中国文学史课程第一讲英文资料

中国文学史课程第一讲英文资料
双语表达：精彩句子与段落
Chapter 1 A Brief Introduction
1.C hina has a long and rich literary tradition, but to many Westerners, Chinese literature remains an enigma (谜). Many of the most important Chinese classics are unavailable in translation, as much of China’s literary heritage (particularly its poetry) has been untranslatable, despite scholarly efforts.
2.F or 3,500 years, Chinese literature’s diversified genres (类型)and forms have encompassed mythology （神话），poetry, essay, fiction and drama. It rivals (与……媲美) other great literature of the world.
3.B eginning with primitive mythology, Chinese literature developed with The Book of Songs (《诗经》)，Poetry of the South (《楚辞》)，the prose of the pre-Qin period, hanfu and yuefu folk songs of the Han Dynasty (汉赋)，the literary criticisim in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Tang poems, ci of the Song Dynasty, yuanqu in the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming and Qing novels. Each dynasty contributed its own distinctive literary genre.
4.C hina’s literary legacy predominantly falls into either classical or modern eras. However, it can be subdivided into four main periods:
Classical: pre—late Qing
Modern: 1840—May 4th, 1919
Revolutionary: 1919—1949
Contemporary: 1949—present
Modern literature embraces works from the late Qing Dynasty to the May 4th Movement of 1919. as the decadent (颓废的) reign of the Qing failed to inspire the minds of people, literary forms remained unchanged until the First Opium War of 1840. as foreigners arrived in China and established their colonies, Western thinking began to influence Chinese writing. Novels, poetry, and other works with patriotic (爱国的) and revolutionary themes appeared to expose and attack social
ills.
●Revolutionary literature spanned the period from 1919 to the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and took on a new vigor, despite the fact that China was in the throes (挣扎) of political and social unrest (骚动). This period was distinctive as it brought along a new and revised literary language, form, content, and set of skills, which evolved into an independent and open art form available to all. It focused on people’s lives with strong political overtones, emphasizing opposition to imperialism and feudalism, and advocating the building of a new China.
●Contemporary literature started with the establishment of the PRC in 1949. there was a holdup of development as the consequence of the “cultural revolution” that lasted for nearly 10 years from 1966 to 1976. the era is now long gone and Chinese literature is prospering once again.
●Chinese classical literature refers to literary works from the days before the Qin Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, and is virtually an unbroken strand (思想等的一个组成部分) enduring dynastic changes.
●Long before the written language appeared, there was an oral tradition of tales of fables and legends. Some of them are still kept in some ancient books as a precious heritage of Chinese literature. Over 3,000 years, there has emerged a great variety of excellent works in terms of poems, essays, novels, dramas and so on.
●Chinese Mythology 中国神话
●Pangu the Creator盘古开天At first the universe was in chaos. Shaped like an egg, it was an undifferentiated whole. Pangu, the Creator, was born into it. He was an almighty giant. He kept growing everyday until he separated the universe into the sky and the earth with his sheer muscular strength. In spite of this the sky and the earth were still connected at various parts. So he kept at his work with a chisel and an axe until the great feat was achieved. He lived for thousands of years, working all the time until he died of exhaustion. When he died, his body changed into various things. His breath became winds and clouds. His left eye turned into the sun and his
right eye the moon. His arms and legs were transformed into the four corners of the earth and parts of his body the various mountains. His blood formed the rivers and his veins the roads. His flesh became the soil and his skin and fine body hair the trees and plants. His teeth and bones turned into rocks and metals and his marrow pearls and jade. His hair and mustache changed into stars. His sweat fell as rain, nourishing all things. The insects on his body took the shape of men and women.
●Nuwa, the Maker of Man女娲造人After the birth of the world there were only creatures but no humans. It was indeed a lonely world. The Almighty Goddess Nuwa wanted to add life and beauty to the world. She set about making man with clay. She shaped little figures after her image with her hands. She breathed life into them and set them down. As soon as they touched ground, they began to cheer and dance. She went about her work day and night. It was slow work. When she became tired, the number of creatures she made was still very small. She thought out an idea to speed up the work. She got a rattan, dipped it into the mud and flung the rattan about. The mud drops turned into men and women.
●Nuwa mended the Sky女娲补天Once a terrible disaster hit the earth. The sky collapsed and cracked, the earth tilted and split. Endless rains caused fierce floods, crevices in the ground sent out raging fires. Nuwa came out to save the world. She melted rocks of colours to mend the sky. She broke off the legs of a giant turtle and used them to support the four corners of the fallen sky. She killed the black dragon to save the people and checked the flood with reed ashes. Thus the sky was mended and lifted, the cracks of the earth were filled, the fires put out, the flood tamed and the people saved.
●The Ancestors of Man兄妹始祖Fuxi(fu xi伏羲) and Nuwa（nv wa女娲）are the ancestors of man. At the beginning of the world there were only two people, Fuxi and Nuwa. They were brother and sister. They wanted to marry each other, but were ashamed of the idea. They decided to climb up to the holy Mountain named Kunlun, the palace of the God of Heaven on earth. They built two fires and prayed: ”If Heaven sent us down to be husband and wife, may the smoke join; if not, the smoke will go different ways.” In no time the smoke joined, they obeyed the decree
of Heaven. Nuwa went up to Fuxi, who took her sister in his arms. Thus they got married.
●Myths about man Very conspicuous in Chinese mythology is a lack of detailed myths regarding the origin of man. As already noted, one that is well-known relates that mankind came from the lice on the decaying body of Pan Gu, but Pan Gu is described in another tradition as fashioning men from clay, some of whom were damaged when storm and rain was pressing on and became deformed as a consequence. Nu Wa, the deity who reconstructed the four pillars supporting heaven, was also said to have created men from clay, with the help of other gods and goddesses, some with care, others by dragging a string through mud because they wanted to produce more and faster. Another tale goes that Nu Wa and her elder brother Fu Xi got married, which marked the beginnings of the human race. Later when they found that the young people lived together irregularly, to the great detriment of morality, they prohibited marriage between members of the same family.
●Yu the Great, the Flood Tamer大禹治水Gonggong（gong gong共工）, the water god was defeated in the power struggle against Zhuanxu(zhuan xu 颛顼), one of the five celestial emperors. In fury, he knocked down the Buzhou Mountain（buzhou shan不周山）, one of the pillars of the sky. The sky collapsed, rains poured down, the earth tilted, floods raged. Gun （gun鲧）the Yellow Dragon stole the Growing Earth （xi rang息壤）from heaven in an attempt to block the floods. This failed and he was killed by heaven. Three years after his death, his body was still in good condition. When it was cut open, out bounded his son, the Great Yu（da yu大禹）. Yu carried on the unfinished task of his father. Blocking floods by means of dams and dikes was not enough, that was the lesson he drew from his father’s failure. He also dredged rivers and built canals. Yu drove away Gongong the water god and went at his work thirteen years long. The whole earth was inundated. It was slow work. When he was cutting through the most difficult mountain, the Mountain of the Dragon Gate, he turned himself into a bear. When his wife found him in this form, she turned herself into a rock. He lost his wife, but he was not crushed by this
misery. He kept at his work until the floods were tamed and man was saved. And he was revered as Yu the Great.
●The Empty Palace of Gods空寂神殿Compared with Greek mythology, Chinese mythology is not very impressive. There is no comparison between it and Greek mythology in amount, Chinese mythology is fragmented, unsystematic. The family trees of gods are not very clear. Much of Chinese mythology is lost, and what is not lost is scattered and difficult to trace. Various causes have been suggested. First, the extremely complicated written word was not efficient in recording myths and legends. Second, Confucius, the most important Chinese philosopher dismissed anything mysterious or fantastic, and that discouraged the spreading of myths. Third, historians before and after Confucius turned much of mythology into historical events and stories. Fourth, Chinese are probably the most historically conscious; even in ancient times early history and mythology were already entwined. As a result, gods became historical figures, and historical figures became gods. No scholars ever thought of systematically recording myths and legends until this century. However, there occurs a brighter side of the picture. Lots of lost myths are still alive among some minority peoples. Much of it has been recorded in the past decades. It won’t be long before Chinese mythology is reconstructed and systematized. 相对于希腊神话，中国神话给人印象不深。

在数量上它与希腊神话不可同日而语。

而且又支离破碎，没有系统。

神谱不清。

中国神话散佚很多，仅存的文献又很分散，难以寻查。

这有各种原因。

首先是汉字繁难，不变记录。

其次是孔子，他不谈怪、力、乱、神，这就不利于神话的传播。

第三是史官，孔子前后的史官把许多神话传说化为历史。

最后一点是中国人的历史感，中国人也许是历史观念最强烈的民族。

古人把历史和神话混在一起，纠缠不清。

结果是神下地人上天。

读书人从来没有系统整理神话传说的念头。

直到本世纪情况才为之一变。

不过还有光明的一面。

许多散佚的神话还活在少数民族的口头传说之中。

几十年来已经做了许多记录整理工作。

重构中国神话的系统工作已经指日可待了。

●In China, as elsewhere, mythology served to explain the otherwise unexplainable, by attributing the origin and current structure of the universe to the operations of supernatural beings. Meanwhile it, as a whole, reflects people’s strong desire to
survive in the universe and to overcome difficulties and disasters in nature.
●Chinese mythology is particular about the actions of gods and other supernatural creatures as they affect man and the world in which he lives. It explains not only the origins of things but also the continuing role of supernatural beings in the day-to-day life of the Chinese people. Most of it removed the frightful aspects of terrifying natural phenomena, such as lightning and thunder, by placing individual gods in charge of each natural force and thus making them accessible to men.
●Chinese mythology presents a double image: the relatively few myths of antiquity, about which little is known, and the numerous myths of later ages, about which a great deal is known. There certainly were myths in ancient China, but, unlike Greece and Rome which had great epics embodying mythological lore, such tales can only be found in sketches and fragments in ancient books, for example, The Book of Mountains and Seas(shanhai jing 山海经), The Book of Master Zhuang（Zhuangzi 庄子）, The Book of Master Huainan（Huainanzi 淮南子）and Songs of Chu（Chuci 楚辞）. And many were probably reworked and reinterpreted by later scholars of the Zhou and Han dynasties. That is why there are several different descriptions of a certain god or supernatural hero.
●Chinese mythology contributed much to the forming of Chinese religion, especially Religious Taoism and Buddhism. And conversely the religious situation that prevailed in China added to it more new gods that generally had clearly defined functions and definite personal characteristics and became prominent in art and literature, and meanwhile modified many early myths to the extent that some deities and figures were rationalized into abstract concepts and others were euhemerized into historical figures.
●In the process of evolution, some new deities were successively created or sanctioned by imperial authorities in various dynasties, such as the two door-gods, Qin Shubao(秦叔宝) and Yuchi Jingde（尉迟敬德）. According to the record, when Emperor Tai Zong was ill, ghosts started disturbing him at night. When they were informed of that they volunteered to stand guard outside the door of the emperor’s bedroom. So there was no further alarm and later the emperor had their portraits
painted and hung on both sides of his palace gate and the ghosts ceased to disturb him since then.
●Though Chinese mythology has no epics and collections it is still rich and prolific in content and theme, dealing with almost every field of the universe, the major categories being myths of the cosmos, myths about man, about heroes, about gods, and about animals.
●Myths of the cosmos Pangu the creator…As for the sun, one text speaks of the goddess Xi He(羲和), one of the wives of Di Jun(帝俊)，to whom she bore ten suns. In what seems to be the original version of the myth, Xi He bathed the suns every morning in a lovely pond to restore their brightness before they set out, one each day, on their journey. The nine suns which were not on duty would perch on a giant fusang tree(扶桑) on the eastern edge of the world. The sun is described as travelling in a chariot, occasionally drawn by a dragon, with Xi He sometimes as charioteer. Much less evidence remains of early moon myths, though the loveliness of Chang Xi(常羲，also named Chang Yi常仪, Heng E姮娥, Chang E嫦娥), the moon goddess, has often been celebrated in poems and novels, as a wife of Di Jun, Chang Xi gave birth to 12 moons, 11 of which somehow eventually disappeared. In another legend, Chang E is considered the wife of Hou Yi(后羿). She fled to the moon when he discovered she had stolen the pills of immortality given to him by the Queen Mother of the West(西王母). Hou Yi’s pursuit was impeded by the hare, who would not permit the irate husband to pass until he promised reconciliation. Each year on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the Chinese celebrate the memory of Chang E’s flight to the moon with the Mid-Autumn Festival; many go outdoors to look for the outline of a toad on the moon for, according to one account, Chang E was changed into a toad.嫦娥奔月
●Myths about heroes Among Chinese hero myths, that of Hou Yi is among the most elaborate. One day the ten suns all appeared simultaneously in the sky, searing the earth with scorching heat. Hou Yi downed nine of the ten suns with arrows and thus saved the world from destruction. Other prominent heroes are the Yellow Emperor(黄帝), wYao(尧), Shun(舜), and Yu(禹), who were probably
legendary historical figures and chieftains of ancient tribes. The Yellow Emperor, who is also called Xuan Yuan(轩辕), is the legendary founder of the Chinese Empire after his victory over Chi You(蚩尤) and all other tribes. He is said to have introduced mathematical calculations, made musical instruments, constructed boats, carriages and carts for oxen, studied medicine to prolong the life of his people and done many other inventions and discoveries. Both Yao and Shun were best-loved legendary leaders whose reigns were China’s “golden age”. But Yu the Great was perhaps a more outstanding saviour-hero. During Yao or Shun’s reign, a great mass of water covered the land and prevented man from engaging in agriculture for a time. A man called Gun, being ordered to control the flood, planned to accomplish his task by damming up the waters. He stole from heaven a piece of magic soil or swelling clod of earth for the purpose. The theft angered Heaven so much that the harder Gun worked, the higher the waters rose and at last the God ordered him to be executed on Mt. Yushan(羽山). Then Gun’s son Yu continued the task. In time Yu sought to reduce the waters by dredging and, after years of strenuous labour, provided outlets to the sea. In Chinese mythology we have many other heroes. All of them bear the characteristic that before the primordial or terrible nature they, by every means, won great successes over disasters or enemies.
Myths about gods mentioning myths about gods, we should keep in mind that popularly known gods are closely intermingled with religions, mainly Religious Taoism and Buddhism. The famous novel Pilgrimage to the West(xi you ji西游记), on the basis of legends and folk tales, provides such an unusual world of gods for us, in which the supreme lord is the Jade Emperor(yuhuang dadi玉皇大帝) who had his Court, palace, ministers, etc. The major gods, among others, were the Queen Mother of the West, the Eight Immortals(baxian八仙), the Bodhisattvas(菩萨), the four Heavenly Kings（四大天王）, the Constellations(二十八宿), Buddhas(佛), Arhats(罗汉), and so on, each being in charge of one kind of duty. In addition, Chinese mythology has many local deities and gods of professions. For instance, each city or town has its own supernatural official called Town God(城隍), each district a local deity, each river a river deity, each mountain a mountain deity, each
household a god of the kitchen. As for gods of professions, they are almost countless, such as the god of grain, the god of literature, the god of wealth, the deity of trees, and gods of guilds.后羿射日黄帝与蚩尤
●Myths about animals Among Chinese animal myths, dragon lore is the earliest and most famous of the symbolic animals. It is legendary that before becoming the symbol of sovereign power, it had been the emblem of the Xia Dynasty. According to the refashioned tales in the Han period, the Yellow Emperor had a dragon-like countenance, and the mother of Yao conceived him as a dragon. In China the dragon is most generally represented as having the head of a horse and the tail of a snake, with wings on its sides, claws of birds, and scales of fish. The dragon lives in the heavens or in the deep waters. The Dragon King, controlling streams, floods, seas, and rains, is usually a beneficent force that dispenses blessings both in the supernatural and natural worlds. He moves through the heavens and gathers clouds to disperse life-giving rains where they are needed. In this regard the European dragon is quite different for it is usually portrayed as a cruel monster and the enemy of man. The phoenix, counterpart of the dragon in Chinese symbolism, was the totem of some tribes at first. In time it became the venerated mythological king of all birds and symbol of happiness and propitiousness. Whereas the dragon and the phoenix are highly fanciful creatures, other animals also frequently appear in Chinese myths, such as
the unicorn, the tortoise, the bear, and the hare.龙是人们想象并神化了的动物，从现有的考古资料看，最早的龙形，是用贝壳在泥地上嵌缀而成，早在距今7000年前的新石器时代已出现。

红山文化出土的玉龙为迄今所知的最早玉制遗物。

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●Why, for thousands of years, has Chinese mythology remained separate fragments since it is so rich in content? Mr Lu Xun(鲁迅)listed several reasons in his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction.(中国小说史略). Here let’s quote them as the summary of this class: “First, the early dwellers in the Yellow River valley were not
an imaginative people; and since their life was hard and they devoted most of their energy to practical matters without indulging in flights of fancy, they did not combine all the old legends into one great epic. Secondly, Kong Zi(孔子)appeared with his teaching about the way to cultivate morality, regulate the family, rule the state and bring peach to the world. Since he disapproved of talk of the supernatural, the old myths were not quoted by Confucian scholars, and instead of undergoing further development many of them were lost.
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Topics for Discussion:
1.What characteristics does Chinese mythology have?
2.Why has Chinese mythology not, in your opinion, formed a systematic epic?
3.What do you think of the position the mythology holds in Chinese literature?。