Chapter 42 A Comparison of Chinese and Western Drama——A Lecture at the Academic Lecture Conference

Literature can be divided into three categories: one is poetry; the other is fiction; the third is drama. The scope of drama is too large, and today I can only talk about tragedy. The term tragedy comes from ancient Greece.At that time people called the narrative songs sung at sacrifices and gods of all religions as tragedies; later they called tragedies the moral law of life (moral law of life); origin. People nowadays often use the word tragedy. When they use it, they don't know the difference between tragedy and tragedy, so they often use it inappropriately.There are many things that can be called tragedies, but cannot be called tragedies.Tragedy must describe the conflict of the soul, and there must be a driving force for tragedy. This driving force is a force of conflict in the heart of the "master" of the tragedy.

Some things, without this motivation, can only be called tragedies, not tragedies.Take the marriage issue that most young people like to talk about today as an analogy. A father tells his son that he must marry a woman, and his son must marry a woman. The grief that occurs cannot be called a tragedy.Because the father asks his son to marry a daughter, it is the will of the father, not the will of his son—the protagonist—it is completely passive, and the driving force of the tragedy does not exist in his heart.If his son, saying to himself, I am determined to marry Otome myself—rejecting the father's will, that would be considered a tragedy.To put it simply, the question of whether to marry or not is a tragedy, not a tragedy; the question of whether to leave is a tragedy, not a tragedy.

Because tragedies must have spiritual conflicts and must be one's own will, the protagonist in tragedies must be a hero.Shakespeare's "Hamlet" ("Hamlet") and "Mac-beth" ("Macbeth") are tragedies because the protagonists of these two plays often hear "to do or not to do" in their hearts. (Tobe or nottobe) voice. From the Greek Seneca (Seneca) to the sixteenth century, all tragedies are about bloodshed, and in Ibsen's "A Doll's House" ("A Doll's House") and "The Architect" ("Master Builder"). ), only the characters who describe the conflict of the heart, not the murder and bloodshed.At this time, tragedy can be considered fully developed.

What has been said above is the significance of tragedy, now let’s talk about the history of tragedy.The Greek Seneca just mentioned (Seneca) Is the father of tragedy (father of tragedy), people in the fourth century BC, the theme of his tragedy is "revenge" Two words, tragedy has never been separated from it.Revenge between countries and people is the same as the architect in Ibsen's "The Architect" who climbed high and then fell down. It is also a kind of revenge, but it is spiritual. English tragedy was entirely influenced by Greece. Thomas Kyd (Thomas Kidd) was the first person to write tragedy in England.Followed by Christopher Morlowe (Christopher Morlowe), the biggest advantage of his tragedies is his individualism (individualism), the protagonists in his tragedies are very strong and powerful.Again there is Thomas Heywood (Thomas Heywood), his works turn bloody revenge into spiritual revenge.One of his tragedies is called "A Woman Killed with Kindness" ("A Woman Killed with Kindness"), which tells a story about a woman killed by kindness, and it can be seen that it is not a bloody story.This change from bloody revenge to spiritual revenge is a great turning point in tragedy, and Ibsen's tragedy is based on this turning point.In the past, tragedies were about revenge between countries and people, and the scope was very wide. At this time, it gradually turned to the domestic (interior) of the family.

After John Ford (John Ford), there was John Dryden (John Dryden). He wrote a tragedy called "All for Love" ("All for Love"), which described a Roman general who fell in love with the Egyptian queen and lost everything as a result. In the 18th century, "Cata" ("Cata") written by Joseph Adderson (Joseph Adderson) wrote about the tragedy of a Roman general, and described the relationships between people, the country, and the crowd in detail and clearly. After that there was George LelleGeorge Barnwell (George Leary George Barnwell) is a tragedy in the shop apprentice.To them, the scope of the tragedy is even smaller.

Byron in the 19th century, as you probably all know, among his poetic plays, there is a play called "Manfred" ("Manfred"), which is a step further than the previous plays, and it describes a person Seeking wisdom with limited intelligence and longevity, the result failed. In the twentieth century, IBSEN (Ibsen) and SHAW (Shaw Bernard) You probably know about other writers, so I don’t need to go into details today. The significance of the tragedy and the history of the tragedy have been briefly discussed, and now I will talk about the main points of the tragedy. I said earlier that the tragedy must have the driving force of the tragedy, and this driving force must be in the heart of the protagonist.For example, a mother told her three or four-year-old child to play in the room and not to stir the fire in the stove, but to go out.His child has his own will, and after his mother left, he said to himself in his heart, should I make fire or not? When Tobeornottobe (to do or not to do), one resolves to make a fire, and dies because of the fire, it becomes a tragedy.Another example is that when we were playing foreign guns, we made a mistake and killed our younger brother. No matter how much we mourn and repent, this is just a tragedy rather than a tragedy.But if my younger brother was sleeping on the bed, and I put a gun in it as a last resort, and said in my heart, "I won't kill him if I kill him", and I ended up killing him, that would be a tragedy.

The Old Testament says that Abraham put his beloved son on the altar according to God's will and burned it to God. No matter how painful his heart was when he was burned, it was God who told him to burn, not his own idea to burn, so it can only be said to be a tragedy. On the other hand, when Abraham himself said "to save his son or not to save his son" before the burning, it can be said to be a tragedy. Why are we talking about tragedy today?Since the "May 4th Movement" we have woken up, and the new trend has flowed towards this tragedy, just like the European Renaissance.After the Renaissance, the English felt as if they had woken up from sleep, and felt that there was the word "I".

Their "self" understanding is the origin of all tragedies. "I am I", "We are us" (IamI. WeareWe.), after understanding, there will be free will, enterprise, and struggle to pursue freedom, and all tragedies will happen.Shakespeare's "Richard" (Richard) is "I am I", so he said, "I want to love me", this is a good example. As for us in China, we will also refresh our vision by feeling ourselves, and make tragedy happen in us. After Guangxu, my country continued to be bullied by outsiders, but it was just some tragedies, because at that time everyone said "Heaven's disaster for China", "Heaven's disaster for China" is the will of heaven, "I am disaster for China" is my will, and that is the tragedy .Since the "May 4th Movement", except for the warlords who often said "Heavenly Disaster China" when they were on the phone, we generally did not say "Heavenly Disaster China", because we knew me, and all of this was due to me.

Ladies and gentlemen, when you read the news, do you feel that the decline of the country is a tragedy?Also, do you feel that there are tragedies about big families, small families, and schooling?You should try to write the tragedies that are among you, for this is what our country wants today. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are the protagonists in a tragedy, don’t think it’s unfortunate. You must know that tragedy is the property of heroes, and little people can only achieve tragedy because they don’t have strong free will.The protagonist in the tragedy is a hero, just like Hamlet (Hamlet) and Macbeth (Macbeth) in Shakespeare's tragedy.

When it comes to the tragedy of our country, I really can't find it. "The Story of the Pipa" is not a tragedy. Its protagonist does not have free will. His father told him to take the exam, so he went to the exam, and told him to get married, so he got married.Well, it's not a tragedy.After Jingmeng, I don't recognize it as the West Wing. Even before Jingmeng, it is not enough to be called a tragedy. China needs only tragedy.There are a lot of people who write poetry now, but what we want is not small poems published every day in newspapers, nor college students writing poems to pass on to each other, nor the stereotyped novels. What we want is tragedy, not just personal tragedy, There are also tragedies in history, like Xiang Yu and Yue Fei, which are the material of tragedies.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we have the consciousness of national character, let us work hard for the tragedy of history!I don't know how to write tragedies, but I am willing to work hard in this area.I don't believe that Chinese people are more stupid than foreigners. After the European Renaissance, their tragedies immediately developed accordingly.We feel ourselves now, our tragedy.It should also be developed. In the last sentence, I hope you will write down the tragedy you feel. We need this kind of tragedy.I would like to work hard towards this work together with you! (Notes by Cheng Zhuxi and Fu Qixue) (This article was originally published in "Morning News" on November 18, 1926.)