“The Russian hero in modern Chinese fiction” (Publication, 1988)
Year
1988
Text
Ng, Mau-sang. The Russian hero in modern Chinese fiction. (Hong Kong : The Chinese University Press, 1988). (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture). (Ng1)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Ng, Mau-sang
(Hong Kong 1948-1994 Stanford) : Associate Professor of Chinese, University of California
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Russia : General
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (22)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1909-2000 |
Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev und China : allgemein Ng Mau-sang : Andreyev's reputation in China was due to the fact that he succeeded in capturing the mood of the Russian youth at the turn of the century, particularly after Russia's defeat by the Japanese in 1904, and the failure of the Revolution in 1905. His appeal was more wide-ranging and multi-faceted. Defeat is the dominant theme of Andreyev, and it seems that he had some mental quirk which forced him to dwell on the abnormal and diseased. Andreyev was one of the most avidly read writers in the 1920s, and his works were amongst the first to appear in Chinese. The May Fourth writers knew that Andreyev was too complicated a writer to be taken just as humanitarian. They were well aware of his dual attitude to life- his heart which was determined to live life, and reason that abnegated it. His negative aspect of life – the gloom and pessimism which enveloped his works – posed a challenge to the Chinese writers. They were unvilling to accept his despair. |
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| 2 | 1920 |
Mao, Dun. Andeliefu [ID D37670]. Mao Dun argued that the defeatist tone in Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev's works was the natural flavor of literature after great changes and calamities. He was for him the spokesman of his age, when the boredom, disappointment and despondency of young people in Russia reached its peak, especially after their defeat in the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. Mao Dun schreibt über To the stars : drama in four acts von Leonid Andreyev : "To the stars asks stoically for the meaning of life, but the whole play is steeped in pessimism, offering no solution. Look at the astronomer in the play. He detests the life of the common people, he says that they are like wax men, lifeless and soulless. He researches in astronomy, and feels the world beyond this world in full of wonderment, and that affairs in this world cannot be compared to it. He says : 'In our world someone dies every second, and in the universe probably a world is destroyed every second. How can I cry and fall into despair on account of the death of one man ?' So he is practically unmoved by the death of his own son. But he is unable to alleviate his wife's sorrow for her son, or his daughter-in-law's sorrow for her husband. Andreyev announces through this play the conflicts between emotion and ideals in life. The astronomer's solution is beyond normal thinking. What he seeks is an abstract world, one that not everybody can understand." |
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| 3 | 1920-1946 |
Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev and China general. Ng, Mau-sang : Chinese writers did not seize upon the theme of sadness and despair in Artsybashev's work, nor did they stress the bloodshed, sexual license and sense of the insanity of human life that dominated it. Instead they found in his work a new type of hero in the protagonist Sanin. Sanin certainly does not possess the traditional heroic qualities ; but his forthright courage enables him to defy all human conventions, and stand firm against opposition. He is thus a source of strength, and appeared to them as an image of the totally emancipated man. Artsybashev's popularity in a foreign country like China in the 1920s is not difficult to understand. His work presents the lives and thought of young revolutionaries. Punitive expeditions, mass executions, death-throes and bloodshed fill the pages of his revolutionary tales with gruesome power. |
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| 4 | 1922 |
[Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich]. Hui se ma = The pale horse [ID D37396]. Zheng Zhenduo wrote that Russian society was thirsting for change and Savinkov's The pale horse describes a section of Russian national life better than any other book of this kind. It laid bare the psychological transformation of some terrorists, and, therefore, constituted 'a must for those who are intent on reading about and investing the Russian revolutionary movement'. |
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| 5 | 1922 |
Shen, Yanbing [Mao, Dun]. Tuosituo yi fu si ji zai Eguo wen xue shi shang de di wei. [Artikel über Fyodor Dostoyevsky]. [ID D37887]. Mao Dun stated that although Russian writers had invariably shown their sympathy towards the 'insulted and injured' characters, none was as deep and broadminded as Dostoyevsky. For him, the most striking feature was his love for mankind. He did not teach people what to love, but about love itself, and placed himself on the same level as those with whom he had sympathy. |
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| 6 | 1922 |
Shen, Bing [Mao, Dun]. Tuosituo yi fu si ji de si xiang. [Artikel über Fyodor Dostoyevsky]. [ID D37888]. Mao Dun recommended Dostoevsky to the readers, convinced that his work could effectively act as a stimulant to the drowsy and complacent Chinese youth. He wrote admiringly that Dostoevsky's heroes or heroines might have been killers, robbers, or prostitutes, but in the end they were all repentant for their sins. They have led depraved lives, but their souls are never depraved. |
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| 7 | 1923 |
Qu, Qiubai. Hui se ma yu Eguo she hui yun dong [ID D37312]. [Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich]. Ng Mau-sang : Qu Qiubai examined the work from the point of view of the environment that bred it. He regarded it as encapsulating Russian social thought in the decade between the 1905 and the October Revolution. Russian terrorism, he reasoned, was the result of the vile social environment, and the "Georgian-type" of young man was but its natural offspring. They were representatives of the rebellious yong who were utterly opposed to the dark and indulgent life. Underneth the cold surface of these assassins, Qu claimed, were the most sincere, honest and ardent of hearts which pined for love and social justice. |
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| 8 | 1923 |
Shen, Yanbing [Mao, Dun]. Zheng yi Hui se ma xu [ID D38805]. Ng, Mau-sang : Mao Dun point out at the beginning of his article about The pale horse by Boris Viktorovich Savinkov : one might indeed hate or love, admire or pity this ringleader of the terrorist group, but one could not remain indifferent. His reaction to 'the metamorphosis of this soul in a particular environment' was one of sympathy and understanding. George's action in killing, he argued, was his only way of keeping himself alive when others were chasing him as a cat chases a mouse. His indifference was the paradoxical outcome of an acute sensitivity : if there could be no pure love in life, there could be no fear of death either, hence his final abhorrence of life. A confirmed evolutionist at this time, Mao Dun related the behavior and thinking of the hero to his social environment and extolled the author's 'greatness' in describing the hero's metamorphosis with great delicacy. Mark Gamsa : It seems of late that they have grown tired of paying attention to all the different great problems. To say the least, they have become fed up with the word 'revolution' and thus indulge daily in self-intoxicating illusions ; by way of emancipating their spirits they merely look for excuses to console themselves. That is why Zhenduo's translation of The Pale Horse did not 'Create a sensation' when it began appearing in Xiao shuo xue bao last year. Frankly speaking, until the very end of The Pale Horse's serialisation in the journal, we did not receive a single letter from a youth discussing The Pale Horse. I wonder: now that The Pale Horse comes out in a separate book edition, will young people continue to view it with the same indifference ? In today's political situation, ever more reactionary with each passing day, the call for a Socialist revolution has long fallen silent. Those anxious about the period we live in may think that in these times, when people's hearts are benumbed, some men of ideals are needed, who would 'die as martyrs tor a noble cause' ; holding a revolver and a bomb in their hands, they would ardently undertake to carry out such actions that may rouse the deaf and awaken the unhearing, and redeem the hearts that had already appeared dead. This is why, when The Pale Horse sees light again in these times, it may still leave people with a deep impression. Yet I hope that if The Pale Horse does succeed to evoke the attention of today's youths, they will firmly remember the following words : a Socialist revolution must have a programme and a strategy, and its weapon must be mass organization ; the ideology of assassination is not the right method for a Socialist revolution to be brought about. |
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| 9 | 1923 |
Yu, Pingbo. Ba 'Hui se ma' yi ben. [Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich. Hui se ma]. [ID D37405]. Yu Pingbo viewed the hero's life and thought as representing 'a tremendous tragedy in the struggle for life'. The hero saw everything as futile, be it the revolutionary fervor of a terrorist, or the drowsy numbness of love. At the end, the only reality for him was, 'my revolver is with me' – suicide. The solution to the problem of life lay not in living, but in not living. In the seemingly contradictory action of the hero – an egotist ending his own life in suicide – Yu saw epitomized the sorrow of modern man : the never-ending conflict between love and hate, passion and intellect. 'I can say with certainty that his hate is but a transformation of his love. He said that he dies out of hatred for society, but underneath he gives up his life for love of this world. |
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| 10 | 1923 |
Shen, Yanbing [Mao, Dun]. Dujieniefu [ID D38544]. "The outstanding characteristic of Turgenev's works I that he could document the changes of his time. His novels cover a range of more than thirty years. During this time, Russian society witnessed changes from old to new, and the intelligentsia underwent drastic changes. Turgenev was able to discern with a philosophic eye, and render with art and much foreboding, the permutations of contemporaneous intellectual society. It is difficult to think of another writer endowed with as distinctive an artistic genius for mirroring the spirit of the time." |
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| 11 | 1926 |
Zhang, Yiping. A lian. In : Zhang, Yiping. Qing shu yi shu. (Beijing : Bei xin shu ju, 1926). 情書一束 Er schreibt im Vorwort der russischen Übersetzung : "Modern Chinese literature has received abundant gifts from the great Russian works. The translations of your Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov and Blok have been welcomed by many of our readers, have filled us with ferbour, and moved us." |
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| 12 | 1928 |
Mao, Dun. Cong Guling dao Dongjing. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 19, no 10 (1928). [From Guling to Tokyo]. "Zola's attitude to life can at least be described as 'cold observation' and is contrary to Tolstoy's passion for life. I like Zola, and I like Tolstoy too. However, when I come to write my novels, I am closer to Tolstoy. Of course I am not so fanatical as to compare myself to Tolstoy, and my life and thought do not resemble this great Russian writer much." |
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| 13 | 1928 |
[Mirbeau, Octave]. Gong nü Madelan [ID D24764]. Ba Jin schreibt im Vorwort : "On the recent Chinese translations of Western literary works, there are only three for which I have a deep feeling. The first is Shevyrev by Artsybashev ; the second is The pale horse by Savinkov, and the third is this work by Mirbeau. The first two are Russian works of fiction, and are significantly different from this one. Lu Xun thinks Shevyrev is a story about 'anger and righteous indignation'. As to The pale horse, the hero George is an extremist who denies everything. He does not even believe in revolution, despite being a member of a terrorist group." |
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| 14 | 1928 |
Qian, Xingcun [A, Ying]. Eluosi wen xue man ping. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 19, no 1 (1928). Enthält : [On Arzybashev's Morning shadow]. "Artsybashev's description is a realistic reflection, a reflection of the literary trend that prevailed after the October Revolution. Sadness and despair reigned ; ghis is also a truthful reflection. A sense of despair and sadness also pervades the young Chinese following recent revolutionary events. It will ultimately be reflected in our own creative writings. For the time being, there is no need for such creations. For Artsybashev has already placed them before our eyes." |
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| 15 | 1928-1929 |
[Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich]. Ren sheng zhe xue [ID D39021]. Ba Jin schreibt im Vorwort : "A the time when the revolution was crushed in Russia, Kropotkin frantically wrote his Ethics, and I was moved by the same spirit when at the time of the great massacre of Chinese people I put all my strength into the translation of this book." |
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| 16 | 1929 |
He, Shaoxian. Xi feng chui lai de hua. In : Yu si ; vol. 5, no 27 (1929). "Arzybashev is the centre of my adoration, because he makes me open my yes, and plunge into the current of the times with courage. Owing everything to him, I am no longer stifled by so-called morality and faith." |
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| 17 | 1932 |
[Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich]. Ji ling ren ri ji [ID D38539]. Yu Dafu schreibt in sein Tagebuch ; 14. Okt. 1832 : "This is the third time I have read Turgenev's The diary of a superfluous man. The experience of reading the work of a great writer is like that of chewing an olive. The harder you chew it, the more tasty it becomes." |
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| 18 | 1936 |
Ba, Jin. Qian ye yi ben xu. In : Sheng zhi chan hui. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1936). [Artikel über Kampf, Leopod. Am Vorabend : Drama in drei Akten [ID D37393]. "It is probably ten years ago that a fifteen year old youth was reading this little book. At that time he had just embraced the ideal of loving mankind and loving the world ; he had the childish illusion that a new society in which everybody shares happiness would rise with tomorrow's sun and that all evils would instantly vanish. Reading the little book in this frame of mind, he was indescribably stirred. That book opened for his a new vista and let him see the great tragedy of a generation of youth in another country striving for the liberty and happiness of the people. In that book the fifteen year old formed for the first time the hero of his dreams, found moreover his life's career. He introduced that book to his friends as a precious jewel. They even copied it down word by word, and because it was a play, they played it on stage several times. This child was myself, and the book was the Chinese translation of On the eve." |
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| 19 | 1947 |
Ba, Jin. Wo de you nian [ID D39044]. Ba Jin schreibt über Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin : "I got hold of a pamphlet. This was an abridged version of Kropotkin's An appeal to the young. I hadn't imagined that such a work ever existed. In it was all that I wanted to say but was incapable of clearly expressing. The arguments were so lucid, reasonable and convincing ! The provocative tone burnt to ashes the heart of a fifteen year old. I put the pamphlet beside my bed and read it every night. My tears dropped on the pages until my eyes failed me and I began to laugh. From that time on I understood the meaning of justice. This understanding enabled me to reconcile the feelings of love and hatred." |
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| 20 | 1959 |
Ba, Jin. Guan yu wo de duan pian xiao shuo [ID D38542]. "When I learned to write short stories, Turgenev was my first teacher. Some of my early stories about people relating their own experience were most probably inspired by him." Ng Mau-sang : Ba Jin pointed out that his story First love was partially modeled on Turgenev's story of the same title. And the prose poem The threshold by Turgenev moved him to tears. He expanded this poem into a short story, and gave it the same title. Turgenev's poem The Russian language was his 'anchor and only source of support' when he was in temporary exile in Japan in 1935. So touching was the poem to him, that he was constantly reciting it to himself when he was writing Fire in 1938." |
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| 21 | 1959 |
Guo, Moruo. Gu hong – zhi Cheng Fangwu de yi feng xin [ID D38543]. Letter from Guo Moruo to Cheng Fangwu. "We have had a taste for literature, but we treat it lightly ; we want to come close to the masses, but we also have a little of the aristocratic spirit : we are lazy, doubting, we lack the courage to put into practice. We are indeed China's 'Hamlets'. This is precisely the reason I love to read 'Virgin soil' [by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev]." |
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| 22 | 1979 |
[Herzen, Aleksandr]. Wang shi yu sui xiang [ID D37316]. Ba Jin schreibt im Nachwort : "My past and thoughts can be said to be my teacher. I first read it on February 5, 1928, when I bought a copy of Mrs. Constance Garnett's translation of the work. Then I had not yet finished writing my first novel Destruction. Though my experience was simple, a glowing fire burnt in my heart. I wanted to pour out my feelings, speak my love and hate, and use my pen to convert into words and paragraphs my 'blood and tears'. Later on, in my several attempts to translate section of My past and thoughts I had the express wish to learn from the author how to turn feeling into words. Now that I am doing a complete translation, I cannot say that I no longer have such a motive. I will learn to the last breath of my life. |
Sources (16)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 2 | 1919 |
[Andreyev, Leonid Nikolaevich]. Chi tong. Zhou Zuoren yi. In : Xin qing nian ; vol. 7, no 1 (1919). Übersetzung von Andreyev, Leonid. Ben Tobit. In : Nizhegorodskii sbornik (St Peterburg 1905). = Ben Tobit. In : Andreyev, Leonid. Judas Iscariot. (London : F. Griffiths, 1910). 齒痛 |
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| 4 | 1920 | Mao, Dun. Andeliefu. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 11, no 1 (1920). In : Dong fang za zhi ; vol. 17, no 10 (1920). [Betr. Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev]. | Publication / And3 | |
| 5 | 1920 |
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Publication / Pus87 | |
| 6 | 1922 | Shen, Yanbing [Mao, Dun]. Tuosituo yi fu si ji zai Eguo wen xue shi shang de di wei. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 13, no 1 (1922). [Artikel über Fyodor Dostoyevsky]. | Publication / Dost5 | |
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| 8 | 1923 |
Qu, Qiubai. Hui se ma yu Eguo she hui yun dong. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 14, no 11 (1923). [Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich. The pale horse and the Russian social movement]. 灰色馬 與 俄国社会运动史话 |
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| 9 | 1923 | Zheng, Zhenduo. Guan yu Eguo wen xue yan jiu de zhong yao shu ji jie shao. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 14, no 8 (1923). [Erste systematische Abhandlung über russische Literatur. Basiert auf Baring, Maurice. An outline history of Russian literature. (New York, N.Y. : H. Holt, 1915)]. | Publication / ZheZ4 |
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| 10 | 1923 | Yu, Pingbo. Ba 'Hui se ma' yi ben. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 14, no 10 (1923). [Artikel über Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich. Hui se ma]. | Publication / YuPi1 | |
| 11 | 1923 |
Shen, Yanbing [Mao, Dun]. Dujieniefu. In : Mao, Dun ; Hu Yuzhi ; Deng Zemin. Jin dai Eguo wen xue jia lun. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1923). [Artikel über Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev]. 近代俄國文學家論 |
Publication / Turg14 | |
| 12 | 1936 | Lu, Xun. Tuosituo yi fu si ji de shi. (1936). In : Lu Yun quan ji ; vol. 7 (1981). [Abhandlung über Leo Tolstoy]. | Publication / LuX177 | |
| 13 | 1936 |
[Kampf, Leopold]. Ye wei yang. Ba Jin yi. In : Ba, Jin. Men kan. (Shanghai : Wen hua sheng huo chu ban she, 1936). Übersetzung von Kampf, Leopod. Am Vorabend : Drama in drei Akten. (Berlin : Schuster & Loeffler, 1905). = On the eve : a drama in three acts. (New York, N.Y. : Wilshire Book Co., 1907). 夜未央 / 門檻 |
Publication / Kam3 | |
| 14 | 1959 | Ba, Jin. Guan yu wo de duan pian xiao shuo. In : Ba, Jin. Ba Jin wen ji. Vol. 7 : Duan pian xiao shuo ji. (Jiulong : Jin dai tu shu gong si, 1959). [Betr. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev]. | Publication / Turg12 | |
| 15 | 1959 |
Guo, Moruo. Gu hong – zhi Cheng Fangwu de yi feng xin. In : Guo Moruo wen ji ; vol. 10 (1959). [Enthält einen Brief von Guo Moruo an Cheng Fangwu über Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev]. 孤鴻 |
Publication / Turg13 | |
| 16 | 1979 |
[Herzen, Aleksandr]. Wang shi yu sui xiang. He'ercen zhu ; Ba Jin yi. (Shanghai : Shanghai yi wen chu ban she, 1979). Übersetzung von Herzen, Aleksandr. Byloe i dumy. (Berlin : Slovo, 1921). = (Moscow : Academy of Science, 1956). = My past and thoughts : the memoirs of Alexander Herzen. Transl. by Constance Garnett. (London : Chatto & Windus, 1924). 往事与随想 |
Publication / Herz1 |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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