“Tao : reception in East and West = Tao : Rezeption in Ost und West = Tao : réception Est et Ouest” (Publication, 1994)
Year
1994
Text
Tao : reception in East and West = Tao : Rezeption in Ost und West = Tao : réception Est et Ouest. Ed. by Adrian Hsia. (Bern : P. Lang, 1994). (Euro-Sinica ; Bd. 5). Euro-Sinica symposium, May 25-29, 1993 at McGill University, Montreal. (Hsia10)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Hsia, Adrian
(Chongqing, Sichuan 1938-2010 Montreal) : Professor für Germanistik, Department of German Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Professor of Chinese, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Subjects
Philosophy : China : Daoism
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References / Sources
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Sinology and Asian Studies : Canada
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Sinology and Asian Studies : China
Chronology Entries (6)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1903-1953 |
Eugene O'Neill allgemein. The Eugene and Carlotta O'Neill Library. Special Collections. C.W. Post Campus / Long Island University, Brookville, New York http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/oneill/holdings.htm. Ackerman, Phyllis. Ritual bronzes of ancient China [ID D28786]. [Signed Carlotta Monterey O'Neill, 28.12.1945 New York]. Binyon, Laurence. The flight of the dragon [ID D28761]. [Signed Eugene O'Neill]. Bland, John Otway Percy ; Backhouse, E. China under the empress Dowager [ID D2870]. Boerschmann, Ernst. Picturesque China [ID D446]. Brinkley, Frank. Japan and China [ID D28783]. Chuang Tzu : mystic, moralist, and social reformer. Translated from the Chinese by Herbert A. Giles [ID D7731]. Creel, Herrlee Glessner. The birth of China [ID D9969]. Crosby, Oscar Terry. Tibet and Turkestan [ID D2766]. [Signed Carlotta Monerey, 1927]. Fung, Yu-lan [Feng Youlan]. A history of Chinese philosophy [ID D10069]. [Signed by Carlotta Monterey O'Neill, Boston Dec. 2 1952]. Douglas, Robert K. China [ID D2443]. Grantham, A[lexandra] E[thelred]. Hills of blue [ID D28779]. Hill, A.P. Broken China [ID D28792]. [Signed Eugene O'Neill & Carlotta Monterey, Shanghai 1928]. Hobson, Robert Lockhart. Chinese art [ID D28784]. Hsiung, Shih-i [Xiong Shiyi]. Wang Pao-chuan : Lady precious stream [ID D28788]. Lao-tzu. Tao-tê-ching : Lao-tzu's tao and wu wei. Transl. by Dwight Goddard [ID D28778]. Johnson, Reginald Fleming. Twilight in the forbidden city [ID D3330]. Li, Po. The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet, done into English verse by Shigeyoshi Obata [ID D13279]. Lin, Yutang. The importance of living [ID D14759]. [Mr. & Mrs. Eugene O'Neill – compliments & warmest regards from Ling Yutang, Nov. 25, 1937]. Lin, Yutang. My country and my people [ID D13801]. Mowrer, Edgar Ansel. Mowrer in China [ID D8748]. [To Mr. & Mrs. Eugene O'Neill, this slight testimony of a great admiration. Edgar A. Mowrer]. Norton, Henry Kittredge. China and the powers [ID D28455]. [Signed Carlotta Montery, April 27 1927]. Nott, Stanley Charles. Chinese jade throughout the ages [ID D28785]. [[Inscribed : To Carlotta - with all my love ! Gene, Lafayette July 37]. Payne, Pierre Stephen Robert. Forever China [ID D28781]. [Signed Carlotta Monerey O'Neill, New York Febr. 19th]. Reid, John Gilbert. The Manchu abdication and the powers, 1908-1912 [ID D28780]. The sacred books of China : the texts of Taoism. Transl. by James Legge [ID D2559]. Sherap, Paul. . Tibetan on Tibet [ID D28782]. [Signed Carlotta Monterey, 1927]. Smith, Arthur Henderson. Chinese caracteristics [ID D2512]. [Signed Carlotta Monterey, Oct. 1st 1921]. Sze, Mai-mai. Silent children : a novel. (New York, N.Y. : Harcourt, Brace, 1948). [Inscribed by the author : from Mai-mai, New York, March 3, 1948]. Werner, E.T.C. Myths and legend of China [ID D27281]. The wisdom of China and India. Ed. by Lin Yutang [ID D28787]. [Zhao, Ziyong]. Cantonese love-songs. Transl. by Cecil Clamenti [ID D28790]. [Signed Eugene O'Neill]. Sekundärliteratur 1982 / 1992 James A. Robinson : Any treatment of O'Neill's relationship to Oriental mysticism must begin with the catholic faith in which he was raised and confirmed. His indoctrination as a boy in the dominant religion in the Western world inadvertently prepared his for his interest as a man in Oriental mystical faiths. In the sacred texts of Taoism, O'Neill not only found confirmation of his own mystical intuition that a dynamic universal force (Tao by Laozi) united man and the universe but also discovered an encouraging variant of his own dualistic tragic vision as well. 1988 / 1992 Liu Haiping : 1949-1979, O'Neill's works were little read and there were no performances or new translations of any of his plays. O'Neill's name was almost forgotten in China. To Chinese scholars and critics, O'Neill represented an unexplored mystery ; his life and career, as well as his individual plays, all crammed and crowded with drama, seemed inexhaustible subjects for interpretation and reinterpretation. The knowledge that O'Neill attached great interest to Chinese history and culture and that Orientalism, especially Taoism, formed a distinctive aspect of his art further endeared him to Chinese readers and critics. As a result, the 1980s saw no fewer than one hundred-and fifty articles on O'Neill and his plays carried in various kinds of literary and theatre magazines. 1992 Virginia Floyd : The most significant single factor in O'Neill's early life, in that it affected his development personally and dramaturgically, was his rejection at age fifteen of Catholicism. His natural mystical nature was nurtured in later years by his selective reading of and developing understanding of Taoism. In the period when O'Neill sought a replacement for his lost faith, he turned to and found a meaning for existence in Laozi. The Chinese mystic continued to influence the author in the early 1920s, while he was recording notes for plays made prior to the period of his early research in 1925 for the projected work on Shi Huangdi. Recording new information on Taoism, O'Neill became fascinated by the female and male forces, the 'yin' and 'yang' principles, as they related to Taoism and by the way Laozi 'fused mysticism and pragmatism into a philosophy' through 'which he believed all men could discover their lives to be peaceful, useful and happy'. Although O'Neill never completed a scenario for 'Shi Huangdi', he continued his exploration of Taoism, working sporadically on this material from 1925 to 1934. 1992 Long Wenpei : I. The period between the 1920s and 1940s witnessed the first crest of popular interest in O'Neill in China. Among the plays translated and published, some fifty critical essays written about O'Neill appeared in Chinese newspapers and periodicals. Several critics looked upon him as 'a poet, an observer of human nature', who 'inspires man in his striving upward and to seek light even in crimes and insults'. Other critics observed that his plays were different from those written by Ibsen and Shaw, who portrayed their characters in terms of social relationships while O'Neill depicted his as isolated entities. Still others regarded O'Neill as 'an important promoter' in the history of American drama, who 'has smashed many of the set rules of the stage, but never violated the fundamental principles of drama. II. The second period, the 1950s through the mid-1970s, saw O'Neill's popularity in temporary suspension in China. Because of the international political situation in the 1950s, the channels of cultural exchange between China and the West narrowed, and criticism of Western literature became biased. All contemporary Western writers whose works were not obviously directed against capitalism were largely ignored. O'Neill's plays were laid aside and neglected. None of his later plays were translated, nor were his critical essays published, to say nothing of producing his plays on the Chinese stage. III. The third period, the late 1970s to the present, constitutes the second crest of O'Neill's popularity in China. During this period great changes took place in our objective and subjective worlds. The policy of openness and reform adopted by the Chinese government since 1979 has put an end to the period of a closed society and ushered in a new stage. Since then, China has been a scene of bustling activity in literary and art circles. With the improvement in Sino-American relations, cultural exchanges between the two countries, after more than twenty years of stagnation, have been revived. O'Neill fans once again have access to most of his plays and to research literature by scholars from various parts of the world. Riding the waves of this Sino-American rapprochement are a great number of Chinese artists and scholars who have either visited America or taken part in O'Neill conferences and symposiums. American experts and scholars also have visited China. O'Neill has been included in the curricula of Chinese universities. Wherever there is a course in American literature, there is a chapter for O'Neill ; and some universities offer 'O'Neill and contemporary American drama' as an elective course. 1994 Lee Sang-kyong : At the beginning of the 20th century a number of intellectuals of the Western world discovered the spiritual world of the East. They started to look for spiritual regeneration in the mysticism of Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. O'Neill was no exception. Even in his youth he felt quite attracted by this spiritual direction and under the influence of theosophy he turned more and more towards Eastern mysticism. He became increasingly interested in philosophers and poets who had been inspired by the Eastern ideas and literature such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Jung, Emerson, Strindberg, Yeats, Maeterlink, and Lafcadio Hearn. To deepen his knowledge in Eastern religions he began in the twenties to read books like 'Buddha and the gospel of buddhism' by Ananda K. Coomaraswany (London 1916), 'Six systems of Indian philosophy' by Max Müller (London 1919), and 'The texts of taoism' by James Legge. His deep interest is reflected in the content and form of his plays of the twenties, such as 'The fountain', 'Marco millions', 'The great god Brown', 'Lazarus laughed', and others. O'Neill's popularity in the Orient was probably due to the fact that structure and content of his dramas were strongly by Taoist spiritualism. The Orientals felt especially moved by the sensitive presentation of feelings, by his mysticism and the tragical conflict situations of his dramas. |
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| 2 | 1923 |
O'Neill, Eugene. The fountain. In : O'Neill, Eugene. The great god Brown ; including The fountain, The dreamy kid and Before breakfast. (London : J. Cape, 1923). http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400121h.html. "There is in some far country of the East – Cathay, Cipango, who knows – a spot that nature has set apart from men and blessed with peace. It is a sacred grove where all things live in the old harmony they knew before man came. Beauty resides there and is articulate." Lee Sang-kyong : Taoist influence : Spring water in its process of circulation is a symbol of the natural course of all earthly things. Spring water evaporates up to the sky and returns to earth, this means the realization of unity between the sky (yang) and earth (yin). The 'Fountain' is located in the Far East of his dreams. O'Neill's longing for the Orient is clearly expressed in his idealistic view of the countries Cipango and Cathay where all things are in harmony and all hearts rest in tranquility. James A. Robinson : The fountain hints at a Taoist influence in its repeated allusion to China as the home of the legendary fountain. During Juan's vision, the Chinese poet appears as the originator of the fountain myth. Juan Ponce de Leon's quest for youth accords with Taoist values and practices. Taoism idealizes the youthful virtues of simplicity and spontaneity, and its central purpose of prolonging life through conservation of energy became translated into various occult practices designed to restore one's youth. By far the most vital Taoist contribution to the play lies in its rhythmic reconciliation of opposites. Juan's climactic vision and the play's imagery illustrate the Taoist treatment of apparent opposites as yin and yang, which by their cyclical alternation symbolize the dynamic unity of reality. O'Neill was constantly plagued by conflicting impulses. In regard to Christianity, he deplored the historical intolerance of the Church, yet believed in Christian values. His disillusion with institutionalized Christianity helped the exploration of Oriental thought apparent in the play's climax and resolution |
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| 3 | 1927 |
O'Neill, Eugene. Marco millions : a play [ID D28771]. Quelle : Polo, Marco. The book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian. Transl. and ed. by Henry Yule [ID D5467]. Bai Niu : In Marco millions, O'Neill utilizes the myth of Chinese characters to negate Western values. But since the motivation of the myth is the advocacy of change within the West, we find that O'Neill is reluctant to mythify the East to the extent of perpetuating the status quo of the West. As a result, here and there the real history of the Chinese characters breaks through the mythical confines. In this way, the use of myth helps create a complicated vision instead of a naïve contrast between the East and West. O'Neill approached the Marco Polo story with an initial intention to satirize and criticize greedy American businessmen. In talking about his plans about Marco millions in his Selected Letters, O'Neill writes : 'The child will be either a surprising satiric Beauty – or a most gawdawful monster'. O'Neill found the mythologization of Chinese elements an effective way to conduct his criticism, since myth by definition could conceal his motivation in such a way that his attack on American materialism could appear to be unquestionable and thus more powerful. All the central Chinese characters are apparently mythologized, representing values, Oriental wisdom, mysticism, and spirituality, opposed to the Polos' stupidity, superficiality, and materialism. In mythologizing the Chinese figures, O'Neill does offer some dynamics to the characterization of Marco Polo. The Chinese characters highlight Marco's material greed, insensitivity, ignorance, and triteness from three perspectives : Kublai's increasing mockery and criticism, Chu-Yin's disenchanted probe into his potential to change, and Kukachin's gradually intensified sense of disappointment, embarrassment, and despair. Between Kublai and Marco is a conflict between soul and flesh. As the emblem of Taoist doctrines, Chu-Yin is detached and only an observer of Marco. Kukachin's nor a non-conflict like Chu-Yin's ; it is a process passing from eager erotic involvement to total disengagement. Marco is totally unaware of Kublai's cynicism and criticism. His rather consistent cocksureness reveals his ignorance of anything spiritual. He is so blinded by his single-minded pursuit of material wealth that he interprets other people's remarks strictly along material lines. Instead of making direct confrontations with Marco, Chu-Yin observes him from a distance. He advises Kublai to let Marco develop naturally by himself. He wants to probe this representative of the West and find out whether Marco can change so as to realize his potential for wisdom and to achieve harmony with Tao. What Chu-Yin finally finds in Marco is all the qualities opposed to his Taoist doctrines. Serving as a foil, Marco's failure strengthens the validity and wisdom of Taoist thoughts. Another point of contrast illustrated through Chu-Yin is the distinction between humility and arrogance. Chu-Yin embraces the idea of humility. Marco's world is entirely controlled by money. So far as he is concerned, one can measure love only with gold and view beauty only with a mirror made of pearls and silver. Kukachin is another emblem of Oriental spiritual values, she contrasts Marco's triteness and insensitivity through her poetic nature and sensitivity. O'Neill accentuates the correlation between the quality of language and spirituality through the contrast between Kukachin and Marco, which is, first of all, an opposition between the poetic and prosaic. Kukachin's world is a poetic realm. She simply speaks poetry, while Marco is incapable of using any poetic diction, and even his 'poem' is imbued with monetary terms. For Kukachin, life is meaningless without love. If one realizes the spiritual value of love, for him or her, the difference between life and death is not that significant, if it exists at all. Kukachin is the only Chinese character who once had a positive impression of Marco. According to her own account, she had observed all Marco's instinctive, mostly unconscious, kind behaviors and innocent remarks and interpreted them as spiritual manifestations. In actuality, it was love that drove her to Marco's defence. She still believed in Marco's soul, and it was only two years later when the journey came to its end that she painfully realized that Marco was incorrigibly acquisitive, and to him, spirituality and sensitivity were incomprehensible foreign qualities. Bayan, Kublai's general is basically a warmonger and cannot live in peace for an extended period of time. He becomes restless and helpless because 'everywhere in the East there is peace'. The only thing which would occupy him is war. O'Neill's mythologization of the East has created a total negation of the West. Although this total negation fulfills O'Neill's intention to criticize the materialism of the West, it would rule out any possibility for reform, since the total negation is the real myth. Lee Sang-kyong : The Taoist idea of a dualistic world becomes the essential characteristic of Marco millions. The dualism of all earthly phenomena finds its expression not only in the antithesis of male and female, life and death, to be or not to be. The Yin-Yang-principle of Taoism is also expressed in the Western and Eastern life styles such as the modest cheerfulness of the Eastern people and the rough pragmatic life struggle of the Western people. Through his occupation with the Orient, O'Neill was more and more convinced, that Oriental wisdom could offer a hopeful alternative to the Western world's materialistic society. Marco Polo is the personification of the Western dream of materialistic success, and the Chinese empror Kublai Khan is very disappointed of Marco's materialistic attitude. The emperor seed in Marco – who is the representative of Christianity – the spiritual abnormity of the West, as O'Neill repeatedly discloses in the course of the plot. In a romantic romance with Kukachin, the granddaughter of Kublai Khan, Marco feels the magnetic power of the East. For him, wealth and power are more important than feeling. Even the Taoist wisdom of Chu-yin, the emperor's counselor, does mean anything to him. For him, the Orient's wisdom and beauty, embodied by Kublai Khan and Kukachin, are ridiculous and inconsistent. But Kublai, interested in the spiritual development of man, intends to initiate a dialogue about the existence of soul between one hundred wise men of the West and wise men of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Marco is only deeply impressed by the 'millions upon millions of worms' of the silk industry which could produce 'millions upon millions of capital'. O'Neill shows with irony the contrast between the Western materialism and ancient China's aestheticism during Marco Polo's time, pointing out the antithesis of the Westerners' materialistic greed and the mystic wisdom and splendor of Kublai Khan's court. He wants to show the fundamental difference between the Taoist East and the superficial and pragmatic Western civilization. The two opposite world views are represented by two characters : Marco Polo stands for materialism, rationalism, pragmatism, and Princess Kukachin is the living example of idealism and intuitive mysticism. Chu-yin, the counsellor is the only character who is untouched by all the events and remains in harmony with the teaching of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Horst Frenz : O'Neill's interest in the East is most evident in Marco millions. The presentation of a mercantile Marco sent and sanctioned by the Pope as a wise man to represent the wisdom of the West to the East is full of irony. Marco is beyond redemption ; he is totally untouched by the spiritual beauty of Kukachin, the the Taoist wisdom of Chu-yin never reaches his philistine mine. The short exchange of remarks between Chu-yin, the subtle sage of China and Marco, the rash philistine emissary from Venice, sums up the difficulty of an understanding between East and West. The shallowness of the action-oriented West prevents Marco from comprehending the subtleties of the East whose wisdom lies in a quiet observance of the true course of nature, in an attitude of wise passiveness so characteristically Taoist. The scenes, in which Marco establishes a new tax system, introduces printed money, and discovers that gunpowder, up to now used by the Chinese only for fireworks, can be employed for destructive purposes, are filled with biting satire. In a remarkably subtle manner, O'Neill manages in various ways to point out the basically irreconcilable differences between Taoist wisdom and the superficiality of Western civilization. James A. Robinson : Marco millions follows the lines of conventional Western tragedy, which assumes a dualistic universe of irreconcilable conflict – though here, rather than God or nature defeating man, it is West destroying East. Underlying the East-West conflict of the action is a similar conflict within O'Neill, whereby Western dualism ultimately triumphs over the harmonic view of the universe O'Neill discovered in Taoist thought. The play's Eastern elements represent the dramatist's suspicion that at the deepest level, man and world and cosmos were integrated and serene ; but his pessimistic modern-Western side seems reluctantly convinc4ed that man and universe are in hopeless conflict, a conflict reflected in the irreconcilable opposition of Oriental and Occidental cultures. The similar stage groupings and character types symbolize the profound identity between different cultures that makes understanding possible. The response of Marco emphasizes cross-cultural conflict. The farther he journey East – through lands whose mystical creed preach tolerance and renunciation – the more intolerant, ethnocentric and materialistic he becomes. As a prime 'example of virtuous Western manhood', Marco learns nothing from fifteen years in China, pointing up an apparently unbridgeable gap between East and West. His materialism intensifies. The relationship between Kukachin and Marco dramatizes the polarity of the conflict between East and West. Marco exudes intolerance, while Kukachin radiates the supreme tolerance of one who loves a totally different person. Marco loves the treasures of this world, while Kukachin transcends them. Kukachin, who is feminine, passive, and spiritual, corresponds to the 'yin' principle in Chinese thought. The Occidental Marco corresponds to 'yang', the masculine, rational and active principle. The monistic Taoist influence on the play extends to O'Neill's portrait of Kublai Kahn. The Emperor, called 'Son of heaven, Lord of the earth', harmonizes the masculine rationality and aggressiveness of the West, and the feminine intuition and passivity of the East. Khan's Taoist harmony is upset by Marco and his effect upon Kukachin. Only one Chinese character remains unperturbed, and consistently maintains the detachment of the Oriental sage : Chu Yin, Khan's advisor. His advice accords with the teaching of Laozi and Zhuangzi. James S. Moy : O'Neill sought to contrast the obsessive materialism of a Babbitt-like character with a positive representation of a romanticized historical China. Despite the clear comic intent of the piece, one could assume that the Chinese world at least receive a 'positive', if not 'realistic', portrayal within this framework. O'Neill was successful in his satirical portrayal of the Venetian trading family, his use of the Orient proves problematic. His characterizations of the Chinese are intended to show subtle differences. In designing his imaginary marginality called China, O'Neill fell into the trap of stereotyping the Orient, thereby displacing/erasing the reality while China disintegrated into representation. Li Gang : The Taoist influence in Marco millions has been studied by quit a few critics in both the East and the West. They all seem to agree that the Taoist influence permeates almost every aspect of the play : theme, structure, characterization, dialogue, and setting. |
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| 4 | 1928.11.06-1928.12.12 |
Eugene O'Neill in China. Eugene O'Neill went together with Carlotta Monery, (who later became his third wife, July 22, 1929), first to Europe and then to the Far East, following Marco Polo's route of 1271. They arrive in Hong Kong Nov. 6 and reach Shanghai Nov. 9. They kept their arrival in Shanghai as a secret, but a few days later, Nov. 22, 1928, Alfred Batson, reporter of the North China daily news wrote : "Arriving in Shanghai with his characteristic aversion to publicity, Eugene O'Neill has been recuperating in a local hotel from a severe indisposition contracted recently in Singapore by underestimating the force of the sun's rays while bating". After discussing Strange interlude as 'daring innovation' in playwriting, Batson talked about a few earlier play, briefly sketches O'Neill's career, and concluded : "The world trip was taken to establish new contacts and see more of life under varied conditions. While in Shanghai he is anxious to live quietly and to regain his health…" He registered at the Astor House Hotel. One report held that he announced to his fellow drinkers that he was Eugene O'Neill the playwright and didn't care who knew it. He was sick and tired of traveling and was missing for about two weeks. When he was found, he was deathly ill from alcohol and a bad case of bronchitis. O'Neill was taken to a hospital of Shanghai for treatment and placed in the hands of Dr. Alexander Renner, an Austrian psychiatrist. On December 10, news of his illness was flashed around the world. The New York Times reported on Dec. 11 that he was 'improved'. By this time, he was undergoing treatment in his hotel room in the Astor House. A Chinese student visited him in the hospital and brought him a wooden statue of a Chinese goddess as a gift. O'Neill kept this figurine as a talisman for the rest of his life. O'Neill described the trip to China as 'the dream of his life', and as 'infinitely valuable' to his future work. The China experience had 'done a lot for his soul'. Forty, he said, was the 'right age to begin to learn. I have regained my sanity again'. He did not find the expected 'peace and quiet' in Shanghai, and the trip, he felt, left in his mind 'a million impressions' that were hard to digest. He was 'deadly ill of being a public personage' and being written about by 'the murderous reporters'. He left the Astor House on December 12 and was traveling as 'the reverend William O'Brien' on the German steamer 'Koblenz'. |
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| 5 | 1929.05.3-5 |
Note in Eugene O'Neill's dairy of May 3 to May 5. He planned to write a Chinese play about Shi Huangdi, the emperor who was building the Great wall. He was probably fascinated by the emperor's quest for immortality. Unfortunately, he never wrote the play, only a sketch of the intended play is preserved in the Beinecke Library of Yale University. |
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| 6 | 1952 |
Claudel, Paul. J'aime la Bible. In : Revue de Paris (1952). Er schreibt : « Ma vie n'a pas été perdue puisqu'elle m'a permis de voir partout autour de moi en Extrême-Orient les prémices de la moisson. Je revois en Chine, à côté des pagodes abandonnées les églises remplies, bourrées de la compacte masse vivante et chaude, hurlante, des hommes, des femmes et des enfants... Le temps est fini de la mélancolie et toutes ces amères méditations du pessimisme païen ! » |
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