Hermann Hesse And East

We have mainly discussed the connections between Hermann Hesse and oriental culture especially with Chinese culture in this paper. The paper is consisted of 4 chapters including such content as: the cause and condition of Hesse's accepting oriental culture, the detailed connections between Hesse and Chinese culture, and the elements of oriental culture in Hesse's literary works.The first chapter of the paper deals with four aspects, that is: hesse's integrated stand-point on all kinds of cultures in the world, which is the philosophy basic for his taking in oriental culture; the times' atmosphere in the 20th century when oriental and western cultures melted together; Hesse's German culture background and its connection with oriental culture; Hesse's particular life experiences those affected his belief on oriental spirits.The second chapter discourses upon Hesse's absorption in Chinese Taoism, Confuzianism, I Ging and Zen. Hesse paid his attention to Indian culture in his early youth, soon after he turned his interest to China from India. In this chapter we also give a place for Hesse's interview about Chinese literature.The last two chapters probe into the oriental culture elements in several Hesse's main novels. These important works includ: Klingsors leizter Sommer, Siddhartha, Die Morgenlandfahrt etc. Konig Yus Untergang is a short story that is adapted directly from Chinese history text, so we put it here. The most important work of Hesse's is Das Glasperlenspiel that also embodies Chinese culture mostly all-around. The novel has played such a great role in Hesse's relationship with China that we make it a chapter alone.