Anarchism And Early Modern Chinese Literature

The anarchist trend of thought landed on China in the early 20th century and stepped down from the stage of Chinese history in the period of the War of Resistance against Japan. It continued influencing the progress of Chinese literature during its spread for more than 40 years in China, which was embodied in two aspects: One was the literary creation, in terms of which anarchism supplied important mental resources for Chinese writers and sparked off a literary phenomenon whose tenet was to propagandize anarchism. The other was concerned with literary history. Anarchism provided a significant theoretical support for the birth and growth of Chinese new-vernacular literature. In particular the magazine New Century, which was published earlier than New Youth, paved the way for the naissance of the new-vernacular literature. The thesis analyses the complicated relationship between anarchism and Chinese literature from these two aspects. In modern literary history the immediate influence of anarchism on Chinese literature was manifested mainly in two respects: the prevalence of nihilists'novels and the rise of some literary phenomena whose tenet was to propagandize anarchism. It was a complicated process for nihilists'novels'being prevalent. During the process first the translating version of nihilists'novels arose in a large number, and then their stories were successfully cited in some works, such as Heroines of Eastern Europe and The Flower in the Evil Sea. As a result, a clear track, on which the mainstream of Chinese literature gradually stepped toward anarchism, was marked. The appearance of the latter indicated the formation of a new political literature which offered Chinese literature a new form. As exercising its direct influence on Chinese literature anarchism indirectly promoted the change of literary concepts and narration techniques, which was mainly embodied in the temporarily popular Utopia novels in which anarchism took an attitude of going beyond national, ethnic and individual boundaries, and deconstructed inexorably the modern literators'dream of a modern nation-state. It not only played a positive balance role in ideological history but paved the way for the shift of the spatial concept of the new-vernacular literature. Anarchism was a trend of political thoughts abroad, but after entering China it transformed into a trend of cultural thoughts. The School of New Century made a preparation of cultural thoughts for the birth of Chinese new-vernacular literature and became the pioneer of the new-vernacular literature revolution in that it denied completely traditional Chinese culture, Chinese language and characters, called for freedom, science and literature, and emphasized working and education. If taken as a whole anarchists didn't think a lot of literature, but actuated by a propagandistic motive a few of them advocated literary movement and literary creation consciously. The conscious infiltration of this political thought into literary domain was reflected by the discussion of literature in the magazine New Century, the advocacy for science in Wu Zhihui's popular science fiction The Universe and History, and the literature-and-art-centricism proposed by Mao Yibo in 1920s. During the period of the May 4th Movement when the New Culture Movement destroyed the old and established the new in great force the spread of anarchism reached its top and formed a mental alliance with the New Culture Movement. The close relation between anarchism and the revolution of the new-vernacular literature imprinted anarchism on the new-vernacular literature both mentally and formally. For instance, the shift of temporal and spatial concept and the rise of extreme individualism bore an inseparable relationship with the spread of anarchism. Anarchism had impacts on the progression of Chinese literature for modernization, and what was more important was that it participated in the making of the two literary masters, Lu Xun and Ba Jing, in the history of new-vernacular literature. Lu Xun was not an anarchist, but when he studied in Japan in his early days he was quite interested in M.Stirner's anarchism and in 1920s he showed great enthusiasm for a Russian writer M.Artsybashev., who also inclined to anarchism. In the course there was an internal developing route of anarchism and the shift of his interest from M.Stirner to M.Artsybashev.showed his renewed understanding and adjustment of his own role. In respect of Lu Xun's ideological system anarchism was an important part of the thoughts enlightening him. Concerning Ba Jing's anarchic thought people always argue back and forth without coming to an agreement. The thesis thinks anarchism is an internal impetus for his writing and the making of him as a literary master. Without the firm belief in anarchism there wouldn't have had his image of a great literary master.