Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-tdptf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-14T07:44:56.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pan-Asian Poetics: Tagore and the Interpersonal in May Fourth New Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2018

Gal Gvili
Gal Gvili*
Affiliation:
Gal Gvili (gal.gvili@mcgill.ca) is Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at McGill University.
Get access

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore's visit to China in 1924 was a milestone in the May Fourth Movement's envisioning of modern literature as a vehicle for social transformation. Moving beyond interpretations of the visit as a political failure, this article locates the reception of Tagore's ideal of Eastern spirituality within the larger climate of literary production, specifically in new poetry. Through close reading of poems by Xu Zhimo and Bing Xin, this article argues that Tagore's ideas were fundamental for the development of poetry as an interpersonal medium that both portrays and effects social bonds. This understanding developed as Chinese poets and literary critics engaged with Tagore's critique of Western materialism and his positioning of Asian religious sensibilities in contrast to Western materialism. Tagore's view promoted literature as a medium connecting religion, the individual, and the universe. In this sense, though Tagore's pan-Asianism failed as a viable political project, it carried powerful resonance in the arena of modern Chinese literature.

Keywords

Bing XinChina-India exchangeMay Fourth Movementpan-AsianpoetryreligionresonanceTagoreXu Zhimo
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 181 - 203
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Alitto, Guy S. 1986. The Last Confucian: Liang Shu-Ming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Aydin, Cemil. 2007. The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, Don. 2007. “Introduction.” In Religions of Korea in Practice, ed. Buswell, Robert E. Jr., 1–34. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bastid-Bruguière, Marianne. 1998. “Liang Qichao yu zongjiao wenti” [Liang Qichao on the question of religion]. Tôhô gakuhô 70:329–73.Google Scholar
Xin, Bing 冰心. 1994. Bing Xin shi quan bian 冰心詩全編 [Bing Xin's complete poems]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang wenyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Xin, Bing 冰心. 1995. Bing Xin san wen quan bian 冰心散文全編 [Bing Xin's complete prose]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang wenyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Cayley, John. 1989. “Birds and Stars: Tagore's Influence on Bing Xin's Early Poetry.” Renditions 32:118–24.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 2011. “Tagore, China and the Critique of Nationalism.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 12(2):271–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duxiu, Chen 陳獨秀. 1915. “Zan ge” 讚歌 [Song offerings]. Xin qingnian 1(2):1–2.Google Scholar
Duxiu, Chen 陳獨秀. 1989. “Taige er yu dongfang wenhua” 泰戈爾與東方文化 [Tagore and Eastern culture]. In Wu si qian hou dong xi wenhua wenti lun zhan wen xuan 五四前後東西文化問題論戰文選 [Selections from the Eastern culture/Western culture controversy before and after the May Fourth], ed. Song, Chen, 623–35. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Collins, Michael. 2012. Empire, Nationalism and the Postcolonial World: Rabindranath Tagore's Writings on History, Politics and Society. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Das, Sisir Kumar. 1993. “The Controversial Guest—Tagore in China.” China Report 29(3):237–73.Google Scholar
Deb, Siddhartha. 2016. “Unmasking Modi: The Violence, Insecurity, and Rage Behind the Man Who Has Replaced Gandhi as the Face of India.” New Republic, May 3.Google Scholar
Defoort, Carine. 2001. “Is There Such a Thing as Chinese Philosophy? Arguments of an Implicit Debate.” Philosophy East and West 51(3):393–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defoort, Carine. 2006. “Is ‘Chinese Philosophy’ a Proper Name? A Response to Rein Raud.” Philosophy East and West 56(4):625–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenjiang, Ding 丁文江. 1977. “Xuanxue yu kexue” 玄學與科學 [Metaphysics and science]. In Kexue yu renshengguan lunzhan 科學與人生觀論戰 [The debate over science and the philosophy of life], ed. Shi, Hu 胡適, 1:38–49. Taipei: Wenxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Duara, Prasenjit. 2001. “The Discourse of Civilization and Pan-Asianism.” Journal of World History 12(1):99–130.Google Scholar
Youlan, Feng 馮友蘭. 1989. “Yu Yindu Taigeer tanhua” 與印度泰戈爾談話 [Conversation with Tagore of India]. In Wu si qian hou dong xi wenhua wenti lun zhan wen xuan 五四前後東西文化問題論戰文選 [Selections from the Eastern culture/Western culture controversy before and after the May Fourth], ed. Song, Chen, 401–8. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zonghong, Fu 傅宗洪. 1991. “Xiao shi xin lun” 小詩新論 [New comments on the short poem]. Qinghai shifan daxue xuebao 3:108–13.Google Scholar
Hay, Stephen N. 1970. Asian Ideas of East and West: Tagore and His Critics in Japan, China, and India. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hsia, Chih-tsing. 1971. A History of Modern Chinese Fiction. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shi, Hu 胡適, ed. [1924] 1977. Kexue yu renshengguan lunzhan 科學與人生觀論戰 [The debate over science and the philosophy of life]. Taipei: Wenxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Ying, Huang 英 [Ying, A 阿英]. 1931. Xiandai Zhongguo nü zuojia 現代中國女作家 [Female authors in modern China]. Shanghai: Beixin shuju chuban.Google Scholar
Jhunjhunwala, Lakshmi Niwas. 2010. The World Parliament of Religions, 1893. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama.Google Scholar
Josephson, Jason Ānanda. 2012. The Invention of Religion in Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kern, Kathi. 2012. “Spiritual Border-Crossing in the U.S Women's Rights Movement.” In American Religious Liberalism, eds. Schmidt, Leigh E. and Promey, Sally M., 162–81. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kopf, David. 1969. British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773–1835. Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay.Google Scholar
Krämer, Hans Martin. 2013. “How ‘Religion’ Came to Be Translated as ‘Shūkyō’: Shimaji Mokurai and the Appropriation of Religion in Early Meiji Japan.” Japan Review 25:89–111.Google Scholar
Krämer, Hans Martin. 2014. “Pan-Asianism's Religious Undercurrents: The Reception of Islam and Translation of the Qur’ān in Twentieth-Century Japan.” Journal of Asian Studies 73(3):619–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Xiaoqing Diana. 2014. “Creating Modern Chinese Metaphysics: Feng Youlan and New Realism.” Modern China 40(1):40–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu Xiaoqing. 2009. “Writing as Translating: Modern Chinese Women's Writing in the Early Twentieth Century.” PhD diss., University of South Carolina.Google Scholar
Jin, Lü 呂進. 1982. Xin shi de chuang zuo yu jian shang 新詩的創造與鑑賞 [On creation and appreciation of new poetry]. Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe.Google Scholar
Chen, Mao. 2010. “In and Out of Home: Bing Xin Recontextualized.” In Asian Literary Voices: From Marginal to Mainstream, ed. Williams, Philip F., 63–70. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Dun, Mao 茅盾. 1984. “Bing Xin lun” 冰心論 [Comments on Bing Xin]. In Bing Xin yanjiu ziliao 冰心研究資料 [Research on Bing Xin], ed. Boqun, Fan, 244–58. Beijing: Beijing chubanshe.Google Scholar
Maxey, Trent Elliott. 2014. The “Greatest Problem”: Religion and State Formation in Meiji Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, distributed by Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nedostup, Rebecca. 2009. Superstitious Regimes: Religion and the Politics of Chinese Modernity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, distributed by Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pennington, Brian K. 2005. Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Qin, Amy. 2016. “Tagore Translation Deemed Racy Is Pulled from Stores in China.” New York Times, February 2.Google Scholar
Qiubai, Qu 瞿秋白. 1989. “Taigeer de guojia guannian yu dong fang” 泰戈爾的國家觀念 [Tagore's view of the nation-state and the East]. In Wu si qian hou dong xi wenhua wenti lun zhan wen xuan 五四前後東西文化問題論戰文選 [Selections from the Eastern culture/Western culture controversy before and after the May Fourth], ed. Song, Chen, 628–35. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Raud, Rein. 2006a. “Philosophies versus Philosophy: In Defense of a Flexible Definition.” Philosophy East and West 56(4):618–25.Google Scholar
Raud, Rein. 2006b. “Traditions and Tendencies: A Reply to Carine Defoort.” Philosophy East and West 56(4):661–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saaler, Sven, and Szpilman, Christopher W. A, eds. 2011. Pan Asianism: A Documentary History, Vol. 2, 1920–Present. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 2005. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. New York: Picador.Google Scholar
Sen, Tansen. 2016. “The Belittling of Tagore by Chinese Novelist.” Times of India, January 22.Google Scholar
Shepard, William O. 1914. “Christianity and the New Orient.” Methodist Review, September:718–34.Google Scholar
Yixue, Sun 孫宜學. 2005. Taigeer yu Zhongguo 泰戈爾與中國 [Tagore and China]. Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 1917. Personality. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 1922. Creative Unity. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 1925. Talks in China: Lectures Delivered in April and May 1924. Calcutta: Visva-Bharati.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 2004. Nationalism / Rabindranath Tagore & Manabendranath Roy. Kolkata: Renaissance.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 2011. The Essential Tagore. Edited by Alam, Fakrul and Chakravarty, Radha. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 2015. Fei niao ji [Stray birds]. Translated by Tang, Feng. Hangzhou: Zhejiang wenyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Van der Veer, Peter. 2009. “Spirituality in Modern Society.” Social Research 76(4):1097–1120.Google Scholar
Van der Veer, Peter. 2014. The Modern Spirit of Asia: The Spiritual and the Secular in China and India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tongzhao, Wang 王統照. 1923. “Taigeer de sixiang yu qi shige de biaoxiang” 泰戈爾的思想與其詩歌的表象 [The thought and poetics of Tagore]. Xiaoshuo yuebao 14(9):1–16.Google Scholar
Liming, Wei. 2011. “Historical Significance of Tagore's 1924 China Visit.” In Tagore and China, eds. Chung, Tan et al. , 13–43. New Delhi: Sage Publications India.Google Scholar
Williams, R. John. 2014. The Buddha in the Machine: Art, Technology, and the Meeting of East and West. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Lawrence Wang-chi. 2008. “Lions and Tigers in Groups: The Crescent Moon School in Modern Chinese Literary History.” In Literary Societies of Republican China, eds. Denton, Kirk A. and Hockx, Michel, 279–312. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Mingxu, Xiao 肖明舒. 2015. “Feng Tang chong yi Fei niao ji: Shi geng ju shi yi hai shi xie du?” 馮唐重譯《飛鳥集》 ：是更具詩意還是褻瀆？ [Feng Tang's retranslation of Stray birds: A better poetic embodiment or blasphemy?]. Tianjin wang chengshi kuaibao, December 25. http://cul.qq.com/a/20151205/010133.htm (accessed November 26, 2017).Google Scholar
Zhimo, Xu 徐志摩. 1923. “Tai shan ri chu” 泰山日出 [Sunrise over Mount Tai]. Xiaoshuo yuebao 14(9):1–2.Google Scholar
Zhimo, Xu 徐志摩. 1993. Xu Zhimo quan ji bu bian 徐志摩 全集補編 [The complete works of Xu Zhimo, supplemented]. Xianggang: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Mengya, Yang 楊萌芽. 2006. “Taigeer fanghua yu ershi shiji Zhongguo wentan” 泰戈爾訪華與二十世紀中國文壇 [Tagore's visit to China and the Chinese literary circle in the 1920s]. Zhongzhou xuekan 154(4):212–16.Google Scholar
Yeats, W. B. 1913. “Introduction.” In Gitanjali, vii–xxi. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Zanasi, Margherita. 2015. “Frugal Modernity: Livelihood and Consumption in Republican China.” Journal of Asian Studies 74(2):391–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeng, Qiong. 2011. “Tagore's Influence on the Chinese Writer Bing Xin.” In Tagore and China, eds. Chung, Tan et al. , 255–72. New Delhi: Sage Publications India.Google Scholar
Guanglin, Zhang 張光璘. 1994. Zhongguo ming jia lun Taigeer 中國名家論泰戈爾 [Famous Chinese writers on Tagore]. Beijing: Zhongguo huaqiao chubanshe.Google Scholar
Huaizong, Zhou 周懷宗. 2015. “Feng Tang chong yi Taigeer shi ji bei ping shi dui Taigeer de ‘xie du’” 馮唐重譯泰戈爾詩集被評是對泰戈爾的褻瀆 [Feng Tang's retranslation of Tagore criticized as “blasphemy” against Tagore]. Beijing chenbao, November 25. http://book.sina.com.cn/news/a/2015-11-25/0928778737.shtml (accessed November 26, 2017).Google Scholar