The Enlightening Spirit In Modern Chinese Historical Drama

In the field of the studies of the modern Chinese drama, the macro studies of the modern Chinese historical drama have not been initiated yet. On the basis of a large collection of historical materials, this dissertation aims to make a grave excavation and particular analysis of the production of modern Chinese historical drama and its theories, put forward a series of new concepts and categories and some original theoretical viewpoints, and draw some illuminative conclusions, which will prove to be of pioneering significance for the studies of modern Chinese drama.Inspired by the ideas of history and drama of Gustav Freytag,the author of this dissertation asserts that there exist two modes of thinking, historical dramatization and dramatic"historicization"(cause to be or to be like the history), in the production of historical drama. Correspondently, there are two modes of writing in the production of the modern Chinese historical drama. Affected by the social ideology, the writing mode of dramatic"historicization"had been attached great importance to since 1940s, and it had gradually become extreme, absolute, and overly conceited. In 1960s such mode resulted in the two principles for the production of historical drama, historicism and"making the past serve the present", which became the dogmatism ever since for the production of historical drama. On the contrary, the mode of historical dramatization has not been fully recognized and interpreted in theory although it is the right mode of dramatic production and theoretical criticism, and it has gained great achievements in the production of the modern Chinese historical drama. In the contest between the two modes of historical dramatization and dramatic"historicization", the spirit of enlightenment developed, pervaded in the production of historical drama, and guided the direction of the development of modernity of historical drama.The spirit of enlightenment, the nature of which is the rational spirit of suspicion, criticism, and negation, symbolizes modernity of modern Chinese society. In the production of historical drama, modernity of the subjective spirit of the playwright is the premise of the guarantee of the modernity of historical drama. The literary producer has to depend upon the exertion of his/her subjectivity, so as to select and process historical materials, criticize and negate the feudal ideas of history, and excavate and develop historical spirit. The modern indication of subjectivity in the creation of modern historical drama is the subject's holding and application of the enlightening spirit. The May-4th historical drama is the drama of"reversing the verdict", in which the playwright reads history and interprets the ancients at the basic point of humanity of the enlightening spirit, so that the viewpoint of"trueness"in the creation of historical drama turns from the classical"objective trueness"to the modern"subjective trueness". The enlightening spirit in the reversing-the-verdict drama and the modernity in the psychological-historical drama have laid the foundation of the development of modern Chinese historical drama. The enlightening spirit of pursuing subjective trueness in the May-4th historical drama was greatly elevated and developed in the production of historical drama in 1940s. In the 1980s when the playwright had broken through the bondage of the dogmas of"historicism"and"making the past serve the present", the historical drama returned to the May 4th spirit of enlightenment, and therefore the legality of the subject of the playwright was established. The spirit of enlightenment that was full of characteristics of the times helped playwrights produce brilliant achievements in the field of historical drama.The spirit of enlightenment is the intrinsic spirit of the development of modernity of modern Chinese historical drama. However, the author of this dissertation holds that the development of the modernity has undergone difficult development fighting against the"anti-modernity". In the creative principles and critical discourse that had been fashioned since 1940s there exist elements on the contrary to enlightenment and modernity. The existence of the contempt for the subjective spirit of the playwright left room for the invasion of feudal thought, which would greatly corrode modernity of the historical drama. The particular period of 1950s and 1960s is a case in point, during which the negation the enlightening spirit brought on the interruption of the development of modernity of the historical drama. The author of this paper finds that the creative principle of"historicism"and the critical principle of"making the past serve the present"of the modern Chinese historical drama resulted from the paradigm of the writing thought of the dramatic"historicization". The viewpoint of verisimilitude of such principles is of classical configuration, contrary to the grain of the spirit of enlightenment. The fundamental cause which brought about the anti-modernity in the historical drama in 1950s and 1960s is that the subjective spirit of the writer was replaced and subverted by the political discourse of the pragmatic ideology. As a result of that, the writer lost his/her independent consciousness as an individual, critical spirit of historical reason was shaded by the"modern spiritual obscuration", the historical drama became the tool for singing the praise of a certain individual or group, and the character of modernity in historical rational criticism was expropriated. This is a lesson worthy of deeply pondering.