Shakespeare And Of Drama Aesthetics

Shakespeare of Elizabeth is a gifted playwright, and Tang Xianzu of Ming Dynasty is honored as Shakespeare in China. Though they lived in the same era, western and eastern culture that they were effected by are quiet different. This paper will analyze their similarities and differences in dramatic aesthetics by using Chinese and western aesthetic methods. This can be quite useful in making deeper understanding of the two great figures. The paper can be divided into two parts: the introduction which includes era background, religious and philosophical influence, and the body.They both lived in an age when old feudal social and economic order was being destroyed and a new capitalist society was being born. At that time, democratic liberation campaign in the field of thoughts was springing up. Under such circumstances, Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu's dramatic aesthetic thoughts came into being. After the dark Middle Ages of Europe, Shakespeare was greatly influenced by Christian doctrines. While Tang Xianzu who lived in the later part of Ming Dynasty was influenced by the doctrine of Confucius and Mencius and also effected by Buddhism and Taoism. So we should examine their dramatic aesthetic theory according to their religious influences. In Shakespeare's drama, he showed keen interest in the activities of humanity. People ceased to look upon themselves as living only for God and a future world. Humanism reflected the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class. According to the humanism, man could mould the world according to his desires, and attain happiness by removing all external checks by exercise of reason. Humanism is also a key-note of Tang Xianzu's dramatic aesthetic theory.The body can be divided into four parts, which includes the relation between sense and sensibility, the theme of love first, the creation of female images and the sentiment of romanticism. Emotion is human's nature whose force can't be prevented. In traditional western aesthetic consciousness, the affection of reason is in the leading position, and has penetrated people's aesthetic interest. The conflict of aesthetics between sense and sensibility in Shakespeare's drama mainly displays in the following:to fight for love liberty and marital autonomy, the hero and the heroine fight with religious asceticism , feudal patriarchy of arranged marriage, feudal family hatred and family status idea. According to Tang Xianzu, the reason of dramatic aesthetics is the basic social ideology in the later part of feudal society. He dares to set lust against reason, dares to confirm that lust is the objective law of life which is quite different from reason in feudal sense. At the time of Confusion school of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming Dynasties, Tang Xianzu dares to create something new and original. He is a real fighter. As their final purpose of religious belief is quite different: Christianity believes in the other shore while Confucianism believes in this shore. That is one's culture is secular , the other is religious. So Shakespeare's sensibility is spiritual longing while Tang Xianzu's lust is more worldly. Gender differences in patriarchy society is beneficial for males. In the eyes of a male, female's whole value lies in her sexual function. So a woman's chastity is the most important factor in her life. At the birth of Christian, it goes to its other extreme point. The key feature of its religious doctrine is " origin sin", which set target against women. Shakespeare takes women as equal which shows progressive attitude of the bourgeoisie at that time. In the past dynasties in China, the ruling class put similar emphasis on this notion. In the drama Mu Danting, female is more active and pressing than male in search of love. Knowing the real nature of human being, Tang Xianzu treated man and woman as equal. Their female images of both Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare express their aesthetic humanism and at the same time, showing their favorable morality and ideal. We can see that the two great dramatists use romanticism methods to express the...