CULTURA 2012_262905_VOL_9_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 CULTURA mote theexplorationofdifferentvalues andculturalphenomenain ted tophilosophyofcultureandthestudyvalue. Itaimstopro- www.peterlang.de are ding thevalues andculturalphenomenainthecontempo that research original on based judged tomake anovelandimportantcontributiontounderstan- manuscripts of submission the contexts. international and regional and ulture C F ounded in2004, SN 978-3-631-62905-5 ISBN xiology A hilosophy of hilosophy P of ournal J International ultura. C isasemiannualpeer-reviewed journaldevo- T he editorial board encourages encourages board editorial he rary world. 2012
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF 1 CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURA CULTURA 2014 AND AXIOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHYCULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Vol XI Vol No 1 No 14.05.14 17:43 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002 ISSN (Print): 1584-1057
Advisory Board Prof. dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Prof. dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Prof. dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA Prof. Emeritus dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany Prof. dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain Prof. dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, John F. Kennedy University, Buenos Aires, Argentina Prof. dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines Prof. dr. Alexandru Boboc, Correspondent member of the Romanian Academy, Romania Prof. dr. Teresa Castelao-Lawless, Grand Valley State University, USA Prof. dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA Prof. dr. Fernando Cipriani, G.d’Annunzio University Chieti-Pescara, Italy Prof. dr. Elif Cirakman, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey Prof. dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan Prof. dr. Carmen Cozma, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. dr. Nancy Billias, Department of Philosophy, Saint Joseph College, Hartford, USA Prof. dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Prof. dr. Leszek S. Pyra, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland Prof. dr. A. L. Samian, National University of Malaysia Prof. dr. Dimitar Sashev, University of Sofia, Bulgaria Prof. dr. Kiymet Selvi, Anadolu University, Istanbul, Turkey Prof. dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. dr. Gloria Vergara, University of Colima, Mexico Prof. dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Prof. dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy Prof. dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France Prof. dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors: Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Facoltà di Scienze Sociali Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania Scalo, Italy [email protected] [email protected] Executive Editor: PD Dr. Till Kinzel Dr. Simona Mitroiu Englisches Seminar Human Sciences Research Department Technische Universität Braunschweig, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Bienroder Weg 80, Lascar Catargi, nr. 54, 700107 Iasi, Romania 38106 Braunschweig, Germany [email protected] [email protected]
Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc Designer: Aritia Poenaru Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol. 9, No. 2 (2012)
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CONTENTS
SEMIOTICS OF WORLD CULTURES
Asunción LÓPEZ-VARELA 7 Introduction to Semiotics of World Cultures
Wenceslao CASTAÑARES 13 Lines of Development in Greek Semiotics
Oana COGEANU 33 In the Beginning Was the Triangle: A Semiological Essay
Qingben LI & Jinghua GUO 45 Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West: A Multi- Dimensional Model of Cross-Cultural Research focusing on Literary Adaptations
Ömer Naci SOYKAN 61 On the Relationships between Syntax and Semantics with regard to the Turkish Language
Dan LUNGU 77 Translation and Dissemination in PostCommunist Romanian Literature
Yi CHEN 87 Semiosis of Translation in Wang Wei’s and Paul Celan’s Hermetic Poetry
Lars ELLESTRÖM 103 The Paradoxes of Mail Art: How to Build an Artistic Media Type
Benson O. IGBOIN 123 The Semiotic of Greetings in Yoruba Culture
Ulani YUNUS & Dominiq TULASI 143 Batik Semiotics as a Media of Communication in Java
Nadezhda NIKOLENKO 151 Semiosis and Nomadic Art in Eurasia
Susi FERRARELLO 163 Husserl’s Theory of Intersubjectivity
Dennis IOFFE 175 The Cultural ‘Text of Behaviour’: The Moscow-Tartu School and the Religious Philosophy of Language
Nicolito A. GIANAN 195 Philosophy and Dealienation of Culture: Instantiating the Filipino Experience
Diego BUSIOL 207 The Many Names of Hong Kong: Mapping Language, Silence and Culture in China
I-Chun WANG 227 The Semiosis of Imperialism: Boadicea or the 17th-Century Iconography of a Barbarous Queen
Massimo LEONE 237 The Semiotics of Waste World Cultures: On Traveling, Toilets, and Belonging
10.5840/cultura2012924
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60
Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West: A Multi-Dimensional Model of Cross-Cultural Research focusing on Literary Adaptations
Qingben LI Institute for World literature and Cultural Studies Beijing Language and Culture University Haidian District, Beijing, China [email protected]
Jinghua GUO The College of Foreign Languages Inner Mongolia University of Technology Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China [email protected]
Abstract. In the age of Globalization, cultural identity is a pointed and hotly debated question in academia. Cultural identity involves a core of traditional values and the recognition of several developing layers: the individual, the community and the na- tion. China has two dominant cultural tendencies: conservatism and protectionism. This has resulted in rejecting Western discourse to preserve a supposedly unchange- able Chinese identity. Comparative models that study cultural and literary exchanges between China and the West were based on dualist perceptions of spatio-temporal orientation. The multi-dimensional model of cross-cultural research espoused in this paper re-examines the relationships between Chinese and Western cultures and their literature. It also examines the misappropriation, transplantation, transfer and trans- formation of cultural representations and theories across diverse historical periods. As opposed to the dualist model of traditional comparators approaches, where rela- tions are simplified to A influences B. the multi-dimensional model operates com- plex mapping, between ancient Chinese culture and Western culture, and then back to modern Chinese culture. This paper offers a case study of the complexity of cross-cultural exchanges over time, with the example of Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zhao, its sources, (mis)adaptations and critical interpretations. Keywords: China, East West cross-cultural exchanges, The Orphan of Zhao, Wang Guowei.
INTRODUCTION
Viewed as diachronic processes, Modernization and Globalization have been interpretively derived from the concept of Westernization in the
45 Qingben Li & Jinghua Guo / Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West eyes of many scholars, both Eastern and Western. In the postcolonial milieu, Edward Said marked “Orientalism” a product of Western cul- ture and a projection of Western subjectivity and power (Said, 1979: 12). As Liu Kang and Jin Hengshan argue in “Post-colonial Criticism: from the West to China,” (1998), much postcolonial criticism, while grounded in the Orient, are not real oriental discourse given the multi- cultural multiethnic background of scholars who, like Said, formulate them. Their academic upbringing is still clearly positioned in the West, signalling the location of knowledge in Western publishing houses. Once defined as “a pattern of thinking and behaviour manifested through the activities of a nation (…) that distinguishes it from other na- tions” (Benedict, 1988: 45−46), nations are no longer mono-cultural. Among the “Effects of Globalization on Literary Study” (1997), J. Hillis Miller noted the impact of new technologies and modes of production and consumption, as well as the socio-cultural re-organization of local communities as well as nation states. The awareness of the importance of cultural policies for nation con- solidation led first to protective and conservative positions in many countries, promoting local knowledge production and preserving the idea of national identity and culture. During the 1990s, many countries, including China, were concerned about the possibility of loosing one’s traditional culture with the influx of cultural products particularly ad- dressed to the younger generations (television, music, the Internet). Protective efforts came to reject all influence from the outside world. In the closing years of the 20th century, rapid changes in transporta- tion infrastructures (faster and cheaper means of transportation – low- cost airlines) accompanied by greater mobility (people looking for bet- ter working conditions), as well as the wider circulation of ideas beyond national borders enabled by the Internet revolution, have led to a gen- eralized hybridism (interracial marriages, multicultural patterns of belief, world economic exchange by means of media-tools such as E-bay) have complicated what was once considered ‘identity.’ Cultural characteris- tics such as ethnicity, language, gender, region, age, class and religion, which once formed the core structure of national identity, are no longer fixed realities. And anyone with a computer and internet connection can buy original Chinese products directly from Chinese suppliers with a click of the mouse.
46 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60
However, Edward Said points out that culture means 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 exist in aesthetic forms, one of whose principal aims is pleasure. (Said, 1993: xii)
That is to say, despite the fact that culture is under the influence of poli- tics and the economy, it also has its own special features which is differ- ent from the economic, social and political realms. Like fashion, politics and economy operate on the superficial layers of culture, while the deep- er core, less exposed to rapid change, is formed by value, beliefs and pat- terns of behaviour, firmly rooted in the history of territories. Thus, Arif Dirlik’s Post-revolutionary Atmosphere contemplates China’s economic suc- cess as originating from a mixture of a strong sense of national cultural identity deeply grounded on Confucianism as an important foundation (Dirlik, 1999: 259). The following lines illustrate the importance of situat- ing cultural development within a wider historical field.
CHINA’S PLACE IN THE WORLD
Ever since the Opium War of the 1840s, writes Liang Qichao(梁启超) in “An overview of China’s evolution in the past 50 years,” China has under- gone 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, the Rev- olution of 1911) and the May 4th New Culture Movement. (Liang Qichao, 1984：833-834) 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 May 4th and Chinese tradi- tion. In his view, the May 4th Movement is anti-tradition at the level of “thinking content,” but not at the level of “thought mode,” where it fol- lows Chinese tradition. In this perspective, learning from the West would not necessarily cause the break-up of Chinese cultural tradition. The level of “thought mode” is displayed in the following two points. First, in the “practical rationality” of Chinese tradition, which consists in “the organic relation with transcendence and connotation of reality” (Lin Yusheng, 1988: 158). This view does not seek to surpass the nature of true
47 Qingben Li & Jinghua Guo / Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West phenomena, because the meaning of transcendence is connoted in real life. Inherited from representative characters of May 4th Movement, this mode of thinking owes much to Confucius, as illustrated in his saying “while you don’t know life, how can you know about death?”(Confucius, 2011: 241). The second point is the fact that although the spirit of May 4th Move- ment contains a kind of special sense of mission for Chinese intellectuals, this responsibility is directly linked to traditional Confucianism, where intel- lectuals were supposed to be “the first to bear hardships, and the last to en- joy comforts,” (先天下之忧而有，后天下之乐而乐) and “not only concern themselves with personal affairs but the affairs of the state and the world” (家事、国事、天下事，事事关心). Finally, in the 21st century the global scenario of Western economic cri- sis, people’s disillusion with politics, and the decline of the power of nation- states, global economies are 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. Entering in the new era of Reform and Opening to the outside world, the majority of Chinese people are more concerned with economic issues and their living standards, than with poli- tics and political reform, and many begin to see that the incorporation of some foreign cultural elements as beneficial for China’s development. In an effort to situate China in this global panorama, the multi- dimensional model of cross-cultural research put forward in this paper re- examines the relationships between Chinese and Western cultures and liter- atures. The following lines offer a case study with the example of The Or- phan of Zhao by Ji Junxiang (纪君祥). The journey of this drama, from its original sources to its Western and Eastern (mis)adaptations and critical in- terpretations, 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 CROSS-CULTURAL ROUND JOURNEY OF THE ORPHAN OF ZHAO
The drama The Orphan of Zhao is an influential literary piece which in turn has undergone numerous adaptations. For instance, according to statistics from Southern Weekly Dec. 13, 2003, only in 2003 seven different versions of
48 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60 the drama were performed on different occasions. One of them was di- rected by Lin Zhaohua（林兆华）and performed by Beijing People’s Art Theatre (Xia, Yu, and Zhang Ying, n.p.). The original story by Ji Junxiang was based on Historical Records of the Zhao Family (《史记·赵世家》）by Sima Qian（司马迁）, 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 emperor’s son-in-law and was also forced to commit suicide. Zhao Shuo’s wife got imprisoned and gave birth to the orphan. Guard Han Jue found Zhao Shuo’s hanger-on, Chen Ying trying to take the or- phan out of the palace, instead of handing over the orphan to the higher authorities, he let them go and then committed suicide himself. In order to prevent divulgence, Tu Angu ordered to kill all babies at the age of one month to a half year old in the whole kingdom. After plotting with Gongsun Chujiu, Zhao Dun’s friend, Chen Ying made his own son pre- tend to be the orphan, and then exposed that Gongsun Chujiu 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 between B.C.770 and B.C.476, the orig- inal scripts have two editions: Yuan Dynasty (1206−1368) edition and Ming Dynasty (1368−1644) edition. The former consisted only from lyr- ics, with no actions or spoken parts. It included a prologue and four acts. The Ming Edition had actions and spoken parts and a fifth act. In The Orphan of Zhao in the Yuan edition, the fourth chapter tells about how the Orphan of Zhao grew up, endowed with civil and martial virtues. It also narrated how Cheng Ying drew 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. The fifth chapter in the Ming edition tells that the Orphan of Zhao took Tu Angu and brought him to Jin Kingdom’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 bureau- crat of Jin. All other fallen victims from the Zhao Family were given ap- propriate praise. The Ming edition emphasized this transition from suf- fering into happiness, but the difference is only the degree of emotion,
49 Qingben Li & Jinghua Guo / Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West 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 hearts, liver, hands and feet, and break off his bones” (Xu Qinjun, 1980: 323). 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 re- think the relationship between China and the West. The Jesuit Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare had introduced The Orphan of Zhao in 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 im- pact on Voltaire, who adapted it in a significant way into L’Orphelin de la Chine (The Orphan of China), which in turn served as model for the adapta- tion of Lin Zhaohua back into the original The Orphan of Zhao by Ji Jun- xiang. This circular journey from ancient Chinese culture to Western cul- ture, 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 cul- tural 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 Yu- an 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 to- gether, 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. Alt- hough 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. (Wang Guowei, 1983: 640−641; translated by Qingben and Jinghua)
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 pub- lished in 1904), he satirized Chinese people’s optimistic spirit of initial sadness and subsequent happiness, separation and reuniting, suffering and enjoyment (Wang Guowei, 1997: 10). 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 on- ly called The Orphan of Zhao a worldwide tragedy because it stressed the
50 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60 hero’s efforts in the symbol of going through fire and water, which means that the hero will overcome all the difficulties with great courage. Voltaire’s adapted The Orphan of Zhao according to the aesthetic princi- ples in French neoclassicism. He found some of the values and events too complicated for the French public. They took too long to be per- formed and violated the convention of the three classic unities. Thus, he 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, Gengis Kan led his troops attacking Yan- jing 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 safe the royal orphan. His wife Idamé could not bear that her son had died in his place and came to tell Gengis Kan, begging for her husband’s life and expressing her willingness to die in the place of the royal orphan. Years ago, Gengis Kan 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 the royal orphan. Idamé remained faithful to her hus- band and Gengis Kan, moved by her virtue and loyalty to her husband, remitted the death penalty for all three and asked the couple to care and 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 pie- ty, which obstructs social development. The theme of Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine is to forgive the past enmity from the perspective of humanity. (Xia Yu & Zhang Ying, n.p, translated by Qingben and Jinghua)
Lin Zhaohua, director of The Orphan of Zhao in 2003 performed at the Beijing People’s Art Theatre, expressed in an interview to Southern Week- end that he revered Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine, and that he had re- vised the original Chinese revenge theme in his own play. Lin Zhaohua’s play comes to place its focus on the close adoptive relationship between the grown-up orphan and Tu Angu, abandoning the fight for revenge.
51 Qingben Li & Jinghua Guo / Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West
Looking at the phenomenon described above under the significance of May 4th Movement shows how Chinese culture under the Movement isolated itself from Chinese tradition, becoming obliterated under West- ern influence. Subsequently, a much debated topic in academic field was raised, with some scholars defending May 4th westernization, while oth- ers, such as the sinologist of Canadian origin, Milena Dolezelova- Velingerova, searching for the roots of modern Chinese culture in The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century. According to Yue Daiyun, Milena’s intention was to seek the continuity from tradition to modern times and to explore ways so that the May 4th Movemnet would not be taken as an event separated from the Chinese tradition. (Yue Daiyun, 1991: 1) From this perspective, the cross-cultural round journey of The Orphan of Zhao touches indeed on the profound theme of cultural exchange and colli- sion between China and the West. Thus, it would be a mistake to emphasize the separation of The Orphan of Zhao 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 be- cause 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”(夫子之道，忠恕而已) (Confucius, 2011: 170), so that cultural var- iation should be traced in each stop of the text journey beyond the mere dualistic comparison.
THE EASTERN 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 on 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 classi- fied with regards to three typical characteristics: the first one is that “it can be done through the extraordinary wickedness of a character, tou- ching the extreme bounds of possibility, which becomes the author of the misfortune.” The second one is that misfortune “can happen
52 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60 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” (Schopenhauer, 1999: 254). 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, the Sophocles (Oedipus the King and Trachiniae), Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), Voltaire (Tancred), and Schiller (The Bride of Messina) for the second type, and Goethe (Clavigo and Faust), Schiller (Wallenstein), Shakespeare (Hamlet), and Corneille (Le Cid), for the third category (Schopenhauer, 1999: 254−255). According to Schopenhauer, the third kind 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 sponta- neously 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” (Scho- penhauer, 1999: 254). All the views of Schopenhauer 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 Schopen- hauer’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 some parts to translate, perhaps because he was not familiar with some of the works mentioned by Scho- penhauer, or perhaps because some of the literary works mentioned by Schopenhauer 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 transla- tion, for example, he translated the abstract word “wickedness” into “蛇 蝎” (snake and scorpion) a Chinese word full of concrete meanings, whi- le another Chinese translator Shi Chongbai translated it into “恶毒” a Chinese word that means evil. In fact, though “蛇蝎” does not closely correspond to “wickedness,” “恶毒” conveys in a clearer way the rich
53 Qingben Li & Jinghua Guo / Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West 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 signi- fied, rendering the original a “gliding signifier,” pointing directly to the Chi- nese text A Dream of Red Mansions as, in Wang Guowei’s words, “the third kind of tragedies” (Wang Guowei, 1997: 12). 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 Cor- neille (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. (Wang Guowei, 1997: 9)
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 tra- gedy. 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 re- presentative work of the third kind of tragedy, showing his lack of con- cern with happy endings (Schopenhauer, 1999: 255). In contrast, Wang Guowei attaches great importance to the tragic en- ding 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 va- lue 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 (贾宝玉) and Lin Daiyu (林黛玉), two ma- jor characters in A Dream of Red Mansions.
54 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60
Baoyu’s grandmother (贾母) is fond of Xue Baochai’s (薛宝钗) gentleness and kindness and warns Daiyu not to be unsocial; she on the one hand believes the fa- llacy of the love between holders of the gold necklace and the jade pendant, and thinks over the way to cure Baoyu’s lovesickniss on the other. Ms. Wang (王夫人) wants to cement old ties by marriage to the Xue family; Wang Xifeng (王熙凤), the controller of the family affairs, fears Daiyu’s talent and worries that Daiyu might be not working with her; Xiren (袭人), 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 (尤二姐) and Xiangling (香菱), 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 mo- ral traditions. Therefore, A Dream of Red Mansions can be considered as the tragedy of tragedies. (Wang Guowei, 1997:12, translated by Qingben and Jinghua)
In the eyes of Wang Guowei, 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 interpersonal relations between them. The doings of these characters are not contrary to common moral tradi- tions, nor are they forms of inconformity with the usual relationships. The third tragic type feeds on normal occurrences and happens to ordi- nary 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. Mr. Qian Zhongshu (钱钟书) has his own understanding of this con- clusion. In On the Art of Poetry, the scholar pointed out in 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 met- hodology has not been exhausted and the truth has not been made clear. If the met- hodology 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
55 Qingben Li & Jinghua Guo / Rethinking the Relationship between China and the West
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. (Qian Zhongshu, 1984: 349, translated by Qingben and Jinghua)
In Qian Zhongshu’s opinion, although Wang Guowei has sufficient grounds to conclude that A Dream of Red Mansions is the tragedy of trage- dies based on the 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 non-harmonious couple. That is ‘the tragedy of tragedies’” (Qian Zhongshu, 1984: 351). 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” (Qian Zhongshu, 1984: 351). In our view, Qian Zhongshu’s criticism is too harsh. Many of the tra- gedies referenced by Schopenhauer fail to meet the requirement of the perfect spouses who become enemies. Even if Wang Guowei’s trans- formation 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 in- terpretations are misunderstandings and misinterpretations, so that we are likely to consider the Lukacs-Goldmann episode as just another bit of evidence that ever- yone, even Maxists, 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. (Said, 1983: 168)
The decisive role played by history in the process of Lukacs’s ideas transforming into Goldmann’s in Said’s discussion was noted by scho-
56 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60 larship. As Said claimed, misunderstandings are “part of a historical trans- fer of ideas and theories from one setting to another” (Said, 1983: 168). Tragedy is “the antagonism of the will with itself which is here most com- pletely unfolded at the highest grade of its objectivity, and which comes into fearful prominence,” (Schopenhauer, 1999: 253; emphasis added), 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” (Schopenhauer, 1999: 255). Written in only eight days and published in May 1774, Clavigo’s plot unveils around the supposedly true story recalled in February 1774 in the memoirs of a French writer, Beaumarchais, after a trip to Spain set in the past 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 knowledge and motivation, he is promoted and sets his am- bitions 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 scales, 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 kind of tragedies. 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 fu- rious Beaumarchais while kneeling before her coffin. We can conclude that Qian Zhongshu also misreads Schopenhauer’s tragedy theory. Ne- vertheless it still stands as an effective interpretation, since the same text yields different ways of understanding across diverse time periods, in dis- tinct 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.
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Furthermore, the study of the influence of Eastern philosophy upon Schopenhauer’s theory after his trip to Asia, bring us one step further in the intricate journey of readings. Qian Zhongshu had remarked about certain elements of Buddhism present in Schopenhauer’s ideas (Qian Zhongshu, 1984: 350). 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 Pla- to” (Schopenhauer, 1999: 417). This reminds us that beside Kant and Plato, the 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 the- ory. In the Author’s Preface to Jing’an Collections, Wang Guowei wrote that when reading Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason by Kant 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 to Schopenhauer’s philosophy. In Wang Guowei’s Literature and Literary Criticism, Jiang Yinghao also pointed out this fact, as Wang Guowei tries to analyze A Dream of Red Mansions along Schopenhauer’s theories, which are full of echoes from Buddhist classics (Jiang Yinghao, 1974: 93).
CONCLUSIONS
As this paper has demonstrated, binary opposition such as East and West cannot explain and present the rich cross-cultural exchanges across civilizations that have been taking places over centuries. The compara- tive and oppositional study of Chinese and Western literatures, for ex- ample, as representing two isolated, independent and different world cul- tures leave out mutual influences, as well as mis-readings and transfor- mations, whether intentional or unconscious. Influence study only fo- cuses on the study of sources, replacing ontology by theories of origin. These approaches believe naively that if they find solid evidence to ex- plain the source of influences, everything will be settled, preferring to ig- nore all variations that can occur during the process. The multi-dimensional model of cross-cultural research pushes the in- fluence of binary model studies to a four-dimensional structure that in- cludes the three dimensions of space alongside the dimension of time. It
58 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9(2)/2012: 45−60 traces not just the source of influence, and the origin of source; it also attempts to explains some of the multiple and complex variations in or- der 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 multi-dimensional mode of cross-cultural study replaces the comparatist model by a theory of diversity of world cultures.
Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank the Government of China for support for this research at the Collaborative Innovation Center of BLCU and for Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities 12ZDJ01.
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