Zheng Zhenduo And Foreign Literature

ZHENG Zhenduo was an important scholar during the periodof May Fourth New Culture Movement of China. His academicinterests extended widely into poetry, drama, prose, fine arts,archaeology, history, etc. and left a rich heritage of writings.He was an important man of letters, highly achieved in bothwriting and translating, as well as in introducing worldliterary masterpieces and sorting out the national literaryheritage. He held great passion for literature, produced a hugenumber of poems, novels, prose, children’s stories and otherwritings of new literature for the purpose of changing the oldliterature, and devoted himself into the new literaturemovement as a pioneer. He introduced and advocated new thoughtsin literature, translated and commented on excellent foreignliterary works, studied foreign literary theories, and engaged himself to the studies and writing on Chinese literary historyand world literary history; he founded numerous progressiveliterature periodicals, discovered and helped literary youth;he edited, revised and sorted out a rich heritage of valuableliterary works.The amplitude of ZHENG Zhenduo’s cultural vision can beseen in his efforts to revitalize national literature andestablish new ideas in literature by absorbing the nutritionfrom foreign literature, and to explore the heritage ofexcellent literary works, both home and abroad, for theconstruction of World Literature. His research covers a widerange of topics in both Chinese literary studies and foreignliterary studies, inclusive in both categories. Thanks to thebroad vision of his literary studies, ZHENG Zhenduo’sliterature view reflects a strong sense of ideologicalenlightenment and anti-feudalism which are characteristic ofthe period of May Fourth Movement, but deeper, more inclusiveand more forward-looking than his peer writers and scholars.The development course of modern Chinese literature is aprocess of overthrowing the old literature and interacting with the ideological trend of Western literature and art,therefore, it is not just feasible, but also essential to studyZHENG Zhenduo’s literary thoughts from the perspective offoreign literature.This dissertation covers the following areas of ZHENGZhenduo’s studies: his foreign literary studies, hisliterature view, his studies on literary history and literarytranslation, and will examine the relations between hisliterary studies and foreign literature, foreign literarytheories and the ideological trend of foreign literature. Alsoincluded in the dissertation are his comments on and researchachievements in foreign literature studies, the influence andenlightenment of foreign literature on his literature view,his academic vision on World Literature and his framework ofholistic literary studies.Considering the deep impact and influence of Westerncivilization on China in its modern history, Chapter One dealswith the change of Western literature’s role in the courseof China accepting Western advanced civilization. Putting thestudy on ZHENG Zhenduo’s foreign literature translation and introduction after the May Fourth Movement in a big pictureof Western learning introduced into China, we can betterunderstand the role of our object of study and his merits anddemerits. This chapter also goes beyond the limit of Chineseliterature and puts under the microscope the early20thcenturyfrom the course of Western literature development to examinehow Western literature was accepted in China from theperspective of Western literature studies. Therefore, ChapterOne analyses and studies the historical and theoreticalbackground of ZHENG Zhenduo’s foreign literature studies fromtwo aspects: a) the introduction of foreign literature intoChina in early20thcentury and b) the theoretical developmentof Western literature during the same period of time.Chapter Two examines ZHENG Zhenduo’s foreign literaturestudies. ZHENG attached great importance to the translationand introduction of foreign literature and also theintroduction of foreign literary theories, his literarystudies are closely related to foreign literature. His foreignliterary studies can be divided into three parts: Russianliterary studies, Western European literary studies, and Indian and other Asian literary studies. Due to the heavyinfluence of Russia on the New Culture Movement and hisunderstanding on the features of Russian literature, also tomeet the needs of Chinese literature development, ZHENG dida lot of work both in translating and introducing foreignliterary works and in his theoretical studies,. BesidesRussian literature, Western European literature alsoattracted ZHENG’s interest. He translated many fairy talesand epics, and conducted in-depths study on these literarygenres. He also analyzed the literary history and actualityof some Western European countries. ZHENG was attracted toTagore’s poetry in1920’s, and translated a huge number ofpoems of Tagore. He also studied Tagore’s life and hisliterature view. ZHENG spared no efforts in introducingexcellent foreign writers and literary works as well asknowledge of foreign literature to the Chinese readers, so theyand the literary circle of China could broaden their horizonand keep pace with the development of world literature.Chapter Three studies ZHENG Zhenduo’s literary theoriesand literary criticism under the influence of Western literature ideological trends. In early1920’s, differentWestern trends of thought in literature and art entered intoChina, two major trends of which, namely Romanticism andRealism, affected many modern writers in China. As arepresentative personage of the May Fourth Movement and oneof the founders of the Literary Study Association, ZHENGabsorbed many new theories and new ideas from a variety ofWestern literature ideological trends for the construction ofhis own literary theories. This chapter discusses theinfluence of Western literary theories on ZHENG from theperspectives of Romanticism and Realism, and observes themultiplicity of his literary theories and the influence of thetimes on him in this regard. Then the chapter deals with hisliterary criticism theories through his comments on Westernliterary critics.Chapter Four examines ZHENG Zhenduo’s literary historystudies under the influence of foreign literary theories.ZHENG was not only highly achieved in foreign literarycriticism and literary theory studies, he was also an expertof literary history. He produced a series of works of literary history such as Outline of Literature, Illustrated History ofChinese Literature, History of Chinese Popular Literature, etc.and contributed prominently to the research of literaryhistory. ZHENG’s research on literary history is closelyrelated to the May Fourth New Literature Movement, Westernliterary theories, and Western literary history theories.Their influence on ZHENG can be easily observed throughexamining his studies in literary history and the developmentof Western literary history theories esp. on such issues asthe definition of literary history research target, theconcept of evolution in literary history research, worldliterature and the universalness of literature. In regard ofliterary history research methodology, this chapter examinesand evaluates ZHENG’s absorption of Western theories in hisown methodology of literary history studies through discussingsuch research methods as “inductive examination”,“social-historical method” and “comparative literaturemethod”.Chapter Five examines ZHENG’s translation activities andhis translation theories. ZHENG, together with Mao Dun, YE Shengtao, etc., founded the Literature Study Association andcontributed prominently to the cause of modern literaturetranslation in China. ZHENG himself translated many literaryworks and also published many important articles ontranslation, he deserves an important position in the historyof China’s literary translation. This chapter studies bothhis translation practice and translation theories. Firstintroduced in this chapter are his translation activities andtranslation works, then his translation theories esp. hiscomments on the translatability of literary works, the aim andfunction of translation, the responsibility oftranslation/translator, techniques and methods of translation,etc. At last, a comparison is made between a modern Westerntranslation theory, i.e. A. F. Tytler’s Essay on thePrinciples of Translation and ZHENG’s literary translationstudies to examine his adoption and innovation in histranslation theories. ZHENG’s translation thoughts haveturned out of great vitality, his comments and opinions ontranslation play an important part in the modern translationtheories in China. Through examining the relations between ZHENG’s literarystudies and foreign literature we draw a conclusion in theEpilogue: the influence of foreign literature on ZHENG’sliterary studies is reflected in the following four aspects:his academic background, the content of his research, thecontent of his theories, and the perspective of his academicthinking. By examining the relations between ZHENG’s literarythoughts and foreign literature, we can find a new perspectiveto understand his literature view, his view on literarycriticism and his view on literary history, and to reevaluatehis position in the history of Chinese literature. It may alsohelp us better understand the nature of literature and masterof essence of literary theories.