Bertolt Brecht's China Culture

Brecht's youth coincided with the translation and publication of China's classical philosophical works such as The Book of Changes, The Tao Te Ching, The South China Classic, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and Mozi by German sinologists, which aroused the extensive interest of intellectuals. The expressionist poets' persistent interest in China's ancient poems at the beginning of the century has become a typical German phenomenon in modern European literature. Hans bethe Ting's China Flute, Otto Hauser's Li Taibai, Albert Allen Stein's Yellow Melody and Crabbe's Tang poems are all widely circulated. Composer Mahler's symphony "Song of the Earth" and isler's oratorio "Anti-War" were both written by China's ancient poems, and China's Yuan Zaju also attracted the attention of German writers at the turn of the century, such as Crabbe's translation and adaptation of Li Daodao's "Grey Lange", which was performed at the German Theatre in Berlin from 65438 to 0925, which played an important role in promoting the development of Weimar drama in China period. It is in China's ancient philosophy, poetry and drama that Brecht dabbled extensively and left a deep impression on his literary creation.

During Brecht's exile in Denmark from 65438 to 0937, in order to overcome the prevailing artistic thinking habit of sticking to Aristotle's "representative theory" and promote the reform of western aesthetic concepts, with the help of arthur waley's English version of 170 Poems of China, seven poems of China were translated and published in the German magazine The Speech published in Moscow. This is a literary activity with his dramatic innovation. In the process of translation, he showed his sincere preference for Bai Juyi's allegorical poems, such as "New Yuefu" and "Qin Zhongyin", which attacked the disadvantages of the times and sympathized with the sufferings of the people. He appreciated Bai Juyi's artistic idea of taking poetry as "teaching method", especially the artistic effect of Bai Juyi's poems, which made the rich gentry and powerful people "look at each other and change their colors" and made the farmers and shepherds feel familiar. Bai Juyi's poetic thought and artistic style influenced Brecht's poetic creation. What's more, during his exile, he created "war textbooks" and other "irregular rhyming poems". Obviously, Tao Te Ching and Mo Jing (Lun Jing, Lun Jing, Lun Jing, Take the Big and Take the Small by Jimo Zi) are characterized by concise words and profound and sharp contents.

From the mid-1920s, he began to read a lot of China's classical philosophical works while accepting Marxist theory. According to his musician friend isler, "In the late 1920s and early 1930s, China's classical philosophy gave him a great influence, of course, as an ideological inspiration." Especially Mozi's social ethics left a deep impression on him. In his view, many of Mozi's thoughts are very similar to some modern western philosophical thoughts, and some even communicate with Marxist theory, so some German scholars directly call Mo Zhai a "socialist". In the ancient philosophy of China that he has read, he has a soft spot for Mozi, just as he prefers Bai Juyi's poems. In the long years of exile, wherever Brecht went and read, he took a copy of Gefeng Mozi with him, and wrote a lot of reading essays in a typical China philosophical style to express his understanding of current philosophical debates and political events. This is the book Mozi/Yijing published behind him. When reading Brecht's works, readers often find two very striking phenomena.

First of all, his plays generally absorb the elements of China's operas, such as comic books, self-confession, correcting names, wedging and singing, and are often based on China's operas. For example, his educational drama "Exceptions and Agreements" is based on the story frame of Zhang Guobin's drama "With Sweaters", in which Chen Hu kills the benefactor Zhang Xiaoyou and takes his wife. Sichuan Good Man is adapted from Guan Hanqing's drama Save the Wind and Dust. Brecht has repeatedly used the story frame of "grey aperture to solve the case" four times: the first time he wrote the short story "Little Elephant" of the script "Man is Man", the second time he wrote "grey aperture" by Danish odense (unfinished), and the third time he wrote the Swedish short story "grey aperture in augsburg".

Secondly, there are often some ingenious brushstrokes related to China's classical philosophy in his plays, which attract the special attention of readers and audiences. For example, the lyrics of Triangle Money Opera are based on Mozi's and Mencius' exposition on the relationship between human ethics and property. Once it was staged, it had a sensational effect on the audience. The phrase "eat your stomach first, then talk about morality" has suddenly become a mantra for young people to express their dissatisfaction with reality in the streets and lanes. The lyrics of the first scene of "Bold Mother and Her Children": "Whoever wants to live by war will give things to war" not only pokes the theme of the wound, but also indicates that the three children of the bold mother will be killed because of "terrible characteristics". These thoughts from Zhuangzi, Lieyukou and Stealing Feet once shocked the hearts of western audiences with the concise and profound wisdom and vividness of oriental languages. During the Second World War, the 1938 editions of Biography of Galileo and Biography of Shuaike have obvious traces of the meaning of the Book of Changes, namely, "avoiding divination" and "revealing divination". People can clearly see the texts that practice the strategy of "being firm inside and soft outside" and "keeping a low profile and keeping a low profile" in Galileo and Shuaike. Unfortunately, so far, researchers have neglected to explain the relationship between Brecht and Yijing. Another example is Laozi's "weakness is better than strength", and Confucius' thought of "correcting one's name" has a wonderful artistic interpretation in Brecht's poems and essays.

In addition, Brecht also studied the artistic function of "blank space" in Chinese painting to overcome the naturalistic tendency of western aesthetic concepts. He listened to isler's music "15 Ways to Describe Rainfall" and came to the conclusion that music is like China's ink painting. Wherever Brecht goes, China's paintings and sometimes his calligraphy works are always hung in his library, which is extremely rare among European intellectuals. In order to study China's music, he listened to the recording of The Seven Fairies, and he came to the conclusion that China's music, like Arabic music and Jewish national music, is "epic music". In order to study the performance art of China's drama, he watched Mei Lanfang's performance in Moscow at 1935. During his exile in the United States, he went to a Cantonese opera theater in Chinatown every night accompanied by a China, and he was interested in learning the performing arts, music accompaniment, stage decoration and theater effects there. The first collection in Brecht's archives is a woodcarving "revival" statue he bought from Chinatown in the United States. Its triumphant image with open arms inspired Brecht's creative enthusiasm. He had planned to write an opera "Journey to Rejuvenation" featuring Rejuvenation, to express the legitimacy of human pursuit of happiness. It's a pity that he left in such a hurry that he didn't finish writing before, leaving only four auspicious songs. What is even more surprising is that in his later years, his opening is a Chinese metaphor. His friends all remember that when he talked about how to deal with the disadvantages under the socialist system, he said without thinking: I have a horse, one leg is lame and the other leg is blind, but it is my horse, and I only have this horse; When people talked about the wrong attitude towards Stalin, he blurted out: I can't cut off my foot just to prove that I am a good knife and axe hand. These metaphors and wisdom of China philosophers often surprise friends. Brecht has never been to China, but he knows a lot about China culture. People familiar with him found that Brecht had the humility and kindness of China intellectuals in his later years. This is obviously the result of his long-term acceptance of China culture.