China and the West

Liang, Shiqiu. Bailun yu lan man zhu yi [ID D26464].
Liang schreibt : "Byron represents an extremist rebellious spirit. Let's look at his portrait : dishevelled curly hair ; brilliant eyes looking as if they could penetrage all the vanity of life ; head held high, back straight, as if ready to fight the world. Don't they vividly embody his rebellious spirit ?"

Jiang, Jiayan. Bailun de lang man shi [ID D26465].
Er schreibt : "True, we should encourage revolutionary literature ; but, we do not need to oppose literature about [life's] depression and love. It has its own eternal value. Just let those who enjoy it study it. The sentimental and passionate works of Byron, Shelley, Dante, and Goethe have their eternal value. And now their works will be considered inferior because the authors were not proletarians. Isn'it that writers of the first and second classes are being oppressed by the proletariat ? I shall have to appeal on their behalf."

Song, Yu. Xin jin qu shi de hai yang wen xue jia [ID D27468].
Zum Todestag von Joseph Conrad. Erste chinesische Erwähnung von Conrad.
Gloria Lee : A sketched portrait of the writer appears at the centre of the page. The report includes an account of Conrad's life and a brief introduction to his works. Only three titles were mentioned: Almayer's Folly, his first piece, Some Reminiscences, and The Mirror of the Sea, the last one being a collection of his autobiographical writings.

Fan, Zhongyun. Kanglade ping zhuan [ID D27467].
Er schreibt : "What Conrad tackles is not pieces of evidence, but questions awaiting resolution. He elaborates on them from different perspectives, trying to expose the mystery at the core of the issue. That is what he wants to achieve, but in practice, he is not able to come up with an answer himself. He puts forward only his assumptions and observations. He does not attempt to make any subjective assertions. When addressing an issue, he always adopts a difficult and skeptical attitude as if it could never be resolved. It is for this reason that modern day readers, who are after substance above all else, find his work difficult to understand, and this is why his books are less welcomed than other mediocre novels."

Gloria Lee : Fan Zhongyun explains that Conrad had struggled to escape Russian authoritarian suppression and 'the pain he suffered in reality'. His biographical details are given in full, including the school from which he graduated and the people he met on his voyages, names which later appeared in his work and in the review of his first book in the Spectator. His novels are listed in chronological order from the earliest publication released in 1895 to the last, the Rover, which was printed in 1923. Conrad is compared with writers who were already well-known in China such as Zola and Hardy. References are made to the plots of his stories. Comments on his style are general in nature. The article does not include any major excerpts from his novels for illustration and instead quotes paragraphs and sentences from his works in an effort to explain the author’s views on art and life. Conrad is characterized as a realist and is praised for his powerful narrative style, for his descriptions of emotional and psychological states of mind, and for the environment and atmosphere created by his language. The article refers to Conrad's technique of describing objects from a subjective perspective through a third-person narrator to give the reader a clear picture of events. Fan also tries to explain why Conrad had not become popular. He points out that Conrad's work is filled with skepticism : facts are presented as intangible and the questions he raised are often left unanswered at the end of the story, as in Lord Jim and Victory. This unsettling atmosphere, Fan observes, does not match the current trend whereby hard facts were demanded.

Guo, Zengai. Mang chu yu ai de gong guo. In : Chen bao fu kan ; 11 May (1924). [The common ending of blind touch and love].
Guo described the two sides of emotions in the world, indifference and love. He ended up wishing to be like Salomé [by Oscar Wilde] who passionately strived for love.

Aufführung von Lady Windermere's fan von Oscar Wilde unter der Regie von Hong Shen für die Shanghai Drama Association.

Russell, Bertrand. Memorandum on the Boxer indemnity. (1924).
The Boxer Indemnity Bill, now in Committee, provides that what remains unpaid of the Boxer Indemnity shall be spent on purposes to the mutual advantage of Great Britain & China. It does not state that these purposes are to be educational. In the opinion of all who know China (except solely as a field for capitalist exploitation), it is of the utmost importance that an Amendment should be adopted specifying Chinese education as the sole purpose to which the money should be devoted. The following are the chief ground in favour of such an Amendment :
1. That this would be the expenditure most useful to China.
2. That no other course would produce a good effect on influential Chinese opinion.
3. That the interests of Great Britain, which are to be considered, can only be secured by winning the good will of the Chinese.
4. That any other course would contrast altogether too unfavourably with the action of America, which long ago devoted all that remained of the American share of the Boxer indemnity to Chinese education.
5. That the arguments alleged in favour of other courses all have a corrupt motive, i.e. are designed for the purpose of securing private profit through Government action.
For these reasons, it is profoundly desirable that Labour Members of Parliament should take action to secure the necessary Amendment before it is too late.
The China Indemnity Bill, in its present form, provides that the remainder of the Boxer Indemnity shall be applied to 'purposes, educational or other', which are mutually beneficial to Great Britain and China.
Sir Walter de Frece proposed in Committee that the words 'connected with education' should be substituted for 'educational or other'.
It is much to be hoped that the House of Commons will carry this Amendment on the Report stage. Certain interests are opposed to the Amendment for reasons with which Labour can have no sympathy. The Government thinks it necessary to placate these interests, but maintains that the Committee to be appointed will be free to decide in favour of education only. The Committee, however, is appointed by Parliament, and one third of its members are to retire every two years ; there is therefore no guarantee against its domination by private interests in the future.
The Bill in its present form opens the door to corruption, is not calculated to please Chinese public opinion, displays Great Britain as less enlightened than American and Japan, and therefore fails altogether to achieve its nominal objects. The Labour Party ought to make at least an attempt to prevent the possibility of the misapplication of public money to purposes of private enrichment. This will be secured by the Insertion of the words 'connected with education' in Clause 1, after the word 'purposes'.

Hu, Shi. Wu shi nian lai zhi shi jie zhe xue shi. [Weltphilosophie der letzten 50 Jahre]. [ID D28639].
Hu Shi schreibt eine Analyse über die historischen Überlegungen John Deweys : "Dewey zeigt in diesen Abschnitten auf, dass die antike und die neuzeitliche Haltung hinsichtlich der 'Erfahrung' deshalb differiert, weil die praktischen Erfahrungen der Menschen früher und heute in der Tat völlig voneinander abweichen. Die Erfahrung der Menschen in der Antike ist passiv, konservativ und blind, deshalb schätzen die Philosophen der Antike die Vernunft und die geistige Erfahrung besonders hoch. Unter dem Einfluss der experimentellen Wissenschaft führte die Erfahrung des heutigen Menschen zur aktiven Kontrolle der Natur, zum nach vorne gerichteten Suchen nach Erneuerung und zum bewusst [durchgeführten] Plan und Experiment. Dewey zeigt auf, dass die von den Kantianern angenommene Vernunft wirklich ausgedient hat. Vernunft, [das heisst] Intelligenz, ist die lebendige Anwendung der Erfahrung, darüber hinaus gibt es keine weitere Vernunft."
"Der wichtigste Beitrag Darwins und Huxleys hinsichtlich der philosophischen Methode besteht in deren 'Agnostizismus' (cun yi zhu yi). Der Begriff Agnostizismus wurde von Huxley geschaffen, wörtlich übersetzt 'Nicht-Wissen-Ismus' (bu zhi zhu yi). Konfuzius sprach : 'Das, was man Weiss, für Wissen halten und das, was man nich weiss, für Nicht-Wissen halten, das ist Wissen'. Dieses Zitat ist wirklich eine gute Erklärung des 'Agnostizismus'. Aber die Wissenschaftler der Neuzeit gehen noch einen Schritt weiter, sie wollen fragen : 'Welches Wissen kann erst als nicht anzweifelbares Wissen gelten ? ' Huxley sagt, erst jenes ausreichend bewiesene Wissen kann man glauben, all das, was nicht ausreichend bewiesen werden kann, kann nur als Zweifel, aber nicht als Glauben gelten. Das ist das Hauptprinzip des Agnostizismus.
Huxleys zentraler Punkt ist die Betonung des Beweises. Hinsichtlich jedes Aberglaubens, jeder Überlieferung hat er nur eine Kampfwaffe : das 'Heranziehen von Beweisen'. Obwohl diese Haltung in der Tat eine wissenschaftliche ist, ist sie jedoch nur ein Aspekt der wissenschaftlichen Methode, sie umfasst nur den negativen, zerstörerischen Aspekt. Huxley hat noch nicht den gesamten Bedeutungsgehalt der wissenschaftlichen Methode im Denken verstanden. Er verfasste noch ein kurzes Vorwort, in welchem er darauf hinweist, dass im vierten Kapitel des vorliegenden Bandes Descartes die unabdingbaren Bedingungen des wissenschaftlichen Urteils aufzeigt ; die übrigen acht Kapitel beschreiben alle die späteren Ergebnisse, die durch die Anwendung der Descartschen Methode auf jeden Aspekt [erzielt wurden]. Aber die Methode von Descartes besteht nur aus dem Wort 'Zweifel' ; Huxley hebt klar und deutlich hervor, dass Descartes' Methode lediglich darin besteht, keine Bereitschaft zu zeigen, einem Begriff Glauben zu schenken, der nicht völlig klar und verständlich ist. Sie besteht lediglich darin, das Wort 'Zweifel' von der sündhaften Position [zu befreien] und in die Verantwortung zu heben. Huxley erkannte deutlich, dass das Wort 'Zweifel' das Zentrum des wissenschaftlichen Geistes ist."
"Henri Bergson vertritt auch eine Art Evolutionslehre, welche er 'kreative Evolution' (chuang zao de jin hua) nennt. Diese Lehre setzt einen dualen Ursprung voraus : ein Aspekt ist jene tote, passive Materie ; ein Aspekt ist jener 'élan vital' (Sheng huo de chong dong). Leben besteht lediglich in der Neigung, die Funktion / Anwendung dieses ursprünglichen Impulses in der Materie anzuregen. Dieser ursprüngliche Impuls ist die eigentliche Ursache der biologischen Evolution (sheng wu yan hua)."

Yu, Shangyuan. Jin ri zhi Meiguo bian ju jia Aoni'er [ID D28770].
Yu discussed the introduction of Eugene O'Neill into China and gave brief synopses of a number of O'Neill's plays, including 'Beyond the horizon', 'The emperor Jones', 'Anna Christie', 'The hairy ape', and 'The first man'. He categorized them as plays ranging from symbolism, realism, psychology, and expressionism to the discussion of social problems and the portrayal of characters. In addition to summarizing the mentioned plays, Yu also tried his hand at assessing O'Neill's contribution to drama by commenting 'O'Neill's writing style as wee as his characters thrives with vitality. His dramatic technique is extraordinary and he always creates something new'. With Walt Whitman, American poetry can be seen as full-grown ; with O'Neill, true American theatre appears on the world stage'.

[Rousseau, Jean-Jacques]. Aimi'er. Wei Zhaoji yi. Übersetzung von Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile, ou, De l'éducation. [ID D20472].
Wei Zhaoji who introduced Emile in the preface to a Chinese audience, commented that Rousseau's idea of 'returning to nature' not only had brought major changes in eighteenth-century Europe, but that it had offered similarly 'far-reaching inspirations for China in the twentieth century'. Yet though praising Books I through IV of Emile, in which Rousseau expounded his views on how a boy's character should be molded from infancy through early manhood, Wei denounced Book V, in which Rousseau advocated a different form of education for young women. Rousseau's beliefs concerning the education of women, Wei wrote, 'lacked thoroughness and did not acknowledge women's character'. He added that the spirit of Book V, with its unequal treatment of the sexes, was 'contradictory to that of the previous four books', which 'showed reverence for humankind.

Irving Babbitt. Democracy and leadership [ID D28813].
… In speaking, however, of Asia it is even more important than in speaking of Europe to make clear that one has in mind primarily civilized Asia, and civilized Asia at the top of its achievement… The great Wall of China is a sort of visible symbol of the separation between the two Asias. On the one hand is the Asia of Attila and Tamerlane and Genghis Khan ; on the other, the Asia of Christ and Buddha and Confucius.
The mention of Christ and Buddha (of Confucius as a typical Asiatic I shall have more to say presently) is hardly necessary to remind us that it is the distinction of Asia as compared with Europe and other parts of the world to have been the mother of religious ; so that if one were to work out a crucial and experimental definition of religion (and my method requires nothing less), one might be put on the track of what is specifically Asiatic in the Asiatic attitude towards life…
At first sight Confucius seems very unlike other great Asiatic teachers. His interests, as I have already said, are humanistic rather than religious. The points of contact between his doctrine and that of Aristotle, the most important Occidental humanist, are numerous and striking. One is tempted to say, indeed, that, if there is such a thing as the wisdom of the ages, a central core of normal human experience, this wisdom is, on the religious level, found in Buddha and Christ and, on the humanistic level, in Confucius and Aristotle. These teachers may be regarded both in themselves and in their influence as the four outstanding figures in the spiritual history of mankind. Not only the experience of the world since their time, but much of its previous experience may be properly associated with them. One may note as an interesting analogy that just as Saint Thomas Aquinas sought to combine the wisdom of Aristotle with that of Christ in his Sum of Theology, so about the same time Chu Hsi mingled Buddhist with Confucian elements in his great commentary.
Though Aristotle and Confucius come together in their doctrine of the mean, one should hasten to add that in their total attitude towards life they reveal the characteristic difference between the European and the Asiatic temper… It is perhaps not easy to combine such a far-ranging intellectual curiosity as that of Aristotle with the humility so emphasized by Confucius and other Oriental teachers… One does not need to be a Confucian to feel that a temple of Confucius would not be similarly incongruous. He was not, like Aristotle, a master of the them that 'know', but a master of them that 'will'. He was strong at the point where every man knows in the secret of his heart that he is weak. The decorum or principle of inner control that he would impose upon the expansive desires is plainly a quality of will. He is no obscurantist, yet the rôle of reason in its relation to will is, as he views it, secondary and instrumental…
While no sensible person would claim for the Far East a general ethical superiority over the West, the Far East has at least enjoyed a comparative immunity from that great disease of Occidental culture – the warfare between reason and faith. Buddha and Confucius both managed to combine humility with self-reliance and a cultivation of the critical spirit. They may, therefore, be of help to those who wish to restore to their lives on modern lines the element for which Asia has stood in the past, who believe that without some such restoration the Occident is in danger of going mad with the lust of speed and power. In describing the element of peace as the Asiatic element, I do not mean to set up any geographic or other fatalism. China, for example, may under pressure from the Occident have an industrial revolution (Hankow is already taking on the aspect of an Oriental Pittsburgh) and this revolution is likely to be accompanied by a more or less rapid crumbling of her traditional ethos with the attendant danger of a lapse into sheer moral chaos. The Occident, on the other hand, may not only reaffirm these truths in some appropriately modern way and with an emphasis distinctly different from anything that has been seen in the Orient…

[Babbitt, Irving]. Baibide lun min zhi yu ling xiu. Wu Mi yi. [ID D28801].
Introduction by Wu Mi.
[What makes Mr. Irving Babbitt] differ from Christ and Confucius is that, although he emphasizes action (xing), he does not neglect intellect (zhi) ; what makes him differ from the humanists of the West is that he uses imagination to complete the intellect, and he does not regard intellect as all powerful. Given his equal emphasis on action and intellect, it seems that his teaching is closest to that of Buddha. [His idea about] the contrast of reality and illusion is also influenced by Buddhism. However, Mr. Babbitt does not involve himself with religion, does not establish precepts, does not obtain [anything from] mythology, does not concern himself with metaphysical theories, all these have made his ideas different from those of Buddhism. All in all, Mr. Babbitt actually adopts concurrently the teachings of these four sages, namely Buddha, Christ, Confucius and Aristotle, and achieves an embodiment of their great consummation. We can also say that he, with the heart of Buddha and Christ, is doing what Confucius and Aristotle were doing. Will those who hear my words think that these are flattering remarks by a disciple ?
Ong Chang Woei : Wu Mi viewed Babbitt's New Humanism as an antidote for the chaos caused by the New Cultural Movement. For Wu Mi, the sages of history all had had their strengths and limitations, and Babbitt, from his perspective, was the only person with the ability to combine their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. As such a person, Babbitt assumed the role of a 'sage' who stood at the peak of the civilization of mankind, and the 'West' as represented by Babbitt was viewed as the highest achievement of mankind.

Xu, Zhimo. Xin yue de tai du. In : Xin yue ; vol. 1, no 1 (1928). [The attitude of the Crescent Moon].
新月的態度
It lamented the anarchic state of thought then obtaining as exhibited in the current crop of 1. Sentimentalists, 2. Decadents, 3. Esthetes, 4. Utilitarians, 5. Didacticists, 6. Polemicists, 7. Radicals, 8. Preciocists, 9. Pornographers, 10. Enthusiasts, 11. Peddlers, 12. Sloganists, 13. Ismists.
Out of the thirteen, at leas more than half could be identified with the leftists. On the otherhand, it espoused the ideals of 'sanity and dignity' as antidotes to those deleterious trends and advised that 'we must view life as a whole'. The ideals conformed to Irving Babbitt's idea of the function of literature as a formative agent, and the advice smacked of Matthew Arnold.

Liu Yizheng wrote an essay to say goodby to Wu Mi, when Wu Mi left Nanjing for Shenyang in 1924. In : Yu seng shi wen ji. (Shanghai 1934). 雨僧詩文集
From the last years of the Qing dynasty, schools have sprouted up and there have been many students going abroad to learn some craft and be useful to their country. But many there have not been who are able to delve deep into the profundities of Western learning and institutions, nor to find all that is in accord with the teachings and objectives of our sages with the purpose of benefiting the people and purifying the customs. Mr. Mei Guangdi of Xuanzheng has been the first to espouse the lessons of the American scholar Irving Babbitt to show where the truth is. Mr. Wu Mi joins him and goes further by tracing back to the literature, arts, and philosophy of ancient Greece. Only then have students been made to know that the literature and institutions of Europe and America have their sources, and to realize that those who try to overwhelm the public with new-fangled nonsense have actually gained little from their opportunities in the West. Messrs. Mei and Wu cofounded the Xue heng (Critical review) to awaken the world. When their writings first came out, they were attacked by many a shallow scholar. As time goes on, what the two have had to say becomes more and more persuasive and confirmed. Mr. Mei has since gone to the United States to propagate Chinese learning. Mr. Wu is now leaving for Shenyang. While they travel to different places, their purposes are identical. Scholars in the United States having long had the teaching of Babbitt will be enlightened by Mr. Mei's Chinese knowledge. Scholarship in Shenyang has barely begun. Mr. Wu will be going there to start a new Greece. He is therefore the Babbitt of China.

Liang Shiqiu took Irving Babbitt's course on 'Literary criticism after the sixteenth century'. Liang decided to take the course not because he admired the renowned teacher but because he intended to challenge him. At first Liang found Babbitt's opinions hard to accept as they were completely different from his own, but after reading Babbitt's books and attending his lectures, Liang's opinions changed dramatically. 'From and extreme romanticist', he later recalls (1957), 'I changed to a stance which is more or less close to classicism'.

Mei Guangdi is Instructor of Chinese at Harvard University.
After reading Irving Babbitt's works, Mei came to think of Babbitt as a modern saint, and this fired his determination to become one of Babbitt's students.

Xiong, Foxi. Qing chun di bei ai [ID D29967].
Zheng Zhenduo schreibt im Vorwort : "Although we have translated some plays of Bernard Shaw and Chekhov, they are unfortunately hard to perform on the Chinese stage, and when they are performed a majority at least of the audience are unable to understand them. The failure of the attempt at Mrs Warren's profession in Shanghai can be cited as an example. Therefore at this time there is really a need to disseminate comparatively successful popular plays."

Manshufei'er. Xiao shuo yue bao she bian ji [ID D30058]
Xu Zhimo : "I had the honor of being granted by her in person the right to translate her works. Now that she is dead, I must treasure all the more this task entrusted to me… My good friend Chen Tongbo [Xiying], who must be better versed in European literature than anyone else in Peking, has lectured on Mansfield at Peking University, in his course on the short story. Lately he, too, has promised to do some translations of her work."

Yeats, W.B. The bounty of Sweden : a meditation. In : London mercury ; 10 Sept. (1924).
http://books.google.ch/books?hl=de&id=nQ6A_QpI4YwC&q=chinese#v=snippet&q=
chinese&f=false.
"Nor has our individualistic age wholly triumphed in Japan even yet, for it is a few years since a famous player published in his programme his genealogy, running back through famous players to some player of the Middle Ages ; and one day in the British Museum Print-Room, I saw a Japanese at a great table judging Chinese and Japanese pictures."

Moore, Marianne. The Lost Flute of the Book of Franz Toussaint. In : The Dial ; no 77 (Sept. 1924). [Review].
The Lost Flute of the Book of Franz Toussaint, translated by Gertrude Joerissen (Brentano). In this collection of Chinese lyrics, early and modern, the decoratively perfect poetic properties of the East are like the titles of the poems, themselves, dazzling. The subject matter of a number of the poems seems insufficient or unworthy, but there are certain masterpieces, and since the labor of translation has been undertaken with delight, the reader deplores an ingratitude which permits him to confiscate the meaning of words with which he quarrels.