Modernism and Confucianism: Otherness as a Stimulus to Modernity in Chinese and English Literatures

現代主義與儒家思想：中國文學與英語文學中作為一種刺激的他者

Naikan Tao

《Tamkang Review》 Volume 37 Issue 4 (2007/10) Pp. 53-77

Abstracts

This paper examines a particular cultural phenomenon that occurred in the first two decades of 20^(th) century and involved using other's culture as a stimulus to the regeneration of one's cultural tradition. It argues that in that particular period of history involving a great socio-political change, the conception of Confucianism signified differently and performed different effects in the construction of modernism as a literary movement owing to different interpretations of it, either as an adversity in the context of modern Chinese literature or as an ideal in the context of modern English literature. The combination of the two events in terms of modernism is based on such grounds as follows: 1) there is the proximity of occurrence of modern literature: Imagism in 1912 and the Chinese "Literary Revolution" in 1917; 2) both literary movements started with formal reform by acting against its immediate predecessor: Imagists rejected the late Victorian style, and Chinese moderns the Tongcheng style; 3) the essential drive for literary innovation was a historicist view as is seen in Hu Shi's evolutionary historicism and Ezra Pound's syncretic historicism; 4) the literary reforms were taken as a means for social reform in both English and Chinese cases. To clarify these points, the paper focuses on major Chinese pioneers' remarks regarding the Literary Revolution and on Ezra Pound as a typical case through examining his attempt to use traditional Chinese culture as a stimulus for a "renaissance" in his own time and his establishing of Confucian ethics as one of the major thematic cords of The Cantos. The examination also proceeds to clarify the paradoxical relationship of Confucianism with the literary modernisms and to display a contrast in using otherness for the initiation of modernity in Chinese and English literatures.

Keywords

Modernism ； Confucianism ； renaissance ； historicism ； Darwinism ； The Literary Revolution ； Imagism ； The Four Books

Parallel abstracts

本文檢視發生於二十世紀第一個二十年間，母文化挪用異文化作為自我革新之刺激的一個特殊現象。本文主張，在社會政治產生諸多變動的該時期間，被詮釋為現代中國文學中的災難或英語文學中的理想的儒家概念，在建構現代化的脈落裹意指了不同的意涵，且履行了不同的成效。從現代主義角度觀之，此兩個事件的結合建立在下列的基礎之上：一）中國「文學革命」（1917）與美國意象派詩歌（1912）這兩個現代文學運動在時間點上的接近。二）此兩個文學運動皆以拒抗先前的典範，作為形式改革而出發：美國意象派詩歌拒抗後維多利亞風格；「文學革命」則是抵制銅城派的文風。三）這兩個文學革新運動的重要驅力都來自像胡適的文學進化論與龐德融合論之歷史主義觀點。四）在此中國與英語文學的例子當中，文學上的革新都被當作是達成社會改革的一種手段。為了釐清這些觀點，本文聚焦在中國文學重要先鋒們對中國「文學革命」的立論，他們檢視龐德如何嘗試利用傳統中國文化當作開啟「文藝復興」的一大刺激，且用儒家思想的倫理觀作為他〈詩章〉裹的核心主題連結。這樣的檢視也進一步闡明儒學與現代主義之間的弔詭關係，並且展現了中國文學與英語文學如何用他者開啟現代性的一個相互對照。

Parallel keywords

現代主義 ； 儒家思想 ； 「文藝復興」 ； 歷史主義 ； 達爾文進化論 ； 中國「文學革命」 ； 美國意象派詩歌 ； 《四書》