The tradition of Chekhov 's images in Xia Yan 's plays

Li Syan PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Department of History of Russian Literature, Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moskovskaya Oblast' oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Leninskie Gory, 1 lisaxiang2021@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The acute topical questions and related discussions that the great playwright Chekhov and the characters of his plays asked more than a hundred years ago still affect us. In his dramaturgical works, Chekhov in a sense expresses reflections on social reality, national spirit and human destiny in a more significant historical framework. His constant close interest in drama forces us to look into the nature of his plays, to study their language again and again.

Dialogues between Chekhov's heroes are similar to debates, in which a certain we (not just some spectator or reader) unwittingly acts as one of the parties to the dispute. We (the text image, the author's image, the reader's image) interact with each other, and in this way, a common question of different generations is put forward: how do we reconcile with life?

Classics are inexhaustibly deep, and this depth is predetermined by a kind of return of the author's ideas to the life experience of readers and viewers of different eras, one way or another connected with the classical heritage. This heterogeneous life experience does not highlight the subjectivity of modern individualism, but helps us to search for a new "I" without an individualistic subjective shade, and any such "I" can become a unique new identity of a certain era. Each generation (readers and viewers or playwrights, actors and directors) has its own idea of Chekhov's drama that meets the needs of its time. "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", "Cherry Orchard", etc. live in various interpretations endlessly passed from generation to generation.

The tradition of Chekhov's images also penetrates into the works of modern playwrights, both Russian and foreign. This reflects the influence of Chekhov's drama on the work of modern playwrights, as well as the development and changes of the Chekhov tradition in the works of foreign playwrights in different historical and cultural conditions. Chekhov's drama will play an important role in the development of modern Chinese drama. Chekhov's dramatic masterpieces occupy an integral place in the creation of modern Chinese playwrights. The influence of Chekhov's drama on their creation of plays is mainly manifested in the development of the theme of the plays, the portrayal of characters and the formation of a dramatic style. In this article we will analyze in detail and interpret the depiction of the tradition of Chekhov's images in the works of the famous Chinese playwright Xia Yan.

Xia Yan (1900-1995), whose real name is Shen Naixi, is a famous Chinese playwright and public figure, one of the pioneers of the "new culture movement" of China. Chekhov and Xia Yan have many subtle similarities in creating drama. In the dramatic works of two playwrights of different times and countries, realism constantly generates an artistic force, from which we are deeply aware: "what a great practical force boils under the elegance, simplicity and ordinariness of the plays of Chekhov and Xia Yan" ^{[2, p. 607]}. Next, we will find the Chekhov tradition in Xia Yan's plays by comparing the characters in the works of the two writers.

The character of Chekhov's drama is doomed to experience a certain amount of suffering. In relation to the essence of his experiences, such types of actors can be distinguished as a disappointed person (e.g., Platonov in the play "Fatherless"; Ivanov from the drama of the same name), a resigned person (e.g., Sonya in the play "Uncle Vanya"), a person endlessly waiting (e.g., Olga, Masha, Irina from the drama "Three Sisters"), a fragile, vulnerable hero (for example, Treplev from the comedy "The Seagull"), a person who regrets wasted time (for example, Voinitsky in "Uncle Vanya", Sorin in "The Seagull"), a person leading empty conversations (for example, Vershinin or Tuzenbach from the drama "Three Sisters"), a man who regrets wasted time (for example, Voinitsky in "Uncle Van"), an inactive dreamer who has not yet become a fighter for future happiness (for example, Trofimov in "Cherry Orchard"), etc. In these typical images, in our own way, we see ourselves - all ordinary people in the face of "time".

According to Chinese playwright Jiao Juin, "ordinary people are like chess pieces placed by a huge and invisible hand. This does not mean that most people are fatalists. But it rather suggests that they do not even have a consciousness of fatalism. Life deprives them of consciousness, and torment makes them unconscious. In life, not everyone is reasonable, not everyone has a revolutionary consciousness, and an evil person irrationally does evil, and good behavior is just the result of environmental oppression. In society, everything is intertwined: the sober and the ignorant, the absurd and the just, the noble and the humble, the rational and the stupid, everything is intertwined and becomes a consonance, a symphony... Chekhov's heroes live in this rhythm" ^[8].

Chekhov's dramatic aesthetics is embodied in the everyday life of "ordinary people" depicted in his plays: Chekhov advocates the description of life in accordance with the true face of life: "we need to create a play where people come, go, have lunch, talk about the weather, play screw, but not because the author needs it, but because it happens in real life" ^[1] to reveal the connotation of reality in a calm, objective and simple description of life. Chekhov's realistic dramaturgical concept enlightens and influences the work of the Chinese playwright Xia Yan. Xia Yan's works really show the spiritual difficulties and hopes for the future of ordinary people in Chinese society at different periods in everyday life.

As for the images of ordinary characters in the plays of Chekhov and Xia Yan, it goes without saying that attention should be paid to melancholic intellectuals. These heroes do not belong to a number of characters who are full of self-confidence, or serve as fighters in life, but to a group of small people mercilessly attacked by the waves of time.

Despite the fact that "I want to live like hell...", an intellectual leading empty conversations from Chekhov's drama "Three Sisters", Vershinin does not consider his life as real at all. He is pinning his hopes on an unimaginably beautiful amazing life in the world in two hundred, three hundred years. A character from Xia Yan's play "One Year", a young exile from Northeast China who participated in the student movement, Yu Minyan, is the image of the "Czech Vershinin" who lived in China in the 1930s. Playwright Xia Yan creates the ending for Yu Minyan with death from decline of spirit. Emotionally, he notes that he is "sad to make such a young man die like that" ^[2], but intellectually he feels that this "superfluous person" should be resolutely eliminated, because Yu Minyan is a dreamer with strong words, without practical actions, which actually negatively affects the emotional life of people around him in the play.

Shang Zhihui is the protagonist of Xia Yan's play The Ends of the Earth in the Grass. His words and actions, of course, remind us of Ivanov, the main character of Chekhov's play of the same name "Ivanov". In the plays "Ivanov" and "The Ends of the Earth in the grass" Chekhov and Xia Yan bring out disappointed and depressed heroes – intellectuals in the images of "superfluous people". Ivanov and Shang Zhihui share a similar life path: driven by conscience, they took on too many social responsibilities and quickly failed in a collision with the environment. And then they, tired, exhausted, lonely, unable to cope with the increasing problems of life, blame others for their indifference and suffering. Love cannot save them, turning them into dubious Don Juan; even when they take stock of their past, they will feel a surge of mutual shame and regret. No matter how different their thoughts and political positions are, as they exaggerate their personal pain and forget about the pain and suffering of time, they have to fight alone and end up failing.

In Chekhov's scene from village life in four acts "Uncle Vanya", after graduating from the university, Dr. Astrov, he worked in a remote area, trying to improve the world around him with his own practical work. But the result was not satisfactory. And in Xia Yan's play "Fascist Bacteria", bacteriology specialist Yu Shifu also has a desire to save the world with the help of medicine: previously, a kind bacteriologist immersed himself in research without asking about the world around him; however, then Japanese fascist robbers kicked him out of the laboratory, which forced him to see a devastated world. With the war, not only the spread of natural diseases and artificial bacterial bombs, but the war itself claimed the lives of countless people, which was more harmful than any natural bacteria. This reveals the truth that it is not enough to rely on medicine to save humanity. We must first destroy the "fascist bacteria". Dr. Astrov and Dr. Yu Shifu are intellectuals who understand their mission. They despised the vulgar, philistine and selfish life, trying to open the way to a bright future for humanity with their beautiful ideals and practical work, but they all doubt their beliefs in the plays.

Chinese literary critic Li Jing calls these characters "apostolic images" ^[4]. They are usually lonely workers, but by no means saints: most likely, then with malicious intent, then without any restrictions. These Chekhov images have the power of survival of the weak. Chekhov and Xia Yan focus more on showing the stubbornness and persistence of these typical heroes in their existence. According to Nabokov, Chekhov's helpless intellectual is regarded as an unsuccessful defender of universal truth, who has imposed a burden on himself ^{[5, p. 254]}. «They were silly, weak, futile, hysterical; but Chekhov suggests, blessed be the country that could produce that particular type of man. They missed opportunities, they shunned action, they spent sleepless nights in planning worlds they could not build; but the mere fact of such men, full of such fervor, fire of abnegation, pureness of spirit, moral elevation, this mere fact of such men having lived and probably still living somewhere... is a the promise of better things to come for the world at large–for perhaps the most admirable among the admirable laws of Nature is the survival of the weakest (They broke their own and others' hearts, were stupid, weak, fussy, hysterical; but behind all this, Chekhov can be heard: blessed is the country that managed to give birth to such the human type. They missed opportunities, avoided actions, did not sleep at night, inventing worlds that they could not build; but the very existence of such people, full of fervent, fiery self-denial, spiritual purity, moral height, is one thing that such people have lived and, perhaps, are still living somewhere... – this is the promise of a better future for the whole world, because of all the laws of Nature, perhaps the most remarkable is the survival of the weakest.)" [ibid.]. The character of these characters in Chekhov's plays emphasizes the hopeless situation of the individual, which often turns out to be the norm in our lives. We can understand our own plight by reading Chekhov's dilemma: life is about understanding, overcoming and accepting a difficult situation.

With the professional coldness of a doctor, Chekhov draws laziness ("... the soul is bound by some kind of laziness ..." in the play "Ivanov", d. 1, Ivanov), which brings a subtle mental symptom to the image of the hero ^[4]. As a result, viewers sympathize with a person infected with "mental laziness", at the same time fearing the severity of this disease and the hopelessness of life, and thus want to change themselves. Or rather, this is what Chekhov expects from his audience: "Then a person will become better when you show him what he is..." ^{[10, p. 90]}. This belief separates him from his descendants, the Modernists, who elevate the desperate situation of humanity into a metaphysical status and consider this despair as the unchanging only reality.

In Xia Yan's plays, Chekhov's images have become better: although they were once Chekhov's intellectuals who wavered in faith with a heavy ideological burden, the intellectuals depicted by Xia Yan in the 1930s and 1940s finally found a way to a new life after they experienced painful difficulties. Chekhov Ivanov shot and committed suicide; however, Yu Shifu and Shang Zhihui began a "new life" under the vicious fire of the aggressors. In a sense, Xia Yan develops Chekhov's images and forces them to look for an opportunity "how to continue living" in a new era and in another country.

Most of Xia Yan's plays were created during the War of Resistance against the Japanese Invaders (1931-1945). His dramaturgy reflects the features of the era and really and lyrically depicts the social life and inner world of that time. His main works of this period are plays such as "Under the Roofs of Shanghai" (1937), "One Year" (1938), "Fascist Bacteria" (1942), "Grass Symbolizing Parting" (1944), "Ends of the Earth in the Grass" (1945), etc. Among them, the most representative work with the Chekhov tradition is the drama in three acts "Under the Roofs of Shanghai", influenced by the Chekhov comedy in four acts "Cherry Orchard". The influence of Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard" on the work of Xia Yan "Under the Roofs of Shanghai" consists mainly in weakening the expression of dramatic conflict and the spirit of unconventional comedy. In the construction of the drama Chekhov and Xia Yan have a common realistic aesthetic tendency, but in the works of Xia Yan there is no Chekhov's absurd consciousness. Next, we will systematically analyze the similarities and differences between these two plays.

Firstly, Chekhov's poetic beauty in simple life is reflected in Xia Yan's plays.

The drama "The Cherry Orchard" reveals the poetic beauty contained in a simple life. Chekhov intends to dilute the dramatic plot. Traditional fierce and intense external conflicts have turned into conflicts between people, between people and their own secret hearts, as well as between man and the environment. Chekhov notes that the dramatic effect exists not only in violent and rare conflicts, but also in everyday life: "let everything be as difficult on stage and at the same time as simple as in life, people are just having lunch, and at this time their happiness is composed and their life is broken" ^{[9, p. 420]}.

In Chekhov's new drama, the sale of a cherry orchard, associated with the survival of an old noble family, is used only as a hint on the stage of everyday life. Thus, the cherry orchard quietly passes from the hands of Lyubov Andreevna and Gaev into the hands of Lopakhin. There is no strong conflict in the whole process, and everything is relatively calm.

Chekhov's artistic desire to undramatize and blur the plot also brings a new understanding to the work of the modern Chinese playwright Xia Yan. The drama in three acts "Under the roofs of Shanghai" was created in 1937. In the preface of the play , Xia Yan wrote as follows: "I am deeply dissatisfied and disgusted with a popular drama that focuses on plot and fashion design at the end of this year. Thus, I am painfully reflecting on my dramatic work. I would like to change the desire for "hyperbolic drama" and concentrate on studying more realistic methods of dramaturgy" ^{[7, p. 139]}. Xia Yan's life is closely connected with the political movement, which makes him somewhat too persistent in combining politics and literary creativity, so there is no closeness to real life in his early dramatic work. Most of his early plays were political propaganda pieces. And thinking about these early unsuccessful works in the late 1930s prompted Xia Yan to turn to Chekhov's drama. The drama "Under the Roofs of Shanghai" is the most direct result of his reflection ^{[11, p. 17]}. A gloomy and crowded house in an alley, the cloudy weather of Huangmei – the Chinese rainy period coinciding with the ripening of plums (late spring – early summer), depressed mood and ordinary and trivial everyday life, the events of everyday life and riots between the characters make up a dramatic picture. The dispute between Zhaoshimu and the vegetable seller because Zhaoshimu saved money, the family discord between Huang Jiamei and his wife due to the fact that Huang Jiamei suspected that his wife had disclosed to his old father information about their dilemma of living on loans, as well as the complex painful emotional problems of Kuang Fu, Lin Zhicheng, etc. create a vital and a diverse dramatic atmosphere. In the overcast weather of Huangmei, which envelops the whole play, the unique local landscape in the old Shanghai alley and the cries of merchants, conflicts between people, between people and their hearts, as well as between man and society under enormous pressure are naturally revealed, thanks to which readers easily empathize and think about their own real life.

Thanks to his subtle artistic personality and ability to feel beauty in detail and deeply, Xia Yan extracts the dramatic conflict hidden behind life by describing everyday life in the drama "Under the Roofs of Shanghai". This is quite close to Chekhov's artistic principle of "bringing depth into ordinary life." In the plays "The Cherry Orchard" and "Under the Roofs of Shanghai" Chekhov and Xia Yan show different lives in different countries, at different times and with different characters. In the ordinary and simple description of the two writers, we see their thinking about life and a deep artistic desire to depict painful real life. In the "Cherry Orchard" one hears "a distant sound, as if from the sky, the sound of a broken string, fading, sad"; and "Under the roofs of Shanghai" the Beijing opera repeats: "unfulfilled desires, endless tears" ^{[6, p. 65]}. The musical narrative in the two dramas reflects the inner dramatic effect found in everyday life. To create a lyrical atmosphere in the plays, not only voice narration is used, but also every scene, every action, every gust of rain, every smile, gait and even pause create a poetic, gloomy and bright atmosphere connecting seemingly disparate dialogues between the characters.

Secondly, we see the Chekhov spirit of tragicomedy in Xia Yan's dramaturgy.

Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard" embodies the unconventional spirit of tragicomedy. As noted by the famous writer V.V. Nabokov, "Chekhov's humor... was purely Chekhovian. Things for him were funny and sad at the same time, but you would not see their sadness if you did not see their fun, because both were linked up. (Russian translation: Chekhov's Humor... it was purely Chekhov's. The world is funny and sad for him at the same time, but without noticing its funniness, you will not understand its sadness, because they are inseparable)" ^{[5, p. 252]}.

The owners of the estate are sentimental and sad about the upcoming sale of the cherry orchard, but when Lopakhin offers Ranevskaya the only way out is to divide the land into plots and lease them to summer residents, Lyubov Andreevna complains about the disgusting smell of cigars, while Gaev talks about the railroad and plays billiards. It all seems ridiculous. According to the professor of Nanjing University of China, the inner comic essence of the characters in Chekhov's play lies precisely in the fact that since the characters have a calm attitude to the future, their confidence in continuing life reaches a certain reconciliation with their fate, thus, the characters in Chekhov's drama easily get along with any conditions in life and eventually will find spiritual freedom ^[3].

Chekhov's comic spirit is continued in the play "Under the Roofs of Shanghai", in which Xia Yan describes the gloomy daily life of five ordinary families in an alley. In this atmosphere of tragic drama, the comic manifests itself. For example, Zhao Zhenyu's family lives a poor life on a meager salary and loans. Zhao Zhenyu's humor contrasts sharply with his wife's complaints, which creates a comic effect. Zhao Zhenyu says about life: "people will never be satisfied anyway. If they are not satisfied, they will complain. If they complain, they will be pessimistic. If they are pessimistic, they will harm their body. Why fight against your own body? Therefore, I think: when I am dissatisfied, I compare my life with those who are worse than me, and then everything will be quiet and peaceful ..." ^{[6, p. 94]}. However, Zhao Zhenyu's philosophy of life provokes his wife's ruthless sarcasm: "Only you, worthless, always go down, why not compare with the rich and powerful." [ibid., p. 95] From this dialogue of the characters, we can learn about the optimistic self-consolation and the mutual mocking attitude of ordinary people to their tragic life experience. Another example: Zhaoshimu likes to complain. Sometimes, in order to save two copper coins, she haggles for a long time with the seller of vegetables. One day when her son asked an arithmetic question about savings and wages, she answered: "Savings? Who have them? If you don't get into debt, you live very well! Save money? It sounds like some kind of nonsense." The son said, "It's written in the book. That's it." She was indignant: "What does your book have to do with me?" [ibid., p. 99]. This dialogue is very funny: the son suffers from homework, while the mother is more focused on money. Through such life details, we can comically look at the tragedy of poverty and misery of the Zhaoshimu family. Zhaoshimu's delicate attitude towards money reflects her dissatisfaction with reality, but she has not lost the courage to continue living. She was busy with heavy housework all day, constantly took care of her two children and her husband, and also helped her neighbor Huang Jiamei to look after her children. All this demonstrates that in the harsh reality of poverty, ordinary people – little people in Xia Yan's play are not overcome by difficulties and do not run away from them, but cope with life's difficulties with a more open, self-mocking and optimistic attitude.

In the dramatic works of Chekhov and Xia Yan, characters are more likely to meet suffering with a smile, resolve suffering with a heart full of pain, overcome suffering and endow readers with a comic spirit so that they are optimistic about life. In the Cherry Orchard, the cold has dissipated, and "it's October, and it's sunny and quiet like summer," which carries a happy and condescending view of the future. Anya and Trofimov are representatives of the future in the play. Time will tell whether the future really belongs to them. "Under the roofs of Shanghai" it will also be sunny after a rainy period. Kuan Fu was deeply satisfied and enlightened when he heard the naive and confident singing of his daughter and other children: "I will climb on my own when I fall, and the more I hit the target, the bolder I become. We are brave children and work together to save the country" ^{[6, p. 120]}. In the finale of the play, he came out of this difficult and unhappy place with a smile to start a new life. The loss of the "cherry orchard" is sad, but also full of hope for a future life; the poor and helpless lives of little people under the roofs of Shanghai will one day change.