Professor Tan Yuan from Huazhong University of Science and Technology visited School of Foreign Languages (SFL) and delivered a lecture entitled as Goethe and Chinese Poetesses: a New Perspective in the SFL lecture hall on Nov. 14, 2014. Professor Mo Guanghua, dean of the department of German, presided over the lecture.
Two questions were cast at the audience at the very beginning of the lecture: Is it true that the previous studies on Goethe have covered every aspect, leaving us little room for significant academic discovery? How to locate a new breakthrough point as to the study on Goethe? Prof. Tan Yuan reminded the Chinese scholars of taking advantage of their Chinese background to achieve what the German scholars may not be able to when studying Goethe or German literature. It’s the new perspective that made his lecture Goethe and Chinese poetesses come into being. Having quoted from Goethe upon world literature, Prof. Tan related Goethe to Chinese literature with Goethe’s comments on the novel Turandot. The exposure to Chinese literature works such as The Fortunate Union, Poetic Genius and The Song of a Hundred Beautiful Women enabled Goethe to recognize the significance of Chinese literature to German literature. Focused on The Song of a Hundred Beautiful Women, Prof. Tan further elaborated the theme of the lecture: Goethe and Chinese Poetesses.
The editor of The Song of a Hundred Beautiful Women compiled biographical sketches of one hundred beautiful women in ancient China as well as their poems. Goethe chose four sketches and their corresponding poems to translate, naming them respectively as Fräulein See-Yaou-Hing, Fräulein Mei, Fräulein Fung-Sean-Ling, and Kae-yuen. During his translation, Goethe added his creative touch and comments to the content of the original text. The comparison between the original text and Goethe’s translated version gave us insight into how Goethe comprehended and accepted Chinese literature. Prof. Tan then put forward his argument that Goethe believed that Chinese people are closer to nature, or in other words, China itself is nature. Goethe’s interest in Chinese poetesses was also shown by the change of the title of his translated version: from The Loveliest Ladies to Chinese Poets, and finally to Chinese Poetesses.
Why did Goethe show special preference to Chinese poetesses? First, let’s follow Prof. Tan to compare the poetesses’ status in Germany with that in China in Goethe’s time. With Goethe’s Egmont and the story of Luise Brachmann (the German’s Sappho) as examples, Prof. Tan illustrated vividly the sensation over female geniuses and the harsh discrimination against women through their unhappy marriage depicted in German literature works as well as from woman writers’ miserable fate. On the other hand, the talented Chinese women enjoyed the equality in social status and reputation, such as Weng Hongyu, the protagonist in IU-KIAO-LI (Sir G. T. Staunton 1821). Second, we should give concerns to the different breakthrough made in their mindset by Chinese Poetesses and German ones. In brief, Chinese literature works provided Goethe with a window from which he caught a glimpse of the oriental literature world shining with a large number of talented women.
At the end of the lecture, Prof. Tan reminded the audience that Chinese literature did influence German literature in some sense, which is well depicted by Goethe’s interest in Chinese poetesses. During the Q&A session, Prof. Tan gave generous suggestions on literature study, stressing the importance of first-hand source and encouraging more effective sharing and debating in academic research.
Prof. Tan Yuan: a Prof. of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HZUST). He earned his Master’s degree of German literature in Fudan University, Doctor’s degree of German literature and Post-doctorate experience in Georg-August-University of Göttingen. His research orientations are German literature and translation history. He is the director of Goethe Institute of China, dean of the School of German of HZUST, secretary general of HZUST German Center, and Ph. D supervisor of the comparative study on Chinese and foreign languages and cultures. His academic achievements include 2 monographs, over 20 academic papers and 10 national-level research projects. In 2011, he was selected in Talents Support Program of 21st Century sponsored by Ministry of Education of China. In 2012, he was granted the honorable title of Huazhong Scholars.