TAGORE AND CHINA
Gao Huan
The ancient India dazzles the world with its long and brilliant history. The mysterious Harappa Culture, the Vedas, the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata keep reminding us of its splendid past. In the 6th century B.C., an Indian prince (Sakya-Muni) started Buddhism, which spread to other parts of Asia and had a far-reaching influence.
Both located in Asia, India and China went into contact long, long ago. As far back as in the 1st century A.D., Buddhism was introduced to China via the Silk Road. Since then, monks, diplomatic envoys and merchants had been commuting between the two countries, bringing religious and non religious matters to further development.
In the 19th century, India became a British colony. China suffered colonialism and invasion, too. Britain had India and China as plantation and market respectively in the opium trade. For the next hundred years, the two friends seemed to drift apart. In the late 1940s, both won independence after long and arduous struggle for freedom. The fine Sino-Indian relations deteriorated as a result of the armed clash in 1962. But it is said that the territorial disputes are close to being solved now. Anyway, friends will be friends.
Religion, trade and territorial claims always play a big role in the relationship between countries. However, in the early 20th century, when India and China were preoccupied with turmoil, there was one man of letters who served as an envoy of friendship in between, whose power lay in his great literature and the spirits and ideals conveyed through it. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is the name.
Years ago, I was much fascinated by the collection of short poems Stars and Spring Waters. The teacher told me that it was Tagore who inspired the author, Bing Xin. Who was Tagore? I wondered. I digged into books and found an amiable man with a big white beard, whose poems won the Nobel Prize, and more importantly, moved people all around the world.
It is often the case that literature is prosperous when the nation is in trouble. When Tagore��s poems were introduced to China in the 1920s, the New Culture Movement had not started for long. Tagore��s poetic world holds an irresistible sense of beauty of the universe, presents a love of children and simplicity, which appeals to people very much. Then there came many short poems that stylistically and formally resembled those in The Gardener, Stray Birds and Gitanjali. Tagore��s thoughts and feelings, particularly the love and care for children expressed in his poems, influenced the Chinese literature, too. Formerly, children were given little notice in China. In 1918, Lu Xun called out, ��Save the children!�� Tagore��s collection of poems The Crescent Moon and other poems contributed to calling the attention of the Chinese literature to the children. Some writers began to write for them. Among those works, Bing Xin��s Letters to the Little Readers is a pleasure to read for adults as well. It is no exaggeration to say that Tagore really did something to the opening of the Chinese children��s literature.
As a Chinese, I am glad to find that the communication between Tagore and China in terms of literature was not one-way traffic. He first visited China in his thirties for the Chinese classical literature and philosophy. Being an artist as well, he enjoyed and appreciated the traditional Chinese arts. According to a student of his, Tagore said that Li Bai and Du Fu influenced him a lot, though he was only able to read the English translations of the poems.
During his stay in China, Tagore got acquainted with the progressive activities under the reign of Ching Dynasty. (As an anecdote, the famous reformer Liang Qi Chao gave him a Chinese Name ��Zhu Zhen Dan��, ��Zhu�� standing for India and ��Zhen Dan�� for China.) Tagore came to realize that to have a future of their own, the Indian people must be educated in their own way, instead of readily receiving the enslaving inculcation. After he got back, he established the famous Santiniketan School in 1901, which later developed into an important educational institution conducted on unconventional lines, known as the Visva Bharati since 1921.
Tagore was by no means confined in the ivory tower of literature. He was patriotic towards his motherland. He traveled around the world and had a global sight. After the World War I, Henri Barbusse, Tagore, Bertrand Russel, Romain Rolland, Anatole France and other world-famous intellectuals formed Le Groupe Clarle to condemn the invasions of imperialism and support people��s fight for freedom and independence. Always being an internationalist and peace-lover, Tagore didn��t hesitate to denounce the invasive militarism in his speeches during his 1916 visit to Japan, whether he was warmly welcomed or coldly pressured. What he believed was freedom and justice.
In 1924, Tagore visited China and lectured on quite a few occasions, including in Beijing University. He praised the Chinese people for their persistence and self-confidence in face of gunboat policy. He hoped that he was regarded as a brother coming back after long time��s separation instead of simply a visitor. He urged the two peoples to get united again to fight against the oppression inflicted on both. He suggested his Visva Bharati serve as a center of cultural exchange to begin with. Cai Yuan Pei, the educationist, gave this proposal a big hand. Soon the Sino-India Cultural Society was founded and later a Chinese Institute was established in Visva Bharati. The first Chinese student was sent there in1933.
When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Tagore openly supported the Chinese people��s armed struggle against the invaders and censured Japan��s aggression. His belief in justice and freedom was still the same with that in his twenties, when he denounced Britain for carrying out the trade of death by dumping opium on China and poisoning its people, at a rally in Calcutta.
In 1956, Premier Zhou visited Visva Bharati and placed flowers at Tagore��s grave in tribute, highly praising his contribution to the promotion of the friendship between India and China. (He was awarded a doctorate in literature and engaged as an honorary director of the board.) Today, Vista Bharati has become a very important university in India.
Tagore is remembered and revered as a great poet and artist. But the power he has is beyond verses, paintings and melodies. He belongs to the world as well as to India, beyond time and space. Let me quote a few lines of his which depict his life vividly, thus ending this essay:
All the sweet
vintage of all my autumns and summer nights, all the
earnings and gleanings of my busy life, will I place before him at
the close of my days when death will knock at my door.
Written in October 1997 and awarded the second prize of the English Essay Competition for the 50th Anniversary of India��s Independence (co-organized by Fudan University and the Consulate General Of India, Shanghai) in January, 1998
Copyright © Gao Huan All Rights Reserved
��