The Study Of Chinese And Western Revenge Literature’s Types

Revenge is a human act that is in retaliation for those who harm one’s self-interest orfeelings. In this sense, revenge literature can be seen as a general term of any genre ofliterature related to a great amount of the description concerning revenge. The research onrevenge literature has multifaceted significance in philosophy, psychology, sociology andaesthetics. In view of different hatred conceptions from China to the West, the revenge ofChina’s culture pays more attention to the physical destruction while the West focuses moreon the spiritual level. In consequence, basing on the literature review both at home andabroad, this paper attempts to compare the humanity differences between Chinese andWestern revenge literature departing from the classification of the genres, a new angle tostudy the revenge literature. It is considered that the Chinese and Western revenge literaturecan be studied from the four genres which are different from the previous classifications inthe revenge literature, i.e. the circular revenge, family-obligation revenge, unequivocalrevenge and moral revenge.The Chinese and Western works representing the circular revenge are Outlaws of theMarsh, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, andMoby Dick. The works talking about the family-obligation revenge are the revenge works ofWu Zixu, the Orphan of the Chao Family, Colomba, El Cid, Swords, Field, and Revenge.The literature works concerning unequivocal revenge are the Chinese martial arts novels inold and contemporary times, Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers. The worksrelating to moral revenge are A Woman’s Revenge, part works of The Decameron, Oresteia,Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Medea and Romeo and Juliet.Basing on the research into the classifications of the genres of the revenge literature, theconclusions are drawn as follows taking the impact of the Confucius and Mencius thoughtson China and that of the Christianity on the West, as well as the various hatred conceptionsfrom China (physical destruction) to the West (spiritual revenge). The circular revenge inChina is embodied as the form of physical destruction which was popular but is graduallynot recognized while considered as the interactive and undesirable feedback of human instinct for survival by the Western researchers. The family-obligation revenge emphasizesrather the necessity and consequence of the revenge in China due to the feudal ethics thanthe salient entangled human nature in the process of the revenge in the West. Theunequivocal revenge manifests seek for the good human nature and the praise on the justiceof human nature no matter in Chinese or Western revenge literature. The moral revenge bestdisplays the great impact of the Chinese traditional values on the human nature, which alsobest represents the profound pursuit for the spiritual revenge in Western literature. Thewriters of both Chinese and Western revenge literature express their reflections on therevenge act via the delicate descriptions about the revenge, showing the reflections of thehumanitarian reflection and concern. They inspire the readers to reflect through thedescription of the devastation of the hatred, the cruelty and the depression of the revenge.They demonstrate the profound comprehension and tolerance of human nature by depictingthe revenge plots full of the revengers’ psychological contradictions and literate tension.They show their humanitarian sympathy to both the revengers and the victims. They alsoexpress their aesthetic pursuit for the social justice, kindness and love through the socialreality of the revenge stories.The writers of the revenge literature spots the potentiality of excavating human naturein the revenge act, by which they integrate the conception of human nature and humanitarianconcern into their works. The brilliance of the human nature embedded in the humanitarianconcern is not only the highlight of the value of the revenge literature, but also thesignificance of the research on the genres of the Chinese and Western revenge literature.