China and the West

Yin Xuyi : Li Dazhao gründet die Makesi zhu yi yan jiu hui [Marxist Research Society] und eröffnet in der Zeitung Beijing chen bao die Rubrik Das Studium des Marxismus mit Auswahlübersetzungen, Übersetzung von biographischen Skizzen und theoretischer Texte zum Marxismus. In der Sondernummer über Marxismus in der Xin Qing nian stellt er die drei Hauptbestandteile des Marxismus vor : die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung, die politische Ökonomie und den wissenschaftlichen Sozialisms. Dies wurde ergänzt durch Übersetzungen der wichtigen Abschnitte aus Das Elend der Philosophie, des Vorwortes von Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie und des Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei.
Seit diesem Zeitpunkt war Li Dazhao entschlossen, den Marxismus, 'die Lehre zur Umgestaltung der Welt', in China einzuführen. Dank seiner Arbeit wuchs eine neue Generation chinesischer Marxisten heran.
Die Debatte 'Wen ti yu zhu yi' (Probleme und Ismen) wird hauptsächlich zwischen Li Dazhao und Hu Shi ausgetragen. Sie war ihrem Wesen nach ein theoretischer Kampf zwischen Marxismus und Pragmatismus, aber die berührte nur die eine Seite des Pragmatismus, die idealistische Geschichtsauffassung und den Sozialreformismus. Hu Shi propagiert den Pragmatismus mit Artikeln in der Xin Qing nian und schreibt in einem Artikel in der Mei zhou ping lun : "Mehr an Problemen forschen, weniger über Ismen sprechen". Hu Shi bekämpft die Verbreitung des Marxismus, die Sozialrevolution in China und predigt eine beschränkte Revolution. Er wird von Li Dazhao bekämpft und schreibt weitere Artikel, in denen er seine Auffassungen verteidigt.

Die chinesischen Werkstudenten in Frankreich werden durch ihr Studium der marxistisch-leninistischen Werke, der Weltpolitik und der internationalen Arbeiterbewegung entschlossene Marxisten. Sie propagieren den Marxismus mittels ihrer Verbindungen zu chinesischen Organisationen und ihre Briefe, Artikel und Tagebücher werden in chinesischen Zeitungen veröffentlicht.

Hong Shen studiert Literatur und Dramatik an der Harvard University.

Victor Segalen ist krankheitshalber im Spital in Paris und macht einen Aufenthalt in Algerien.

Lancelot Giles ist Konsul des britischen Konsulats in Changsha (Hunan).

Jean Emile Saussine ist Konsul des frenzösischen Konsulats in Tianjin.

Samuel Couling erhält den Prix Stanislas Julien der Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, Paris.

Victor Segalen gibt eine Vorlesung für seine Mediziner Kollegen in Brest : 'Yuan-che-k'ai, futur Empereur'.

Segalen, Victor. Thibet [ID D21488].
1988
Yvonne Y. Hsieh : Segalen embarked on a new literary project, a long poem in praise of Tibet, the kingdom he had twice failed to reach. As if to compensate for his dwindling life force, he deliberately celebrates in Thibet physical exertion accompanied by spiritual exaltation. Tibet offers a grandiose vision of towering peaks and twisted crages. Michael Taylor proposes in his introduction that Segalen's mental journey through Tibet constitutes a return to the West.
A detailed study of Thibet is not feasible, as no definitve text exists. Of the the fifty-eight séquences projected, three do not even have one complete version. In Thibet, physical ascent is, on the contrary the perfect symbol of spiritual elevation. It represents the revenge of the imaginary, the conquest of the most indomitable heights by the spirit.

1999
Michael Taylor : Imaginaire est le mot qui convient ici. D'abord parce que Segalen n'a vraiment vu le Tibet de ses propres yeux, ensuite parce qu'il ne se souvie de la fidélité géographique. Et enfin parce que le paysage tibétain joue un rôle manifestement symbolique. Il insiste sur l'immensité du pays tibétain et sur son extra-territorialité par rapport au monde connu des lecteurs occidentaux. Il traite le paysage à la fois comme le théâtre et la représentation d'un cheminement intérieur. Paysage sacré, où tout est double, où tout peut se lire sur deux, trois, quatre niveau d’exégèse.
Le poème est une tantative de prendre d'assaut, comparable à certaines techniques vajrayana pour forcer l'éveil, le 'Pays autre à connaître', le 'territoire inconnu' ou encore le 'territoire ineffable'. Donner un relief titanesque à son poème en inscrivant dans ses vers mêmes la sauvage démesure du paysage tibétain tel qu'il a été décrit par les voyageurs que Segalen a pu lire à la bibliothèque de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient à Hanoi 1917. Le poème et le paysage sont confondus. L'écriture est en quelque sorte une exploration d'un territoire spirituel ; l'acte poétique est la conquête d'une contrée intérieure.

Zhou, Zuoren. Xiao he xu [ID D22655]. [Erste Erwähnung von Baudelaire in China].
Er schreibt im Vorwort über eines seiner Gedichte : "Someone asked me what the genre of this poem is. Even I myself don't know the anser. It slightly fresembles the poem in prose advocated by Baudelaire in France. But he wrote in prose, and I write in separate lines. The content in general imitates that of the European folk songs. Folks songs should have end-rhymes, but this does not rhyme. It is doubtful wheter it is still a poem that doesn't matter."

Li Sichun studiert in Paris und Lyon.

Carlo Durazzo ist Dolmetscher der italienischen Gesandtschaft in Beijing.

Carlo Garbasso ist Gesandter der italienischen Gesandtschaft in Beijing.

Antonio Riva kommt in China an.

Li Jieren studiert an der Université de Paris, dann (ab 1921) an der Université de Monpellier.

Hu, Shi. Zhong shen da shi = The greatest event in life. In : Xin Qing nian (1919).
Einakter. Erstes modernes chinesisches Theaterstück, das von Nora von Henrik Ibsen beeinflusst wurde.
终身大事

Luo, Shui. Jiao xi [ID D26351]. [Nora von Henrik Ibsen].
Luo Shui schreibt : "As for the idea presented in this play two levels can be discerned. First, women usually have their own opinion and behaviour. People should understand the difficulties they have and help them, but should not demand from them the viewpoint of a husband and blame them for not having it. Second, the relationship between husband and wife is difficult to maintain. Both husband and wife should tolerate each other and compromise for their common interest, and mut not act contrary to it. But husbands seldom try to determine this common interest and whenever they are dissatisfied, they act according to their natural inclinations. Women are often short-sighted and shallow in knowledge. Once separated from the husband, they will be disillusioned and become pessimistic. They will behave in the most foolish way. This is reality what everyone should be prticularly careful about."

Danton, G[eorge] H. Henrik Ibsen [ID D26352].
Danton schreibt : "In reading Ibsen chronologically, it is of great importance to understand what was the final and accomplished by him and through what stages he reached it. Eugene Scribe's plays are all outer action, all mere juxtaposition. Ibsen, at the very outset, went deeper than that ; not only ethically but dramatically. Ibsen stoutley denied that his play was a woman's rights play or that it should be used to aid women-suffrage ; he claimed for it only the portrayal of the rights of the individual to live as he or she will, and that the fundamental note was that the great crime is the crime against personaliy. Nora leaves home, husband, and above all, children, because she realizes that she has no chance to live her life with them and that her own ego had been sullied by her husband's selfishness."

Tam Kwok-kan : Originally presented as a speech to students at Tsing Hua University, the article differs from other similar writings in that it concentrates on the artistic aspect of Ibsen's drama. As a foreigner, Danton was detached from the social problems in China and, therefore, able to look at Ibsen from a different perspective.

Conrad, Joseph. Notes on life and letters [ID D27533].
Autocracy and war (1905).
This despotism has been utterly un-European. Neither has it been Asiatic in its nature. Oriental despotisms belong to the history of mankind; they have left their trace on our minds and our imagination by their splendour, by their culture, by their art, by the exploits of great conquerors. The record of their rise and decay has an intellectual value; they are in their origins and their course the manifestations of human needs, the instruments of racial temperament, of catastrophic force, of faith and fanaticism.
The censor of plays : an appreciation (1907).
This Chinese monstrosity, disguised in the trousers of the Western Barbarian and provided by the State with the immortal Mr. Stiggins's plug hat and umbrella, is with us.
But then M. Jules Lemaître is a man possessed of wisdom, of great fame, of a fine conscience—not an obscure hollow Chinese monstrosity ornamented with Mr. Stiggins's plug hat and cotton umbrella by its anxious grandmother—the State.
Well done (1918).
Of non-European crews, lascars and Kalashes, I have had very little experience, and that was only in one steamship and for something less than a year. It was on the same occasion that I had my only sight of Chinese firemen. Sight is the exact word. One didn’t speak to them. One saw them going along the decks, to and fro, characteristic figures with rolled-up pigtails, very dirty when coming off duty and very clean-faced when going on duty. They never looked at anybody, and one never had occasion to address them directly. Their appearances in the light of day were very regular, and yet somewhat ghostlike in their detachment and silence.

Zhang, Shenfu. Lian duo shi [ID D28288].
Zhang complained that, since Hegel, formal logics had almost been banned from philosophy and gave an overview of logics in Western philosophy, starting with Plato and ending with Russell. During the previous 40 years, mathematics and philosophy had grown closer together. This was, according to Zhang, mainly due to Russell's efforts and not without social implications ; such an approach to philosophy could offer models for responsible and rationalized thought.