Carlyle, Thomas
(Ecclefechan, Fumfries, Schottland 1795-1881 London) : Schriftsteller, Autor
Subjects
Index of Names : Occident
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Literature : Occident : Great Britain
Chronology Entries (4)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
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| 1 | 1823-1862 |
Carlyle, Thomas. The collected letters. Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 18 Jan. 1823. I have finished William Tell—and mean to commence Turandot on Monday. [Schiller's translation of Carlo Gozzi's Turandot, Princess of China]. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Alexander Carlyle ; 10 Febr. 1824. The younkers and I lived in great harmony tho' rather in a hugger-mugger style of accommodation, our only servant being a boy of seventeen, as awkward as a cub, and who I think must have impoverished Mrs B. considerably by his breakages of china and glass-ware. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Henry Crabb Robinson ; 14 May 1827. I have got wedded since I wrote last: my wife also is a reader and a lover of German; and we have a pleasant Cottage here with China roses and the like, and the towers of Edinr peering thro' the branches of our tree, at a safe distance. Letter from John A. Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 26 May 1831. Did I tell you that Church had written me a very kind letter & sent along with it Duncan's lancet case of Carved tortoise shell & silver which had been made for him in China? Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Welsh Carlyle ; 21 May 1834. You are to address every package (after the art of packing has done its utmost) to me, “London”; marking the packages by Numbers (No 1, 2, &c), and adding any note such as “Glass,” “China,” “This side uppermost” &c of course, in the legiblest hand. Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 22 May 1834. The two small mahogany tables and the two half circular ends— The writing table—winecooler packed with crystal—the stone and china and glass— Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Margaret A. Carlyle ; 12 June 1834. I have a large drawing-room (up one pair of stairs) for my “study” (where if I don't write well, it will not be the room's fault); there are two dining-rooms (which can be made one, by folding doors) below, with the “most delightful china-closet”; and under all (in the sunk story) a fore and a back kitchen, with cellars, “copper” (that is, washing Boiler; which the Bricklayer is now setting anew), a Pump of clear hard water within the house, and a water-barrel for soft without it. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to John A. Carlyle ; 17 June 1834. There are three floors, besides the sunk kitchen-floor; three rooms on every floor, the backmost, narrow one, being a “delightful” china-closet on the ground-floor, and in each of the two other floors a delightful dressing-room. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to John Sterling ; 25. Dec., 1837. I read the Rückert Translations from the Chinese [Rückert, Friedrich. Schi-king ID D4634] last week : they are very interesting, very beautiful : harvest-songs, drinking-songs, songs of household calamity and felicity; an authentic melodious human voice from the distance of the Yellow Sea, from the time of Quang-fu-tchee [Confucius] and the Prophet Ezekiel! Authentic sincere: there is almost no other merit for me in written things. The sacred Scripture itself is sacred and divine because it is more sincere than any other Book. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Wilson ; 10 April, 1840. I have a China Pamphlet for you; I shall have Prospectuses in a day or two. [Several pamphlets were pbd. about hostilities with China because of the current but long-standing dispute over the opium trade]. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Geraldine E. Jewsbury ; 21 Oct. 1840. All prophecy about our future destiny seems to me, by the nature of it, futile, and at this epoch of the world, worthless: but an indestructible boundless hope about it seems permitted and sanctioned.— On the whole, I find I have great sympathy with the Chinese religion too; that worship of their Dead Fathers practiced there. This so far as one can see is probably the chief worship they have. God, they say, is “that blue sky,” is “that Immensity all round there”; about Him we know little: but our Loved Ones that lie buried, are not they as Gods to us,—deified; do not our hearts overflow in sacred pity, in solemn reverence for them! We offer these oblations at their tomb;—our mute voice towards them, expressive of what no words will speak!— Alas, what a wretched thing were Life, if there were no Death in it. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to John A. Carlyle ; 16 Nov. 1840. I know Davies on the Chinese; readable, tho' a considerable of a blockhead. [Davis, John Francis. The Chinese [ID D2017]. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Alexander Carlyle ; 18 Nov. 1840. I found Pickford's Waggon drawn up at the door; and the Annandale Barrel getting itself lodged in a place they call the “china closet Letter from Thomas Carlyle to John Sterling ; 3 Jan. 1842. Ay de mi, I wonder how people can ring bells at this season: I could rather chaunt Litanies; or go, like the Chinese, to “the grave of my Fathers,” and sit silent there. God is great, and man is little and mean, and a fool! Coeur-de-lion shall be deposited duly where you have bidden. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Welsh Carlyle ; 16 April 1842. The hardware things or rather the iron and metal things are all in one little barrel, scuttle, kettle, jelly-pan &c the glass and china are in two little boxes, packed with M'C's best skill, and new-roped by us on friday. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to James Carlyle ; 30 Nov. 1842. The time is fearful in all parts of this country. No improvement in trade is yet visible, tho' some hope this grand Chinese Pacification [Treaty of Nanjing] may do more or less. For my share I expect no steady improvement, till Corn-Laws and many other ‘Laws’ go to the place they belong to! Letter from Thomas Carlyle Jeannie Welsh ; 8 Dec. 1842. As one of my chinese verses says “Alas that he should abandon what sense he had and place himself in the situation of a wooden puppet”! accordingly tho Carlyle tells me he has written to him seriously about this pain in my side which has been plaguing me very much all the last week. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Alexander Carlyle ; 28 Dec. 1842. James Stewart of Gillenbie was here about three weeks ago: he had come mainly to see one Jardine, an enormous Laird from Applegarth Parish and China, and a very good man; who is understood to be dangerously ill at present. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jeannie Welsh ; 3 May 1843. Poor fellow! I trust in heaven that this “emanation from the Moon” (as the Chinese call a beautiful woman) is one who will do him good—not harm— Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jeannie Welsh ; 9 March 1843. Geraldine who had got on her end, and always bursts out of sleep into volubility—poured forth a torrent of words a[bout] “the poor creature having been to that confounded Chinese exhibition &c &c”—but she was cut short by Garnier's uplifting his two hands, and saying to me with an affectation of dismay— Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 23 Aug. 1843. then I fell to painting the wardrobe in the china closet—which had a badd effect Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jeannie Welsh ; 23 April 1844. I have been taking a considerable quantity of most dutiful amusement in the last week—one evening I accompanied Carlyle and the Helpses to the Chinese exhibition which it was distinctly Carlyle's duty to see, and which he could not muster force of volition to go by himself Having been reduced to a shilling, and some thing called the Feast of Lanterns going on in it at present, it was crowded to a degree which made it impossible to see the tools and other particulars which alone deserved the notice of Literary gentlemen; so we came away in a short while, “heavy and displeased”. Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 15 Sept. 1845. But there is the tower or “rook” on the shore under repair, and, “for to let” when finished—it consits of two little half octogon rooms; and three bed rooms—less I thought than our china-closet—decidely a place one could pig into for a month or too in fine weather with satisfaction. Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 7 Oct. 1845. I have been all day giving the last finish to the China-closet and am shocked this moment by the town clock striking four—before my letter is well begun— Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Welsh Carlyle ; 3 Oct. 1847. James Stewart, as you know, was not there; only the Wife, a large good woman, good with all her “ladyhood,” and very much afflicted still, poor woman, for the son they lost last year in China. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Welsh Carlyle ; 4 Oct. 1850. The House is like a china tea-tray for cleanness and perfection of arrangt: but Oh, there is a want of Goody, at every turn such a want!— Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 8 Oct. 1850. The only place where I think you may chance to find it is in the bottom of the wardrobe in the china-closet—or amongst the portfolios in the china closet—there is at least one book there I am sure wrapt up, but whether it is Farie's or John Welsh's astronomical thing I can't say— Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Welsh Carlyle ; 25 Aug. 1852. I find my Fairy-Brae well has been rained into, and the white of the china cup I stationed there is dimmed with sediment; but the water itself is quite a piece of morality, and indeed agrees excellently with me, better than most spas would. Letter from Thomas Taylor Meadows to Thomas Carlyle ; 4 April 1856. Meadows left Carlyle a copy of his book The Chinese and their rebellions [ID D4620]. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Jane Welsh Carlyle ; 25 July 1857. It is a thot of mine many British Interests besides India are on a baddish road of late! [Britain was still engaged in the continuing war with China. The Times, warmly supporting the British merchants in China, warned against French interference in British plans for expansion: “We have been injured, our flag insulted, our Plenipotentiary refused justice and our fellow citizens shot, strangled and poisoned by a set of barbarians and their chiefs. … Should the occupation of Chuan, or any point on the mainland, conduce to the attainment of the objects of war, we see no reason why it should not be occupied” (8 July)]. Letter from Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle ; 30 Aug. 1857. But how I wish now, I had my long journey safely over! If I could only like “the Princess of China” (in the Arabian Nights) be carried thro the air, asleep in my bed, and set down on the roof of my own house ! Letter from Thomas Carlyle to William Dods ; 15 April 1861. And perhaps that will do me good! and tomorrow Mrs Jackson (Catherine Cecil of Alderstone in old time) is to spend the day with me, to instruct me in the art of making Dresden China out of leather and paint (!); and who knows how enlivening that may prove! Certainly I know no happier looking woman, of the tranquilly happy sort, than just Mrs Jackson; since she took to making Dresden China of leather,—for Roman Catholic Bazzaars, How the China-making answers without the Roman Catholicism; I hope to be able to tell some weeks hence. Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Lady Ashburton ; 12 Aug. 1862. As one never scolds, or professes to never scold the servant who breaks one's china provided she tells! Letter from Thomas Carlyle to Thomas Woolner ; 30 Nov. 1862. Pirates are fair game on all waters, on the part of all men. But does Captn Osborn know for certain that the Taepings require to be shot? One Mr. [Thomas Taylor] Meadows, a very ingenious man, who had been 12 years in China, and is gone back, had, when I saw him, the idea that the Taepings were intrinsically in the right; and that it was the unworthy Phantasm of an “Emperor” and his yellow Cousins who got hopelessly out of square! |
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| 2 | 1833-1898 |
Carlyle, Thomas. Works. 1833-1834 Carlyle, Thomas. Sartor Resartus. In : Fraser's magazine (1833-1834). This assurance, at an epoch when puffery and quackery have reached a height unexampled in the annals of mankind, and even English Editors, like Chinese Shopkeepers, must write on their door-lintels No cheating here,—we thought it good to premise… Here is learning: an irregular Treasury, if you will; but inexhaustible as the Hoard of King Nibelung, which twelve wagons in twelve days, at the rate of three journeys a day, could not carry off. Sheepskin cloaks and wampum belts; phylacteries, stoles, albs; chlamydes, togas, Chinese silks… Six considerable Paper-Bags, carefully sealed, and marked successively, in gilt China-ink, with the symbols of the Six southern Zodiacal Signs, beginning at Libra; in the inside of which sealed Bags lie miscellaneous masses of Sheets, and oftener Shreds and Snips, written in Professor Teufelsdröckh’s scarce legible cursiv-schrift; and treating of all imaginable things under the Zodiac and above it, but of his own personal history only at rare intervals, and then in the most enigmatic manner… ‘I have read in most Public Libraries,’ says he, ‘including those of Constantinople and Samarcand: in most Colleges, except the Chinese Mandarin ones, I have studied, or seen that there was no studying… I have sat under the Palm-trees of Tadmor; smoked a pipe among the ruins of Babylon. The great Wall of China I have seen; and can testify that it is of gray brick, coped and covered with granite, and shows only second-rate masonry… “After a careful survey of the whole ground, our belief is that no such persons as Professor Teufelsdröckh or Counsellor Heuschrecke ever existed; that the six Paper-bags, with their China-ink inscriptions and multifarious contents, are a mere figment of the brain… By far the most interesting fact I hear about the 397Chinese is one on which we cannot arrive at clearness, but which excites endless curiosity even in the dim state: this namely, that they do attempt to make their Men of Letters their Governors! It would be rash to say, one understood how this was done, or with what degree of success it was done. All such things must be very unsuccessful; yet a small degree of success is precious; the very attempt how precious! There does seem to be, all over China, a more or less active search everywhere to discover the men of talent that grow up in the young generation. Schools there are for every one: a foolish sort of training, yet still a sort… 1837 Carlyle, Thomas. The French revolution : a history. Vol. 1-3. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1837). Rights of Man, printed on Cotton Handkerchiefs, in various dialects of human speech, pass over to the Frankfort Fair. (Toulongeon, i. 256.) What say we, Frankfort Fair? They have crossed Euphrates and the fabulous Hydaspes; wafted themselves beyond the Ural, Altai, Himmalayah: struck off from wood stereotypes, in angular Picture-writing, they are jabbered and jingled of in China and Japan… "With steel and bread," says the Convention Representative, "one may get to China."… Such a fire is in these Gaelic Republican men; high-blazing; which no Coalition can withstand! Not scutcheons, with four degrees of nobility; but ci-devant Serjeants, who have had to clutch Generalship out of the cannon's throat, a Pichegru, a Jourdan, a Hoche, lead them on. They have bread, they have iron; 'with bread and iron you can get to China.'… 1841 Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). By far the most interesting fact I hear about the Chinese is one on which we cannot arrive at clearness, but which excites endless curiosity even in the dim state: this namely, that they do attempt to make their Men of Letters their Governors!... All such things must be very unsuccessful; yet a small degree of success is precious; the very attempt how precious! There does seem to be, all over China, a more or less active search everywhere to discover the men of talent that grow up in the young generation… 1843 Carlyle, Thomas. Past and present. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1843). A common, or it may be an uncommon Englishman thou art: but good Heavens, what sort of Arab, Chinaman, Jew-Clothesman, Turk, Hindoo, African Mandingo, wouldst thou have been, thou with those mother-qualities of thine!... "Tremble intensely," as our friend the Emperor of China says: there is the black Bottomless of Terror; what Sauerteig calls the 'Hell of the English!'… Or let us give a glance at China. Our new friend, the Emperor there, is Pontiff of three hundred million men; who do all live and work, these many centuries now; authentically patronised by Heaven so far; and therefore must have some 'religion' of a kind. T his Emperor-Pontiff has, in fact, a religious belief of certain Laws of Heaven; observes, with a religious rigour, his 'three thousand punctualities,' given out by men of insight, some sixty generations since, as a legible transcript of the same,— the Heavens do seem to say, not totally an incorrect one. He has not much of a ritual, this Pontiff-Emperor; believes, it is likest, with the old Monks, that 'Labour is Worship.' His most public Act of Worship, it appears, is the drawing solemnly at a certain day, on the green bosom of our Mother Earth, when the Heavens, after dead black winter, have again with their vernal radiances awakened her, a distinct red Furrow with the Plough,— signal that all the Ploughs of China are to begin ploughing and worshipping! It is notable enough. He, in sight of the Seen and Unseen Powers, draws his distinct red Furrow there; saying, and praying, in mute symbolism, so many most eloquent things!... England's sure markets will be among new Colonies of Englishmen in all quarters of the Globe. All men trade with all men, when mutually convenient; and are even bound to do it by the Maker of men. Our friends of China, who guiltily refused to trade, in these circumstances,—had we not to argue with them, in cannon-shot at last, and convince them that they ought to trade!... Sauerteig on the symbolic influences of Washing. Chinese Pontiff-Emperor and his significant 'punctualities.' Goethe and German Literature… 1850 Carlyle, Thomas. Latter-day pamphlets. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1850). With China, or some distant country, too unintelligent of us and too unintelligible to us, there still sometimes rises necessary occasion for a war… He has enrolled himself among the Ignes Fatui and Children of the Wind; means to serve, as beautifully illuminated Chinese Lantern, in that corps henceforth… 1851 Carlyle, Thomas. The Life of John Sterling. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1851). Over the wild-surging chaos, in the leaden air, are only sudden glares of revolutionary lightning; then mere darkness, with philanthropistic phosphorescences, empty meteoric lights; here and there an ecclesiastical luminary still hovering, hanging on to its old quaking fixtures, pretending still to be a Moon or Sun,—though visibly it is but a Chinese lantern made of paper mainly, with candle-end foully dying in the heart of it. Surely as mad a world as you could wish! 1897-1898 Carlyle, Thomas. History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia : called Frederick the Great. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1897-1898. (Works of Thomas Carlyle ; vol. 12-19). Vol. 3 He took act that it had been a surreptitious transaction, palmed upon him while ignorant, and while without the least authority or power to make such a promise; that he was not bound by it, nor would be, except on compulsion thus far: and as to binding Brandenburg by it, how could he, at that period of his history, bind Brandenburg? Brandenburg was not then his to bind, any more than China was. Vol. 15 Meissen [where they make the china, only fifty miles from me, and twenty from Dresden], let that be the Bridge, now that you have got victual. Vol. 16 A Company patronized, in all ways, by the King; but, for the rest, founded, not on his money; founded on voluntary shares, which, to the regret of Hanway and others, have had much popularity in commercial circles. Will trade to China. A thing looked at with umbrage by the English, by the Dutch… About as likely as that the Cham of Tartary had interfered in the "Bangorian Controversy" (raging, I believe, some time since,—in Cremorne Gardens fist of all, which was Bishop Hoadly's Place,—to the terror of mitres and wigs); or that, the Emperor of China was concerned in Meux's Porter-Brewery, with an eye to sale of NUX VOMICA… Vol. 18 A POTTERY-APOTHEOSIS OF FRIEDRICH.—"There stands on this mantel-piece," says one of my Correspondents, the amiable Smelfungus, in short, whom readers are acquainted with, "a small China Mug, not of bad shape; declaring itself, in one obscure corner, to be made at Worcester, 'R. I., Worcester, 1757' (late in the season, I presume, demand being brisk); which exhibits, all round it, a diligent Potter's-Apotheosis of Friedrich, hastily got up to meet the general enthusiasm of English mankind. Worth, while it lasts unbroken, a moment's inspection from you in hurrying along. "Front side, when you take our Mug by the handle for drinking from it, offers a poor well-meant China Portrait, labelled KING OF PRUSSIA: Copy of Friedrich's Portrait by Pesne, twenty years too young for the time, smiling out nobly upon you; upon whom there descends with rapidity a small Genius (more like a Cupid who had hastily forgotten his bow, and goes headforemost on another errand) to drop a wreath on this deserving head… A Mug got up for temporary English enthusiasm, and the accidental instruction of posterity. It is of tolerable China; holds a good pint, 'To the Protestant Hero, with all the honors;'—and offers, in little, a curious eyehole into the then England, with its then lights and notions, which is now so deep-hidden from us, under volcanic ashes, French Revolutions, and the wrecks of a Hundred very decadent Years."… I presume to flatter myself that your Majesty will not be offended at the respectful liberty I have taken in laying before you my complaints against one Van Erthorn, a Director of the Embden China Company, whose bad behavior to me, as set forth in my Memorial, hath forced me to make a very long and expensive stay at this place; and, as the considerable interest I have in that Company may farther subject me to his caprices, I cannot forbear laying my grievances at the foot of your Majesty's throne; most respectfully supplicating your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased to give orders that this Director shall not act towards me for the future as he hath done hitherto… Chap. 20 Diligently coining, this Mouldy Individual; still more successfully, is trading in Friedrich's Meissen China (bought in the cheapest market, sold in the dearest)… Chap. 21 The Empress herself, at the time I saw her Majesty, wore a Grecian habit; though I was afterwards told that she varied her dress two or three times during the masquerade. Prince Henri of Prussia wore a white domino. Several persons appeared in the dresses of different nations,—Chinese, Turks, Persians and Armenians… The entertainment was enlivened with a concert of music: and at different intervals persons in various habits entered the hall, and exhibited Cossack, Chinese, Polish, Swedish and Tartar dances. There is also a china cup for Mr. Macnamara, Lawyer, in the Temple or Lincoln's Inn… I beg your Majesty's pardon; but it is so much like a sword, that one could easily mistake it for one.' And such was really the case. This, it, is known, is the mark of the Berlin china… |
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| 3 | 1908 |
Lu, Xun. Mo luo shi li shuo = On the power of Mara poetry. [ID D26228]. [Auszüge]. Lu Xun erwähnt George Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Walter Scott, John Keats, Friedrich Nietzsche, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henrik Ibsen [erste Erwähnung], Nikolai Wassil'evich Gogol, Platon, Dante, Napoleon I., Ernst Moritz Arndt, Friedrich Wilhelm III., Theodor Körner, Edward Dowden, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, John Locke, Robert Burns, Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, Adam Mickiewicz, Sandor Petöfi, Wladimir Galaktionowitsch Korolenko. Lu Xun schreibt : "He who has searched out the ancient wellspring will seek the source of the future, the new wellspring. O my brothers, the works of the new life, the surge from the depths of the new source, is not far off". Nietzsche... Later the poet Kalidasa achieved fame for his dramas and occasional lyrics ; the German master Goethe revered them as art unmatched on earth or in heaven... Iran and Egypt are further examples, snapped in midcourse like well-ropes – ancient splendor now gone arid. If Cathay escapes this roll call, it will be the greatest blessing life can offer. The reason ? The Englishman Carlyle said : "The man born to acquire an articulate voice and grandly sing the heart's meaning is his nation's raison d'être. Disjointed Italy was united in essence, having borne Dante, having Italian. The Czar of great Russia, with soldiers, bayonets, and cannon, does a great feat in ruling a great tract of land. Why has he no voice ? Something great in him perhaps, but he is a dumb greatness. When soldiers, bayonets and cannon are corroded, Dante's voice will be as before. With Dante, united ; but the voiceless Russian remains mere fragments". Nietzsche was not hostile to primitives ; his claim that they embody new forces is irrefutable. A savage wilderness incubates the coming civiliization ; in primitives' teeming forms the light of day is immanent... Russian silence ; then stirring sound. Russia was like a child, and not a mute ; an underground stream, not an old well. Indeed, the early 19th century produced Gogol, who inspired his countrymen with imperceptible tear-stained grief, compared by some to England's Shakespeare, whom Carlyle praised and idolized. Look around the worls, where each new contending voice has its own eloquence to inspire itself and convey the sublime to the world ; only India and those other ancient lands sit motionless, plunged in silence... I let the past drop here and seek new voices from abroad, an impulse provoked by concern for the past. I cannot detail each varied voice, but none has such power to inspire and language as gripping as Mara poetry. Borrowed from India, the 'Mara' – celestial demon, or 'Satan' in Europe – first denoted Byron. Now I apply it to those, among all the poets, who were committed to resistance, whose purpose was action but who were little loved by their age ; and I introduce their words, deeds, ideas, and the impact of their circles, from the sovereign Byron to a Magyar (Hungarian) man of letters. Each of the group had distinctive features and made his own nation's qualities splendid, but their general bent was the same : few would create conformist harmonies, but they'd bellow an audience to its feet, these iconoclasts whose spirit struck deep chords in later generations, extending to infinity... Humanity began with heroism and bravado in wars of resistance : gradually civilization brought culture and changed ways ; in its new weakness, knowing the perils of charging forward, its idea was to revert to the feminine ; but a battle loomed from which it saw no escape, and imagination stirred, creating an ideal state set in a place as yet unattained if not in a time too distant to measure. Numerous Western philosophers have had this idea ever since Plato's "Republic". Although there were never any signs of peace, they still craned toward the future, spirits racing toward the longed-for grace, more committed than ever, perhaps a factor in human evolution... Plato set up his imaninary "Republic", alleged that poets confuse the polity, and should be exiled ; states fair or foul, ideas high or low – these vary, but tactics are the same... In August 1806 Napoleon crushed the Prussian army ; the following July Prussia sued for peace and became a dependency. The German nation had been humiliated, and yet the glory of the ancient spirit was not destroyed. E.M. Arndt now emerged to write his "Spirit of the Age" (Geist der Zeit), a grand and eloquent declaration of independence that sparked a blaze of hatred for the enemy ; he was soon a wanted man and went to Switzerland. In 1812 Napoleon, thwarted by the freezing conflagration of Moscow, fled back to Paris, and all of Europe – a brewing storm – jostled to mass its forces of resistance. The following year Prussia's King Friedrich Wilhelm III called the nation to arms in a war for three causes : freedom, justice, and homeland ; strapping young students, poets, and artists flocked to enlist. Arndt himself returned and composed two essays, "What is the people's army" and "The Rhine is a great German river, not its border", to strengthen the morale of the youth. Among the volunteers of the time was Theodor Körner, who dropped his pen, resigned his post as Poet of the Vienne State Theater, parted from parents and beloved, and took up arms. To his parents he wrote : "The Prussian eagle, being fierce and earnest, has aroused the great hope of the German people. My songs without exception are spellbound by the fatherland. I would forgot all joys and blessings to die fighting for it ! Oh, the power of God has enlightened me. What sacrifice could be more worthy than one for our people's freedom and the good of humanity ? Boundless energy surges through me, and I go forth ! " His later collection "Lyre and sword" (Leier und Schwert), also resonates with this same spirit and makes the pulse race when one recites from it. In those days such a fervent awareness was not confined to Körner, for the entire German youth were the same. Körner's voice as the voice of all Germans, Körner's blood was the blood of all Germans. And so it follows that neither State, nor Emperor, nor bayonet, but the nation's people beat Napoleon. The people all had poetry and thus the poets' talents ; so in the end Germany did not perish. This would have been inconceivable to those who would scrap poetry in their devotion to utility, who clutch battered foreign arms in hopes of defending hearth and home. I have, first, compared poetic power with rice and beans only to shock Mammon's disciples into seeing that gold and iron are far from enough to revive a country ; and since our nation has been unable to get beyond the surface of Germany and France, I have shown their essence, which will lead, I hope, to some awareness. Yet this is not the heart of the matter... England's Edward Dowden once said : "We often encounter world masterpieces of literature or art that seem to do the world no good. Yet we enjoy the encounter, as in swimming titanic waters we behold the vastness, float among waves and come forth transformed in body and soul. The ocean itself is but the heave and swell of insensible seas, nor has it once provided us a single moral sentence or a maxim, yet the swimmer's health and vigor are greatly augmented by it"... If everything were channeled in one direction, the result would be unfulfilling. If chill winter is always present, the vigor of spring will never appear ; the physical shell lives on, but the soul dies. Such people live on, but hey have lost the meaning of life. Perhaps the use of literaure's uselessness lies here. John Stuart Mill said, "There is no modern civilization that does not make science its measure, reason its criterion, and utility its goal". This is the world trend, but the use of literature is more mysterious. How so ? It can nurture our imagination. Nurturing the human imagination is the task and the use of literature... Matthew Arnold's view that "Poetry is a criticism of life" has precisely this meaning. Thus reading the great literary works from Homer on, one not only encounters poetry but naturally makes contact with life, becomes aware of personal merits and defects one by one, and naturally strives harder for perfection. This effect of literature has educational value, which is how it enriches life ; unlike ordinary education, it shows concreteley a sense of self, valor, and a drive toward progress. The devline and fall of a state has always begun with is refusal to heed such teaching... [The middle portion of this essay is a long and detailed description of Lu Xun's exemplary Mara poets, including Byron, Shelley, Pushkin, Lermontov, Michiewicz, Slowacki and Petöfi]. In 18th-century England, when society was accustomed to deceit, and religion at ease with corruption, literature provided whitewash through imitations of antiquity, and the genuine voice of the soul could not he heard. The philosopher Locke was the first to reject the chronic abuses of politics and religion, to promote freedom of speech and thought, and to sow the seeds of change. In literature it was the peasant Burns of Scotland who put all he had into fighting society, declared universal equality, feared no authority, nor bowed to gold and silk, but poured his hot blood into his rhymes ; yet this great man of ideas, not immediately the crowd's proud son, walked a rocky outcast road to early death. Then Byron and Shelley, as we know, took up the fight. With the power of a tidal wave, they smashed into the pillars of the ancien régime. The swell radiated to Russia, giving rise to Pushkin, poet of the nation ; to Poland, creating Mickiewicz, poet of revenge ; to Hungary, waking Petéfi, poet of patriotism ; their followers are too many to name. Although Byron and Shelley acquired the Mara title, they too were simply human. Such a fellowship need not be labeled the "Mara School", for life on earth is bound to produce their kind. Might they not be the ones enlightened by the voice of sincerity, who, embracing that sincerity, share a tacit understanding ? Their lives are strangely alike ; most took up arms and shed their blood, like swordsmen who circle in public view, causing shudders of pleasure at the sight of mortal combat. To lack men who shed their blood in public is a disaster for the people ; yet having them and ignoring them, even proceeding to kill them, is a greater disaster from which the people cannot recover... "The last ray", a book by the Russian author Korolenko, records how an old man teaches a boy to read in Siberia : “His book talked of the cherry and the oriole, but these didn't exist in frozen Siberia. The old man explained : It's a bird that sits on a cherry branch and carols its fine songs”. The youth reflected. Yes, amid desolation the youth heard the gloss of a man of foresight, although he had not heard the fine song itself. But the voice of foresight does not come to shatter China's desolation. This being so, is there nothing for us but reflection, simply nothing but reflection ? Ergänzung von Guo Ting : Byron behaved like violent weaves and winter wind. Sweeping away all false and corrupt customs. He was so direct that he never worried about his own situation too much. He was full of energy, and spirited and would fight to the death without losing his faith. Without defeating his enemy, he would fight till his last breath. And he was a frank and righteous man, hiding nothing, and he spoke of others' criticism of himself as the result of social rites instead of other's evil intent, and he ignored all those bad words. The truth is, at that time in Britain, society was full of hypocrites, who took those traditions and rites as the truth and called anyone who had a true opinion and wanted to explore it a devil. Ergänzung von Yu Longfa : Die Bezeichnung Mara stammt aus dem Indischen und bedeutet Himmelsdämon. Die Europäer nennen das Satan. Ursprünglich bezeichnete man damit Byron. Jetzt weist das auf alle jene Dichter hin, die zum Widerstand entschlossen sind und deren Ziel die Aktion ist, ausserdem auf diejenigen Dichter, die von der Welt nicht sehr gemocht werden. Sie alle gehören zu dieser Gruppe. Sie berichten von ihren Taten und Überlegungen, von ihren Schulen und Einflüssen. Das beginnt beim Stammvater dieser Gruppe, Byron, und reicht letztlich hin bis zu dem ungarischen Schriftsteller Petöfi. Alle diese Dichter sind in ihrem äusserlichen Erscheinungsbild sehr unterschiedlich. Jeder bringt entsprechend den Besoderheiten des eigenen Landes Grossartiges hervor, aber in ihrer Hauptrichtung tendieren sie zur Einheitlichkeit. Meistens fungieren sie nicht als Stimme der Anpassung an die Welt und der einträchtigen Freude. Sobald sie aus voller Kehle ihre Stimme erheben, geraten ihre Zuhörer in Begeisterung, bekämpfen das Himmlische und widersetzen sich den gängigen Sitten. Aber ihr Geist rührt auch tief an die Seelen der Menschen nachfolgender Generationen und setzt sich fort bis in die Unendlichkeit. Sie sind ohne Ausnahme vital und unnachgiebig und treten für die Wahrheit ein… Nietzsche lehnt den Wilden nicht ab, da er neue Lebenskraft in sich berge und gar nicht anders könne, als ehrlich zu sein. So stammt die Zivilisation denn auch aus der Unzivilisation. Der Wilde erscheint zwar roh, besitzt aber ein gütmütiges Inneres. Die Zivilisation ist den Blüten vergleichbar und die Unzivilisation den Knospen. Vergleicht man jedoch die Unzivilisation mit den Blüten, so entspricht die Zivilisation den Früchten. Ist die Vorstufe bereits vorhanden, so besteht auch Hoffnung. Sekundärliteratur Yu Longfa : Lu Xun befasst sich zwar nicht ausführlich mit Friedrich Nietzsche, aber auf der Suche nach dem 'Kämpfer auf geistigem Gebiet', dessen charakteristische Eigenschaften, besonders die Konfiguration des Übermenschen, macht er ausfindig. Lu Xun ist überzeugt, dass die Selbststärkung eines Menschen und der Geist der Auflehnung kennzeichnend für den Übermenschen sind. In Anlehnung an den Übermenschen zitiert er aus Also sprach Zarathustra : "Diejenigen, die auf der Suche nach den Quellen des Altertums alles ausgeschöpft haben, sind im Begriff, die Quellen der Zukunft, die neuen Quellen zu suchen. Ach, meine Brüder, die Schaffung des neuen Lebens und das Sprudeln der neuen Quellen in der Tiefe, das dürft wohl nicht weit sein !" Tam Kwok-kan : Earliest reference to Henrik Ibsen. This is the first Chinese article that discusses in a comprehensive manner the literary pursuits of the Byronic poets. Lu Xun ranks Ibsen as one of these poets and compares the rebellious spirit exemplified in Ibsen's drama to Byron's satanic tendency. Lu Xun had a particular liking for the play An enemy of the people, in which Ibsen presented his ideas through the iconoclast Dr. Stockmann, who in upholding truth against the prejudices of society, is attacked by the people. Lu Xun thought that China needed more rebels like Ibsen who dared to challenge accepted social conventions. By introducing Ibsen in the image of Dr. Stockmann, the moral superman, together with the satanic poets, Lu Xun believed that he could bring in new elements of iconoclasm in the construction of a modern Chinese consciousness. As Lu Xun said, he introduced Ibsen's idea of individualism because he was frustrated with the Chinese prejudice toward Western culture and with the selfishness popular among the Chinese. Chu Chih-yu : Lu Xun adapted for the greater part of Mara poetry his Japanese sources (Kimura Katataro), he also added some of his own comments and speculations. Guo Ting : Given Lu Xun's leading position in the Chinese literary field at that time, his defense of Byron was powerful and set the overarching tone for the time of Byron when he was first introduced to Chinese readers. Liu Xiangyu : On the power of Mara poetry itself is an expression of Byronism to 'speak out against the establisment and conventions' and to 'stir the mind'. Lu Xun criticized traditional Chinese culture and literature. |
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| 4 | 1920 |
Ku, Hung-ming [Gu Hongming]. Vox clamantis : Betrachtungen über den Krieg und anderes. Vorwort von Heinrich Nelson. (Leipzig : Verlag der Neue Geist, 1920). (Öffentliches Leben ; 20/24). Gu Hongming schreibt : "Wenn es zu einer Zeit im Journalismus verkommene Schelme gab, dann gab es in ihm damals, wie Carlyle richtig sagt, auch entwurzelten wirklichen Spiritualismus, ja sogar unsterbliche Götter. Von diesen unsterblichen Göttern im Journalismus zu früherer Zeit brauchen wir hier nur drei Namen zu nennen, John Milton, Jonathan Swift und den unbekannten Schriftsteller, der sich Junius nannte." Heinrich Nelson schreibt im Vorwort : "Wir stehen hier einem ganz ungowöhnlichen Phänomen gegenüber, das bei weitem noch nicht genug beachtet worden ist : einem Manne, der die westliche Kultur in umfassendster Weise in sich aufgenommen und verarbeitet hat, der Goethe wie nur ein Deutscher, Carlyle, Emerson und andere angelsächsische Schriftsteller wie nur ein Angelsachse kennt, der in der Bibel zu Hause ist wie der beste Christ, dessen selbständiger, klarer Geist aber die Kraft besessen hat, sich nicht nur selbst in seiner Eigenart zu erhalten, sondern auch zu erkennen, daß es für die Völker des Ostens zu ihrer Selbsterhaltung notwendig ist, fest auf dem Boden der eigenen uralten bewährten Kultur stehen zu bleiben und sich nicht die auf ganz andere Verhaltnisse zugeschnittene westliche Kultur aufdrängen zu lassen, deren moderne materialistische Zivilisation auf sie nur als ein zersetzendes und tötendes Gift wirken müßte." |
Bibliography (15)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1912 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Shi jie ying xiong lun lue. Transl. by Dorcas C. Joynt. (Shanghai : Guang xue hui, 1912). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 世界英雄論略 |
Publication / Carl9 | |
| 2 | 1920 |
Hu, Shi. Chang shi ji. (Shanghai : Ya dong tu shu guan, 1920). [Anthologie Lyrik]. [Enthält Übersetzungen von] : Campbell, Thomas. [Ein Gedicht]. (1908). Browning, Robert. Optimism (1914). Byron, George Gordon. Ai Xila = The Isles of Greece. (1914). Ketchum, Arthur. Mu men xing = Ballad of the cemetery gate. (1915). Teasdale, Sara. Over the roofs. 嘗試集 : 附去國集 Hu, Shi. Chang shi hou ji. [Enthält Übersetzungen von acht englischen Gedichten] : Thomas Hardy, John Donne, Robert Browning, Thomas Carlyle, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edward FitzGerald. 嘗試後集 |
Publication / HuS4 |
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| 3 | 1932 |
Du shu za zhi. Vol. 1-6 (1931-1933). (Shanghai : Shen zhou guo guang she, 1931-1933). 讀書 雜誌 Enthält Übersetzung von : Carlyle, Thomas. Death of Goethe. Duan Keqing yi. In : New monthly magazine ; vol. 34, no 138 (1832). |
Publication / Goe35 |
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| 4 | 1932 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Ying xiong yu ying xiong chong bai. Jialai'er zhu ; Zeng Xubai yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1932). (Shi jie wen xue ming zhu). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 英雄與英雄崇拜 |
Publication / Carl2 |
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| 5 | 1957 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Guo qu yu xian zai. Kalai'er zhuan ; Zhu Liangzhen yi. (Taibei : Xie zhi gong ye zhen xing hui, 1957). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. Past and present. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1843). 過去與現在 |
Publication / Carl6 | |
| 6 | 1963 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Ying xiong yu ying xiong chong bai. Tangmusi Kalai'er zhu ; He Xin yi. (Taibei : Zhong hua shu ju, 1963). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 英雄與英雄崇拜 |
Publication / Carl10 | |
| 7 | 1965 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Ying xiong yu ying xiong chong bai. Jialai'er zhu ; Wang Yunwu zhu bian. (Taibei : Taiwan shang wu yin shu guan, 1965). (Han yi shi jie ming zhu. Wan yu wen ku hui yao). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 英雄與英雄崇拜 |
Publication / Carl11 | |
| 8 | 1973 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. You xian zhi shen fen de wei ren Muhanmode. Kalai'er zhu ; Hai Weiliang yi. (Taibei : Zhongguo hui jiao xie hui hui kann she, 1973). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 有先知身份的偉人 穆罕默德 |
Publication / Carl13 | |
| 9 | 1978 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Ying xiong yu ying xiong chong bai. Kalai'er zhuan ; Li Yuehan yi. (Taibei : A er tai chu ban she, 1978). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 英雄與英雄崇拜 |
Publication / Carl12 | |
| 10 | 1979 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Cai feng zhe xue. Kalai'er zhuan ; Li Yuehan yi. (Taibei : A er tai, 1979). (A er tai zhi shi cong shu ; 2). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. Sartor Resartus. In : Fraser's magazine (1833-1834). 裁縫哲學 |
Publication / Carl5 | |
| 11 | 1983 |
Peng, Xiaoyan. Kalai'er : ying xiong de chong bai zhe. (Taibei : Shi bao wen hua, 1983). (Shi jie li dai jing dian bao ku ; 1.15). [Abhandlung über Thomas Carlyle]. 卡萊爾 : 英雄的崇拜者 |
Publication / Carl16 | |
| 12 | 1988 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Lun ying xiong he ying xiong chong bai. Tuomasi Kalai'er zhu ; Zhang Zhimin, Duan Zhongqiao yi. (Beijing : Zhongguo guo ji guang bo chu ban she, 1988). (Xian dai she hui yu wen hua cong shu). Übersetzung von Carlyle, Thomas. On heroes, hero worship & the heroic in history. (London : James Fraser, 1841). 论英雄和英雄崇拜 |
Publication / Carl7 | |
| 13 | 2000 |
[Carlyle, Thomas]. Sheng ming de chen si. Tuomasi Kalai'er deng zhu ; Liu Shuguang bian yi. (Beijing : Xin hua chu ban she, 2000). [Übersetzung ausgewählter Artikel von Carlyle]. 生命的沉思 |
Publication / Carl8 | |
| 14 | 2013 |
Carlyle, Thomas. The collected letters. http://carlyleletters.dukejournals.org/cgi/search?fulltext=china&submit.x=0&submit.y=0. |
Publication / Carl1 |
|
| 15 | 2013 | Thomas Carlyle : http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c. | Web / Carl3 |
|
Secondary Literature (4)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1932 | Catalogue of printed books, autograph letters, literary manuscripts, oil paintings, drawings and engravings, works of art, china, furniture, & c.; formerly the property of Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881, and now sold by order of the executors of his nephew, Alexander Carlyle : which will be sold by auction ... on Monday, the 13th of June, 1932, and following day. (London : Sotheby & Co., 1932). | Publication / Carl4 |
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| 2 | 1953 |
Mei, Guangdi. Kalai'er yu Zhongguo. (Taibei : Zhong yang wen wu gong ying she, 1953). (Zhongguo wen hua cong shu). [Abhandlung über Thomas Carlyle und China]. 卡萊爾與中國 |
Publication / Carl15 | |
| 3 | 1983 |
Le Quesne, A.L. Kalai'er. Kuinisi zhu ; Wang Fangxin yi. (Taibei : Lian jing chu ban gong si, 1983). (Xi fang si xiang jia yi cong ; 25). Übersetzung von Le Quesne, A.L. Carlyle. (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1982). 卡萊爾 |
Publication / Carl17 | |
| 4 | 1998 |
Lin, Cishu. Yi ge wen ren ying xiong de dan sheng : Kalai'er de si xiang yu shi dai (1830-1840). (Taibei : Taibei xian xin zhuang shi, 1998). (Shi xue cong shu xi lie ; 27). [Biographie von Thomas Carlyle]. 一個文人英雄的誕生 : 卡萊爾的思想與時代 (1830-1840) |
Publication / Carl14 |