of the “Harvard Three Giants”, Tang Yongtong was also an 122

Chen, Yinque, “After Reading Biography of Liang Qichao Written by Wu Qichang” Han Liu Tang Ji. Shanghai: Shanghai Classical Publishing House, 1980. 148-149. 123 Wang, Rongzhu, Biography of Historian Chen Yinque. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005. 33. 124 Wang, Rongzhu, “A Speech on Professor Chen Yinque on the Closing Ceremony of the International Academic Conference” Biography of Historian Chen Yinque. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005. 220.

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absolute advocate of ideational rationality. The same as the literary scholars of this school, he embraced Confucian culture as well as Babbitt’s Humanism. Before he went to study in the U.S.A, Wu Mi and he “studied history and literature under the guidance of several famous Confucians in Beijing”. “Only then did he notice Li-Confucianism (⨶ᆖ). When he understood this theory well enough, he criticized a follower of Li-Confucianism. Tang Yongtong wrote a long article titled “On Li-Confucianism.” He claimed Li-Confucianism was the remedy of deficiencies and demerits, regarding it as “the real culture and real spirit of China for four thousand years’”. 125 Traditional Li-Confucianism, of course, is a rather conservative part of Confucian culture. But if we understand Li-Confucianism as ideational rationality in Confucianism teaching, not instrument rationality or value rationality, it will dramatically decrease people’s repugnance and repulsion to Li-Confucianism. Tang Yongtong believed that “it is opposite to the scientific spirit in that it puts a lot of emphases on study of morality and human nature, with little emphasis on the true essence of the nature. And that is what is truly Chinese”.126 That is to say, instrument rationality, which embodies the scientific spirit, did not reflect the characteristics of the essence of China’s traditional culture. What reflected the characteristics of the essence of Chinese culture was “studies that put much emphasis on morality and human nature”; meanwhile, these studies are different from the studies of moral values. What they reflect is ideational rationality, not value rationality. Tang Yongtong promoted rationality and regarded it as the real spirit of China’s traditional culture, demonstrating his value inclination toward ideational rationality at the very beginning. It became the ideational basis for his thought blossom between New Confucian Humanism and New Humanism after he was influenced by Babbitt. People can easily absorb Babbitt’s New Humanism after truly understanding the essence of New Confucian Humanism, which is the characteristic of ideational rationality, as New Humanism and New Confucian Humanism have a lot in common, not only on key propositions of ideation but also on the logic of ideational rationality. This is how Fang Jia described Tang Yongtong. Fang Jia said Tang Yongtong’s theory had a lot in common with Babbitt’s, and was influenced by Babbitt’s: “Before 125

Sun, Shangyang, A Brief Biography of Mr. Tang Yongtong. Chinese Modern Academic Classics.Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1996. 1. 126 Tang, Yongtong, “Evaluations on Recent Cultural Studies” Complete Works of Tang Yongtong. Vol. 5. Shijiazhuang: Hebei People’s Press, 2000. 275.

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their acquaintance, Tang Yongtong had had many ideas similar to those of Babbitt; after their acquaintance, Tang Yongtong’s learning, methodology, field and cultural perspective were directly influenced by Babbitt. In this aspect, he was similar to Mei Guangdi, Wu Mi, and Chen Yinque, etc.”.127 Although Tang Yongtong proposed some kind of value rationality like “Li-Confucianism—China’s rescuer” 128 in his early years in “On Li-Confucianism”, he never discussed the strategies of application. And this eventually remained as ideational morph in his theory. This ideation was presented as a personal value perception, a kind of value rationality that was not going to be applied in social operation or cultural advocacy. As an individual insisting on ideation, he might lag behind the time and his idea might be deemed conservative. But it did no harm when it was presented as a kind of value. When it was not meant to warn the society to call for action; that is to say, when it was not developed and promoted as value rationality, it should not be condemned. The ideational rationality in New Humanism and New Confucian Humanism is exactly such a notion. Although Chen Yinque and Tang Yongtong were literary scholars outside the core circle of the Xueheng Society, they were willing to accept Babbitt’s New Humanism. The basis of accepting Babbitt’s New Humanism was the New Confucian Humanism rationality embedded in their heart. The superposition in ideational rationality constitutes their characteristics.

Different Schools of New Confucian Humanism Apart from inheriting and re-explaining traditional Confucian spirit, the common characteristics of New Confucian Humanism and New Humanism also lie in the grasp and insistence of ideational rationality in Humanism. To various schools of Humanism, modern Chinese society has already assigned them grave color and even a black curse, as they were loaded with historical burden because of the mainstream anti-Confucianism in the New Culture Movement. This burden was hard to get rid of and they had been ignored by Chinese society long ago. The circumstances of the era and the social attitudes enabled various schools of New Confucians and potential New Confucians (primarily literary scholars 127

Sun, Shangyang, A Brief Biography of Mr. Tang Yongtong. Chinese Modern Academic Classics. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1996. 781. 128 Sun, Shangyang, A Brief Biography of Mr. Tang Yongtong. Chinese Modern Academic Classics. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press, 1996. 783-784.

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from the Xueheng Society) to acquire intimacy in a rather “conservative” circle. They were more willing to unite than any other literary groups in the modern area. They assisted and supported each other under a comparatively negative environment. That is why they constituted a prominent Humanist group in modern cultural history. People in this group normally believed the following estimation of how a man of honor behaves: they have different ideas but still get along in harmony. Although they all belonged to the school of New Confucian Humanism, their philosophies have different characteristics. Some people are more passionate at carrying out social reform, driven by instrument rationality; some people are more eager to promote their ethics; some focus more on the in-depth theoretical research. New Confucian Humanism has always included three basic rationalities, which are instrument rationality, value rationality and ideational rationality. However, the shared part with western New Humanism is primarily reflected in the layer of ideational rationality. As a result, New Confucians who are used to constructing their theories at the layer of ideational rationality will have more opportunities for sharing the philosophical characteristics of New Humanism. Among New Confucians in history, Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai were more inclined to instrument rationality. They were more passionate about social issues and practical affairs than other New Confucians. Liang Shuming’s value rationality was expressed as follows: He is a man who has his own idea, and applies it. He is an idealist as well as a society reformer.129

The above description clearly shows that his emphasis is on action, on the operation of social reform, and the application of instrument rationality. As a matter of fact, he did not repel the significance of instrument rationality theoretically. He thought that human instinct was an instrument. This kind of instrument “was an indispensable tool in human’s life”, but “it should be subordinate to rationality and be included in it”.130 Isn’t this a theoretical schema of instrument rationality? A person who makes such an argument of instrument rationality obviously won’t be addicted to abstract philosophy. He had few excellent discussions on ideational 129

Liang, Shuming, “Preface of The Core of Chinese Culture” Collected Works of Liang Shuming. Beijing: Qunyan Publishing House, 1993. 81. 130 Liang, Shuming, “Heart and Life” Collected Works of Liang Shuming. Qunyan Publishing House, 1993. 443.

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rationality but was very bold and unique in the discussion of social operation such as countryside construction. Even though he had a very good grasp of the key propositions of New Confucian Humanism, such as “What makes humans human lies in the heart”,131 “early enlightenment of rationality”, and “morality centre”, etc., he could not reach the ideational rationality of New Humanism, as his passion for instrument rationality would definitely kill the essence of New Humanism. Because of his dependence on instrument rationality and concrete involvement in social issues, he could not escape his tragedy in the 1950s. Zhang Junmai, who advocated “Confucianism orientation”, put emphasis on the righteous meaning of Confucianism and its practical effectiveness. He was a thinker, a philosopher, a Confucian, an educator, as well as a politician. As a politician, he had a great influence over China. He was the first scholar researching on the representative system. Just like other scholars in history, once they acquire the title of a politician, their other titles become mere accessories. Once they become involved in politics, all their previous expertise loses independence. Politics is the most practical social operation. It is impossible for people who are engaged in politics to conduct academic research at the layer of ideational rationality, even if they were profound Confucians. Tang Junyi had a perfect description of Zhang Junmai’s favoring of instrument rationality: “In daily life, he emphasized Confucian performance, while in politics, he aimed at democracy”. 132 His main interest is indeed “Confucian performance”, not “Confucian talk”, nor “Confucian perspective”. His “expectation of democracy” is different from the criticism of democracy of New Humanism. As a thinker with a deep understanding of Confucianism, he believed in the great significance of China’s traditional culture, especially Confucianism, to China’s modernization: “The renaissance of Confucianism is either helpful to China’s modernization or is the frontier of it”; “The process of modernization should start from inner thinking.”133 Confucianism in his ideal of modernization would become a chain in the “process”, and lose its status of ontology. Understanding the significance 131 Liang, Shuming, “Heart and Life” Collected Works of Liang Shuming. Beijing: Qunyan Publishing House, 1993. 403. 132 Huang, Kejian, “Sticking to Confucian Behavior, and Aiming at Democracy – On Zhang Junmai’s Cultural Thoughts” Collected Works of Zhang Junmai. Beijing: Qunyan Publishing House, 1993. 8. 133 Zhang, Junmai, Collected Works of Philosophies in China, the West and India. Taipei: Taiwan Student Book House, 1981. 579, 593.

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of modernized Confucianism in the perspective of “process” is locating Confucianism instrumentally. Due to their emphasis on instrument rationality (putting too much emphasis on social operation and effectiveness), Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai, among other famous Confucian scholars, had the least connection with literature or literary criticism. They had moved far away from literary scholars. Of course, they were also far away from New Humanism and ideational rationality. They both gave credit to human instinct and highly praised Bergson’s thought about life and will, standing on the opposite side of ideational rationality of New Humanism. New Confucianists of the second generation, such as Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan, Xu Fuguan, etc., no longer had the same social condition and cultural environment to carry out social operations under the guidance of Confucian instrument rationality. Their seniors, Confucians such as Xiong Shili, He Lin, and Feng Youlan were silently constructing New Confucian Humanism at the layer of ideational rationality. But they were not satisfied with doing the same thing as their senior Confucians did. They wanted to advocate value rationality of New Confucian Humanism, which they thought was the most traditional, most reliable, most culture-loaded and most energetic under the chaotic social environment. They wanted to advertise such value rationality to the public with a definite cultural stand and attempted to apply it to cultural operations so as to influence the society. A typical sign of such an attempt was a declaration they co-authored with Zhang Junmai who was no longer engaged in concrete political affairs. The declaration was published at the beginning of 1958, entitled “Chinese Culture and the World – Our Shared Knowledge of Chinese Academic Research and Future of Chinese and World Culture” (also entitled “To the World – A Declaration of Chinese Culture”).134 This declaration analyzed three motivations, the approaches and the shortcomings of people who studied Chinese culture from all over the world; it pointed out that the position of Chinese philosophy in Chinese culture was different from that of the western philosophy, and gave credit to ethics and religious spirit in Chinese culture. It also emphasized Inner Nature Studies and its significance in Chinese traditional academic research, regarding Inner Nature Studies as “the most misunderstood and most neglected study by the world researchers”, though it was “the core of 134 This declaration was published in the New Year’s Issue of Democratic Critiques, and Rebirth, 1958. Please refer to: Liu Xuefei, Research on New Confucianism. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2003. 343.

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Chinese academic thoughts” and was “the real rationale of the thought ‘man and heaven in one’ in Chinese philosophy”. This declaration showed that New Confucians of this generation differed from the previous generation, such as Xiong Shili, He Lin and Feng Youlan, whose thoughts were closer to New Humanism. This generation was no longer satisfied with debates or theoretical constructions at the layer of ideational rationality. Unlike Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai, New Confucians of this generation did not have opportunities and conditions to carry out social and political reforms. But they had ambitions and aspirations; they wanted to arouse people’s awareness toward the social trend and political tendency through advocacy of value rationality. Although they could not carry out real practice through instrument rationality like Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai, they tried very hard to warn and wake the world through such discussions of value rationality. In this way, they had pulled a great distance from the New Humanists of the Xueheng Society and Xiong Shili, He Lin and Feng Youlan, who were used to making statements at the layer of ideational rationality. This generation of New Confucians had already shown an interest in New Humanism in the sense of ideational rationality and, in fact, they had had a good knowledge of it. Though Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan were thinkers and philosophers, they had different degrees of interest in literature, literary history, literary criticism and literary appreciation. A literary critic or literary research should possess such quality and corresponding devotion. However, as Confucians, thinkers and philosophers, if they showed too much interest in this field, then they are more or less inclined to ideational rationality. In this way, they would be getting further away from instrument rationality and value rationality. But the truth is that they were not satisfied with simply devoting their life and efforts to ideational rationality and making academic contributions. They wanted to take advantage of Chinese traditional culture, especially New Confucian Humanism, and form a strong conceptual force, which was powerful enough to influence world perceptions and social value perceptions and have the potential to become a dominant value system. This is the value rationality of New Confucian Humanism. Such a system of value rationality was different from the system of instrument rationality, which Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai advocated. From some statements of Tang Junyi, such difference could be clearly observed. If it were instrument rationality, when facing social and cultural problems, practical and experimental methods would be used in order to solve these problems. In terms of value rationality, Tang Yunyi argued, they would

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first discuss the ways and methods of solving problems: “We need to solve modern cultural problems. But does it mean that we have to solve them with pure cultural power and real political and economic power sticking together? I personally think that we should deal with them separately. The cultural arenas should be classified. I don’t think political, economic and social problems should [be] dealt with in connection with academic thoughts, religions, arts, etc…”.135 How to separate and how to solve problems after separating were not the questions they could answer, nor were they the questions they were willing to answer. The questions they proposed have already showed their value inclination. They were not responsible for solving the problems through instrument rationality. The motivation and aim of proposing these questions are the presentation of Humanist thinking at the level of value rationality. Proposing such questions of value rationality was their theoretical starting point as well as their endpoint. Tang Junyi’s definition of the basic spirit of Chinese culture was consistent with Max Weber’s understanding of “Chinese humanism”: Chinese Confucianism is understood as “ritualism”.136They both thought that, “the original spirit of Chinese culture could be summarized by two key terms, which were ‘Li’ (⽬) and ‘Yue’ (Ҁ) of the Zhou Dynasty”.137 That is to say, they held the opinion that “Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ)” embody the basic spirit of Chinese culture. Tang Yunyi further explained that in Li and Yue culture of the Zhou Dynasty, “Li” was tied to culture, religion, morality and politics.138 This point of view is more accurate than the German scholar’s discussion. The ritual of Chinese culture is indeed linked with value concepts and ethics such as personal loyalty and a sense of honor. Therefore, let us ignore the problem as to whether summarizing the Chinese traditional culture as ritualism, or the Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) spirits, fit the actual cultural history or not. At least such an understanding has approached the essence of Chinese culture at the levels of value rationality and instrument rationality, far removed from ideational rationality. No matter Confucianism or Taoism, the grasp of Chinese history and 135

Tang, Junyi, “Cultural Problems in Current World” Chinese Humanities and Contemporary World. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005. 389. 136 Weber, Max, Confucianism and Taoism. Trans. Hong Tianfu. Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Press, 1995. 127. 137 Tang, Junyi, The Original Spirit of Chinese Culture and Its Developments. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005. 604. 138 Ibid. 605.

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everything in nature is all on ideational rationality, and Taoism is a good example. Tang Junyi, as a New Confucian, actually gave up the concept of “Tao”, which Confucians and Taoists held as a concept of cultural ontology, and made Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) stand out as the more significant concepts. As a matter of fact, it is the result of understanding Chinese cultural traditions from value rationality. To a large extent, such a result neglects the fundamental spirit of Chinese culture, which is ideational rationality. His grasp of the original basic spirit of Chinese culture has transcended Weber’s “ritualism” and discussed the Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) spirits with regard to their interrelation with culture, religion and morality. He successfully distanced instrument rationality from his own value rationality and wandered between the spaces of value rationality and instrument rationality. Mou Zongsan, as a New Confucian, was also wandering between the spaces of value rationality and instrument rationality. He was even more serious than Tang Junyi when distinguishing his value rationality from instrument rationality. He realized that man’s “elevation of cultural awareness” was, in fact, “anti-material”; “It is one of the basic spirits of Humanism”. 139 At the same time, he also criticized “popular intellectualism”, which “recognizes ‘experience and fact’ as the only object of knowledge”. Actually, this is a criticism and negation of instrument rationality, which leans toward science. The value system of Humanism he proposed contains the construction of “three sections”: one is “the learning of morality and religion as the core part and its institutionalization”; the second is democratic politics in political life, which must be rooted in real life”; the third is “science representing knowledge”.140 From these discussions, we can see that Mou Zongsan’s understanding of New Confucian Humanism lays more stress on value rationality, especially the advocacy of morality, religion and democratic politics. Meanwhile, Mou Zongsan did not repel science, reflecting his acceptance of value and ideation, which includes some elements of ideational rationality. Sometimes he even used Humanistic concepts of ideational rationality. For instance, he discussed and wrote about concepts of ideational rationality of Humanism such as “morality and ideal”. However, when he began to express his ideas in words, what he emphasized was “moral heart” or “moral feeling”, stating, “the original 139

Mou, Zongsan, “The Basic Spirit of Humanism” Collected Works of Mou Zongsan. Beijing: Qunyan Publishing House, 1993. 161. 140 Ibid. 161-163.

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meaning of ‘ideal’ was rooted in ‘moral heart’…To be simply put, ‘moral heart’ was a kind of moral sense”.141 Thus, the discussion of morality, ideation and connotations of the ideal is replaced by the discussion of moral sense and moral heart. The discussion has reached the realm of value rationality. As a result, although Mou Zongsan was, to some degree, aware of ideational rationality, and repelled instrument rationality with a firm stand, he was, nevertheless, a New Confucian Humanist who was used to the thinking and expression of value rationality. Among New Confucian Humanists who favor value rationality, Xu Fuguan had many value concepts similar to Tang Junyi. Tang Junyi proposed “real Humanism” that was open and could “bring the West and the East closer”.142 Xu Fuguan proposed “transplanting Western culture”: “In order to survive, in order to fulfill the wish of positive development that makes humans human, China should transplant Western culture. It is a natural tendency”.143 He even believed that the Chinese should adore Western religions apart from respecting their culture: “We should respect different great religions and their followers, because we believe all of these can serve as a complementarity to the great moral spirit in Chinese culture so that we can enrich our personalityā . 144 But, from such statements, it is not difficult to discover that, as a New Confucian, his value system was still built on Chinese culture. The relationship between the Western and Eastern culture is self-evident. Meanwhile, he probed into the academic history of Humanistic concepts. In “On the Origin of Humanism”, he reminded people, “For a long time in the west, ‘Humanism’ has been endowed with many meanings. When we translate it, it has many different names in Chinese such as human (‘ren xing’), humane (‘ren dao’), humanity (‘ren wen’), humanistic (‘ren ben’) and humanism (‘ren wen zhu yi’). Among all these words, ‘ren wen zhu yi’ is the most popular one”.145 His grasp of Humanism seems to be accurate. However, he paid more attention to the connotation of human nature in 141

Mou, Zongsan, “Ideal Idealism” Collected Works of Mou Zongsan. Beijing: Qunyan Publishing House, 1993. 151. 142 Tang, Junyi, “Humanism in the World and China” Chinese Humanities and Contemporary World. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005. 411. 143 Xu, Fuguan, “This Is the Symbol of Being a Real Chinese” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan, Taipei: Taiwan Student Book House, 1991. 280. 144 Ibid. 280. 145 Xu, Fuguan, “On the Origin of Humanism” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Vol. 2. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 2002. 92.

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Humanism. He once wrote a book entitled A History of the Theories of Human Nature in China, arguing that, “human nature is not only an important thought, it is also the core of Chinese philosophy in history; besides, it is the motivation and principle of Chinese national spirit”.146 This statement obviously exaggerates the role that “theories of human nature” play in the development of Chinese culture and civilization. In this aspect, he was the same as Tang Junyi, as they both were used to thinking about Humanism from the perspective of value rationality: human nature is the object of value criticism, containing few elements of ideational rationality. That is why it is impossible for it to become an object of investigation of ideational rationality. Xu Fuguan’s thought is consistent with that of Tang Junyi. Both of them defined the original spirit of Chinese culture as Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ), and argued that the significance of Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) is not only reflected in instrument rationality, but more importantly on value rationality, even bordering on “morality rationality” in his mind: The connotations of Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) cover a wide range. Herein, only one of its significances is pointed out: its significance lies in comforting people emotionally in real life, putting emotion and rationality in harmony so as to establish a “balance point” in life, upgrading emotion to rationality, and transforming the original life into a life that contains morality rationality. By living a life of morality and rationality, we undertake the destinies of ourselves, and the whole human beings. This shows that the depth of Chinese Humanism, which has not been attained in the Western Humanism.147

Tang Junyi developed the connotations of culture, politics and morality in the original Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) spirit of Chinese culture, while Xu Fuguan pointed out that Li (⽬) and Yue (Ҁ) was the original life of emotion upgrading to rationality, and it was the reflection of “morality rationality”. To New Confucian Humanism, “morality rationality” is a proposition with much potential. It reflects the similar tendency of moral Humanism of the Xueheng Society and might be closer to New Humanism. Of course, what Xu Fuguan was accustomed to was the Humanistic 146

Xu, Fuguan, “History of Chinese Human Nature Theory” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Vol. 3. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 2002. 2. 147 Xu, Fuguan, “On Li Yue” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Vol. 2. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 2002. 92.

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thinking mode of value rationality. That is why he eventually could not reach the ideational rationality of New Humanism. His perceptions of society and life had basic features of Humanism, including emphasizing the human quality, opposing the spirit of stating something without real evidence of modernism, exaggeratedly saying that there was no boundary between humans and animals, and admitting that all things of value series were related to culture, such as religions, morality and art, etc. All of these were sufficient to “build up the value and dignity of human life as well as coordinate the relationships among people”.148 All of these were the same as the theories of New Humanism. However, there were more modern elements in his thought of value rationality than there were in New Humanism. He championed democracy and science, and appreciated literature and arts, which reflected the democratic and scientific spirit: “We need to carry forward the rationality of democracy and science; we need healthy literature and arts which are intricately interlinked with democracy and science”.149 Among these New Confucians, Xu Fuguan showed the strongest interest in literary and artistic criticism, but his thoughts of literary criticism were quite different from those of New Humanism. On the one hand, New Humanism could be summarized as classicism in literature and art. It appreciates mimesis of literature and art and opposes original creations. On the other hand, Xu Fuguan’s literary views were Romantic: “Every image in a work of art is not imitation, but a creation. The art of great artists always presents something that later followers will adore. Thus, the images created by great artists will be imitated by followers again and again, turning the fresh images to something common and classical, losing the freshness which art is supposed to possess. In the aspect of imitators, it is hard to insert their personal emotions and personalities to the old images. Thus, they lose the capacity for original creation. It is well established that images in the universe are countless, so are the creations of art. It takes new hearts, new feelings to discover new images”.150 Creation, including the creation of art, is the positive content of value rationality; from the perspective of the value rationality of art, it is impossible to appreciate mimesis and neglect creation. 148

Xu, Fuguan, “Cultural Crisis in Nowadays China” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Taipei: Taiwan Student Book House, 1991. 280. 149 Xu, Fuguan, “A Reply to My Student and My Remarks” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Taipei: Taiwan Student Book House, 1991. 230. 150 Xu, Fuguan, “The Returning Trend of Modern Arts” Collected Works of Xu Fuguan, Taipei: Taiwan Student Book House, 1991. 216.

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Tang Junyi’s, Mou Zongsan’s and Xu Fuguan’s explanations and expressions of New Confucian Humanism in the sense of value rationality were obviously different from Humanism at the levels of instrument rationality and ideational rationality. Some researchers have noticed such a difference, but they have failed to make an exact grasp of it. Thus, there appeared serious disorders of cognition and the following judgment was made: “Compared to radical Confucians, Xiong Shili, Mou Zongsan and Tang Junyi could be called ‘transcendental Confucians’ as they grasp things from the aspect of transcendence and apriorism”; “Radical Confucians are mainstream Confucians while transcendental Confucians are the minority”.151 The cognitive disorder here is not chiefly reflected in putting Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan together, or in treating Xu Fuguan and Tang Junyi separately, but in classifying Confucians into “radical” and “transcendental” schools, which lack strict relativity. As a matter of fact, the social, political, and cultural thoughts of New Confucians are all founded on the basis of New Confucian Humanism. The conceptual difference should not be that large: their differences lie in their thinking mode and conceptual forms, and New Confucian Humanism, which emphasizes ideational rationality, is closer to New Humanism.

Ideational Rationality in Confucianism and New Humanism Past researchers have tended to classify successful and influential New Confucians in the last century into three generations. Except for the predecessors of New Confucianism, such as Ouyang Jingwu, the first generation includes Liang Shuming, Zhang Junmai, Xiong Shili, Ma Yifu, He Lin, Feng Youlan, and Fang Dongmei. They were modern philosophers who lived between war and peace and were active on the edge of politics and society. The second generation includes Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan, etc., who were very active in the Taiwan and Hong Kong cultural circles. People such as Tu Weiming, Chung-Ying Cheng (Cheng Zhongying) and Liu Shuxian, living abroad, who are interested in a Confucian renaissance and turning their thoughts into reality, are the third generation. From the value perspective of New Humanism, Liang Shuming, Zhang Junmai, and the third generation of New Confucians pursued instrument rationality in New Confucian Humanism. They acted 151

Chen, Shaoying, “The Start of an Era: Active Confucian Mr. Xu Fuguan” in the appendices of Collected Works of Xu Fuguan. Taipei: Taiwan Student Book House, 1991. 366.

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as they said, and followed their advocacy of cultural perception, social perception and political perception in New Confucian Humanism, thus distancing itself from New Humanism by its social function. As New Confucians of the second generation were living under a special social and cultural environment, New Confucian Humanism attracted enormous public attention. However, due to insufficient political and cultural conditions for actual implementation, these Confucians had to emphasize value rationality. Its objective was still to act on the society. It also had some distance from New Humanism. Except for Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai, etc., who were politically and socially oriented scholars, most New Confucians of the first generation stood against the social tide and opposed New Culture, thus acquiring the credit of criticism. Their criticism and ways of theorizing seemed to be similar to those of Babbitt in the United States. That was why they had many things in common with New Humanists. New Confucian Humanism was clearly divided into two tendencies among the first generation of New Confucians: externalization and internalization. Here, externalization refers to the externalization of Confucian influence and the driving force from the subject, i.e. the reflection of the power of instrument rationality of New Confucian Humanism, which was represented by Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai, etc. The other tendency is internalization; that is to say, strengthening inner refinement so as to reach the righteous and sincere state of Confucianism. Such a state naturally gets very close to the “inner-check” of Babbitt’s New Humanism. Whether they were followers of Babbitt or inheritors of Chinese New Humanism, these Confucians were willing to accept Buddhism. Likewise, from Babbitt to the inheritors of Chinese New Humanism, what they aimed to study was not the system of rites and disciplines of Buddhism, but its teachings of morality and inner human nature. This philosophical proposition, which was close to New Humanism, was called “Inner Studies”. The China College of Inner Studies, led by Ouyang Jingwu, advocated the fusion of Confucianism and Buddhism. A scholar put it in this way: “Inner Studies is studies of internal evidence”.152 Scholars such as Tang Yongtong and Xiong Shili were all Humanists who studied Confucianism as well as Buddhism. As a New Confucian Humanist of externalization, although Liang Shuming had the same belief and went after the same Confucian principle, 152

Xiong, Shili, “Introduction to Epistemology” Complete Works of Xiong Shili. Vol. 1. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2001. 45.

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he did not take Xiong Shili seriously, as Xiong Shili paid more attention to inner studies. In fact, such contempt was the conceptual difference between instrument rationality and ideational rationality. Although they became friends afterward, they still had many arguments. Liang Shuming evaluated Xiong Shili’s academic research as follows: “In Mr. Xiong’s golden years, he wrote many significant works. However, when he got older, he made mistakes from time to time, and despised everything and criticized men of wisdom”.153 Sometimes, they even had non-academic arguments and misunderstandings. According to a record written by a student of Xiong Shili, “My teacher was in Caozhou yesterday. He blamed Mr. Liang Shuming for something and got very angry. Mr. Liang didn’t argue. After a long time, Mr. Xiong found himself wrong and told Tao Kaishi about this”. Mr. Tao said, “Doubt and speak out, understand and correct, that is wisdom”.154 Misunderstandings and arguments like these showed that there were many inharmonious places between these two modern Confucians. As a matter of fact, the differences and arguments between externalized instrument rationality of Humanism and inner ideational rationality of Humanism are shown from academic logic to personality. Liang Shuming made an experiment of the countryside and explored concrete social problems of countryside construction, instead making his own contributions. With such a practical attitude, there was no doubt that he wouldn’t approve of Xiong Shili’s ideational construction of the theory of consciousness-only. Xiong Shili constructed the theory of consciousness-only, aiming to present his social perception and ideational rationality: I participated in the revolution when I was around 16 … When I was around 30, I traveled northwest. Due to power struggle within the National Party, the revolution failed; I climbed up high so as to look afar. Looking into the sky and brimming with tear, I thought that ignorance is the source of disaster; so I started to focus on study so as to lead people to the right way.155

153

Liang, Shuming, “A Memory of Mr. Xiong Shili” Memories of Philosophers. Ed. Dong Juxiang & Dong Xiangwei. Beijing: Chinese Youth Publishing House, 1999. 435. 154 Xiong, Shili, “Zun Wen Lu” Complete Works of Xiong Shili. Vol. 1. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2001. 588. 155 Xiong, Shili, “Preface” Complete Works of Xiong Shili. Vol. 1. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2001. 4.

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The greatest value objective is “leading people to the right way”. That is to say, to make a contribution at the level of ideational rationality. Scholars such as Liang Shuming attempted to use their own knowledge and perception to create a model in social practice. Thus, Xiong Shili’s thought is far away from Liang Shuming’s, and they had different value tendencies, though they both had studied Confucianism and both studied the theory of consciousness-only. Based on the accomplishments of Confucianism and Buddhism, Xiong Shili devoted himself to constructing a metaphysical system of consciousness-only, attempting to form an independent system so as to explain and carry forward New Confucian Humanism. For Liang Shuming, who believed in practical deeds and the motto of “do as you say”, this must have been unbelievable. Liang Shuming’s study on Consciousness-only theory started from the “heart” of New Confucian Humanism. He advocated “heaven and man as one”, as well as “heart and object as one”. But the result of “as one” was to develop self and self-consciousness, leading to voluntarism and intuitionism. Xiong Shili’s Consciousness-only theory exceeded the range of ordinary epistemology and took “heart”, which possessed the characteristic of Confucianism and Wang Yangming philosophy as an ontological proposition, developing systematically a metaphysic of two potential energies named “Xi” (㘅, close) and “Bi” (䗏, open). Comparatively speaking, both of them took being “righteous” in New Confucian Humanism as the basis of philosophy and ethics. Both of them absorbed modern western philosophy and psychology, but they had different developments of Consciousness-only theory in Buddhism. Based on instrument rationality, Liang Shuming emphasized “practical” in combination with discourse and work. Inspired by Consciousness-only theory, he developed his philosophy, which was close to voluntarism and intuitionism. Xiong Shili held his ground on ideational rationality and even refused the development and advocacy of value rationality. From the metaphysical level of taking “heart” as a system, Xiong constructed his own philosophical system using the ideational value morph and established a critical angle, which was consistent with the western New Humanism. This is the difference between the externalization tendency of instrument rationality and the internal evidence tendency of ideational rationality. The part of New Confucian Humanism that tends toward externalizing aims at self-expansion and realizing social value, encouraging free will and intuitive consciousness. This is exactly what internal evidence tendency despises, as the internal evidence of New

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Confucian Humanism aims at righteousness. The importance of being responsible for one’s inner world far exceeds the importance of being responsible for external activity. Free will and intuitive consciousness are very harmful to the construction and cultivation of one’s inner world. Be it New Humanism, traditional Humanism or New Confucian Humanism, as long as it is Humanism, it would not turn down the consideration of realistic factors or criticism of society. However, New Humanism stands for morality construction of the inner world; it stands for self-perfection of the Humanistic inner world and advocates criticism and construction of the society through the positive impact of self-perfection. Thus, it must overcome voluntarism and intuitionism. Apart from criticizing the passion theory of Romanticism, Babbitt’s New Humanism also attacks intuitionism of modern philosophy. As a result, as for the intuitionism advocated by Liang Shuming, the New Confucianist and Humanist He Lin adopted a prudently critical attitude. He Lin went to Harvard later than the literary scholars of the Xueheng Society and had no contact with Professor Babbitt. However, his teacher, Professor Whitehead’s philosophy was quite similar to that of Babbitt. He Lin recalled that, just the same as Babbitt, Whitehead was very dissatisfied with China’s new cultural movement and its all-around anti-tradition attitude: “He was mad at Hu Shi’s attitude of abandoning all Chinese traditional culture. He cared a lot about whether Chinese were now still reading classical works of Confucius or Laozi or not. In his opinion, a culture has continuity. The establishment of a new culture does not mean the abandonment of the tradition”. 156 Whitehead’s cultural attitude activated the possibility for He Lin to get close to New Humanism, even though he was a New Confucian. Naturally, free will theory and intuitionism would not be approved of. He Lin once analyzed Liang Shuming’s intuitionism: Among the eminent philosophers in the past twenty years, Mr. Liang Suming was most enthusiastic in advocating intuitionism. Starting from the cultural studies of the East and the West, Mr. Liang regarded intuition as an attitude of life. Such an attitude was not at all utilitarian—it was not concerned about loss and gain; nor did it probe into what underlay such an attitude. It was resilient, proactive, wholesome, courageous and righteous. Mr. Liang thought that the attitude of life could be equated to Confucius’ s

156

He, Lin, “Whitehead” Selected Works of He Lin. Changchun: Jilin People’s Press, 2005. 290.

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“Ren” (benevolence).157

Such an intuitive theory is closely related to Mencius’ ethics and his theory of character and temperament, but linking it to Confucius’ benevolence theory is very unnatural. In particular, the tradition of “Ke ji fu li wei ren” (‫ݻ‬ᐡ༽⽬ to take control of oneself and regain courtesy is benevolence) of New Confucian Humanism requires the rational adjustment of one’s spiritual world, reasonably arranging one’s inner order and establishing a corresponding moral norm. All of these are in conflict with intuitionism. Although He Lin paid an apprentice’s courtesy to Liang Shuming, he was still alert to the non-Confucianism element in intuitionism. It is obvious that he was closer to Xiong Shili and was more used to contributing his philosophical achievement at the level of ideational rationality. He explained free will, which Liang Shuming appreciated, in terms of morality cultivation, believing that “the basic principle of free will in morality” was “to require for reassurance” and to allocate one’s own will: “one is a knowledge organizer of oneself, one is active for his/her own behavior”. Actually, the philosophy of free will and its corresponding value rationality was ideationally rationalized in the sense of moral Humanism. That is to say, free will was originally philosophical achievement of value rationality in modern philosophy. It was a kind of value rationality, a kind of cultural flag, a kind of academic summon, and a kind of moral brand. In He Lin’s handling, it was converted to a kind of inner moral cultivation that should reach the Humanistic state, a kind of philosophical awareness that is supposed to be free. He also applied this method to intuitionism, claiming that intuition should be able to “cha wei zhi zhu” (ሏᗞ⸕㪇 inspect small things and know big differences) on the basis of the so-called “zhi ji qi shen hu”˄⸕ ᐡަ⾎Ѿ insight—magical) so as to reach the state of “jin xing” (ቭᙗ full development of human nature). The state of “jin xing” is the full development of human nature, and the full development of things, i.e. the so-called “self-realization” nowadays. 158 Intuition was a philosophical state built on a rational basis. It is directly linked with its own inwardness and inspiration, and this kind of inwardness and inspiration is again directly connected with self-cultivation, which includes morality 157

He, Lin, “Thinking Methods of Song Confucians” Collected Papers in Philosophy and Philosophical History. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1990. 175. 158 He, Lin, “On Free Will” Selected Works of He Lin. Changchun: Jilin People’s Press, 2005. 113-115.

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cultivation. As a result, the intuitive problems have been raised to the level of ideational rationality. Among the accomplished Confucians of the 1920s-1930s, He Lin was more eager to communicate with Ouyang Jingwu, Xiong Shili and Ma Yifu. They were all profound Confucians having great contributions to New Confucian Humanism in the ideational rationality. Moreover, their ideational rationality was more similar to New Humanism. Scholars such as Ouyang Jingwu and Ma Yifu, who were famous for their idle discourses, were making great academic efforts in carrying forward Confucianism in the sense of righteousness and sincerity. The result of such effort was neither externalized influence in the aspect of instrument rationality, nor the active and wide promotion of value rationality, but philosophical construction in the aspect of ideational rationality. They explored the truth of Confucianism in idle discourse so as to influence the society. Ouyang De’s cultivation of Inner Studies was very profound, so people such as Liang Qichao were happy to respect him privately as his master. As to Ma Yifu, the Duplex College he ran was similar to Ouyang Jingwu’s China College of Inner Studies, though they had different forms. They both held discussions and forums for the construction and publication of New Confucian Humanism. He Lin admitted that he had “connections of more than once” with “the dean of the Duplex College Ma Yifu and had read his philosophical works”.159 In the disciplines established by Ma Yifu for the Duplex College, there were important contents such as “zhu jing, qiongli, bowen” (ѫᮜˈェ⽬ˈঊ᮷ advocating courtesy, learning truth, reading numerous books). Among these, “advocating courtesy is the core basis of inner cultivation”, which instantly turned this explanation of life from value rationality to ideational rationality: “Book of Filial Piety said: ‘jing qin zhe, wu gan dai man ren (ᮜӢ㘵ˈᰐᮒធҾӪ people who pay due respect to parents will be nice to all).’ That is why the difference between a saint and a crazy man lies in the decision of respect or disrespect made in a moment”. In other sayings, such as “qiong li wei zhi zhi zhi yao zhe” (ェ ⨶Ѫ㠤⸕ѻ㾱㘵 learning truth is the core basis of knowledge), and “bowen wei li shi zhi yao zhe” (ঊ᮷Ѫ・һѻ㾱㘵 reading numerous books is the core basis of worldly achievements), 160 the dominant 159

He, Lin, “Philosophical Thought of Tang Junyi’s Early Years” Collected Papers in Philosophy and Philosophical History. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1990. 175. 160 Ma, Yifu, “Speeches Delivered in Fuxin Institute”. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press, 2005. 8-13.

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tendency is clearly to place more emphasis on internal evidence and less on externalization, more on ideational cultivation and less on social practice, and more on rational logic and less on knowledge. He emphasized inner cultivation, claiming that the aim of learning knowledge was not studying things, nor having practice, nor making creations, but becoming “learned”. This showed the characteristics of the construction of ideational rationality and critical New Confucian Humanism. And the degree of similarity between such characteristics and New Humanism was much higher than with traditional Humanism, including usual New Confucian Humanism. New Humanism attached more importance to ideational rationality, criticizing instrument rationality and distancing itself from value rationality. This was similar to the ideational rationality of New Confucian Humanism. New Confucian Humanism, which insisted on instrument rationality, was set on credit earning and career building by achieving worldly success. This was, of course, consistent with traditional Confucianism, but it was only one aspect among others. The immortal sayings of “li gong, li de, li yan” (achieving worldly success, setting up a moral model, creating classical works) in traditional Confucianism represented the possibility and effective means of arriving at New Confucian Humanism through instrument rationality and ideational rationality, and “li de, li yan” (setting up a moral model, creating classical works) was the representation of the tradition of ideational rationality in New Confucian Humanism. In the modern social context, what ideational rationality repelled was instrument rationality, including epistemology and scientism. This was the main reason why the founder of New Humanism, Babbitt, would point his critical gun at Bacon instead of Rousseau. He Lin admitted that he himself for a long time had been on the side of Humanism, adopting a critical attitude to Bacon’s epistemology and scientism: “We know that Spinoza used to criticize Bacon’s philosophy severely. I was on the side of Spinoza as Spinoza was a rationalist and I used to think that rationalism is a little better than empiricism”.161 This was the conclusion he came to when he conducted his academic self-criticism on the stand of materialism in 1961. The outlook of materialism had naturally conquered New Confucian Humanism, which he used to believe in. It also further removed him from the philosophical world and the values of New Humanism. 161

He, Lin, “Several Questions on Study of Bacon” Collected Papers in Philosophy and Philosophical History. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1990. 562.

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The New Confucian Feng Youlan also studied in the United States. He did not enter Harvard University, so he never had an opportunity to become an apprentice of Babbitt. Although he studied Neo-realism at Columbia University, his thoughts were very close to Babbitt’s New Humanism. Feng Youlan’s thinking logic and pattern tended to be more theoretical, which gave more reason to the idea that his philosophy was similar to Babbitt’s New Humanism. Compared with other New Confucians whose thinking was close to New Humanism, Feng Youlan proposed the “theory of four states” of life, determining his outstanding position in connection to New Humanism. He proposed in his original work, “A New Approach to Human Nature” that, “Seen from the universal perspective, human beings have four states: natural state, utilitarian state, moral state, and heavenly state”.162 This was a value concept proposed from the angle of life philosophy, very similar to the “theory of three states” suggested by Babbitt. Through reading the works written by Babbitt and his student Sherman, scholars from the Xueheng Society summarized the three states of New Humanism, “which were heavenly state, human state, and object state, i.e. the difference among religious belief, Humanistic morality and naturalism”.163 Although this state division was proposed according to the stages of natural and social development, it had similarities with Feng Youlan’s theory of the four states of life philosophy. It was not hard to see that “utilitarian state” and “moral state” corresponded to “Humanistic state” in New Humanism. When Feng Youlan clarified his theory of the four states, the characteristic of “internal evidence” of Humanism became more obvious. He explained, “The feature of natural state is: for people under this state, their behaviors are usually habitually disposed”. 164 Feng Youlan understood the original objective natural state as a subjective and emotional state. This was an obvious reflection of the internal evidence of Humanism. The “feature of moral state” he described as, “for people under this state, their behavior is ‘implementing justice’. Justice is opposite to 162

Feng, Youlan, “A New Approach to Human Nature” Selected Collection of Feng Youlan’s Academic Works. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1992. 224. 163 “Sherman’s Preface to Critiques on Modern Literature”. Trans. Pu Jiangqing. Xueheng 5 (1922). 164 Feng, Youlan, “A New Approach to Human Nature” Selected Collection of Feng Youlan’s Academic Works. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1992. 224.

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and complementary to benefit”. This formed a great psychological gap with the utilitarian state: “in the utilitarian state, people’s behaviors aim at ‘possessing’, while in the moral state, people’s behaviors aim at ‘dedication’”. 165 The transition of such a gap constituted a spiritual experience of Humanistic progress. In Feng Youlan’s mind, “heavenly state” was not simply a theological state or religious state; it was a kind of universe awareness: “people under this state need to understand the entirety of the society, the entirety of the universe. Only when people appreciate the entirety of the universe, can they know that humans should develop themselves as much as possible so as to reach an ultimate development”. In the sense of New Confucian Humanism, he explained the “heavenly state” as a higher state, which was Humanistic moral state or “humane and righteous state”, asserting furthermore that, “the heavenly state should be called moral state”.166 In other words, his theory regards self-perfection as the core value, as the highest philosophical state and life state. The ideas reflected in such an explanation are rather close to the “theory of three states” of New Humanism. A scholar from the Xueheng Society named Liu Daizhi, who was attracted by New Humanism, made a description of the linkage between “state of heaven and earth” and “humane and righteous state”. He presented the ideal of Chinese philosophers as follows˖ There is Yin and Yang in the heaven; there is Softness (Ḅ) and Hardness (ࡊ) on the earth; there is Benevolence (ӱ) and Righteousness (ѹ) in man. With heaven and earth as models, man should be benevolent and righteous; in fact, the way of heaven and earth is the way of man…So honesty is the nature of cosmos, and honesty can help develop the full nature of man; when human nature is fully developed, the nature of objects are fully developed; when the nature of objects is fully developed, the cosmos is fully developed; when the cosmos is fully developed, man and cosmos become one.167

One of the differences between Feng Youlan and the others was that he combined Confucianism with Taoism. He summarized and refined it in the 165

Feng, Youlan, “A New Approach to Human Nature” Selected Collection of Feng Youlan’s Academic Works. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1992. 227. 166 Ibid. 228. 167 Liu, Daizhi, Chinese Cultural History. Taipei: Taiwan Cheng Chung Book House, 1979. 2.

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sense of the ideational rationality of Humanism, which enabled him to express his philosophy from a stance that was closer to New Humanism than New Confucian Humanism. As far as “the state of heaven and earth”, i.e. “the humane and righteous state” was concerned, he linked it with the Taoists’ basic perception of humaneness and righteousness, and found that “Taoists had a contempt for humaneness and righteousness, and they claimed that when Tao is lost, people gain morality; when morality is lost, people gain humaneness; when humaneness is lost, people gain righteousness”.168 Although such an understanding threw doubt on the key proposition of “humaneness and righteousness” of Confucianism, it did not erase the philosophical emphasis on Humanism, which was moral insistence. In Feng Youlan’s elaboration of “the theory of four states”, he often referred to Taoist classics to supplement and correct the one-sidedness and oversight of Confucianism. He sensed such a theoretical reality: “From Confucians’ view, the difference of the moral state and the state of heaven and earth is not that clear. So Confucians have often been criticized by Taoists and the criticism is justified. But Taoists thought that Confucian discourse is only restricted to humaneness and righteousness; the highest state is only the moral state. This assumption is wrong”.169 He defended Confucianism and pointed out the “humaneness and righteousness” that Confucians referred to were not only restricted to their superficial meanings: “The highest state Confucians put forward was not just the moral state”, it included the spiritual advocacy of “cultivating my temperament of righteousness”. 170 However, he still believed that counting on the philosophical explanation of Confucians could not fully reflect the spirit of Humanism. For example, to grasp the universe, especially to grasp the immensity and spaciousness of the universe, one must resort to Taoism: Summa universe, truth and the world of truth, and Tao are all concepts of Taoism. Once people understand all of these notions, they know what the heaven is. After knowing the heaven, they are able to get along with the heaven, and to be happy with it, and finally go hand in hand with it. Thus,

168

Feng, Youlan, “A New Approach to Human Nature” Selected Collection of Feng Youlan’s Academic Works. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1992. 228. 169 Ibid. 285. 170 Ibid. 286.

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the heaven is the universe or summa.171

What is expressed here is mainly Taoists’ view of the universe. But it still emphasizes man’s inner world and the universe, the correspondence and interaction between an individual and the big world. What it discusses is actually philosophical awareness of the inner world in the sense of ontology. Seen from the perspective of the internal evidence, it is an ideational rationality of Humanism. Some researchers have noticed that Feng Youlan’s theory of “state of heaven and earth” possesses the feature of Humanism, representing the significance and construction of value rationality.172 They even think that Feng Youlan’s value rationality is multidimensional and is constructed through an integrated heavenly and humanely thinking logic, as well as philosophical rationality. Such a discussion obviously understands instrument rationality and value rationality flatly, neglecting the fact that apart from two kinds of rationalities, there is ideational rationality, which is deeper and more profound. Feng Youlan, as a Humanist, preferred ideational rationality. His famous works, such as A New Confucianism (1937), A New Approach to Human Nature (1942), and A New Approach to Tao (1945), like Xiong Shili’s epistemology, mainly discuss and explore basic Humanistic concepts. They are typical works of ideational rationality, which enabled him to get rather close to New Humanism, as the latter dwelled on ideational rationality rather than value rationality or instrument rationality. Feng Youlan was very alert to the possible philosophical interference from instrument rationality. He pointed out that, “philosophy cares about genuineness, not reality. Genuineness and reality are different in that ‘genuineness’ is anything that might exist. You can call it ‘originality’. ‘Reality’ is an actual fact. You can call it ‘naturalness’. ‘Genuineness’ means what is said is not false, while ‘reality’ means what is said is existential”. As a result, he insisted that, “philosophy can do without reality, without facts”.173 He seriously declared that philosophy, at least his philosophy, had a great difference with instrument rationality. If instrument rationality is suitable for concluding the great worldly contribution of New Confucian Humanism, value rationality is suitable for 171

Ibid. 288. Wang, Zhongjiang. “Feng Youlan’s Value Rationality and Its Construction Method”. Zhongzhou Journal 6 (2004). 173 Feng, Youlan, “Foreword to New Confucianism” Selected Collection of Feng Youlan’s Academic Works. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1992. 20-21. 172

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summarizing the admonishing significance of New Confucian Humanism, and ideational rationality is suitable for revealing the enlightening theory of New Confucian Humanism. According to Feng Youlan’s theory of the four states and the above works, he neither made great contributions in the aspect of instrument rationality, nor displayed admonishing sayings in the aspect of value rationality, but he instituted a philosophical framework of New Confucianism deeply and systematically. He employed unique Humanistic concepts to criticize the reality and enlighten the public, showing theoretical features of ideational rationality, which is similar to New Humanism. Of course, there are some other works written by Feng Youlan, such as New Discourse (1946), New Lessons of Life (1940) and New Things (1940), etc. Although they belong to his philosophical series of New Confucianism, the feature of ideational rationality is not obvious. In reverse, the hue of value rationality is rather prominent. Anyway, the basic feature of Feng Youlan’s Humanistic philosophy and thinking logic is ideational rationality, not value rationality. This is the main reason why he was rather close to New Humanism. Feng Youlan definitely thought that New Confucianism, which reflected ideational rationality, was his philosophy. The reasons are simple: “the study of rationality is the study of truth”, “if the study of rationality is the study of truth as we mentioned, the study of rationality would be the most philosophical philosophy”. The purpose of the study of rationality and philosophy is neither the implementation of concrete instrument rationality, nor a declaration of some kind of value rationality. It was a demonstration and explanation of a kind of thought.174 New Confucians, such as Xiong Shili, He Lin and Feng Youlan, were passionate about constructing systems of philosophy. Their only wish was that their cultural perceptions and outlooks on life could be turned into philosophical notions. They seldom devoted themselves to the implementation of instrument rationality in the real world and rarely declared their notions as representing a cultural trend, theoretical proposition and call for action. They were more devoted to mental analysis and ideational exploration before value rationality was formed. As a result, ideational rationality was presented to the cultural circle and philosophical circle as a kind of concept, a kind of attitude, and a kind of value system that could be discussed and referred to. Modern society must pay much 174

Feng, Youlan, “Foreword to New Confucianism” Selected Collection of Feng Youlan’s Academic Works. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 1992. 13.

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attention to social operations in terms of instrument rationality because such operations can impact on the whole of society and people’s lives. Meanwhile, modern society should also be very alert to cultural operations in terms of value rationality because such operations can become a force or element that either supports or interferes with the social ideologies. However, modern society should be tolerant and appreciative of the ideational rationality that is deeply embedded in people’s minds, because different value concepts or Humanistic notions are beneficial to the multidimensional construction of philosophy and culture before they appeal to the public or are applied to reality. To ideational rationality, modern society should be highly alert to three extreme attitudes. One is prohibiting the rational expression of different ideas under theoretical dictatorship, forcing a unification of ideas and suppressing ideas that run counter to the dominant ideology. This is the result of treating ideational rationality as value rationality or even instrument rationality. The result is usually grave and tragic. The second is rashly elevating ideational rationality to become value rationality or even instrument rationality; besides giving tolerance and appreciation, people advocated and even implemented ideational rationality. This is the result of mistaking ideational rationality for value rationality and instrument rationality. And the final consequence would be a disorder of the social value system. As a matter of fact, some ideational rationality may turn into value rationality to be advocated and promoted after it has been constantly improved and modified. However, there are many ideational rationalities that can only exist in a philosophical state. It cannot become a value objective, nor can it be put into implementation. The primary propositions of New Humanism, especially the parts that are similar to New Confucian Humanism, reflect exactly such features. The moral Humanism put forward by scholars from the Xueheng Society, and ideational rationalities discussed by New Confucians, possess such features. The identification of such features leads to a basic recognition of modern Chinese New Humanism at large. In other words, if we could not say that believers of New Confucian Humanism agree fully with Babbitt’s New Humanism, it is no harm to say that their school of thought and New Humanism are filled with the possibility of consensus. The propositions of righteousness and sincerity of New Confucian Humanism innately correspond to New Humanism, while the thinking logic of New Confucians, which tends to be more ideationally rational, is rather close to that of New Humanism. Some New Confucians are more eager to inherit instrument rationality of Confucianism, which includes making worldly contributions, building a career, and managing a

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country. Some others are more used to value rationality, which includes expressing beliefs and giving warnings to the public. Eventually, they will come across New Humanism from different angles or at different theoretical levels. An influential New Confucian of the new generation named Tu Weiming, once traveled to Singapore and made his beliefs known. He made himself the advocator of the tradition of instrument rationality of New Confucian Humanism. He was the main drafter of “Declaration of Year Jia Shen” (2004) and helped to publish it.175 It was the sequel to a declaration published by New Confucianists in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 1958, showing the power and stamina of New Confucian Humanism. Tu Weiming categorized Humanistic thoughts of Confucianism into four aspects: “self, society, nature, and heaven”.176 It was similar to Feng Youlan’s theory of the four states and Babbitt’s theory of the three states, all showing the strong philosophical flavor and conceptual frame of New Humanism. As a matter of fact, New Confucianism is, to some extent, New Humanism in Chinese cultural circles—a New Humanism that is obviously more open and more modern than traditional Confucian Humanism. However, the influence of such Humanism is very limited in China but is very great in the cultural world of the Chinese language. Though Confucianism has been questioned and criticized over the past one hundred years, Confucianism has become a pillar in sinology. Confucianism as a mainstream school of thought is being respected and given prominence. Confucianism in modern times, which could be called New Confucianism in a more blurred and more familiar way, has opened its doors of thought, removed the barriers of culture, and found the path of language. Confucianism has absorbed and digested various spiritual elements and value resources of modern systems of thought. Thus, it is certain that Confucianism would come across and interact spiritually with Irving Babbitt’s New Humanism.

175

This declaration emphasized worldwide cultural dialogues and the ending of civil conflicts, which is consistent with Weiming Tu’s advocacy. This declaration was signed by around 70 celebrities in Beijing Cultural Summit held in September, 2004. 176 Tu, Weiming, “The Core Value of Confucian Humanism Spirit” Confucianism and Contemporary Civilization–Papers of the International Conference Commemorating Confucius’ 2555 Birthday. Beijing: Jiuzhou Publisher, 2005.

APPENDIX: ON THE STATUS QUO OF THE ACADEMIC NORMS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND THE HUMANITIES IN CHINA

Throughout the past decades, the social sciences and humanities have been gaining an increasingly social and governmental concern and support. More and more funds are being put into studies in these fields and prizes of different sorts are cropping up. Scholars in these fields are enjoying high prestige and social status. In spite of prosperity, there is no denying that in-depth and insightful studies are still lacking; many studies in these fields are still marked by mediocrity. This is termed “academic foams” in China. But what leads to this phenomenon and what is the way out? I would like to present my viewpoint on the above problems. In my understanding, the academic norms of social sciences and the humanities are yet to be perfected and there are two major factors related to it, namely, the malfunctioning of the academic system in social science and the humanities, and the defects of the academic evaluation mechanism. I will deal with these three points in detail to shed light on the status quo of the academic norms in the field.

Academic Research: New Literature in Chinese The first is related to the malfunctioning of the academic system in these fields. The development of natural sciences over the past 500 years or more has led to a sophisticated system of academic study. The scientific attitude and scientific spirit have been imposed on those involved in it, whether they like it or not. Academic norms in natural sciences have been well set up. Deplorably, the academic system in social sciences and the humanities has not been working effectively in China, and the norms in the field are yet to be perfected. On one hand, in the studies of the field, especially in the studies of literature of which I am very familiar, more emphasis has been attached to the format: organizing, structuring, and wording. Many books and papers are standard only in terms of their

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format. However, they are still far from satisfactory when evaluated in terms of an academic norm in a strict sense. This is particularly true in the study of Chinese literature—some scholars who have never received professional training in the field are producing books and papers. Paradoxically, they are well received! They have become experts, even masters in the field! What underlies the fact is, I think, that not enough attention has been paid to the perfection of academic norms in social sciences and the humanities. As a result, some people are not well equipped, are even “blind”, in making a distinction between good papers and bad papers, high-quality academic fruits and those of low quality. In spite of the differences between social sciences and natural sciences, I believe we could learn well from the norms of natural sciences and adapt them to meet our needs. There are two aspects that are crucial to this. The first is the systematization of social studies involved. It involves, at least, the following items: the studies should present to readers a systematized and comprehensive knowledge of the topic, its basis, its latest development, as well as detailed data concerned. Besides this, what underlies the studies, such as the methods used and the specific purposes, should also be made clear. As far as I know, Chinese scholars are not doing a good job in this aspect. They are not paying enough attention to what has been done in the field, and the data collected tends to be insufficient. As a result, they may well repeat what has already been done without being conscious of it. If we could learn from academic norms abroad, especially norms of sinology, and establish our norms, things might improve. The second is related to professionalism. By professionalism, I mean those who become involved in, or plan to get involved in, a particular field should, first of all, undergo a systematized process of training and coaching. It should last at least a number of years during which they should be solely and fully devoted to it. Secondly, they should pay due respect to their field; they should be very careful and prudent in presenting ideas and writing papers, let alone books. Paradoxically, some so-called scholars are so bold that they could step into a field, to which they are not related at all, and pretend to be an expert! The lack of both due coaching and due respect has led to the production of so many papers and books, which are just a waste of time and paper. Once proper norms are established, we can make a fair judgment of the academic studies in these fields. Norm-oriented research will be encouraged and those who flout the norms will be rejected. As time passes by, scholars will be norm-conscious and prosperity in a true sense in these fields can be anticipated in the not too distant future.

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Academic norms today tend to include such factors as abstracts, keywords and notes. They are only secondary. We should not continue to turn a blind eye to the above two aspects, which are more fundamental.

Academic Evaluation and Literary Research The second reason lies in the fact that academic evaluation mechanism in the social sciences and the humanities is yet to be perfected. The evaluation mechanism is also critical to the development of academic study. Without a disinterested mechanism, people will be at a loss as to how to make judgments. In China today, more emphasis is being attached to the quantity rather than quality of papers and books. The quantity-oriented mechanism will bring about many negative side effects—the emergence of the so-called “academic foams” is an eye-catching phenomenon. Some people do not hesitate to produce a large number of papers of a low quality. Aware of the effects, the authorities are doing what they can by taking a number of measures. One of the measures is to list so-called journals as core journals—those who are good enough to appear in these journals will be appreciated. Papers that appear in other journals will be considered not up to standard. The second measure the authorities resort to is setting up a citation index to determine the influence of a particular paper. The computer system is now sophisticated enough to do the job. This method does work, but only marginally. Some people take advantage of the system by producing favorable comments on their own work themselves or inviting their graduate students to do so. The root of this problem lies in the fact that the evaluation mechanism works only externally rather than internally. Scholars in the field tend to be lacking in academic awareness and confidence—this is unprecedented. As a result, scholars in the field, even the most confident ones, would have second thoughts on where to publish their papers and books, preferring, above all, the so-called core journals and publishing houses. Let me dwell on this issue by citing an example from my field of literary studies. Due to the present evaluation mechanism, there is no distinction between academic papers and critical papers. By the former, I mean papers that are academically and universally significant. They present and solve academic problems, the writing of which presupposes years, even decades, of coaching and researching. The latter is only critical, putting forward the author’s own ideas on a topic, which are usually personal and biased. It might even be finished overnight on inspiration or whim.

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The malfunctioning of the academic system and the defects of the evaluation mechanism lead to “academic foam” in social sciences and the humanities in China today. Only when the academic norms of the social sciences and humanities are improved and perfected in China can we expect fruitful results and true prosperity in the field in the future.

Facing the World: Cultural Emotion and Academic Research The third is about the cultural emotion of nationalism in contemporary China. Nationalism should not be the object of criticism or praise. When one country or nation is under invasion or military menace, the nationalism there must be welcome and become natural and valuable, but it is absolutely irrational when the nation is in a period of safety (certainly, the passionate nationalists always say there was some potential menace before the came along) and even of strength. No nationalism comes about when the nation is safe and secure. Yet, there are still nationalisms alive. I prefer to call them the “cultural emotion of nationalism”. From the 1990s on, such a cultural emotion of nationalism often emerged in China. The contemporary cultural emotion of nationalism in China comes from (I say, is reactionary to) the trend of national self-pondering in the 1980s. During that trend, people thought of national shortcomings thoroughly. Even in fashion and cultural life, the old methods faced great challenges. The leaders even called for the people to dance in the western way. After a whole conference of the Central Committee, all the highest leaders of the Communist Party appeared on the TV, in their western dress, to all the people in China. They were in a good manner. In literary and artistic fields, the typical text of this period is “River Mourning” (He Shang), which is a documentary TV program mainly written by Su Xiaokang, who became an exile in the United States after some time. In this text, they compare Chinese civilization to the Yellow River, naming it Yellow Civilization and Yellow Land Civilization, relative to the Western Ocean Civilization and Green Civilization. They then said the Yellow Civilization made the countries closed, poor and self-righteous, but the Green Civilization made countries open, rich and distinctive. In the 1980s, the Chinese were aroused and developed a high interest in the “reformation” and “opening” of the country, calling the nation sick and even welcoming discussions on the shortcomings of their own civilization.

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The Chinese are never usually so fervent or as self-conscious as this. In the Chinese folk calendar, 1988 was the “Dragon Year” and the “tuton” of the great dragon appeared everywhere, such as on streets, advertisements, and TV screens, etc. But the people later criticized such a sight and asked, why did we enjoy such an awful and ominous animal image? Perhaps the thoughts above are not completely correct, but this mode of self-criticism can encourage the nation to become open, rational and hopeful. It is seldom that nationalism can be supported under those circumstances. But the circumstances have changed greatly since the end of the 1980s. With the policy of reformation and the opening up of the nation, the trends for self-criticism and self-reflection were soon replaced by the cultural emotion of nationalism. In actual fact, many more incidents took place in the world such as the Bay War and the economical punishment of China, etc. The Chinese people then accumulated a somber feeling about everything, but they could not dismiss their government, so they preferred to express these emotions in international societies, especially American. Then the non-rational and unhealthy emotion of nationalism became ingrained in their cultural psychology. In the beginning, the cultural emotion of nationalism was advocated by the government and the main consciousness, because it was exactly reactionary to the mode of national self-reflection and national inner-check, which embodied and spread throughout the 1980s. The typical texture book of the age, “Chinese Ought to Say No” (Zhongguo Ren Keyi Shuo “Bu”) was evidently supported by the authorities in its publication and sale. As is customary, a book due about international affairs in China is not acceptable in an ordinary publishing house. This book analyzed international affairs relative to China and then expressed that China may say “No” to the foreigners. In international affairs, it is certainly not strange that a country should say “No” to others. But the authors stressed “No” to everything and anywhere. Such thinking showed a kind of cultural emotion in nationalism. Such a book, full of the cultural emotion of nationalism, quickly became a hot title and made an immense impact on China. However, that is not to say that the book was always warmly received. Those who were involved in deeper thinking had many questions of the book: Why must the Chinese say “No”? What can make the Chinese say “No”? What should the Chinese say “No” to? How do the Chinese say “No”?, etc.So many questions aroused by the book caused great uncertainty about the cultural emotion of nationalism. At almost the same time, a book named “Watching China with the third

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Eye” (Disan Zhi Yanjing Kan Zhongguo) was published. It showed that some of the Chinese were self-reflecting on and criticizing the Chinese nation and themselves. In such circumstances of cultural emotion of nationalism, such a book was both highly dangerous and sensitive. In the beginning, the author Wang Shan hid his name, declaring that he was not the “writer” but only an editor and translator of the book, and he gave a false German name as the author famous scholar in China-researching. This book was well-received by readers, which subsequently meant that Wang Shan couldn't help but want to tell readers he was the real writer of this book. How did he tell the truth? He asked for his father’s help. His father, Wang Meng is one of the most famous writers in contemporary China. Wang Meng wrote an essay for his son. In this essay, he neither told the truth about the author of the book, nor said that Wang Shan was his son. Instead, he made himself a researcher of the book, asking of the “editor and translator” Mr. Wang Shan: “Many friends of mine in Germany knew no one like this ‘famous scholar’, and he showed knowing China so better, who is he?” In doing so, he hinted that the true writer was Wang Shan, the “editor and translator” himself. It is not great for this father and son duo to have fooled readers like this. But it is not bad that they continued the trend of national self-reflection in the 1980s. Such a sign of this trend backed the cultural emotion of nationalism heavily at the beginning of the 1990s, especially in the spring of 1992 when Mr. Deng Xiaoping reaffirmed the policy of “reformation” and “opening”. No special cultural emotion of nationalism came from the people, even when Hong Kong and Macau returned to the homeland. People are working hard for economic benefits. But sometimes, especially with youths and university students, nationalism may arise as a cultural emotion. When the September 11th attacks happened, it was not rare for many of them to advocate them over the internet. Why did they react in this way? Some of them might say that the United States have had a strong influence on the world for a long time and must pay for it. More than half of respondents will tell you: the United States acts so proud over us, giving us fewer Visas, that they ought to be bitten like this. It is certainly very selfish thinking, but it does not exactly mean it is nationalism. We can’t look at such a non-rational emotional reaction as young Chinese nationalism. After all, there is no national stand at all. Analyzing the above, we can see that, in China, the cultural emotion of nationalism was lower when the country sought reformation and an opening up, and the cultural emotion of nationalism was higher when the

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country faced international pressures. If we want to prevent and be against nationalism, we must strongly support the forces of reformation and opening up within a country, and then relieve or even remove international pressures on that country and nation. Generally speaking, nationalism is the result of international pressure. If we think nationalism is not good at an international level, less pressure than civilization dialogue is needed. On the other hand, invasion and menace, and other possible pressures, used to be a kind of justification of nationalism. When the country or nation is facing any international pressure, the nationalism from it and for it may become the rational emotion. We can do everything but that which makes nationalism rational.



INDEX

Periods and Eras 1920s viii, 2, 22, 23, 116, 121, 136, 152, 160, 163, 170, 190, 192, 208, 209, 219, 222, 223, 235, 254 1930s 2, 3, 4, 22, 23, 34, 78, 110, 116, 150, 152, 170, 181, 192, 195, 208, 214, 219, 221, 222, 223, 226, 254 1940s 23, 34, 150, 152, 169, 170 1950s viii, 3, 4, 23, 25, 49, 66, 195, 240 1960s 3, 4, 153 1970s 3 1980s 17, 195, 266, 267, 268 1990s 25, 56, 210, 266, 268, 20th Century 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 25, 38, 39,

40, 69, 76, 77, 79, 80, 83, 87, 139, 150, 151, 181, 187, 188, 189, 191, 196, 197, 202, 203, 206, 207, 208, 209, 228 Anti-Japan War 34, 40 May 4th vi, ix, xi, 2, 15, 16, 18, 22, 25, 32, 34, 35, 39, 49, 51, 52, 54, 66, 74, 76, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 97, 100, 102, 103, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 115, 116, 119, 121, 123, 128, 129, 131, 172, 179, 200 New Century 203

Literatures and Concepts Confucian Humanism vii, 228, 229, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244, 246, 248, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262 Confucianism vii, 51, 85, 86, 87, 228, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 237, 238, 240, 241, 243, 248, 249, 251, 253, 254, 255, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262 Contemporary Chinese Literature viii, ix, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 31, 46, 60, 71 Ideal Type vi, 117 Linguistic Community 15 Left-wing Literature 34



Marxist 74, 223 Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature viii, ix, 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17 Modern Chinese Literature v, viii, ix, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 48, 54, 58, 59, 60, 71, 104, 117, 118, 119, 188 Mr. De (Democracy) 39, 115, 116, 118, 121, 125, 268 Mr. Sci (Science) 39, 90, 115, 116, 118, 119, 121, 122, 124, 125, 130, 135, 136 New humanism vii, xii, 116, 219, 226, 228, 229, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236,

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237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 246, 247, 248, 249, 251, 252, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262 New literature 2, 3, 6, 12, 19, 33, 35, 39, 43, 45, 47, 51, 53, 57, 74, 80, 81, 84, 87, 97, 116, 117, 119, 120, 131, 133, 137, 151, 155, 156, 158, 215 New Literature in Chinese iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39,

41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 82, 85, 88, 90, 103, 108, 115, 116, 117, 118, 132, 136, 137, 173, 191, 202, 208, 263, 265, 267, 269 Old literature ix, xi, 2, 8, 19, 21, 82, 84, 86, 88, 116, 118, 119, 134, 156, 192 political community ix, 9 speech community ix, 9, 10

Countries, Regions and Languages American 5, 11, 27, 28, 30, 48, 57, 67, 68, 117, 137, 140, 203, 208, 213, 217, 218, 219, 228, 233, 267 Australian 27 Beijing 1, 3, 8, 12, 14, 17, 20, 26, 28, 30, 34, 35, 52, 53, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 77, 78, 96, 97, 98, 100, 109, 113, 119, 123, 129, 132, 135, 139, 143, 153, 155, 156, 157, 159, 161, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 185, 187, 191, 193, 194, 195, 204, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 212, 221, 222, 226, 227, 231, 236, 237, 239, 240, 241, 244, 245, 250, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 262 British iv, 5, 27, 28, 30, 60, 93, 100 Canadian x, 27 Danish 189, 190, 191, 192, 196, 200, 204, 207, 208 English ix, xii, 4, 5, 17, 27, 28, 160, 185, 195, 199, 200, 202, 203, 212, 224 French ix, 27, 28, 30, 65, 100, 135, 140, 195, 198, 199, 200, 205, 211, 217 Fukuoka 108, 113, 114



German ix, 27, 28, 30, 65, 71, 122, 185, 192, 193, 194, 195, 199, 200, 203, 204, 205, 243, 268 Greek 91, 106, 175, 198, 200, 201 Guangzhou 8, 35, 53 Harvard 5, 14, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 216, 220, 224, 225, 235, 236, 252, 256 Hong Kong ix, x, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 24, 25, 34, 44, 47, 48, 58, 59, 171, 185, 230, 248, 262, 268 Japanese 4, 10, 27, 34, 108, 113, 114, 136, 179, 188, 189, 190, 192, 194, 203, 204, 206, 221 Korean viii, 27, 31, 108 Macao ix, x, xii, 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 24, 25, 34, 47, 48, 58, 59, 71 Mongolia viii, 36 Northeast China 34 Russian ix, 27, 28, 130, 191, 203 Sanskrit 28, 211, 212 Shanghai 2, 4, 5, 19, 20, 28, 34, 35, 52, 53, 68, 80, 90, 91, 93, 94, 96, 99, 101, 106, 119, 125, 127, 128, 130, 133, 134, 135, 136, 151, 152, 160, 161, 164, 167, 168, 169, 170, 180, 181, 182, 195, 221, 225, 226, 236

Index Sichuan 34, 35, 104, 110, 112 Singapore 72, 262 South China 34, 164 Soviet Union 36, 226 Swedish 200, 206 Switzerland 59, 205 Taiwan ix, x, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 24, 25, 26, 31, 34, 44, 47, 48, 49, 51,

272 52, 53, 58, 59, 66, 72, 185, 227, 230, 240, 245, 247, 248, 257, 262 United States 36, 48, 49, 99, 249, 256, 266, 268 Xiamen 14, 26, 53 Zhejiang 34, 97, 104, 224 Zhuhai 58

Writers and Persons A Ying 152, 168, 169, 171 Ai Qing 41, 152 Archer , William 160 Arnold, Matthew 189, 218 Aristotle 62, 218, 223, 232 Ba Jin 35, 41, 93, 132, 151 Babbitt, Irving vii, xii, 116, 117, 208, 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 227, 228, 229, 262 Bao Tianxiao 151, 179 Baudelaire 147, 164, 200 Beckett, Samuel 11, 166, 202 Bell, Daniel 57 Bennett, Benjamin 165 Bian Zhilin 152 Bliss, Perry 213 Bloom, Harold 11 Bloomfield , Leonard 9 Bo Yang 44 Brandes, Georg vii, xii, 187, 196, 208 Byron 195, 200 Cai Yuanpei 19, 99, 100, 118, 119, 120, 121, 133 Cao Yu xii, 41, 150, 152, 153, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171 Cervantes 11 Chen Baichen 164, 171 Chen Duxiu ix, 20, 21, 39, 52, 55, 77, 78, 85, 90, 93, 99, 101, 106, 115, 116, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 125, 126, 128, 133, 136, 151, 155, 172,



179, 192 Chen Fei 7 Chen Tianhua 77 Chen Xiying 221 Chen Yinque 87, 210, 212, 235, 236, 238 Cheng Qianfan 26 Cheng Zhangcan 26 Confucian vii, 16, 51, 85, 86, 87, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262 Dai Wangshu 41, 152 Dante 11, 99, 107, 189, 198 Derrida, Jacques 14, 43, 44, 166 Dewey 222 Dickens, Charles 91, 106 Dirik, Arif 61, 62 Dostoyevsky 200 Du Fu 107, 198 Durisin, Dionyz 14 Esslin, Martin 149, 156 Fei Ming 146 Feng Youlan 228, 241, 242, 248, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 262 Feng Zhi 152 Frye, Northrop 14 Fu Tianhong 58, 59 Gary, Charles Mills 28 Goethe 14, 193, 199

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Gogol, Nikolai 143, 200 Gong Zizhen 76 Gorky 222 Guan Hanqing 107, 176 Guo Moruo vi, xii, 41, 81, 91, 92, 98, 103, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 127, 152, 153, 158, 163, 168, 170, 193, 223 Han Shiheng 195 He Lin 241, 242, 248, 252, 253, 254, 255, 260 Homer 11, 198 Hu Shi viii, 2, 3, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 33, 41, 42, 49, 52, 55, 66, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 91, 93, 101, 106, 121, 122, 124, 125, 134, 139, 153, 158, 192, 206, 214, 215, 221, 222, 252 Hu Xiansu 214, 215, 235 Hualing Nieh Engle 26, 59, 66 Huang Kan 21 Huang Ren 27 Huang Xiuji 3, 58 Huang Zunxian 76, 121, 129, 215 Hugo, Victor 189, 200 Humboldt 30, 62 Ibsen 95, 101, 102, 152, 155, 158, 193, 195, 204, 206, 207 Jameson, Fredric 11 Jia Pingwa xii Jiang Qing 179 Jin Kemu 28 Jin Yong xii Joyce, James 11, 202 Kafka, Franz 11, 203 Kang Baiqing 92 Kubin, Wolfgang 71 Lao She 41, 151, 152, 171 Li Ao 44 Li Bai 107, 198 Li Dingyi 40 Li Jianwu 42, 152, 168, 169, 172 Li Jieren 34, 35, 152



Li Jinfa 17 Liang Qichao 76, 91, 99, 100, 121, 125, 236, 254 Liang Shiqiu vii, 152, 194, 208, 209, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227 Liang Shuming 239, 240, 241, 242, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253 Liang Xihua 59 Lin Chuanjia 27 Lin Shu 21, 84, 91, 93, 106 Lin Yutang 41, 68, 152, 195, 213 Liu Bannong 78, 128, 179 Liu Shipei 21 Liu Xinwu 141 Liu Yazi 40, 79 Lu Ling 41 Lu Xun viii, xii, 2, 26, 40, 41, 42, 43, 53, 54, 55, 77, 78, 80, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 102, 104, 105, 120, 123, 127, 130, 131, 135, 137, 141, 143, 147, 148, 151, 152, 159, 161, 187, 188, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208, 209, 212, 214, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 226, 227 Lu Yin 96, 102 Luo Fu x, 59, 69 Ma Yifu 248, 254 Macy, Albert 28, 30 Mao Dun(Shen Yanbing) viii, 7, 41, 93, 94, 132, 133, 135, 136, 151, 153, 168, 190, 191 Mao Zedong 40 Mei Guangdi 21, 209, 210, 212, 214, 215, 235, 238 Mo Yan xii, 73 Moore, Paul Elmer 60, 211 Mou Zongsan 241, 242, 244, 245, 248 Mu Dan xii, 41, 152 Mu Mutian 81 Nietzsche 173, 188, 193, 206

Index O’ Henry 140 ˈ141ˈ147ˈ192 ˈ193 O’ Neill 152ˈ169 Ouyang Yuqian 151, 158, 159, 162, 163, 164, 166 Pai , Keneth xii, 59 Proust, Marcel 11, 203 Plekhanov 130 Qian Jibo 3, 6 Qian Xuantong 78, 99, 134, 153, 179 Qian Zhongshu 129, 152 Qiu Jin 77 Qu Yuan 92, 107, 168, 170, 182, 198 Ren Shuyong 22 Rousseau 117, 198, 199, 205, 217, 221, 223, 232, 255 Sapir 30 Shakespeare , William 11 Shen Congwen 146, 151, 221 Shen Zemin 191, 192, 193 Stael, Mme. de 200 Sun Lianggong 96, 102, 195 Song Chunfang 159, 160 Song Zhidi 171 Sun Yat-sen 26, 77, 99, 106, 226 Tagore 111, 222 Tang Junyi 65, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 248, 254 Tang Tao 17 Tang Xianzu 176, 177 Tang Yongtong 212, 235, 236, 237, 238, 249 Tao Li 59 Tian Han 41, 152, 153, 163, 164, 166, 170, 193, 223 Tie Ning 147 Turgenev 200 Voltaire 198, 205, 217 Wang Duqing 81 Wang Guowei 173, 174 Wang Meng xii, 268 Wang Shifu 176 Wang Zengqi 146 Weber , Max121, 229, 243



274 Welleck, Rene 13 Wen Yiduo 81, 89, 91, 92, 98, 103, 158, 159, 160, 168 Whitman, Walt 92, 105 Wilde, Oscar 136, 152, 169, 200, 224 Wu Mi 92, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 217, 222, 235, 237, 238 Wu Mingshi 92 Wu Zuguang 152 Xia Yan 152, 169, 170 Xiong Shili 241, 242, 248, 249, 250, 251, 253, 254, 259, 260 Xu Dishan 92 Xu Fuguan 228, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248 Xu Maoyong 194 Xu Shixu 31 Xu Zhimo xii, 22, 41, 81, 152, 162, 221, 222 Yan Jiayan 69 Yang Yi 6 Yang Zhensheng 4 Yeh, William 59 Yu Dafu 40, 41, 92, 93, 102, 152, 193, 194 Yu Hua 145 Yu, Kwang-chung xii, 36, 69, 209, 213, 216 Yu Ling 152, 170 Yu Shangyuan 160, 161, 162 Yuan Kejia 42 Yue Daiyun 212 Zhang Binglin (Zhang Taiyan) 77 Zhang Junmai 125, 127, 129, 132, 160, 239, 240, 241, 242, 248, 249 Zhang Shizhao 21, 22, 79 Zhang Wentian 195 Zhang Ziping 92, 102 Zhao Mei 147 Zhao Shuli 104 Zhao Shuxia 59 Zhao Taimou 160, 161 Zheng Zhenduo viii, 180, 189, 190,

275

New Literature in Chinese: China and the World

193, 194, 207 Zhou Zuoren viii, 2, 12, 41, 85, 93, 94, 95, 128, 134, 135, 152, 180, 192 Zhu Guangqian 42 Zhu Jingnong 22 Zhu Shoutong iii, iv, xii, 58, 118

Zhu Zhixin 77 Zhu Ziqing 2, 41, 92, 134, 152 Zola 135, 136, 157, 160, 200 Zong Fuxian 141 Zou Rong 77, 78

Societies, Periodicals and Works A Brief History of Chinese Fiction 42 A Story of the World Literature 28, 30 Anthologies of Chinese New Literature 2, 19, 90, 91, 93, 94, 97, 99, 101, 106, 118, 128, 133, 135, 161, 162, 180, 181, 207 Call to Arms 41, 78 Chinese Literary History in the 20th Century 69 Creation Quarterly 153, 193 Creation Society 193 Creation Weekly 89, 103 Death of a Famous Actor 152, 163, 164, 170 Faust 107 Fiction Monthly 51, 94, 134, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 207 Fleur Du Mal 164 Goddess 41, 89, 91, 98, 103, 105, 107, 109, 110, 111, 113, 131 History of Vernacular Literature 20 Jiayin 21 La Jeunesse 19, 20, 39, 41, 43, 51, 77, 101, 118, 122, 123, 125, 126, 135, 151, 153, 162, 180, 214 Literary History of the Chinese Language of the Chengs 26 Literary Research Association 92 Main Currents in the Nineteenth Century Literature 191, 192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 Morning Supplement 51



New Crescent 161, 164, 194, 220, 221, 226, 227 Outline of Literature in the Han Dynasty 42 Pan Jinlian 163 Renaissance 14, 43, 51,92,106, 118, 120, 121, 217, 228 River Mourning 266 South China 34, 164 Sunrise 109, 167, 168, 169, 170 Teahouse 171, 182 The Dead Souls 143, 200 The Dream of Red Mansions 99 The Great Event in Life 80,158,162 The Emigrant Literature vii, 196, 197, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208 The Seashore Friends 96 The True Story of Ah Q 94 Thunderstorm vi, 150, 152, 153, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 182 Under the Roof in Shanghai 152, 169, 170 West Chamber 178 Wilderness 169 Xueheng vii, 21, 22, 208, 209, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222, 228, 232, 234, 235, 238, 239, 242, 246, 252, 256, 257, 261 Yusi 43