Byron, George Gordon

Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip's travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819).
Byron's knowledge concerning the Chinese went little beyond what was available in the writings of the early European missionaries who had visited China.
Er schreibt :
"Just as a mandarin finds nothing fine,
At least his manner suffers not to guess
That any thing he views can greatly please.
Perhaps we have borrow'd this from the Chinese."
"Or seen Timbuctoo, or hath taken tea
In small-eyed China's crockery-ware metropolis."

Liang, Qichao. Xin Zhongguo wei lai ji. [ID D21903].
Darin enthalten sind kurze Auszüge aus : The giaour : a fragment of a Turkish tale and The Isles of Greece von George Gordon Byron.
Chu Chih-yu : Liang Qichao did his translation with the help of his student Luo Chang, who interpreted for him orally. The translation of The Isles of Greece, short and incomplete as it is, had a great influence on the younger generation of the time. All the contemporary translators of the poem read and admired Liang's translation and were influenced by it to a greater or lesser extent. Lu Xun was strongly affected 'intellectually and emotionally' by reading it ; Su Manshu ranked it above Ma Junwu's version ; Hu Shi was so impressed by the beauty of diction that he almost gave up his own effort half way.
Liang Qichao found in Byron the political reformer he needed to promote his political principles and ideas. He adopted the pattern of the lyrical songs of Yuan drama.

Byron, George Gordon : Allgemein
Chu Chih-yu : The first period of the Chinese reception of Byron starts from the beginning of the 20th century to around 1919, when the May fourth movement broke out. As the publications during this period bear a strong influence of Japanese scholarship, we may call it 'the Japanese period'. May fourth to 1949 may be called 'the European period. 1949-1959, when the Chinese swallowed wholesale the Russian-Soviet interpretation of Byron and his work, was the 'Soviet period'. Chinese academics always studies Byron in the context of the struggle between two opposing political forces. Byron was no longer a lone fighter, but a representative of a new political power, the rising radical democratism. Nor was his work merely the expression of his thought and the venting of his personal feelings. It was also the resentment and protest of the broad labouring masses against reactionary reality. Byron's contemporaries' adverse criticism and contemnation of him were looked upon as the manifestation of the reactionary classes' fear and hatred for the progressive forces.
From 1960 to the beginning of the Cultural revolution, the Sino-Soviet split brouth great ideological changes. As a result, the study of Byron took an ultra-Leftist path, we can call this 'the Maoist period'. After the Cultural revolution, the study of Byron in China fell into a state of confusion, but gradually began moving towards the West again.

1902-1914 : The early translators introduced The Isles of Greece to China, to a great extent, out of political considerations. They intended to borrow this new image of Byron to awaken the Chinese people's love for freedom and justice, to encourage the oppressed to overthrow their feudal rulers. Liang Qichao found in Byron the political reformer he needed to promote his political principles and ideas. Lu Xun saw him as a revolutionary rebel-poet who could breathe some new air into Chinese literature. Su Manshu viewed him as an example in everything he did and vented his own longings and despair in translations. Liu Bannong added filial devotion, a quality the Chinese have held a virtue since ancient times.
The Isles of Greece expresses a kind of patriotic spirit and rebellion that the passive resistance of the traditional Chinese poet could never reach. Above all, Byron had a special appeal for the Chinese translators primarily because of his sacrifice for the Greek independent cause. Byron's image and spirit, deep down, coincided with that of the traditional patriotic scholar. His rebellion and heroism provided a handy model, one which could serve as a 'catalyst' of political and social reform, of democracy and the cause of national independence.

1976-1985 : Since the essay by Anna Elistratova, the comments on the Turkish tales had usually been negative in China. But in the eighties we find a general confusion. From the perspective of class analysis, one scholar pointed out that Byronic heroes are 'in nature out-and-out egoists split off from the bourgeois aristocracy' (Zhang Yaozhi). This mainly referred to Conrad in The corsair and Lara : 'Restricted by his bourgeois world outlook, Byron fails to expose Conrad's nature of the bourgeois aristocracy who make their fortunes by piracy. Instead, he concentrates his efforts on presenting Conrad as having a bourgeois humanitstic virtue'. (Zhu Weizhi and Zhao Feng). Most of the critics rejected the individualism Byron advocated through his heroes. As for the source of Byron's individualism, it was determined by the limitations of the times - 'the rise of the English proletariat was still in its early rising stage – or it was 'determined by the bourgeois ideas of Byron's world outlook'.
Manfred was looked upon in China as the summit of the development of Byron's individualism and pessimism. The image of Manfred was generally described as 'a free, independent but pessimistic rebel who defies any danger and temptation and never forsakes his dignity'.
The profilic output of Byron's Italian period was customarily attributed by Chinese critics to his participation in the Italien revolutionary movement. Cain, written in Italy, was highly thought for its realistic meaning, as the play 'expresses Byron's concern for the fate of the European peoples in the recationary political conditions under the rule of the Holy Alliance. The year 1812, when Cain was created, was the year of the feudal restoration in European countries. Whether it was the poet's real intention or not, the Chinese critics believed that Byron, to counter the renewed power and authority of the Church, re-interpreted the bibliocal story from a revolutionary point of view. In the Chinese view, Cain and Lucifer are both positive heroes. Cain is a reaction against an 'anti-social, anti-human' religion and a protest against 'a religious mythology which imposes upon the people an attitude of submission the the 'status quo' and to their fate.
Don Juan was the best received of Byron's works in China, because it exhibits the creative mode which the Chinese hold in the highest esteem, the combination of 'revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism'. The first and foremost content the Chinese critics pointed throughout the satire to Byron's strong antipathy towards and denunciation of the reactionary forces headed by the Holy Alliance, and his eulogy of freedom. In general, Don Juan was hailed as a progressive epic satire which punctured the arrogance of the reactionaries and enhanced the morale of the bourgeois democratic forces. In sum, Chinese studies of Don Juan lack more comprehensive reseach, they fail to treat the poem as a poetic entity.

Byron's popularity in China has lain primarily in his participation in the Italian independence movement and his last heroic actions in Greece. The rebllion against social conventions revealed in his works greatly enhanced his reputation, but without his final sacrifice for the Greek independence cause, the poetry alone of a poet as morally flawed as Byron could not have had such a great impact. His poetry was introduced to China as the moral poetry of a moral poet. As a poet, Byron attracted the Chinese literati because he expressed openly the kind of rebellion that the passive resistance of the traditional Chinese poet could never reach. The Chinese introduction of Byron as a person has been highly selective, again to serve particular purposes. The fundamental reason for this selectivity, I believe, is that a complete picture of Byron, complete with all the controversies he stirred up in England, would not conform to the Chinese standards of a hero. If 'the complete Byron' is a combination of man, poet, rebel-fighter and thinker, the Chinese paid more attention to him as rebel-fighter and thinker. His poetic works were discusses only if they shed light on his heroic deeds and his thought.

Guo Ting : From 1890 to 1930 Byron enjoyed his greates popularity in China for almost half a century. Especially in 1924, Byron's centenary year, several articles and whole issues of journals, written or compiled, were devoted to him. Moreover, in China, the interpretation of Byron's achievement and aristocratic background was slightly different from what was perceived in Japan. In China, Byron's early fame in English society was less talked about ; instead, the poverty that Byron experienced in his childhood and his being excluded by the English upper classes were associated with his determined resistance to tyrannical rules and oppression. Thus, despite his title of Baron, Byron became the spokesman of the poor and the oppressed in the eyes of the Chinese public.
Byron became an alleged hero, who also wrote poetry, rather than a poet by profession and reputation. China's confucian culture and feudalistic ideology formed in the past centuries also contributed to a filtering of Byron's image as well as to a selective translation of his works. This explain why certain poems of Byron were repeatedly translated in a fairly short period, but other more romantic and rebellious works were overlooked for a long time, and why, in China, Byron could for so long enjoy the image of an idealist and passionate nationalist. As a Western romantic poet, Byron was presented as a nationalist and well-educated writer, aware of the Chinese poetic tradition, through archaic translation.
During the period from 1944 to 1966, the romantic side of Byron was more emphasized, and his works such as The corsair, Dun Juan and Childe Harold's pilgrimage were translated. During the Cultural revolution, translation of Byron's works was completely halted. Byron's romantic poems were excluded because of his Western capitalist background.
The situation changed in 1949, the classical poetics that had been used in the translation of Byron's works were supplanted by those of modern Chinese poetry, which allow a freer form and places less emphasis on rhyme and meter. This change came with the “New culture movement”, in which classical Chinese language was gradually abandoned, and was replaced by 'baihua'.
Influence from both individual critics and literary organizations on the translation of Byron in China are particularly important, given the limited translations of Byron's work and the reputation that he developed in a fairly brief span of time. For many Chinese literati, the focus was not to review translations, but to support and reinforce Byron's established heroic image by adding or emphsizing certain information on the writer and his works. A few Chinese literary organizations, such as the Chu ang zao she (Creative Society) and Wen xue yan jiu hui (Literature Study Society), had given Byron and his works a pssionate welcome in the early 20th century.
Nowadays, in a majority of the textbooks compiled for students studying English literature, Byron is listed as an important poet in the romantic period (along with other writers, such as William Blake, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelles and John Keats). Like these other poets, Byron is often given a brief introduction outlining his background, accompanied by excerpts from his poems. But almost all these introductions and excerpts tend to represent and emphasize Byron as a progressive poet standing for the proletariat and human liberty.

Gregory B. Lee : The reason for Byron's enthusiastic reception in a China faced with the high tide of British imperialist ambition, is perhaps yet more complex than a straighforward approval of Byron's alliance with Greeks independantists, of his defence of the marginalized, colonized subject. Two 19th century events connected by the role of one British ruling family, yet separated in space and time by six decades and a whole continent, arte both well-known to millions of Chinese readers ; yet only one of these is embedded in Green national consciousness.
For the Chinese reader of the early 20th century, and in objective historical terms, the words penned by Byron had become even heavier with meaning. British imperialism had entered a new expansionist and territorialist phase and its ideological disdain for the Other, especially the Other of colour, knew few bounds.

Liang, Qichao. Yin bing shi wen ji lei bian [ID D26457].
Liang schreibt : "Byron loves freedom above anything else. He seems to have been born a great writer and a lover of Greece... he died in the Greek army fighting for the independence of Greece. He can be regarded as the first great hero among writers. He worte The giaour to encourage the Greek people, but it sounds to us now as if the passage were addressed to China."
"Also the poem is the voice of a subjugated nation, it gives the reader the needed encouragement and power. It seems that every word of it is addressed to the Chinese people of today."

[Byron, George Gordon]. Ai Xila ge. Ma Junwu yi. [ID D26395].
Chu Chih-yu : Ma Junwu could read Byron in the original. One of the outstanding features of his translation of The Isles of Greece is its readability, or 'singability'. Although he made a number of mistakes, innocent or intentional, in many places his version reads better and smoother than others. The influence of Ma's version, and of The Isles of Greece itself, is also reflected in the earliest history of English literature.
The major theme of Byron's poem The Isles of Greece is to recall the past glories and lament the present degeneration of the Greeks. Ma Junwu's version stresses this theme, faithfully conveying the original idea. But, as his title suggests, he over-emphasized the melancholy aspect of the poem. In fact he was reading his own feelings into Byron's verse. In the short preface, he says, "Alas ! Byron lamented the fate of Greece, and we are too busy lamenting ourselves". If Byron's poem contains heroism, melancholy, and sarcasm, In Ma Junwu's translation the sad mood permeates the whole poem, and sarcasm fades into the background. Ma Junwu's translation of the couplet is more inspired and creative than Su Manshu's and Hu Shi's versions, for it is authentic and beautiful Chinese poetry ; and it is also closer to the original in sense.
Ma Junwu borrowed the image of Byron to 'lament' the fate of his country'. He used septisyllabic lines with occasional variations.

Lu, Xun. Mo luo shi li shuo = On the power of Mara poetry. [ID D26228]. [Auszüge].
Lu Xun erwähnt George Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Walter Scott, John Keats, Friedrich Nietzsche, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henrik Ibsen [erste Erwähnung], Nikolai Wassil'evich Gogol, Platon, Dante, Napoleon I., Ernst Moritz Arndt, Friedrich Wilhelm III., Theodor Körner, Edward Dowden, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, John Locke, Robert Burns, Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, Adam Mickiewicz, Sandor Petöfi, Wladimir Galaktionowitsch Korolenko.

Lu Xun schreibt :
"He who has searched out the ancient wellspring will seek the source of the future, the new wellspring. O my brothers, the works of the new life, the surge from the depths of the new source, is not far off". Nietzsche...
Later the poet Kalidasa achieved fame for his dramas and occasional lyrics ; the German master Goethe revered them as art unmatched on earth or in heaven...
Iran and Egypt are further examples, snapped in midcourse like well-ropes – ancient splendor now gone arid. If Cathay escapes this roll call, it will be the greatest blessing life can offer. The reason ? The Englishman Carlyle said : "The man born to acquire an articulate voice and grandly sing the heart's meaning is his nation's raison d'être. Disjointed Italy was united in essence, having borne Dante, having Italian. The Czar of great Russia, with soldiers, bayonets, and cannon, does a great feat in ruling a great tract of land. Why has he no voice ? Something great in him perhaps, but he is a dumb greatness. When soldiers, bayonets and cannon are corroded, Dante's voice will be as before. With Dante, united ; but the voiceless Russian remains mere fragments".
Nietzsche was not hostile to primitives ; his claim that they embody new forces is irrefutable. A savage wilderness incubates the coming civiliization ; in primitives' teeming forms the light of day is immanent...
Russian silence ; then stirring sound. Russia was like a child, and not a mute ; an underground stream, not an old well. Indeed, the early 19th century produced Gogol, who inspired his countrymen with imperceptible tear-stained grief, compared by some to England's Shakespeare, whom Carlyle praised and idolized. Look around the worls, where each new contending voice has its own eloquence to inspire itself and convey the sublime to the world ; only India and those other ancient lands sit motionless, plunged in silence...
I let the past drop here and seek new voices from abroad, an impulse provoked by concern for the past. I cannot detail each varied voice, but none has such power to inspire and language as gripping as Mara poetry. Borrowed from India, the 'Mara' – celestial demon, or 'Satan' in Europe – first denoted Byron. Now I apply it to those, among all the poets, who were committed to resistance, whose purpose was action but who were little loved by their age ; and I introduce their words, deeds, ideas, and the impact of their circles, from the sovereign Byron to a Magyar (Hungarian) man of letters. Each of the group had distinctive features and made his own nation's qualities splendid, but their general bent was the same : few would create conformist harmonies, but they'd bellow an audience to its feet, these iconoclasts whose spirit struck deep chords in later generations, extending to infinity...
Humanity began with heroism and bravado in wars of resistance : gradually civilization brought culture and changed ways ; in its new weakness, knowing the perils of charging forward, its idea was to revert to the feminine ; but a battle loomed from which it saw no escape, and imagination stirred, creating an ideal state set in a place as yet unattained if not in a time too distant to measure. Numerous Western philosophers have had this idea ever since Plato's "Republic". Although there were never any signs of peace, they still craned toward the future, spirits racing toward the longed-for grace, more committed than ever, perhaps a factor in human evolution...
Plato set up his imaninary "Republic", alleged that poets confuse the polity, and should be exiled ; states fair or foul, ideas high or low – these vary, but tactics are the same...
In August 1806 Napoleon crushed the Prussian army ; the following July Prussia sued for peace and became a dependency. The German nation had been humiliated, and yet the glory of the ancient spirit was not destroyed. E.M. Arndt now emerged to write his "Spirit of the Age" (Geist der Zeit), a grand and eloquent declaration of independence that sparked a blaze of hatred for the enemy ; he was soon a wanted man and went to Switzerland. In 1812 Napoleon, thwarted by the freezing conflagration of Moscow, fled back to Paris, and all of Europe – a brewing storm – jostled to mass its forces of resistance. The following year Prussia's King Friedrich Wilhelm III called the nation to arms in a war for three causes : freedom, justice, and homeland ; strapping young students, poets, and artists flocked to enlist. Arndt himself returned and composed two essays, "What is the people's army" and "The Rhine is a great German river, not its border", to strengthen the morale of the youth. Among the volunteers of the time was Theodor Körner, who dropped his pen, resigned his post as Poet of the Vienne State Theater, parted from parents and beloved, and took up arms. To his parents he wrote : "The Prussian eagle, being fierce and earnest, has aroused the great hope of the German people. My songs without exception are spellbound by the fatherland. I would forgot all joys and blessings to die fighting for it ! Oh, the power of God has enlightened me. What sacrifice could be more worthy than one for our people's freedom and the good of humanity ? Boundless energy surges through me, and I go forth ! " His later collection "Lyre and sword" (Leier und Schwert), also resonates with this same spirit and makes the pulse race when one recites from it. In those days such a fervent awareness was not confined to Körner, for the entire German youth were the same. Körner's voice as the voice of all Germans, Körner's blood was the blood of all Germans. And so it follows that neither State, nor Emperor, nor bayonet, but the nation's people beat Napoleon. The people all had poetry and thus the poets' talents ; so in the end Germany did not perish. This would have been inconceivable to those who would scrap poetry in their devotion to utility, who clutch battered foreign arms in hopes of defending hearth and home. I have, first, compared poetic power with rice and beans only to shock Mammon's disciples into seeing that gold and iron are far from enough to revive a country ; and since our nation has been unable to get beyond the surface of Germany and France, I have shown their essence, which will lead, I hope, to some awareness. Yet this is not the heart of the matter...
England's Edward Dowden once said : "We often encounter world masterpieces of literature or art that seem to do the world no good. Yet we enjoy the encounter, as in swimming titanic waters we behold the vastness, float among waves and come forth transformed in body and soul. The ocean itself is but the heave and swell of insensible seas, nor has it once provided us a single moral sentence or a maxim, yet the swimmer's health and vigor are greatly augmented by it"...
If everything were channeled in one direction, the result would be unfulfilling. If chill winter is always present, the vigor of spring will never appear ; the physical shell lives on, but the soul dies. Such people live on, but hey have lost the meaning of life. Perhaps the use of literaure's uselessness lies here. John Stuart Mill said, "There is no modern civilization that does not make science its measure, reason its criterion, and utility its goal". This is the world trend, but the use of literature is more mysterious. How so ? It can nurture our imagination. Nurturing the human imagination is the task and the use of literature...
Matthew Arnold's view that "Poetry is a criticism of life" has precisely this meaning. Thus reading the great literary works from Homer on, one not only encounters poetry but naturally makes contact with life, becomes aware of personal merits and defects one by one, and naturally strives harder for perfection. This effect of literature has educational value, which is how it enriches life ; unlike ordinary education, it shows concreteley a sense of self, valor, and a drive toward progress. The devline and fall of a state has always begun with is refusal to heed such teaching...
[The middle portion of this essay is a long and detailed description of Lu Xun's exemplary Mara poets, including Byron, Shelley, Pushkin, Lermontov, Michiewicz, Slowacki and Petöfi].
In 18th-century England, when society was accustomed to deceit, and religion at ease with corruption, literature provided whitewash through imitations of antiquity, and the genuine voice of the soul could not he heard. The philosopher Locke was the first to reject the chronic abuses of politics and religion, to promote freedom of speech and thought, and to sow the seeds of change. In literature it was the peasant Burns of Scotland who put all he had into fighting society, declared universal equality, feared no authority, nor bowed to gold and silk, but poured his hot blood into his rhymes ; yet this great man of ideas, not immediately the crowd's proud son, walked a rocky outcast road to early death. Then Byron and Shelley, as we know, took up the fight. With the power of a tidal wave, they smashed into the pillars of the ancien régime. The swell radiated to Russia, giving rise to Pushkin, poet of the nation ; to Poland, creating Mickiewicz, poet of revenge ; to Hungary, waking Petéfi, poet of patriotism ; their followers are too many to name. Although Byron and Shelley acquired the Mara title, they too were simply human. Such a fellowship need not be labeled the "Mara School", for life on earth is bound to produce their kind. Might they not be the ones enlightened by the voice of sincerity, who, embracing that sincerity, share a tacit understanding ? Their lives are strangely alike ; most took up arms and shed their blood, like swordsmen who circle in public view, causing shudders of pleasure at the sight of mortal combat. To lack men who shed their blood in public is a disaster for the people ; yet having them and ignoring them, even proceeding to kill them, is a greater disaster from which the people cannot recover...
"The last ray", a book by the Russian author Korolenko, records how an old man teaches a boy to read in Siberia : “His book talked of the cherry and the oriole, but these didn't exist in frozen Siberia. The old man explained : It's a bird that sits on a cherry branch and carols its fine songs”. The youth reflected. Yes, amid desolation the youth heard the gloss of a man of foresight, although he had not heard the fine song itself. But the voice of foresight does not come to shatter China's desolation. This being so, is there nothing for us but reflection, simply nothing but reflection ?

Ergänzung von Guo Ting :
Byron behaved like violent weaves and winter wind. Sweeping away all false and corrupt customs. He was so direct that he never worried about his own situation too much. He was full of energy, and spirited and would fight to the death without losing his faith. Without defeating his enemy, he would fight till his last breath. And he was a frank and righteous man, hiding nothing, and he spoke of others' criticism of himself as the result of social rites instead of other's evil intent, and he ignored all those bad words. The truth is, at that time in Britain, society was full of hypocrites, who took those traditions and rites as the truth and called anyone who had a true opinion and wanted to explore it a devil.

Ergänzung von Yu Longfa :
Die Bezeichnung Mara stammt aus dem Indischen und bedeutet Himmelsdämon. Die Europäer nennen das Satan. Ursprünglich bezeichnete man damit Byron. Jetzt weist das auf alle jene Dichter hin, die zum Widerstand entschlossen sind und deren Ziel die Aktion ist, ausserdem auf diejenigen Dichter, die von der Welt nicht sehr gemocht werden. Sie alle gehören zu dieser Gruppe. Sie berichten von ihren Taten und Überlegungen, von ihren Schulen und Einflüssen. Das beginnt beim Stammvater dieser Gruppe, Byron, und reicht letztlich hin bis zu dem ungarischen Schriftsteller Petöfi. Alle diese Dichter sind in ihrem äusserlichen Erscheinungsbild sehr unterschiedlich. Jeder bringt entsprechend den Besoderheiten des eigenen Landes Grossartiges hervor, aber in ihrer Hauptrichtung tendieren sie zur Einheitlichkeit. Meistens fungieren sie nicht als Stimme der Anpassung an die Welt und der einträchtigen Freude. Sobald sie aus voller Kehle ihre Stimme erheben, geraten ihre Zuhörer in Begeisterung, bekämpfen das Himmlische und widersetzen sich den gängigen Sitten. Aber ihr Geist rührt auch tief an die Seelen der Menschen nachfolgender Generationen und setzt sich fort bis in die Unendlichkeit. Sie sind ohne Ausnahme vital und unnachgiebig und treten für die Wahrheit ein… Nietzsche lehnt den Wilden nicht ab, da er neue Lebenskraft in sich berge und gar nicht anders könne, als ehrlich zu sein. So stammt die Zivilisation denn auch aus der Unzivilisation. Der Wilde erscheint zwar roh, besitzt aber ein gütmütiges Inneres. Die Zivilisation ist den Blüten vergleichbar und die Unzivilisation den Knospen. Vergleicht man jedoch die Unzivilisation mit den Blüten, so entspricht die Zivilisation den Früchten. Ist die Vorstufe bereits vorhanden, so besteht auch Hoffnung.

Sekundärliteratur
Yu Longfa : Lu Xun befasst sich zwar nicht ausführlich mit Friedrich Nietzsche, aber auf der Suche nach dem 'Kämpfer auf geistigem Gebiet', dessen charakteristische Eigenschaften, besonders die Konfiguration des Übermenschen, macht er ausfindig. Lu Xun ist überzeugt, dass die Selbststärkung eines Menschen und der Geist der Auflehnung kennzeichnend für den Übermenschen sind. In Anlehnung an den Übermenschen zitiert er aus Also sprach Zarathustra : "Diejenigen, die auf der Suche nach den Quellen des Altertums alles ausgeschöpft haben, sind im Begriff, die Quellen der Zukunft, die neuen Quellen zu suchen. Ach, meine Brüder, die Schaffung des neuen Lebens und das Sprudeln der neuen Quellen in der Tiefe, das dürft wohl nicht weit sein !"

Tam Kwok-kan : Earliest reference to Henrik Ibsen. This is the first Chinese article that discusses in a comprehensive manner the literary pursuits of the Byronic poets. Lu Xun ranks Ibsen as one of these poets and compares the rebellious spirit exemplified in Ibsen's drama to Byron's satanic tendency. Lu Xun had a particular liking for the play An enemy of the people, in which Ibsen presented his ideas through the iconoclast Dr. Stockmann, who in upholding truth against the prejudices of society, is attacked by the people. Lu Xun thought that China needed more rebels like Ibsen who dared to challenge accepted social conventions. By introducing Ibsen in the image of Dr. Stockmann, the moral superman, together with the satanic poets, Lu Xun believed that he could bring in new elements of iconoclasm in the construction of a modern Chinese consciousness. As Lu Xun said, he introduced Ibsen's idea of individualism because he was frustrated with the Chinese prejudice toward Western culture and with the selfishness popular among the Chinese.

Chu Chih-yu : Lu Xun adapted for the greater part of Mara poetry his Japanese sources (Kimura Katataro), he also added some of his own comments and speculations.

Guo Ting : Given Lu Xun's leading position in the Chinese literary field at that time, his defense of Byron was powerful and set the overarching tone for the time of Byron when he was first introduced to Chinese readers.

Liu Xiangyu : On the power of Mara poetry itself is an expression of Byronism to 'speak out against the establisment and conventions' and to 'stir the mind'. Lu Xun criticized traditional Chinese culture and literature.

[Byron, George Gordon]. Bailun shi xuan. Su Manshu [ID D23321].
Chu Chih-yu : Su Manshu was the first important Byron translator ; his life was characterized by a mixture of melancholy, nostalgia, delicate sentimentalism, and revolutionary enthusiasm ; his seemingly neurotic behaviour and disarming personality had an aura of fascination about them ; and finally, his poems manifest a unique personal freshness as well as a sort of 'modern flavour' in keeping with admiration and deliberate self-identification with Byron. Su Manshu once described Byron's poems as being "like a stimulating liquor – the more one drinks, the more one feels the sweet fascination". The reason why he enjoyed Byron's work can be explained by the similarities between their peronalities and experiences. In the Turkish conquest of Greece, Su saw a parallel to the subjugation of China by the Manchus against whom he fought bravely in his youth. Being a man with a strong national pride, he was immensely impressed by the relevance of the spirited poem to his time and felt inspired by Byron's heroic militant efforts in Greece. In his translation, he interpreted Byron's poem to utter his own views about his people and the fate of his country. During the time when he did the translation, he was a lonely wanderer in Japan, distressed by his fate and that of his country which was still under the corrupt rule of the Manchus. There was not a single soul upon whom he could rely for comfort and understanding. It was natural that the pathetic exile, Childe Harold, would arouse his nostalgic feelings and The Isles of Greece incite his nationalistic indigation. Essentially, his enjoyment and translation of Byron were compensatory. He turned to Byron as if to a pre-existen pattern of his own suffering which afforded him both self-expression and catharsis.
Su Manshu voiced his personal feelings and sentiment in the translation. He rendered his version in pentasyllabic regulated verse.

Su, Manshu. Tao Yuan xuan yan. In : Min li bao (21. Juli 1913).
Er schreibt : "In the old days, when Greece was fighting for its independence, the English poet Byron joined in the military actions of the Greeks, wrote poems to encourage them and lamented their past glory, saying, 'Greece ! Change thy lords, thy state is still the same ! Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thy years of shame'."

Letter from Guo Moruo to Cheng Fangwu (1924).
"I cannot help admiring Byron when I think of his heroic death far away from his homeland. Yet considering the fact that he is a noble, a wealthy and happy noble, I realize his world does not belong to me at all."

Xu, Zuzheng. Bailun de jing shen [ID D26463].
Xu schreibt : "When commemorating a [foreign] poet, we naturally want to understand his real world. Just empty and matter-of-fact biographical sketches will not do ; to lump together some free translation of foreign criticism is meaningless. At least we should study and introduce his poems, such as translate and annotate [his poetry] before we can fully appreciate him."
Xu Zuzheng pointed out the contemporary relevance of the study of Byron in China. He was not only dissatisfied with the mere translation of Western materials about Byron, he was disappointed with the reality of literary developments in China.

100. Todestag von George Gordon Byron.
In April 1924 over twenty literary magazines in China produced special sections on Byron, carrying over fifty memorial articles and about a dozen new translations of Byron's poetry in addition to the numerous passages cited in the articles. Many articles or translations were published in more than one magazine at the same time. The most prominent were Xiao shuo yue bao, Chuang zao yue kan and Chen bao.

Liang, Shiqiu. Bailun yu lan man zhu yi [ID D26464].
Liang schreibt : "Byron represents an extremist rebellious spirit. Let's look at his portrait : dishevelled curly hair ; brilliant eyes looking as if they could penetrage all the vanity of life ; head held high, back straight, as if ready to fight the world. Don't they vividly embody his rebellious spirit ?"

Xu, Zhimo [Bailun]. [ID D26491].
The first essay is by Xu Zhimo. It is a poet's personal admiration for and appreciation of the English hero expressed in lyrical prose, an eulogy of Byron's physical beauty and romantic sentiments with passages from Byron's poetry incorporated into it with or without the author's translations.
Xu Zhimo schreibt : "Byron stands on the beach of Missolonghi. The sea undulates in the setting sun. Before him is a bleak evening scene : no human traces, only a stretch of sand, several shabby huts, ruins of ancient temples, two or three grey pillars, a few broad-winged sea-gulls hovering in the sky. He stands on the beach, recalling the glories of ancient Greece : literature of Athens, valour of the Spartans ; the colour of the evening hue has not faded over the past two thousand years, but the souls of freedom have not left a trace. He stands there alone, thinking of his own life."

Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 15, no 4 (1924).
Zum 100. Todestag von George Gordon Byron.
Zheng Zhenduo schreibt in der Einleitung : "We love writers of genius, especially great rebels. That is why we prise George Gordon Byron, not only for his preeminent genius but for his impassioned rebellion which moves us more deeply than his poetry. He is indeed one of the supreme rebels of modern times, rebelling against the devil who suppresses freedom and against all hypocritical and pseudo-moralistic societies. Byron is the exception to the rule that poets owe their immortality to their works."

Jiang, Jiayan. Bailun de lang man shi [ID D26465].
Er schreibt : "True, we should encourage revolutionary literature ; but, we do not need to oppose literature about [life's] depression and love. It has its own eternal value. Just let those who enjoy it study it. The sentimental and passionate works of Byron, Shelley, Dante, and Goethe have their eternal value. And now their works will be considered inferior because the authors were not proletarians. Isn'it that writers of the first and second classes are being oppressed by the proletariat ? I shall have to appeal on their behalf."

Wang, Tongzhao. Bailun shi zhong de se jue [ID D26459].
Er schreibt : "From the colours he used, we see mountains exuberant and murky, seas vast and gloomy ; we see even more of the wounded heart of the young poet, bathed in flowers of blood, struggling in the great, profound, dark and gloomy nature. Is this Wordsworth's scenery full of friendly creatures ? Is this the nature meticulously and leisurely analyzed by Keats ? No, it is Byron's own. This is the dark, deep colour rising from Byron's broad, gloomy heart, covering all his impressions of mountains, seas, forests, ripples and flowers, animals and humans."
Chu Chih-yu : The idea, argument, and examples – except the general tone and conclusion – are taken from the Byron chapter of Pratt, Alice Edwards. The use of color in the verse of the English romantic poets. (Chicago, Ill. : University of Chicago Press, 1898). He noted that in his early poems, Byron particularly favoured several colous of the eyes, hair and skin, and loved the 'dark-blue deep'. And here he summed up the characteristics of Byron's immature poetry : first, 'the meagerness and conventionality of colouring' ; secondly, 'his interest in Man was not as great as in Nature' ; and thirdly, 'his love for the hues of large expanses of water'.

[Brandes, Georg]. [Bailun]. Zhang Wentian yi. [ID D26458].
Zhang Wentian translated the Byron section in the book of Georg Brandes' Main currents in 19th century literature in Chinese.
Brandes schreibt : "It is probable that the subject of love between brother and sister was one often discussed by Shelley and Byron. What incensed Byron more than anything else was the pious horror displayed by the orthodox Bible Christians, one article of whose faith it is that the human race, as descended from one man and woman, multiplied by means of marriage between brother and sister."
Chu Chih-yu : Brandes attributed Byron's loneliness and his erratic behaviour to genetic factors : "thus the poet [Byron] had wild blood in his veins". This view was readily accepted by Chinese scholars. Wang Tongzhao wrote "Genetics has become one of the important sciences” and most of Byron's neurotic behavious was “inherited from his mother". Gan Naiguang argued : "If we ascribe Byron's romantic character to the society, then we underestimate the power of genetics". The term 'romantic character' used by Wang Tongzhao refers to 'uncontrollable passion' or simply to Byronism in its broadest sense. Byron's lifestyle, his spirit of revolt, his passion, impulsiveness, restlessness, indignation, revenge, cynicism, etc. It may seem superficial for the Chinese to have simply borrowed from Brandes whatever he had to say about Byron. But this borrowing demonstrates respect not so much for Brandes as for a totally new and scientific approach to literature hitherto absent in Chinese criticism. Georg Brandes' interpretation of Byron's fortunes in England, both literary and personal, was conveyed faithfully to Chinese readers, although few of the Chinese writers acknowledged their sources. He accredited the fall of Byron's reputation, not unustifiably, to his wife and the general public, and most of all to other jealous writers. It is true that Byron's marriage [with Annabella Milbanke] was a big mistake.
The Chinese are more circumspect in dealing with matters like incest. It is obvious, that almost every contribution of Xiao shuo yue bao had read Brandes' book, or at least the chapters on Byron. But they all avoided touching on this sensitive subject directly. Xi He mentioned the separation briefly and his only comment was : "Generally speaking, English society resented Byron's conduct and sympathized with Annabella Milbanke". Wang Tongzhao's version was more ambiguous : "Byron returned to London to find, to his surprise, that he was attacked without reason by the blind public". Gan Naiguang put the blame on Miss Milbanke but his argument was hardly convincing. He observed that the English reasonably expected Miss Milbanke to be able to tame the wild horse [Byron] once they were married, but that Miss Milbanke did not prove equal to the heavy task. She was a woman who observed the so-called moral principles of the time ; she was upright but unfeeling. She never sinned but she never forgave. Gan's article was basically a free translation of passages from Hippolyte Adolphe Taine's History of English literature. Transl. From French into English by J. Scott Clark. (New York, N.Y. : Colonial Press, 1900).

Liu, Runsheng. Bailun zhuan lue de pian duan [ID D26460].
Liu schreibt : "Byron's mother was a talented and moral lady with a noble and pure mind. She tried her best to educate her son, so most of Byron's knowledge was learnt from her. This was the most fortunate thing in Byron's life. Without it he would never have been as great as he has become today."

Liang, Qichao. Xin Zhongguo wei lai ji. In : Xin xiao shuo ; no 1-3 (1902).
Enthält kurze Auszüge aus : Byron, George Gordon. The giaour : a fragment of a Turkish tale. (London : Printed by T. Davison, Whitefriars, for John Murray, 1813) ; Byron, George Gordon. The Isles of Greece. In : Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip's travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819). [Englisches Original und Übersetzung].
新中国未来记

[Byron, George Gordon]. Ai Xila ge. Ma Junwu yi. In : Xin wen xue (1905). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. The Isles of Greece. In : Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip’s travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819).

[Byron, George Gordon]. Bailun shi xuan. Bailun ; Su Manshu yi. (Buxiang : Bian zhe zi kan, 1914). [Übersetzung der Gedichte von Byron ; in Englisch und Chinesisch]. [Foreword by W. J. B. Fletcher, dated Oct. 6, 1909].
[Enthält] :
Qu guo xing. Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. My native land, good night. (London : Printed & sold by Chappell & Co., 1820).
Liu bie Yadian nü lang. Huang Kan yi. Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Maid of Athens, ere we part. [Geschrieben in Athen 1810].
Zan da hai. Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. The ocean Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean. In : Byron, George Gordon. Childe Harold's pilgrimage : a romaunt. (London : Printed for John Murray, 1812).
Da mei ren zeng shu fa men dai shi. Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. To a lady who presented the author with the velvet band which bound her tresses. In : Byron, George Gordon. Hours of Idleness : a series of poems. (Newark, S. & J. Ridge, 1808). [Geschrieben 1806].
Ai Xila. Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. The Isles of Greece. In : Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip’s travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819).
拜伦诗选

[Byron, George Gordon]. Ai Xila. Hu Shi yi. (1914). In : Hu, Shi. Chang shi ji. (Shanghai : Ya dong tu shu guan, 1920). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. The Isles of Greece. In : Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip’s travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819).

[Byron, George Gordon ; Shelley, Percy Bysshe]. Haluo'erde de lü xing ji qi ta. Bailun, Xuelai zhu ; Yuan Shuipai, Ran Fang [et al.] yi. (Chongqing : Wen chen she, 1944). (Wen zhen xin ji ; 1). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Childe Harold's pilgrimage : a romaunt. (London : Printed for John Murray, 1812). [Übersetzung der Gedichte von Byron und Shelley ; erste vollständige Übsetzung von Childe Harold's pilgrimage].
哈羅爾德的旅行及其他

[Byron, George Gordon]. Hai dao. Bailun ; Du Bingzheng yi. (Shanghai : Shanghai wen hua gong zuo she, 1949). (Yi wen cong shu ; 5). Übsetzung von Byron, George Gordon. The corsair : a tale. (London : J. Murray, 1814).
海盗

[Byron, George Gordon]. Gai yin. Bailun ; Du Bingzheng yi. (Shanghai : Wen hua gong zuo she, 1950). (Wen hua gong zuo she yi wen cong shu). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Cain : a mystery. (London : John Murray, 1821).
该隐

[Byron, George Gordon]. Kelin si de wei gong. Bailun ; Du Bingzheng yi. (Shanghai : Shanghai wen hua gong zuo she, 1951). (Yi wen cong shu ; 6). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Siege of Corinth : a poem. (London : Printed for John Murray, 1816).
可林斯的围攻

[Byron, George Gordon]. Manfuleide. Liu Rangyan yi. (Shanghai : Ping ming chu ban she, 1955). (Xin yi wen cong kan). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Manfred : a dramatic poem. (London : John Murray, 1817).
曼弗雷德

[Byron, George Gordon]. Qia'erde Haluo'erde you ji. Bailun zhu ; Yang Xiling yi. (Shanghai : Xin wen yi chu ban she, 1956). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Childe Harold's pilgrimage : a romaunt. (London : Printed for John Murray, 1812).
恰尔德哈洛尔德遊記

[Byron, George Gordon]. Tang Huang. Bailun zhu ; Zhu Weiji yi. (Shanghai : Xin wen yi chu ban she, 1956). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip's travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819).
唐璜

Shi jie qi da ming zuo jia lun. Meng Zhideng yi. (Taibei : Taibei xian yong he zhen, 1960).
世界七大名作家論
[Enthält Kommentare über] :
Tuo'ersitai = Leo Tolstoy
Qi da ming zuo jia wei Bailun = George Gordon Byron
Manshufeier = Katherine Mansfield
Huazihuasi = William Wordsworth
Mobosang = Guy de Maupassant
Gongsidang = Benjamin Constant
Hekesilei = Thomas Henry Huxley
Qiaoyishi = James Joyce

[Byron, George Gordon]. Tang Huang. Bailun zhu ; Zha Liangzheng yi, Wang Zuoliang zhu. (Beijing : Ren min wen xue chu ban she, 1980). (Wai guo wen xue ming zhu cong shu). Übersetzung von Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan ; with a biographical account of Lord Byron and his family ; anecdotes of his Lordhip's travels and residence in Greece, at Geneva, & c. : canto III. (London : Printed for William Wright, 1819).
唐璜

Liu, Bannong. Bailun yi shi. In : Xin qing nian ; vol. 4, no 2 (1916). [Biographie von George Gordon Byron].
[Enthält] : Übersetzung eines Briefes von Byron und eine Übersetzung eines Teils von Byron, George Gordon. The giaour : a fragment of a Turkish tale. (London : Printed by T. Davison, Whitefriars, for John Murray, 1813).
拜伦 譯詩

[Maurois, André]. Bailun de tong nian. Tang Xirui yi. (Shanghai : Shanghai liang you tu shu yin shua gong si, 1936). (Liang you wen ku ; 13). Übersetzung von Maurois, André. Don Juan; ou, La vie de Byron. (Paris : B. Grasset, 1930). [Übersetzung von Kap. 1-13].
拜崙的童年

[Brandes, Georg]. Shi jiu shi ji wen xue zhi zhu chao. Shi Heng yi. Vol. 1-6. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan fa xing, 1936-1937). (Zhong shan wen ku). Übersetzung von Brandes, Georg. Hovedstromninger i det 19de Aarhundredes Litteratur : forelaesninger holdte ved Kjobenhavns Universitet. (Kjobenhavn : F. Hegel, 1872-1890). = Brandes, Georg. Die Hauptströmungen der Litteratur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. (Leipzig : Barsdorf, 1872-1897). Bd. 1 : Die Emigrantenliteratur / mit einem Generalregister versehen. Bd. 2 : Die romantische Schule in Deutschland. Bd. 3 : Die Reaktion in Frankreich. Bd. 4 : Der Naturalismus in England : die Seeschule Byron und seine Gruppe. Bd. 5 : Die romantische Schule in Frankreich. Bd. 6 : Das junge Deutschland. = Brandes, Georg. Main currents in nineteenth century literature. Transl. from Danish into English by Diana White and Mary Morison. (London : William Heinemann, 1923).
十九世紀文學之主潮
= [Brandes, Georg]. Bailun ping lun. Qiaozhi Bolanduisi zhu ; Shi Heng yi. (Shanghai : Guo ji wen hua chu ban she, 1948). [Biographie von George Gordon Byron].
拜倫評傳