Why Can't the Chinese Understand Novels ?

9285  Why Can't the Chinese Understand Novels 20210519

At first, I thought it was only because of stupidity. Or that they are not smart enough to see deeply into the novels. 

It all started by a book, Hong Lou Meng, or Dream of the Red Chamber. 

The book carried a very simple idea. Though the book is long and seems to be complicated, yet the central theme is obvious and cannot be neglected. 

It was all about the Hero in the book, Jia Bao Yu who found it unbearable to live in the suppression of Confucian thought and managed to flee the control by running away. He had only one lover Lin Dai Yu who did understand and encourage him. However, Lin was not permitted to marry him and were dead due to  sadness. Jia Bao Yu was assigned another typical Confucian woman whom he could not bear. He decided to flee in protest against the suppression. The writer of the book remained anonymous because it is dangerous to write openly against Confucians and the book will definately be destroyed. He told the story in a parable form to avoid the notice of the bureaucratic powers. 

The plot was setup in a kind of tragical yet extremely beautiful atmosphere that the readers can be enlightened. 

However, it was such a simple story that most of the Chinese scholars could not understand.

There are walls of shelves in the university libraries, all loaded with books talking  about the novel. Yet it was almost none of the writers who can point out the fact. 

Absurd was that many believed the book was written by two writers. One wrote the first 80 chapters and later publishers completed the story in 120 chapters for the sake of a better sale. It was unacceptable because in the deeps of the art, once the spirit of a work was created, no other structure but the original thought of the writer can bear the inner beauty of the spirit. No one can build another building in the original spirit without violating it. 

Yet most of the scholars could not reach the inner beauty of the book. One could not help to doubt whether they had read the book before publishing their findings. 

Would it be the result of the then United States secret service which had played a little trick on the issue?

The two-writers theory was promoted by a second-class scholar Hu Shi by the time. And suddenly Hu Shi had found himself on the peak of the Chinese culture.  35 western universities awarded him with honorary doctorate degrees almost at the same time. Maybe he was the most honored scholar in the whole world. It remained a secret why so many of the academic administrative people had such a special interest on him at the same time. 

Was it all about the ideas of a two-writers story or, a secret plot to promote Confucian culture in China?

Can such a simple trick be the real cause of the misunderstanding?

I had written about the issue in my books. However, I cannot find a place to publish my books in China. And that is not important.  More strange issue about the novel is that, up till this moment, the two-writers issue is almost finalized in China. One cannot find a copy of the Dream of the Red Chamber in China with the name of an anonymous writer. It is a fact that the novel was assigned the names of two writers until the year 2021 of today. 

Will there be other factors besides the trick of the United States? 

What are the real understandings of the Cultural Authorities in China?

While it remained a difficult task for the Chinese people to find out the real issues about the novel, other classical novels have a similar fate. The Water Margin and Journey to the West were books not easy to comprehend, because the bureaucrats had rewrote them secretly.

What are the inner reasons? Could a simple trick have such a big influence?

Of course there were other reasons.

It is a deep-seated thinking pattern that had determined the thoughts.

Confucian thoughts are still one of the dominating factors in the inner souls of China. 

The Confucian doctrine was not only a behavior manner in China. Its philosophical explanation about life and  universe dominated the spirit of many while the leaders of the cultural authorities have not been serious enough to handle the case. 

It was in such a situation that many people could not understand a simple story like Hong Lou Meng.

China is undergoing a difficult path of change in its culture. 

China has been changing from a self-centered philosophy into a mass-centered idea of the universe. It is more than a simple task for a single person to acquire a better knowledge about life, but a complete mind-formation of a whole nation. They are changing from selfishness to a cooperative manner of unselfish love. Confucianism was more than external behavior problem of young people. It was the basic philosophy in the older form of Chinese culture. If China is to standup permanently, China needs a philosophy of its own and it could not be self-centered confucianism.

The talents of novels in China would be happy if the Chinese can really think about the future of their own culture.  

 

 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Recent Books by Lee Chard in printable form of pdf files. Read in mobile or print-out. US$12 each.  You will never find them in the Book shops and you may wonder why.

( Whatsapp 852 91864286 to enquire or to order)

• 1  莊子宇宙 

• 2  明天誰會富起來(中國精神與世界大勢)

• 3  莊子寓言

• 4  李察寓言

• 5  Fables by Lee Chard

• 6  莊子兵法(Zhuang Zi Art of War)(bi-lingual)

• 7  真假莊子(莊子著作李察全譯本)