Byron In China

As one of the great romantic poets of Great Britain in the 19^th century, Byron and his unique personality had influenced the social structure and the value judgment of his own time. He had also set off the upsurge twice in China from the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic to the May Fourth, getting high regards from Chinese intellectuals such as Su Manshu and Lu Xun. This study focuses on these aspects and analyzes the dissemination and variation of Byron in China, as well as the acceptance by Chinese intellectuals.It is no doubt that the time and social environment in China influenced the spread of Byron. Both the regard to and the snub on Byron were the initiative choices of Chinese intellectuals during the period of great social turbulence and changes though it also had something to do with the doubleness of Byron's own personality: on one hand, Byron had strong points as a genuine intellectual; on the other hand, he also had unavoidable aristocratic chasing for vanity. Therefore, Byron's image in China changed with the transformation of Chinese social environment and the deepening of academic study on him.The New Literature Revolution in 1917 can divide the dissemination of Byron from the end of Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth into two periods. The first period is from 1902 to 1917,notablely as the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic, which formed the first upsurge of introducing and translating Byron, with the emphasis on the translation of his The Isles of Greece. The second period is from 1917 to 1927, marked as the May Fourth Period, which formed the second upsurge highlighted by the centennial on Byron in the Monthly Newspaper and the Morning Newspaper Supplement in 1924. The various versions of translation of The Isles of Greece by Liang Qichao, Ma Junwu, Su Manshu and Hu Shi highlighted the first period. Liang Qichao was the first introducer and translator of Byron, Su Manshu translated Byron entirely and Lu Xun made a theoretical elaboration in his Interpretation of the Satanic Poem in 1907, exploring the satanic spirit of Byron. Up to the May Fourth Period, the spread of Byron developed from the simple introduction...