Prometheus In China

Prometheus is a classical image in Western literature. During “the journey ofOdysseus” which has lasted for almost three thousand years, the image of Prometheushas undergone persistent and complicated transformations in which there are twosignificant milestones: the“imperfect in every respect” prototype intending to expressthe spirit of “control” of ancient Greece, and the modern new revolutionary image as athoroughgoing rebel. In1907, Lu Xun introduced the modern image of Prometheusportrayed by Shelly for the first time, and directly described Prometheus as a“revolutionary” in his “Translation of Stealing Fire Said” presented in1930. In1924,Zheng Zhenduo, for the first time, introduced the prototype of Prometheus byAeschylus in Fiction Monthly Magazine, an authoritative journal at that time. Thespirit of the “anti-authority” embodied by Prometheus brought unprecedented fightingpassion to the revolutionaries of China during the first half of the20th century.Prometheus, the imported image, indeed and surely enough exerts an absolutelypositive effect on the Chinese revolutionary; nevertheless, the author of thisdissertation finds that Prometheus appears as one-dimensional and as an absolutepositive image in China who symbolizes the thorough rebel, revolutionary and winner,which resembles the modern new revolutionary image. Prometheus of that meaning issanctioned by usage. In other words, after entering China, the prototype ofPrometheus is almost completely blocked in the mainstream of the modern image ofPrometheus. Or rather it should be said that the two images (or even many images ofPrometheus in the West) blended into only one image taking the form of the modernimage of Prometheus. So, because of the excessive show of the modern image ofPrometheus, the two landmarks of the prototype and the modern image loses thebalance which should be constrained. The reception of Prometheus in China, under aseemingly very clear judgment, implies a superficial understanding of the vague and fuzzy image of the classic’s complex changing process in the Western literature. Acomprehensive, profound understanding of the prototype of Prometheus has alreadybeen hampered by the stereotype of the modern image of Prometheus in China. If it istrue that in modern times, China’s national conditions determined that people inpressure could only look on that “perfect” modern image as a thoroughly rebel, thenafter experiencing a bloody revolution era, we are supposed to go back and reconsiderthe prototype of Prometheus who has been in China for almost a century. It’s time topull the curtain back which covering the neglected truth. After the urgent need of themodern revolutionary image of Prometheus in the last century, and the rapideconomic progress but a lost "mythos", we may find a glimmering light for “checksand balances for the modern civilization” from the prototype of Prometheus.