Rethinking the Relationship Between China and the West Through a Focus on Literature and Aesthetics [1 ed.] 9781527517868

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Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West through a Focus on Literature and Aesthetics

Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West through a Focus on Literature and Aesthetics By

Qingben Li

Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West through a Focus on Literature and Aesthetics By Qingben Li This book first published 2018 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 © 2018 by Qingben Li 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): 1-5275-1572-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1572-7

Research for this book was funded by the Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Science Research program, the Ministry of Education P.R. China (13JZD032).

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sum up the Law and Prophets. (Matthew 7:12, Holy Bible, Hong Kong: Chinese Bible International Limited, 1996: 12) Tsze-kung asked, saying “Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” The Master said, “Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” (Confucian Analects 15: 24, in James Legge (Trans.), The Chinese Classics, Volume I, Shanghai: East China Normal University press, 2010: 301)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Author ......................................................................................... x Acknowledgements .................................................................................... xi Introduction .............................................................................................. xiii Part I: The Spatial Dimension of Cross-Cultural Research Chapter One ................................................................................................. 2 Globalization and China’s Cultural Identity 1. The Effects of Globalization on Literary Research 2. Cultural identity in the context of globalization 3. How Should China Face Globalization Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 14 Cross-Cultural Literary Research between China and the West 1. Exploring Chinese Traditional Literary Theory 2. Dealing with Modern Chinese Literary Theory 3. Breaking the Myth of Western Centrism 4. Principles and Methods of Cross-Cultural Literary Studies Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 27 A Circle Model of Cross-Cultural Research focusing on Literary Adaptations 1. The Cross-Cultural Round Journey of the Orphan of Zhao 2. The Eastward Travel of Schopenhauer’s Tragedy Theory 3. Changing the World Outlook on Literature Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 43 Integrating Chinese Literature into World Literature 1. Translation and the Reconstruction of World Literature 2. Cross-Cultural Interpretation and Chinese Literature 3. Cross-cultural Interpretation under the Context of US-American Sinology

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Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 68 Appreciating Chinese Poetry from the Cross-Cultural Perspectives 1. Zen Buddhism and Its Impact in China 2. “Dwelling in Mountain and Autumn Twilight” and Its Translation 3. A Comparative Perspective between Zen Buddhism and Somaesthetics Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 82 Artistic, Environmental and Ecological Models of Nature Appreciation 1. Artistic Model of Nature Appreciation 2. Environmental Model of Nature Appreciation 3. Ecological Model of Nature Appreciation Part II: Temporal Dimension of Cross-Cultural Research Chapter One ............................................................................................... 96 Understanding the Book of Changes from the Perspective of Modern Aesthetics 1. The Relationship between the Book of Changes and Aesthetics 2. Limitations of Understanding the Book of Changes from the Perspectives of Literary Aesthetics 3. Ways of Understanding the Book of Changes from the Perspective of Eco-Aesthetics Chapter Two ............................................................................................ 111 Original Confucianism, Literary Theory and Aesthetics 1. Confucius’ Benevolence and Literary Theory and Aesthetics 2. Mencius’ Theory of Good Human Nature and Aesthetics 3. Xunzi’s Theory of the Evil Human Nature and Aesthetics Chapter Three .......................................................................................... 125 Han Dynasty’s Confucianism, Literary Theory and Aesthetics 1. The New Text School of Dong Zhongshu and Aesthetics 2. The Old Text School of Yang Xiong and Literary Theory Chapter Four ............................................................................................ 141 New-Confucianism, Literary Theory and Aesthetics 1. The Connotations of Neo-Confucianism in the Song-Ming Dynasty 2. Differences between Cheng Zhu School and Lu Wang School 3. The Influences of Neo-Confucianism on Literature and Art

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Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 155 Marginocentric Beijing: Multicultural Cartography and Alternative Modernity 1. Beijing’s Multicultural Space and Urban cartography 2. The Alternative Modernity of Beijing and Cross-Cultural Writing 3. Good Performances of Beijing’s Cultural and Creative Industries Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 174 China’s Micro Film and Socialist Cultural Production 1. Three Types of Chinese Micro Film 2. The China Model of Socialist Cultural Production 3. Cultural Industries along “One Belt and One Road” Bibliography ............................................................................................ 194

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Qingben Li is a distinguished Professor of literary theory and aesthetics at Hangzhou Normal University, China. He was born in Laizhou city, Shandong Province, in eastern China in October 1965, graduated from the Chinese Department of Shandong University, and earned his Doctorate of Arts with a concentration in Literary Theory and Aesthetics in 1993. He was conferred with the title of professor in 1999 and in 2003 became a tutor of Ph.D. candidates. Prof. Li was the head of HSK (advanced) Research Office of National HSK Center (1993–2001), the head program officer of the China Culture Center in Malta (2004–2006), the senior research scholar of Harvard University in the Department of Comparative Literature (2010–2011), and the academic leader of Comparative Literature and World Literature of Beijing Language and Culture University. Prof. Li mainly works in the fields of Literary Theory and Aesthetics, and Cross-Cultural Studies of Comparative Literature. He has hosted and participated in a number of national and provincial important research projects in China, and published more than 100 academic papers. His major books include: Romantic Aesthetics of China in the 20th Century (1999), Studies and Researches of Wang Guowei (1999), Crosscultural Perspectives: A Critique of Culture and Aesthetics at the Transitional Period (2003), Post-modern Sculpture Classics in the Western Countries (2005), The Uses of Cultural Studies (translation, 2007), A Report Book on Cultural Industries and Cultural Policies in the EU Countries (2008), Comparison of Chinese and Western Literature (2008), Ecological Aesthetics Abroad: A Reader (chief editor, 2009), Cross-Cultural Aesthetics: Beyond the Model of Sino-Western Dualism (2011), Cultural and Creative Industries (2015).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book, based on my cross-cultural researches on literary theory and aesthetics in recent decades, and supported by the Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Science Research from Ministry of Education of P. R. China (13JZD032), could not have been completed without the help of many people. First of all, I express my profound gratitude to Prof. Asun Lopez-Varela for her careful correction and valuable advice for this book. We have collaborated in several research projects and publications on the crosscultural dialogue between Asia and Europe in recent years. I should also thank Prof. David Damrosch, my host and supervisor when I visited the Department of Comparative Literature of Harvard University as an advanced research scholar in 2010. In addition, I am very grateful to my teachers and classmates when I was studying in Shandong University from 1983 to 1993, such as Prof. Zhou Laixiang, Zen Fanren, Ling Nanshen, Kong Zhiguang, Ma Longqian, Yao Wenfang, Chen Yan, Tan Haozhe, Zou Hua, Du Wei, Zhang Zhengwen, Wang Jiyan, Wang Jianqi, Fu Jin, Wang Jie, Peng Xiuying, Xu Hongli, Du Daoming, Yuan Dingsheng, Niu Hongbao, Wang Wencheng, Wang Zuzhe et al., whose guide and help enabled me to maintain an interest in literary theory and aesthetics. I also thank Prof. Wang Ning, my co-operator in the comparative literature and world literature program in Beijing Language and Culture University. Special thanks must also be given to my students, Guo Jinghua, Zhu Ruida, Li Xueping, Zhang Feilong, Ou Liping, Yu Peiwen, Marco Jacobs, Hua Yuanyuan, Liu Guangyu, Wei Wei, Zang Xiaowen, Zou Shan, Shi Shan, Song Xiangbo, Chen Xiaolong, Zhang Xin, Wu Jiao, Li Jing, Liu Xin, Sun Yapeng, Li Tongwei, who helped me translate many of the materials in this book from Chinese into English. Many of my new ideas in this book were also generated from discussions with my students. Some of the contents herein have previously been published. When I collected them, I made some revisions so as to be consistent with the subject of this book. I should like to thank all those journal editors who

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originally published my articles and allowed me to collect these pieces together here. “Cross-Cultural Literary Research between China and the West”, first appeared in the International Journal of Humanities: Annual Review, Vol.11, 2014: 113–122, as “Cross-Cultural Studies and Aesthetics Discursive Transformation in China”. “A Circle Model of Cross-Cultural Research focusing on Literary Adaptions”, first appeared in Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, 9(2)/2015:45-60, as “Rethinking the Relation between China and West: a multi-dimensional model of cross-cultural research focusing on literary adaption”. “Integrating Chinese Literature into World Literature”, first appeared in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 15(6)/2013, as “Translation, Cross-Cultural Interpretation and World Literature”. “China’s Micro Film: Socialist Cultural Production in the Micro Era”, first appeared in Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, 13(2)/2016:67–75. “Marginocentric Beijing: Multicultural Cartography and Alternative Modernity” first appeared in Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, 14(1)/2017:19–28. Finally, I dedicate this little book to my wife Ting Li and my daughter Shuangyi Li.

INTRODUCTION

The multi-dimensional model of cross-cultural research was put forward as an alternative to the model of Sino-Western Dualism. In this dualistic model, China and the West are seen as two entirely different entities. This model correspondingly produced a dualistic model of “tradition and modernity”. In this dualistic model, China and the West (or Middle and West) originally referred to a spatial orientation, but obtain a temporal meaning when they are connected with the temporal model of “tradition and modernity”, that is, “China” equals tradition, and “the West” equals modernity. A spatial dimension and temporal dimension are therefore superimposed on the same plane. Activists will take China (tradition) as bad or inferior and the West (modernity) as good or superior, while conservatives have the opposite view. Whether “Chinese culture as basis, Western culture for use” (ѝփ㾯⭘) or “Western culture as basis, Chinese culture for use” (㾯փѝ⭘), whether “complete westernization” (‫ⴈޘ‬㾯 ॆ) or “returning to tradition” (എᖂՐ㔏), whether “clashes of Chinese and Western culture” (ѝ㾯ߢケ) or “integration of China and the West” (ѝ㾯㶽ਸ), whether “introducing Western culture into China” (㾯ᆖь⑀) or “introducing Chinese culture to the Western world” (ѝᆖ㾯⑀), all these debates have already lasted for over a hundred years. Although the viewpoints are controversial, both of them undoubtedly come from the same dualistic model. In order to break with this dualistic model, we first should separate the spatial dimension from the temporal dimension, and let the words China and the West recover their original meaning of spatial dimensions, rethinking the equal relationship between China and the West, and seeking the possibilities and pathways of cross-cultural understanding and dialog in a global context. This book is composed of two parts: spatial dimension of cross-cultural research and temporal dimension of cross-cultural research. In Part One, the author will discuss the following issues concerning the spatial dimension of China and the West: “globalization and China’s cultural identity”, “cross-cultural literary research between China and the West”, “a circular model of cross-cultural research focusing on literary adaptations”, “integrating Chinese literature into world literature”, “appreciating Chinese

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poetry from a cross-cultural perspective”, and “the three models of nature appreciation: artistic, environmental and ecological”. In Part Two, the author will discuss the following issues from the temporal dimension of tradition and modernity: “understanding the Book of Changes (ઘ᱃) from the perspective of modern aesthetics”, “original Confucianism, literary theory and aesthetics”, “the Han dynasty’s Confucianism, literary theory and aesthetics”, “New-Confucianism, literary theory and aesthetics”, “marginocentric Beijing: multicultural cartography and alternative modernity”, and “China’s micro film and socialistic cultural productions”. The first chapter of Part One, “globalization and China’s cultural identity”, will focus on the impacts of globalization on literature and culture, and proposes that in the age of globalization cultural identity unavoidably becomes a very intriguing question and is hotly debated within academic circles. Double layers of meanings, cultural identity and cultural construction are all involved in cultural identity. It not only means the recognition of a core value of traditional culture but also the constructing of a premise of this core value of traditional culture. In the context of globalization, it will be of great practical significance to think how to recognize and how to construct a nation’s cultural identity. Economic development and the process of globalization do not necessarily have to lead to the loss of national cultural characteristics—they may even provide the external conditions needed by the established cultural identity. Cultural identity provides a global significance of local knowledge and the sense of identity, community and nation. Two kinds of cultural tendencies should be avoided: one is Western centralism, which thinks that Western values are the only reasonable universal values; the other is cultural conservatism, which insists that China’s modernization process is a process of completely losing Chinese ethnic identity, and that, therefore, Western discourse should be rejected, and an absolutely unchangeable Chinese cultural identity should be pursued. The second chapter of Part One, “cross-cultural literary research between China and the West”, discusses the theoretical system of Chinese literary research. Within “cultural conservatism” in academic circles, some scholars believe that the contemporary radical and unconventional attitudes of Chinese culture are so radically different from traditional Chinese culture that there is a cultural fracture within Chinese culture. They claim that cultural models were introduced by foreign cultures, and inevitably influenced events and cultural catastrophes such as the Cultural

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Revolution, linked to the radical cultural tendency which evolved from the May Fourth Movement in 1919. These tenets fuel the argumentation of other scholars who maintain that Chinese aesthetics should be based on their own cultural tradition without copying the Western discursive system. This chapter argues for a comparative research method as an intercultural tool. This argument is built on explanations of the differences between core layers and superficial layers of culture, and on the importance of value judgments within the poetic aesthetic systems of both the East and the West. Such an argument enables and supports the crosscultural dialogical perspectives between the East and the West. The third chapter of Part One, “a circle model of cross-cultural research focusing on literary adaptations”, attempts to re-examine the relationship between Chinese and Western literature; treats “Western learning introduced into China” and “exporting Chinese culture to the world”, which was separated in previous studies, as an overall process; and studies a circle road map of the journey of literary texts or theories from ancient Chinese culture to Western culture, and then back to modern Chinese culture. All these aim to explain that China has its unique vision in accepting Western theories. Those Western theories which have close ties to Chinese culture are always more likely to be accepted than more alien theories, and therefore their channels into the modern Chinese culture and thinking are more open. In the circular journey, the occurrence of misappropriation, transplantation, transfer and transformation in every aspect are normal phenomena. In an effort to situate China in the global panorama, the circle model of cross-cultural research puts forward and reexamines the relationships between Chinese and Western cultures. This chapter offers a case study with the example of The Orphan of Zhao by Ji Junxiang (㓚ੋ⾕). The journey of this drama, from its original sources to its Western and Eastern (mis)adaptations and critical interpretations, shows the complexity of cross-cultural exchanges which are never merely one-directional and which include temporal mappings, in this case, for instance, from ancient Chinese culture to Western culture, and then back to modern Chinese culture. The fourth chapter of Part One, “integrating Chinese literature into world literature”, focuses on the issue of how to make what is national become international, as well as the related issue of how to make Chinese literature become world literature. World literature is national literature that can be read and understood by the readers of other cultures because it has features

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that transcend the specificity of a given nation. There are at least two ways in which national literature can become international: translation and cross-cultural interpretation. Translation is not only the conversion of language, but also involves selection and cultural variations. Therefore, translation is a special form of cross-cultural interpretation. In the context of modern Chinese, cross-cultural interpretation often takes the form “Western theories used to explain Chinese texts” in order to facilitate their understanding by Western audiences and support the internationalization of Chinese literature. It is important to point out that cross-cultural variations are not just unidirectional but multidirectional, that is, cultural intersections take place across space and time. The study of these variations will enlighten our search for a common framework of World literature. This chapter also takes the study of Chinese literature by Stephen Owen as a case, to show that cross-cultural interpretation will help Chinese literature to integrate into world literature. I will propose that Owen’s Chinese literary research doesn’t apply “Close Reading” of “New Criticism”, but instead applies the cross-cultural interpretation mode. Instead of applying a particular Western theory and method, this interpretation conducts deep and detailed explanations of Chinese literature on the basis of its own cultural perspective and thinking habits. It’s a mode of focusing both on life experience and rational thinking. This mode can not only enrich more sensitive and specific contents on rational analysis but also obtains a fully developed space for sensitive understanding. The cross-cultural interpretation mode adopted by Owen is consistent with the new tendency in American Sinology development. It will make Chinese literature create a universal value of surpassing the boundaries of nations and countries, and can be easily and widely accepted and comprehended by a greater audience of Western readers. Obviously, this pattern will be beneficial to the spread of Chinese literature. The fifth chapter of Part One, “appreciating Chinese poetry from crosscultural perspectives”, focusing on one of the most well-known Chinese poems, “Dwelling in Mountain and Autumn Twilight” (ኡት⿻᳍), by Wang Wei, sets up a cross-cultural passage between Zen, traditional Chinese thoughts and aesthetics, using the new Western Aesthetics theory put forward by Shusterman through stressing their common point of nonduality, in order to show the possibility of cross-cultural understanding and interpretation between China and the West, and between ancient and modern times. In this chapter, non-duality refers not only to the transcendence between silence and noise, stillness and movement, outside

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and inside, subject and object, body and mind, human being and nature being, as illuminated in Wang Wei’s poem, but also to transcendence between different cultures. Translation is a good way to communicate between different cultures. However, if a meaning lies beyond the language of text, lies beyond what a translation can express, further full explanations will be needed. The issue of appreciation of poems can be associated with the appreciation of nature. Chapter Six of Part One discusses three models of appreciation of nature: the artistic model, the environmental model and the ecological model. Canadian Environmental Aesthetician Allen Carlson puts forward the Artistic Model and the Environmental Model of nature appreciation. The Ecological Model is the latest one brought forth on the basis of these two models. The features of this model are that its world point of view is ecological humanism, but not anthropocentricism; humans and nature are active participants in an experiential mode of dialogue, but not the passive established mode of feeling nature; and the object of the perception is not only changeless, but also a natural and rheological process. The Ecological Model is a transcendence of the Artistic and Environmental models. The Ecological Model is also the model of the Chinese appreciation of nature, just as what is put forward in the case study of Wang Wei’s poem. Part Two discusses the relationship between tradition and modernity in China. In the dualistic model of literary research, tradition is taken as Chinese, and modernity as Western, so the flow of Chinese literature and culture is considered a discontinuous one, which is caused by the influence of Western culture. In contrast to this view, the temporal dimension of cross-cultural researches focuses on the continuity of the development of Chinese literature and culture from ancient to modern times, trying to build a bridge between tradition and modernity. The first chapter of Part Two, “Understanding the Book of Changes (ઘ᱃, Zhouyi) from the perspective of modern aesthetics”, focuses on the Book of Changes, one of the most important classics in ancient China, to show the possibility of interpreting Chinese classics from the perspective of modern literary theory and aesthetics. All of the hexagrams in the Book of Changes are composed of Yin and Yang, where the natural phenomena are taken as correspondence with human society. This holistic ancient Chinese thought is different from Western thought regarding the separation of human beings from nature. The Book of Changes can be interpreted from

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three perspectives of modern aesthetics, that is, of literary aesthetics, of life aesthetics and of ecological aesthetics. The interpretation of the Book of Changes from the perspective of ecological aesthetics is closest to the spirit and nature of the Book of Changes, while the interpreting from the point of view of life aesthetics as well as literary aesthetics can be covered by that of eco-aesthetics. The second chapter of Part Two, “original Confucianism, literary theory and aesthetics”, discusses the thoughts of Confucius (ᆄᆀ), Mencius (ᆏ ᆀ) and Xunzi (㥰ᆀ) from the perspective of modern literary theory and aesthetics. Confucius’ thought and philosophy was inherited by both Mencius and Xunzi, but was carried forward from a different, even opposite perspective. This formed a fertile breeding ground for an early Confucianism and was embodied in Confucius’ theory of benevolence. Mencius’ theory of the inherent good of human nature, and Xunzi’s theory of the inherent evil of human nature are the main points of Confucianism. By focusing on these three “founding fathers” of Confucianism, more than 2000 years ago, this chapter will demonstrate that the early stages of the Confucian school of thought had a profound influence on traditional Chinese aesthetics. Some main concepts and ideas, such as harmony and the harmonious combination of the ideal of physical beauty and moral goodness, which serves as one of the main pillars of traditional Chinese culture and aesthetics, find their roots in Confucianism. Unlike Western aesthetics, which emphasizes rational analysis, Chinese aesthetics is rooted in the manifestation of intuitive patterns, revealing the characteristics of traditional Chinese aesthetics. These characteristics can be traced back to Pre-Qin Confucianism (ie before 221 BC). The third chapter of Part Two, “the Han Dynasty’s Confucianism, literary theory and aesthetics”, discusses the Han Dynasty’s Confucianism from the perspective of modern literary theory and aesthetics. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), Confucianism increased its influence and gradually developed into one of the main pillars of Chinese culture. The Han Dynasty’s Confucianism includes the New Text School (Ӻ᮷㓿ᆖ), represented by its main figure Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), and the Old Text School (ਔ᮷㓿ᆖ), which is represented by its main figure Yang Xiong (ᶘ䳴). This chapter also discusses the differences between the New Text School and the Old Text School, and their impacts on literature and aesthetics.

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The fourth chapter of Part Two “new Confucianism, literary theory and aesthetics” focuses on the main figures of the New Confucianism tradition from the Song to the Ming dynasties (960–1646), such as Cheng Yi (〻什), Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺) and Wang Shouren (⦻ᆸӱ). We usually regard Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi as the Cheng Zhu School of Li (〻ᵡ ⨶ᆖ), and Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren as the Lu Wang School of Xin (䱶⦻ᗳᆖ). This chapter also discusses the relationship and differences between the Cheng Zhu School and the Lu Wang School, and the influences of these two schools on literature and aesthetics, in order to show the development of Confucianism over different times. The content of Chapters Two to Four is about the development of the Confucian tradition. This is done to try to prove that the tradition of Confucianism is not static, but rather the opposite. At the same time, it tries to show that although there has been a great change over time, the development of Chinese culture from ancient to modern times is continuing, well into the Chinese culture of our time. We should look at these changes with an open mind, and it would be incorrect to say that Chinese culture has become just another form of Western culture during the developments of modern time. A similar situation also occurred in the development of Beijing city’s culture, which is the main topic of Chapter Five of Part Two. Beijing as a city has more than three thousand years of history, and eight hundred years as the capital of China. New Beijing still has many buildings in traditional architectural styles, and contains within its boundaries many pre-historical and historical relics and Hutongs, although their numbers have dwindled over time. All of these buildings have left their cultural trails in modern Beijing, and together form the multicultural space of the city. The fifth chapter of Part Two advances the theory that Beijing as a city is a nodal space of cultural exchanges in which boundaries seem more elusive and national geographies are dislocated. At the same time, it is proposed that the constitutive dialectics of being simultaneously central and marginal should be regarded in relation to their complex relationships with the projects of modernity with Chinese characteristics and in this way are different from the concept of Western modernity. During the past ten years, China’s micro film genre has undergone a rapid development because of the technological changes related to intermedial practices. Focusing on three types of micro film production, Chapter Six

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of Part Two will try to explore some characteristics of China’s micro film genre. This chapter takes “A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun” as the first type of micro film, which is a parody of the movie “Wuji”. The second concerns conspiracy, including intertextual and intermedial conspiracy, and will be illustrated by the micro films “Imminent” and “The Only Choice”. And the last type of micro film production focuses on social welfare, and is represented by the title “I will give you happiness when I grow up”. All these productions call in to question how to coordinate and harmonize the conflict that arises between social welfare on the one hand, and market efficiency on the other. The author believes that Chinese micro film productions will be regulated into China’s Model of socialist cultural productions, which is different from the time when the government managed everything during the Planned Economy, and is also different from the cultural policy models in the West. However, the differences between China and the West are not an insurmountable hurdle, and will therefore not prevent cross-cultural dialogue. Just as it is written in the Bible “Do to others what you would have them do to you”, and said by Confucius “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others”, the perspectives can be different, but the aims are the same. The different cultures of China and the West, or that of ancient and modern times, have no absolute gap, and shared universal values will unite different people in different places and different times.

PART I: THE SPATIAL DIMENSION OF CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH

CHAPTER ONE GLOBALIZATION AND CHINA’S CULTURAL IDENTITY “Globalization” is a term which has been used with different meanings. From the perspective of a diachronic process, globalization can be deciphered as a logical extension of “westernization” and “modernization”. Although more and more people have realized that “modernization” and “globalization” are definitely not equal to “westernization”, it cannot be denied that modernization and globalization are interpretively derived from the concept of westernization. Western technological development and military strength had brought about great effects on the process of world history. What, then, is the special value of globalization? In my view, the shift from Westernization and modernization to globalization is not just a terminological one, but signifies the transition of the human cognitive mode and implies the transition from a singular thinking mode of Western centrism to a multi-dimensional model of thinking. It is therefore very important to understand that the word “globalization” actually includes a new multi-dimensional model of thinking in its meaning. In other words, globalization implies the process of energizing the common core values in different cultures and involving them in the construction of human civilization as a whole. Only on this basis is it possible to establish a multi-dimensional model of cross-cultural dialogue and research.

I. The Effects of Globalization on Literary Research It is really not a simple matter to establish equal cross-cultural literary dialogues and researches. Some Chinese scholars have noted that postcolonial cultural theories, including Edward Said’s Orientalism, focusing on criticizing occident centrism, still exist in Western cultural thinking, and are confined to Western thought. According to Said’s theory, Orientalism is the product of Western culture, and it is the projection of Western subjectivity and the reflection of power. His deconstruction and

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criticism of the West are still not “the real Oriental discourse” but the Western discourse. 1 “Cultural diversity” is therefore far from being realized. In fact, cultural diversity depends on the actual process and developing direction of globalization. The effect of globalization is great and multilayered. In his paper, “Effects of Globalization on Literary Study”, American Professor J. Hillis Miller stresses three important premises: the first is the way it works to bring about a decline in the integrity and power of a nation state, the dominant form of political and social organization since the eighteenth century; the second is the way it leads to many new forms of constructive and potentially powerful social reorganization, resulting in new kinds of communities; and the third effect of globalization is the radical change of new human sensibility and therefore a new way of life in the world that is currently occurring, but created by the new technology and new modes of production and consumption beginning with nineteenth-century industrialization: “As the entire way of life changes for human collectives over large periods of time, their modes of sensual perception also change”.2 The three effects actually correspond to political, economic and cultural ones. The political globalization has ended the cold war, and changed the world from polarization to multi-polarization. In many Eastern countries, globalization has restricted a state’s political power and resulted in the transition from an “infinite government” to a “finite government”. Globalization has also brought an unexpected consequence, the spread of terrorism, such as the 9/11 attack, and the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Isis. Economic globalization has allowed world trade to develop much more freely. Along with this process, the power to directly manage the economy, which has been partially alienated from the government, is being taken over by multi-national economic corporations. At this point, we must admit, China benefits a lot from the economic globalization. Over the past few decades, China has become the second largest economy in the world. At the same time, China has made a great contribution to the 1

Kang Liu and Hengshan Jin (ࡈᓧǃ䠁㺑ኡ), “Post-colonial Criticism: from the West to China” (ਾ⇆≁ѫѹᢩ䇴˖Ӿ㾯ᯩࡠѝഭ), Literature Review (᮷ᆖ䇴䇪), no.1, 1998, pp.150–60. 2 Hillis Miller, “Effects of Globalization on Literary Study”, Wang Fengzhen trans., Literary Review, No.4, 1998, pp.74–80.

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Part I Chapter One

development of the world economy. Of course, economic globalization has also brought about some negative effects, such as the 1998 Asian financial crisis, the 2008 global financial crisis, and polarization between the rich and the poor. These also caused trade union organizations to vigorously oppose globalization and caused nationalism and populism to prevail in many countries. The third effect of globalization involves cultures and literature. With the onset of the information age, new communication tools (particularly the Internet), new ways of entertainment, and changes in our life-style are increasingly obvious, hence creating a stronger impact on our subjective feelings. Globalization has brought us closer, and allows us to communicate more easily. It is no longer necessary for us to travel far to learn another culture or language; they are available right in our “backyard”. Massive migrations have brought people of different cultures into close physical proximity. Electronic communication superhighways have brought people in far-off lands to close virtual proximity, and cheap jet travel has put every part of the globe within easy reach. All of these have definitely brought about changes in human feelings and had an impact on literature. In ancient China, because of the inconvenient communication between lovers, the suffering of the lovesickness was often represented by poems with strong emotional feelings. For example, “A Lowery Moonlit Night by Spring River” (᱕⊏㣡ᴸཌ), a poem of the Tang Dynasty by Zhang Ruoxu (ᕐ㤕㲊), described the lovesickness this way: Alas! The moon is lingering over the tower; It should have seen the dressing table of the fair.   She rolls the curtain up and light comes in her bower;   She washes but can’t wash away the moonbeams there. She sees the moon, but her beloved is out of sight;   She’d follow it to shine on her beloved one’s face.   But message-bearing swans can’t fly out of moonlight,   Nor can letter-sending fish leap out of their place.3

3

Zhang Ruoxu (ᕐ㤕㲊), “A Lowery Moonlit Night by Spring River” (᱕⊏㣡ᴸ ཌ), http://www.joyen.net/article/listen/2/201103/3975.html.

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However, with the growth in technological communication, the strong expression of complex emotions such as lovesickness has disappeared in the new media age, which is the reason why there are few lovesick poems to be found in contemporary Chinese literature. In summary, the decline of national political power, the development of international economic corporations, the new personal communications in cyberspace, and the new human sensibilities: all these changes are the consequences of globalization. Will such consequences eventually lead to the loss of traditional culture and prevent the realization of cultural diversity? Furthermore, against this background of globalization, we may ask: will people still need to identify with their traditional culture, and if so, on what basis? To answer these questions, another consequence of globalization in relation to literary and humanistic studies is in need of investigation: that is, the identity crisis. Globalization has not only changed human sensibility, leading to a mutation of perceptual experience, but also brought about an identity crisis. Such an identity crisis once happened during the industrialization period, when mass industrial production caused increased dissimilation. The new information age has brought a sense of loneliness, which occurred in the past, but now is getting stronger. Although people can establish more extensive and more direct contact via making calls, watching TV or searching the Internet, such contacts are sometimes accompanied by a sense of falsity and deception. What people have gained is a mass of verbal, aural, and visual reality of a phantom; what they have lost is real experiences with perceptual and rational integrity. This deficiency of real experience is accompanied by yearning for real private space and comfortable spiritual home sites. For centuries, the key question in relation to identity was “who are we?” Nowadays, people are more sensitive to the question of “to whom do we belong?” Globalization has therefore not only caused the loss of private space and spiritual belongings, but has also created the urgent yearning for them in the minds of contemporary people in an age of globalization. In this way, it is very natural that people identify with their own nation’s traditional culture or civilization. Samuel P. Huntington remarked in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order that “civilizations are the

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biggest ‘we’ within which we feel culturally at home as distinguished from all the other ‘thems’ out there”.4 The possibility of cultural diversity lies in the spiritual loss brought by globalization: the consequent need for cultural identity is firmly rooted in the soil of globalization. At this point, I agree with Lalsangkima Pachuau’s viewpoint, “globalization has also brought great awareness that we do not always share the same values and that we differ greatly in our ways of life even as we also learn from each other every day. Furthermore, the closing of proximity among people of different cultures through globalization has also spurred a new hypersensitivity largely controlled by the politics of identity.”5

II. Cultural identity in the context of globalization Concerning “identity”, double layers of meanings of the “recognition” and “construction” are involved. In my view, cultural identity means both the recognition of the core value of traditional culture and construction on the premise of the core value of traditional culture. Since cultural identity in the Age of Globalization has obviously become a very sharp question, it will be of great practical significance to think how to recognize and how to construct one nation’s cultural identity under the context of globalization. With the enhancement of international communication, the multiplication of multinational companies and the outreach of communication revolution, the cultural identity crisis will inevitably occur. People worry that traditional cultural boundaries will disappear, and one culture type will transfer and ultimately become another. This kind of crisis awareness appeared in the 1990’s cultural debate in China, and led to the so-called “new conservatism” or “cultural conservatism”, with the characteristics of protecting tradition. Actually, new conservatism is not only discontent with the present state of China, but the cultural radicalism in China in the whole twentieth century.

4

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), p.43. 5 Lalsangkima Pachuau, “Intercultural Hermeneutics: A Word of Introduction”, The Asbury Journal 70/1, 2015, pp.8–16.

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They think that Chinese cultural radicalism and the anti-traditional attitude resulted in the rupturing of Chinese culture since modern times. In their view, so-called “Westernization”, “modernity” and “globalization” are synonymous in different contexts, and they are the same thing in nature. They insisted that the cultural radicalists took the West as the imitation, and canceled national cultural characteristics. This inevitably led to the fact that China’s modernization process equals the process of completely losing its national identity. Considering present practical cases, globalization is some extreme development of Western modernity; it naturally needs to be doubted and feared by the Chinese people. The Chinese should therefore emphasize their own cultural tradition, alert to its erosion by Western cultural colonialism and imperialism. In this context, it is natural to pursue a Chinese identity.6 Globalization possibly blurs our national cultural identity. Actually, the vagueness of cultural identity is the product of globalization itself. In this way, it is unrealistic to try to pursue some so-called “pure, absolute and unchangeable cultural identity” in the context of globalization, which is what I disagree with in cultural conservatism. As some experts have observed, using only the dualism of “modernity/traditionalism” or “West/China” to treat Chinese history belongs to a typical Western discourse, since that way is not to deconstruct but to copy the Western discourse of dualism and modernity being criticized by them. On the one hand, they opposed the Western discourse of modernity, while on the other they insisted on another kind of essentialism about identifying with ethnic groups or Sino-centralism, trying to restore a kind of pure, absolute and eternal “Chineseness”, as a rival to the Western discourse of modernity, which constitutes a new dualism.7 Actually, a basic fact is that the appeal of national cultural identity occurs in the pursuit of modernity is overlooked. From the premise of a developed economy, we will produce the desire of national cultural characteristics. On this point, an American expert, A. Dirlik, who studies Chinese history, saw the crux of the problem. He pointed out sharply that 6

Fa Zhang, Yichuan Wang and Yiwu Zhang (ᕐ⌅ǃ⦻аᐍǃᕐ什↖), “From Modernity to Chineseness” (Ӿ⧠ԓᙗࡠѝॾᙗ), Discussion on Literature and Art (᮷㢪ҹ呓), 2, 1994, pp.3–10. Unless indicated otherwise, all translations from Chinese into English in this book are by author. 7 Dongfeng Tao(䲦ь仾), “Reflecting on Modernity’s Reflection” (⧠ԓᙗ৽ᙍⲴ ৽ᙍ), Orental Culture (ьᯩ᮷ॆ), 3, 1999, pp.16–20.

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the economic success of the Chinese community including, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and overseas Chinese, highlights Chinese differences and brings the question of Chinese identity into beings.8 In his view, the point of a Chinese identity is no longer only to establish the position of Confucianism, but also to transform Confucianism into a new global culture. That is to say, the appeal of cultural identity, accompanied by the development of the economy has blended into Chinese ideology. Economic development won’t lead to the loss of national cultural identity, but will strengthen the appeal and approval of cultural identity instead. At the same time, cultural identity is not just an issue of recognition, it also contains the issue of construction, namely, how to realize the modern transformation of traditional Confucianism and ensure its place in the new world culture. It can be seen that, along with the development of the economy, cultural identity issues are especially emphasized, and it’s not a special Chinese case. This phenomenon also appears in some developed capitalist countries, so it is a universal problem. Professor Tu Wei-ming confirmed this point. On the 75th anniversary celebrations of Singapore’s Lianhe zaobao, he made a speech putting forward the view that highly developed countries also have the internal North-South problem. From seven aspects of ethnic group, language, gender, region, age, class and religion, he elaborated the internal cultural-difference problem in Western developed countries, and he pointed out that the North-South problem not only appears in developing countries, but even also in highly developed countries. Therefore, these rooted problems like ethnic group, language, gender, etc., are often entangled with generalized global problems.9 He proposed that this complex interactive phenomenon is the relationship between “global” and “local”. He coined a special English term, “glocal”, to describe it. For example, successful multinational companies can take root in different environments with different cultures. The secret of their

8

Arif Dirlik, Post-revolutionary Atmosphere. Wang Ning trans (Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1999), p.259. 9 Wei-ming Tu (ᶌ㔤᰾), “The Confucian Humanistic Spirit under the Impact of Globalization and Localization” (‫ॆ⨳ޘ‬оᵜ൏ॆߢࠫлⲴ݂ᇦӪ᮷㋮⾎), Singapore’s Lianhe zaobao (ᯠ࣐එ㚄ਸᰙᣕ), 12 Oct. 1998.

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success lies in the localization of global companies; otherwise, a multinational company could not survive and develop in local areas. Now that in developed countries the development of the economy or the expansion of a multinational company doesn’t cancel the differences of national culture and its characteristics, what necessity is there for us to fear that the convergence of culture would absolutely occur in China with such a long cultural tradition? A logical conclusion is that the development of the economy and the process of globalization do not necessarily lead to the loss of national cultural characteristics, which may even provide an external condition to establish our cultural identity. The meaning of cultural diversity is multilayered. It not only means the coexistence and common prosperity of different national cultures in the global context, but also the tolerance and absorption of some single national state’s traditional culture by others. Most importantly, cultural diversity is also a new way of thinking, requiring people to change their one-way model of thinking to a multi-dimensional one, and to change from an absolutism to a universalism, which is neither relativist nor absolutist. Thus, the persisting problem of defining the concept of culture, that is to say to explain what culture is, cannot be avoided when cultural diversity is discussed. It is said that there have been over 150 definitions of culture so far. This number will definitely rise in the future. The reasons why so many definitions have been created is related to the polysemy of the concept of culture, which is very similar to the multiple layers of culture itself. It is perfectly normal to define culture from different viewpoints. Under this precondition, the concept of culture needs to be recognized as an integrated one, as well as a whole structure, in which there are differences in both deep and superficial structures. The content of the cultural core lies in the deep structure which is the essential feature of a national culture that distinguishes them from every other culture in the world. As Ruth Benedict wrote, in Patterns of Cultures, “Culture is a pattern of thinking and behavior manifested through the activities of a nation. It is a pattern that distinguishes it from other nations”.10 If people are to regard the fundamentals of culture from this perspective, such elements as diet, costume and residential culture, or 10

Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture. Zhang Yan trans (Hangzhou: Zhejiang People’s Press, 1988), pp.45–46.

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fashion and housing culture will be naturally excluded from the cultural core. Even if the day comes that people all ate the same food, wore the same clothes and lived in the same type of housing, cultural orientation will not be changed into a mono-culture. The lyrics of a well-known Chinese song say that “even if I wear Western style clothes, my heart is still Chinese”. The cultural core and the deep cultural structure lie within the soul of the people sharing a particular time and location. It is not only a pattern of thinking and behavior. It includes national beliefs, value tendencies and traditions carried across in language, art, religion, philosophy, common social regulations and laws. As part of the deep structure, the core differs from the cultural concept at the super-structure level, and which are mainly ideologies in accordance with the political and economic development of the time. The various levels of culture produce diverse cultural manifestations at different historical times (feudal, capitalist and socialist, for instance). In my view, these are only superficial layers of the cultural structure, below which lies the core. For example, individualism or changing types of dressing styles and fashion may be capitalist cultural traits, inseparable from particular political and economic systems. But literary works, such as Balzac’s Human Comedy, maintain a permanent value that is carried across time and space, even when portraying the same individualistic values. Edward Said thus concludes that culture really refers to “all those practices, like the arts of description, communication, and representation that have relative autonomy from the economic, social and political realms and that often exists in the aesthetic forms, one of whose principal aims is pleasure”.11 Despite being sometimes under the influence of ideology, the relationship of culture to ideology is not lineally determined. Instead, culture has many features that transcend ideology. A Chinese Marxist is devoted to fighting against feudalism and the capitalist system, but this does not prevent him from identifying with traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, identifying with the traditional culture does not suggest his support for the traditional means of production and corresponding social system. If culture is limited within the scope of value, belief, thinking and behavior 11

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: A Division of Random House, Inc., 1993), p.xii.

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patterns, we will provide a large space for politics and economy. In this way, the development of politics and the economy can directly affect the ideological change of institutional culture, but the part of culture’s values is not easily influenced. Although both core value culture and institutional culture are regarded as something that makes up the cultural totality, they have very different statuses and roles in the overall cultural structure. The institutional culture related to ideology consists of a superficial layer of culture; this culture embodying national characteristics lies in the deep layer and comprises the core of the cultural structure. When a society’s politics and economy changes its form, initial corresponding changes will be caused at the superficial layer of culture structure and a protective zone will be formed around the cultural core. This protective zone directs all the changes to itself at the superficial layer while making sure the cultural value at the core is not damaged. Only when a nation’s value, belief, thinking and behavior patterns are fundamentally changing, that is to say, when the core cultural value of a nation is damaged, the cultural tradition of a nation will break and die out. It is the stability of culture at the deep level that makes cultural diversity possible in the global scope. Of course, in different ages, the cultural core and the deep structure of culture may face different challenges and produce very different responses, all of which are based on the establishment of a nation’s cultural characteristics. On this basis, and on the condition of guaranteeing the extension of a nation’s cultural core, it can take in and absorb elements from other cultures that are beneficial to the overall development of its own cultural entirety. In this case, cultural diversity is achieved in this single national state. Or it can go even further, on the condition that the national state’s own culture is playing a dominant role, a more tolerant attitude towards a heterogeneous culture and other cultures needs to be taken, as long as it does not pose any threat to the core value of the national culture. However, to achieve the above aim obviously depends on a diversified way of thinking.

III. How Should China Face Globalization Since entering the new era of Reform and Opening to the outside world beginning from the late 1970s, we seem to be experiencing the cycle of economic, political, and cultural reforms just like in the early twentieth

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century. However, the sequence of the circle changes, the reform of the economic structure and accepting Western culture are nearly progressing together, while reform at the political level appears to be lagging a little. This reform of the political level is not a change of political policy, but the reform of the management system. For the majority of Chinese people, what concerns them most is how to escape poverty and make themselves richer. Modernization will therefore remain the aim of Chinese development for a long time to come. Arising from realistic requirements, reform of the management system urgently needs to focus on economic reform as well. Correspondingly, the person’s concept of legal the system, citizen consciousness, property rights, working professional dedication and other ideologies with modern features should be strengthened and improved. It’s necessary to learn from the West, if traditional Chinese culture can’t provide this. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games affirm that China has completely entered the world system and become an important member of the global village. In the new century, Chinese people actually face double challenges: modernization and globalization. Next to this unfinished project of modernity, Chinese people must envisage another challenge of globalization. Does this mean our own traditional Chinese culture will be given up in the context of globalization? Definitely not! There is no probability or necessity to give up traditional Chinese culture, especially the core values. This brings us back to the old question: how should cultural questions be treated? If we define the core of culture as beliefs, value trends, or patterns of thinking and behavior, we will be more tolerant towards the on-going globalization trend mainly operating in the periphery layers of the culture structure. It will also be helpful to reduce anxiety about our own cultural tradition. As mentioned earlier, if what we are taking in and incorporating are elements of foreign culture that are beneficial to the economic development and political system of China, this will not lead to any change in the core value of our own cultural tradition. Moreover, if handled well, it will also strengthen our identity with the core cultural tradition. An obvious fact is that those who try their best to promote Chinese cultural values are usually the same people who have been immersed in foreign culture. Overseas Chinese people living in foreign cultural

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contexts tend to experience this desire for Chinese culture more strongly than those living inside China. The reason for that is very simple: the belief in one’s own culture is often more easily established when contrasted with the cultural “others”. Everybody hopes we thoroughly enjoy the conveniences of modernization without losing the identity of our own culture. I believe that we have reached a consensus on this point. So China need not be against learning advanced Western technology and management systems. The development of the economy and the process of globalization do not necessarily lead to the loss of national cultural characteristics, which may even provide the external condition for establishing cultural identity. At the same time, cultural identity provides the global significance for local knowledge and for the sense of self, community and nation, which can communicate with each other in the context of globalization. Therefore, no necessity remains to oppose or give up our cultural tradition for modernization construction. China can participate in the global integration process freely, without worrying about the hindering of our traditional culture identity in globalization. At present, two kinds of cultural tendency should be avoided: one is occidental centralism, which thinks that Western values are the only reasonable universal values. The other is cultural conservatism, which insists that China’s modernization process is the process of losing Chinese ethnic identity completely; in this way, they reject Western discourse, trying to pursue an absolutely unchangeable Chinese cultural identity. In order to achieve these goals, the most important thing is to establish a multidimensional model of cross-cultural research to deal with the problems of globalization and multiculturalism, and to rethink the relationship between China and the West, so as to replace the dualist mode taken by both the Occident centrism and Sino-centrism.

CHAPTER TWO CROSS-CULTURAL LITERARY RESEARCH BETWEEN CHINA AND THE WEST

Because that the discursive paradigm and theoretical system of modern Chinese literary theory were introduced out of Western cultures, it was inevitably influenced by Western culture. In the 1990s, some Chinese scholars maintained that Chinese literary theory should be based on its own cultural tradition without copying the Western discursive system.1 In 2014, Mr. Zhang Jiang coined the phrase, “forced interpretation”, to criticize the tendency of Chinese literary theory to worship the twentieth century’s Western literary theory. According to Mr. Zhang, Chinese literary criticism or theory should abandon its excessive reliance on foreign theories, return to the Chinese context, and fully absorb the heritage of traditional Chinese literary criticism.2 All of these viewpoints 1

Within academic circles, the theory of these scholars is usually regarded as “cultural conservatism”. They believe that modern radical and unconventional attitudes of Chinese culture are so radical to its tradition that there is cultural fracture within Chinese culture. Even a cultural catastrophe like the Cultural Revolution is closely linked to this radical cultural tendency, which has evolved since the May Fourth Movement. In the new world politics, economic and culture, Chinese culture as a “Third-World culture” should emphasize its own cultural traditions and guard against erosion by “postcolonial” Western cultural hegemony. The particular ideas that are relevant to the discussions are those of Zheng Min and Zhang Yuwu in Literary Review (3)1993, and Literary Review (2),(4)1994. Detailed information can also be found in Zhou Xian’s Study on Aesthetic Culture in Contemporary China published by Peking University Press in 1997, pp. 246–61. Correspondingly, there is a view in the field of literary theory and aesthetics which suggests that we have introduced so much Western terminology and systems of aesthetics and literary theory that nowadays “we are suffering from a severe aphasia”, “as soon as we left the Western literary theory discourse, we are almost unable to discusses these topics and have become dumb (Cao Shunqing, ‘Cultural Aphasia and Pathology’, Discussion of Literary and Art [2]1996). 2 Jiang Zhang (ᕐ⊏), “On Forced Interpretation” (ᕪࡦ䱀䟺䇪), Literary Review,

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sound reasonable. However, they inevitably challenge some difficult points. If we regard categories like “Feng Gu” (style, 仾僘) and “Shen Yun” (romantic charm, ⾎严) in Chinese traditional literary theory as important resources that can be used to construct Chinese literary theory in the future, then we have to explore their exact meanings and definitions. If we are not able to reach an agreement on the connotation of these categories, how would we be able to convince beginners or foreigners in this special field of literary theory to accept them? How can we avoid the marginalization of Chinese literary theory?

I. Exploring Chinese Traditional Literary Theory During the past century, Chinese literary theory has produced a more consistent discursive system, which is simultaneously based on Western models, as well as being deeply rooted in China’s social reality culture. In fact, Chinese literary theory in the twentieth century has developed out of both cultural collision and integration between China and the West. When talking about literary discursive transformation, we cannot completely ignore Chinese modern literary tradition, which formed during the twentieth century. My argument here is, firstly, that the goal and the means of literary discursive transformation should be about looking ahead rather than looking back. A transformation should not imply a simple return to tradition, but a creative conversion of tradition. Secondly, we should adopt a positive attitude towards activating tradition rather than simply using ancient Chinese terms in relation to literary discourse. Thirdly, these transformations should mean looking to the future, based on reality in the comparison of Chinese and foreign culture. Therefore, this requires a critical perspective when exploring Chinese traditional literary resources, a prudent attitude when dealing with modern Chinese literary tradition, and an open mind when facing the challenge of Western literary discourse. In one word, we should build a bridge with cross-cultural literary research between China and the West.

No.6, 2014, pp.5–18; Zhang Jiang (ᕐ⊏), “Identification of Issues concerning Contemporary Western Literary Criticism—With Concurrent Reflections on the Reconstruction of Chinese Literary Criticism” (ᖃԓ㾯ᯩ᮷䇪䗘䇶—ެ৺ѝഭ᮷ 䇪䟽ᔪ), Social Science in China, No.5, 2014, pp.4–37.

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Ye Jia-ying, a well-known scholar of traditional Chinese poetry, once pointed out that there is no denying that new ideas emerging from any new theory can cast a new light on old academic studies, which can then lead to new findings and discussions.3 Here we have to ask ourselves what the actual meaning and impact of the Chinese tradition is. If it has no contemporary impact, is it necessary for us to talk about a tradition which is sealed in history? When reviewing history from a unique point of view, it might be necessary to re-evaluate the significance of tradition to us. It is not tradition itself that speaks to us, but, rather, how we speak to it. From this perspective, Chinese people living in Southeast Asia found positive effects in traditions helping them to obtain success within these societies, even if Chinese critics in the early twentieth century, for instance Lu Xun, may have found that, in general, tradition has had negative effects on the modernization of mainland China. New concepts and a new discourse of modern reinterpretation of tradition are not just necessary but are also the only ways for Chinese tradition to move towards modernization. It is important to point out that traditional values are not traditions themselves, but value associations of these values with the contemporary situation. Therefore, in order to really continue tradition, it is necessary to activate and illuminate it in the light of modern thoughts. This same view should also be used in the case of traditional resources in Chinese literary theory. Although Chinese traditional literary theory has very rich value resources, its own concept formation, knowledge production, and exchange are all based on a specific historical background. In ancient China, the evaluation of literature and the arts was mostly developed within a narrow circle of scholars sharing similar backgrounds, aesthetic tastes and concepts of discourse, and who knew each other so well that explanation had become unnecessary. It was within this circle that writers created and commented their works directed towards readers at the same time, and therefore clearly understood the intentions of writers and would respond as anticipated by them. In circles like these, only a few words were enough to make clear the importance of traditional Chinese literary sources. 3

Jiaying Ye (ਦహ㧩), “Specific Property of the Ci Huajian from the perspective of Feminist Literary Theory” ( Ӿ ྣ ᙗ ѫ ѹ ᮷ 䇪 ⴻ lj 㣡 䰤 NJ 䇽 ѻ ⢩ 䍘 ), Social Science Front, No.4, 1992, pp.240–48.

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With the development of Chinese literary theory in modern times, however, this situation has gradually changed because literature and the arts are becoming more accessible to a public outside these specific circles. This requires discourse transformations in order to bridge the gap caused by knowledge background difference. When talking about modern transformations, it is imperative to find the impetus for such within the history of Chinese literary theory. Western literary theory and influence have not been the only and most important reason for encouraging a Chinese literary transformation. China’s own development of literary theory should be regarded as coming also from within a combined action of internal and external causes that promotes the historical transformation of Chinese literary theory form tradition to modernity.

II. Dealing with Modern Chinese Literary Theory There is no doubt that Western literary theory discourse was of great influence on the establishment of Chinese modern literary theory. This is clearly shown from the works of Liang Qichao (ằ੟䎵, 1873–1929), Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤, 1877–1927) and Cai Yuanpei (㭑‫ݳ‬ษ, 1868– 1940), founders of Chinese modern literary theory. Their background of Western knowledge has always been emphasized. However, their profound Chinese knowledge should not be ignored. Modernity in Chinese literary theory is very complicated and of course includes the problem of “the modernity of anti-Western modernity”.4 During the twentieth century, the main theoretical value orientation in Chinese literary theory was the pursuit of Marxist literary theory with particular Chinese characteristics. Zhou Yang (ઘᢜ, 1908–1989), an important interpreter of Mao Zedong’s literary-theory thought, advocated the establishment of Chinese literary and criticism against any unrealistic approach to blindly repeating Marxist terms and copying foreign experience regardless of China’s reality. He particularly emphasized the combination of Marxist literary theory with Chinese literary tradition and practice.5 His opinion represented the voice of mainstream ideology, and its influence on modern Chinese literary theory should not be underestimated. 4

Hui Wang (⊚ᲆ), “State of Mind and Modernity Issues in Contemporary China” (ᖃԓѝഭⲴᙍᜣ⣦ߥо⧠ԓᙗ䰞仈), Tianya, 11, 1999, pp.7–22. 5 Zhou Yang (ઘᢜ), “Establishment of Marxist Literary Theory and Criticism with Chinese Style” (ᔪ・ѝഭ㠚ᐡⲴ傜‫ݻ‬ᙍѫѹ᮷㢪⨶䇪оᢩ䇴), Newspaper of Literature and Art (᮷㢪ᣕ), January 17, 1958.

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During the development of Chinese literary theory in the twentieth century there was a trend that sought to transplant a selection of the Western literary theory discourse into Chinese discourse. We cannot deny the following four points. First, that this transplantation of analytical knowledge was not the only way of forming modern knowledge, though Zong Baihua’s research into literature and art is an obvious exception. Second, that even if Western knowledge is the intentional choice of some theorists, and was a common phenomenon in China in the twentieth century, we must ask ourselves about the cause of this phenomenon. What is it that makes us firmly believe that Western knowledge is the only knowledge, or superior knowledge? Is there some kind of internal driving power within the Chinese reality development? Third, cultural misreading is also something that cannot be avoided when accepting Western knowledge. The original relation between “signifier” and “signified” in the West is often split, owing to local interference when used in current Western discourse. For instance, when the Western term “realism” is used in the summary and criticism of China’s literary works, the “signified” is obviously not a Western text, and “realism” has lost its original Western meaning. In this case, “realism” is given special meaning and specification. So we have to conclude that the influence of Western literary discourse in the meaningful establishment of modern Chinese is, at the same time, firmly grounded in China’s cultural reality. Fourth, there is a difference between the construction of a knowledge-based discourse and the construction of a value-based discourse, and both should be taken into consideration. The acceptance of Western literary discourse is not equivalent to the acceptance of the values upon which such discourse is based. This is a problem in need of further research. From an overall perspective, the development of Chinese literature in the twentieth century shows signs of conflict and signs of integration between Chinese and Western culture and their values. Modern Chinese literary discourse has developed from this mix of cultural conflict and integration. These phenomena can be initially observed at the level of Chinese history in the same century. The growth of literary knowledge happens not only by adjustment of knowledge from inside, but also by the response to the practical experience of what knowledge concerns. It cannot be denied that since the Opium Wars of the 1840s, China has been forced into a process of Westernization. Meanwhile, many insightful scholars also realized that in order to become and stay strong and

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independent, China had no choice but to “learn from the expertise of foreign powers with the aim of overcoming the foreigners’ invasion of China”.6 According to Liang Qichao in “An overview of China’s evolution in the past 50 years”, China has undergone three stages of Westernization: economic, political and cultural, each corresponding to local movements: the Qing Restoration, the Reform Movement of 1898 (including the Constitutional Reform of 1905 and the Revolution of 1911) and the May 4th New Culture Movement.7 It is worth noting that although the May the Fourth new culture movement (1915–1921) exercised a tremendous impact on traditional Chinese culture, we cannot come to the simple conclusion that traditional Chinese culture was thoroughly broken during this period. In his article “May 4th Style Anti-traditional Thinking and the Crisis of Chinese Consciousness” (1988), Lin Yusheng distinguishes between two different concepts in the relationship between the May 4th movement and Chinese tradition. In his view, the movement was anti-traditional at the level of thought, but not at the level of thought modes, where it still followed Chinese tradition. From this perspective, learning from the West did not necessarily cause a breakup of Chinese cultural tradition. The level of “thought mode” is presented in the following points. First, the “practical rationality” of Chinese tradition consists of “an organic relation between transcendence, connotation and reality”,8 a view that does not seek to surpass the nature of true phenomena, because the meaning of transcendence is connoted in real life. Inherited from representative characters of the May 4th Movement, this mode of thinking owes much to the teachings of Confucius, as illustrated in his saying “while you don’t know life, how can you know about death?”9 The second point is the fact that although the spirit of the May 4th Movement contains a kind of special sense of mission for Chinese intellectuals, this responsibility is directly linked to traditional Confucianism, 6

Liang Qichao ( ằ ੟ 䎵 ), Collected Works of Liang Qichao ( ằ ੟ 䎵 䘹 䳶 ) (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1984), p.833. 7 Ibid., pp.833–4. 8 Lin Yusheng (᷇∃⭏), The Creative Transformation of Traditional Chinese (ѝ ഭՐ㔏Ⲵࡋ䙐ᙗ䖜ॆ) (Shanghai: Joint Publishing Press, 1988), p.158. 9 Confucius (ᆄᆀ), Confucian Analects (䇪䈝), James Legge trans, in Chinese Classics, Vol. 1 (Shanghai: East China Normal University, 2010), p.241.

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where intellectuals were supposed to be “the first to bear hardships, and the last to enjoy comforts” (ඛኳୗஅ⾏侴⾏, ྡྷኳୗஅ᷸侴᷸), and “not only concern themselves with personal affairs but the affairs of the state and the world” (ᐙ஦ࠊᅜ஦ࠊኳୗ஦㸪஦஦යᚰ). Finally, in the light of globalization, whether economically or culturally, and considering the persisting economic crisis in the West, people’s disillusion with politics, and the decline of the power of many nation states, global economies are becoming more and more dependent on communication systems, and economic attention is now set on the relocation of power-structures. The Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 marked the entrance of China into the global system. In this era of reform and opening up to the outside world, the majority of Chinese people are more concerned with economic issues and living standards than with politics and political reform, and many begin to see that the incorporation of some foreign cultural elements is beneficial for China’s development.

III. Breaking the Myth of Western Centrism The fact that the call by the conservative academic circle to return to Chinese tradition is strongly influenced by Western knowledge, is often overlooked. In the 1980s, the discussion within Chinese academic circles was dominated by the so-called “modernization theory”. The core argument of this theory was that “all states, regions cultures are walking down the same road to modernization; the only difference is that they find themselves on different stages of this road”.10 Mainland China had just left behind a period that is better known as the “Cultural Revolution”, where there was little or no interaction between mainland China and the outside world. It was also a period that was characterized by an overwhelming influx of all sorts of new theories from the West. On the one hand, this facilitated an ideological liberation and academic prosperity, but on the other, it caused so-called “aphasia” within some theoretical formulations, although not in all. Wallerstein’s assessment was that “different kinds of modernization theories pointed out aspects of traditional society which are considered different from those in modern society, but at the same time

10

Immaneul Wallerstein, Calestous Juma, Everlyn Fox Keller, Jurgen Kocka, Dominique Lecourt, Valentin Y. Mudimble, Kinhide Mushakoji, Ilya Prigogine, Peter Taylor, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, The Open Social Science. Liu Feng trans (Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 1997), p.43.

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they ignored the internal structural complexity of these societies”.11 This lead, in the 1990s, to the re-evaluation of the dominant concepts and the theoretical paradigms stated in the 1980s as “The prevailing notion that academic research is aimed at using an abstract and universal theoretical framework to guide research and define the purpose of this research, now faced a fundamental challenge.”12 It was during this period that Western postmodern thought reached Chinese theoretical horizons. Works by scholars such as Derrida, Lyotard, Foucault and Said started to become widely accepted. The differences between the 1980s and 1990s are based not just on the requirements of the actual development, but also on the entry of very diverse Western influences into China’s theoretical field of view. In the 1990s, some of those scholars began to challenge the tendency towards Western hegemony and universalizing discourse. Feminists like Julia Kristeva, for instance, questioned theories that had dominated Western thought for a long time, arguing that they did not reflect the true situation of women. Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism also criticized Western centrism. On this basis, he raised question about the relation between the East and West within the process of globalization, and signaled Orientalism as a kind of Western oriental myth, rooted in ignorance, prejudice and curiosity about the East and distant world culture. He went as far as indicating that it could be considered a political doctrine produced by Western imperialism in order to control and dominate the East. As a deep-rooted knowledge system for Westerners to learn about the East, Orientalism served, and still serves, as a product of Western culture and a projection of Western subjectivity and power.13 Whether or not we want to admit it, all these theories advocating a separation from universal Western values, and which promote a strong opposition to the hegemony of Western discourse have provided conscious and unconscious theoretical references and facilitated the return to Chinese 11

Immaneul Wallerstein, Calestous Juma, Everlyn Fox Keller, Jurgen Kocka, Dominique Lecourt, Valentin Y. Mudimble, Kinhide Mushakoji, Ilya Prigogine, Peter Taylor, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, The Open Social Science. Liu Feng trans (Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 1997), p.60. 12 George E. Marcus, and Michael M. J. Fischer, Anthropology as Cultural Critique:An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences (Illinois: University of Chicago Press. 1986), p.20. 13 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Double-day Books, 1979), p.12.

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tradition. However, using Western discourse within a context of Western culture, means that Said’s deconstruction and criticism of the West is still limited within the boundaries of that same Western discourse, and not related to Eastern discourse; that is to say that this discussion still takes place within the Western knowledge system. 14 The same is true for China’s conservative theoretical discourse, where some Western terms like “family similarity”, “language clamors”, “fracture” and so on are still used. Thus, although some scholars advocate a return to Chinese tradition and strongly oppose the hegemony of Western discourse, on some of the grounds mentioned above, they obviously do so from a Western postmodern perspective that, nevertheless, might happen to share similarities with Chinese values. In Taoist teachings, we have the following views: “The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way (䚃ਟ䚃,䶎ᑨ䚃)”, and “a great sound is hard to hear (བྷ丣ᐼ༠)”. Such sayings indicate that what is the most important in Chinese tradition is reality, and not language. The impact of media communication and digitalization has only accelerated a reality constructed by signs and words, drifting away from actual reality. We may complain about the hegemony of Western discourse while not being aware that our deep immersion in Western discourse is simply the result of such globalizing trends. If Western centrism is based on a theoretical presupposition that considers the particular Western historical experience as having absolute universal value, in order to break with it we must firstly do away with the historical narrative of centrism, whether Occidentalist or Orientalist. Occidentalism is not able to effectively overcome Western centrism because it is essentially nothing more than a version of it. An effective way of overcoming “centralism”, as Piaget reminds us, is the adoption of comparative study. Piaget has pointed out that: Two of the most natural tendencies in even the initial stage of spontaneous thought are: first, considering oneself at the center of a century as well as at the center of spirit and the real world; second, establishing one’s own rules of conduct as universal standards. The establishment of a science is not just to start from the initial central principle and then add more knowledge to it, but to systematize it in addition to added knowledge. However, the first condition of objective systematization is the 14 Kang Liu and Hengshan Jin (ࡈᓧǃ䠁㺑ኡ), “Post-colonial Criticism: from the West to China” (ਾ⇆≁ѫѹᢩ䇴˖Ӿ㾯ᯩࡠѝഭ), Literature Review (᮷ᆖ䇴䇪 ), no.1, 1998, pp.21–28.

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decentralization of the initial dominant opinion itself. The decentralization is guaranteed by comparative study simultaneously through the expansion of regulatory requirements until requirements attached to various reference systems.15

It is only through a comparative approach that the decentralization is guaranteed. Thus, it is fundamental to place Eastern and Western culture and literary theory within a multidimensional model that assures plural universalism.

IV. Principles and Methods of Cross-Cultural Literary Studies Cross-cultural literary theory is based on two presuppositions: first, it is a way of facilitating a dialogue between tradition and modernity, and acknowledging the legitimacy of modern discourse when interpreting ancient Chinese literary tradition˗ second, it promotes dialogue between East and West, while at the same time acknowledging the special value of both Eastern and Western literary theory. Neither a depreciation of the East and its traditions, nor the rejection of the West and modernity, is a principle that needs to be followed in cross-cultural literary research. Instead, while engaging in literary studies, adherence to the principle of respecting reality and history is fundamental. A theory should be judged on whether or not it can effectively interpret reality and history. On the other side it should also promote people’s academic exchanges, and it should not be judged on what discourse pattern it chooses to follow. Academic models and discourse system should adapt to the developments of history and the changes in reality. In any case, these principles should be critically examined, both regarding the continuity of tradition and, in accepting influences from foreign cultures. The two forms of tradition, ancient and modern, arise from the same cultural core. Both ancient and modern Chinese literary theory are the theoretical expression of a Chinese literary experience in which, particularly in modern Chinese literary theory, the reference to foreign literary theory influences can be found. But a reference is only a tool, and not a goal in itself. Ideas might be borrowed from foreign literary theory theories in order to express our particular 15

Jean Piaget, Epistemology of Humanities Sciences. Zheng Wenbing trans (Beijing: Central Compilation & Translation Press, 1999), pp.10–11.

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Chinese understanding of literary theory in a more effective way. If twentieth-century Chinese literary theory developed from a mix of confrontation and integration with foreign influences, it is important to study its development to learn from its successes and failures, especially in today’s highly globalized world. Of course, we should not give up our critical position in literary theory; one in which we carry both the old and the new traditions. This critically carrying on is never a full acceptance. If “conflict” and “integration” are regarded as key features of China’s foreign cultural relationship in the twentieth century, then these features will eventually be replaced by “complementation” and “dialogue” in the new century, where multipolarization will become increasingly obvious. Future Chinese literary theory, within this more relaxed cultural atmosphere of “complementation” and “dialogue” will experience an even better development. Complementation in Chinese-foreign literary theory emphasizes the special experience of Chinese literary theory first, but the emphasis should not be treated as the excuse for rejection and the sealing off of Chinese literary theory to foreign influences. There must be an emphasis on the specificity of Chinese literary theory within a positive dialogue with foreign literary theory. To reach such a dialogue, a common discourse, common rules and a shared environment are required. This is not thus the time to refuse to become familiar with, and learn from, Western knowledge, which does not mean the replacement of China’s native literary experience. It is also necessary for a self-reflexive meta-cognitive strategic consideration in order to explore the special meaning of Chinese literary theory; and it is also necessary in order to promote Chinese literary theory to the outside world. So, in this sense, “complementation” and “dialogue” cannot be separated from each other. In addition, the myth and the fear of “globalization” should be minimized. While maintaining a healthy critical position, an open and more positive attitude towards the relationship between “globalization” and “multipolarization”, as well as towards the relationship between “globalization” and “localization” would be beneficial. This is pointed out in order to illustrate that “globalization” does not mean the elimination of traditional cultural values, in this case Chinese. We should not fear a loss of Chinese tradition. Open minds and positive participation in the dialogue will only contribute to developing China’s good values and traditional culture. However, “globalization” should not lead to “mono-polarization” and

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elimination of traditional culture, whether Chinese or other. The negative effects of the globalization should be pointed out, and we should stay vigilant against the semantic replacement of “globalization” by “Western centrism”. Globalization should not become a new form of Western centrism. Cultural and literary theory in Western postmodernism emphasize the possibility of deconstructing the universalism of grand narrative. Postmodern scholars have attacked universalism as a kind of disguised particularism with a powerful repressive force. However, criticism of such false universalism should not become an excuse for abandoning the pursuit of true share values and goals. Scientific and humanistic theories should not be reduced to private relativistic views and conclude that each view is equally effective while speaking different languages and remaining incommensurable. Universalism is a necessary goal for the discourse communities, and this goal should not be abandoned in academic and scientific discussions. At the same time, we should also realize that any form of universalism is of historical contingency. In an uncertain and complex world, many different interpretations exist simultaneously. It is “only through multi-universalism that we get a possible grip on both the past and present rich social reality we live in”.16 In what concerns the specific case of literary research, the practice that sets Western literary theory as a universal truth should be avoided. As Professor E. Miner pointed out, poetics systems in a culture are established on the basis of the dominant genre in this culture. Western original poetics founded by Aristotle in the genre of Greek drama as an imitation poetics genre does not have universal general validity. “If he (Aristotle) built it on the Homeric epic and Greece lyrics based on the lyrics, his poetics might be completely different”.17 In contrast, Oriental poetics, such as China’s and Japan’s poetics, are based on “emotion-expression”. Here, lyrics have unique values that might be utterly different from Western poetics. Both of these two very different poetics have a rationality of existence of their

16

Immaneul Wallerstein, Calestous Juma, Everlyn Fox Keller, Jurgen Kocka, Dominique Lecourt, Valentin Y. Mudimble, Kinhide Mushakoji, Ilya Prigogine, Peter Taylor, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, The Open Social Science. Trans Liu Feng (Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 1997), p.64. 17 Earl Miner, Comparative Poetics: an Intercultural Essay on Theories of Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp.5–6.

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own. 18 Professor E. Miner’s illustration of the two different “original poetics” of East and West, based on a “basic genre”, is of great value when establishing a universal multicultural literary theory. A literary “genre” does not mean all literature, because different “genres” are subspecies of literature. It is only by all the different “genres” being superimposed together that the essence of general literature is to be abstracted. Similarly, is it a good way to constitute a complete multi-universal poetics system if particularities of Eastern poetics and those of Western poetics are combined for complementation and coexistence? In this sense, a comparative research method is intercultural, simply because its essence lies not in the value judgment between the merits of a poetics (literary theory) system of East and the West, but in an equal respect for the unique value of different literatures and arts from a cross-cultural perspective for a wider range of universal validity. Only in this way can we really break with all forms of historical narrative of “centrism” and break away from this so-called “Western centrism”.

18

Ibid., p.336.

CHAPTER THREE A CIRCLE MODEL OF CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH FOCUSING ON LITERARY ADAPTATIONS

The circle model of cross-cultural research attempts to re-examine the relationship between Chinese and Western literature, treats “Western learning introduced into China” and “exporting Chinese culture to the Western world,” which was separated in previous studies, as an overall process, and to show a spatial map of the circle travelling of literary texts or theories. All these aim to show that China has its unique vision in accepting Western theories. Those Western theories with close ties to Chinese culture are always more likely to be accepted, and their channels into modern Chinese culture are more open. In this circle traveling, the occurrence of misappropriation, transplantation, transfer and transformation in every aspect are normal phenomena. The following lines offer a case study using the example of The Orphan of Zhao by Ji Junxiang (㓚ੋ⾕). The circle travelling of this drama, from its original sources to its Western and Eastern (mis)adaptations and critical interpretations, shows the complexity of cross-cultural exchanges which are never merely one-directional and include complex spatial mappings, in this case, for instance, from ancient Chinese culture to Western culture, and then back to modern Chinese culture.

I. The Cross-Cultural Round Journey of the Orphan of Zhao The Orphan of Zhao is an influential literary piece which has undergone numerous adaptations. For instance, according to statistics from Southern Weekly Dec. 13, 2003, seven different versions of the drama were

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performed on different occasions in that year. One of them was directed by Lin Zhaohu (᷇‫ )ॾݶ‬and performed by the Beijing People’s Art Theatre.1 The original story, by Ji Junxiang, was based on Historical Records of the Zhao Family (ਢ䇠·䎥цᇦ) by Sima Qian˄ਨ傜䗱˅, a revenge plot between two families, that of the minister Zhao Dun and that of his general, Tu Angu. Tu Angu exterminated Zhao Dun’s entire family, whose son, Zhao Shuo, was the emperor’s son-in-law, and was also forced to commit suicide. Zhao Shuo’s wife was imprisoned and gave birth to the orphan of the title. Guard Han Jue found Zhao Shuo’s hanger-on, Chen Ying, trying to take the orphan out of the palace; instead of handing the orphan over to the higher authorities, he let them go and then committed suicide himself. In order to prevent disclosure, Tu Angu ordered the killing all babies in the kingdom between one and six months old. After plotting with Gongsun Chujiu, Zhao Dun’s friend, Chen Ying made his own son pretend to be the orphan, and then revealed that Gongsun Chujiu had sheltered him. In this way, Gongsun Chujiu and the false orphan were murdered and the true orphan survived. The Orphan of Zhao grew up and came to know of the deadly feud with Tu Angu, and finally took revenge. Set in the Spring and Autumn Period between 770–476BC, the original scripts have two editions: the Yuan Dynasty (1206–1368) and Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) editions. The former consisted only of lyrics, with no action or spoken parts. It included a prologue and four acts. The Ming Edition had both action and spoken parts, as well as a fifth act. In the Yuan edition of The Orphan of Zhao, the fourth chapter tells how the Orphan of Zhao grew up endowed with civil and martial virtues. It also recounted how Cheng Ying wrote Tu Angu’s murder of the Zhao Family into hand scrolls, and explained the details to the Orphan of Zhao, who then came to know about the deadly feud with Tu Angu, and finally took revenge. In the fifth chapter of the Ming edition, the Orphan of Zhao took Tu Angu and brought him to the Kingdom of Jin’s officials for justice. Finally, the King of Jin gave orders so that the Orphan of Zhao would recover his own family name, and also the name of Zhao Wu, a bureaucrat of Jin. All other 1

Yu Xia and Ying Zhang (༿ᾶ,ᕐ㤡), “The Orphan of Zhao No Revenge for Big Wrong” (“䎥∿ᆔ‫”ݯ‬нᣕབྷӷ), Newspaper of Southern Weekend (ইᯩઘᵛ), Nov. 13, 2003. .

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fallen victims from the Zhao Family were given appropriate praise. The Ming edition emphasized this transition from suffering into happiness, but the difference is only the degree of emotion, since the Yuan edition already accounted for revenge: “Without taking revenge, the feud can hardly be removed […] Scoop out his eyes, gap his belly, remove his heart, liver, hands and feet, and break his bones”.2 The Orphan of Zhao can be used as an example of the multidimensional model of cross-cultural research presented in this paper in order to rethink the relationship between China and the West. The Jesuit Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare had introduced The Orphan of Zhao to France in 1731. The French translation of the drama was published in Description de la Chine (Annals of China) Vol. II, in 1735. The drama had a profound impact on Voltaire, who adapted it as L’Orphelin de la Chine (The Orphan of China), which in turn served as model for the adaptation of Lin Zhaohua back into the original The Orphan of Zhao by Ji Junxiang. This circular journey from ancient Chinese culture to Western culture, and back to contemporary China illustrates the complexities of the circulation of cultural patterns and contributes to the re-examination of the interactions between Chinese and Western, ancient and modern cultural forms. In his fundamental study Drama History of Song and Yuan Dynasties (first published in 1912), Wang Guowei points out that: After the Ming Dynasty, legend is nothing more than comedy. However, in the Yuan Dynasty tragedy also existed, with examples such as Autumn in the Han Palace,Rain of Phoenix Tree, The Two Entering the Dream of Liubei, Burning of Jiezitui, and Zhang Qian’s Murder of the Landlord’s Wife. These works are about separation and getting together, initial suffering and finally enjoyment. Guan Hanqing’s The Injustice to Dou E and Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zhao are the ones bearing a more tragic content. Although there are villains in the story, those who go through fire and water obey the hero’s will and are worthy of being listed among the greatest tragedies in the world.3

This happy ending of a tragedy was also the object of criticism by Wang Guowei. In his Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions, first published in 2

Qinjun Xu (ᗀ⊱ੋ),The Newly Revised Thirty Kinds of Poetic Dramas of Yuan Edition (ᯠṑ‫࠺ݳ‬ᵲࢗйॱ⿽) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.323. 3 Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤䚇Җ),Vol. 9 (Shanghai: Classics Publishing House. 1983), pp. 640–41.

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1904, he satirized Chinese people’s optimistic spirit of initial sadness and subsequent happiness, separation and reuniting, suffering and enjoyment.4 Wang Guowei believed that this was the main reason for China’s lack of a worldwide tragedy, so that the outcome of The Orphan of Zhao was not of much value to him. He only called The Orphan of Zhao a worldwide tragedy because it stressed the hero’s efforts in the symbolism of going through fire and water, which means that the hero will overcome all the difficulties with great courage. Voltaire adapted The Orphan of Zhao according to the aesthetic principles of French neoclassicism. He found some of the values and events too complicated for the French public. They took too long to be performed and violated the convention of the three classic unities. He therefore reduced the time setting from spring and autumn across several years in the Yuan Dynasty, to a single day and night. This forced him to remove certain historical events from the play. For example, in the original, Genghis Khan led his troops in attacking Yanjing and killed the emperor. He then sent troops chasing after the Orphan when he discovered the he was missing. Zamti, the retired official of the Chinese monarch, hid the Orphan inside the imperial mausoleum, and sacrificed his own son to save the royal orphan. His wife Idamé could not bear the fact that her son had died in his place, and came to tell Genghis, begging for her husband’s life and expressing her willingness to die in the place of the royal orphan. Years before, Genghis had been stranded in Yanjing and had proposed to Idamé, although being rejected, he never stopped loving her, so he asked Idamé to marry him in order to forgive her husband and save the royal orphan. Idamé remained faithful to her husband, and Genghis Khan, moved by her virtue and loyalty to her husband, remitted the death penalty for all three and asked the couple to raise the royal orphan. The theme of Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine is entirely different to the traditional Chinese work The Orphan of Zhao. The later one is about revenge, whilst the former one is about forgiveness. The traditional work The Orphan of Zhao is derived from Zaju genre (a kind of drama in the Yuan Dynasty), focusing on loyalty and filial piety, which obstructs social

4

Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶),Vol. 1 (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press. 1997), p.10.

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development. The theme of Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine is to forgive the past enmity from the perspective of humanity.5

Lin Zhaohua, the director of the 2003 production of The Orphan of Zhaoin performed at the Beijing People’s Art Theatre, stated in an interview to Southern Weekend that he revered Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine, and that he had revised the original Chinese revenge theme in his own play. Lin Zhaohua’s play focuses on the close adoptive relationship between the grown-up orphan and Tu Angu, abandoning the fight for revenge. It would thus be a mistake to emphasize the separation of Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zha o from Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine, and to enforce the view that Lin Zhaohua was able to accept the theme of this last version more readily because of hypothetical sympathies with Western cultural views. In fact, as shown above, the theme of giving up revenge is, after all, consistent with the traditional value orientation in Chinese culture, just as presented in the Confucian Analects: The Confucian doctrine is “to be true to the principles of our nature and the benevolent exercise of them to others, this and nothing more” (ཛᆀѻ䚃ˈᘐᚅ㘼ᐢ),6 so that cultural variation should be traced in each stop of the text journey beyond the mere dualistic comparison.

II. The Eastward Travel of Schopenhauer’s Tragedy Theory In order to show the circular journey of cultural influences between East and West, we now turn to show how Wang Guowei’s theories of drama were heavily influenced by Schopenhauer’s views on tragedy in The World as Will and Representation. The German scholar Schopenhauer argued that tragedy can be classified with regards to three typical characteristics: the first one is that “it can be done through the extraordinary wickedness of a character, touching the extreme bounds of possibility, which becomes the author of the 5

Yu Xia and Ying Zhang (༿ᾶ,ᕐ㤡), “The Orphan of Zhao No Revenge for Big Wrong” (“䎥∿ᆔ‫”ݯ‬нᣕབྷӷ). Newspaper of Southern Weekend (ইᯩઘᵛ), Nov. 13, 2003. . 6 Confucius ( ᆄ ᆀ ), Confucian Analects˄ 䇪 䈝), Trans. James Legge, in The Chinese Classics, Vol.1 (Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2010), p.170.

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misfortune”. The second one is that misfortune “can happen through blind fate, i.e., chance or error”. Finally, “the misfortune can be brought about also by mere attitude of the persons to one another through their relations”.7 In this work, Schopenhauer proposed the three models of tragedy mentioned above using examples from Shakespeare’s Richard III, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice, Schiller’s The Robbers, Euripides’ Phaedra, and Sophocles’ Antigone for the first type of tragedy; Sophocles (Oedipus the King and Trachiniae), Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), Voltaire (Tancred), and Schiller (The Bride of Messina) for the second; and Goethe (Clavigo and Faust), Schiller (Wallenstein), Shakespeare (Hamlet), and Corneille (Le Cid), for the third category.8 According to Schopenhauer, the third type of tragedy is far preferable to the other two, because “it shows us the greatest misfortune not as an exception, not as something brought about by rare circumstances or by monstrous character, but as something that arises easily and spontaneously out of the actions and characters of men, as something almost essential to them, and in this way it is brought terribly near to us”.9 All Schopenhauer’s views on tragedy were accepted by Wang Guowei. His theories used to comment on A Dream of Red Mansions in Chinese were obviously an adapted translation of the English version of Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation. His translation can be taken as the first trans-lingual cross-cultural encounter with Schopenhauer’s theory of tragedy. However, in comparing his translated version to the original, attention needs to be paid to the following issues: First, Wang Guowei did not translate Schopenhauer’s original work word by word. Instead, he chose only certain parts, perhaps because he was not familiar with all of the works mentioned by Schopenhauer, or perhaps because some of them were of no special significance to Wang Guowei, whose real intent was to explain the tragedy of A Dream of Red Mansions. Second, Wang Guowei translated the original by means of free translation, 7

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1999), p.254. 8 Ibid., pp.254–5. 9 Ibid., p.254.

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for example, he translated the abstract word “wickedness” as “㳷㵾” (snake and scorpion) a Chinese word full of concrete meanings, while another Chinese translator Shi Chongbai translated it as “ᚦ∂” a Chinese word that means “evil”. In fact, though “ 㳷 㵾 ” does not closely correspond to “wickedness”, “ᚦ∂” conveys in a clearer way the rich connotations of the English word, and at the same time it is more in line with the ideographic function of Chinese. Third, the omission of works within Schopenhauer’s theory of tragedy in the Western context causes the separation of sign-signifiers from the signified, rendering the original a “gliding signifier”, pointing directly to the Chinese text A Dream of Red Mansions as, in Wang Guowei’s words, “the third kind of tragedies”.10 Looking at the original context in Schopenhauer’s theory, the third kind of tragedy refers to a series of Western tragedies such as Goethe (Clavigo and Faust), Schiller (Wallenstein), Shakespeare (Hamlet), and Corneille (Le Cid). In Wang Guowei’s view, however, Faust is not a typical model of the third kind of tragedy. For him, A Dream of Red Mansions can best represent the summit of the third category as “Faust’s pain is the pain of genius, while Jia Baoyu’s pain is the pain of everybody. Particularly, the pain that roots deeply in the bottom of heart hurts the most, so he earnestly expects to be saved. The author picked up every piece of such information to make it into full play”.11 In this respect, there is a kind of meaningful inter-textual play between the tragedy theory of Schopenhauer and A Dream of Red Mansions. The examination of the tragedies mentioned by Schopenhauer shows that the “happy ending” element was not taken as a crucial sign of tragedy. For instance, Richard III and Le Cid ended with bad guys getting punished and lovers getting married. Schopenhauer pointed out that though Le Cid did not have a sad ending, it still could be taken as the representative work of the third kind of tragedy, showing his lack of concern with happy endings.12

10

Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶), Vol. 1(Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 1997), p.12. 11 Ibid., p.9. 12 Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House,1999), p.255.

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In contrast, Wang Guowei attaches great importance to the tragic ending of A Dream of Red Mansions, and promotes it to the high degree of compliance with the “Spirit of the Chinese people”. Furthermore, this theoretical basis becomes for Wang Guowei the basis of the literary value of A Dream of Red Mansions, which he considers as one of the greatest works in the world. Wang Guowei explained that the drama might fall under the third kind of tragedy, according to Schopenhauer’s classification in view of what happens between Jia Baoyu (䍮ᇍ⦹) and Lin Daiyu (᷇唋⦹), two major characters in A Dream of Red Mansions. Baoyu’s grandmother ( 䍮 ⇽ ) is fond of Xue Baochai’s ( 㯋 ᇍ 䫇 ) gentleness and kindness and warns Daiyu not to be unsocial; she, on the one hand, believes the fallacy of the love between holders of the gold necklace and the jade pendant, and thinks over the way to cure Baoyu’s lovesickness on the other. Ms. Wang (⦻ཛӪ) wants to cement old ties by marriage to the Xue family; Wang Xifeng (⦻⟉ࠔ), the controller of the family affairs, fears Daiyu’s talent and worries that Daiyu might be not working with her; Xiren (㻝Ӫ), Baoyu’s personal maidservant, heard Daiyu’s comments that either the East wind overwhelms the West or the West overwhelms the East when she punished You Erjie (ቔҼက) and Xiangling (俉㨡), so she fears the coming misfortune and it becomes natural for her to take identical positions with Wang Xifeng. Jia Baoyu promised Lin Daiyu, but he could not tell his dearest grandmother about his love for Daiyu, needless to say the girl Daiyu can also not tell Baoyu’s grandmother about her love for Baoyu this all because of common moral traditions. Therefore, A Dream of Red Mansions can be considered as the tragedy of tragedies.13

In Wang Guowei’s view, the love tragedy of Baoyu and Daiyu is not the result of the bad guys getting in the way, or the outcome of twists of fate. The tragedy is entirely due to the difference in social status of the dramatis personae and the relationships between them. The doings of these characters are not contrary to common moral traditions, nor are they forms of inconformity with the usual relationships. The third tragic type feeds on normal occurrences and happens to ordinary people making it even more fearful and dreadful. It is in this respect that Wang Guowei asserts that A Dream of Red Mansions is the tragedy of tragedies. 13

Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶),Vol. 1 (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 1997), p.12.

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Qian Zhongshu (䫡䫏Җ) has his own understanding of this conclusion. In On the Art of Poetry, the scholar pointed out that: Mr. Wang always holds Schopenhauer’s works in high esteem and discuses them. In Comments on a Dream of Red Mansions, Mr. Wang repeatedly stated that A Dream of Red Mansions is asserted as the tragedy of tragedies in line with Schopenhauer’s theory. Baoyu’s grandmother on the one hand warns Daiyu not to be unsocial and believes the heresy of the gold and jade; Ms. Wang is more close to Mrs. Xue; Wang Xifeng is jealous of Daiyu’s capability and intelligence; Xiren worries about the intolerance of Baoyu’s wife; Baoyu is afraid that Daiyu may not be loved by his grandmother; for such various reasons, Baoyu and Daiyu have to leave each other. Actually, such opinion has sufficient grounds. However, it is quite like Schopenhauer that the methodology has not been exhausted and the truth has not been made clear. If the methodology has been exhausted and the truth has been made clear, it should be known that even Baoyu succeeded in marrying Daiyu, such a joyful event would turn to be a concern because a harmonious couple may end up with an inharmonious pair. When voices are heard from far away, yearning and longing come into being. When they come to know each other’s habits, they become estranged and fed up with each other. Flowers only last for several days in full blossom, and the full moon could not even hold for another night. A happy event ends for nothing, and a candy might taste bitter.14

In Qian Zhongshu’s opinion, although Wang Guowei has sufficient grounds to conclude that A Dream of Red Mansions is the tragedy of tragedies based on the ordinary relationship among the characters, this is not in conformity with the original intention of Schopenhauer. For the German theorist, Baoyu and Daiyu should have been married, so that “the perfect spouses gradually become enemies, and ‘happy foes’ end up in nonharmonious couple. That is ‘the tragedy of tragedies’”.15 In this respect, Qian Zhongshu considers that Wang Guowei (mis)enforced Schopenhauer’s theory upon A Dream of Red Mansions, and that “better guidance would have brought out the best in each other while forced conformity is detrimental”.16 In our view, Qian Zhongshu’s criticism is too harsh. Many of the tragedies 14

Qian Zhongshu (䫡䫏Җ), On the Art of Poetry (䈸㢪ᖅ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1984), p.349. 15 Ibid., p.351. 16 Ibid.

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referenced by Schopenhauer fail to meet the requirement of the perfect spouses who become enemies. Even if Wang Guowei’s transformation could be considered a misunderstanding of the original work, it is a kind of positive and significant one in the sense conveyed by Said in his famous article Traveling Theory. In this essay, Said compares Lukacs and Goldmann, their thoughts and theories, but refuses to admit that Goldmann, disciple of Lukacs, had misunderstood Lukacs’s theories. He points out that: We have become so accustomed to hearing that all borrowings, readings and interpretations are misunderstandings and misinterpretations, so that we are likely to consider the Lukacs-Goldmann episode as just another bit of evidence that everyone, even Marxists, misunderstands and misinterprets. I find such a conclusion completely unsatisfying. It implies, first of all, that the only possible alternative to slavish copying is creative misreading and that no intermediate possibility exists. 17

The decisive role played by history in the process of Lukacs’s ideas transforming into Goldmann’s in Said’s discussion was noted by scholars. As Said claimed, misunderstandings are “part of a historical transfer of ideas and theories from one setting to another”.18 Tragedy is “the antagonism of the will with itself which is here most completely unfolded at the highest grade of its objectivity, and which comes into fearful prominence”,19 with Goethe’s early work Clavigo as the “perfect model” even though the play “in other respects is far surpassed by several others of the same great master”.20 Written in only eight days, and published in May 1774, Clavigo’s plot unveils around the supposedly true story recalled in Feb. 1774 in the memoirs of the French writer, Beaumarchais, after a trip to Spain in 1764. The story tells of a broken marriage promise to one of his sisters made by Don Joseph Clavigo, curator and archivist of the Spanish royal family, who attempts to break the engagement. The story is not just about the indecision and hesitation of the Spanish courtesan, which might appear as part of human nature. As Clavigo gains the King’s favor through his 17

Edward Said, The World, the Text and the Critic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1983), p.168. 18 Ibid. 19 Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1999), p.253. 20 Ibid., p.255.

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knowledge and motivation, he is promoted and sets his ambitions into marrying an aristocratic lady of greater fortune, breaking his promise to Mary Beaumarchais. However, his desire and love for Mary remains, as she had supported him in his way up the social ladder, and he suffers from great psychological pressure as well as social reproach from Mary’s brother. Thus, Clavigo exemplifies this antagonism of the will that results from human nature. This is the reason why Schopenhauer takes this tragedy as the perfect model of the third type of tragedy. Goethe does not make Clavigo and Mary “enemies and estranged couple” after marriage, as in the formula claimed by Qian Zhongshu. Instead, the drama ends with Mary relapsing into grief and dying after hearing that Clavigo has escaped the marriage. Remorseful Clavigo, after asking for forgiveness and reconciliation, lets himself be stabbed by a furious Beaumarchais while kneeling before her coffin. We can conclude that Qian Zhongshu also misreads Schopenhauer’s tragedy theory. Nevertheless it still stands as an effective interpretation, since the same text yields different ways of understanding across diverse time periods, in distinct places and contexts. This is the kind of openness that makes Said’s ‘travelling theory’ possible. Schopenhauer’s original meanings are not of unchallengeable authority. They tolerate borrowing and transformation by Wang Guowei and also Qian Zhongshu’s interpretation, even if he understands tragedies differently from Schopenhauer’s original intention. Furthermore, the study of the influence of Eastern philosophy upon Schopenhauer’s theory after his trip to Asia, bring us one step further along the intricate journey of readings. Qian Zhongshu had remarked upon certain elements of Buddhism present in Schopenhauer’s ideas. 21 Schopenhauer himself also said in The World as Will and Representation: “I confess that, next to the impression of the world of perception, I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant’s work, the sacred writings of Hindus, and Plato”.22 This reminds us that beside Kant and Plato, Eastern thought and culture really had a significant influence on Schopenhauer. This might have also been one of the reasons behind Wang Guowei’s acceptance (“reception horizon”) of Schopenhauer’s 21

Qian Zhongshu (䫡䫏Җ), On the Art of Poetry (䈸㢪ᖅ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1984), p.350. 22 Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1999), p.417.

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theory. In the Author’s Preface to Jing’an Collections, Wang Guowei wrote that when reading Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason he almost had to abandon the book because he did not understand it. On the other hand, he was fascinated by Schopenhauer. Behind this fascination, there might have been a greater affinity with Schopenhauer’s philosophy. In Wang Guowei’s Literature and Literary Criticism, Jiang Yinghao also pointed this out, as Wang Guowei tries to analyze A Dream of Red Mansions in accordance with Schopenhauer’s theories, which are full of echoes from Buddhist classics.23

III. Changing the World Outlook on Literature With regard to the same text, different readers will generate different understanding and interpretations, which should be viewed as a natural and normal phenomenon. The Modern Hermeneutics and Reception Aesthetics reckon that the meaning of a work is not only decided by the author’s intention and the text itself, but also by the reader’s understanding. We can examine “Traveling Theory” by Edward W. Said under this above-mentioned theoretical background. Said stressed the reasonable basis of the transplant, transfer, communication and exchange of theories and concepts, which was based on the open structure of meanings explored by modern Hermeneutics and reception theory. In another word, it is the openness of meanings that make his traveling theory possible. If we examine the traveling of Schopenhauer’s tragedy theories in China from such theoretical horizons, we should tolerate the borrowings and transformations made by Wang Guowei from Schopenhauer’s theories, and we would show great respect to Qian Zhongshu’s interpretation, though he understands tragedies differently from Schopenhauer’s original meaning. Schopenhauer’s original meaning is not unchallengeable authority, especially in traveling theory, which is cross-cultural and crosslingual. A more proper understanding is that Wang Guowei started his interpretation of A Dream of Red Mansions in equal dialogue with Schopenhauer. We find through further study that the Eastern travel of 23 Yinghao Jiang(㪻㤡䊚), Wang Guowei Literature and Literary Criticism (⦻ഭ 㔤᮷ᆖ৺᮷ᆖᢩ䇴) (Hong Kong: Huaguo Institute of Chung Chi College of Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1974), p.93.

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Schopenhauer’s tragedy theory is a round trip. Schopenhauer’s philosophy was obviously influenced by Buddhism and embodied apparent oriental elements in terms of its theoretical source. Qian Zhongshu had remarked on this very early on.24 We want to emphasize here that Buddhism, as an Eastern philosophy, was also the “reception horizon” for Wang Guowei to accept Schopenhauer’s theory. Wang Guowei wrote in the Author’s Preface to Jing’an Collections that he began reading Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, feeling it was so hard to understand that he almost abandoned the book; later he was fascinated by Schopenhauer’s books. The reason that he felt it easier to accept Schopenhauer than Kant was the affinity of Schopenhauer’s philosophy with oriental thoughts, which made it easier for Wang Guowei to accept Schopenhauer and made the crosscultural traveling smoother. Jiang Yinghao pointed out in Wang Guowei’s Literature and Literary Criticism, “Wang Guowei tries to analyze A Dream of Red Mansions by Schopenhauer’s theories, and it is understandable. The start and end of A Dream of Red Mansions is full of Buddhist colors and the author is familiar with the Buddhist principles. One important source of Schopenhauer’s philosophy is Buddhism. Schopenhauer discusses desires and redemption and they all come from Buddhist classics. It is of wisdom for Wang Guowei to analyze A Dream of Red Mansions by Schopenhauer’s theories…” 25 What Wang received are actually Schopenhauer’s theories which have been influenced by oriental thoughts, thus forming the round journey of East-West-East. Such travel is not accidental in modern aesthetic theories and literary criticism in China, and it is a kind of normal form of academics. For example, Heidegger, who greatly influenced modern Chinese aesthetics, had accepted, or was exposed to, Eastern thought. People even compiled those materials into one book—Heidegger and Asian Thoughts.26 He, in cooperation with Chinese scholar Xiao Shiyi, translated the eight chapters of Lao Tzu into German, which was clear evidence of his reception of Eastern thought, which had become an organic part of his 24 Qian Zhongshu (䫡䫏Җ), On the Art of Poetry (䈸㢪ᖅ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1984), p.350. 25 Yinghao Jiang(㪻㤡䊚), Wang Guowei Literature and Literary Criticism (⦻ഭ 㔤᮷ᆖ৺᮷ᆖᢩ䇴) (Hong Kong: Huaguo Institute of Chung Chi College of Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1974), p.93. 26 See G. Parkes, ed. Heidegger and Asian Thought (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987).

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theories, and was in turn reflected in his philosophy. In Essence of Language, he regards Tao by Lao Tzu as “they are what we rely on to think over reason, essence, significance and Logos, i.e. what they express in essence”.27 Another example of “round journey” is Pound’s image theory. Pound is the closest poet to China among Western writers, and the artistic conception in his poems is the closest to Chinese poetry. People often mistake Pound’s poems for poems by Chinese poets, if not reading and carefully savoring them, for his expression of the poet’s emotions through images. Pound was also a eulogist of ancient Chinese civilization and showed ardent admiration for Confucius. He saw the reason and ideal in Chinese civilization which the modern Western world needs badly. Pound’s engagement with Chinese culture began in 1913, when he got to know the widow of E. Fenollosa, the famous American Orientalist, who gave Pound all her husband’s research papers. Wai-lim Yip pointed out that “Fenollosa, who had been exposed to Chinese painting and poems, was excited to find a new aesthetic basis in the structure of Chinese characters, especially associative ones, which greatly influenced the direction of Poet Pound’s aesthetics, targeting the abstract logic thinking’s violation of natural order”. 28 In the following decades, ideographic Chinese characters and ancient Chinese poems played a big role in Pound’s poetry, and Confucian philosophy was the dominant theme throughout his Cantos. Pound had translated Four Books and The Book of Songs and promoted the spread of Confucianism in the West. It is interesting that Pound’s imagist theories, influenced by Chinese traditional literature, was used by Hu Shi (㜑䘲) as the theoretical weapon against Chinese traditional literature in the May the Fourth new literature movement. If we make a comparison between the eight principles in An Imagist’s a Few Don’ts by Pound in 1913, and “eight don’ts” (‫ޛ‬нѫѹ) in On Literary Reform by Hu Shi, it is obvious that the two are similar. In his diary, Notes in My Study-Canghuishi, written while Hu Shi was staying in New York, there was a cutting from The New York Times Book Review on imagist declarations, and a comment by Hu himself, “the ideas of this 27

Martin Heidegger, Essence of Language, Selected Works of Heidegger. (Shanghai: Shanghai Joint Publishing Company, 1996), p.1101. 28 Wai-lim Yip(ਦ㔤ᓹ), Taoist Aesthetics and Western Culture (䚃ᇦ㖾ᆖо㾯ᯩ ᮷ॆ) (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2002), p.32.

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school are similar to mine”. 29 This is solid evidence for correlation between Hu’s literary views and imagist theories. Guiyou Huang pointed out that “Without Hu’s appropriation of Pound and Lowell, Chinese modernism would not have been what it was”.30 Some researchers have noted that Hu Shi’s promotion of vernacular language was also connected with imagism. Wong Yoonwah, a Singaporean, does explore Hu’s unacknowledged indebtedness to the imagist principles set forth by Pound. As Wong points out, between 1916 and 1921, Hu wrote a number of essays that urged the adoption of a vernacular language. “The birth of imagism in America and the birth of vernacular Chinese poetry are indisputably the products of this active cross-cultural interaction”.31 The “eight forbidden points” have greatly influenced the formation of Chinese modern literary theory, and people have perhaps noticed its relationship to Western theories, but they will probably ignore the Chinese background in Pound’s theories. Thus, they conclude that the Chinese modern theory broke from the Chinese traditions owing to the interruption of Western theory. However, the “round journey” of Pound’s theory has indicated that the reception of Western theories by China must have its unique reception horizon, and those Western theories that are closely related to Chinese culture are easier to receive, thus making them easier to enter the Chinese modern culture and theories. In such a round trip, it is common for the borrowing, transplant, transfer and modification to take place in each link. Pound has reformed the Chinese theories and Hu Shih has reformed Pound’s theories; Heidegger has reformed Laotzu and Zhuangzi’s theories and Chinese modern theories have transformed Heidegger; Schopenhauer has reformed Buddhist theories and Wang Guowei has influenced Schopenhauer’s thoughts. It is impossible to keep unchanged in the “traveling theory” and there is no such a gap as unbridgeable between Chinese and Western theories. As demonstrated above, binary oppositions such as East and West cannot explain or present the rich cross-cultural exchanges across civilizations 29

Second Citation from Zhengxu Tang(ୀ↓ᒿ), 20th Century Chinese Literatre and the Western Modernity (20 ц 㓚 ѝ ഭ ᮷ ᆖ о 㾯ᯩ⧠ԓ ѫѹ) (Chengdu: Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1992), p.50. 30 Guiyou Huang, Whitmanism, Imagism and Modernism in China and America (London: Associated University Press, 1997), p.129. 31 Ibid., p.132.

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that have been taking places over centuries. The comparative and oppositional study of Chinese and Western literatures, for example, as representing two isolated, independent and different world cultures leave out mutual influences, as well as misreadings and transformations, whether intentional or unconscious. We’ve noted that neither study of the influence of the French School, nor parallel study of American School in comparative literature, can get rid of the curse of the rigid binary model arising from the overlying of “China/West” and “tradition/modernity”. The study of influence only focuses on the study of sources, replacing ontology with theories of origin. These approaches naïvely assume that if they find solid evidence to explain the source of influences, everything will be settled, preferring to ignore all variations that can occur during the process. It is still a linear comparative study of A and B. So, it’s not surprising at all to be mocked at. The circle model of cross-cultural research pushes the influence of binary model studies to a three-dimensional structure. It traces not just the source of influence, and the origin of source, but also attempts to explains some of the multiple and complex variations in order to demonstrate their rationality. Furthermore, it seeks to highlight the equal relations among different cultures beyond the binary oppositions that set one culture as superior to another. The circle mode of cross-cultural study replaces the onedirectional model by a theory of diversity of world cultures.

CHAPTER FOUR INTEGRATING CHINESE LITERATURE INTO WORLD LITERATURE

World literature refers to national literature that can be read and understood by the readers of other cultures, because it shares the features that transcend the specificity of a given nation. There are at least two ways by which national literature can become international: translation and cross-cultural interpretation. Translation covers not only the conversion of language, but also the selection and variation of culture. Translation is also a cross-cultural interpretation in special form. In the context of modern Chinese, cross-cultural interpretation often emerges in the form of applying Western theories to explain Chinese texts in order to facilitate understanding by Western audiences and to support the internationalization of Chinese literature. It is important to point out that cross-cultural variations are not just unidirectional but multidirectional, that is, cultural intersections take place across space and time. The study of these variations will enlighten our search for a common framework in world literature.

I. Translation and the Reconstruction of World Literature World literature has become a much debated topic in the study of comparative literature. This is related to discipline integration taking place within the field of humanities. That is to say, integration of comparative literature into world literature is already a reality in many departments in the United States, and many other nations. In China, world literature trails behind Chinese literature, where contemporary emphasis falls on making Chinese literature more visible within other cultural surroundings. This internationalization of Chinese literature is, in fact, related to the issue of turning national literature into world literature.

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All forms of literature are intrinsically national. This is not only because literary works are firstly written in a given national language and therefore the nationality of this language determines the nationality of its literature, but also because a language conveys ideas, values, emotions and many other aspects that are determined culturally. However, not all literary works written in a national language become part of the national literary canon to which this literature belongs. Some works are eliminated, while others come to form part of the canon, being regarded as classic models of this national literature. Some works which are popular in a certain period may no longer be so in a different period and thus be disregarded. The creation, selection and circulation of national literature is therefore related to the historical context, which involves aspects of writers’ production, readers’ choices, and market circulation and distribution, including critical discussions of literary works across the dimensions of space and time. The production, reception, distribution, and re-readings of texts constitute the complex processes of origination, development, change, and extinction of national literatures. These processes operate by means of multidimensional selection mechanism which involves individuals, communities, nations and transnational entities. Not all national literature can become world literature, which is a national literature that can be read, understood, and recognized by other cultural groups. If Chinese literature wants to be read abroad and in other cultural surroundings, it needs to be understood and recognized in very different contexts, while still remaining the representation of a particular nation. This means that it must “travel” to other national literatures by means of translation, including not only by the conversion of language, but also by cultural variations so that “the principles of selection never being uncorrelatable with the home co-systems of the target literature”. 1 If Chinese literature expects to go out and be read by other peoples, it needs to overcome such translation barriers, with a selection process taking the form of individual, communal, national and transnational choices. In the following sections we shall briefly explore the major aspects that constitute selection. 1

Itama Even-Zohar, “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem”, in David Damrosch, Natalie Melas, Mbongiseni Buthelezi (eds.), The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature: from the European Enlightenment to the Global Present (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), p.241.

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Personal choice is often associated with individual interests. For example, in 1947, the Dutch sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik (1910–1967), serving as a diplomat in Washington DC, translated the Chinese novel “Judge Dee (Dee Goong An)” in his spare time, claiming to have translated it as a way to practice his English “I saw rows of detective stories in paperback pocket edition every day in a residential area. I bought several books, but it came to me that they were far less interesting than the story I was translating in Judge Dee”.2 Community choices are related to ideological tendencies and serve the purposes of a given community. For example, the translation of Chinese classics during the late Ming and early Qing periods carried out by the Jesuits had more to do with their missionary work, as Matteo Ricci (1552– 1610) admitted when referring to his translation of “The Four Books”, which was made not for the purpose of bringing Chinese wisdom to the European scholars, but in order to “use it as the tool to convert Chinese to Christianity”.3 National interests emerge at times when the entire national and transnational situation is at a turning point, either because national communities experience some kind of cultural crisis or literary “vacuum”, or because other national literatures contribute to stimulating each other in some way. This may be the case today, but a similar situation occurred in the period known in China as The May Fourth New Literature Movement, when large numbers of foreign literary works were translated into Chinese in order to revitalize old Chinese literature. The Indian comparative literature scholar Amiya Dev explained that “In influence and reception aesthetics, Western comparatists are primarily concerned with the mechanics and the psychology of influence and reception, rarely with their politics; but with us on the other hand; their politics played a major part. We learnt to venerate the language and the literature of our colonial masters: hence the influence. We learnt correspondingly to feel inferior about ourselves: hence the reception”. Referring to the particular case of Indian literature, he added that “influence in our case was influence of one 2

Carl D. Barkman and Helena de Vries, Een man van drie levens: biografie van diplomaat- Schrijvre-geleeerde Robert van Gulik. Tran. Shi Huiye (Haikou: Hainan Press, 2011), p.151. 3 Zuyi Ma & Rongzhen Ren (傜⾆⇵ǃԫ㦓⧽), History of World’s Translations of Chinese Writings (≹㉽ཆ䈁ਢ) (Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2003), pp.34–35.

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whole literature upon another, and reception, reception to one whole literature by another”.4 Alongside the various choices (e.g. personal, communal, national) that motivate translation, its interpretation and dissemination as a cross-cultural tool involves two seeming opposites: in the first, the translator selects texts similar to his or her own culture, and which are easy for readers at home to understand; in the second, the translator selects texts which are completely different from his/her own native culture, but which he or she sees as pivotal for the cultural development of his/her own nation. In the former situation it is relatively easy for readers to understand and accept texts. In the latter, greater obstacles and resistance might be encountered. In each case, in fact, the text needs to go through the filtering of the national culture. Unlike selection mechanisms within national literatures, the selection processes in world literature and translated literature have passed across cultural and language barriers. Lawrence Venuti explains that “The foreign text is not so much communicated as inscribed with domestic intelligibilities and interests. The inscription begins with the very choice of a text for translation, always a very selective, densely motivated choice, and continues in the development of discursive strategies to translate it, always a choice of certain domestic discourses over others”. 5 This means that texts in translation always lose something with regard to source texts, but they also gain something, mainly the right to go beyond the boundaries of their own nationalities and to be read and understood in other national contexts. This also means that a national literature does not instantly enter the literary territory of other nations. As long as it is translated, there will certainly be problems regarding re-writing, variation and misreading, and all forms of cultural variation. Based on fact, Damrosch defined world literature as “an elliptical refraction of national literatures”, and “the writing that gains in translation”, “not a set canon of texts but a model of

4

Amiya Dev, “Comparative Literature in India”, David Damrosch, Chen Yongguo, Yin Xing (eds.), New Directions: A Reader of Comparative and World Literature (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2010), p.181. 5 Lawrence Venuti, “Translation, Community, Utopia”, David Damrosch, Chen Yongguo, Yin Xing (eds.), New Directions: A Reader of Comparative and World Literature (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2010), p.188.

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reading: a form of detached engagement with worlds beyond our own place and time”.6 The so-called “elliptical refraction” is different from simple reflection. If a person stands in front of a normal mirror, then the image in the mirror is a simple reflection of this person’s image, a true copy of his or her image. But if this person stands in front of an uneven mirror, the image will be deformed into an elliptical refraction. National literature and world literature enable such elliptical refractions rather than simple reflection. And since world literature is related to both source and target literature, this refraction is “double” in nature. An elliptical shape is formed in the overlapping dual zone of the source culture and the receiving culture: world literature is produced in this middle ground, associated with both cultures and not limited to any single party. As far as we are concerned, it is not enough to talk about cultural variation in terms of world literature. It is not only necessary to stress specificity and distinctiveness, but also commonality, generality and cultural convergence. It is not only necessary to talk about unidirectional variation, but also bidirectional and multidirectional variation. World literature refers to national literature that can transcend the specificity of the nation-state cultural boundaries and ascend to the common area described above, where it can be read and understood by the readers of other cultures, representing both unity between specificity and commonality, and between variation and convergence. As Latin American scholar Edouard Glissant puts it, “A national literature poses all the questions. It must signal the self-assertion of new peoples, in what one calls their rootedness, and which is today their struggle. That is its sacralizing function, epic or tragic. It must express—and if it does not (and only if it does not) it remains regionalist, that is moribund and folkloric—the relationship of one culture to another in the Diverse, its contribution to totalization. Such is its analytical and political function which does not operate without calling into question its own existence”. 7

6

David Damrosch, What is World Literature (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003), p.281. 7 Edourd Glissant, “Cross-Cultural Poetics: National Literature”, in David Damrosch, Natalie Melas, Mbongiseni Buthelezi (eds.), The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature: From the European Enlightenment to the Global Present (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), p.252.

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Western comparative scholars like to use the “influence / reception” or “center / periphery” models to explain the processes involved in world literature. As Edouard Glissant reckons, “If Western literatures no longer need to solemnly formalize their presence to the world, a futile procedure after these serious charges against Western history, one by which these literatures would be qualified as a kind of mediocre nationalism, they have on the other hand to reflect on their new relationship with the world, by which they would signal no longer their preeminent place in the Same, but their shared task in the Diverse”. 8 If we can signal distinctiveness and specificity in Western culture, which is often regarded as the center of world universality, and point out commonality and identity in non-Western cultures, Chinese in particular, normally paired alongside distinctiveness and specificity, then it is possible for us to build a new framework for the study of world literature. Superficially, it frequently seems that a dominant culture generates greater influence upon weaker ones. In hindsight, however, this “center / margin” model actually contains a big loophole. To a large extent, it overlooks the multidimensional nature of the process of cultural transmission which affects all forms of knowledge, but even more so, knowledge communicated by means of non-mathematical language, such as in the case of literature: a language subject to ambiguity that yields various forms of interpretation in terms of personal, communal and national differences. Behind these variant forms of conflict hide collision, negotiation and compromise between two or more cultures. When influencers enter the cultural field of recipients, they not only affect the latter, they are also affected by them. Therefore, cultural journeys are round structures, and cultural variations are, invariably, at least two-way variations. In her translingual practice studies, Prof. Lydia H. Liu re-examines power relations between East and West, in the case of European texts being translated into non-European languages. She points out that translation should be understood as a brief expression of adaptation, diversion and other trans-lingual practice. In her opinion, “the terms traditional theorists of translation use to designate the language involved in translation, such as 8

Edourd Glissant, “Cross-Cultural Poetics: National Literature”, in David Damrosch, Natalie Melas, Mbongiseni Buthelezi (eds.), The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature: From the European Enlightenment to the Global Present (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), p.252.

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‘source’ and ‘target/receptor’, are not only inappropriate but misleading”.9 She proposes that “the idea of source language often relies on concepts of authenticity, origin, influence, and so on, and has the disadvantage of reintroducing the age-old problematic of translatability/untranslatability into the discussion. On the other hand, the notion of target language implies a teleological goal, a distance to be crossed in order to reach the plenitude of meaning; it thus misrepresents the ways in which the trope of equivalence is conceived in the host language, relegating its agency to second importance”.10 For those reasons, Prof. Liu proposes representing the relationship between translated text (target language) and original text (source language) by means of the expressions “host language” and “guest language”, so as to stress that a non-European host language can be modified by the guest language in the process of translation, form a collusional relationship with it, or encroach, replace and even seize the authority of the guest language. This is obviously a new idea in translation studies, which emerges from not only from the perspective of cross-cultural research and studies of deconstruction (the terms ‘host’ and ‘guest’ make reference to the wellknown article by Yale scholar Hillis Miller (born 1928), “The Critic as Host”, where he introduces a similar form of multidimensional dynamics for critical interpretation) 11 of focuses on the influential study in comparative studies. The shortcomings of traditional translation theories pointed out by Prof. Liu also apply to the study of cross-cultural influences where she advocates the re-allocation of Sino-Western power dynamics. For instance, when speaking of world literature, Western scholars generally make Eurocentric references to Goethe’s concept and how it radiates to the rest of the world, frequently forgetting that when Goethe put forward the concept of world literature, he was so inspired by the Chinese reading of Hao Qiu Zhuan (ྭ䙁Ր), or Yu Jiao Li (⦹့Ộ), that he said in the commentary that “the Chinese are almost the same with us in thoughts, behaviors and emotions, and we quickly feel that we are the same kind of

9

Lydia H. Liu, Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, Translated Modernity-Chian, 1900-1937 (California: Stanford University Press, 1995), p.27. 10 Ibid. 11 The author would like to thank Prof. Asun López-Varela (Complutense Univ. Madrid, Spain) for this information.

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people”, adding that “the age of world literature is coming”.12 This indicates that, in Goethe’s opinion, Chinese literature had universal value and represented the universality of human beings. Therefore, it is reasonable to regard the concept of world literature as undergoing a cyclic journey between East and West. As Prof. Wang Ning puts it, “world literature itself is a concept of journey, but it is not from the West to the East, and its genes are from the East originally, and it gradually develops into the theoretical concept in the West and then travels back to the East, or the whole world”.13 The definition of world literature put forward by Prof. Damrosch has produced a wide range of impacts in academic circles of comparative studies. In “Toward a Productive Interdisciplinary Relationship between Comparative literature and world literature”, American scholar John Pizer points out that: The reason that What Is World Literature by Damrosch in 2003 can be seen as an independent school is that it accurately tracks the works’ across time-and-spaced international communication promoted by policy, commercial activities, translation competition and archaeology. Damrosch believes that a text can only be considered as a work of world literature when it is continuously coming into collision with foreign cultures. He indicates that though the translation will inevitably distort the original intent of the text, it in fact has a positive effect on world literature, because the translation internationalizes the circulation mode of a work and stimulates a cross-age, cross-border and cross-racial hermeneutics dialogue”. 14

As Pizer sees it, the value of Damrosch’s contribution to the study of world literature lies in the fact that he places the discipline within an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural-studies paradigm. Pizer also indicates the close ties between world literature and cross-cultural interpretation, although he himself says relatively little about this.

12 Eckermann, Dialogues with Goethe, Tran. Zhu Guanqian (Beijing: People Literature Press, 1997), p.113. 13 Ning Wang (⦻ᆱ), “The Two-way Journey of World Literature” (ц⭼᮷ᆖⲴৼ ੁ᯵㹼), Literature and Art Studies (᮷㢪⹄ウ), No. 7, 2011, p.14. 14 John Pizer, “Toward a Productive Interdisciplinary Relationship between Comparative Literature and World Literature”, Comparative Literature in China, No.3, 2011, p.14.

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Generally speaking, Third World countries would encounter the following three difficulties in promoting their nations’ literature: firstly, a language not belonging to any of the major world languages in itself becomes an obstacle for acceptance; secondly, the fact that culture of a given country might not receive due worldwide attention because of its relatively weak political and economic position; thirdly, that works equipped with national particularities, and unique cultural details may generate difficulties in cultural comprehension by foreign readers. Cultural industries are on the rise and Chinese cultural policies are rapidly including translation in their agendas, incorporating these studies in universities and educational institutions. However, greater efforts in crosscultural communication are necessary in order to increase the visibility of Chinese culture(s) (the country is vast and variations also occur at a national level) in the rest of the world. Cross-cultural interpretation can be an effective strategy to integrate Chinese literature within world literature, and translation can be contemplated here as a manifestation of crosscultural interpretation.

II. Cross-Cultural Interpretation and Chinese Literature The phenomenon of cross-cultural interpretation has itself long existed in the cultural activities of human beings and figures in Chinese comparative literature textbooks as an important concept in comparative poetics (see, for instance, Yue, The New Edition...226; translated by Li and Guo). We trace below a brief historical panorama of the evolution of the concept in China. Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian (135–86 BC) recorded that “according to the presbytes from An Xi (the ancient name for Iran in Chinese), there existed Ruo Shui and Xi Wang Mu in Tiao Zhi territory about two thousand miles west of An Xi, which were never seen”. 15 Such a statement can be regarded as an early record of crosscultural interpretation in ancient China. In Shi Ji ˈ Sima Qian gave a detailed account of ancient China’s culture, history, politics, and military affairs and so on, from the time of the Yellow Emperor (around 2600 BC) up to his own day. 15

Sima Qian (ਨ傜䗱), Shi Ji (ਢ䇠), Vol. 10 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1959), pp.3163–4.

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With regard to Ruo Shui (ᕡ≤ literally, “weak water”), in Shang Shu (The Book of Documents), the earliest work of Chinese History, it is stated that Ruo Shui is located in Yongchow (䳽ᐎ), to the west, one of nine ancient Chinese administration divisions from the time of King Dayu (བྷ⿩), about 2200 BC, in the northeast part of China, which included the central and northern parts of Shaanxi Province, most of Gansu Province (except its southeast part), Qinghai Province, and the present day Ningxia Hui Minority Municipality. It is thus clear that Ruo Shui is the name of an ancient Chinese river. And regarding Xi Wang Mu (which literally means West King Mother) according to Shan Hai Jing (ኡ⎧㓿), an ancient Chinese book, recording the mythological place of mountains and rivers, it is recorded as Xi Wang Mu country and located in the Wild West, an uncultivated land. Those who diligently practiced could worship Xi Wang Mu at the top of the Kunlun Mountain Range in western China. Looking at the classical existing literature, Xi Wang Mu might have initially been an ancient tribal kingdom with a matriarchal system that gradually became a myth and a legend. Both references, Ruo Shui and Xi Wang Mu, appear in old Chinese literature. An Xi is an ancient name of Iranian origin, and Tiao Zhi mainly refers to the area of today’s Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. Ruo Shui may well be the River Euphrates, and Xi Wang Mu could mean the Queen of Sheba recorded in the Bible. Shi Ji’s above quotation does not mean there really are Ruo Shui and Xi Wang Mu in Tiao Zhi, which might just be an early cross-cultural interpretation that used Ruo Shui and Xi Wang Mu in Chinese to refer to the Euphrates and the Queen of Sheba. In modern China, Wang Guowei’s work “Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions”, represents a clearer cross-cultural interpretation, just as Chen Yinke (1890–1969) pointed out in 1934: “Foreign concepts and internal resources complement each other”. 16 With respect to modern Chinese literary criticism, using Western theories to interpret Chinese texts can be seen as a major form of cross-cultural interpretation. In the 1970s, some scholars from Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Tianhong Gu and Pengxiang Chen, defined this academic paradigm as “Illustrative Study”. 16 Chen Yinke (䱸ᇵᚚ), “Preface to Mr. Wang Jing-an’s Corpus” (⦻䶉ᆹ‫⭏ݸ‬䚇 Җᒿ), in Wang Guowei’s Corpus (⦻ഭ㔤䚇Җ), Vol. 1 (Shanghai˖Shanghai Bookstore Press, 1983), p.2.

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However, we believe that this description does not express the complex relationship between Western theories and Chinese texts, demonstrated, for example, in Wang Guowei’s Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions, since “Illustrative Study” is a unilateral linear process that should be abandoned. If cultural misreading and cultural variation exist in Wang Guowei, it is definitely by means of bidirectional variation, with both Chinese ideas changing into Western conceptions, and Western ones brought across into Chinese. Wang Guowei’s theory of tragedy originated from his readings of Schopenhauer. However, he did not translate Schopenhauer’s original work word for word in order to apply it in Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions. Instead, he carefully analyzed, selected, and transformed Schopenhauer’s philosophical theory within a Chinese framework. As we saw in the previous chapter, Schopenhauer, in The World as Will and Representation, proposed three models of tragedy. The first model was illustrated in the extraordinary wickedness of characters in Shakespeare’s dramas, Richard III, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice, as well as Euripides’s Hippolytus, Sophocles’s Antigone, and Schiller’s The Robbers. The second model, based on blind fate, includes Sophocles’s Oedipus and The Women of Trachis, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Voltaire´s Tranced, and Schiller’s The Bride of Messina. And the third category includes Goethe’s Clavigo, and Faust, Schiller’s Wallenstein, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Corneille’s Le Cid. In “ Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions”, the omission of the works mentioned in Schopenhauer’s theory of tragedy cause the separation of the sign signifiers from their “signified”, causing a “gliding” of signifiers that points instead to the Chinese text. In this respect, there is a kind of meaningful intertextual relationship between Schopenhauer’s theory of tragedy and “Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions” that can be referred to as an appropriation, transformation and re-interpretation of Schopenhauer’s original text within a Chinese ideological framework. For instance, at the beginning of “Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions”, Laozi’s words are quoted, but revised, “The reason why there are troubles, pain, suffering and sorrow is that we were born human, with a

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given body” (Ӫѻབྷᛓ,൘ᡁᴹ䓛).17 These well-known words are from Chapter 12 of Laozi’s text (Laozi was a legendary Daoist philosopher in ancient China) where the original text reads “All my sufferings result from my body. If I don’t have this body, how can I have any problems?”˄੮ᡰ ԕᴹབྷᛓ㘵ˈᜏᡁᴹ䓛DŽ㤏੮ᰐ䓛ˈ੮ᴹօᛓ˛˅. 18 We might say that the quotations cited by Wang Guowei are wrong, or at least that he did not apply use them directly, re-writing them instead. We could finish our research by pointing out these misappropriations. But cross-cultural interpretation demands that we should learn more about the reasons why Wang Guowei did not verify the original text. Was this because of a faulty memory, or was it because of something else? But given Wang Guowei’s rigorous scholarship, such errors were rare. Besides, the above quotation is clearly related to another one cited by Schopenhauer in The World as Will and Representation. When interpreting his theory of tragedy, Schopenhauer quoted a line from Life Is But A Dream, a drama by the Spanish playwright and poet, Calderon de la Barca (1600–1681). The English translation reads, “Man’s greatest offense is to have been born”,19 which was just what Wang Guowei had read. In Chinese translation it becomes “Ӫѻབྷᛓˈ൘੮ᴹ䓛”, literally “The reason why there are troubles, pain, suffering and sorrow is that we were born human, with a given body”. Wang Guowei’s quotation of that sentence from Laozi silently interfered with Schopenhauer’s own quotation from Calderon, resulting in the aforementioned changes, evidence of Wang Guowei’s efforts to make something Chinese out of Western ideas. Laozi’s and Calderon’s words, separated from their own context, and integrated into the new text of “Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions”, brought about this new meaning. To be brief, after such a two-way variation of cross-cultural interpretation, “Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions” has moved beyond national literature to become a Chinese tragedy that could be understood by Western readers, thus rising to the level of world literature. Although Wang Guowei might not have accepted Goethe’s idea of “world 17

Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶), Vol.1 (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 1997), p.1. 18 Laozi (㘱ᆀ). “Laozi” (㘱ᆀ), Zhuzi Jicheng (䈨ᆀ䳶ᡀ), Vol. 3 (Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Press, 1986), p.10. 19 Secondary Citation from Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (Beijing: China Social Science Publishing House, 1999), p.254.

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literature”, it is indicated that he evaluated A Dream of Red Mansions from this perspective. In “Wang Guowei and World Literature”, Mr. Jiang Yinghao, a scholar at Hong Kong Chinese University noted that Wang Guowei didn’t regard A Dream of Red Mansions as only a Chinese novel, but also a novel exploring the problems of life faced by all mankind. It was a “great writing of the universe”. He analyzed and commented this novel from the perspective of world literature, and regarded as “the tragedy of tragedy”.20

Wang Guowei greatly respected Goethe, and wrote “Biographies of German Literary Giants Goethe and Schiller”, and “The Family of Goethe” to commemorate the great German writer as part of “the world’s” greatest literary figures.21 If Goethe is the first one to propose the concept of world literature, then the first one to offer this concept in China is probably Chen Jitong (Tcheng ki-tong, 1851–1907), a diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty. Some scholars have already researched the situation of world literature in China. Works such as “The Development of World Literature in China” by Huachuan Li ( ᵾ ॾ ᐍ , 2002), and “Eastern Studies Introduced to the West, or The Generation of the World Literature in China” by Zhengwen Pan (█↓᮷, 2007) are among these. According to Zeng Pu (1872–1935), a novelist in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Republic China, Chen Jitong claimed that: We should encourage the following things: firstly, we should not be satisfied with our own national literature. Instead, we should go and get involved in world literature. To be involved in world literature means the first strategy should be to eliminate misunderstanding and misreading. In order to do this, a large-scale translation of works should be promoted. We should not only translate well-known foreign literature. Our most influential works should also be translated and introduced to the world. To eliminate misreading, we should change the traditional custom on literature, and abandon preconceived ideas as well as the original model to

20

Yinghao Jiang (㪻㤡䊚), “Wang Guowei and World Literature” (⦻ഭ㔤оц⭼ ᮷ᆖ), Journal of Fudan University. No. 2, 1997, p.104. 21 Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶), Vol. 3 (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 1997), p.372.

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The above statement by Chen Jitong was recorded in the letter from Zeng Pu to Hu Shi (1881–1962). On February 21 1928, Hu Shi wrote to Zeng Pu to discuss the issue of translation. Zeng Pu replied Hu Shi on March 16, mentioning Chen Jitong’s statement. But he did not indicate when Chen Jitong made this statement. It is thought to have been between 1898 and 1902. Later on, Zeng Pu’s letter was included in Hu Shi’s Collection, “Appendix: Mr. Zeng’s Reply”. Unfortunately, we haven’t, to date, found any material directly from Chen Jitong. In fact, Chen Jitong mentioned that national literature should adopt the approach of eliminating misunderstanding and misreading in order to become world literature. The strategy for eliminating misunderstanding relies on translation, whilst the approach to eliminating misreading should be established by reforming the traditional concept of literature. For example, attention to poetic styles or ancient prose and classical poetry in Chinese literature should be paired with studies on drama and narrative as it is done in Western countries. As far as I am concerned, the background of world literature proposed by Chen Jitong should be understood as Western studies introduced to the East, and as Eastern studies introduced to the West. However, as is pointed out above, it is wrong to neither separate both approaches rigidly nor hold that world literature in China is only related to the latter. Goethe’s definition makes it clear that it is a bidimensional cross-cultural journey. Similarly, Chen Jitong’s concept of world literature cannot be just a oneway journey of translation, where Chinese literature is translated to increase its visibility, or Western books are read to increase our Chinese knowledge of the West. As pointed out above, the processes of knowledge exchange are much more complex and involve change and adaptations, not merely reproductions in another language. In the case of Wang Guowei, he superficially seems to be introducing Western studies to the East, but at a deeper level, it can be seen that he adopts Western theories for cross-cultural re-interpretation of Chinese works, a process that, in turn, may contribute to facilitate the 22

Secondary citation from Hu Shi (㜑䘲), Hu Shi Competitive Collection (㜑䘲㋮ ૱䳶), Vol.6, Hu Ming (eds.) (Beijing: Guangming Daily Press, 1998), p.349.

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understanding of Chinese concepts in the West. Perhaps because of this, Jiang Yinghao says that Wang Guowei has “stepped into the center of the world”. 23 In Wang Guowei’s world view, there exists no distinction between Chinese literature and Western literature. He even reckons that “anyone posing such a statement does not possess real knowledge”, for, “as far as I know, both Chinese and Western literature will flourish or decline at the same time. Since the atmosphere prevails, the two kinds of literature can promote each other. Besides, since we live in the current world and talk about modern literature, there’s no way that Chinese literature can flourish without Western literature, or that Western literature can flourish without Chinese literature”24 In conclusion, literature is first national literature, with a certain style, temperament, and national characteristics that include many aspects, geographical, cultural, socio-political, etc., and then probably world literature. This is to say, not all national literature can become world literature. The notion that the more national a literature is, the more it belongs to the world is not correct, because world literature is not the sum of national literatures all over the world. Only national literature that expresses certain universal values and is understood by other nations is world literature. As Wang Guowei says, “A truly great poet regards human feelings as his own feelings. His energy is too rich to stop. Therefore, he can’t be fully satisfied with expressing his own feelings. He wants to express the feelings of mankind. His works are in fact the mouthpiece of mankind”.25 In order to integrate Chinese literature into world literature, the processes of translation and cross-cultural interpretation are required. This paper has shown how Wang Guowei’s “Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions” can be a model for such cross-cultural interpretation. However, it is important to point out that the need to research Chinese critical resources to interpret world literature within a truly multidimensional paradigm is still a pending subject. For centuries, China has been a rich culture with a wealth of philosophical and critical knowledge that needs to be further 23

Yinghao Jiang (㪻㤡䊚), “Wang Guowei and World Literature” (⦻ഭ㔤оц⭼ ᮷ᆖ), Journal of Fudan University, No. 2, 1997, p.102. 24 Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶), Vol.4 (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 1997), p.367. 25 Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤), Collected Works of Wang Guowei (⦻ഭ㔤᮷䳶), Vol. 3 (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 1997), p.30.

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explored, re-interpreted and transmitted. To spread Chinese texts as interpreted by means of Western theories is only one side of the crosscultural journey of text circulation. The need to break Western centrism and form new relationships that include complete “passages”, to borrow the term from E.M. Forster’s Passage to India, remains a pending subject.

III. Cross-cultural Interpretation under the Context of US-American Sinology In recent years, research by Stephen Owen, an American Sinologist, has received attention from Chinese scholars. In particular, his systematic construction on the history of poetry during the Tang Dynasty, which has, more or less, changed the stereotypical perception of American Sinology within China. We discuss below some of Owen’s works and their impact on Chinese academia. He studied at the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature of Yale University, and obtained his PhD in 1972, with a dissertation entitled Poetries by Meng Jiao and Han Yu. In 1982, he began to teach in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilization, as well as in the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. In his research, he explores the historical development of Chinese literature and literary connotations beyond the model of SinoWestern dualism. Owen focuses on the method of cross-cultural interpretation to reveal the significance of Chinese literature itself, with the aim to understand the universal values of Chinese aesthetics. Because of his cultural background, it is inevitable that Owen adopts Western cultural consciousness to carry out his literary studies, just as other American scholars did when they carried out their literary studies, because their initial goal of their engagement in Chinese literary studies was to facilitate explanation and understanding for Western readers. Precisely because of this, the methodological approach adopted in his studies on Chinese literature is easier to understand for Western readers. For example, in one of his books he chose the term “Middle Ages”, because “this title is a useful starting point for English readers”.26 With respect to the interpretation of specific works, Owen transcends genres and perspectives of Western theories focusing instead on the analysis of literary texts without distractions, a feature which Chinese scholarship also 26

Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p.1.

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shares. His cross-cultural interpretation of Chinese literature has significance for Chinese scholars, even though it contains certain occasional misreading of Chinese literature. Owen’s initial research into Chinese literature apparently followed the “close reading” of New Criticism. However, this “close reading” in his studies on the poetry of the Tang Dynasty is different from that in New Criticism, because he did not focus on the text alone, and thereby avoided cutting off authorship and reception in the interpretative process. While paying attention to text analysis, Owen never leaves out the historical background, the author’s intention or the text’s reception. Certain aspects related to the so called “misreading” in cross-cultural communication can be found in “Remembering Li Po on a Spring Day”, by Du Fu, one of Owen’s objects of study: ⲭҏ䈇ᰐ᭼ 伈❦ᙍн㗔 ␵ᯠᓮᔰᓌ ‫׺‬䙨劽৲ߋ ⑝े᱕ཙṁ ⊏ьᰕ᳞Ӂ օᰦа䞂 䟽о㓶䇪᮷

Po it is-no rival in poetry, Wind-tossed, thoughts unlike the Crowd’s. Clear and fresh: a colonel Yu Hsin, Noble, aloof: Pao Chao the officer. Trees in spring’s sky, North of the Wei The clouds of sundown in Chiang-tung When shall we share a goblet of wine And, together again, discuss fine points of writing.27

Traditionally, the poem is thought to express Du Fu’s concern for his friend Li Po (Li Bai 701–762). Owen, however, reads in Du Fu’s praise of his friend an inner aspiration of competition and explains that “inside the simple praise poem, pride writes a very different poem—by a slight shift in tone of the written voice, by a certain allusion coming unbidden to mind, by a particular phrase forming itself by chance. Our pleasure in the text is in the simultaneous unfolding of the two contradictory poems—the generous, respectable outer text and the proud, difficult inner text”. 28 Owen’s above remarks initially surprised many Chinese readers. This explanation of Du Fu’s intention of competing with Li Bai is something most Chinese readers refuse to accept: it is something inconceivable to them because it does not conform to Chinese traditional ethics and philosophy. However, we should not say that his explanation is entirely groundless, as shown in his detailed analysis in his book Traditional Chinese Poetry and

27 Stephen Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics: Omen of the World (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), pp.212–3. 28 Ibid., p. 218.

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Poetics: Omen of the World. Owen’s reading comes from an entirely different context and enables an intercultural confrontation. A similar example occurs in Owen’s interpretation of “afterword to Records on Metal and Stone” by Li Ch’ing-chao’s (1084–1155) published in Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in Classical Chinese Literature. According to Chinese interpretation, this collection is pervaded by Li’s nostalgia for her happy life with her husband in their early life and by her sufferings from the war in her later life. However, Owen found that Li resented her husband for his indifference towards her, and for being more interested in ancient scripts and paintings. Thus, Owen points out that, “resentment flows just beneath the surface: she implicitly compares her husband’s passion for collecting to the bibliomania of Emperor Yuan of the Liang, and Emperor Yang of the Sui, both of whom are considered examples of bad government and its dire consequences, both being representatives of destructive distortions of value”.29 The conclusion that Owen compares one’s husband to a bad emperor may somehow be unacceptable for Chinese readers, since this is contrary to Chinese traditional ethics. In both examples, Owen’s “misreading” offers Chinese scholars the opportunity to rethink their understanding of these texts and thus enable a kind of organic interpretative process that moves beyond the formal aspects of the text and situates it in the borderland between authorial intention, reception, and interpretation, that is, beyond traditional new critical concerns. Owen’s interpretation arises directly from his understanding and experiences of general human nature, which justifies Li’s lament about her husband’s indifference and Du Fu’s concealed intention to compete, regardless of cultural specificities. In order to explain how the above process of interpretation takes place, a more accurate definition of cross-cultural interpretation is necessary. As a branch of hermeneutics, cross-cultural interpretation is different from the traditional induction method of positivism (from concrete to abstract thought) and also from rationalist deduction (from abstract premises to specific ways of thinking). In the past, interpretation was regarded as an ontological approach, but in modern hermeneutics interpretation in itself is regarded as ontology because it is inherent to the value of life. Crosscultural interpretation is thus the “transfer from one culture to another, one 29

Stephen Owen, Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in Classical Chinese Literature (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986), p.98.

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language to another, one text to another and one signifier to another. It means that the original culture, language, text and signifier will be explained, supplemented or replaced by another culture, language, text and signifier”.30 Obviously, this is an open process during which each reader comprehends the text based on his/her own former understanding, cultural values, and experiences, because of this different interpretations of meaning are therefore inevitable and make multiple understandings possible. The meaning of a text is not only determined solely by the author and the text itself, but also by its readers. Understanding this situation allows Chinese scholars to consider Owen’s misreading. In the introduction to his book The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of MidNinth Century (827–860), Owen explains that “this book is essentially different from the kind of work that has been done by Chinese scholars. Although these differences will no doubt be attributed to a ‘Western’ viewpoint, part of my intension is to reconcile a division within Chinese scholarship itself, between the precise work on the lives and dates of poets and poems, on the one hand, and, on the other, the kinds of generalizations that are made about this very long period, which has, through a complex historical accident, been labeled as a single entity, namely, the ‘Later Tang’”.31 In terms of textual researches on historical archives and data, Owen obviously cannot be compared with most Chinese scholars. On this point, he has admitted that his research on poetry of the late Tang Dynasty benefits from works of Xuancong Fu (1933–), for example. But the significance of Owen’s studies lies in the new understanding of Chinese literature from the perspective of another, different point of view from those of Chinese scholars. So what is the specific content of Owen’s crosscultural interpretation? In this case, the summary provided by Xiaolu Wang and Dongdong Shi in “Explanation and Utterance Mode of Chinese Literature in Western Sinology” is enlightening. Wang and Shi argue that “Owen attaches equal attention to life experience and rational thinking”,32 30

Li Qingben ( ᵾ ᒶ ᵜ ), Cross-cultural Aesthetics: Beyond the Chinese and Western Mode of Dualism (䐘᮷ॆ㖾ᆖ˖䎵䎺ѝ㾯Ҽ‫ݳ‬䇪⁑ᔿ) (Changchun: Changchun Publishing House, 2011), p.196. 31 Stephen Owen, The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of Mid-Ninth Century (827–860) (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2006), p.11. 32 Xiaolu Wang and Dongdong Shi(⦻ᲃ䐟ǃਢߜߜ), “Explanation and Utterance Mode of Chinese Literature in Western Sinology: A Take on Stephen Owen’s Model of Interpretation as an Example” (㾯ᯩ≹ᆖ䈝ຳѝⲴѝഭ᮷ᆖ䱀䟺о䈍

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and thus Owen’s practice can be regarded as an example of cross-cultural interpretation. For example, in his study of “South Mountain” by Han Yu (768–824), Owen compares it with “Changgu” by Li He 790–816) and “An Account of Little Stone Ramparts Mountain” by Liu Zongyuan (773– 819). Owen does not think these are three isolated monologues, but regards them as part of a network of interrelationships. He attempts to unveil the intertextuality and structural architecture of natural description and its aesthetic qualities. Rivers and mountains, traditional Yin and Yang ˄ 䱤 /䱣 ˅ symbols in The Book of Changes are used by Han Yu as metaphors. For Owen, they are part of the explanation of the Chinese natural landscape, because “natural order has ever made former poets rely on clean explanation of natural landscape without a doubt as an indispensable component of rhetoric in ancient Chinese poetries”. 33 However, in the mid-Tang Dynasty, some authors became suspicious of natural order and landscape and derived “different modes and premises and a group of contrary standpoints that are contained and implied mutually”. 34 This assertion is what makes Owen’s reading of the three poems mentioned above possible. Han Yu’s “South Mountain” confirms a positive answer to the question whether nature has order or not, illustrated at the ending of the poem. བྷૹ・ཙൠ 㓿㓚㛆㩕㞐DŽ ৕ࡍᆠᔰᕐˈ 售ࣹ䈱ׁ࣍DŽ ࡋީᵤ㘼ᐗˈ ᡞ࣋ᗽࣣ⯊DŽ ᗇ䶎ᯭᯗᯔˈ ᰐѳ‫ٷ‬䇵ૂDŽ 呯㦂ㄏᰐՐˈ ࣏བྷ㧛䞜‫ܖ‬DŽ ቍ䰫Ҿ⾐ᇈˈ 㣜㤮䱽ⅶ௵DŽ ᯀ❦֌ⅼ䈇ˈ

Mighty they stand between Heaven and Earth, In orderly function like the body’s ducts and veins Who was he who first laid out their origin? Who, in labor and striving, urged it on? Creating in this place the simple and artificed, With forces joined, he bore long-suffering toil. Could he have not applied hatchet and ax? — He must have used spells and incantations. No tradition survives from the Age of Chaos, Such a mighty deed none can repay. I have heard from the priest in charge of sacrifice That he descends to taste the offering’s sweet scent. Finely wrought, I made this poem,

䈝⁑ᔿ—ԕᆷ᮷ᡰᆹⲴ䀓䈫⁑ᔿѪֻ), Chinese Foreign Cultures and Literary Theories, No. 1, 2008, p.56. 33 Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996), p.39. 34 Ibid., p.40.

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By which I may join in requiting him.35

Regarding the ending of this poem, Zhen Xu (1898–1967) indicated that 䎎 (zan) means assistance, and ᣕ䞝 (baoyou) means returning sacrifice to God. For Xu, བྷ ૹ ˄ dazhai) (mighty) describes the shape of the mountain, while ৕ࡍ (juechu) (in the original) inquires into its origin, ቍ 䰫 (changwen) (have heard from) describes its supernatural differences, and ᯀ❦ (feiran) (wrought) defines the intention of the poem.36 This is a traditional Chinese method applied in poetry annotation. Instead, Owen pays attention to a fascinating passage, “beginning with the comparison of the mountains to a living body, and moving immediately the body’s creator”. 37 Interestingly, in Chinese cosmology this connection between the order of things and the creator is “impersonal,” but Owen adds a clarifying line to assert that the unity of vision provided in the poem is “cosmic and imperial, with all particulars, in their immense variety, finding their place in the orderly whole”, 38 and this would justify the allusion to the creator as embodiment of the emperor in the period under study. In the second poem, “Changgu”, by He Li, Owen finds that “nature seems to offer an overabundance of fascinating details, which absorb the poet’s attention”,39 and “the poet can never see the whole of this forest landscape; it engulfs him with mysterious and isolated presences”,40 so the answer to the question of an order being present in nature in the poem is negative. Thus, while Han Yu’s “South Mountain” belongs to the imperial territorial mode of confident sceneries, Li’s “Changgu” is the landscape of remote counties, an orderless space of fragments lacking unity which conveys depressing feelings. In the poetry of the mid-Tang Dynasty, there is an opposition between regularization and fragmentation, and the opposition between centrifugation and centripetence. The two poems above are such cases: “We could say that the explicit assertion of a totalizing order 35

Ibid., p.38. Zhen Xu(ᗀ䴷), “Explanatory Note to South Mountain”(ইኡ䈇䇴䟺), Collation on Complete Works by Han Yu (丙᜸‫ޘ‬䳶ṑ⌘), Shouyuan Qu and Sichun Chang (ቸᆸ‫ݳ‬ǃᑨᙍ᱕) (eds.), (Chengdu: Sichuan University Press, 1996), p.350. 37 Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p.38. 38 Ibid., p40. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid., p.45. 36

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compensated for the fascination with the particular, or we could say that the fascination with the particular was a reaction to an increasingly explicit discourse of totalization”; “Each opposite side may occur in another side”.41 The texts form a mutually interdependent opposition that, in the intercultural explanation mode used by Owen, conveys both emotional experiences and rational cognition. The ambivalence of responses which attempt to grasp explanation as middle ground between natural experiences and human mystical aspirations are captured in Owen’s analysis and in his research on Zongyuan Liu’s prose, “An Account of Little Stone Ramparts Mountain”: From the point where West Mountain road comes out, I went straight north, crossing over Yellow Reed Ridge and coming down the other side. There I found two roads. One went off to the West; I followed it, but found nothing. The other went north a bit and then turned to the East, where, after no more than a hundred and twenty-five yards, the dry land stopped at the fork of a river. There a mass of rock lay stretched across the margin. Along the top were the shapes of battlements and timbers, while to the side were palisades and a keep, which had something like a gateway in it. When I peered inside, it was completely black. I tossed a stone in, and there was a splash of water in a cavernous space. The echoes continued to resound for a long time. By circling around I could climb to the summit, where I gazed far into the distance. There was no soil, yet fine trees and lovely way they were spread out in clumps and open spaces, together with the angles at which they were set, made it seem like they had been placed there by some intelligence. For a long time now I have wondered whether there was a creator or not. When I came to this spot, I became even more convinced of his existence. But then I thought it peculiar that he did not make this in the heartland, but instead set it out here in an uncivilized wilderness where, in the passage of centuries and millennia, he could not even more once advertise his skill. Thus all his hard labor was to no purpose. Given that a deity should not be like this, perhaps he does not exist after all. Someone said, “It is to provide solace for virtuous men who come to this place in disgrace.” Someone else said, “Here the divine forces produce no outstanding men, but instead produce only these things, so that south of Chu there are few people and many rocks.” I do not believe either claim.42

41

Ibid., p.47. Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996), pp.48–49. 42

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The first half of Liu’s article contains his analysis of the singular views of Little Stone Ramparts Mountain, while in the second half he suggests that a secluded and distant land offers an opportunity for the display of creative talents. Between the lines, one can contemplate such opinions in reference to the poet himself as they apparently show a faint criticism of the maker’s faculties while hiding a strong sense of ridicule for his faculties. Associated with the two above-mentioned works, this one presents a more ambitious issue regarding the ecological relationship between humanity and nature as Owen recognizes. The view of the landscape seems to be “architectural” in style, and therefore includes a certain intention, although the final result is turned into a kind of occasional miracle. For Owen this is owing to “its separation from the imperial topography”. 43 We can conclude that Owen’s overall interpretation of these three works turns to the method of rational analysis. However, his interpretation is linked to his own emotional experiences and intuitive insights based on his perceptual understanding and moving beyond empirical induction and abstract interpretation. We might ask why Liu was so keen to point out the orientation and path of the Little Stone Ramparts Mountain at the beginning of the narrative, and also as to what his exact intention would have been to make prospective readers visit such a remote place. Without any autobiographical materials to support interpretation, this article might well provide the narrative with a familiar feeling of unfamiliar borderlands “creating an intelligible topographic order in the wilderness”.44 However, this is just one possible interpretation among many others, and Owen’s conclusion does not seem to come via empirically logical analysis of materials. Besides, Owen’s conjecture as to the origin of the name “Little Stone Ramparts Mountain” would seem contrary to the principles of positivism and rationalism, as well as the rigor of scientific research. But, as noted above, literary interpretation does not follow inductive or deductive approaches drawing instead from the direct clarity of the meaning of life. Owen’s discussion of the diverging paths westward with the word ᰐᡰᗇ (wusuode) “found nothing” or literally “nothing was gotten”, and the one to the North first and then East broken suddenly by the mountain rock 43

Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996), p.49. 44 Ibid.

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provides a delicate meaning for the word ᗇ(de) (get something). Owen also puts this word ᗇ in relation to the act of writing and the naming power of words. Writing provides definitions, and thus appropriates and fixes conceptual mental space mapping it on concrete locations or “places” on the blank page. Owen explains that if you “make space intelligible, you have to ‘get something’, de, and getting something requires that it has words or a name; that is the only way we can orient one place in relation to another and explain the route to follow” (The End 53). The tension between “get something” and “nothing was gotten” can also be read in terms of pursuit and loss and as confirmation of a confused landscape without order, thus perhaps offering an interpretation for Liu’s feelings during his exile in ≨ᐎ (Yungchow) located in the southwest of Hunan Province, a remote area. Liu’s secret ridicule of the supreme monarch alternates with a vision of clear and humble insight which only survival situations can give. The first refers to the concrete, to history, nationality and territory, and the second to the general, to philosophy, universality, and the world. Interpretation moves here beyond cultural traditions and becomes cross-cultural interpretation. This emotional understanding is possibly the strength of traditional Chinese poetics, often distinct from the rational analysis of Western approaches. However, there should be no need to separate both. Thus Owen’s pursuit of cross-cultural interpretation lies in the equal stress on emotional understanding and rational analysis. That is to say, Owen’s interpretation of Chinese literature is a unity of aesthetics and culture, a unity of ideology and history, as well as a unity of sensual understanding and rational cognition. In “Talking about the New Direction of US-American Sinology”,45 Kangyi Sun points out that Sinology at American universities has been generally classified as “area studies,” but that the discipline-based division at Yale University, for example, where Sinology was carried on in various departments, has unexpected benefits and represents a new direction of American Sinology. This distribution has widened the scope of Sinology, and enabled its expansion into the field of the comparative literature in the 1980s. This new direction breaks with the mode of Sino-Western dualism. Contemporary sinologists therefore believe that the emphasis on the essential difference between China and the West is prone to overgeneralization. Thus, when Owen is placed in the context of American 45

Kangyi Sun ( ᆉ ᓧ ᇌ ), “Talking about the New Direction of US-American Sinology” (䈸䈸㖾ഭ≹ᆖⲴᯠᯩੁ), Bookstore, No.12, 2007, pp.35–36.

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Sinology, his studies represent these new trends and affirm the overall direction of scholarship in Sinology. In conclusion, the cross-cultural interpretation of Chinese literature by Owen is of significance regarding two aspects: it provides the Chinese people with a different perspective and insights in understanding their own literature, and offers Western scholars an introduction to Chinese literature. Of particular interest is Owen’s exploration of universal values: the worldliness of Chinese literature and his cross-cultural interpretations offer a path for Chinese literature and Chinese scholarship to move towards the rest of the world.

CHAPTER FIVE APPRECIATING CHINESE POETRY FROM THE CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Along with Li Bai (701–762) and Du Fu (712–770), Wáng Wéi (699–761) is one of the greatest Chinese poets of the Tang dynasty, a period when Chinese poetry is thought to have reached a zenith. In Chinese literary history, Li Bai is often regarded as shixian (䈇ԉ), that is, a Daoist of poetry, while Du Fu is shisheng (䈇൓), a Confucianist of poetry. Wáng Wéi is seen as shifo (䈇֋), that is, a Buddhist of poetry. Wáng Wéi served most of his life at the Tang court, but Buddhism was very important to him, so that he was able to combine civil and religious life, a fact also reflected in his pen name Mo-jie (᪙䈈). Preceded by Wéi (㔤), the syllables produce Wéi-mo-jie ( 㔤 ᪙ 䈈 ), which is the Chinese for Vimalakirti, a central figure of the Buddhist sutra. A layman and a sage, Vimalakirti, a contemporary of Gautama Buddha (6th to 5th century BC), was the perfect model for Wáng Wéi’s dual role of civil servant and contemplative recluse.

I. Zen Buddhism and Its Impact in China Zen Buddhism (Chán) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the sixth century AD. Traditionally, the origin of Chán in China is credited to the monk Bodhidharma, who is recorded as having come from India during the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The word Zen derived from the Sanskrit word dhyƗna, meaning “absorption” or “meditation” (pronounced in modern Mandarin: Chán). Zen was initially adapted from the Indian texts to the Chinese culture, and exposed to Confucianism and Taoism. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The TathƗgatagarbha Sutras (ྲᶕ㯿㓿) and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed because of the perceived similarities with Taoism. The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into Chinese culture, which emphasized the mundane world and society. Seeing self-nature is considered

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as the primary path to reaching the buddhahood or nirvana, the transcendence of body and mind, by means of sudden (a feature of the Southern School, led by Shenhui) or gradual enlightenment (Northern School led by Yuquan Shenxiu) into true nature, followed by the purification of intentions. Buddha-nature is made of wisdom (prajna), and emptiness/form (sunyata): the Prajnaparamita Sutras and Madhyamaka emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness. The short text Two Entrances and Four Acts, written by T’an-lín (᳷᷇; 506–574), contains teachings which are attributed to Bodhidharma. Attributed to Hui Neng ភ 㜭 (638–713) is The Platform Snjtra of the Sixth Patriarch.1 An anecdote dating back to a passage from the Lankavatara Sutra (ᾎխ㓿) and the Surangama Sutra (ᾎѕ㓿) warn of the dangers of taking Zen writings literally. Vimalakirtinirdeua ( ֋ 䈤 㔤 ᪙ 䈈 㓿 ) is another of the most popular Buddhist sutras in medieval China was first translated into Chinese from Sanskrit by Zhiqian in the Wu Kingdom in south China between 222 and 229 AD. A translation and commentary on the Vimalakîrti-nirdeùa was written by Seng Zhao (384–414) describing conversations and debates between the Buddha and his disciples, the bodhisattvas, and among them, Bodhisattva Manjusri and Sage Vimalakirti, and between Uakyamuni’s disciple Uariputra and Vimalakirti’s servant maiden, who is commonly known as Tiannu, or the Daughter of Heaven. The debate between Vimalakirti and Manjusri, used as the central motif in most visual representations of the sutra, focuses on the emptiness, bitterness, and illusory nature of human life. Taking himself as an example, Vimalakirti pretends to be ill and uses his illness as a metaphor to help his audience understand his philosophy on the bitterness and unreality of human life. Seng Zhao’s Zhaolun (Treatises of [Seng] Zhao) is perhaps the most significant text for the study of the early MƗdhyamika school (549–623 AD), a philosophical development that arose within MahƗyƗna Buddhism in India during the first few centuries AD, and its relationship to the indigenous Daoist and Confucian traditions. MahƗyƗna concentrates on distinguishing between concepts and ideas as necessary, but insubstantial, tools for functioning within the world of conventional reality and the false sense of duality between subject and object that they often engender. According to the tradition, Buddha

1

John McRae, “The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch”, translated from the Chinese of Zongbao, Taisho 48, 2008.

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explained that the Dharma-nature cannot be realized until form and emptiness are apprehended together. It is like a man pointing a finger at the moon to show it to others who should follow the direction of the finger to look at the moon. If they look at the finger and mistake it for the moon, they lose (sight of) both the moon and the finger. Why? Because the bright moon is actually pointed at; they both lose sight of the finger and fail to distinguish between (the states of) brightness and darkness. In doing so, they mistake the finger for the bright moon and are not clear about brightness and darkness.2 This paragraph puts forth an interpretation of signs (in this case, gesture) as mediator, a similar conceptualization to the ones presented by Charles Sanders Peirce and his Harvard School of Pragmatism and Semiotics. Furthermore, according to Tao-yüan, Bodhidharma did not make a display of verbal expressions [pu-shih yü-yen], and did not establish words and letters [pu-li wen-tzu]. Yang also indicates that Bodhidharma did not establish words and letters [pu-li wen-tzu] as directly pointing to the source of mind [ch’ih-chih shin-yüan], nor engaging in gradual methods [pu-chien chieh-ti] to attain Buddhahood immediately [ching-teng fo-ti].3 In Zen, there is a close relationship between sensing, dynamism and perception, which along with conscious cognition and communicative performance are necessary in order to recognize self-nature. “When a false thought appears, correct it with rightness. When you are lost in self-nature, clear yourself by recognizing it. When a delusion is coming, replace it with wisdom. When doing evil, stop it by doing good”.4 This means that unreflective habits must be brought into critical reflection both in an objective and subjective way.5 Vimalakirtinirdeu’s translator, Seng Zhao (‫ܗ‬㚷 384–414), recognized the significance of movement and stillness in giving birth to Yin and Yang. 2

Charles Luk (translator), The Surangama Sutra (Sri Lanka: Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc, publish year unknown), p.99. 3 Albert Welter, “Mahakasyapa’s smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Koan) Tradition”, In Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (Eds.), The Koan. Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000), p.93. 4 Hui Neng (ភ㜭), Tan jing (උ㓿) (Xi’an: Sanqin Press, 2002), p.163. 5 Richard Shusterman, “Body Consciousness and Performance: Somaesthetics East and West”, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 67:2, 2009, pp.133–45.

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Movement contributes to separation, while stillness engenders combination.6 Self-awareness in Zen results from the alternation of these two principles. Zhao lun (㚷䇪) explains “It is necessary to find stillness in the movement of things because, despite their movement, things reside in a constant state of stillness”.7 Seng Zhao provided another few examples to explain the concepts of movement and static, and their relations with the natural world, since early Zen practitioners found refuge in forests and mountains. Examples of constant static are for Seng Zhao the hurricane blowing down the high mountains, or the river urging ceaselessly without torrent, and dust floating everywhere without moving at all, or the sun and the moon, who follow each other in rotation. In terms of ontology, Seng Zhao understood nature as a motion that never ends beneath whose surface lies stillness. He explains that past events only exist in the past, and present things only exist in the present, so there is no connection between past and present and hence no change or movement. Seng Zhao also explained that meditation required and emptiness of mind that can only be achieved in a tranquil place in nature so that mind and body is aware of all senses, thoughts and delusions as well as good and evil.

II. “Dwelling in Mountain and Autumn Twilight” and Its Translation The theme of emptiness and Wáng Wéi’s Zen Buddhist approach to nature is fully represented in his famous octave with five characters, lv-shi (ᖻ䈇) also known as “Dwelling in Mountain and Autumn Twilight” (ኡት⿻᳍). Firstly, let’s gloss the Chinese characters of this poem as follows: オኡᯠ䴘ਾˈ Empty Mountain newly rain after ཙ≄ᲊᶕ⿻DŽ Sky Qi evening come autumn ᰾ᴸᶮ䰤➗ˈ Bright moon pines between shine ␵⋹⸣к⍱DŽ 6

For a translation of Sengzhao’s works see Walter Liebenthal, Chao lun: the treatises of Sengzhao. A translation with introduction, notes, and appendices, 2nd edition (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press & Oxford University Press 1968). 7 Seng Zhao (‫ܗ‬㚷), “Chao lun”, in Classic essence in Zen (⾵ᇇ㓿ި㋮ॾ) (Beijing: Religious culture Press 1999), p.5.

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Part I Chapter Five Clear brook stone over flow ㄩௗᖂ⎓ྣˈ Bamboos clatter (go) home washing girl 㧢ࣘл⑄㡏DŽ Lotus shift (go) down fish boat 䲿᜿᱕㣣ⅷˈ As (one) please spring fragrance wither ⦻ᆉ㠚ਟ⮉DŽ Prince’s descendants willingly can stay

This poem wu-lv (ӄᖻ) has eight lines, with five characters in each line. A single rhyme has to be used throughout the poem on the even line. As a tonal language, Chinese characters can be classified as “level” or “deflected”, where certain tone patterns are imposed. The most important requirement is that the second line of the couplet needs to be a tonal reciprocal of the first, which emphasizes tonal counterpoint and syntactic parallelism. This also stands for the yin-yang parallelism of traditional Chinese thought. This poem follows a penta-syllabic scheme of tonal alternation between level and deflected tones, which start with a level tone. There are many well-known translations of this poem: Version 1: “On an Autumn Evening in the Mountain”8 After newly-fallen rain in this vast mountains, When evening descends the air has the feel of fall. The limpid moon sparkles through the pine needles, The crystal stream glides glistening over the rocks. Babbling from the bamboo grove heralds the return of the washing girls, Lotus leaves sway as the fisherman pushes along his sampan… Although the fragrance of spring flowers has faded My good friend, you should still stay on for the beauty of autumn.

8

Yin-nan Chang and Lewis C. Walmsley, Poems by Wáng Wéi (Rutlant, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1958), p.113.

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Version 2: “Autumn Dusk at a Mountain Lodge”9 Empty Mountain after fresh rains: It is evening. Autumn air rises. Bright moon shines through pines, Clear spring flows over stones. Voices among bamboos: washing girls return; Lotus-leave move: down glide fishermen’s boats. Here and there, fragrant grass withers, O prince, you do not have to go. (Allusion to two lines in the Ch’u Tz’u, Songs of South, “Summoning the Recluse”: “O prince, return! In the mountain, you should not tarry”.) Version 3: “In the Hills at Nightfall in Autumn” 10 In the empty hills just after rain, The Evening air is autumn now. Bright moon shining between pines, Clear stream flowing over stones. Bamboos clatter- the washer women goes home Lotuses shift- the fisherman’s boat floats down. Of course spring scents must fail But you, my friend, you must stay. Version 4: “Living in the Mountain on Autumn Night”11 After fresh rain on the empty mountain, Comes evening and the cold of autumn. The full moon burns through the pines, A brook transparent over the stones. Bamboo trees crackle as washerwomen go home, and lotus flowers sway as fisherman’s boat slips downriver. Though the fresh smell of grass is gone, a prince is happy in these hills.

9 Wai-lim Yip, Hiding the Universe: poems by Wáng Wéi (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1972), p.25 10 G.W. Robinson, Wáng Wéi: poems (Harmondsworth: Penguin Group, 1973), p.75. 11 Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone and Haixin Xu, Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wáng Wéi (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1991), p.7.

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Part I Chapter Five Version 5: “Autumn Twilight, Dwelling among Mountains”12 In Empty mountains after new rain, It’s late. Sky-ch’I has brought autumnBright moon incandescent in the pine, Crystalline stream slipping across rocks. Bamboo rustles: homeward washer women, Lotuses waver: a boat gone downstream. Spring blossoms wither away by design, But a distant recluse can stay on and on.

Translations from Chinese into English are generally difficult. Besides, poetry might not have an ultimate translation. In the following lines I will focus on some of the words and features in this poem that make it impressive and therefore a piece of “world literature”. I will also return to comment upon the above translations. One of the most striking terms is the first character/word in the first line, kong (オ, empty). Somehow, it can also be regarded as a synthetic form of the central theme of the poem. But what does kong mean? Why did the author label the mountain with the word kong-shan ( オ ኡ , empty mountain)? Is it referring to nobody, no sounds? In the next line of the poem, there are references to movement, bodies and sounds, such as the moon shining between the pines, or the flow of the brook, the crackle of bamboos, swaying lotuses, girls going home, and finally the gliding boat. Kong, in fact, refers to a spiritual space, which symbolizes the Zen concepts of body and mind transcendence. This theme is further emphasized by the following three characters/words xing yu hou (ᯠ䴘ਾ), literally, “after new rain”. The expression means that the mountain will be renewed with the rain, just like the body and mind of human beings. This is the first step to entering the Zen Buddhist field of emptiness. The line also dissolves the duality subject/object, in accordance with traditional Chinese Zen Buddhism, where humans are part of the whole natural order. This brings to mind another well-known story from the Vimalakirti Sutra. It relates how, in answer to a group of bodhisattvas who had asked him to explain the concept of non-duality, Vimalakirti kept silence, and did not say a word. Just like the “pointing finger” mentioned earlier, his silence was the only way to explain the “thunderous silence”, the “great lion’s 12

David Hinton, The Selected Poems of Wáng Wéi (New York: New Directions Books, 2005), p.76.

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roar of profound silence”. In his analysis of Wáng Wéi’s poem, Willis Barnstone argues that the contrast between silence and movement intensifies the inner tension beneath the superficial stillness. In his view, Wáng Wéi’s “Dwelling in mountain and autumn twilight” provides “another example where the stillness of sound and movement is conveyed paradoxically by its opposite, by noise and activity”. 13 In response to my idea about the multi-dimensional model of cultural research focusing on literary adaptations, Professor Yi analyzed “Bird Song Dale” (Niao Ming Jian) another of Wáng important poems. In her paper “Semiosis of Translation in Wáng and Paul Celan’s Hermetic Poetry”, Chen points out:

crossChen Wéi’s Wéi’s

According to Vimalakirti, the enlightened lay scholar and chief exponent of the Vimalakirti Sutra, the distinctions of all beings are in fact caused by “names”, and in this sense, they are not real; only emptiness is real. Yet, emptiness itself is also a name, thus, is empty. By pointing to “silence,” which symbolizes the highest wisdom, and which is contrasted with a mere indication (or gesture) of speechlessness, the Vimalakirti Sutra demonstrates an authentic approach to the truth of “emptiness”, i.e. the possibility of non-dualistic thinking. 14

I must admit that her description, “emptiness itself is also a name, thus is empty”, is incisive and penetrating, and really grasps the motif of Zen Buddhism. However, it does not mean that names or language are of no use, otherwise, we would not need much time to analyze Wáng Wéi’s poem. What it signifies is that the distinctions among beings, caused by name and language, should be abandoned and endowed with non-dualistic thinking.

13

Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone and Haixin Xu, Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wáng Wéi (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1991), p.xx. 14 Yi Chen, “Semiosis of Translation in Wáng Wéi’s and Paul Celan’s Hermetic Poetry”, in Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol.9, Issue 2, 2012, pp.87-102.

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III. A Comparative Perspective between Zen Buddhism and Somaesthetics For the last twenty years or so, the American scholar Richard Shusterman has been seeking to bring into his research the immediate dimension of somatic experience in relation to the outside world, and nature in particular. For Shusterman, the fact that humans cannot see a connection between immediate somatic experience and their own lives indicates that their philosophical conceptions about the world are dominated by idealistic paradigms, hostile to the body. Shusterman’s theory of somaesthetics seeks to define art experiences as a crucial background condition that can help widen “the realm of art by challenging the rigid division between art and action that is supported by definitions that define art as mimesis, poiesis, or the narrow practice defined by the institutional art world”.15 Like other contemporary scholars (most popularly Judith Butler in Bodies that Matter). Shusterman advocates a definition of art as performance and dramatization, thus supplementing the idea of the illuminating nature of art.16 Shusterman’s definition involves the harmonization of two frames: the formal institutional frame, and the experiential content, characterizing historicism and naturalism respectively. Thus, his account of interpretation is constructed with regards to the two opposites, analytic aesthetics and deconstruction. The first attempts to construct an objective meaning identified with the artist’s intention and built into the formal features of the work. On the other hand, deconstruction emphasizes the systematic play of differences and the fact that every re-reading is an approximation or a “misreading” of the original. According to Shusterman, contemporary aesthetic ideals of body remain enslaved by shallow and oppressive stereotypes that serve more to increase profits for the cosmetic industry. He thinks that despite renewed interest in the body, there is no conceptual framework that allows cooperation between the natural sciences and aesthetics. According to him, Western philosophy, from Kant through Hegel, Schopenhauer, and even twentieth15

Richard Shusterman, Surface and Depth: Dialectics of Criticism and Culture (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2002), p.29. 16 For the Asian roots of this conception, see Ranjan K.Ghosh and Richard Shusterman, “Art as Dramatization and the Indian Tradition”, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 61.3, 2003, pp. 293–8.

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century existentialism, has emphasized contemplation. Shusterman defines somaesthetics as “the critical, meliorative study of the experience and the use of one’s body as a locus sensory-aesthetic appreciation (aesthesis) and creative self-fashioning […], devoted [also] to the knowledge, discourses and disciplines that structure such somatic care or can improve it”.17 The term “soma” emphasizes both the cultural and biological dimensions of corporeality, and signifies, as in Zen, a static/dynamic unity “body-mind”. Turning back to the poem by Wáng Wéi, “Dwelling in mountain and autumn twilight”, the second line starting, “tian qi wan lai qiu (ཙ≄ᲊᶕ ⿻)”, is very difficult to understand even for Chinese people. In particular, the last three characters, “wan lai qiu (ᲊᶕ⿻)”, seem unreasonable. This sentence had been amended by the author in order to make the first word “tian qi” keep parallel with the first words “kong-shan” in the first line, using the method of anastrophe (word order inversion). The correct syntactic order should be “wan lai tian qi qiu” (ᲊᶕཙ≄⿻), meaning, “the evening comes and the weather gets cooler in the autumn”. Here the noun qiu (⿻) means both autumn and cool, and has been used as a verb, referring to the process of seasonal changes. So versions 1, 2, and 3 of the translations above may be correct. I noticed that Mr. Barnstone translated qiu with the word “cold of autumn”, as shown in the translation which I labeled version 4. This choice extends out of my understanding, because the word “cold” is not consistent with the leisure mode which this poem expresses from the perspective of Zen Buddhism. The word “cool” may be more appropriate for the translation of qiu. I also think wan (ᲊ) for “late” in version 5 is not appropriate, Wan just means evening. The following four lines could be regarded as the wealthiest poetic images in this poem. Each line could be illuminated as a painting. In fact, Wáng Wéi was famous for both his poetry and his paintings. Su Shi˄㣿䖬) (1037–1101) one of the major poets of the Song Dynasty, claimed that Wáng Wéi’s poems held a painting within them, and that in viewing his paintings one could envision poetry. Regarding the translation of these four sentences, I think all of the five versions above are wonderful, although the translators use different words to translate them. What I would like to stress is that the movements 17

Richard Shusterman, “Somaesthetics and Care of the Self: The Case of Foucault”, Monist, 83, 2000, pp.532–3.

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between these lines show how silence is understood from the perspective of Zen Buddhism, as pointed out above. In the third line, the reader is invited to look up and see the bright moon shining between the pines. In the fourth line, the reader is asked to look down and find the clear spring flowing over stones. The two actions can be explained by the Chinese traditional aesthetic pattern and proverb, “yang guan fu cha (Ԡ㿲‫؟‬ሏ)”, which represents the unity between sky and human beings. 18 The nonduality perspective, present in both Zen Buddhism and Shusterman’s Somaesthetics is even more obvious in lines 5–6 of the poem. Here I would like to emphasize two points: on the one hand, the interchangeability between human and natural beings, and at the same time, the cancellation of the cause/effect opposition. The second character/word xuan (ௗ) in line 5 simultaneously points to the bamboos and the washing girls. This character is really difficult to translate; one dictionary definition is “noisy”, but it can also express much subtler connotations, in which the sound is not unpleasant at all. It might help to visualize a group of washing girls walking home in the twilight, their laughs sounding like bamboo shoots shaken by the wind. The metaphor is simply an analogy, and it seeks to provide the sensation of simultaneity, of both images occurring at the same time. None of the five translations above can simultaneously express these two meanings. It is almost as if language (any language) is not enough to convey a sensation that needs both body and mind to be felt and understood. A similar situation occurs in line 6: the second character/word dong (ࣘ) means “move”, and refers both to the lotuses and the boat. The identification between human and natural beings and the interchangeability between cause and effect present in these images is also present in all these examples. It is not clear that the cracking sound of bamboos originates from the girls’ washing, or that the rocking of the boat is the cause of the lotuses swinging. Wáng Wéi’s use of the Chinese characters indicates that it may also be the other way round. In terms of Zen Buddhism, this means that it not the lotuses or the boat that move, it is our hearts. In other words, when our heart is still and at peace, everything around us is also peaceful; nothing in the world, no external or mundane power, such as the sight of beautiful women in the poem, may cause it to stir. The poem expresses the pleasure and peace that this realization 18

For more information see Qingben Li, “Zhou Yi and Ecological Aesthetics”, Journal of Central-South University for Nationalities, 6, 2010, pp.23–28.

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provides, and it particularly does so in its last two lines. Sui-yi (䲿᜿) in line 7 and Wáng-sun (⦻ᆉ) in line 8 are again very difficult to translate, hence the many misunderstandings in the above translations. In this poem, Sui-yi (䲿᜿) means “feel free to” not “by design”, as in version 5. The most appropriate translation of line 7 should be “let spring blossoms feel free to wither”, which is works as an anaphor to “autumn come” in line 1, and to the expression “stay” in the last line again. Wáng-sun is a literary quotation from Ch’u Tz’u (an anthology of The Songs of the South in Ancient Chinese), as Wai-lim Yip pointed out.19 Here, it refers to both you and me, meaning “everybody will be happy to stay here”. In contrast to the depicting scenery of the previous six lines, these last two express ideas and emotions, as part of the sudden enlightenment that Zen Buddhism provides. Likewise, the realization embodies Richard Shusterman’s conception of somaesthetics. Shusterman speaks of analytical somaesthetics (descriptive and theoretical devoted to description and explanation) and pragmatic somaesthetics (normative and prescriptive; proposes methods of somatic improvement and engages in their comparison, explanation, and critique) and practical somaesthetics (programs of disciplined, reflective, corporeal practice aimed at somatic self-improvement”. 20 The inspiration for readings such as Wáng Wéi’s poems might be useful in practical programs of somatic self-improvement. The artistic fields are particularly apt in enabling the flow of emotions and empathic connections required to shape body and mind. The fifth Zen patriarch Hong Ren’s (601–675) describes the connection thus: “The mind is not inside, outside, nor in the middle; it is not contemplated in terms of suchness and thusness, gradual or progressive. The motion of the mind is like a stream forever flowing […] not thought in terms of arising and perishing that would only yield reversal and cessation. Finally, the flowing thoughts would be self-extinct in stillness”. 21 Similarly, Zen master Lianchi (1535–1615) was enlightened while watching a crowd of monks taking a shower together, an episode that he described in “Ode to bathing”,

19

Wai-lim Yip, Hiding the Universe: poems by Wáng Wéi (New York: Grossman Publishers 1972), p.25. 20 Richard Shusterman, “Somaesthetics and The Second Sex: A Pragmatist Reading of a Feminist Classic”, Hypatia, Vol.18, Issue 4, 2003, pp.106–36. 21 Hong Ren (ᕈᗽ), On the Supreme Vehicle (ᴰк҈䇪).

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with the metaphor of the flow of water to illustrate the relationship between bodies and mind.22 In my paper “Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West: A Multi-Dimensional Model of Cross-Cultural Research focusing on Literary Adaptations”,23 I argued that the complexity of cross-cultural exchanges needs to be explained across space as well as time, situating cultural development within a much wider historical field, rather than in East/West or North/South dichotomies. With the example of Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zhao, a play adapted by Voltaire in L’Orphelin de la Chine, and re-adapted by Lin Zhaohua in 2003, including Voltaire’s misreadings, and the analysis of Wang Guowei’s theories on drama, in turn influenced by Schopenhauer’s views on tragedy in The World as Will and Representation, I argued for the complexity of cross-cultural adaptations, misadaptations and critical interpretations that contribute to keep works in circulation turning them, as David Damrosch has argued, into world literature. A similar case can be made for Wáng-Wéi’s poetry. American scholar Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, who spent a long time in Japan as Professor of Philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University, and whose art collections were an inspiration to many America poets. After his death in 1908, his unpublished notes on Chinese poetry and Japanese drama were entrusted by his widow to Ezra Pound, thus influencing Pound’s ideogramic poetics as well as the early imagistic experimentations of authors such as T.E. Hulme and Amy Lowell, Wallace Stevens, or William Carlos Williams. There is also an increasing penetration of Chinese aesthetics in the Black Mountain poetry of Denise Levertov, work by James Wright and Robert Bly, in the Beat Poetry of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, and, most recently, in poets like Sam Hamill and Robert Hass.24

22 Lian Chi (㧢⊐), “Yunxi Lianchihong Dashi Yulu” (ӁṆ㧢⊐ᆿབྷᐸ䈝ᖅ), in Classic essence in Zen (⾵ᇇ㓿ި㋮ॾ), Vol 13 (Beijing: Religious culture Press, 1999), p.66. 23 Li Qingben and Guo Jinghua, “Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West: A Multi-Dimensional Model of Cross-Cultural Research focusing on Literary Adaptations”, Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, Vol. 9, Issue 2, 2012, pp.45–61. 24 Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone, and Haixin Xu, Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wáng Wéi (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England 1991), p. xxiv–xxv; see also Wai-lim Yip, Hiding the Universe: poems by Wáng Wéi (New York: Grossman Publishers 1972), p. viii.

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Despite the interest in studies such as these, I am wary about understanding the circulation of influences in such simple terms. The main point that I try to make in this paper is precisely that translation can contribute to cross-cultural communication, but that there are many layers of meaning beneath the words of a poem, which translation into another language can sometimes fail to capture. I sympathize with Shusterman’s idea of textual meaning inspired by Wittgenstein’s later works. His notion of language games as a correlate to understanding in terms of shared and interpersonal abilities “to handle or respond to [something] in certain accepted ways”, 25 implies that interpretation is not the discovery of the inherent meaning of the text (or artwork), but a re-construction. Interpretation is always relative to certain rules given within the game. Since these rules change across cultures and over history, and some even disappear from use, we can speak of a plurality of correct interpretations of the same text both in synchronic and diachronic dimensions.26 This is the reason why we can explain Wáng Wéi’s poem from a comparative perspective between Zen Buddhism and Somaesthetics, a dialogue that hopes to bring East and West one step closer together.

25

Richard Shusterman, “Pragmatism and Criticism: A Response to three critics of Pragmatist Aesthetics”, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 16.1 (2002), pp.26–38. 26 Richard Shusterman, Surface and Depth: Dialectics of Criticism and Culture (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), p.49.

CHAPTER SIX ARTISTIC, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL MODELS OF NATURE APPRECIATION

The issue of appreciating poems is always associated with the issue of appreciating nature. There exist various models of nature appreciation in aesthetics. The Canadian Environmental aesthetician Allen Carlson has made careful comparisons among those models. For us, the representative models worthy of discussion are the Artistic Model, Environmental Model and the Ecological Model.

I. Artistic Model of Nature Appreciation The artistic model of nature appreciation means it is to be conducted according to the approaches of art appreciation: what to appreciate in nature, and how to appreciate nature, are to be answered with the approaches of art appreciation. For example, “disinterest” is a key concept in Kantian aesthetics, which is also a common feature of appreciation and nature appreciation. According to this theory, nature appreciation is taken to be the same as art appreciation, which is to be conducted with “disinterest”. Or rather, the very reason that the beauty of nature or art can arouse the appreciator’s aesthetic interest is because of the lack of a utilitarian relationship between the appreciator and the object of appreciation, which is what distinguishes aesthetics from utilitarian interest. Appreciation will lose ground if utilitarian factors are brought into the appreciation process. For example, when appreciating roses, as long as the businessman is calculating their commercial value, the appreciation is no longer aesthetic. According to the theory of art, when appreciating nature, there should be a certain psychological distance between the appreciator and nature. Besides, the formal properties of nature should be emphasized, as in art appreciation.

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Carlson also distinguishes the artistic approach of nature appreciation with the object model and the landscape model. According to our understanding, the object model means that in the process of nature appreciation, the appreciation of nature is targeted at the object of nature itself. That is to say, the object of nature is separated from its environment, making it an independent object. In this way, the object of nature’s link with its surrounding environment is severed, which thus becomes a pure form of disinterest for the appreciator. In this way, this object or thing of nature will bring the appreciator into a state of art appreciation. As Carlson points out, in the object model, the object of nature to be appreciated will in fact become a “finished product” or a “real-object art”. The object of nature is taken for granted as the art object, which is similar to the case of the urinal by Marcel Duchamp: by being given the status of an art object and being named Fountain, the urinal becomes an art object.1 The very reason for Duchamp’s urinal becoming an art object is that it is separated from its original environment (such as the lavatory) and is placed in the exhibition hall. In this way, the original functional value of the urinal is removed, leaving the expressive value instead. In the exhibition hall, the appreciator will not appreciate the urinal in terms of its functional value, but rather, he (or she) will disinterestedly appreciate its color, shape and other elements. Extreme though the example may be, from it, it is not difficult for us to find the internal mechanism of operation in the object model. However, according to Carlson, the object model of nature appreciation is flawed, as the object of nature is inseparable from its environment. In the natural environment, the aesthetic properties of the natural object are produced by its connection with the environment. If we sever the object of nature from the environment from which it is produced, the object of nature will lose much of its aesthetic properties in connection with its original environment. For example, when we appreciate the stone on the fireplace as an object of art, we appreciate its following aesthetic properties: smoothness, graceful curve and solidity. However, if the stone is in its original natural environment, the stone may have different aesthetic properties, or rather; it will lose the aesthetic properties when it is on the fireplace, for example the impression of solidity. This shows that 1

Allen Carlson, “Appreciation and the Nature Environment”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 37, 1979, pp.267–76.

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when appreciating the object of nature in the object model in the way of art appreciation, what is appreciated will no longer be seen as nature itself. The extreme example is that urinal: when it is placed in the exhibit hall, it becomes Duchamp’s Fountain, an artistic work, losing the urinal’s function. But how about returning the object to its original place? In terms of appreciation, the question becomes one of controversy in the history of aesthetics. If the object of nature is not removed from its original environment, what is to be appreciated, and how is it appreciated? The question is raised because the natural landscape is chaotic, irregular and diverse. In order to appreciate it, people will have to organize, choose, emphasize and classify the object in a certain way. But this is realized not by the object itself but the appreciator. In this way, no matter whether we remove the object from its environment or return it to its original place, the object model remains trapped in the following dilemma: “If the object is removed, this model is applicable to the object, which indicates to us what to appreciate and how to appreciate. But this will damage the aesthetic properties to a large extent. On the other hand, if the object is not removed from its environment, this model then will not stand as an applicable model, which will make appreciation beyond realization to a large extent. Under these two circumstances, the object model cannot become a successful model for nature appreciation”.2 The Landscape Model is the second model for nature appreciation, which also follows the framework of art appreciation. According to Carlson, the landscape refers to “a landscape, usually a spectacular one seen from a certain point of view and distance”.3 For Carlson, the reason the landscape model is taken as an artistic approach to nature appreciation lies in the fact that, when appreciating nature, people often take the same approach as when appreciating landscape paintings. As Carlson points out, “In people’s appreciation of the landscape paintings, the focus is neither on the actual object (the landscape painting) nor on the object of the painting (the landscape), but rather on how the object is painted and the corresponding features of painting skills. Therefore, as far as the landscape paintings are concerned, the focus of appreciation is on the properties which are crucial 2

Allen Carlson, “Appreciation and the Nature Environment”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 37, 1979, pp. 267–76. 3 Ibid.

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to the painting of the landscape: the visual properties related to the color and structure of the painting”.4 When appreciating a natural landscape in the manner of appreciating a painting of a landscape, people are no longer concerned about the individual and isolated natural object, but rather the whole effect of the landscape, i.e. the painting-like effect, which represents a two-dimensional effect, a formalist feature. From the point of the appreciator, the landscape model requires that the appreciator should keep an appropriate distance and angle between him or her and the landscape. This distance should be neither too far nor too close, so that there is an appropriate visual focus so as to see the whole landscape. In terms of the object of appreciation (the landscape), this landscape model requires that the environment is separated into different parts and pieces, and these parts and pieces are fragmentary, still, lifeless and changeless, otherwise the appreciator cannot catch the whole landscape from a single visual focus. In this way, the landscape model is also problematic: “This model requires that we should not take the environment as it is and not appreciate it as required by its properties, but rather, we appreciate the properties of the landscape not as they are or we appreciate the properties the landscape does not have”.5 Carlson expresses his dissatisfaction with regard to nature appreciation (the object model and the landscape model). As he sees it, the way the object model is concerned about the natural object is more like we appreciate the sculpture, focusing only on the formalistic features of the object by separating them from the content. In his opinion, the landscape model requires that we appreciate nature in the way we appreciate a painting of a landscape, which means nature is first taken as a twodimensional landscape and then the formalistic features of it are focused on: “These two models have failed to fully realize serious and appropriate appreciation of nature as each model has failed to represent the genuine features of nature. The former separates the object of nature from its broad environment, and the latter shapes the object of nature into a painting by framing and flattening it. What’s more, as the two models both focus on

4

Allen Carlson, “Appreciation and the Nature Environment”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 37, 1979, pp.267–76. 5 Ibid.

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the formalistic features, they both neglect many daily experiences and consequent understanding of nature based on those experiences”.6 More importantly, as it differs from art, nature is not a created product designed by humans according to a certain intention; the two models are therefore trapped in a difficult theoretical situation. Why can people appreciate nature following the way of art appreciation? If this question is not addressed, it is difficult to provide the theoretical support for the artistic approach. This may be linked with the question concerning whether beauty exists. According to the artistic approach, if nature itself is of aesthetic value, it must be related to humans, as it fits into the formalistic pattern of the appreciator. It is because the appreciator attaches the formalistic pattern of beauty to nature, nature becomes beautiful. Without this, whether nature itself is beautiful or not will remain a question. Carlson takes this point of view as “Human Chauvinistic Aesthetics”. On the one hand, this point of view denies the reasons for appreciating nature in the way of art appreciation, while on the other, it denies the belief that there is beauty in nature.

II. Environmental Model of Nature Appreciation The artistic approach to nature appreciation in fact presupposes the subject/object dualism, requiring that the appreciator, as the subject of the appreciation, keeps a certain distance from the object of appreciation, from which they can make appropriate appreciation, which mistakenly separates the object of nature and the appreciator from the environment of which they are a part. In nature appreciation, the appreciator and nature are inseparable, as the appreciator is surrounded by the endless natural world, so the appreciator cannot separate the natural environment from nature and he or she cannot be a pure observer detached from the environment, in the same way that we cannot leave the earth by grabbing our own hair. When appreciating nature, the appreciator is in the natural environment, and he should appreciate nature as an engager, fully immersing himself (herself) in nature. In this way, engagement aesthetics denies the artistic approach of nature appreciation.

6

Allen Carlson, “Natural Aesthetics”, E. Craig (eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (London: Routledge Press, 1998), pp.731–5.

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While being against the two artistic models of nature appreciation (the object model and the landscape model), Carlson is also negative about human chauvinistic aesthetics and engagement aesthetics, which are different from the two artistic models. As he sees it, both human chauvinistic aesthetics and engagement aesthetics are problematic: “They fail to answer the question about what we appreciate, and how we appreciate, in nature appreciation. As to what to appreciate, human chauvinistic aesthetics seems to say that “there is nothing to appreciate”; while engagement aesthetics seems to say that “everything can be appreciated”. In answering the question of what to appreciate, the former therefore says nothing while the latter encourages us to fully immerse the body and soul. But these answers are far below our expectation”.7 First, in his opinion, the concept that “everything can be appreciated” for nature appreciation in engagement aesthetics is wrong, since the appreciator is unlikely to appreciate everything in nature. Instead, appreciation must be subject to certain limitations and focuses. Secondly, Carlson thinks that the concept of “there is nothing to appreciate” in human chauvinistic aesthetics is also wrong. This is because although the natural environment is part of nature and not an artificial product, we can appreciate it and can experience a wonderful aesthetic experience (as Dewey says) instead of a rigid experience in a natural state. As Carlson sees it, the reason the appreciator can have an aesthetic experience with nature, which is not a human product, is because we have common sense and scientific knowledge of nature, which enable us to explore nature and understand it. However, as to how this common sense and scientific knowledge is transformed into an aesthetic experience, Carlson fails to provide the answer. He then proposes the “Natural Environmental Model” on the basis of the comparison of the two models (the object model and the landscape model) and two points of view (the human chauvinistic point of view and the engagement aesthetic point of view). On the one hand, as he sees it, the natural environmental model, because it does not assimilate the natural object into the object of art or assimilate the natural environment into the landscape, differs from the two models; on the other hand, he maintains that, as it is different from human chauvinistic aesthetics and engagement aesthetics, this natural environmental model does not refuse to apply the holistic structure of traditional art appreciation to the appreciation of the 7

Allen Carlson, “Appreciation and the Nature Environment”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 37, 1979, pp.267–76.

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natural world. For him, only this natural environmental model truly appreciates nature as it is and what its properties are, while the object and landscape models both fail in the above-mentioned regard. He states that “the natural environmental model, based on common sense/scientific knowledge, which is different from the artistic approach, provides a model for holistic aesthetic appreciation. According to this model, appreciation can be applied to anything, no matter whether it is a person or a pet, a farmyard or a neighborhood, a shoe or a mall. The appreciation must focus on the genuine nature of the object of appreciation and should be instructed by it. Under this circumstance, the artistic or other inappropriate concepts will not be imposed on appropriate appreciation, but rather, it is to be guided by the scientific or other instructions relevant to the nature of the object of appreciation. It rejects those irrelevant prejudices, which in turn leads to the appreciation of the genuine nature of the object to be appreciated”. 8 According to Carlson, the natural environmental model, while approaching environmental aesthetics, will lead to the rejection of art aesthetics: it is therefore not the art aesthetics but the environmental aesthetics that can address the problems of what and how to appreciate, as well as the problem of appreciating nature according to its genuine properties. However, as I see it, when it comes to nature appreciation, Carlson’s model fails to distinguish itself from art aesthetics, as his natural environmental model does not completely reject the application of the holistic structure of art appreciation to nature. As he says, “On the question of nature appreciation, the natural environmental model, like the artistic model, is also subject to limitations and foregrounding. Without such limitations and foregrounding, our experience in natural environment will be mere combination of the physical perceptions without any meaning and focus”.9 As regards the appreciation of the natural environment, the solution to what to appreciate, and how to appreciate, can be dealt with as questions of art. The difference between the natural environmental model and the artistic model lies in the fact that, for the former, the common sense/scientific knowledge of nature exploration will be applied to nature appreciation, 8

Allen Carlson, “Appreciation and the Nature Environment”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 37, 1979, pp. 267–76. 9 Ibid.

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while the knowledge applied in the artistic approach is the knowledge based on the art tradition and artistic styles. It can therefore be seen that the natural environmental model is yet to distinguish itself from the object and landscape models, and the environmental aesthetics are unable to break away from the anthropocentrism in aesthetics concerning nature appreciation. When it comes to nature appreciation, what Carlson intends to address is what and how to appreciate. According to him, the presupposition of nature appreciation is that nature appreciation should be achieved following the genuine properties of nature. If such a presupposition is to be recognized, we can stride forward to ecological aesthetics, i.e. the inherent beauty of nature is recognized, and this beauty exists in the ecosystem. The genuine properties of nature mean its natural appearance: the order, harmony and structure are part of nature, but nature itself is also changing, chaotic and irregular. Carlson’s natural environmental model obviously excludes these inharmonious, irregular and chaotic features. He only recognizes the aesthetic value of integral, orderly and harmonious properties of nature, but not its irregular and chaotic properties. His appreciation of nature following the genuine features of nature itself is therefore problematic, which lands him in a dilemma concerning nature appreciation, since his model of nature appreciation actually fails to provide a ground for appreciating nature as it is.

III. Ecological Model of Nature Appreciation American ecological aesthetician Paul Gobster comes up with a detailed explanation of the ecological aesthetic model of nature appreciation, which is established on the basis of a contrast to the art model (scenic aesthetics). He also provides a framework of the individual, the landscape, the individual-landscape interaction, results and benefits of the two models (See Table 1).10

Table 1: Some elements of scenic versus ecological aesthetics 10 Paul H. Gobster, “Forest Aesthetics, Biodiversity and the Perceived Appropriateness of Ecosystem Management practices”, Ecological Aesthetics Abroad: A Reader, Qingben Li (eds.) (Changchun: Changchun Press, 2010), p.33.

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Scenic

Ecological

Selected references

Person-related elements Perceptual, immediate, affective /emotional

Cognitive, knowledgebased, “a refined taste”, in addition to affective

Zajonc 1980, Zajonc & Markus 1982,Leopold 1949, Carlson 1979, Thayer 1989

Limited to visual sense

All senses engaged— sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, as well as movement/exploration

Zube et al. 1982, Leopold, 1949, Thorn & Huang 1991, Gibson 1979, Hevner 1937

Popular taste, “lowest common denominator”

Elitist?

Carlson 1977, Ribe 1982

View of world is homocentric

View is biocentric, ethical “ecological humanism”

Rosenberg 1986, Leopold 1949

Landscape-related elements Visual, focused

Multimodal, ambient

Spirn 1988, Zube et al. 1982

Static, inanimate, fixed

Dynamic. living, changing

Spirn 1988

Formal elements, pastoral, picturesque

Form follows function, vernacular

Carlson 1979, Hunter 1990, Nassauer 1992

Dramatic

Subtle

Callicott 1983, Gussow 1995, Saito 1998

Naturalistic

Natural

Nassauer 1992

Taken at face value

Symbolic, deeper

Howett 1987, Rolston 1998

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meaning Bounded, framed, specific places

Unbounded, entire forest

Hepburn 1968

Composed view

Aesthetic “indicator species” in intact ecosystem

Callicott 1983

Tidy, pristine

Messy

Hunter 1990, Nassauer 1995

Interaction-related elements Passive, objectoriented, stimulusresponse

Active, participatory, experiential

Berleant 1998, Koh 1988

Accepted as a given

Invokes a dialogue

Spirn 1988

Outcome-related elements Pleasure

Understanding and pleasure

Thayer 1989

Observation

Action and involvement

Zube et al. 1982

Short-term, mood changes

Long-lasting, restorative, deep values, unity, identity, sense of place

Hull 1992, Kaplan 1993, Spirn 1988

Maintains status quo

Catalyst for internal and external change

Spirn 1988

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(1˅The individual: As we can see from Table 1, in scenic aesthetics, the appreciator does not take the integrity of ecology into consideration. It either separates the object of nature from the ecological whole as in the object model, or breaks the object of appreciation into many fragments, as in the landscape model. The landscape aesthetics are therefore anthropocentric, whose appreciation is limited to visual experience, the appreciator seeking the sensual pleasure obtained from nature appreciation. In contrast, the ecological aesthetics, the appreciator, while placing the object of appreciation in the ecological whole, instead of being anthropocentric, is ecological-centered, which is in fact ecologically humanist, with the appreciator being also part of the ecological whole. The perceptual process of the appreciator is thus not merely visual, indirect and sensual, but rather, calls for the participation of all the sensual organs on the basis of knowledge or intellect. (2) Landscape: In landscape aesthetics, because the appreciator is concerned only with the visual and formal factors of the scenery, the natural landscape is taken as still, fixed and lifeless, which actually deprives nature of its genuine properties, the result being that nature is naturalized, which means nature is no longer nature itself. Nature, then, becomes a man-made shell with a boundary and framework, which only foregrounds the formalistic factors such as order and harmony. In contrast, however, in ecological aesthetics, the landscape is multimodal, ambient, dynamic, unbounded, which carries utilitarian functions as well. In ecological aesthetics, not only the elegant, harmonious landscape, but also the subtle and chaotic landscape is of aesthetic value. People not only recognize the static, surface value of the landscape, but also its deeper symbolic meaning. (3) The human-landscape relationship: It includes the human-landscape interaction and the result and benefit of the interaction. In landscape aesthetics, the human-landscape interaction is passive and object-oriented. As the acceptance is based on a given model, the aim of the interaction is only for entertainment, which can only lead to short-term emotional changes. By contrast, in ecological aesthetics, the human-landscape interaction is positive and participatory, which is based on an equal and long-lasting interaction. This long-term dialogue with nature can pacify internal conflicts and bring about internal changes in the appreciator.

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Gobster’s ecological aesthetic model is established for the appreciation of forest landscape. However, with certain modifications, this model can be applied to the appreciation of nature at large. We can see that Gobster’s model references Carlson’s environmental model, such as maintaining the significance of knowledge in nature appreciation, but there are also important differences between them: firstly, the environmental model is opposed to placing the object of nature into the ecological whole, and maintaining it will be a barrier to questions concerning what to appreciate and how to appreciate. In contrast, the ecological model maintains an appreciation of nature in the ecological whole; and solutions to questions of what to appreciate and how to appreciate should be sought in the ecological whole. Secondly, the environmental model focuses on formalistic features such as harmony, order and elegance, whereas the ecological model stresses the aesthetic value of the changing, chaotic and inelegant features of the natural world. Thirdly, as the environmental model is close to the art model, it fails to break away from anthropocentrism: in contrast, the ecological model differs from the artistic model, maintaining ecological humanism in environmental ethics and equal dialogue between human-landscape interactions. According to ecological aesthetics, the beauty of nature is consistent with the ecological whole, so nature appreciation should comply with the needs of maintenance of the eco-system. For ecological aesthetics, humans and the environment are both part of the ecological system, whose interests are the same. So nature, which is in compliance with the ecological system, and is free from human destruction, is beautiful in itself. All creations by human beings, such as architecture, residential buildings or art articles, should be considered as beautiful on the basis of maintaining the health of the eco-system, while those that harm the health of the eco-system are ugly, which is a basic standard. With this standard, the questions of what and how to appreciate, are solved: According to ecological aesthetics, nature appreciation should be applied to the nature that is in compliance with the law and health of the eco-system, and in the process of nature appreciation, no action and conduct harming the ecological health should be allowed. In the ecological aesthetic model, the appreciation of nature is to be made on the basis of equality between human beings and nature. As a matter of fact, there is unity between human beings and nature, as human beings are in the natural environment but not independent from nature, which is the pre-condition of nature appreciation.

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Admittedly, this is not to say that Gobster’s model is flawless, as there is still room for discussion concerning some theoretical problems in ecological aesthetics, especially for the question of the role of knowledge played in eco-aesthetics, how that knowledge is transformed into aesthetic judgment, or rather, into nature appreciation, and questions such as whether the judgment precedes pleasure, or pleasure precedes judgment, or whether the two occur simultaneously, are yet to solved. Gobster has not provided answers to these questions. However, as I see it, his ecological aesthetic model is, so far, the most reliable among various models concerning nature appreciation, and is worthy of study and development. It should be a blessing to both nature and human beings if we can appreciate nature in the ecological aesthetic model.

PART II: TEMPORAL DIMENSION OF CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH

CHAPTER ONE INTERPRETING THE BOOK OF CHANGES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MODERN AESTHETICS

All of the hexagrams in the Book of Changes (Zhouyi ઘ᱃, also called the I Ching or Yi King, one of the most important classics in ancient China) are composed of Yin (䱤) and Yang (䱣), where the natural phenomena are taken as a correspondence with human society. This is the holism of ancient Chinese thought, which is different from Western ideas about the separation of human beings from nature. Zhouyi can be interpreted from three perspectives: literary aesthetics, life aesthetics, and ecological aesthetics. The interpreting of the Book of Changes from the perspective of ecological aesthetics is closest to the spirit and nature of the Book of Changes, while interpretations from the point of view of life aesthetics as well as literary aesthetics can be covered by that of eco-aesthetics.

I. The Relationship between the Book of Changes and Aesthetics The close relationship between the Book of Changes and aesthetics was pointed out by Zong Baihua. He pointed out that the Book of Changes “as an important canon of Confucianism, contains valuable aesthetic thoughts”.1 According to Zong, what the Book of Changes stressed is that true beauty comes from the radiance of the object itself, and this kind of beauty is an aesthetic ideal in ancient China, which is an internal masculine beauty, independent of external adornment. This aesthetic ideal is also found in the hexagram “Bi” (䍢), which is made up of the inside trigram “Li” (⿫) and the outside trigram “Gen” (㢞). Its symbol is fire at the foot of the mountain. According to Heng Gao, “‘Li’ is a Yin-trigram, which represents fire and the docile, and ‘Gen’ is a Yang1

Baihua Zong (ᇇⲭॾ), Art Atmosphere (㢪ຳ)(Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1987), p.332.

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trigram, which symbolizes mountain and the virile”.2 In Tuan’s treatise on the hexagram “Bi”, it therefore reads: (We see) the weak line coming and ornamenting the strong lines (of the lower trigram), and hence (it is said that ornament) should have free course. On the other hand, the strong line above ornaments the weak ones (of the upper trigram), and hence (it is said) that ‘there will be little advantage, if (ornament) be allowed to advance (and take the lead).’3

In the meantime, because “Li” represents elegance and intelligence and “Gen” represents arrest, there is a saying: “Elegance and intelligence (denoted by the lower trigram) regulated by the arrest…”4 The regulation of arresting elegance and intelligence, as well as the interlacement of the docile and the virile, is thus a principle of Yi that comes from the images of the trigrams and hexagrams. As for the image of fire at the foot of the mountain, Zong Baihua interpreted it as “The silhouettes of the vegetation on the mountain are clear-cut in the illumination of the night fire, which is a vision of beauty”.5 What kind of beauty, then, is conveyed in the light of such an aesthetic vision? Zong elucidates it in a way of literary aesthetics. Zong holds that in the Treatise on the Symbols of the hexagram “Bi”, “The superior man, in accordance with this (representation of the hexagram), throws a brilliancy around his various processes of government, but does not dare (in a similar way) to decide cases of criminal litigation”,6 which means that “the aesthetic sense may help the governors keep with good governance, but it cannot help with decisions cases of criminal litigation. This demonstrates the value and the limitations of beauty and arts (ornamentation) in social activities”. 7 This explanation is somewhat 2 Heng Gao (儈Ә), The Morden Comments on the Great Appendix of Zhouyi (ઘ᱃ བྷՐӺ⌘) (Jinan: Qilu Press, 1979), p.226–7. 3 James Legge (trans.), The Yî King, The Texts of Confucianism, The Sacred Books of China Part ϩ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p.231. 4 Ibid. 5 Baihua Zong (ᇇⲭॾ), Art Atmosphere (㢪ຳ) (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1987), p.332. 6 James Legge (trans.), The Yî King, The Texts of Confucianism, The Sacred Books of China Part ϩ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p.294. 7 Baihua Zong (ᇇⲭॾ), Art Atmosphere (㢪ຳ) (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1987), p.333.

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farfetched, for, to a large extent, it deviates from the original meaning and the explanation of the hexagram “Bi”. Why can aesthetic sense help the governors keep good governance and at the same time not be employed to help with decisions on cases of criminal litigation? In this respect, Zong did not elaborate, so we might as well say that the view, “the value and the limitations of beauty and arts in social activities”, can only be considered his own understanding, and cannot be proved directly in the judgment on the hexagram. As we can see from the Tuan’s treatise on the hexagram “Bi”, the meaning of the words focuses on enlightening and influencing the world, instead of discussing literature and arts. It does not mean that I completely deny the possibility and validity of interpreting the Book of Changes in the light of literature and arts as Zong did, but nor do I believe that Zong’s explanation is implausible. This does not necessarily mean that the hexagram “Bi” cannot be understood from the perspective of literature and arts, as Zong’s other explanation is fairly accurate. It suggests that the hexagram “Bi” includes an opposition of two kinds of beauty, viz. the beauty of magnificence and the beauty of plainness. He maintains that, The original meaning of “Bi” is splendid beauty and “White Bi” is the plainness developing from the magnificence. Thus, Xun Shuang (㥰⡭ˈ 128–190AD, an expert on Zhou Yi) held that “the extreme ornamentation will go into plainness”. The colorful will become the colorless, for instance, both landscape paintings and flower paintings develop into inkand-wash paintings, which represents the summit of arts. Hence it is believed in “The Miscellaneous Remarks on the hexagrams of I Ching” (“Za Gua”) that “Bi is equivalent to the colorless”. This sentence contains an important aesthetic idea, namely, the true beauty comes from the radiance of an object.8

In actuality, the original meaning of “Bi” is ornamentation, as is shown in “The Treatise on the Orderly Sequence of the Hexagrams” (“Xu Gua”), “Bi is equivalent to ornamentation”. That is why “Confucius was unhappy after getting the hexagram ‘Bi’ in a divination”. Confucius supposed that “Bi is not the color for orthodoxy” (From “The Book of Han: The Garden of Stories” [“Shuo Yuan”]). Confucius’ view is yet different from that in “The Miscellaneous Remarks on the hexagrams” “Bi is equivalent to colorlessness”. Thus, contradiction arises. Firstly, if “Bi” means 8

Ibid.

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ornamentation, it cannot mean colorless, “Xu Gua” and “Za Gua” are contradictory to each other in this regard. Secondly, if “Bi” means colorless, Confucius would not be disappointed. Therefore, the original meaning of “Bi” should be “ornamentation”, instead of “colorless”. Gao Heng suggested that the Chinese character “wu” in the phrase “wu-se” (colorless) should be explained as “Mang” (the multicolored): this meaning is thus equivalent to “ornamentation”. Hence the complete meaning of “Bi” is that “the multicolored contributes to ornamentation”.9 This explanation does make sense, since the original meaning of “Bi” is ornamentation and splendor. “White Bi” certainly means going into plainness, pureness and the original color. The expression “White Bi” comes from the sentence for the sixth line of the hexagram “Bi”, “one with white as his (only) ornament. There will be no error.” Gao Heng explained this expression, “White Bi is the white texture with multicolored ornamentation. Its figurative meaning is no blame for a man with the pure and innocent virtue as well as with the brilliance of literature, so there will be no error”.10 In this respect, I do not think that Gao’s interpretation is as precise as Zong’s. Given that Bi means ornamentation, then Bi should precede White Bi, that is, White Bi follows Bi. It is obvious that the meaning of White Bi is going into plainness after splendor, rather than having “white nature” before being “ornamented with multicolored patterns”, as Gao suggested. This is presented in Confucius’ teaching that “in painting, ornamentation and color are of secondary importance compared with the ground work”, which is extracted from the following paragraph, A disciple asked Confucius for the meaning of the following verse: “Her coquettish smiles, / How dimpling they are; / Her beautiful eyes, / How beaming they are; /How fairest is she / who is simple and plain”. “In painting,” answered Confucius, “Ornamentation and color are of secondary importance compared with the ground work.” “Then art itself,” said the disciple, “is a matter of ‘secondary’ consideration?” “My friend,”

9 Heng Gao (儈Ә), The Morden Comments on the Great Appendix of Zhouyi (ઘ᱃ བྷՐӺ⌘) ( Jinan: Qilu Press, 1979), p.226. 10 Ibid., p.231.

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This paragraph is quoted from the well-known Analects of Confucius: Ba Yi. Yet there are always different explanations. The key difference focuses on the meaning of the sentence “in painting, ornamentation and color are of secondary importance compared with the ground work”, which is, first, that plainness exists before painting, or that plainness follows painting. In his book Translation and Comments of the Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu Yi Zhu), Yang Bojun (1909–1992) explained it as, “The groundwork precedes ornamentation and color.”12 But Zheng Xuan (䜁⦴ˈ127–200 AD, a Confucian master in the Han Dynasty) commented on it in a different way: The painting is equivalent to ornamentation. In painting we always prepare colors at first, and then we distribute the plainness among the colors to have the ornamentation completed. It indicates that even if a beautiful woman has pretty appearances and nice nature, she is not perfect without the cultivation of rites.13

If we consider the meaning of the quotation above as a whole, it is clear that these words primarily discuss the relationship between plainness and splendor. The beauty in a pretty woman of “Her coquettish smiles, How dimpling they are / Her beautiful eyes, How beaming they are”, is a natural quality without any ornament. Therefore, there is “How fairest is she who is simple and plain”. This “fairness” is “plain and simple”, that is, “fairness going into plainness”. Just like painting, different colors should be used initially, but the finished painting should be plain instead of dazzling. Only in this way can we say it is an excellent painting. It is also like the “Ceremonies”: what Confucius emphasized are plain and moderate rites, but not unnecessary and over-elaborate formalities. From the above discussion we can see that the complete meaning for “White Bi” should be “going into plainness from splendor”, the final effects of which can return into “Whiteness”, from “the multicolored 11

Hongming Ku (䗌呯䬝) (trans.), The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius (㤡䈁 䇪䈝) (Kunming: Yunnan People’s Press, 2011), p.33. 12 Bojun Yang (ᶘ՟ጫ), Annotation and Translation of the Analects of Confucius (䇪䈝䈁⌘) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.25. 13 Yuan Ruan (䱞‫)ݳ‬, Shi San Jing Zhu Shu (ॱй㓿⌘⮿) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p. 2466.

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figures with the plain ground”. That is a higher realm. It shows that natural and internal beauty were held in high esteem in ancient Chinese society. And they are all surely about literature and the arts. In this regard, obviously, it is reasonable that Zong Baihua makes an interpretation for the hexagram “Bi” from the perspective of literary aesthetics and arts.

II. Limitations of Understanding the Book of Changes from the Perspectives of Literary Aesthetics Liu Xie (ࡈठˈ465–520 AD) quoted and discussed the Book of Changes many times in his book Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind (Wenxin Diaolong), a critique of ancient Chinese literature and arts, which indicates that the Book of Changes is indeed relevant to literature. For example, in the chapter Feeling and Art (Qing Cailjᛵ䟷NJ), there is “That is why a man once wore a coarse linen coat over brocade in order to avoid gaudiness. The image of the hexagram ‘grace’ (‘Bi’) in the Book of Changes traces its source to plain white: It values the natural color”.14 And also, in another chapter, “Venerating the Sages” (Zheng Shengljᖱ൓NJ), there is a sentence, “those (writing) lucidity, (can be likened) to the hexagram ‘fire’ (‘Li’)”.15 All these can prove that studying the Book of Changes from the point of view of literary aesthetics is feasible. Although the aspects of literature and arts on the hexagrams “Bi” and “Li” are discussed in Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind, the relationship between literature and the Book of Changes is of greater interest. In the first chapter, “Tracing the Origin to the Dao” (Yuan Daolj৏䚃NJ), Liu Xie wrote, Now when the blue color parted from the yellow, and the round shape from the square, heaven and earth came into being. Like two interfolding jade mirrors, the sun and the moon reflect the images of heaven, while streams and mountains are interwoven into earthly patterns like gorgeous damask. They are manifestations of Dao.16

According to Liu Xie, the “manifestations of Dao” are quite similar to the “the ornamental figures of heaven” in the Book of Changes. In the Book of 14

Guobin Yang (ᶘഭᮼ) (trans.), Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind II (᮷ᗳ 䴅嗉) (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003), p.28. 15 Ibid., p.17. 16 Ibid., p.3.

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Changes, hexagram “Bi” is “the docile and the virile intertwined into the ornamental figures of heaven”, while Liu Xie discussed this hexagram in further detail, that is, varying from the colors blue and yellow, to the shapes round and square to the sun and the moon, to streams and mountains. Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind discusses about the Two Modes (єԚ) and the Three Powers (й᡽) as the Book of Changes does, which also indicates that the Book of Changes is the inspiration for the former. After discussing “the ornamentation of heaven”, Liu Xie talked about the ornamentation of human society: Language originated in Taiji, the Great Primal Beginning. In the beginning, divine order revealed the hexagrams of the Book of Changes. Pao-xi drew the eight trigrams of the Book of Changes, to which Confucius appended commentaries known as the ‘Ten Wings’. Further, to interpret the Qian (Heaven) and Kun (Earth) hexagrams, Confucius wrote the ‘Patterns of Words’. Are not word patterns the mind of heaven and earth!17

The close relationship between literature and the Book of Changes is clearly revealed in this paragraph. It can be seen that the Book of Changes can be interpreted from the perspective of literature or of literary aesthetics according to Liu Xie. However, we need to be aware that the issues of literary aesthetics discussed in the chapter, “Yuan Dao”, are different from those which Zong discusses which are about particular aspects, whereas “Yuan Dao” covers a general principle. We can generalize the principle as “contemplation as looking up, and survey as looking down”, which is an important principle in ancient Chinese aesthetic thought, and a thought that the Book of Changes emphasizes. “Contemplation as looking up and survey as looking down” can be seen as a special aesthetic mode of the ancient Chinese. Yet this aesthetic mode is connected with ancient Chinese ecological holism. It can be seen as some general principle, in which the aesthetic thought as “harmony between man and nature” is revealed. The reason for contemplation as looking up, and survey as looking down, lies in the unity of heaven and earth, and of nature and culture. It shows a harmonious relationship 17

Guobin Yang (ᶘഭᮼ) (trans.), Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind I (᮷ᗳ 䴅嗉) (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2003), p.7.

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between man and nature, which is a thought of ecological holism of ancient Chinese. Returning to Zong’s interpretation of the Book of Changes’ aesthetics, as we have pointed out above, of his three explanations for the hexagram “Bi”, only the third one is persuasive, and the other two are somewhat unlikely. Still, Zong contributes a lot to the study of the Book of Changes’ aesthetics, since he uncovers the aesthetic thoughts embedded in the Book of Changes, illuminates the relationship between the Book of Changes and aesthetics, and interprets some hexagrams in the Book of Changes from the angle of literary aesthetics. His research is therefore valuable. Yet in my opinion, there are many restraints on interpreting the Book of Changes from the perspective of literary aesthetics, for some parts of the book can be explained from that angle, while others cannot. Should we then conclude that this means a failure of aesthetic interpretation of the Book of Changes? Not in my view. If we cannot explain it from the angle of literary aesthetics, we can do it from the perspective of ecological aesthetics. We can, for instance, take this sentence: “The trigram representing a mountain and that for fire under it, form Bi. The superior man, in accordance with this, throws a brilliancy around his various processes of government, but does not dare (in a similar way) to decide cases of criminal litigation”. Since it does not discuss literary issues directly, we cannot interpret it from a perspective of literary aesthetics, but it can be interpreted through ecological aesthetics. Firstly, the image of a mountain and the fire at the foot of it demonstrates a beautiful natural phenomenon, which certainly belongs to the ecological beauty of nature. Secondly, the meaning of the expression, “but does not dare (in a similar way) to decide cases of criminal litigation” about the good deeds of the superior man, is part of the ecological beauty of human society. Lastly, as this paragraph indicates, we should always show respect for myriad things in our social activities and not always do whatever is harmful to the natural world, which we would nowadays call environmental protection. The idea is also reflected in the hexagram “Jie”, in the Book of Changes: “Heaven and earth observe their regular terms, and we have the four seasons complete. (If rulers) frame their measures according to (the due) regulations, the resources (of the state) suffer no injury, and the people receive no hurt”.18 18

James Legge (trans.), The Yî King, The Texts of Confucianism, The Sacred Books of China Part ϩ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p.262.

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Consequently, all of these can be understood and interpreted from the point of view of ecological aesthetics, even if the parts in the Book of Changes explicable from the perspective of literary aesthetics can also be explained from that of ecological aesthetics. For example, the “White Bi” (discussed above), which is the beauty of plainness coming from that of magnificence, is both of artistic and ecological beauty. Is it not the plain and natural beauty that is pursued by ecological aesthetics? Hence, this kind of beauty of literature and arts can be understood by virtue of ecological beauty. For literary issues are always connected with the affairs of society and even events of heaven and earth in the Pre-Qin canons, and this kind of idea is a tradition of culture and ideology in ancient China. The tradition, as we put it today, is a thought of ecological holism, which can be summarized in the view of the Yin-Yang mode. According to Liu Xi-zai, “The ‘patterns’ (wen) follow the rules and principles of heaven and earth, whose way can be held by Yin and Yang, and by the weak and the strong”.19 Zong (1987) pointed out that: The characteristics reflected in Chinese painting are based on the fundamental philosophy of Chinese people, and it is exactly the universal view of the I Ching: everything is produced from the Two Life Forces (Qi) Yin and Yang, all of them can be called a kind of ‘accumulation of life force’ (‘Qi Ji’). As Chuang-tzu said, sky is the accumulated life force, for everything is created from the life force of heaven and earth.20

According to the two quotations above, we can see that when Liu Xi-zai talks about literature (wen) and Zong about paintings, both of them relate the literary issues with the affairs of the universe, and view the thought of Yin and Yang as the fundament of literature and arts. It is suggested that the ultimate issues of Chinese literature and arts can be clarified by the thought of two modes of Yin and Yang, owing to their close relationship. On the other hand, interpreting the Book of Changes merely from the perspective of literature and the arts is not enough, because of the rich aesthetic connotations in the Book of Changes. Not only the existence of literature and the arts, but also the existence of the universe can be 19

Zhongyu Xu (ᗀѝ⦹) & Huarong Xiao (㛆ॾ㦓), Comments on Arts by LIU Xizai (ࡈ⟉䖭䇪㢪‫( )⿽ޝ‬Chengdu: Bashu Press, 1990), p.47. 20 Baihua Zong (ᇇⲭॾ), Art Atmospherelj㢪ຳNJ (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1987), p.118.

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illuminated in the aspect of the thought of the Yin-Yang mode. Not only literary aesthetics, but also life aesthetics can be used to interpret the aesthetic thought in the Book of Changes. As Liu Gangji points out in his book The Aesthetics of Book of Changes, “In terms of aesthetics, the idea of life aesthetics is dominant in the Book of Changes, and this is the most important characteristic, and the most significant contribution, of the Book of Changes”.21 An internal logic can be seen in the study of the aesthetics of the Book of Changes from literary aesthetics to life aesthetics, and this is our insight into the thought of the aesthetics of the Book of Changes. Still, we shall move forward to the aspect of ecological aesthetics, in order to comprehensively and precisely understand and illuminate the thought of the aesthetics of the Book of Changes. We have to admit that life is exactly the key aesthetic category on which the Book of Changes focuses, yet it is different from that of modern Western life aesthetics-interpretation. The life that the Book of Changes focuses on is not only the individual life-will of human beings, but also of ecological holism. To be more specific, the individual life of human is put into the dimension of the complete universal view that is composed of the mineral and the organic, animals and plants, nature and society, ornamentation of heaven and of human, as surveyed in the Book of Changes. It is not the life, but the relationships among the lives, which include the origins of producing lives, the reasons and grounds for the growth and development of lives, and mutual generation and restriction among them, that construct the whole frame and core of the Book of Changes. The “life” in the Book of Changes refers not only to the lives of human beings, but also to the life of the universe. As Zeng explains, “The lives in the Book of Changes include ‘myriad things’ (‘Wan Wu’) on the Earth. Either the organic or the mineral originates in Qian and Kun, Yin and Yang, Heaven and Earth, and thus is vital”.22 This is different from the modern Western philosophy and aesthetics of life theories that confine lives to organic matter, plant and animal, and especially human: this style Western philosophy and aesthetics in certain respects remains anthropocentric. As for the life theory in Book of Changes, it is more ecological. Hence, we can conclude

21

Gangji Liu (ࡈ㓢㓚), The Aesthetics of Zhouyi ljઘ᱃㖾ᆖNJ (Wuhan: Wuhan University Press, 2006), p. 69. 22 Fanren Zeng (ᴮ㑱ӱ), Comments on Ecological Ontological Aesthetics (⭏ᘱᆈ ൘䇪㖾ᆖ䇪は) (Changchun: Jilin Press, 2009), p.187.

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that, in comparison with life aesthetics, ecological aesthetics is closer to the natural spirit of the aesthetics of the Book of Changes. Does this in any way mean that the aesthetics of the Book of Changes reflects the eco-centrism of the non-human? Considering this, only the ecological holism that unites naturalism and humanism, instead of anthropocentrism or eco-centrism, can approach the real spirit of the aesthetics of the Book of Changes comprehensively. In the “Explanation of the Words and Sentences” on the hexagram “Qian” in the Book of Changes, there is a saying: The great man is he who is in harmony, in his attributes, with heaven and earth; in his brightness, with the sun and moon; in his orderly procedure, with the four seasons; and in his relation to what is fortunate and what is calamitous, in harmony with the spirit-like operations (of Providence). He may precede Heaven, and Heaven will not act in opposition to him; he may follow Heaven, but will act (only) as Heaven at the time would do.23

It is exactly the ecological holism that was illuminated in this text, which means: Man and all things in heaven and earth should be regarded as one, and everything shall proceed with the four seasons, and shall not act in opposition to the order of nature. Because only in compliance with nature can humans exist in better circumstances. This view is in accordance with what we advocate today, that “human is part of nature, and nature is the foundation of human lives, thus protecting the natural environment is protecting human beings”.

III. Ways of Understanding the Book of Changes from the Perspective of Eco-Aesthetics The Book of Changes can be further interpreted in the way of ecological aesthetics, for its ecological wisdom is a kind of aesthetic intelligence, and of wisdom of ecological aesthetics. According to Zeng Fanren, the ecological aesthetic connotations of the Book of Changes include the following aspects: First, it describes arts and aesthetic as a living way for ancient Chinese. In “Xi Ci” of the Book of Changes, the whole progress of the ancient Chinese 23

James Legge (trans.), The Yî King, The Texts of Confucianism, The Sacred Books of China Part ϩ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p.417.

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divination is presented, such as producing a hexagram, commenting on appended judgments, accommodating allegories to circumstances, and beating drums, dancing, playing wizardries. Art and aesthetic actions are included in this progress, or, in other words, because of the art and aesthetic actions contained in the divination, the divination itself becomes an aesthetic activity. These divining rites, in which aesthetic actions are included or aesthetic actions are characterized, was a basic way for the ancient Chinese to seek a better life, and is also a reflection of thoughts of ecological aesthetic holism. Second, it represents a fundamental form of Chinese classical aesthetics, in which “great harmony is preserved in union” and “the beauty of weakness and softness is combined”. Zeng suggests that the “great harmony” in the Tuan’s treatise on the hexagram “Qian” is a situation of the “harmony between heaven and human” and an “equilibrium and harmony existing in perfection”, in which all of Qian and Kun, Yin and Yang, Humaneness and Righteousness are in their proper positions. 24 This is not only the most cardinal form of ancient Chinese aesthetics, but also the highest aesthetic pursuit of ancient China. The beauty of both the virile and the docile undoubtedly derive from this fundamental form of aesthetics, the highest aesthetic pursuit in ancient China. Third, it represents the “poetic thinking mode” of the idea that “the symbols are built to make complete sense” in ancient China. In “Xi Ci II”, the expression goes: “Therefore, what we call the Yi is [a collection of] emblematic lines. They are styled emblematic as being resemblances”.25 Zeng explains it like this: the symbols of hexagrams are essential in the Book of Changes, since the images showed in them are used to voice the principles of “Yi”. Zeng points out that, “All of the symbols in the Book of Changes use ornamentations of heaven and earth as metaphors for the ornamentation of the human; in other words, the metaphor is symbols of nature, and the target is symbols of humanity”.26 It is related to the two rhetorical techniques in classical Chinese poetics, “Bi Xing”—explicit comparisons and implied comparisons. Hence, as we put it, the Book of 24

Fanren Zeng (ᴮ㑱ӱ), Comments on Ecological Ontological Aesthetics (⭏ᘱᆈ ൘䇪㖾ᆖ䇪は) (Changchun: Jilin Press, 2009), p.190. 25 James Legge (trans.), The Yî King, The Texts of Confucianism, The Sacred Books of China Part ϩ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p.386. 26 Fanren Zeng (ᴮ㑱ӱ), Comments on Ecological Ontological Aesthetics (⭏ᘱᆈ ൘䇪㖾ᆖ䇪は) (Changchun: Jilin Press, 2009), p191.

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Changes illuminates the “poetic thinking mode”, which is also a thought of ecological holism. Fourth, it praises the healthy beauty of life, as is showed in “Tai”, “Da Zhuang” and other hexagrams. For instance, the trigram “Qian” below, and the trigram “Kun” above, comprise the hexagram “Tai”. As the QianYang rises from the lower towards the upper, and the Kun-Yin descends from the upper towards the lower, it represents the communication between Yin and Yang, thus heaven, earth, and all things get their fairness, and every life remains vigorous. All of these are praises for the healthy and virile beauty of ecology in the universe as well as in all things. In the end, it expresses the plain hope for, and pursuit of, a wonderful homeland and a happy life in ancient China. Zeng considers that goodness, excellence, harmony and faculty in the “Explanation of the Words and Sentences” (“Wen Yan”), on the hexagram “Qian”, are all representations of success and the beautiful life, and are appeals to an ecological aesthetic situation of harmony between human and nature, and human society. It should be mentioned that Zeng’s analysis of the eco-aesthetic connotations of the Book of Changes is original and specific, and demonstrates that some new connotations, which we ignore, can be revealed from the angle of ecological aesthetics. And once again, it shows that reading the Book of Changes from the perspective of ecological aesthetics is feasible. Of course, it does not necessarily mean that all of the connotations mentioned by Zeng have totally covered the ecological aesthetics of the Book of Changes—further studies are still necessary. In effect, thoughts about the eco-aesthetics of the Book of Changes are rich. Zeng puts it frankly, “As an ancient ecological wisdom, ‘Creating Life is equivalent to Yi’, and is a ‘poetic thinking mode’ itself, which contains plentiful aesthetic connotations”.27 The above five connotations are only part of the eco-aesthetics of the Book of Changes. The “poetic thinking mode” is opposite to the logical thinking aesthetics represented in classical Western aesthetics (especially those of Hegel); the ecological ontological aesthetics, as he defines it, is contrary to the Western epistemological aesthetics in which subject-object dichotomy is the primary thinking mode. Indeed, both the “poetic thinking mode” and “ecological ontology” are used to reveal the special theoretical form and 27

Ibid., p.189.

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spiritual substance of ancient Chinese aesthetics, to uncover the specific connotation of ecological holism contained in the aesthetics of Book of Changes. This is a profound interpretation, but it is only part of the reading of ecological aesthetics of the Book of Changes instead of the final interpretation. To comprehensively interpret the thoughts of ecological aesthetics of the Book of Changes, further efforts are needed. For example, interpretation of its eco-aesthetic thought from the angle of the mode of Yin and Yang: Yin and Yang, the most essential elements in Book of Changes, together comprise of Tai Ji, and produce the eight trigrams. In “Xi Ci I” of the Book of Changes the saying goes, Therefore in (the system of) the Yi there is the Grand Terminus, which produced the two elementary Forms. Those two Forms produced the Four Emblematic Symbols, which again produced the eight trigrams. The eight trigrams served to determine the good and evil (issues of events), and from this determination was produced the (successful prosecution of the) great business (of life).28

Yin and Yang mediate between Tai Ji and the eight trigrams; their importance is thus self-evident. Meanwhile, the two modes of Yin and Yang are a key to unveiling the secrets of the aesthetics of Book of Changes. For the study of its aesthetics, there are different perspectives available, such as literary aesthetics, life aesthetics, ecological aesthetics, etc. Yet all of these should face the holistic thoughts of aesthetics of the Book of Changes, and the importance of the two modes of Yin and Yang in their formation. Only in this way can we have further discussions about different interpretations of the aesthetics of the Book of Changes. And all of the connotations of its ecological aesthetics we discussed above can be interpreted from the perspective of the two modes of Yin and Yang. We discussed three aesthetic interpretations of the Book of Changes above, that is, the ones from the perspectives of literary aesthetics, life aesthetics and ecological aesthetics. They have different interpretive views, different starting points, different emphases, and different issues, and, they can thus be used to disclose different aspects of the aesthetic thoughts of Book of Changes. Comparatively speaking, the perspective of ecological aesthetics is maybe closer to the spiritual substance of its aesthetics. Further, literary 28

James Legge (trans.), The Yî King, The Texts of Confucianism, The Sacred Books of China Part ϩ (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p.373.

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aesthetics and life aesthetics are included in ecological aesthetics. In other words, the interpretations of literary aesthetics, or of life aesthetics, can both be raised in the aspect of ecological aesthetics.

CHAPTER TWO THE ORIGINAL CONFUCIANISM, LITERARY THEORY AND AESTHETICS

Generally speaking, Traditional Chinese aesthetics have three basic characteristics. First, Chinese people tend to take harmony as the essence of beauty. Harmony, serving as the central category in Chinese traditional culture and aesthetics, is the contribution of Confucianism. We must admit the other schools of learning in ancient China, such as Taoism have similar concepts; Confucianism, however, undoubtedly plays a major role in the formation of Chinese traditional aesthetic thoughts of harmony. Second, Chinese people tend to combine aesthetics with goodness in the meaning of ethics. This is to say, the aesthetic standard of the Chinese people is both beautiful and good, which originated mainly from Confucianism; Taoism is totally opposed to the combination of aesthetics and goodness. Shu Er Bu Zuo (䘠㘼н֌, to pass on the ancient culture without adding anything new to it), one of the basic doctrines advocated by Confucius, emphasizes the understanding of life principles in an intuitive way, resulting in the manifestation pattern of enlightenment in Chinese classical aesthetic, rather than the Western aesthetics of rational analysis. This can also be seen as the third major basic characteristic of Chinese aesthetics. The three characteristics, the essentialism of harmonious beauty, the aesthetic standard of the combination of aesthetics and goodness and Shu Er Bu Zuo, reveal the tremendous impact on Chinese aesthetics imposed by Confucianism.

I. Confucius’ Benevolence and Literary Theory and Aesthetics Confucius’ status in ancient Chinese history of culture, academics and ideology can never be challenged or even doubted, and many of the characteristics of Chinese culture can be found their sources in his thoughts. The core of Confucian ideology is Benevolence.

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The character “Ren” (Benevolence) appears 109 times in the Analects, and benevolence can be regarded as the core concept of Confucianism. 1 Specifically, benevolence has two meanings. One of its meanings is that the benevolent loves others. It emphasizes sociality and affinity relationships, and focuses on the infinite supremacy of the social ethics and the group norms rooted in clan affection over individual existence, and it requires that the individual be melted in its harmonious union with the social groups, without contradiction. The other of its meanings is that social class and status are unalterable, recognizing the social rank in affection. Considering the two sides of his concept of Benevolence as a whole, Confucius holds that benevolence is the affection of social rank between monarch and courtiers, or between father and sons in the patriarchal clan system of Hierarchy and Affinity. The affection of social rank advocated by Confucius thus conveys both social and familial meanings. Confucius’ social ideal is established according to the intimate familial relationship. He believes the relationship between monarch and courtiers is as natural and reasonable as between father and sons. For this reason, the country is like home. The model of the state is built on a familial pattern, so the social ethic (rites) should be rooted in individual emotions (desire). Benevolence is actually the emotionalized rites, to reach the benevolence; individual emotions generated by each familial relationship will become the starting point to reach it. One of his disciples, You Zi, says, “The superior man bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all practical courses naturally grow up. Filial piety and fraternal submission! –are they not the root of all benevolent action?”2 It means that the rites, cohered in the benevolence, become the conscious action of every person, no longer the alien and mandatory force outside the person: “One restrains himself in order to observe the rites”. For Confucius, benevolence is regarded as the intermediary from desire to rites, and his purpose is apparently trying to make the two into one. Confucius, who does not completely exclude the body of people’s desire, is fully against the mandatory death penalty and expects people to attain 1

Yang Bojun (ᶘ՟ጫ), The Interpretation of Analects of Confucius (lj䇪䈝䈁⌘ NJ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Press, 1980), p.221. 2 James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes I: Confucian Analects (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), pp.138–9.

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the level of “Saint” through the cultivation of moral character. It is at this point that Confucius attaches great importance to the role of art. As the harmonious unification of the perceptual and reasonable and emotional and rational, aesthetics can help people to complete the course of cohering with desire and attain benevolence. Thus, he explains, “Find inspiration in The Books of Songs, take the rites as my basis and cultivate my mind by music”. At the same time, it can also illustrate another question, namely, in the aesthetic thoughts of Confucius, he is focussed on the combination of beauty and goodness from the start, therefore his aesthetic ideal is both beauty and goodness, his goal to reach the acme of perfection. In the Analects of Confucius, it is said, “The Master said of the Shao [a piece of music in the Shun period] that it was both perfectly beautiful and perfectly good and of Wu [a piece of music in commemorating King Wu of Zhou] that it was perfectly beautiful, but not perfectly good”. 3 The reason Confucius is in favor of the Music of Shao is that its form and content are both good, whereas the music of Wu only has a good form, but not good content. Here, Confucius has paid attention to the special problems of aesthetics and is aware of the separation phenomenon between beauty and the goodness, but is apparently more in favor of the music of Shao, with its perfection of both beauty and goodness, which is regarded more highly than the music of “Wu”, which is only with beauty, but not with goodness. Thus, what Confucius really wanted is to achieve the combination of both beauty and goodness. However, we cannot conclude that goodness can be separated from beauty, although it occupies an important position in his aesthetic standards. Confucius does not absolutely exclude the aesthetic effect but considers that the goodness without beauty is undesirable. He once remarked, “Where the solid qualities are in excess of accomplishments, we have rusticity; where the accomplishments are in excess of the solid qualities, we have the manners of a clerk. When the accomplishments and solid qualities are equally blended, we then have the man of virtue”. 4 Here, Confucius has emphasized the significance of beauty as a form, while what he pursues is the harmonious unity between beauty and goodness, 3

James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes I: Confucian Analects (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), p.164. 4 Ibid., p.190.

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form and content, refinement and simplicity, and music and etiquette. On the one hand, he specifically believes that the combination of goodness and beauty is higher than their separation, while on the other, he also emphasizes the role of formal beauty, which should not only be with full refinement in accordance with the rites of Zhou inside, but also with the corresponding appropriate simplicity outside. Only the two combined can complement each other. It should be said that the formation of Confucius’ thoughts are firmly rooted in his time, since we know he lived during the Spring and Autumn Periods. In this period, the thoughts of people were more active and liberated than ever before. Thus, a diversified situation of contention of a hundred schools of thought was formed. Despite the hundreds of different positions debated by all manner of factions, the characteristics of the age still require thinkers to begin from the reality and answer the questions of that time. And it can be said that the breaking of old theological superstitions enabled them to face reality and society directly. Confucius’ benevolence and the aesthetic standards generated from this are fit to solve the current social problems. Confucius is not an ascetic. Starting from the respect of human perceptual existence, Confucius admits all pursuits of desires, including the reasonability of aesthetics. He teaches his apprentices the Six Classical Arts (poetry, literature, rites, music, riding and archery) to aid their allround development. There was a distinction between goodness and beauty in the Spring and Autumn Periods, and people distinguished beauty from utilitarianism. Obviously, beauty is related to the good side of the physiological sensation. While the all-round developments of man cannot do without the certainty of people’s perceptual existence, so Confucius to some extent envisages their differentiation and confirms aesthetics as a different need of moral cultivation. Confucius is neither ascetic, nor indulgent. As the basis of his benevolence is the combination of ethical love and the hierarchy of rites, his aesthetic ideal is also rooted in the unity of goodness and beauty as well as reason and emotion. On the one hand, Confucius does not deny the perceptual pleasure value of aesthetics, and considers it a reasonable requirement, independent of morality; on the other hand, he also emphasizes that this kind of satisfaction cannot be limited to the restricted scope of physiology, but must be incorporated in the orbit of social ethics and infused into the

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content of moral education, to realize the unity of the emotional and rational as well as the desire of the individual and social order. Moralized emotion and emotionalized morality is a bridge, erected by Confucius, between aesthetics and ethics. He attempts to realize the personality cultivation in the self-conscious pursuit of aesthetics. And this formulation not only enables Confucius to take aesthetics as the start of morality, but also to regard morality as the final accomplishment of aesthetics. Although Confucius is aware of their differentiations, he is still trying to emphasize their connections, placing the social ethic unconditionally above the personal emotions. The unity of aesthetic principles and moral standards is the core of the perfectly good and beautiful aesthetics rules of Confucius. In addition, we should be aware that Confucius pursues the unity between morality and aesthetics, but in his aesthetic thought, the importance of them, after all, is still different, which has constituted the idea of hierarchy in his aesthetic values. As mentioned above, for Confucius, achieving the unity of goodness and beauty is higher than the merely beautiful but good, both of them forming a hierarchy. In the matter of goodness and beauty and refinement and simplicity, Confucius stresses their symmetries and unities, but actually he treats them unequally, and favors simplicity over refinement. Confucius once expressed his views about the relationship between refinement and simplicity by making use of the Book of Songs, Zi Xia asked, saying “What is the meaning of the passage—The Pretty dimples of her artful smile! The well-defined black and white of her eye! The plain ground for the colors?” The Master said, “The business of laying on the colors follows (the preparation of) the plain ground.” “Ceremonies then are a subsequent thing?” The Master said, “It is Shang who can bring out my meaning. Now I can begin to talk about the Odes with you.”5

From the above quotation, we can see Confucius’ characteristic style of poetry appreciation. What pleases him is that his disciples are able to understand the rites by appreciating poetics, serving as the aesthetic form: the important value of poetry lies in that it not only contains the goodness but also the rites, which is the typically intuitive inspiring way in Chinese aesthetics to reach the comprehension of goodness, and not by logical reasoning.

5

James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes I: Confucian Analects (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), p.157.

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We can thus say that the essence of Confucius’ aesthetics is a kind of ethical one. On the nature of beauty, it emphasizes the harmonious unification of beauty and goodness, but on the relationship of their combination, he has more emphasis on the practical content of goodness. In the process of the aesthetic experience, he underlines the enlightenment way to the moral sense, and lays more stress on its reality on the aesthetic features. Actually, his aesthetic character belongs to the “practice rationality” category. All of these ideas have an important influence on Chinese Aesthetics

II. Mencius’ Theory of Good Human Nature and Aesthetics If we say that Confucius takes aesthetics as an important way of improving the natural and perceptual person to the social and moral one, and guides it to ethical politics as a result, then Mencius (372–239 BC), who takes morality itself into the field of aesthetics, has highly praised the aesthetic value of personality spirit and finally realizes the unity of aesthetics and ethics, which is the inevitable development of the aesthetic ideal of Confucius, who values the goodness most. Mencius advocates good human nature, and takes the pursuit of the selfperfection of morality as a universal human conscious desire. He says, The feeling of commiseration belongs to all men; so do that of shame and dislike, and that of reverence and respect; and that of approving and disapproving. The feeling of commiseration implies the principle of benevolence; that of shame and dislike, the principle of righteousness; that of reverence and respect, the principle of propriety; and that of approving and disapproving, the principle of knowledge. Benevolence, righteousness, propriety and knowledge, are not infused into us from without. We are certainly furnished with them. And a different view is simply from want of reflection. Hence it is said: Seek, and you will find them. Neglect, and you will lose them.6

Thus, the idea of good human nature forms the theoretical basis of his aesthetics, which has engendered the introversion of the characters of

6

James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes II: The Works of Mencius (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), pp.402–3.

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Chinese traditional aesthetic activities and profoundly influenced the formation of Chinese cultural psychology. Mencius thinks highly of righteousness, but makes light of its benefits, and he also stresses mental morality but despises material enjoyment. Regarding aesthetics, he usually puts weight on the mental ethic rather than sensory entertainment. He has also made an absolute division between the physiological desire and mental need, and pursues the leap of aesthetics itself from the physical pleasure to the senior spiritual one. Compared with Confucius, Mencius is closer to the rational rather than the perceptual in his aesthetic sense, which paves the way to bring the moral cultivation into the scope of aesthetics. At the same time, he also extends aesthetic objects from nature and art to the cultivation of personality, which promotes the external perceptual forms to the internal spirit ethic, and realizes the direct unity between aesthetics and ethics. In this way, the cultivation of morality itself is consistent with the aesthetics, and the perfection acme of aesthetics is to transcend the perceptual and reach the enrichment of ethic. This is embodied in the famous saying of “the vast and flowing passion-nature”. Here are the dialogues between Mencius and his disciples: “I venture to ask,” said Chau again, “wherein you, Master, surpass Kao.” Mencius told him, “I understand words; I am skillful in nourishing my vast, flowing passion-nature.” Chou pursued, “I venture to ask what you mean by your vast, flowing passionate-nature!” The reply was, “It is difficult to describe it. This is the passion-nature: it is exceedingly great, and exceedingly strong. Being nourished by rectitude, and sustaining no injury, it fills up all between heaven and earth. This is the passionatenature: it is the mate and assistant of righteousness and reason. Without it, man is in a state of starvation.”7

The phase “the vast and flowing passion-nature” bears both natural and social significance with “exceedingly great, and exceedingly strong”, filling up all between heaven and earth or “mated and assisted with righteousness and reason”, enriching the basic characteristic of humanity, whose fundamental character is a kind of virile strength. It has obviously come down in one continuous line with the proposition of “as heaven maintains vigor through movement, a gentleman should constantly strive 7

James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes II: The Works of Mencius (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), pp.189–90.

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for self-perfection!” So we can’t deny the important enlightenment of this natural “exceedingly strong (Gang ࡊ)” to the world, and what we should do is to draw the great spiritual strength from it, as the saying is, “to be above the power of riches and honors to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from principle, and of power and force to make bend”.8 Mencius also made a detailed division of the evaluation about individual personality: Haosheng Buhai asked, saying, “What sort of man is Yuezheng?” Mencius replied, “He is a good man, a real man.” “What do you mean by ‘a good man’?” The reply was, “A man who commands our liking, is what is called a good man. He, whose goodness is part of him, is what is called a real man. He, whose goodness has been filled up, is what is called a beautiful man. He, whose completed goodness is brightly displayed, is what is called a great man. When this great man exercises a transforming influence, he is what is called a sage. When the sage is beyond our knowledge, he is what is called a spirit-man”.9

Here, he separates personality into six levels: the good, the real, the beautiful, the great, the sage, and the spirit-man. What is more, he not only distinguishes beauty from the good and real of ethical meaning, but also sets it above them, which shows that Mencius explicitly places beauty in a different realm to them. “He, whose goodness has been filled up, is what is called a beautiful man; and he whose completed goodness is brightly displayed, is what is called a great man”, aims to emphasize a majestic momentum which is substantial within and performs outside. As for the sage or the spirit-man, they push the “vast and flowing passion nature” to the limit, which is beyond the ordinary, and fills people with awe. Mencius, on the one hand, incorporates the ethic into aesthetics; on the other hand, he demonstrates the universality of the ultimate pursuit of the aesthetics and morality according to Good Human Nature. He said, “The principles of our nature and the determinations of righteousness are

8

James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes II: The Works of Mencius (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), p.265. 9 Ibid., p.490.

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agreeable to my mind, just as the flesh of grass and grain-fed animals are agreeable to my mouth”.10 Mencius deduces that human beings have a common spiritual desire based on people’s common physiological desire, which has provided the infinite possibility of humanity’s growth and development, where everyone can become a morally perfect man or a sage of Yao (቗) or Shun (㡌). It is in the cause of everyone’s loving beauty that Mencius is against rulers solely chasing carnal pleasures, and advocates that the rulers should have fun with the citizens. He says, “When a ruler rejoices in the joy of his people, they also rejoice in his joy; when he grieves at the sorrow of his people, they also grieve at his sorrow. Sympathy of joy will pervade the empire, sympathy of sorrow will do the same; in such a state of things, it cannot be but that the ruler attain to the Imperial dignity”.11 It is necessary for us to point out Mencius takes the perfection of the moral as the highest aesthetic realm; however, he does not deny the existence of natural beauty. In his eyes, the reason why nature is beautiful is because it is related to human spirit. In this point, he has the same idea with Confucius. For example, he once made a remark about water: The disciple Xu said, “Chung-ni (Confucius) often praised water, saying, ‘O water! O water!’ What did he find in water to praise?” Mencius replied, “There is a spring of water; how it gushes out! It rests not day and night. It fills up every hole, and then advances, flowing on to the four seas. Such is water having a spring! It was this which he found in it to praise. But suppose that the water has no spring. In the seventh and eight months when the rain falls abundantly, the channels in the fields are all filled, but their being dried up again may be expected in a short time. So a superior man is ashamed of reputation beyond his merits”.12

Thus, Mencius not only inherited Confucius's thought, but also developed his ideas. In particular, Mencius incorporates Confucius’ aesthetics idea into a new system. If we say Confucius takes aesthetics as the start of ethics, then it’s an achievement for Mencius, who takes ethics as the end of aesthetics. From Confucius to Mencius, Chinese aesthetics expands the field, and makes progress. 10

James Legge (trans.), The Chinese Classics Volumes II: The Works of Mencius (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), pp.406–7. 11 Ibid., p. 158. 12 Ibid., pp. 324-5.

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III. Xunzi’s Theory of the Evil Human Nature and Aesthetics Xunzi is the last important representative of Confucianism in the pre-Qin period ˄before 221 BC˅. He claims to be a successor of Confucianism, but compared with Confucius and Mencius, his thoughts have profoundly changed. In politics, he proposes ruling a state both by ritual and legislation, which is a development from the rule solely by ritual of Confucius. In Regarding human nature, he insists on the idea of Evil Human Nature, quite different from Mencius’ idea of Human Nature. He gives more attention to penal laws rather than moral models, which makes him akin to the ideals of legalism. However, although Xunzi holds the view of Evil Human Nature, which is different from the theories of Confucius or Mencius, he believes that people can correct their inherent nature and learn to be good through education. Generally, we can say that he represents the theoretical tendency in pre-Qin classical Confucianism, although at its end stage. Xunzi’s aesthetic idea is based on Evil Human Nature. He once explained, “Human nature is evil; any good in human is acquired by conscious exertion”.13 “What cannot be gained by learning and cannot be mastered by application yet is found in man is properly termed ‘inborn nature’. What must be learned before a man can do it and what he must apply himself to before he can master it yet is found in man is properly called ‘acquired nature’. This is precisely the distinction between ‘inborn’ and ‘acquired’ nature”.14 That’s to say, “inborn nature” embraces what is spontaneous from birth and irrelevant to human hard work; “acquired nature”, on the contrary, is not naturally developed from one’s original nature, but acquired by learning. The former is like seeing and hearing, but the latter is like the mind having to learn how to be virtuous. But Xunzi claims that human nature is evil because people naturally prefer to seek for gain and hate others as well as despising labor and loving ease; by only pursuing their own satisfaction, people never learn what virtue is. 13 John Knoblock (trans.), Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), p.741. 14 Ibid., p.745.

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Since human nature is evil, then where do ritual principles and moral duties come from? Xunzi admits that they are the creations of the ancient sages, and he believes that anyone can attain sagehood through learning. .

Emphasizing the unity between personal desire and social norms is a consistent stance of Confucianism; Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi have the same ideas at this point. However, Confucius and Mencius insist on the idea of good human nature, take the pursuit of perfect morality as the inherent requirements of people and the main difference between man and beast, and thus they transplant transcendental nature into the social ethic. They think that, as an important way to achieve moral perfection, aesthetics totally derives from the internal driving force and not from the imposed strength of the external world; and it is the manifestation of everyone being good. On the contrary, Xunzi holds to the doctrine of evil human nature, so he denies humanity’s innate tendency to pursue moral perfection, and affirms that people’s moral requirements are cultivated by environmental influences, and the transformation results acquired by ritual. Therefore, from the perspective of Xunzi, the ideas of music and aesthetics are affiliated to the thoughts of ritual and laws, and become an integral part of them. However, since ritual and laws are more focused on differentiation and the stability and order of society, music increasingly loses its sincere and reflective characteristics: as a result, it becomes a tool for control by rulers of people’s thoughts. Xunzi is not an ascetic, either. He argues that humans innately lean towards satisfying all desires, including aesthetics. In Man’s Nature Is Evil, he says, “With regard to such phenomena as the eye’s love of colors, the ear’s fondness of sounds, the mouth’s love of taste, the mind’s love of profit, and the fondness of the bones, flesh, and skin-lines for pleasant sensations and relaxation, all these are products of man’s essential and inborn nature. When there is stimulation, they respond spontaneously.”15 Xunzi thinks that it is an essential nature of man that his eyes desire beautiful colors and his ears desire the sweetest sounds. Xunzi imputes the ontological meaning to sensory desire, which can be looked at as the rational aspect in his idea. However, he considers directly revising the desires of human beings with rites, which makes the existence of desire 15

John Knoblock (trans.), Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), p.749.

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nominal, and there is insufficient room for it to play; eventually, desires are controlled by the rites outside the human body. He therefore states: How did ritual principles arise? I say that men are born with desires which, if not satisfied, cannot but lead men to seek to satisfy them. If in seeking to satisfy their desires, men observe no measure or apportion limits to things, then it would be impossible for them not to contend over the means to satisfy their desires. Such contention leads to disorder. Disorder leads to poverty. The Ancient Kings abhorred such disorder, so they established the regulations contained within ritual and moral principles in order to apportion things, to nurture the desires of men, and to supply the means for their satisfaction. They so fashioned their regulations that desires should not want for the things which satisfy them and goods would not be exhausted by the desires. In this way, the two of them, desires and goods, sustained each other over the course of time. This is the original of ritual principles.16

At this point, Xunzi completely incorporates the desire into rites and only recognizes the desire that conforms to the rites. This indicates that Xunzi’s theory is still based on the rites. This is to say, human desire is not important; the key point is whether they meet the rites, which completely exposes his true intentions to affirm the perceptual desires of man.` Xunzi has argued that “Learning that is incomplete and impure does not deserve to be called fine”.17 He holds that what a gentleman sees and hears should meet the rites and righteous, and the beauty relevant to the desire of eyes and ears should also conform to them in all aspects, otherwise people should not pursue it. He believes when the cultivation of a gentleman has reached the highest realm, his interest in the rites and righteous would be like his eye’s interest in the five colors, his ear in the five sounds, and his mouth in the five tastes, which is as natural as it is innate. On the one hand, Xunzi is completely sure about the universality and inevitability of humanity’s pursuit of the various desires, including beauty, but on the other hand he requires that such satisfaction must accord and unify with rites and righteousness, which is the fundamental point of his aesthetic thoughts. Xunzi points out that the most important function of art is that it can guide the people’s feelings and desires to the rites and 16 John Knoblock (trans.), Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), p.601. 17 Ibid., p.21.

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righteous, and on this basis, he criticizes the idea of “no music” by Mo-tse (468–376 BC), stating, Music is joy. Being an essential part of man’s emotional nature, the expression of joy is, by necessity, inescapable. This is why men cannot do without music. Where there is joy, it will issue forth in the sounds of the voice and be manifest in the movement of the body. And it is the way of man that singing and movement, which are excitation of man’s emotional states according to the rules of inborn nature, are fully expressed in music. Hence, since it is impossible for men not to be joyful, where there is joy, it is impossible that it should not be given perceptible forms. But if its form is not properly conducted, then it is impossible that disorder should not arise. The ancient Kings hated such disorder. Thus they instituted as regulations the sounds of the Odes and the Hymns to offer guidance. This would cause the sounds to be sufficient to give expression to the joy, but not to lead to dissipation. It would cause the patterns to be sufficient to mark the separations, but not so as to seem forced. It would cause the intricacy or directness of melody, the elaboration or simplification of instrumentation, the purity or richness of sound, and the rhythm and meter of the music to be sufficient to stir and move the good in men’s hearts and to keep evil and base Qi sentiments from finding a foothold there. Such was the plan of the Ancient Kings in establishing their music. Yet Mo-tse condemns it. How can this be endured!18

Xunzi thinks human nature is evil, so he negates people’s ability to pursue the perfection of moral cultivation. In this way, the moral factors in aesthetics could never originate from man himself, but out of some external forces. Xunzi attributed the forces to the will of ancient kings. He saw that “The influence of music and sound on man is very profound, and the transformations they produce in him can be very rapid”;19 however, he does not think it is important to proceed with an in-depth inquiry into the beauty of the music itself. He just takes the strength of music as an effective means to unify the people’s will and establish or maintain the regime. Unlike Mo-tse, who thinks that as long as people can meet their limited desires, poor food and clothing are enough, Xunzi advocates that people should achieve the maximum satisfaction of desires both in material and spirit. For Xunzi, a gentleman will not achieve maximum satisfaction without the implementation of rites. Through music, which 18 John Knoblock (trans.), Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), p.649. 19 Ibid., p.655.

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affects human feelings, rites are the best practice, which can help rulers to strengthen their sovereignty. He once said, “Music joins together what is common to all; ritual separates what is different. The guiding principles of ritual and music act as the pitch pipe that disciplines the human heart”.20 So we have to acknowledge that emphasizing the thought-controlling role of music is really a quite mature strategy of psychological rule. Music has the function of pleasing emotions or coordinating personnel, but this is not from man’s voluntary choice. We can conclude that Xunzi really pushed the aesthetic ethics to the extreme, so he naturally became the last representative of Confucianism in the pre-Qin Dynasty.

20

John Knoblock (trans.), Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), p.661.

CHAPTER THREE THE HAN DYNASTY’S CONFUCIANISM, LITERARY THEORY AND AESTHETICS

As we know, the practice of burning books and burying scholars alive (Fenshu Kengru ❊Җඁ݂) during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) posed difficulties for the development of Confucianism, which had never had much importance until the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). During that time, the prevailing school of thought was the Huang Lao School (learning about the Emperor Huang-Laozi) whose policy of “nothingness” allowed working people to have some rest. The first emperor, Liu Bang, wanted to release people from years of war suffering, and he carried out a policy of inaction in order to give people some time for leisure. It was Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂 179–104 BC), however, who gave primacy to Confucianism, and proposed the idea of “dismissing other ways of thinking to canonize Confucianism” (Bachu Baijia Duzhu Rushu 㖒唌Ⲯᇦˈ⤜ሺ݂ᵟ). The measure was an adjustment to the needs of Emperor Wu’s ( ≹ ↖ ᑍ 156–87 BC) autocratic rule. It settled Confucianism as a single authority since then.

I. The New Text School of Dong Zhongshu and Aesthetics Dong Zhongshu’s Confucianism is not the original Confucianism of the pre-Qin period. It combined the theories of Yin Yang and the five processes (䱤䱣ӄ㹼), a common feature in the Confucian Classics of the Han Dynasty. There is no great difference between the Old and New Text Schools. However, in the Confucian Classics study of the Han Dynasty, the New Text School retains such mystical thoughts as “following the cosmos as well as the ancient law” ( ཹ ཙ ⌅ ਔ ), and “the resonance between heaven and human beings” (ཙӪᝏᓄ). The Old Text School, on the other hand, is opposed to interpreting the Six Ancient Classics (‫ޝ‬㓿) by prophecy (Chen 䉦) and advocates the removal of religious superstition.

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Dong Zhongshu is a major figure of the New Text School in the early Han Dynasty, and the main classic he based his thoughts on is the Gongyang Commentaries of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕⿻‫ޜ‬㖺Ր). The basis of Old Text School was Zuo’s Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals (ᐖ∿᱕⿻). The core of Dong Zhongshu’s thought system is known as the theory of “resonance between heaven and human beings”(ཙ Ӫਸа). According to Dong Zhongshu, Tian (Heaven) is the Supreme God. He seems a little like Jehovah in Christian worship, or like the ancient Chinese “Jade Emperor”. The god Tian was not just the incarnation of Heaven. He was an embodied entity: “Tian, the supreme ruler of all the Gods” 1 (ཙ㘵ˈⲮ⾎ѻབྷੋҏ). Dong Zhongshu explained that Tian looked after the entire world, and was thus the Supreme Master of the Universe. He controlled the transformations of Qi, Yin Yang and the five processes. Qi is a very important element in Dong Zhongshu’s philosophy. He says, “Qi, filled heaven and earth and combined them into one; then divided them into Yin Qi and Yang Qi, distinguishing four seasons, and arranging the five elements”.2 That is to say, Qi is subject to Tian. Dong Zhongshu adds: There are Yin Qi and Yang Qi among heaven and earth, which often infiltrate people as water usually soaks fish. […] Tian has Yin and Yang, so does human. When Yin Qi rises among heaven and earth, it also rises in the human body; when Yin Qi thrives, the Qi of heaven and earth grows accordingly; their principle is the same.3

Such statements declare that human beings can mutually respond to Tian. Dong Zhongshu also made a detailed study of the five elements:

1

Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕ ⿻㑱䵢), edited by Zhou Shiliang (ઘцӞ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2012), p.536. 2 Ibid., p.487. 3 Ibid., p.484.

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Tian has five elements: wood, fire, earth, gold, and water. Wood, is the beginning of the five elements, water is the end, and the earth is in the middle, ordered by Tian”. 4

He adds that Xing (㹼) “means performative action, since each of them have different functions for doing things. The five elements perform different roles with different functions. The adjacent two have mutually productive relationships, while the distanced pair have mutually destructive relationships”.5 The sequence of the five elements is wood, fire, earth, gold and water. Among them, the so-called relationship of mutually overcoming (ӄ㹼⴨ 㜌) means that gold overcomes wood, since the stronger overcomes the weaker. Water overcomes fire, since the greater in number overcomes the less. Wood overcomes earth, since the more concentrated overcomes the more scattered. Fire overcomes gold, since the sharper overcomes the weaker. Earth overcomes water, since the fuller can overcome the emptier. Wood can make fire, fire makes earth, earth makes gold and gold makes water. That is to say, the first can produce the second, the second produces the third, the third produces the forth and the fourth produces the fifth. This is called the productive relationship of the adjacent (∄⴨⭏). Gold can overcome wood, and water separates them. Water overcomes fire, and wood separates them. Wood overcomes earth, and fire separates them. Fire overcomes gold, and earth separates them; and earth overcomes water, and gold separates them. This is the “destructive relationship” between the distant two (䰤⴨㜌). Yin Yang and the five processes is an imaginary diagram made by Dong Zhongshu to explain the origin and formation of the universe. Yin and Yang refer to heaven and earth, and the five processes have a double significance, both in space and time. Within the spatial perspective, wood is in the east; fire in the south; metal in the west; water in the north; and earth in the Middle. From the perspective of time, wood matches spring; fire, summer; earth, the last month of summer; metal, autumn, and water, winter. 4

Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕ ⿻㑱䵢), edited by Zhou Shiliang (ઘцӞ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2012), p.405. 5 Ibid., p.487.

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What’s more, this kind of universal diagram also contains elements of ethical ontology, which was the real focus and the original intention of Dong Zhongshu in devising this schema. Specifically, his theory of Yin Yang demonstrates the rationality of the feudal hierarchical system and social norms, which provides the basis to “Three Cardinal Ethical Guidelines (й㓢)”. Thus, Dong Zhongshu says, Heaven is the monarch over the earth, moisturizing the myriad things, and earth is his mistress, and her function is to support and carry them. Yan Qi, is the power to germinate, the husband; Yin Qi is the wife that helps things to grow. Spring is like father, gestating all things, and summer is like son, fostering them.6

While, Dong Zhongshu’s theory of the five processes is an explanation of the “five elements” (ӄᑨ), we can say that his idea of the five essences originates from the theory of five processes. Thus, Dong Zhongshu claims: East belongs to wood, which is the basis of agriculture. The office of Sin Ong (ਨߌ) advocates benevolence. South belongs to fire, which matches the official position of Si Ma (ਨ傜), who advocates wisdom. The center is earth, which matches the official position of Si Ying ( ਨ 㩕 ), who advocates honesty. West belongs to gold, which matches the official position of Si Tu (ਨᗂ), who advocates righteousness. North belongs to water, which matches the official position of Si Kou (ਨᇷ) who are the law-executors, and they advocate propriety.7

Based on Yin Yang and the five processes, Dong Zhongshu proposes the concept of Tian as homologous to human beings (ཙӪ਼㊫), which is taken as his premise for the theory of resonance between Tian and human beings. Dong Zhongshu says that “From the point of view of categories, Tian and human beings are the same”, 8 which is to say that Tian and human beings belong to the same kind. Tian will have whatever human beings have, and vice versa. Dong Zhongshu adds, “Tian has five processes, equal to the number of organs; Tian has four seasons, equal to

6

Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕ ⿻㑱䵢), edited by Zhou Shiliang (ઘцӞ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2012), p.465. 7 Ibid., p.488. 8 Ibid., p.445.

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the number of limbs”.9 Obviously, he proves his point of view from the physical structure of people. And he continues explain the aspect of human emotions: People’s likes or dislikes are inherent with the changes of warm and cool in Tian. Humans acquire endowment in accordance with the changing seasons; and human passions, joy or wrath, happiness or sadness, correspond with the four seasons-spring, summer, autumn and winter.10

With regard to human nature, Dong Zhongshu thinks that people are essentially born with the Yin-Yang principles of Tian. He points out human beings have “nature and emotion, like the Dao of Tian has Yin and Yang. Human nature, excluding emotion equals to acknowledging the Yang in the Dao of Tian”. 11 The acts of nature are Benevolent, while emotion displays Desire. Dong Zhongshu explains that “The real situation of people is that Desire is part of the human body. The name of the body (䓛) is obtained from Tian”.12 According to this explanation, Dong Zhongshu believes that emotion and nature are inherent qualifications of humanity: “What is endowed by heaven and earth to humans are nature and emotion, and when combined, their union becomes Ming (ⷁ), which is the name of man”.13 At the same time, Dong Zhongshu thinks that they are the counterpart of the “qualities” (䍘) of man, which correspond to Yin and Yang and its role as bridge between heaven and earth. It is thus clear that Dong Zhongshu’s theory of the resonance between Tian and human beings is a system of theological teleology formed by the combination of original Confucianism, the theory of Yin and Yang, the theory of the five processes of the universe, and ethical ontology. The purpose of Dong Zhongshu’s theory is to prove the natural rationality of human ethical principles by appealing to natural laws. Thus, Dong Zhongshu promotes Confucianism to a sacred status that does not allow 9

Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕ ⿻㑱䵢), edited by Zhou Shiliang (ઘцӞ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2012), p.477. 10 Ibid., p.398. 11 Ibid., p.380. 12 Ibid., p.376. 13 Ibid., p.380.

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any doubts as all original principles are unalterable. With regard to aesthetics, which is our object of study in this volume, the theory of resonance of Tian and human beings embodies the harmony and beauty of the “golden mean”. This is not only a central category of Chinese classical aesthetics, but also the highest recommendation within original Confucianism. However, to Dong Zhongshu, beauty is given by a new theoretical form which makes it more systematic, clarifying and convincing, and also more metaphysical when contemplated from an ethical perspective. Dong Zhongshu endows heaven, earth and nature with a personalized ethical will, taking the latter as a reflection of the former, which helps him to emphasize the aesthetic ideal of the combination of goodness and beauty, paving the way to their unification with nature. Nature, here, is something different from the pure objective nature of Taoism, permeated with the social ethical will. In essence, Dong Zhongshu’s emphasis in the unity of human and nature by means of the principle of resonance between Tian and human beings illustrates the unity of human and society. Nature, here, is just another name for will. Since Dong Zhongshu regards heaven and earth as the model of humanity, he prizes their beauty highly: Tian, who is kindhearted, has fine Benevolence. It shelters and nourishes the myriad things; not only creating and developing, but also fostering and accomplishing them. What it does, which can be attributed to the care of human beings, is endless, over and again. By perceiving the intention of Tian, we can know that it contains endless Benevolence”.14

The above is also an explanation of the purpose of natural beauty in the universe. Since the feeling of the beauty of heaven and earth is a pure form, it becomes an attribute of nature itself, losing its meanings related to perception only, and becoming abstracted as a symbol of morality and ethics. This also explains people’s need to resort to moral rationality when enjoying natural objects. Rather than saying that Dong Zhongshu is praising the social ethics generated by the symbol and metaphor of nature in relation to heaven and earth, we can say that he is really referring to their beauty. Thus, the perceptive aspects of nature are completely overwhelmed by social rationality, and the appreciation of beauty turns 14

Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕ ⿻㑱䵢), edited by Zhou Shiliang (ઘцӞ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2012), p.421.

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into moral reflection. This may be considered an inadequate vision of the nature of beauty on the part of Dong Zhongshu. However, this kind of ethical desire can be seen to anticipate the promising and pioneering spirit of the magnificence of the Han Dynasty, where art (such as Fu, a kind of descriptive prose interspersed with verse in the Han dynasty) acquires sumptuous and majestic qualities in sharp contrast to the slender and delicate feminine beauty which is gradually pursued by the late Tang Dynasty. In addition to “Benevolent beauty” (ӱѻ㖾), Dong Zhongshu considers another important relation between heaven and earth, the “Harmonious” (઼) or “focused and harmonious” (ѝ઼). He explains it like this: So where is the wonder of the world? The two tend to a point of harmony where their neutralization is thus completed. The so-called neutralization ( ѝ) is the world’s end and beginning. The so-called harmony (઼) is the growth and maturity of the world. There isn’t any virtue greater than harmony, and no Dao more exact than neutralization. Neutralization and harmony conform to the best nature, that which should be followed by saints. Harmony, which refers to the right track of the world, is the balance of Qi in Yin and Yang. And the harmonious Qi is the best one. Through growth, which makes the selection of harmony, things acquire the most fundamental Dao of heaven and earth”.15

Here, “He (઼)” (harmony) refers to the harmonious blend of Qi in Yin and Yang. Thus, to say that the beauty of heaven and earth lies in “He (઼)” (harmony) is to say that only with the coordination and unification of Qi in Yin and Yang can the world generate various things for supporting people. Overall, Dong Zhongshu’s idea on “harmonious beauty” (ѝ઼㖾), is still a continuation of the original Confucian aesthetics, although it introduces new elements. As seen in Chapter Two of Part Two in this book, the original Confucianism was based on Benevolence, and from this principle, it built the practice of humanitarianism upon individual psychological desire, praising the independence of individual personality highly, but also retaining the ancient adherence to the clan, and the power structure of the monarch-subject relationship. 15

Dong Zhongshu (㪓Ԣ㡂), Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals (᱕ ⿻㑱䵢), edited by Zhou Shiliang (ઘцӞ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2012), p.606.

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The original Confucian aesthetics, on the one hand, makes beauty and art serve the monarch, as the sons serve the father. However, it also attaches great importance to the role of individual development and personality. Dong Zhongshu’s aesthetics is different in that he builds the implementation of Benevolence above the will of heaven, and takes the monarch as the representative of the will of heaven. Thus, the practice of Benevolence is no longer the self-discipline of individual consciousness, that is, mandatory, absolutely obedient and intimidated. Ancient democracy in original Confucianism was difficult to maintain for the monarch, the representative of the will of heaven, had, at the time, absolute authority. Dong Zhongshu’s idea of “Three Cardinal Ethical Guidelines” (й㓢) was based on the will of heaven, placing more constraints on the development of people’s personality as compared with the pre-Qin law in Confucian thought. The pre-Qin law had long been the main basis of the practice of thought-control exercised by rulers. All of these, reflected in Dong Zhongshu’s aesthetics, make beauty and art one-sided and subordinated to the indoctrination of the monarch, taking them as the implementation of moralizing means, and completely ignoring their roles in the formation and development of individual personality as a special function of aesthetics, not limited to political enlightenment. This is the regressive step in Dong Zhongshu’s aesthetics when compared with pre-Qin Confucianism. How, then, is there a development in Dong Zhongshu’s theory with regards to previous Confucian approaches? In addition to the reasons stated above regarding the theory of Yin Yang and the five elements, which Dong Zhongshu applies to Confucianism, there is still a relationship that had a profound impact on the Chu culture of the Han Dynasty. Since the Han rulers came from the state of Chu, Dong Zhongshu knew that in order to make his theory accepted by the ruling classes he could not completely deny the significance of heaven, earth and nature. In view of this, Dong Zhongshu does not give up the unified thought of human and nature of the Chu culture, but he provides an ethical grounding for their components, by means of Confucian aesthetics. This is a significant development of the principle of harmonious beauty in the new historical conditions, which seems also more in accordance with the integration of nature, society, and social ethics. It is through Dong Zhongshu that Confucian ethics and aesthetics, based on clan bloodrelationship and the smallholder economy, become unified and deeplyrooted in the history of Chinese classical aesthetics.

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II. The Old Text School of Yang Xiong and Literary Theory An important feature of the New Text School is that it interprets the Ancient Classics by means of prophecy and Apocrypha (Chenwei Zhixue 䉦㓜ѻᆖ). Prophecies were related to fortune-telling. In the Qin dynasty, for instance, there was a prophecy about who would be the Hu who would wipe out the Qin. Although this prophecy was long-standing, it had no connection to the theory of Yin Yang and the five processes. Until the Han dynasty, this prophecy went in parallel with the theories of Yin Yang and the five processes. People regarded the Apocrypha as the inner and outer learning of the Classics. The Apocrypha was named after the Six Classics or arts of the Han people. These were contained in the following books: The Book of Changes (Yi ᱃), The Book of Songs (Shi 䈇), The Book of History (Shu Җ), The Book of Rites (Li ⽬), The Book of Music (Yue Ҁ) and The Annals of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu ᱕⿻). The other seven Apocrypha were: The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of Changes (Yiwei ᱃㓜), The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of Songs (Shiwei 䈇㓜), The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of History (Shuwei Җ 㓜), The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of Rites (Liwei ⽬㓜), The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of Music (Yuewei Ҁ㓜), The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of the Annals of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiuwei ᱕ ⿻㓜), and The Apocrypha Treaties on the Book of Filial Piety (Xiaowei ᆍ㓜). As mentioned, prophecy and Apocrypha were in full flourish at the time that the New Text School had become the official, dominant one. This situation began to change by the rise of the Old Text School, which lasted until the end of the Han Dynasty, and included representatives such as Liu Xin (50 BC–23 AD) and Yang Xiong (53 BC–18 AD). The Old Text School advocates that “The Six Classics are the official history records” ( ‫ ޝ‬㓿 Ⲷ ਢ ) and is contrary to the interpretation of prophecies. The Old Text School does not especially object to Yin Yang and the five processes, but is against their combination of prophecies and Apocrypha. In the History of Han: Records of the Five Processes (≹Җ), it is written that Liu Xin and his father Liu Xiang (77 BC–6 AD) had written a book called The Commentary of the Five Processes (Wuxingzhuan

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ӄ 㹼 Ր). In this, they took different positions. For instance, Liu Xin promoted the “resonance between heaven and human beings”, but he got rid of their mysticism. Later he assisted Wang Mang (45 BC–23 AD) in order to build the “New” dynasty (9–23 AD) and accepted the honor of Grand Preceptor, a similar status to that of Dong Zhongshu in the Han dynasty. Like Liu Xin, Yang Xiong was another master of the Old Text School towards the end of the Western Han Dynasty. After Wang Mang usurped the throne, Yang Xiong wrote an article, Reprove Qin and Praise Xin (Juqin Meixin ࢗ〖㖾ᯠ), dedicated to the emperor, where he praised his mandate. His thoughts develop along Dong Zhongshu’s ideas, following both Yin Yang theory and the five processes, as well as Confucian ethics. Thus, he writes Taixuan, in the imitation of the Book of Changes , and Fayan, in the imitation of Confucius’ Analects. Unlike Dong Zhongshu, Yang Xiong does not include Confucianism within the system of theological teleology. He develops a metaphysic of the origin of the universe and the myriad things, and extracts the concept of social ethics from this, focusing on the benevolence by the saint and the gentleman. The “mysticism” (Xuan ⦴) of Yang Xiong’s Taixuan is equivalent to the concept of “change” (Yi ᱃) in the Book of Changes. According to Yi Zhuan (The Book of Changes), “yi” develops, based on dichotomy. “Xuan” in taixuan is based on trichotomy. In this way, Yang Xiong constructs his world schema along the lines of the theory of Yin Yang and the five processes, including a spatio-temporal conception which includes number: “sheng (⭏)” (the number of creation) and “cheng” (ᡀ) (the number of accomplishment). It is noteworthy that Yang Xiong seems to particularly respect humanity in his “Tian Xuan (the mystics of the heaven)”, “Di Xuan (the mystics of the earth)” and “Ren Xuan (the mystics of human)”. He believes that the advantage of humans over heaven and earth is that humanity has both essence and shape Qi, who rolls the essence from heaven and the shape from the ground into one to form a soul. Thus, Yang Xiong turns around Dong Zhongshu’s conception of heaven being greater than humans, and places people as superior to heaven. This is also the focal point of the Old Text School. In aesthetics, the placing of humanity at the center means that beauty is placed above natural forms, in the realm of social ethics. Thus, the Old

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Text School would teach that the important value of beauty lies in the goodness of what is expressed, that is, the content, not the form. In the book of Fanyan, Wuzi speaks with Yangzi and others, and their discussion clarifies some things: “Someone asked, ‘Why is it that gentlemen speak with gifted literary expression, and act in accord with morals?’ Yangzi replied, ‘This is because their inner thoughts are rich, the gifted literary expression and noble morality will, of course, perform naturally.’”16 Yang Xiong therefore considers that the role of beauty is to express moral nature and inherent goodness by means of the external form of rich and colorful literary expression. This can be regarded as an extension of Mencius’ idea: “A man, whose goodness has been filled up, is what is called a beautiful man” (Chongshi Zhi Weimei ‫ݵ‬ᇎѻ䉃㖾).17 Yang Xiong attaches more importance to the social content of the object than to its natural form. This approach is bound to his regard of ethics as the fundament and source of all beauty. For example, he praises the thoughts of Confucius and states, “Confucius is always tirelessly occupied with the question of knowledge (Zhongni Huanghuang Ԣቬⲷⲷ)”.18 He also asserts that “The thoughts and behavior of the sage Yao and Shun are so brilliant (Yaoshun Zhidao Huangxi ቗㡌ѻ䚃ⲷ‫”)ޞ‬.19 Yang Xiong believes that only those things that can bring real benefits to social life, like the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, are really beautiful. He considers that if people work hard and act according to moral ethics, everyone can become a beautiful person. Thus, we can see that Yang Xiong takes virtue as beauty, which, in his view, has both specific historical content and moral requirements, disregarding the pure meanings of form. This kind of beauty still retains a similar meaning of goodness as when he says, “Beautiful jade doesn’t need carving, and good language

16

Yang Xiong (ᢜ䳴), The Model Sayings (⌅䀰), edited by Han Jing (丙ᮜ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), p. 311. 17 Mencius (ᆏᆀ),”The Works of Mencius” (ᆏᆀ), in James Legge (trans), The Chinese Classics Volumes 2: The Works of Mencius (Shanghai: East-China Normal University Press, 2011), p. 480. 18 Yang Xiong (ᢜ䳴), The Model Sayings (⌅䀰), edited by Han Jing (丙ᮜ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), p. 11. 19 Ibid., p. 341.

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doesn’t need a rich and colorful literary expression to adorn it”.20 According to The History of Han, and The Biography of Yang Xiong, Yang Xiong had an early fancy for “writings profound in substance and beautiful in style,” particularly those praising Sima Xiangru’s Fu (䍻, a kind of descriptive prose interspersed with verse). As his statement goes, “remembering it in the mind and taking it as style every time when composing Fu”.21 Yang Xiong finally became a master of Fu. Another article by Wuzi Fayan refers to Yang Xiong like this, “Someone asked: ‘Master liked writing Fu in his youth, didn’t you?” Yangzi replied: ‘Yes. It is just like children learn to polish books on insects and carve symbols.’ A little later, he said: ‘Adults do not do such things.’”22 Here, Yang Xiong denies his early poetry achievements, believing them to be “abilities of petty things” (Diaochong Zhuanke 䴅 㲛 ㇶ ࡫ ). From his assertion that “adults do not do such things” (Zhuangfu Buwei ༞ཛнѪ), it is clear that he adopts a contemptuous attitude to Fu, a style of very beautiful language description. The reason why Yang Xiong may have despised Fu is related to his thoughts on aesthetics. He consistently diminishes the importance of natural forms and values ethical content. Yang Xiong disregards “Fu of ci ren” (generally referring to the people good at poetry, that is, writers) because it is “gorgeous but excessive” (Liyiyin ѭԕ␛), namely, beautiful but against the “Tao of wisdom”. At the same time, he affirms the “Fu of a poet” should be “gorgeous and conform to principles” (Liyize ѭԕࡉ), following the Tao of Wisdom. On the unity of beauty and goodness, Yang Xiong emphasizes that man should bear his social responsibilities, and believes that people will become beasts if they abandon their social responsibilities and let the emotional physiological desires control them. He puts it concisely but vividly: There are three categories in the world: the first, which acts only in accordance with desires, will be classed to the beast; the second, which

20

Yang Xiong (ᢜ䳴), The Model Sayings (⌅䀰), edited by Han Jing (丙ᮜ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), p.152. 21 Ibid., p.25. 22 Ibid.

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takes actions in according to the etiquette, is related to people. And the third is associated to the saints who act on the basis of their superintelligence, which is higher than that of humans.23

Thus, he believes that the real beauty is the result of “carving and decorating their own morals” (Fucao Qide ᯗ㰫ަᗧ), that is, the external and pleasant expression of the good. If people ignore etiquette and lose social responsibility, they become beasts seeking only to satisfy their own lust. There is no goodness, no beauty in this. The statements in work Xuexing include the following: I have never seen the man who is fond of carving and decorating the morals like engraving and embellishing the pillar beam in his room. The birds and beasts are dominated by lust, but common people are different. And the worthy is yet different from common people! And the sage is totally different from the worthy! Thus, the formulation of etiquette is justified! If people don’t learn etiquette, there is no difference from animals, even in the absence of worry.24

Here, Yang Xiong means that people should beautify their own virtues, like sculpting, and decorating their houses. Such a type of beauty that includes moral behavior is, in essence, content that “gorgeously conforms to principles”.25 On refinement and simplicity, Yang Xiong also makes a lot of comments. In his book Fayan, provisions are made concisely about what refinement and simplicity are. Refinement refers to the external “dignity diction”, while simplicity is the inherent “virtue faithfulness” whose relationship lies both outside and inside. Someone asked, “What is the appearance and essence of a sage?” Yangzi replied, “The solemn appearance and fine words are his appearance; the noble morality and loyalty are his essence”. 26 That is to say, simplicity is the inherent goodness of people, and refinement is the external performance of their goodness. Refinement, as beauty, is no other than the form expression of goodness. Yang Xiong requires that appearance should be unified in refinement and simplicity, not having one without the other: “One would seem uncouth 23

Yang Xiong (ᢜ䳴), The Model Sayings (⌅䀰), edited by Han Jing (丙ᮜ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), p.67. 24 Ibid., p.14. 25 Ibid., p.33. 26 Ibid., p.244.

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with refinement without simplicity, and superficial with simplicity without refinement. When the two qualities are together, one matches etiquette”.27 This assertion is completely consistent with pre-Qin Confucian ideas about the unity of form and content in goodness and beauty. A similar statement is found in Confucius: “Only when the refinement and simplicity are wellbalanced can one become a real gentleman” (Wenzhi Binbin Ranhou Junzi ᮷䍘ᖜᖜˈ❦ਾੋᆀ). The difference, then, is in their methods of argumentation. Yang Xiong bases his argument in the unity of refinement and simplicity in relation to changes in the universe, as stated in his treatise Taixuajing Wen. Here, Yang Xiong makes two important points: First, he connects refinement and simplicity with the Qi of Yin and Yang, produced by the “Great Mystic” (Taixuan ཚ⦴), which creates the myriad things. He believes that simplicity is the result of the inward accumulation of Yin Qi, and refinement is the outward decentralization result of Yang Qi. Although this view is quite far-fetched, it certainly affirms the fact that once all things of the universe are produced, simplicity and refinement will be within them, so that they are the counterpart of the Qi of Yin and Yang. It’s clear that Yang Xiong builds his argument on the unity of refinement and simplicity and the origin of the universe upon Confucian aesthetics, and develops it further following the tenets of natural philosophy. Yang Xiong considers that the generation of things contains two aspects: simplicity connected with centralization of Yin Qi, and refinement linked to decentralization of Yang Qi. He believes that their unity is a process which needs to be constantly experienced within a reciprocating cycle of rise and fall, union and disunion and vice versa. According to the system built by Yang Xiong in Taixuan, the changes within this continuous cycle must undergo two main stages that consist of nine small moments: from one to five is the rising and developing stage; and from five to nine is the falling and decaying stage. Thus, the so-called “It grows below five and declines from five”, found in his work The Diagram of Great Mystic (Taixuan Tu ཚ⦴മ). The developments of refinement and simplicity are also like this, following two stages of growing and declining, formed by nine small stages. In the description and explanation to these stages, Yang Xiong attempts to provide some generalizations about the historical 27

Yang Xiong (ᢜ䳴), The Model Sayings (⌅䀰), edited by Han Jing (丙ᮜ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), p.60.

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development of the contradictory and unifying process of refinement and simplicity. This is unprecedented in pre-Qin Confucianism. Yang Xiong not only inherited the practical rational spirit of the pre-Qin Confucian, but also further emphasized the role of individual reason. PreQin Confucianism pursues Benevolence and Righteousness, as well as rites, intelligence, and fidelity (although intelligence is less important). Yang Xiong, however, attaches great importance to intelligence. In the works of Fanyan Wenming, he writes, “Someone asked: ‘What is man to respect?’ Yangzi replied, ‘Wisdom’.” 28 Obviously, this concept is associated with Yang Xiong’s idea that the human is greater than heaven. He thinks that human rational cognitive ability is powerful, and that there is nothing in the world that cannot be known and mastered by people. The following dialogue is included in his article Wenshen (Ask God), Someone asked, ‘What is the magic role of the spirit?’ Yangzi replied, ‘It lies in the heart.’ ‘What is its meaning?’ Yangzi replied again, ‘If the heart goes deep into heaven, it can understand heaven; if the heart goes deep into the earth, it can learn about earth. Heaven and earth are deep and subtle, so it’s hard to know them. But the heart can learn about heaven and earth if it goes deep into them. How can then people? And how can the reason of ordinary things?’29

Compared with all sorts of absurd, superstitious and anti-rationalist thoughts in the New Text School, Yang Xiong’s praise of the power of humanity’s rationality is of great progressive significance. Connected with this, he puts forward the idea that speech is as the “voice of heart” (Xinsheng ᗳ༠) and words are as the “picture of the heart” (Xinhua ᗳ⭫), which is a very important aspect in his aesthetics. He believes that thoughts and feelings in the heart are conveyed through speech, and that speech must be expressed by words in order to be spread widely. Related to this statement, Yang Xiong proposes that “We can distinguish the gentleman and the base man from his speech, paintings and images”.30 These claims are closely linked to Mencius’s ideas: “To surmise another’s intention with personal experience” (Yiyi Nizhi ԕ᜿䘶ᘇ) and “To know 28

Yang Xiong (ᢜ䳴), The Model Sayings (⌅䀰), edited by Han Jing (丙ᮜ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), p.128. 29 Ibid., p.98. 30 Ibid., p.110.

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people, we need to learn about the background of their age” (Zhiren Lunshi ⸕ Ӫ 䇪 ц ). These claims had a profound influence on later generations, and statements such as “Like author, like book” (Wenru Qiren ᮷ྲަӪ)”, “the moral quality of people” (Renpin Ӫ૱), or “the taste or style of painting” (Huapin ⭫૱) are obviously derived from Yang Xiong. In the theory of art, his saying “calligraphy, pictures from the heart” became one of the most famous remarks, often cited, and an important theoretical basis for the so-called “literati painting” (Wenren Hua ᮷Ӫ⭫) that starts to develop from the Song Dynasty. In The New Argument (Xinlun ᯠ䇪 ), Huan Tan writes, “Without the stubborn or reserved ideas and in accord with the Dao of the sage, there has never been such a person as Yang Xiong since the Han dynasty”.31 It is clear that he values Yang Xiong highly. The important value of Yang Xiong in the history of the development of Confucianism is partly that he breaks the system of theological teleology that Dong Zhongshu had simply taken from Confucian Benevolence as the “will of Heaven” (Tianyi ཙ᜿), and restores the practical rational color of the original Confucianism. He also breaks through the forms of perceptual and empirical argument of original Confucianism, establishing a metaphysical “xuan” (mystic) as the origin of the myriad things derived from the universe. From this, Yang Xiong evolves the concept of social ethics, providing the Dao of Benevolence with a basis on natural philosophy. On the interpretation of Confucian theory, Yang Xiong also surpasses Dong Zhongshu, who theologized Confucianism without taking into account the independence of the individual, emphasized by the Confucian school. Yang Xiong, however, based his thought on the practical rationality of original Confucianism while emphasizing the rational role and cognitive power of individuals. All of this places Yang Xiong in an important and unshakable position among the Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty, making him one of the famous representatives of the Old Text School, just like Liu Hsin.

31

Huan Tan (ẃ䉝), The New Argument (Xinlun ᯠ䇪), (Shanghai: Shanghai people press, 1977), p.61.

CHAPTER FOUR NEW-CONFUCIANISM, LITERARY THEORY AND AESTHETICS

“New Confucianism” in the Song-Ming dynasty mainly includes the Cheng Zhu School of Li (pattern/principle) (Cheng Zhu Lixue 〻ᵡ⨶ᆖ) and the Lu Wang School of Xin (mind/heart) (Lu Wang Xinxue 䱶⦻ᗳᆖ ), which are usually known as the Li School of Song-Ming. Professor Feng Youlan (ߟ৻‫ ޠ‬1895–1990) said that “The name of the School of Li makes people mistake it as the counterpart of the School of Xin and thus, not easy to differentiate between the two factions in the Studies of Dao. Only the title of Neo-Confucianism can generalize them.” For this reason, he believes that “It’s much more appropriate to use this name.”1

I. The Connotations of Neo-Confucianism in the Song-Ming Dynasty. If the Classics of the Han Dynasty fuse the theory of Yin and Yang with Confucianism, the Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming Dynasty brings Buddhism to Confucianism. With the communion between Confucianism and Buddhism, the narrow sectarian bias in the theory is overcome. The Confucian theology teleology of the Han Dynasty loses its dominant position in ideology by the impact of the ontology of the personality and spirit. These changes begin to take place at the beginning of Sui Tang Dynasty, confined to the textual-exegesis theory, and in the tone of obedience to the statements of the masters. As the official philosophy, it had to improve and perfect itself in order to restore its dominance. Under the historical conditions of the development of Buddhism in the Tang-Song Dynasty, the only way of improving Confucianism was to step 1

Fung Youlan (ߟ৻‫)ޠ‬, A Revised Version of Chinese Philosophy (ѝഭଢᆖਢᯠ 㕆) (Beijing: people’s publishing house, 1988), pp.23-24.

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into Buddhism, and then walk out of it. It thus took the essence of Buddhism in order to fill up the deficiencies of Confucianism, thereby creating the new Confucian system. Both the Cheng Zhu School of Li and the Lu Wang School of Xin shared the common goal of advocating Confucianism and maintaining feudal order. The famous monk, Zhi Yuan ( Ც ശ 976–1022), put forward propositions that stressed the common characteristics of Buddhism and Confucianism. He thus affirmed that Confucianism and Buddhism share the common quality of the exterior and interior. The difference is that Confucianism is used to cultivate one’s moral character, and Buddhism is used to refine one’s mind. This admiration for Buddhism is also present, to a lesser degree, in the two Chengs, a term used to refer to the brothers of Cheng Hao (1032–1085) and Cheng Yi (1033–1107), who once said: “the learning of a Buddhist is an extreme profound knowledge”.2 As for the Lu Wang School of Xin, it is even closer to Buddhism, so that Zhu Xi (1130– 1200) simply calls the Lu Wang School of Xin Buddhism. The Confucianism of Song-Ming, brought into being in the process of bringing Buddhism to Confucianism, is not a simple mixture, but a major transformation of Confucianism. To a large extent, it turns out to be a structural theory, complementary between Confucianism and Buddhism. The ultimate aim is to guide the sense of regulating the family (Qijia 喀ᇦ ), ruling the state (Zhiguo ⋫ഭ) and conquering the world (Ping Tianxia ᒣ ཙ л ). However, it is different from the Confucianism of the Han Dynasty, which additionally arranges and stresses the idea of keeping calm and being still of mind (Zhujiing ѫ䶉), acting with integrity (Licheng ・ 䈊) and self-cultivation (Xiushen ‫؞‬䓛), thus highlighting the independent spirit of the subject, its significance in inner pondering, and identifying it to objective reason, characteristics that turn Confucianism from its traditional teleological practice to ethical ontology. In the concept of ontology, the Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming Dynasty evolves “Li” (pattern) and “Xin” (mind) from “Tian” (heaven), concepts in early Confucianism. The Confucianism of the Han Dynasty takes “Tian” as their cosmos ontology, represented by Dong Zhongshu’s theological teleology of “resonance between Tian and human beings”. But 2

Cheng Yi (〻什) and Cheng Hao (〻仒), The collected works of Two Chengs (Ҽ 〻‫ޘ‬Җ) (No. 1), edited by Wang Xiaoyu (⦻ᆍ劬) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), p.152.

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the Cheng Zhu School of Li transforms the ruler “Tian” in “Li” (pattern), as the following statements indicate: “There is only one Li (pattern) in the world. (Tianxia Zhiyou Yige Li ཙлਚᴹањ⨶)”,3 or “Everything has a Li (pattern) (һһ䜭ᴹњᶱ㠤ѻ⨶)”.4 On the other hand, the Lu Wang School of Xin instead uses“Xin (mind)”, as the following indicate: “Xin (mind) is the Li (principle) ( Xin Ji Li ᗳণ ⨶)”; 5 “what Xin (mind) does can generate the myriad things (Xinzhi Suowei Youneng Sheng Wanwu ᗳѻᡰѪ⣩㜭⭏з⢙)”;6 or “there is no Li (pattern) outside Xin (mind) or there is no things outside Xin (mind) ( Xinwai Wuli, Xinwai Wushi ᗳཆᰐ⨶ˈᗳཆᰐһ)” .7 From this evolution of Confucian ontology from “Tian” to “Li” and “Xin”, we can see the changes in philosophical thinking. The object of thought gradually develops from “being” to “nothingness”. From the perceptual, concrete and vivid form of matter to the intangible, unscented, and empty spirit form. From the emotional personal divinity whose intention is to punish evil and reward goodness in human beings, to the unfeeling spirit of rationality. In this evolution, Confucianism gradually surpasses the material world—the natural, the social, and the representation— demonstrating its strong concern with the pursuit of metaphysics—the rational spirit, the soul, the mind, and so on.

II. Differences between Cheng Zhu School and Lu Wang School Cheng Zhu˄〻ᵡ˅refers to Cheng Yi˄〻什˅and Zhu Xi˄ᵡ⟩˅, and Lu Wang˄䱶⦻˅are Lu Jiuyuan˄䱶ҍ␺˅and Wang Shouren˄⦻ ᆸӱ˅. The Cheng Zhu School and Lu Wang School belong to the Neo3

Cheng Yi (〻什) and Cheng Hao (〻仒),The collected works of Two Chengs (Ҽ 〻‫ޘ‬Җ) (No. 1), edited by Wang Xiaoyu (⦻ᆍ劬) ( Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), p.196. 4 Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩),The Classified Conversation of Master Zhu Xi (ᵡᆀ䈝㊫), edited by Li Jingde (哾䶆ᗧ). (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), p.282. 5 Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺),The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe ( 䫏ଢ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.149. 6 Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺), The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe (䫏ଢ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.228. 7 Wang Shouren (⦻ᆸӱ), Record of Great Learning (ՐҐᖅ)(Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992), p.15.

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Confucianism of the Song-Ming Dynasty, so that there is no distinction between their basic properties, academic purpose or aim of their fundamental theories. Both of them are based on the idea of Confucius and Mencius, enshrined in moral principles and constructing an ethical subject aimed at achieving a moral heart. In this sense, an adversarial relationship never arises between them. Zhu Xi can therefore accept and appreciate Lu Jiuyuan’s idea of “debating about the relationship between moral and material interests (Yili Zhibian ѹ࡙ѻ䗘)”,8 Wang Shouren can also seek common ground with the idea of Zhu Xi when he says, “I have to say the difference between mine and Zhu Xi’s is the entry point, which is the least divergence but will lead many miles away, but his mind and mine is never different.”9 That is to say, there is no fundamental difference between the School of Li and the School of Xin, and what distinguishes them is only their entry point; namely the moral practice and the choice of methods which leads, forms, and even exposes the different understanding and treatment of a series of basic categories (Tian, Li and Xin and so on). This, in turn, guides the way to the choice of method and way of moral practice that, as a result, lead to the relationship of incompatibility of the two schools, which was, as the Chinese proverb says, as ice and hot coal. Specifically, about the basic category of “Li” and “Xin”, the School of Cheng Zhu thinks that “Xin” is lower than “Li”, while the School of Lu Wang believes that they are equal. Zhu Xi says, “There are the good and evil in the mind-heart of humans, but no evil in the nature of objective things. (Xinyou Shan, Xingwu Shane ᗳᴹழᚦˈᙗᰐнழ)”. 10 Since nature is just “Li” (pattern), he thinks that “Xin” is below “Li”. In contrast, the Lu Wang School states that “Xin” is equal to “Li” when Lu Jiuyuan, for instance, says, “Everyone has mind-heart, possessing Li, so mind-heart is equal to Li…”11 Thus, with respect to moral practice, Cheng Zhu takes “Xin” (mind) as the object of transformation, but Lu Wang believes that it is the object of 8

Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺), The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe (䫏ଢ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.398. 9 Wang Shouren ( ⦻ ᆸ ӱ ), Record of Great Learning ( Ր Ґ ᖅ ) (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992), p.27. 10 Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), The Classified Conversation of Master Zhu Xi (ᵡᆀ䈝㊫), edited by Li Jingde (哾䶆ᗧ). (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), p.89. 11 Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺), The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe (䫏ଢ)(Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.149.

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pursuit. Since the mind-heart is filled with good and evil, mixed with natural disposition, temper, and desire, for Cheng Zhu, the task of moral practice is, of course, to take the “Xin” (mind) as the reform target. That is, to extinguish human desire, keep heavenly Li, restrain human mindheart. Thus, Zhu Xi says, “extinguish human desires in order to keep heavenly Li (cun tianli, mie renyu ᆈཙ⨶ˈ⚝ӪⅢ)”.12 However, for Lu Wang, “Xin” (mind) is given the same status as “Li”, so it cannot be the reform target, but only the pursuit object of moral practice. If the original inner subjective “Xin” (mind) is regarded by the Cheng Zhu School as the moral heart needing transformation, then in the eyes of Lu Wang, it contains the morals, so that the problem is not to transform it, but to seek it. According to the school of Lu Wang, Xin (mind) is equal to Li (pattern). The origin of Li is rooted in the inner spiritual subjective world. Then, the spiritual world is equivalent to Li, According to Cheng Zhu, Xin (mind) is under Li (pattern), so that the last foundation of moral practice, the source of Li, is rooted in the outside world. This means that it is out of the mind-heart. But it should be pointed out that there are obvious differences between the thoughts of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, although the Cheng Zhu School of Li is always regarded as one school. In the same way, neither can we ignore the distinctions between Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren although they belong to the same school. (1) Differences between Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi Cheng Yi puts forward the proposition that “nature is the pattern (Li) (Xing Ji Li ᙗ ণ ⨶ )”, which is accepted by Zhu Xi, but their interpretations are quite different, which leads to their various evaluations about the mind-heart. Cheng Yi proposes that “the nature is the pattern”, which is different from “the mind is the pattern (Xin Ji Li ᗳণ⨶)” of the Xin (mind) School, but he also thinks that “mind is nature (Xin Ji Xing ᗳণᙗ)”, and he says, “Mencius has said, ‘If you fully explore your mind, you will know your nature’; The mind is nature, which embodies as the destiny in heaven and as the nature in human; what dominates them is the mind, but actually is

12

Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), The Classified Conversation of Master Zhu Xi (ᵡᆀ䈝㊫), edited by Li Jingde (哾䶆ᗧ). (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), p.224.

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the Dao.”13 That is to say, on the one hand, nature is the pattern, while on the other, mind is the nature, so it can apparently deduce the proposition of “the mind is the pattern”. Cheng Yi also makes an evaluation of the mind (Xin), when born with people we call it destiny; when making people act according to moral principles we call it Li (pattern); when causing the body to perform a nastic movement we call it nature, all of which are the same thing. Before thinking, the mind in itself is good, but when in thinking, there are the distinctions of good and evil, which cannot be attributed to the mind itself, but to emotion.14

This argument is more consistent with the Mind (Xin) School. The difference between Cheng Yi and the Mind School is mainly reflected in his practice of “exploring the principle of things as to obtain their knowledge (gewu zhizhi Ṭ⢙㠤⸕)” and that “to know something, one should come into contact with it and study it” (Jiwu Qiongli ণ⢙ェ⨶), which is totally accepted by Zhu Xi. The difference between Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi mainly concentrates on the different interpretations of three categories of the mind (Xin), nature (Xing) and pattern (Li). Zhu Xi accepts Cheng Yi’s proposition of “The nature is the pattern (Li)”, but denies the idea of “The mind (Xin) is the nature”. He says, “The only thing in spirit is just the mind, not the nature; and the nature is just the pattern”, 15 thus he criticizes Cheng Yi’s statements of “Without thinking, the mind in itself is good, but when thinking, there are the distinctions of good and the evil”.16 In the the ideological system of Zhu Xi, the “Xin (mind)”, “xing (nature)”, and “Li (pattern)” in fact belong to the three levels. The mind, which is filled with good and evil, belongs to the first level because “It governs the nature and temperament (Xintong Xingqing ᗳ㔏ᙗᛵ)”; nature, with no 13

Cheng Yi (〻什) and Cheng Hao (〻仒), The collected works of Two Chengs (Ҽ 〻‫ޘ‬Җ) (No. 1), edited by Wang Xiaoyu (⦻ᆍ劬) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), p.204. 14 Ibid. 15 Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), The Classified Conversation of Master Zhu Xi (ᵡᆀ䈝㊫), edited by Li Jingde (哾䶆ᗧ). (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), p.85. 16 Cheng Yi (〻什) and Cheng Hao (〻仒),The collected works of Two Chengs (Ҽ 〻‫ޘ‬Җ) (No. 1), edited by Wang Xiaoyu (⦻ᆍ劬) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), p.204.

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evil, is regarded as the second layer, for it equals the pattern which is without evil, so the nature is evil. We can say that nature is the pattern, but cannot say the pattern is nature. The reason is that the nature, as the pattern, is limited to the concrete things, and it is the nature or the pattern of the concrete things. Besides, above the concrete pattern (that’s also the nature) there exists a universal, absolute and objective form of pattern (Li) , that is “Tai chi”. The Li (pattern), called “Tai Chi”, cannot be called “nature”. You can say “There are no things outside ‘nature’ in the world.” but you cannot say “There is no ‘Li’ (pattern) outside the ‘nature’”. “Li” (pattern) thus belongs to the third level, which is the highest level. If we say that the mind (Xin) is mixed with good and evil, and that nature is concrete goodness, then the pattern (Li), as the “Tai Chi”, is the supreme good. Cosmology as ethics, or ethics as cosmology, can be referred to as “moral cosmology”, which is a kind of specific cosmology of Neo-Confucianism in the Song-Ming dynasty. The biggest contribution to the cosmology by Zhu Xi is that he creates a “clean and open world of Li”, and makes an interpretation about the “tian” (heaven), as the moral meaning of “Li” clearly, consequently established an objective shape in a moral sense of “the body of tian” (Tai chi). (2) Differences between Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Shouren If we say that Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi have thoroughly established a world of Li with moral metaphysics, then from Lu Jiuyuan to Wang Shouren, we can also say that they have completely built a moral transcendental body of mind. From Lu Jiuyuan to Wang Shouren, ethics has begun to walk towards psychology. Lu Jiuyuan is the man who initiated the Mind School, and his outstanding achievements provide the basis of a cosmology related to the “origin of goodness”, as proposed by Mencius. Moral spirit, which interprets the individual mind of psychological emotion as the universal mind of cosmological spirit, makes the “body of mind” up to the “body of cosmology”; a fact illustrated by his famous statement “The universe is my mind, and my mind is the universe (ᆷᇉ‫ׯ‬ᱟ੮ᗳˈ੮ᗳণᱟᆷᇉDŽ )”.17 He still insists on Zhu Xi’s idea of “exploring the principle of things 17

Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺), The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe (䫏ଢ)(Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.483.

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as to obtain their knowledge (gewu zhizhi Ṭ⢙㠤⸕)”,18 and still even adheres to the objectivity of the Li (pattern). Thus, he fails to completely build a noumenon of the mind. Lu Jiuyuan suggests “Knowing through studying (Jiwu Qiongli ণ⢙ェ⨶ )” or “Knowing is first, then comes doing (Zhixian Xinghou ⸕‫ݸ‬㹼ਾ)”.19 This claim is similar to the ideas of the Cheng-Zhu School of Li. However, it contradicts his own proposition of the Mind School: Seek the similarities to the object directly from self-examination (Qieji Zifan ࠷ᐡ㠚৽). 20 From the perspective of Lu Jiuyuan, on the one hand, he proposes the idea that “the universe is my mind, my mind is the universe (ᆷᇉ‫ׯ‬ᱟ੮ᗳˈ ੮ᗳণᱟᆷᇉ)”,21 and that “Everyone has the mind, which is with the pattern, so the mind is the pattern (ӪⲶᴹᱟᗳˈᗳⲶާᱟ⨶ˈᗳণ⨶ҏ )”.22 On the other hand, he is sure that there is a pattern outside the mind ( ᗳ ཆ ᴹ ⨶ ), and he attributes the “Dao” to the people. But he also classifies it to heaven, which indicates the contradictions in his thought and the incomplete points of the Mind School. Wang Shouren accepts Lu Jiuyuan’s proposition that “the mind is the pattern”. But at the same time, he explicitly supplements and stresses the proposition that “There is no pattern outside the mind (ᗳཆᰐ⨶)”.23 Wang Shouren clearly denies “the pattern outside the mind (ᗳཆѻ⨶)”, which is also a denial of the objective world of Li. Wang Shouren thus places a world of Li, which is the moral mind-heart, namely conscience, completely in the human mind. In order to establish the absolute authority of the body of mind (Xinbenti ᗳᵜփ), Wang Shouren reinterprets the relationships among the mind (Xin), heaven (Tian) and the pattern (Li). It can be said that the Mind School of Lu Wang is completed by the work of Wang Shouren. He 18

Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), The Classified Conversation of Master Zhu Xi (ᵡᆀ䈝㊫), edited by Li Jingde (哾䶆ᗧ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), p.3. 19 Ibid. 20 Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺), The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe (䫏ଢ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.400. 21 Ibid., p.483. 22 Ibid., p.148. 23 Wang Shouren ( ⦻ ᆸ ӱ ), Record of Great Learning ( Ր Ґ ᖅ ) (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992), p.60.

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originally creates the body of the mind and places the body of morality in the human mind in order to demonstrate the supreme dignity of the ethical subject, built on absolute freedom of will. This conforms to the basic spirit of Confucianism, which shapes the moral personality, and cultivates moral reason to construct ethical orders, thus making possible the realization of an ideal society. However, it is also reason that makes moral rationality intermingle with natural emotions, blending the ethical and the psychological together. Thus, as the moral standard, the body of mind is not only the rational standard but also the perceptual one, and it builds the perceptual and rational, the natural and the moral, the mind of people and the mind of Dao as well as human desires, in the heavenly Li (pattern) as a form of entanglement which is difficult to distinguish. The efforts made by Wang Shouren to make the mind ethicized provide the possibility to transform ethics into psychology, which becomes the ideological reality of the Taizhou School until Li Zhi’s “heresy of the mind School (Xinxue Yiduan ᗳ ᆖ ᔲ ㄟ ).” This results in the Mind School becoming an object of criticism by the Li School of Feudal Confucianism.

III. The Influences of Neo-Confucianism on Literature and Art The main achievements of Neo-Confucianism during the Song-Ming Dynasty lie in the field of ethics, and rarely refer to literature and art. When they do occasionally talk about literature and art, they are frequently contemptuous. Original Confucianism may fully affirm the relative independent value and great social function of cultivating the temperament by means of literature and art, but Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi severely denounce, and even deny this kind of value or function. In this period, Confucian aesthetics seem to reach their end-point. In the eyes of the Li School, aesthetics have lost their independent value because moral values are the only way to happiness. People’s emotional needs can only be placed in the so-called the contentment point of Confucius and his disciple Yanhui (KongYan Yuechu ᆄ 仌 Ҁ ༴ )—a spirit of willingness to suffer poverty, and of unwillingness to stray from the correct path (Anpin Ledao ᆹ䍛Ҁ䚃).

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According to Cheng-Zhu’s interpretation, this kind of spiritual realm cannot tolerate people’s natural desires, or the general expression of people’s emotions. Thus, all the aesthetic elements and relatively independent aesthetic requirements are eliminated. Here, emotion is completely subject to Li (pattern). From the perspective of Cheng Zhu, moral reason is required to absolutely dominate natural desire, and the premise of implementation of the former must be even at the expense of the latter. In aesthetics, this is the so-called “from the emotion to the pattern” (Congqing Daoli Ӿᛵࡠ⨶), where moral requirements replace aesthetic desires. Zhu Xi’s commentaries explored the deep meaning of the so-called “realm of Zeng Dian” (ᴮ⛩ 542–475 BC, one of Confucius’ disciples).24 This exploration, however, is only directed towards the highest level of ontological morality. Zeng Dian believed that humans and nature are mystical, and hold the highest aesthetic state. But Zhu Xi only emphasizes moral spirit, since the “flow with the myriad things between Heaven and earth, and everything in the universe can only be fully demonstrated in their nature, without conflict and damage to each other”.25 This is not the sort of description that focuses on aesthetics; rather, it represents a kind of accomplishment of morals which ignores human desire and only saves the pattern (Li) of Tian, that is, “at the end of human desire, there is the heaven pattern, filled everywhere, without lacking anything”.26 Such extreme “control of emotion and emphasis on pattern (Li)” (Yili Jieqing ԕ⨶㢲ᛵ) brings human performance towards the requirements of feudal ethics, apparently denying the appreciation of beauty and even basic life desires, which underlines how pedantic and cruel the Li School can be. Tang Xianzu (1550–1616) would later call this “wiping out the mental temperament as to follow the history and laws in today’s world”,27 an angry condemnation on the repression and imprisonment exercised on humanity by the Li School.

24

Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), The Variorum of Syntactic Analysis of the Four Books (ഋҖㄐਕ 䳶⌘) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1983), p.130. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Tang Xianzu (⊔ᱮ⾆), The Poems Collection of Tang Xianzu (⊔ᱮ⾆䈇᮷䳶) (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Book Publishing House, 1982), p.89.

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The aesthetics of the Li School of Cheng Zhu (including the Mind School of Lu Wang) is thus characterized by a form of non-beauty, where aesthetics is a kind of external relationship used in the Song-Ming dynasty. As mentioned, the differences between the Li School of Cheng Zhu and the mind School of Lu Wang are only in their internal distinctions within the Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming dynasty, and the two are the same as regards the relationship between the mind and the world of things. Both of them attempt to ignore the material world and make strong links to the spiritual world. The purpose of the two schools is to direct the mind of people towards moral duties, corresponding to feudal ethics, but a different understanding. Thus, Zhu Xi believes that there is good and evil in people’s minds, so he sets up a world of patterns (Li) to remove human desires and keep the pattern of heaven. Other scholars of the Lu Wang School do essentially the same. Manifested in the aesthetic ideal, the common attitude of NeoConfucianism in the Song-Ming Dynasty is that all of them shift their focus from object to subject, and attach importance to the romantic charm (⾎严). In this way, the external contradictions between mind and things are eliminated. Zhu Xi says, “Pattern is first, then things (ᴹᱟ⨶㘼ਾᴹ ᱟ⢙)”.28 Wang Shouren also remarks, “There is nothing outside the mind (Wu Xinwai Zhiwu ᰐᗳཆѻ⢙)”.29 The harmonious unity between mind and things is achieved, and any aesthetic objects that contain contradictory factors are just ignored or abandoned in pursuit of a kind of ideal art of harmonious, quiet, gentle and subtle balance. In other words, the tolerance that makes the human mind shocked and violent is abandoned, and there is a longing for the fine realm that gives people quiet and peace within a state of forgetting the existence of the things and self. At the same time, this fine realm is based on the stepping of the object over external reality, regarding objective things as meaningful free forms that express the inner world of the subject, but not its original existence, which is outside or opposed to people. Taking the intangible divine mind of the subjective as the noumenon, which not only transcends, but 28

Zhu Xi (ᵡ⟩), The Classified Conversation of Master Zhu Xi (ᵡᆀ䈝㊫), edited by Li Jingde (哾䶆ᗧ). (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994), p.2814. 29 Wang Shouren ( ⦻ ᆸ ӱ ), Record of Great Learning ( Ր Ґ ᖅ ) (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992), p.60.

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changes, the perceptual images, both integrate naturally without distinction or opposition, so that the form of aesthetic ideal is neither manliness nor virility, but feminine rhythm. The Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming dynasty, especially the Mind School of Lu Wang, changes the thinking mode of traditional Confucianism, which values the behavior of ethical practice, and introduces a new one, mainly based on rational reflection of the subject. The so-called “conscience” (Zhi Liangzhi 㠤㢟⸕) by Wang Shouren points out that Confucian ethics are not only related to outside practical behavior, but that is more about inner thinking matters and the selfconscious recognition of the heart. Therefore, individual behavior that makes personal contributions is not as important as the introverted and solemn self-reflection of the moral and the rational. If we make a comparison with the issue on “knowing” (Zhi ⸕)” and “doing” (Xing 㹼 ) between original Confucianism and the NeoConfucianism of the Song-Ming Dynasty, the problem is shown more clearly, seen for instance in the saying “Knowing is not difficult, but doing is hard” (Feizhizhijian, Xingzhiweijian 䶎⸕ѻ㢠ˈ㹼ѻᜏ㢠)” in Shang Shu(ቊҖ). However, in the Song-Ming Dynasty, Neo-Confucian values argument that “It’s easy to know and difficult to do” (Zhiyi Xingnan ⸕᱃ 㹼䳮). For example, Cheng Yi stresses that things are “based on knowing” (Yizhi Weiben ԕ⸕Ѫᵜ)”, 30 and Lu Jiuyuan believes that “knowing comes first, and then doing” (Zhixian Xinghou ⸕‫ݸ‬㹼ਾ)”.31 These are clear manifestations of the conversion. Of course, the object of the socalled “knowing” is not objective nature, but innate human rationality and morality. Thus, Confucianism in the Han and Tang Dynasties is based on outward behavior, while the Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming Dynasty values the inward rational self-reflection. This marks a significant change in the direction of Chinese Confucian thought. The desire to conquer the external world has diminished. The focus of philosophical interest shifts to the inner world, to the subjective reason of people themselves and the 30

Cheng Yi (〻什) and Cheng Hao (〻仒), The collected works of Two Chengs (Ҽ 〻‫ޘ‬Җ) (No. 1), edited by Wang Xiaoyu (⦻ᆍ劬) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), p.164. 31 Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺), The Works of Lu Jiuyuan (䱶ҍ␺䳶), edited by Zhong Zhe (䫏ଢ) (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1980), p.421.

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appreciation, insight, self-reflection and introspection of spiritual intention, realizing the free combination of object and subject in this subjective form. The transformation of thinking direction from outside to inside and from things to mind in the Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming Dynasty occurs in relation to the ideological trend of this historical stage when aesthetics and art generally sink their tentacles deep into the human heart in order to capture the emotional and spiritual experience. Until the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, in the modern democratic consciousness, this kind of mainstream expression is transformed into a romantic aesthetic with modern nature, parallel to the transforming aspects of music in the NeoConfucianism of the Ming Dynasty. From the Cheng Zhu School of Li to the Lu Wang School of Mind, and from the body of the pattern to the body of the mind, the NeoConfucianism of the Song-Ming has been developed to perfection, and it begins to reveal a trajectory of disintegration. Wang Shouren cancels “the pattern outside the mind” and takes the pattern to integrate it fully with the mind, which is required to achieve the feudal ethic purpose of subjectively “breaking the evil in heart” (Po Xinzhong Zei ⹤ᗳѝ䍬) and “to retain the mind and get rid of desire” (Cunxin Quyu ᆈᗳ৫Ⅲ). Objectively, it not only underlines people’s subjective initiative and freedom, but also it makes the Neo-Confucianism of the Song-Ming reveal a tendency that moves from ethics to psychology and from rationality to sensibility, betraying and disintegrating the Li School. Therefore, we can say that the emerging of the aesthetic taste after the middle period of the Ming Dynasty is related to the Mind School of Yangming. It is not accidental that the School of Yangming becomes the harbinger of Li Zhi’s (ᵾ䍭 1527–1602) theory of “childishness” (ㄕᗳ), which is taken as the heresy of the Wang School, and shows the first signs of modern democracy and individuality. In this era, the mode from emotion to desire, or to motivate emotion by desire, not only rushes among the hot waves of popular literature like Jin Ping Mei, San Yan Er Pai, etc., but also surges in the refined literature like Peony Pavilion, Ge Dai Xiao, etc. What’s more, Peony Pavilion and other works represent the resistance to pattern (Li) by emotion, with the stirring display of personality and the fearless pursuit of sex. Jin Ping Mei and others manifest the blasphemer spirit of carnal desires with the bold sexual

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exposure and forthright outpouring of lust. These findings have taken distorted, twisted forms, such as the people among ghosts in Peony Pavilion or the ghosts among people in Jin Ping Mei. But this kind of twisted and abnormal happens to be a feudal product of the long-term oppressed, which also objectively constitutes some of the exposure and prosecution to the feudal ethical consciousness. If we go back to these new aesthetic interests, we may find that they date from the Mind School of Wang Shouren.

CHAPTER FIVE MARGINOCENTRIC BEIJING: MULTICULTURAL CARTOGRAPHY AND ALTERNATIVE MODERNITY

“Marginocentric cities” is a term coined by Marcel Cornis-Pope and John Neubauer to describe those multiethnic nodal cities “that at favorable historical conjunctions, have rewritten the national cultural paradigm from the margin, ascribing to it a dialogic dimension, both internally (in dialogue with other ethnic traditions) and externally (in dialogue with larger geocultural paradigms)”. 1 Whereas Cornis-Pope and Neubauer’s map of marginocentric cities is limited to East-Central Europe, the following line employs a journalistic memoir by Michael Meyer, entitled The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed, to argue that the concept of a “marginocentric city” fits Beijing as a nodal space of cultural exchange where boundaries might be elusive and national geographies dislocated. I propose that the constitutive dialectics of being simultaneously central and marginal should be considered relative to their complex relationships with the projects of modernity as seen through the eyes of Chinese citizens of Beijing, a city whose modernity differs from Western modernity. Meyer’s neutral text, which does not merely criticize the transformation of old Beijing, but also combines tradition and modernity internally and connects East to West externally through narrative, is therefore a cross-cultural writing that offers a more acceptable view of what has happened to the city.

1

Marcel Cornis-Pope and John Neubauce, “Toward a History of the Literary Cultures in East-Central Europe: Theoretical Reflections”, ACLS Occasional Paper 52, 2002, p.26, available at https://acls.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/ OP/52_Literary_Cultures_in_East_Central_Europe.pdf

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I. Beijing’s Multicultural Space and Urban cartography The Last Days of Old Beijing was published in June 2008, slightly more than one month before the Summer Olympic Games were held in Beijing on August 8. Michael Meyer, an American volunteer in Beijing, was living as no other Westerner had lived—in a shared courtyard home in Beijing’s oldest neighborhood, Dazhalan [although he misspelled it; the correct name is Dashilan (བྷḵḿ)]. The house was in one of Beijing’s famed hutong (lanes), where Meyer taught English for two years at a local elementary school. His book is neither a novel nor an academic treatise, but describes with affection the life-stories of the local residents, such as the widow who shares the courtyard, student Little Liu, co-teacher Miss Zhu, migrant Recycler Wang, soldier Liu, and many others whom he integrates with Beijing’s history of transformation over thousands of years. What was impressive about this book was the description of Beijing’s recent transformation—traditional ways of life increasingly fading away, and many ancient houses being replaced by shopping malls, skyscrapers, the capital’s first Walmart department store, and widened streets, all aiming to realize the goal of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics. In this way, an “old” Beijing was replaced by a “new” Beijing, and life in the vanishing backstreets of the city was transformed, as the book’s subtitle suggests. I agree with the author’s position; however, I am more interested in his book’s narrative on the history of Beijing’s transformation, which created an urban cartography of multicultural places combining tradition and modernity, while connecting east to west. The narrative offers opportunities to reflect on and reconsider these relationships from a spatial perspective, which is important because, as Edward Soja points out, “It is space, more than time, that now hides consequences from us”. 2 Clearly, we cannot entirely separate space from time, and both dimensions are generally required to interpret all the consequences of a city’s development, along with, in Beijing’s case, multicultural space. After a close reading, it is clear that Meyer did more than simply criticize the demolition and transformation of old Beijing. His attitude is bipartisan 2 Edward Soja, “Inside Exolis”, Variations of a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (ed. Michael Sorkin, New York: The Noonday Press, 1992), pp.94–122.

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and, sometimes, indeterminate, which challenges traditional linear models, historiographic generalizations, and literary writing. After living in the countryside of Sichuan Province in southwest China for two years, Meyer’s first encounter with Beijing was very positive when he arrived there in 1997. His impression was that “Beijing felt cosmopolitan. It also looked unlike any other Chinese city. Here, the center was not a hollow cavern of wide boulevards and monolithic apartment blocks, but a chain of central lakes surrounded by a compact mixture of architecture built on a human scale”. 3 Beijing’s flat configuration, open sky and climate reminded him of his home in Minnesota. However, when he found a house in a hutong in 2005, the picture was quite different: The run-down mansion where I live shows traces of its former owner’s wealth. The heavy double-wooden doors retain coats of lacquer, though the painted couplet has been rubbed away. Unknown hands chipped off the guardian lions carved atop the twin rectangular stones anchoring the doorframe. Lotuses and clouds painted in bright primary colors fade on the lintel. Rusting hooks that once held halyards to raise red lanterns poke out from weeds growing in the furrows of the tiled roof.4

The most serious problem of living in a hutong might be the difficulty of being observed at the public toilet, which was “four slits in the floor facing one another without dividers. A squatting man hacks up a wad of phlegm. Another, wearing pajamas, lights a cigarette”.5 Because most of the houses had no washrooms, the residents were forced every morning to use the public toilet located far from their houses, which was neither convenient nor private. This situation suggests that the transformation of the old city was reasonable in some ways. In fact, many of the residents wanted to move away when they began earning sufficient compensation to live in convenient, modern apartments, particularly younger adults. Some of them found that it was useless to resist moving away, while others did not want to leave their old homes, filled with memories. This is the case of Mr. Yang, who “grew up in the house and knew the area’s history. He was part

3

Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (New York: Walker & Company, 2008), p.13. 4 Ibid., p.6. 5 Ibid., p.8.

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of it, he said. Connected. One day, he wanted his child to know these things, too”.6 The conflictive picture reveals the author’s double attitudes to Beijing’s cartography and its multicultural space. In fact, different people can give new Beijing a different meaning and a different understanding. Li Xiguang, journalism professor and author of the English slogan “New Beijing, Great Olympic” for the city’s successful bid to host the 2008 Summer Games once pointed out, “By ‘New Beijing’, I meant we want to have a new humanism in Beijing, a new humanistic city. But the local officials and planners took this slogan literally. They think ‘New Beijing’ means destroy old Beijing and build a new Beijing”.7 This paragraph is quoted in the title page of The Last Days of Old Beijing by the author, showing that the boundary between old and new is very fragile and often easy to step over. Despite its transformation, new Beijing still has many traditional buildings with an old-world ambience and style, and it retains many prehistoric and historic relics. Along with the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and the Great Wall, some hutong remain, although they have been greatly reduced in number. Of the many historical sites and cultural relics still found in new Beijing, you can visit the first Paleolithic site, which was unearthed in the basement of the Oriental Plaza. Beijing’s most modern, upscale shopping mall is located on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, the city’s main thoroughfare, which runs past Tiananmen Square and Wangfujing Street, the pedestrian-only commercial street that Meyer mentions in his book. We might tend to imagine old Beijing as a place isolated from foreign influences, but that would be an illusion. Its more than 3,000 years of history and 800 years as China’s capital have given the city a history rich in international and intercultural exchanges. All these exchanges have left cultural trails that remain in the multicultural space of modern Beijing. Prior to the unification of China by the First Emperor in 221 BC, Beijing had been for centuries the capital of the ancient states of Ji and Yan. During the first millennia of imperial rule, Beijing was a provincial city in northern China. Its stature grew in the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, 6

Ibid., p.14. Ibid., title page.

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when the nomadic Khitan and forest-dwelling Jurchen peoples from beyond the Great Wall expanded southward and made the city a capital of their dynasties Liao and Jin. During the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1279– 1368), Beijing began to serve as China’s capital, known by the Mongol name of Khanbaliq or Cambuluc in Marco Polo’s account. Marco Polo was probably the first European ever employed at the Chinese emperor’s court in Beijing. He described the city like this: “From one side to the other of the town [the streets] are drawn out straight as a thread, and in this way all the city inside is laid out by squares, as a chessboard is”.8 Marco Polo’s route from Venice to Beijing passed through Acre, Tabriz, Hormuz, Balkh, Kashgar, Shang-tu. From Beijing back to Venice the route passed through Yangzhou, Zaitun, the South China Sea, Sumatra, Ceylon, Hormuz, Trebizond, and Constantinople (Istanbul). Thus, Beijing figured as the starting point of the earliest Silk Route connecting East and West. Marco Polo’s descriptions of his travels inspired other explorers and merchants to follow in his footsteps, eventually opening up an international age. Several maps, such as the Selden Map, formerly owned by maritime scholar John Selden (1584–1654), the map of Shunfeng Xiangsong (丶付 ⴨䘱), the maps of Zheng He’s voyages (ca. 1628) and the map of Dongxi Yangkao ( ᶡ 㾯 ⌻ 㘳 , 1617), show systems of navigational routes connecting Chinese provinces near Beijing with Western ports, indicating large exchanges of people across continents.9 The Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci reached Beijing, becoming adviser to Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty in 1601. He was given free access to the Forbidden City. His 1602 map of the world in Chinese characters introduced the results of European exploration to the Far East. He established Nantang Cathedral in 1605, the oldest Catholic Church in the city. Ricci dressed in traditional Chinese robes, spoke Chinese, and explained the Bible in Confucius’ terms. For example, he borrowed an unusual Chinese term, Lord of Heaven (Chinese: ཙѫ; pinyin: TiƗnzhԃ), as the Catholic name for God. Thus, he was successful in explaining the Catholic faith to the Chinese. Apart from this, Ricci was also the first European to translate some of the Confucian classics into Latin, with 8

Mary Hull, The Travels of Marco Polo (California, San Diego: Lucent Books Inc., 1995), p.51. 9 Robert Batchelor, London: The Selden Map and the Making of a Global City, 1549–1689 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), pp.134–151.

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assistance from the Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. He made a very great contribution to cultural exchanges between East and West. Ricci died in 1610 and was buried in Zhalan cemetery, which is now part of the campus of Beijing Administrative College (located at 6 Chegongzhuang Road, Xicheng District). At this point, we can explain Beijing’s multicultural space with Itamar Even-Zohar’s Polysystem theory: as he puts it, “Polysystem theory itself recognizes that this is a regular process in attitude change in culture: we do not understand or accept anything new except in the context of the old”.10 Indeed, no city can cut off its traditions at the root. We should also understand the new Beijing in the context of the old. Although the new Beijing has lost many historical and cultural relics, for which it deserves to be blamed, the remains of these historical sites can still make clear to all the richness and openness of Beijing’s history.

II. The Alternative Modernity of Beijing and Cross-Cultural Writing Beijing also witnessed the falls and changes of imperial dynasties and the city’s monuments were often destroyed in ancient times. For example, in 1153, the Jurchen conquered Beijing, the secondary capital of the Liao dynasty, demolished it and rebuilt it as the Central Capital of the Jin (Golden) dynasty, “The city’s walls were enlarged to a perimeter of thirty miles, punctured with twelve gates”. 11 But the city was destroyed once again by the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, in 1215. As described by Meyer, they conquered the city with glorious slaughter, the city falling to a barrage of flaming arrows. Every citizen was marked for death. When the siege was ended, the ‘streets were slippery with melted flesh, and the landscape showed only vultures and ash.12 Beijing has also witnessed the humiliation of foreign invasion. In 1860, for instance, Anglo-French forces assaulted Beijing, burning the Old Summer Palace, whose ruins are still visible. Citing a historical record, 10

Itamar Even-Zohar, “Introduction to Polysystem Studies”, Poetics Today 11:1, 1990, pp.1–6. 11 Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (New York: Walker & Company, 2008), p.143. 12 Ibid., p.144.

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Michael Meyer describes a contemporary Westerner’s sarcastic impression of Beijing: “The British attaché recorded that, in 1865, Lord Stanley sneered, ‘Peking’s a giant failure, isn’t it? Not a two-storey house in the whole place, eh?’”13 This represented most Westerners’ despised attitude towards China, and testified to the decline of China’s national forces and the pushing of China from the center to the margins of the world. According to Cornis-Pop and Neubauer, for the marginocentric cities, “It is their marginality, as well as their multiethnic composition, that has allowed the cities to look simultaneously to both East and West, establishing a fertile nexus between cultural traditions”.14 Aware of the backwardness and the marginality of China, the Chinese people began to learn from the West. From the late nineteenth century, Beijing was the first Chinese city to witness the Westernization which changed the relationship between China and the West. “Learning from Western science and technology is to boycott the Western invasion”—the saying at that time revealed the complicated relationship between East and West. The movement of economic and military reform began back in 1898, and it was followed by the political revolution of 1911 and the May 4th cultural movement in 1919. All of these took place in Beijing, or at least had a close relationship with the city. Beijing witnessed the process of China’s modernity. Meyer mentioned the first time that foreign engineers pierced Beijing’s city walls after the Boxers were defeated, “The openings were for drainage canals, and rails that brought trains into the city, to a station constructed in 1911 beside the Front Gate”. 15 It reminds us of the process of Chinese modernity at the early stage and testifies that reshaping of the old Beijing has been going on for a very long time, despite the Chinese people’s opposition. Modernity always makes China closer to the West. Although the connection between China and the West was interrupted in the 1960’s, the subsequent implementation of China’s opening-up policy 13 Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (New York: Walker & Company, 2008), p.7. 14 Marcel Cornis-Pope & John Neubauer, Toward a history of the Literary Cultures in East-Central Europe: Theoretical Reflections (American Council of Learned Societies, ACLS Occasional Paper, No.52, 2002), p.26. 15 Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (New York: Walker & Company, 2008), p.215.

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has brought the country closer and closer to the West. The most powerful and visible proof of this integration was the successful hosting of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which enhanced the overall national self-confidence and tolerance towards the West, reflected in the slogan of “one world, one dream”. Driven by the major international cultural activities of the Olympic Games, Beijing launched a series of cultural products and cultural services to create the Beijing brand and attract global investment and consumption, promoting the rapid development of Beijing’s cultural and creative industries. The Olympic Games also enhanced the awareness of the Chinese people’s intellectual property. The State Council and the Beijing Municipal Government promulgated the “Olympic Intellectual Property Protection Ordinance” prior to the games. The Olympic Games also promoted the effective implementation of the principle of fair competition so that the Industry and Commerce Department of Beijing Municipal Administration canceled the management fees collected from individual industrial and commercial households, a measure which is of great help in normalizing the socialist market economy and to promote better and faster development of cultural industries. Finally, in accordance with the requirements of the construction of a modern international metropolis, Beijing not only developed to the full the existing cultural facilities, but also carefully designed and built a number of new and more complete infrastructures. Nowadays, Beijing city ranks highest in the number of top cultural institutions and art groups in the country, and is also known for the high quality of its cultural infrastructures. The city is a modern cosmopolitan metropolis, with multicultural developments that welcome many international and domestic immigrants, including students and workers, and a unique cultural atmosphere. Beijing’s culture has a growing influence in the international sphere, helping relations between East and West, connections that are expected to increase even more with the prospect of the 2022 Winter Olympics that will be held in the city. As a national cultural center, Beijing follows global economic trends. However, the distinctive features of the city rely on a strong cultural scope, scientific and technological strengths, as well as an open environment which actively helps promote the development of cultural and creative industries. Since the early 1990s, Beijing has placed great emphasis on the development of its cultural industries. In 2005, the city set up leading groups which contributed to introducing and confirming

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policies and strategies to support the development of cultural and creative industries. In December 2009, at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Tenth Beijing Municipal Communist Committee, Qi Liu, the former Secretary of Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee made clear that Beijing should speed up the implementation of the development strategies for the Humanities, Science and Technology, as well as becoming a Green City. In October 2011, the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee held an enlarged meeting where Qi Liu stressed the need to improve the scientific and cultural development of the capital in order to construct a cultural center with global influence. In December 2011, the Plenary Session of the Tenth Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee adopted the Municipal Committee’s opinion that Beijing should exert a central role, accelerating the construction of an advanced socialist cultural capital with Chinese characteristics. The Committee also put forward the implementation and promotion of projects involving cultural and creative industries, and the amalgamation of cultural projects with those involving science engineering, thus integrating culture and technology in the industrial tissue, and well as supporting emerging cultural industries. The Eighteenth Communist Party Committee Report (Nov. 2012) stressed that the party would promote the rapid development of cultural industries. The report was followed by a meeting held in Beijing on the occasion of the Fourteenth Session of the National People’s Congress, where the role of culture was highlighted in order to build and give international visibility to an advanced socialist model with Chinese characteristics, the “Beijing Model”. The Eleventh Beijing Communist Party Congress Report (June 29, 2012) pointed out clearly the construction of the “Beijing Model”, a world city with Chinese characteristics. The city was to increase cultural reform and development in the following five years, and enhance its position as a center for cultural and creative industries in the economy of the country and abroad. Among the strategies to be implemented were the fusion of activities related to culture, science and technology, tourism, education, and sports, enhancing the function and professional level of the cultural and creative industries. A special focus was directed to the construction of symbolic industry cluster districts, such as the Zhong Guancun National Culture and Technology Integration Demonstration Base, the Capital Core Arts District, and the National Advertising Industry District, all of which cultivate a number of backbone cultural enterprises exercising influence on China and the world.

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So far, Beijing has not only introduced “Beijing’s Policies to Promote the Development of Cultural and Creative industries” and the “Beijing Cultural and Creative Industries Development Planning” programs in the past few years, but the city council has also put forth a series of targeted policies regarding film and television animation, network games, tourism, software and information services, design services, advertising and the exhibition industry. It has also formed a “1+X” policy system referred to one overall industry planning and many concrete industrial policies. Beijing districts and the counties of the Beijing region have also introduced a series of policies and measures to promote the development of cultural and creative industries, and they are constantly improving the investment and financing systems for their development. Beijing has issued more than 60 policies on cultural and creative industries. According to their diverse functions, these policies can be divided into eight categories: overall planning, industrial promotion, industry development, classification recognition, investment and financing support, intellectual property protection, as well as district planning and policy, respectively.16 The overall planning strategy is focused on industrial development, starting from the layout of Beijing’s cultural creative industry blueprint, the “Beijing Cultural and Creative Industries Development Planning during the Twelfth Five Year Plan Period” (issued in 2012), and the “Beijing Cultural and Creative Industries Development Planning during the Eleventh Five Year Plan Period” (issued in 2007). Practical promotion policies have been established in order to accelerate industrial development, and Beijing has introduced six such, including “Beijing’s Policy to Promote the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries” (issued in 2006), “Beijing’s Cultural and Creative Industry Investment Guidelines” (issued in 2006), “Beijing’s Custom Measures to Support the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries” (issued in 2006), “Beijing’s Directive Opinions to Support the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries by Protection and Utilization of Industrial Resources” (issued in 2007), “Beijing City’s Industrial Promotion Bureau’s Implementation Plan to Promote the Creative Industries” (issued in 2007), and “Some Suggestions to Promote the Cultural Development in the Core Functions District of the Capital”(issued in 2010). 16

Zhang Jingcheng, and Wang Guohua (ed.), Beijing Report on Cultural and Creative Industries ( Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2011), pp. 43–51.

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Beijing’s cultural and creative industries comprise nine concrete industries that include the tourism, convention and exhibition industries, the advertising industry, the film and television animation industry, the network game industry, the software and information service industry, and the design industry. Their development is the concrete way to promote the overall level of cultural and creative industries in Beijing. Thus, the role of industrial policy in the city is to guide the development of each specific industry. Policies recognize two important forms: Industrial Classification and Identification Standard Recognition. Industry classification is defined for the specific content of industries. It is a prerequisite for the formulation of industrial policy. As mentioned, Beijing issued the “Beijing cultural and creative industry classification standard” in 2006. It included nine categories: culture and art; the press and publishing; radio, film and television; software, network and computer services; advertising, exhibition; art exchange; design services; tourism, leisure and entertainment, and other ancillary services. The Identification Standard Recognition policy is related to the standard development of industries, which is also a standard policy to identify whether industries and enterprises can enjoy certain preferential treatment. Beijing issued some other policies in support of the development of cultural and creative industries, including “Identification and Management Measures of Beijing Cultural and Creative Industries Clusters (Trial)” (issued in 2006) and the “Beijing Animation Enterprise Management Implementation Plan” (issued in 2009). The investment and financing policy aims to promote the industrial development of cultural and creative industries by reducing the cost of investment and financing, including funding, discount loans, financing guarantees, etc. Beijing has issued five investment and financing policies to support the cultural and creative industries, including “Beijing’s cultural and creative industry development special fund management approach” (issued in 2006), “Beijing’s cultural and creative industries clusters infrastructure fund management approach” (issued in 2007), “Beijing’s cultural and creative industries loans management approach” (issued in 2008), “Beijing’s cultural and creative industry guarantee funds management method” (issued in 2009), and “Beijing’s cultural and creative industries guidance venture capital fund management Interim Measures” (issued in 2009).

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Cultural and creative products are different from general merchandise, as most creative products have characteristics directed towards public visibility and the attraction of interest. An intellectual property policy is the way to protect their originality and novelty, as well as the originator’s copyright, thereby avoiding losses due to a product’s easy copyability. Beijing has issued three cultural and creative industry intellectual property policies, including “On the Implementation of Capital Intellectual Property Strategy” (issued in 2009), “Opinions on Intellectual Property Protection and Promotion of Beijing Cultural and Creative Industries” (issued in 2008), and “Intellectual Property Protection Measures of Beijing City Convention and Exhibition” (issued in 2007). In addition, Beijing districts and the counties of the Beijing region, Dongcheng, Xuanwu, Haidian, Chaoyang, Changping, Daxing, Huairou and so on, have also issued more than 30 district planning and policies to support the development of local cultural and creative industries.

III. Good Performances of Beijing’s Cultural and Creative Industries All of these policies have achieved remarkable results. For example, from 2006 to 2011, Beijing set up a special fund to support the development of cultural and creative industries with 50 million Yuan every year, which has supported more than 800 cultural- and creative-industries projects. From 2012, the Beijing city government also set up a series of special funds for cultural innovation, and made two separate 10 billion Yuan grants to the cultural, scientific and technological fields, which not only support the development of cultural undertakings, but also gradually perfect the use of special funds for supporting measures, to increase support for cultural enterprise, and to promote the rapid development of some cultural and creative enterprises. Beijing City Hall established the state-owned Cultural Assets Supervision and Management Office in 2012, responsible for the management of municipal cultural enterprises, effective management of special funds for the cultural and creative industries, and to increase support for cultural enterprises. At the same time, Beijing’s districts and counties such as Haidian, Shijingshan, Xicheng, Dongcheng also strengthened financial support for the development of cultural and creative industries. With the city’s industrial transformation, Beijing’s high-tech and high-end manufacturing and service industries have developed rapidly, providing

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good technical support and creating a huge demand for the development of cultural and creative industries. In 2014, the added value of Beijing’s Cultural and Creative Industries totaled 282,630,000,000 Yuan, accounting for 13.2 per cent of the total regional economy. By the end of 2014, the number of cultural enterprises in the city had reached 171,000, a year-onyear increase of 15.8 per cent. The domestic cultural market has also been expanded, and cultural consumption by urban and rural residents in Beijing has constantly increased in recent years. According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics survey, in 2012, Beijing residents’ consumption expenditure was 24,046 Yuan per capita, which resulted a 9.4 per cent year-on-year growth. Of this, the average per capita educational and cultural entertainment service expenditure in 2012 was 3,696 Yuan, growing 11.8 per cent from 3,307 Yuan in 2011, and accounting for 15.4 per cent of all consumption expenditure. Per capita cultural and educational entertainment products and services expenditure of rural residents in the same period was 1153 Yuan, growing at 14.8 per cent and accounting for 9.7 per cent of all the consumption expenditure (of which the culture and entertainment consumption was 363 Yuan, grew 34.9 per cent). These figures show that Beijing’s cultural and creative industries are rapidly developing and are becoming the second largest industry in the city. The average annual growth rate of the cultural creative industry was nearly 19.5 per cent from 2004 to 2011, 4.3 percentage points higher than the growth rate of Chinese GDP, and higher than the financial industry, with at an average annual growth rate of 17.6 per cent during the same period.17 The value added of Beijing cultural and creative industry realized 220.52 billion Yuan in 2012.18 Beijing’s international market has also expanded rapidly. As a metropolis, Beijing hosts many international cultural exchange activities every year and hundreds of international exchange programs and projects. The amount of film export from Beijing accounts for 1/2 of the entire country. There were over 5 million foreign visitors in 2012, and this figure has been increasing ever since. Software services, online games, advertising exhibitions, and art performances are among the cultural activities being 17

Zhang Jingcheng and Wang Guohua (ed.), Beijing Report on Cultural and Creative Industries (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2012), p. 10. 18 Ibid., p. 4.

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exported from the city, helping the rapid development of export-oriented cultural and creative enterprises. The Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the Beijing City Cultural Assets Supervision Office have established the Beijing Cultural and Creative International Group in order to strengthen the cooperation with cultural enterprises and institutions all over the world, and to enhance the development of a full range of cultural industries. Of the nine cultural and creative industries of the city (mentioned above) the most important one in terms of employment ratio is the software, networks and computer service industry related to cultural products. Other important industries are advertising, exhibitions, press and publishing, radio, television and film. Design services, culture and art account for a smaller proportion. The news publishing industry is the one with slower growth, even if Beijing’s publishing industry accounts for 10 per cent of the country. Most of Beijing’s cultural and creative industries hold an important position in the country. The output value of network and computer software is the highest in Beijing’s service industry sector, and its level of development places it in a leading position in China. The city has become an important research and development center for the animation game industry. The total output of more than 300 animation enterprises reached 13 billion Yuan in 2011, placing them in forefront of the country, of which the export output value was 1.2 billion Yuan, accounting for 60 per cent of the country. Also, more than 70 per cent of the national television companies, distribution firms and post-production units are also located in Beijing. The most important design schools, universities, institutions and enterprises dealing with cultural and creative industries are centralized in the city, especially in the Haidian and Xicheng districts. Employment in Beijing cultural and creative industries has continued to increase since 2006, and now the city has the highest employment rate in the country. In 2011, there were 1,409,000 persons working in cultural and creative industries in Beijing, accounting for 13.2 per cent of the city’s total employment. This was 1.3 percentage points higher than in the previous year. According to the Bureau of Statistics, employment numbers in cultural and creative enterprises between January and November 2012 included 998,000 persons.

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The above figures give an idea of the importance of cultural and creative industries in Beijing, and of their role in solving the problem of employment of a city with a huge population. However, despite good figures, Beijing’s Municipal Government continues to struggle to optimize employment structures in the city. For this reason, since 2006, Beijing City Hall has confirmed 30 municipal clusters of cultural and creative industries, located all over the 16 districts and counties of the Beijing region, covering the main categories of cultural and creative industries. The revenue of enterprises with substantial business in the 30 municipal clusters achieved 47,980,000,000 Yuan in 2012, accounting for 16 per cent of Beijing’s cultural and creative industries’ total revenue. These clusters of the cultural and creative industries have been the core factor in the acceleration of the development of Beijing’s cultural and creative industries. For example, the revenue of Central Business District (CBD) media industries in Chaoyang District accounts for 40 per cent of the city’s revenue from the media industry. The revenue of software, network and computer services industry in Zhongguancun and the surrounding area accounts for 3/4 of the revenue of the city. 19 Other clusters such as the Chinese Animation Game City, Beijing’s Digital Entertainment Industry Demonstration Base, China (Huai Rou) Film Base, the Capital Core Arts District, and Pan Jiayuan Exchange Park of Antique Art Works, among others, are also prominent. All of these clusters have successfully accelerated the development of Beijing’s cultural and creative industries. In recent years, the import and export of cultural products is becoming a bright spot of trade growth in the Beijing region. During the “Eleven Five Plan” period in 2011, Beijing cultural trade import and export reached $2,679,000,000 from $1,265,000,000 in 2006, a 16.2 per cent compound annual growth rate. The cultural trade exports reached $1,396,000,000 in 2011 from $675,000,000 in 2006. From the national point of view, Beijing’s cultural product imports accounted for 34 per cent of the nation’s total in the same period. Beijing has continued to rank first in the country, especially the growth of exports of original cultural products, more than 50 per cent of the country. 19 Zhao Yuanyuan, Lei Jia and Lin Lishuang, “Beijing Will Build 19 Cultural and Creative Industrial Function Zones”, 2013, pp.1–28. http://bjyouth.ynet.com/3.1/1301/28/7786948.html.

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As mentioned, science and technology are the basic support for the development of cultural and creative industries in Beijing. Incomplete 2011 statistics show that the total resources of science and technology in the Beijing area accounted for 1/3 of the total national, with more than 400 research institutes, that is, 74.5 per cent of the country’s total. By the end of 2011, there were in Beijing 286 national key laboratories, national engineering and technology centers and private enterprises technology centers, accounting for more than 30 per cent of China’s. Half of the 700strong faculty of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Engineering are from Beijing. All of these conditions provide support for the favorable development of cultural and creative industries in the city. Together with the programs already mentioned, Beijing has set up highend platforms for the integration of culture and technology, including the Beijing International Film Festival, Beijing International Design Week, Beijing Cultural and Creative Expo, and so on. In 2012, Beijing was recognized by UNESCO as a “Design City” within the Creative Cities Network, a nomination that further expanded Beijing’s international influence. World or Global Cities are generally considered to be important nodes within the global economic system. In 1998, Jon Beaverstock, Richard G. Smith and Peter J. Taylor from Loughborough University, established the “Globalization and World Cities Research Network” (referred to as GaWC). Initially, the network attempted to use the data definition in order to offer a classification of world cities. In 1999, GaWC published a classification and ranking of world cities based on the analysis of data extracted from international companies and advanced producer services, including supply and manufacture, accounting, advertising, finance and law. The ranking confirmed a world-class city with three levels and a plurality of sub levels ranging from high to low, and from Alpha (including four sub grades: Alpha++, Alpha+, Alpha and Alpha), through Beta (including the three sub grades: Beta +, Beta and Beta-), to Gamma (including the three sub grades: Gamma+, Gamma and Gamma-). Two other levels, “self-reliant” and “self-sufficiency” indicated whether or not the city provided a sufficient degree of service and no obvious dependence on other global cities. In the 2016 version of the latest ranking, London and New York were defined as Alpha++, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Dubai, and Shanghai as Alpha+ (see GaWC official roster). That is to say, in the nine Cities ranked as Alpha++ and Alpha+, there are six cities in Asia. Beijing is the fastest-growing city, growing from the twelfth place in 2010 to the sixth in 2016.

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We conclude that Beijing is typical of a marginocentric city because it functions as a national center while being at the international margins. Precisely because of its marginocentricity, Beijing has encouraged the breaching of both traditional and modern boundaries, and has pioneered its own long journey toward Westernization, which has reshaped the city’s cartography. Beijing’s long history has developed its multicultural space of dialogue and negotiation between East and West and between tradition and modernity. I agree with Cornis-Pope’s notion of the marginocentric city and its multicultural space, but we also should recognize that the multicultural space of the marginocentric city does not neutralize social differences by evaluating all cultural practices as valid per se. “Space is a product … and the space thus produced also serves as a tool of thought and of action … In addition to being a means of production, it is also a means of control, and, hence, of domination, of power.” 20 In other words, although there are different levels of multicultural space, the production of space is still directed, regulated, and defined by the power accorded to the dominant ideology. Apparently, the power in The Last Days of Old Beijing is the invisible “Hand” who always puts the character ᣶ (chai), which means “raze”, on his neighbor’s gray exterior walls, and the character was always brushed in ghostly white strokes and circled. The “Hand” is powerful, but vicarious. It seems similar to “hybridity”, in Homi Bhabha’s sense of a word, wherein hybridity demonstrates how cultures come to be represented by processes of iteration and translation through which their meanings are vicariously addressed to and through an Other, and contrasts any “essentialist claims for the inherent authenticity or purity of cultures which, when inscribed in the naturalistic sign of symbolic consciousness, frequently become political arguments for the hierarchy and ascendary of powerful cultures”.21 The invisible “Hand” did not directly refer to the power of government. Actually, the razing of old houses was usually carried out by the property developers. Their interests were sometimes different from the government; the government’s original plan claimed to restore the late-Qing dynasty and early Republican-era architecture, recalling the appearance of the 20 Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Toronto: Wiley-Blackwell, 1992), p.59. 21 Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), p.56.

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ancient capital, and display its grand historical culture, while combining the traditional with the modern. But the “Hand” could change “The ancient capital reappears” (޽⧠ਔ䜭) into “Farewell, ancient capital” (޽㿱ਔ䜭), as Meyer mentioned in an ironic tone, “The Hand worked on, peeling back the layers. It razed Soldier Liu’s shaved-noodle restaurant, and masked the road-widening project at Fresh Fish Junction with blue tin sheeting”.22 However, the overall planning of the city’s reshaping was obviously under the leadership of the city government. Therefore, Beijing’s multicultural space still had a direction which was aimed at modernity under the leadership of the Communist Party. This is obvious in the process of Beijing’s transformation in the new century, different from the western modernity including the East-Central European modernity. So we can call it as “alternative modernity” or “modernity with Chinese characteristics”. Specifically, Marginocentric Beijing is not like the East-Central European marginocentric cities, which bring together “things that seem not to belong together”, setting “alongside each other in odd, often raw juxtapositions all sorts of different bodies of experience to show what frictions and sparks they make”. 23 In contrast, the new Beijing city is being continuously rebuilt in the ring mode, which may have some political significance. I refer to Meyer’s book as cross-cultural, not only because he is an American and has an American cultural perspective, but also because of the cross-cultural content of his writing. His book seems to always try to interpret Beijing’s transformation from a cross-cultural perspective, such as when he discussed other countries in the world that have experienced the reshaping of their old cities. For example, Singapore tore itself down; Athenians looted “all but a minute fraction” of their city’s nineteenthcentury design; thousands of New York’s buildings were razed by New Yorkers; Moscow knocked over its onion domes and bell towers; and despite their city being spared incendiary bombing during World War II,

22

Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (New York: Walker & Company, 2008), p.92. 23 Marcel Cornis-Pope, “Urban Cartographies in the Post-Cold War Era: Postmodern Challenges to Ethnocentric and Globalist Mapping”, World Literature Studies, 1.1(18) 2009, pp.14-27.

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Kyoto’s residents subsequently pulled down most of its wooden buildings; and “Romans demolished a third of Rome’s historic structure”.24 When we clearly perceive that other cities have made mistakes like Beijing’s, our sense of guilt about the transformation of old Beijing might be somewhat assuaged, because that perception might rationalize the direction taken by the city’s modernization. Even so, we cannot forgive the excessive modernization of Beijing, and we must hope to hold on to the memories of its history as we enjoy its modern conveniences. As a Chinese citizen, I often complain about my overdeveloped city and its attendant excessive transportation and overcrowding, along with its heavily polluted air. However, I would be unhappy if a foreigner were to make similar comments about its shortcomings. I confess that it this an unfair attitude toward foreigners, but I fortunately feel more forgiving when I read Meyer’s neutral impressions of Beijing. The Last Days of Old Beijing is an obviously cross-cultural work that should gain wide acceptance.

24

Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (New York: Walker & Company, 2008), p.115.

CHAPTER SIX CHINA’S MICRO FILM AND SOCIALIST CULTURAL PRODUCTION DURING THE MICRO ERA

Since Hu Ge ˄㜑ᠸ˅ produced A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun (ањ係ཤᕅਁⲴ㹰Ṹ) in 2005, which appeared online in early 2006, China’s Micro Film industry has made rapid progress with the development of WiFi Internet, 3G and 4G smart phones, mobile TV applications, and social media video repositories making possible the transfer of information across platforms, and so on. Technological change has had a direct impact upon cultural practices, enabling operative conditions, conventions, community and institutional practices, etc.1 This chapter is not intended to be a detailed analysis of ten years of China’s micro film development, just a selection of micro films from different dates to show a few characteristics of Chinese micro film production in particular and Chinese cultural production in general.

I. Three Types of Chinese Micro Film 1. Parody: Some Points of A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun Parody, also known as humorous imitation, is a borrowing and reproduction of other works, which thus constitutes a special intertextual relation between the new and the original. The borrowed work is usually classical, or is known to the general public, and the new version humorously subverts the text. The first example, A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun, is an obvious parody of the film Wuji (ᰐᶱ, The Promise 2005), directed by 1 Asuncion Lopez-Varela, “Intertextuality and Intermediality as Cross-cultural Communication Tools: A Critical Inquiry”, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 8(2)/2011, pp.7–22.

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Chen Kaige (䱸ࠟⅼ) and of the TV program “Chinese Law Report”, shown on China Central Television. It uses the report form, but its plot is based on Wuji, and the micro film pretentiously includes two irrelevant advertisements in order to subvert and exaggerate Wuji’s storyline. This led to a related copyright lawsuit: Chen Kaige accused Hu Ge of imitating his work and infringing his copyright. At the time, the case became a major social issue, many netizens publishing their opinions of the case. In fact, Chen Kaige’s copyright lawsuit was neither supported by law, nor by public opinion. An anonymous blogger pointed out that Wuji was itself an imitation and plagiarism of Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô.2 Flaubert’s novel interweaves historical and fictional characters and its action takes place immediately before and during the Mercenary Revolt against Carthage in the third century BC. Flaubert’s main source was Book I of Polybius’s Histories. It was not a particularly well-studied period of history and required a great deal of work from the author. In the novel, Carthage has been defeated by Rome in the First Punic War, leaving it with a huge indemnity. But the ruling class is dissolute, shameless and profligate, so the treasury is empty, unable to pay to the money owed to mercenaries. The mercenaries, led by the Libyan Matho, mutiny and surround Carthage. Matho falls in love with Salammbô, the daughter of Hamilcar, the Carthaginian commander. With the help of Spendius, a scheming, freed slave, Matho steals the sacred veil of Carthage, the Zaïmph, prompting Salammbô to enter the mercenaries’ camp in an attempt to steal it back. The Zaïmph is an ornate bejeweled veil draped about the statue of the Goddess Tanit in the sanctum sanctorum of her temple: the veil is the city’s guardian and touching it will bring death to the perpetrator. Salammbô reaches Matho in his tent at the encampment. Believing each other to be divine apparitions, they make love. The mercenaries are attacked and dispersed by Hamilcar’s troops. Salammbô removes the Zaïmph, and on meeting her father, Hamilcar has her betrothed to Narr’ Havas, a mercenary who has changed sides. Hamilcar drives the mercenaries away from their encampments. Later, thousands of mercenaries are trapped in a defile and slowly starve. Matho is tortured

2 Unknown (֊਽). “Is Qingcheng from Salammbô?” (‫ٮ‬෾ᶕ㠚㩘ᵇ⌒). . December 16, 2005.

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before his execution; Salammbô, witnessing this, dies of shock. The Zaïmph has brought death upon those who touched it. In comparing Wuji with Salammbô, we easily conclude that Chen’s film is really an imitation and reproduction of the main characters and stories of Flaubert’s novel. For example, the heroine Qingcheng (‫ٮ‬෾) in Chen’s film is clearly based on Salammbô, General Guangming (‫ݹ‬᰾) on Matho, the slave Kunlun (ᰶԁ) on Spendius, Duke Wuhuan (ᰐ⅒) is an echo of Hamilcar, and Wuji city stands for Carthage. In addition, Chen’s film contains many visual references to the ancient Greek writer, Homer. For example, Qingcheng’s first appearance on the walls of Wuji is reminiscent of Helen’s appearance on the walls of Troy, and the chase between two snowmen calls to mind the chase between Achilles and Hector. All of these testified that: Texts, whether they be literary or non-literary, are viewed by modern theorists as lacking in any kind of independent meaning. They are what theorists now call intertextual. The act of reading, theorists claim, plunges us into a network of textual relation. To interpret a text, to discover its meaning, or meanings, is to trace those relations. Reading thus becomes something which exists between texts. Meaning becomes something which exists between a text and all the other texts to which it refers and relates, moving out from the independent text into a network of textual relations. The text becomes the intertext.3

From the perspective of intertextual and intermedial theory, Wuji and A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun lack in any kind of independent meaning, and easily plunge audiences into a dialogic (in Mikhail Bakhtin’s sense) network of textual and medial relations that move from imitation to parody. During World War II, Bakhtin submitted a dissertation on the French Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais, in turn an important influence upon Flaubert. In Rabelais and His World, Bakhtin studies the interaction between the social and the literary, advancing the notion that parody and laughter in fiction has an impact upon power structures. Similarly, Lili Wang argued that “Parody can subvert the traditional and the classical works, and let people interpret literary works from a new perspective. It is a sharp criticism, which can promote the prosperity and development of art and literature. It is an important manifestation of the public exercise of the freedom of speech, and a parody of attitude is the 3

Graham Allen, Intertextuality (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), p.1.

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sign of a country’s democratic development”. 4 Like Bakhtin, Wang understands heteroglossia as the manifestation of the public exercise of the freedom of speech, having a positive value for the art of film. Paradoxically, after the recognition of Flaubert’s influence, and with the parody exercised in A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun, the film Wuji achieved greater box office success throughout the country. A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun continues to be excluded from the cultural field of Chinese micro film, and is broadcast mainly online. Many scholars confirmed that 2010 was the beginning of China’s micro film industry. The naming deed itself contains a rejecting and inhibiting mechanism of the cultural production in the consumer era, which not only exposes the “cultural hegemony” existing in the field of micro film, but also predicts the tendency of Chinese micro film art in the following years. 2. Conspiracy: Art, Market and the Aestheticization of Everyday Life “Conspiracy” not only refers to the relationship between the micro film production and the market, but also to the relationship between the original text and its new versions, sometimes taking different media formats. We can say that the former is a conspiracy between art and the market, and that the latter is an intertextual-transmedial conspiracy. With regard to the first, the conspiracy between art and the market, let us begin with the ninety seconds of the micro film Imminent (а䀖ণਁ, 2010), starring Daniel Wu (੤ᖖ⾆). Essentially an advertisement for the Shanghai GM Company, Wu plays the role of a spokesman for a new model of Cadillac, successfully ditching his opponents in a race. Full of stunts, car chases and explosions, the entertaining aspects cannot disguise the film’s real marketing purpose, especially when scenes from it were screened at the 2010 Guangzhou auto show. According to Henry Lefebvre, everyday life is the intersection of “illusion and truth, power and helplessness; the intersection of the sector man

4 Wang Lili (⦻ѭѭ), “Researches on the Parody Issue from the Perspective of Copyright” (㪇֌ᵳ㿶䟾ѝⲴᠿԯ䰞仈⹄ウ), The Dissertation for Master Degree (Chongqing: Southwest University of Political Science and Law, 2007), p.26.

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controls, and the sector he does not control”.5 Lefebvre also argued that in the mid-twentieth century, everyday life had been changed into a zone of sheer consumption shared by everyone, regardless of class or specialty. Focusing on the everyday life, commercial advertisement, as a main production form in the consumption culture, is just a conspiracy between art and market, pursuing “the aestheticization of everyday life”, as Mike Featherstone wrote in Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. For Featherstone, the aestheticization of everyday life refers, first, to those artistic subcultures which produced Dada and the Surrealist movements in World War I and the 1920s, which sought in their work, writings, and in some cases lives, to efface the boundary between art and everyday life. It also refers to the project of turning life into a work of art, as found, for instance, in the Bloomsbury Group around the turn of the twentieth century, in which G.E. Moore argued that the greatest goods in life consisted of personal affectations and aesthetic enjoyment. Finally, it refers to the rapid flow of signs and images that saturate the fabric of everyday life in contemporary society. The centrality of the commercial manipulation of images through advertising, the media and display, performance and spectacles of the urbanized fabric of daily life therefore entail a constant reworking of desires through image. 6 This increasing dominance of exchange value not only obliterated the original use-value of things and replaced it by abstract exchange value, but it left the commodity free to take on an ersatz or secondary use-value. As a result, a Cadillac becomes the aesthetic sign of the city’s upper classes, characterized by exquisite taste and success, rather than just a means of transport. The micro film Imminent was regarded as the birth of China’s micro film industry, linked to Shanghai GM’s Cadillac marketing department. It represents the market conspiracy behind this industry. Similar strategies were used in the micro film Old Boy (㘱⭧ᆙ), advertising Chevrolet, Watching the Ball (ⴻ⨳䇠) which featured Canon, and 4 Nights’ Curious Talks (4 ཌཷ䉝) supported by Samsung. The conspiracy with the market has become a convention within micro films, and those who violate this convention will definitely be excluded from the micro film field. 5

Henri Lefebvre, The Critique of Everyday Life (New York and London: Verso, 1947), p.40. 6 Mike Featherstone, Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (London: Sage Publication, 2007), pp.65–66.

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Turning to The Only Choice (ୟаᢹᤙ) and Chills (ሂᡈ), these are again typical examples of the intertextual and transmedial conspiracy. The first is a micro film, the second a longer one, both co-directed by Liang Lemin (ằҀ≁) and Lu Jianqing (䱶ࢁ䶂) almost at the same time in 2012. The cast is also roughly the same, starring Aarif Lee as Zhang Guobiao, the chief director of investigation at Hong Kong ICAC. This micro film clips directly to the original film lens, and its story is added to the original, almost as an official prequel of it. In addition, collusion between the micro film and the HTC Corporation opens up the precedent of shooting micro films on phones. In this way, the micro film The Only Choice is both propaganda for the movie Chills and advertising and marketing for HTC phones. This is not just a transmedia conspiracy but also a market conspiracy—a win-win situation for commercial interests. Actually, most Chinese micro films have transrmedial and intertextual characteristics, just as we illustrated above. A Murder Case Triggered by a Steamed Bun is also intertextual and intermedial. But it is an intertextual and intermedial parody. The difference between parody and conspiracy is that the former is a kind of conflict and ironic relation between the new text and the original text, but the later is a kind of consistent and accordant relation between the new and the original texts and between the different mediums. The intertextual and intermedial conspiracy which is shown in most of China’s micro film in the early second decade of this century has the same end: the market. So the conspiracy between art and market has a general impact on the production of China’s micro film and on China’s cultural production in general during this period. The economic impact of micro film is huge. First shown in October 2010, Old Boy was clicked by more than 50 million people in a very short time. Supervised by Hang Kong’s famous director Peng Haoxiang (ᖝ⎙㘄) , 4 Nights’ Curious Talks (4 ཌཷ䉝) also achieved great success, with a clicking rate rapidly exceeding 200 million. The reasons for the popularity of micro films are their low costs and legal void with a lack of supervision on the part of government departments. The potential benefits attract many companies, such as Volkswagen, Samsung, Canon, Colgate, Budweiser and many others. At the same time, the rapid development of the micro film also brings a variety of problems such as low creative levels, poorly produced works, lack of narrative skills, bad performances and, in general, low professional

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standards. As a result, more and more people distrust the artistic level of micro film products, with negative public opinion affecting the industry’s sustainable development.7 3. Micro Film for Social Welfare I will give you happiness when I grow up, from June 201, was a new style of micro film, appearing on China Central Television (CCTV). It comprises three scenes. In the first scene, the child nestles up to his mother, and she says, “When you grow up, I will enjoy a happy life.” In the second: the child has grown up, and the mother says, “When you get a job and get married, I will enjoy a happy life.” In the third: the mother has become old, and a little girl is beside her, who says, “Grandmother, I will give you happiness when I grow up.” At this point, the narrator says, “Please doesn’t let growing up become regret, and don’t leave filial piety in waiting forever.” Obviously, this is a social welfare micro film, which is totally different to the advertising micro film. This raises the question: how should we deal with the relationship between social welfare and market efficiency, which always exists, in socialist cultural productions with Chinese characteristics?

II. The China Model of Socialist Cultural Production In recent years, many scholars have been discussing the so-called “China Model” in order to understand the rapid development of the Chinese economy and its economic and political aims. One key concept is that of “meritocracy”, forged by Daniel A. Bell, an American professor working in Tsinghua University, to describe the ideas and the reality of how the Chinese political system has evolved over the past three decades. In his opinion, political meritocracy means that “political power should be distributed in accordance with ability and virtue”.8 This model differs from Western election models of “one person, one vote”. Dissenting from Bell’s political perspective, I would like to define the “China Model” from the cultural perspective. From this perspective, the main characteristic of the “China Model” is the role of a government 7

Yin Hong (ቩ呯), “Micro Film: New forms of art in the age of the Internet” (ᗞ⭥ ᖡ:ӂ㚄㖁ᰦԓⲴ㢪ᵟᯠᖒᘱ), The Journal of Film Art, 4, 2014, pp. 67–71. 8 Daniel Bell, The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the limits of Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), p.6.

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which departs from a past when the government managed everything during the Planned Economy, and is also different from the models of cultural policy in the West. According to the Canadian cultural economists Harry Hillman Chartrand and Claire McCaughey, there have been four models of cultural policy operative in the West since World War II: the Facilitator Model, the Patron Model, the Architect Model and the Engineer Model. 9 In 2007, Jennifer Craik added the fifth model of cultural policy, the “Elite Nurturer Model”.10 Based on studies of Chinese cultural policy, I would like to add the sixth model, called the “Master Model”. More details on the six models of cultural policy listed below: ROLE OF MODEL

WHERE USED

POLICY OBJECTIVE

FUNDING MECHANISM

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

FACILITATOR

USA

Diversity

Tax expenditures and incentives

S: diversity of funding sources W: excellence not necessarily supported; valuation of tax costs; benefits for benefactors; calculation of tax cost

PATRON

UK

Excellence International standards

Arm’s length Peer evaluation

S: support for excellence W: favors traditional elite art forms

9 Harry Hillman Chartrand and Claire McCaughey, “The arm’s length principle and the arts: an international perspective—past, present and future”, in M. Cumming and M. Schuster (eds.), Who’s to pay for the Arts? (New York: American Council for the Arts Books, 1989), pp.53–54. 10 Jennifer Craik, Re-Visioning Arts and Cultural Policy: Current Impasses and Future Direction (Canberra: The Australian National University E Press, 2007), Appendix C.

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ARCHITECT

France

Social welfare Industry assistance

Department and Ministry of Culture

S: relief from box office dependence; secures training and career structure W: Creative directives lead to stagnation and resistance

ENGINEER

Former Soviet countries, Cuba, Korea

Political education, National culture

Government ownership of artistic production

S: focus creative energy to attain political goals W: subservience; underground; counter-intuitive outcomes

ELITE NURTURER

Major Organizational Fund (Australia)

Selective elite development

Direct government ongoing funding of cultural organizations

S: encourage excellence, financial stability W: insulates organizations from external influences/forces

MASTER MODEL

China

Functions under a socialist cultural scheme; emphasizing national culture, scientific culture and popular Culture

With a combination of public and private financing under the control of the government.

S:focus creative energy to promote the cultural prosperity W: difficult to produce international influence

Source: Adapted from Harry Hillman-Chartrand and Claire McCaughey “The arm’s length principle and the arts: an international perspective—past, present and future,” in M. Cumming and M. Schuster (eds.) Who’s to pay for the Arts? The International Search for Models of Support New York: American Council for the Arts Books, 1989, pp. 54–55.

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Also from Jennifer Craik, Models of Cultural Policy, Re-Visioning Arts and Cultural Policy: Current Impasses and Future Direction, ANU E Press, 2007, Appendix C. The origin of the modern Chinese word “culture” (᮷ॆ wenhua) dates from about 800 BC. It appears in the Book of Changes (᱃㓿 yijing). In Tuan’s (ᖆ) treatise on the hexagram “Bi” (䍢), it is rendered as: “We look at the ornamental figures of sky, and thereby ascertain the changes of seasons. We look at the ornamental observances of society, and understand how the processes of transformation are accomplished all under heaven” (㿲Ѿཙ᮷, ԕሏᰦᒿ; 㿲ѾӪ᮷, ԕॆᡀཙл)”.11 In its classical form, the morpheme “wen” referred to “line or marking”. The morpheme “hua” has the association meanings of transformation, change and nature. In the Book of Changes, the morphemes “wen” and “hua” are separated and have not yet formed a word. It was Liu Xiang (77 BC–7 AD), a famous scholar in the western Han dynasty (202–9 BC) who really synthesized the two morphemes as one word in his book Garden Anecdotes (䈤㤁 shuoyuan), in which he used the word “wenhua” to signify the meaning of ruling by non-violence and refinement.12 In Chinese history, despite the many cultural and commercial activities of the country, the concept of cultural industries did not exist. In fact, the concept comes from the west. In 1947, two well-known representatives of the Frankfurt school of philosophy, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno first used the term “culture industry” for in their book Dialectic of the Enlightenment to define what they considered the basic features of mass culture. In their view, culture is characterized by the importance of its industrial dimension, the force of its political and economic impact, and the fact that, although it may originate from a small number of industrialized countries, it is disseminated throughout the world. In “Culture Industry Reconsidered”, Adorno elaborates on why they replaced the expression “mass culture” with “culture industry”, which was in order to exclude it, from the outset, from an interpretation agreeable to its advocates, that is, that culture may arise spontaneously from the masses 11

James Legge (trans.), The Yî King (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 231. Qingben Li (ᵾᒶᵜ), Jiwan Bi (∅㔗з), Nan Li (ᵾᾐ) and Zhong Chen (䱸ᘐ), China and Other Countries: Cultural Comparison and Cross-Cultural Communication (ѝཆ᮷ॆ∄䖳о䐘᮷ॆӔ䱵) (Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2014), p.4. 12

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themselves, like contemporary forms of popular art. The authors chose to distinguish culture industries from popular art forms. To them, culture industries fuse the old and the familiar into a new reality. Besides, in all branches of culture industries, products are tailored for consumption by the masses, which to a great extent determine the nature of that consumption, being manufactured more or less according to plan.13 That is to say, the cultural industry is an industry that makes cultural products by means of modern technology and planning production, different from traditional mass culture. The term “cultural industry” was used in the singular form, and eventually became the plural “cultural industries” in the 1960s and 1970s. The French “cultural industry” sociologists rejected Adorno and Horkheimer’s use of the singular term “culture industry” because it suggested a “unified field”, where all the different forms of cultural production co-existing in modern life were assumed to obey the same logic. Instead, they were concerned to show how complex cultural industries are, and to identify the different logics at work in different types of cultural production. For example, broadcasting industries operated in a very different way from the press, or from industries reliant on “editorial” models of production, such as publishing, different also from the recording industry. As result, they preferred the plural term “cultural industries”.14 As indicated above, the Chinese case is a little different. For quite a long time after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and before 1980, Chinese cultural policy followed the “Engineer Model”, just like Cuba, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union. During that period, the object of cultural policy in China was political education. Culture was treated as a government-affiliated business and not as an enterprise-affiliated business. During this period, cultural industries were regarded as a concept close to the bourgeoisie and had to be strongly controlled by the government. After the reform and opening up, especially in the twenty-first century, China’s cultural policy has undergone a major

13

Theodor W. Adorno, ‘Culture Industry Reconsidered’, The Culture Industry, Selected Essays on Mass Culture (ed. J.M. Bernstein, London and New York: Routledge, 1999), p.98. 14 David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries (London: Sage Publications, 2002), pp.15–16.

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adjustment, and many government affiliated cultural institutions have gradually become cultural enterprise units. In October 2000, the proposal by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party on the “Tenth Five Year Plan” was passed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifteenth CPC Central Committee. The proposal put forward improvements in cultural industry policies, strengthening construction and management of the cultural market, and promoting the development of the cultural sector. In March 2001, this proposal was adopted by the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People’s Congress, and was formally incorporated into the national “Tenth Five Year Plan”. These concerns with Chinese cultural industries were for the first time written into the party’s document and in national policies, and have, since then, become an important national strategy in China. In the same year (2001), China joined the World Trade organization (WTO), showing that China’s cultural industries would develop along with the process of globalization. However, this initial proposal did not define what cultural industries comprise. In those years, until 2003, most officers and scholars in China’s government had been employing UNESCO’s definition, referring to “those industries that combine the creation, production and commercialization of contents which are intangible and cultural in nature. These contents are typically protected by copyright and they can take the form of goods or services”.15 It generally included industries such as “printing, publishing and multimedia, audio-visual, phonographic and cinematographic productions, as well as crafts and design. For some countries, this concept also embraces architecture, visual and performing arts, sports, manufacturing of musical instruments, advertising and cultural tourism. In 2003, China’s Ministry of Culture issued a provisional document entitled “Several Opinions to Support and Promote the Development of Cultural Industries”, which defined cultural industries as “the business industries that produce cultural products and provide cultural services”. It also pointed out that “the term ‘cultural industries’ is a juxtaposition of cultural undertakings, all of which are important components of socialist cultural construction. Cultural industries are the inevitable outcome of the 15

UNESCO, Culture, Trade and Globalization: Questions and Answers (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2000), pp.11–12.

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development of productive forces, and the emerging industries that develop with the gradual improvement of China’s socialist market economy and the continuous progress of modern production methods”.16 In this definition by the Ministry of Culture, cultural industries include nine industries, such as acting, film and television, video, cultural entertainment, cultural tourism, Internet culture, book publication, cultural relics and art, and art training. In 2004, China’s National Bureau of Statistics issued another “classification of culture and related industries”, which provided additional details on the system of cultural industries. It defined “cultural and related industries” as activities to provide cultural, recreational products and services for the public, as well as the collection of activities associated with these activities. Thus, the National Bureau of Statistics further divided culture and its related industries into “core layer”, “outer layer” and “related layer”.

16

•

The “Core layer” includes news, books, newspaper, journal, audiovisual products and electronic publications, radio, television, movies, theatrical performances, cultural performance venues, cultural relics and cultural protection, museums, libraries, archives, mass culture, cultural studies, cultural service organizations, other cultures, and so on.

•

The “Outer layer” includes the Internet, travel service, cultural services in tourist attractions, indoor recreation, amusement parks, leisure and entertainment, Internet cafes, culture broker, leasing and sale of cultural products, advertising, exhibition services, etc.

•

The “Related layer” includes stationery, photographic equipment, instruments, toys, recreational equipment, paper, film, film, tape, CD, printing equipment, radio and television equipment, film equipment, household audiovisual equipment, arts and crafts production and sales, etc.

Cited in Wenzhang Wang ( ⦻ ᮷ ㄐ ), “Analysis of Cultural Industries and Creative Industries” (“᮷ॆӗъ”о“ࡋ᜿ӗъ᧒᷀”), Report on Development of China’s Cultural Industries (Beijing: Social Science Academic Press, 2007), pp.41-44.

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According to the classification principle, the system of cultural and related industries is also split into four levels. The first level is divided into cultural services and related cultural services in accordance with the importance of cultural activities. The second level is divided into 9 big categories according to the management needs of the department and the characteristics of cultural activities. The third level is divided into 24 intermediate categories based on the industrial chain and the relationship between the upper and lower levels. The fourth level includes 80 small categories, which are the industry’s categories included in the third level, as well as the specific categories of activities in culture and related industries. In 2006, “the National Outline of Cultural Development During the 11th Five-year Period”, issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, confirmed the “core cultural industries” as: the production of film and television, publishing and distribution sector, the printing industry, the advertising industry, performing arts, entertainment, cultural convention and exhibition, digital content and animation. In this way, the Chinese concept and definition of cultural industries has gradually become more mature. Compared with Western countries, China’s cultural policy still has its own distinctive features. Due to its different social and political systems, China has special cultural policies whose goals are mainly to serve socialism and the people, and to pursue national scientific and popular culture. I describe these central cultural policies as a “master model”, where the Chinese government plays the role of “teacher” in the development of cultural production. The strength of this model lies in the fact that cultural units affiliated to enterprises receive government funds so that they are able to focus their creative energies in promoting socialist cultural prosperity. The weaknesses of this model reside in the fact that cultural products experience difficulties in achieving international standards and exerting influence abroad.

III. Cultural Industries along “One Belt and One Road” At the end of the twentieth century, China had become the biggest manufacturing country in the world. During this period, resource-depletion and environmental pollution have become very serious problems. The development path of the “high input, high consumption, high pollution and low benefit” model would eventually face a development bottleneck.

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Vigorously developing the cultural and creative industries will provide a new way and mode for the sustained and healthy development of the economic society and realize the economic transformation from “Made in China” to “Created in China”. Recent data show that the cultural and creative industries played an active role in economic growth and structural adjustment in recent years. China’s cultural industries grew at an annual growth rate of 21.3 per cent during 2005–2014. In 2014, the added value of China’s cultural and related industries was 2,394 billion RMB Yuan, growing by 12.1 per cent over the previous year, and 3.9 per cent higher than the corresponding GDP growth rate in the same period. The share of GDP is 3.76 per cent, growing up 0.13 per cent from the previous year.17 The latest statistics show that the added value of national culture and related industries increased to 3025 billion RMB Yuan in 2016, accounting for 4.07 per cent of GDP.18 In recent years, the added value of cultural industries in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Hunan, Yunnan has exceeded 5 per cent of GDP. We can expect that the added value of the whole country’s cultural industries will reach 5 per cent of GDP in the near future, and the cultural industries will become the strategic industries and the new growth point of the economy. At present, the whole country has formed six important clusters of cultural and creative industries: (1) the capital zone, where Beijing is the leading area, including Tianjing and Hebei province; (2) the Yangtze River delta zone, where Shanghai is the leading area, including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing; (3) The Pearl River Delta zone, which is represented by Guangzhou and Shenzhen; (4) the Yunnan and Hainan zone, which is represented by Kunming, Lijiang and Sanya; (5) the Sichuan and Shaanxi zone, which is represented by Chongqing, Chengdu and Xi ‘an; and (6) The central zone, which is represented by Wuhan and Changsha.

17

Chyxx(ѝഭؑ᚟㖁), 2016 ᒤѝഭ᮷ॆࡋ᜿ӗъਁኅᾲߥ(“The Outline of China’s Cultural and Creative Industries in 2016”), Chyxx (2016):

18 Xiaoxi Huang (哴ሿᐼ) and Xiao Jiang (ဌ╷), “The spirit of cohesion is a new glory—the construction of a socialist cultural power from the perspective of the report of the 19th national congress of the communist party of China” (ࠍ㚊ᗳ࣋ 䟿 䬨ቡᯠ䖹❼—Ӿॱҍབྷᣕ੺ⴻᔪ䇮⽮Պѫѹ᮷ॆᕪഭ). http://news.xinhuanet.com/zgjx/2017-10/24/c_136701837.htm. Oct. 24, 2017.

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These changes in the development of cultural and creative industries also highlight the patterns by means of which China continues to open itself to the world. In order to accelerate the growth of other cities in the Asian region and Europe, an important project is being developed that will revitalize the ancient Silk Road. In September 2013, President Xi Jinping visited Kazakhstan to collaborate in the project of the Silk Road as an economic and cultural belt. In his speech to the Indonesian parliament in October 2013, President Xi suggested that China is committed to strengthening connectivity with ASEAN countries and proposing the establishment of an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. He stressed that China is ready to develop a maritime partnership with ASEAN countries and jointly build the maritime Silk Road of the twenty-first century. Further, in November 2014, President Xi announced at the APEC summit in Beijing that China would contribute $40 billion to establish a Silk Road fund to provide financing support for the infrastructure construction, resource development and industrial cooperation of the countries along the “‘One Belt and One Road”‘. The project is rapidly becoming a comprehensive industrial structure where cultural and creative industries will realize a breakthrough development, actively integrating with industries in other fields. On October 18, 2017, in his report at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi confirmed once again that China would insist on the basic national policy of opening up to the outside world, actively promoting the international cooperation of “One Belt And One Road”, to achieve policy communication, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financing and people-to-people exchanges, to build a new platform of international cooperation, to support the multilateral trading system, to promote free trade zones, and to build an open world economy. It is stressed that China will increase assistance to developing countries, especially to the least developed countries in order to promote the narrowing of the north-south development gap.19 Based on the “Belt and Road Initiative”, China’s State Council has successively put forward “Some Opinions to Promote the Integrate Development of Cultural Creativity, Design Services and Other Related 19

Jinping Xi (Ґ䘁ᒣ), “Report at the 19th national congress of the communist party of China” (൘ѝഭ‫ޡ‬ӗ‫ފ‬ㅜॱҍ⅑‫ޘ‬ഭԓ㺘བྷՊкⲴᣕ੺), http://www.gov.cn/zhuanti/19thcpc/baogao.htm. Oct. 18, 2017.

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Industries” and “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Foreign Cultural Trade”, and the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued “the Strategic Planning of the Silk Road Cultural Industries”. On March 28, 2015, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued “the Vision and Action on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road”. This document designed five economic lines: the key direction of the Silk Road economic belt is from China through central Asia and Russia to Europe (the Baltic sea); from China through Central Asia, West Asia to the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean; from China to southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean; from the coastal areas of China through the south China sea to India, extending to Europe; and from the coastal areas of China through the South China Sea to the southern Pacific Ocean. All of these policies have created favorable conditions for the development of China’s cultural industries, so as to enable more development room for the cultural industries. Many Chinese scholars believe that the “Belt and Road Initiative” is good for the development of cultural and creative industries. Jian Hua points out that it will enhance the possibility of improving the Chinese cultural Industries and promote them at an international level. These will involve the cultivation of export-oriented cultural enterprises to optimize culture and trade structures, improving exports of cultural services, and strengthening transnational cooperation through the connections between the Silk Road cities. Jian Hua believes that this research project will contribute to expanding the global impact of China’s cultural industries and the convergence of resources, as well as lead to the establishment of a mutually beneficial international community of cultural industries, in which the nations and people along the “‘Belt and Road”‘ can share more cultural wealth.20 Jianhua Fan also believes that the cultural industries along the “One Belt And One Road” have unique advantages, manifested at several levels. First, the international development of cultural industries, strengthening 20

Jian Hua (㣡ᔪ), “On the Promotion of International Competitiveness of China’s Cultural Industries in the Background of the Belt and Road Initiative” (“аᑖа䐟 ” ᡈ ⮕ о ᨀ ॷ ѝ ഭ ᮷ ॆ ӗ ъ ഭ 䱵 ㄎ ҹ ࣋ ⹄ ウ ), Tongji University Journal(Philosophy and Social Science Edith), Vol.5, 2016, pp.30–39.

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cultural exchanges and trade between countries along the Silk Road, and disseminating the idea of harmonious development and peaceful coexistence across different cultures, regions and peoples. At a second level, the project will mean the diversification of cultural industries. Different economic development levels and socio-political backgrounds will enrich this cultural belt with a colourful economic base. The plurality will bring about more variables, as well as greater space for development. The third aspect is the relevance of the development of cultural industries. The cultural belt is not only characterized by its own culture, but also features the bond between the cultural belts.21 In addition to these benefits, I argue for the importance and impact of cultural and creative industries upon the economy, that is to say, the development of cultural industries along the “One Belt and One Road” will also benefit the development and prosperity of this region in general. The “Belt and Road Initiative” involves more than 60 countries, 4 billion people and 20 trillion Economic Aggregates. By developing the cultural industries of the Silk Road, we will accelerate the economic development in the areas along it, especially in western and Central Asia, eastern Asia, and south-eastern Asia, expanding employment and promoting consumption through the cultural industries, thus propelling the overall development and prosperity of Asian communities. The “Belt and Road Initiative” and the establishment of the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) to support the regional infrastructure construction in Asia, therefore show China’s desire to realize common prosperity of the Asian communities. In 1800, Asia contributed over half the world’s wealth. Only two centuries later, its share had fallen to 20 per cent. In the twenty-first century, Asia has once again become the world’s biggest economic entity. In this process, cultural and creative industries have played a fundamental role. Examples of economic success are, for instance, those related to China’s animation industry, which started relatively early. In the 1970s, cartoons like “Nezha Conquers the Dragon King” and “Monkey King” were adapted from Journey to the West, a Chinese classical novel, and integrated into Chinese cultural resources, achieving great success. In the 21

Jianhua Fan (㤳ᔪॾ), “Ribbon Development: New Trend of China’s Cultural Industries in the Period of the 13th Five-year Plan” (ᑖ⣦ਁኅ:ॱйӄᵏ䰤ѝഭ᮷ ॆӗъᯠ䎻࣯), Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Science Edith), No.3, 2015, pp.84–93.

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1990s, the global animation industry began to develop rapidly. The USA animated films “Mulan” and “Kung Fu Panda” are based on traditional Chinese culture. The Japanese video game “Sally Wood 3”, not only features the Guilin landscapes in Guangxi province of southern China, but local characteristics of Hakka Tulou in south-eastern China are also present. All of these prove that Chinese traditional culture can provide rich resources for the development of cultural industries in China and abroad. Traditional forms of culture can thus help consolidate economic power, allowing the continuation of the historical context while expanding the national character at a global level. The collaboration of traditional forms of culture and new media can become a major force in economic growth. At present, there are more than 710,000,000 Internet users in China and Internet penetration rate has reached 51.7 per cent. Currently, Japan is the world’s largest producer and exporter of animation with more than 60 per cent of the animation works in the world. The animation industry is concentrated in Tokyo and Osaka. The east Kyoto training area is also known for its animation industry. Facilities of business, culture and tourism in Akihabara are completed with tourist destinations for anime fans. Similarly, video games, TV shows and movies are the main cultural and creative products in South Korea, with Seoul an important centre of cultural and creative industry. All these industries— games, thematic parks, film and television, and art—are important cultural and creative industries clustering together in key cities around the world. How can China’s unique cultural resources be combined with new technologies? This is also a problem for Chinese Micro Film. The micro film’s prosperity and popularity over the past ten years in China testifies that we have entered the “micro era”, just as Desheng Wang has pointed out: Now, with the rapid development of mobile Internet, more and more people have been relying on the Internet for information, and all kinds of micro phenomena, such as micro-blog, WeChat, micro film, micro novel, micro advertising commentary take us into a new micro era. During this era, the general public is to realize the significance of contemporary life in 22 daily activities and in sense satisfaction.

22 Desheng Wang ( ⦻ ᗧ 㜌 ), “Micro Era: Aestheticization of Life and Reconstruction of Aesthetics”(ᗞᰦԓ˖⭏⍫ᇑ㖾ॆо㖾ᆖⲴ䟽ᶴ), Guangming Daily, April 29, 2015.

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This is a fact that cannot be ignored. If we want to pursue the development and the prosperity of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, we must seriously consider the micro life of people in the micro era. Pure political preaching, the grand social theme, and epic masterpieces, if not completely out of touch with the micro era, at least are difficult to meet the aesthetic expectations and the spending habits of a considerable part of the Internet-using public. Although we must obviously obey the policy of serving socialism and serving the people, at the same time we should also pay attention to the new changes in the concept of “people” in the micro era and the different needs of people in the consumer culture. In the past, the meaning of “the people” mainly referred to workers, farmers, and the soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army, but now, perhaps, it also contains hundreds of millions of Internet users. In this sense, closely connected with the micro era, the micro film must have a brilliant future. On the other hand, however, can we be sure that the production of Chinese micro-film will not be going against the rules of socialist cultural production? It is difficult to be compatible with a socialist cultural background if it only pursues marketing interests and commercial goals, and gives up its own social responsibility. President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Forum on Literature and Art on Oct. 15, 2014 would certainly lead to the development of socialist literature and art. He pointed out that literature and art should not be the slaves of the market. The “Network Security Law”, published in 2015, is bound to regulate cultural production during the micro era. This is self-evident. China’s micro film and cultural industries will inevitably be regulated by the model of socialist cultural production.

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