ASIAN A \T r~ \ Slovak Academy of (Sciences AFRICAN STUDIES Volume 8/1999 Number 2 CONTENTS Editor in Chief: Viktor KŘUPA Associate and Managing Editor: Jo zef G e n z o r Articles We would like to inform our readers that GÁLIK, M arián: Mao Dun and Nietzsche: since 1992 our periodical ASIAN AND from the Beginning to the End (1917- AFRICAN STUDIES is published semi­ 1 9 7 9) ................................................................................. 1 17 annually in journal form rather than B ie r b a c h , A nnette - C a in , H orst: Language annually in book form. The conception of Command, Linguistics and Philology.. 148 our journal, however, has not undergone D ie t r ic h , Michael H.: “Kleine Augen” auf any major changes. großer Fahrt. Zur Sternnavigation in Ron- The Editors gorongo (Teil III.) ..................................... 164 KŘUPA, Viktor: Verbal Markers of Tense in Address of the Editorial Office M arquesan .................................................. 191 Institute of Oriental and African Studies M a g d o l e n , Dušan: Thoth or Re-Harakh- Slovak Academy of Sciences ti?.....................................................................202 Klemensova 19 DrozdÍKOVÁ, Jarmila: In Search of a Jewish 813 64 Bratislava Identity: the Case of the Falashas 206 Slovakia tel/fax: (004217) 52 92 63 26 e-mail: [email protected] Book Reviews The editors bear no responsibility what­ soever for the views expressed by the LYNCH, John: Pacific Languages. An Intro­ contributors to this journal. duction. By Viktor Krupa ......................... 223 A lie v a , N. F.: Tipologicheskie aspekty indo- ncziiskoi grammatiki. Analitizm isinte- tizm. Possessivnost. By Viktor Krupa.. 226 DABRINGHAUS, S. - PTÁK, R. (E d s): China and Her Neighbours. Borders , Vision of the Other, Foreign Policy 10th to 19th Century. By Martin Slobodník ................................227 Shu-Hui Wu: Die Eroberung von Qinghai unter Berücksichtigung von Tibet und Kha/ns 1717-1727. Anhand der Throneingaben des Großfeldherrn Nian Gengycio. By Martin Slobodník ...........................................................................................................................................230 S c h m id t -G l in t z e r , H.: China - Vielvölkerreich und Einheitsstaat. Von den Anfängen bis heute. B y M artin S lo b o d n ík ................................................................................................231 ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, 8, 1999, 2, 117-147 ARTICLES MAO DUN AND NIETZSCHE: FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END (1917-1979)* M arián Gálik , Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia The aim of this study is to point out the history of Mao Dun’s relation to Nietzsche on the basis of his essays, translations and other foreign and Chinese intellectuals, from the beginning o f his critical career as a young Chinese man o f letters during World War I up to the end o f 1970s, two years before his death. Hier sass ich, wartend, wartend - doch auf Nichts, Jenseits von Gut und Böse, bald des Lichts Geniessend, bald des Schattens, ganz nur Spiel, Ganz See, ganz Mittag, ganz ohne Ziel. Dann plötzlich, Freundin! wurde Eins zu Zwei - - Und Zarathustra gieng an mir vor vorbei... (Nietzsche: Sils-Maria) My article on Nietzsche’s reception and survival in China in the years 1918- 1925 appeared in 1971.1 Before and after its publication some hundred works were written in the Chinese world (mostly in Taiwan and in the last twenty years in the PRC) and abroad on different aspects of Nietzsche’s life and his work.2 As far as modern Chinese intellectual history is concerned, most attention was paid to Lu Xun [1] (1881-1936) and to Li Shicen [2] (1892-1935). My contribu­ tion will follow, at least partly, my studies in modern Chinese intellectual histo- This paper was supported by Grant agency: VEGA No. 2/4095/97-99. 1 G á l ik , M.: Nietzsche in China (1918-1925). Nachrichten der Gesellschaftfür Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, 110, 1971, pp. 5-47. 2 See F in d e is e n , R.D.: Nietzsche - Bibliography für China (1902 bis 1986). Bochumer Jahrbuch zu Ostasienforschung, 10, 1987, pp. 333-352 and his Addenda zu einer Nietzsche- Bibliographie für China. Ibid. 15, pp. 111-161. Also Nietzsche in China (1904-1992). An An­ notated Bibliography. Comp, with an Introduction by Cheung Chiu-yee. Canberra, The Aus­ tralian National University 1992. 117 ry, use the methodology of the systemo-structural approach and try to supple­ ment my former research. As indicated in the title of this paper, it will be relat­ ed to Mao Dun [3] (1896-1981), my steady life companion. 1 Mao Dun’s not very well-known article, and up to now more or less con­ cealed work, Nicai xueshuo [4] Nietzsche’s Teaching )3 begins with the words which did not attract the attention of the readers or researchers up to now: “The end of the 19th century produced three great personalities: Nietzsche, Ibsen and Maeterlinck. Where their outward appearance is concerned, they are completely different. Their view of life follows three different ways, but in one aspect there are united: their life observations show that the human life is striving for a bright future ( guangming) [6].”4 This was formerly not his own opinion, but it was taken from one of his favourite authors Archibald Henderson, at that time a popular scholar on mostly European contemporary drama. Mao Dun then pro­ ceeds immediately with three examples: Stockmann from Ibsen’s drama An En­ emy o f the People, Monna Vanna from Maeterlinck’s drama of the same name, and Zarathustra from Nietzsche’s most well-known “novel” (according to Mao Dun) Also sprach Zarathustra .5 Stockmann was known to a few Chinese readers from 1908 from the long treatise by Lu Xun entitled Muolo shili shuo [7] On the Satanic Power o f Poet­ ry.6 Lu Xun wrote that Dr. Stockmann, the central character of the drama “stub­ bornly defended truth against the fools and was constantly accused of being an enemy of the people... Towards the end, he exclaimed: “I have discovered truth - the strongest man is the man who stands alone.”7 Ten years later, Hu Shi [9] (1892-1961) published a long article Yibushengzhuyi [10] Ibsen ism, to which many young Chinese readers had access, and where Dr. Stockmann and similar idealists were highlighted. Ibsen’s wholesome individualism was slightly cor­ rected and the socio-political importance of the “minority” vs. “majority” rede­ fined. According to Hu Shi: “It is generally held that what the majority thinks, must be correct. Ibsen absolutely rejects this superstition. The majority is al­ ways wrong, the minority is always correct .”8 Together with this article a part of 3 Xuesheng zazhi [5] Students Magazine , 7, 1-4, pp. 1-12, 13-24, 25-34 and 35-48. Ni­ etzsche ’s Teaching will henceforth be pointed to asNT. 4 Ibid., p. 1. 5 Cf. Loc. cit. and H e n d e r s o n , A.: European Dramatists, Cincinnati, Stewart & Kidd Com­ pany 1914, p. 201. 6 Lu Xun quanji [8] The Complete Wortes of Lu Xun. Vol 1, Peking, People’s Literature Publishing House 1956, pp. 194-234. 7 Ibid., p. 212. The quotation is from Ibsen’s op. cit., Act V 8 Xin qingnian [11 ] La Jeunesse , 4, June 1918, 6. Repr. in Hu Shi wencun [12] The Col­ lected Essays of Hu Shi, vol. 4, Shanghai, Yadong tushuguan [13] 1921, 883-908. Quote ac­ cording to the translation by Elisabeth Eide, China ’s Ibsen. From Ibsen to Ibsenism. London, Curzon Press Ltd. 1987, p. 162. Cf. also the translation o f Hu Shih’s essay, ibid., pp. 155-168. 118 the Chinese translation of An Enemy o f the People appeared in the same issue of the journal.9 Mao Dun although he held Ibsen in high esteem, he mentioned him occasionally, but he did not write about him, since he was quite well known in China after 1918. In 1919 Mao Dun did not include into his Jindai xijujia zhuan [15] Biographies of Modern Dramatists , for the same reason, the biogra­ phies of four of them: Ibsen, Shaw, Leo Tolstoy and Oscar Wilde.10 Monna Vanna, both as a whole play and a main character, was known to Mao Dun at least by 1919, in English translation or in critical evaluation, as a hy­ postasis of female “Superman”, and he even specified it just in this way. During my visit to the Mao Dun Museum in Peking on July 17, 1996 I found among Mao Dun’s books from his Commercial Press period (1916-1932) a volume of essays by Frank Wadleigh Chandler The Contemporary Drama o f France. Mao Dun certainly read one devoted to Maeterlinck and even underscored the last part of it. In Monna Vanna Maurice Maeterlinck “paints a firmly outlined pic­ ture of sharp contrasts and true perspectives also, involving, the consideration of two ethical dilemmas. The first concerns the duty of a woman to yield her honor in order that a starving city may be saved. The second concerns her sepa­ ration from her husband when he fails to recognize the nobility of her motive. Pisa, besieged by the Florentines, can be relieved from famine only if Vanna will consent to the nefarious terms proposed by Prinzivalle, chief of the enemy host. Against her husband’s protest, but with the approval of his father, a Pla­ tonic idealist, Vanna visits the tent of Prinzivalle prepared to sacrifice herself. But Prinzivalle spares her. He is a chivalrous lover who long has cherished his youthful dream of Vanna. When he is treatened by Florentine treachery, she leads him for refuge to Pisa, but is received by her husband as a modern Judith luring her betrayer in order to slay him.