The poem «Terkin in the Next World» by A. Tvardovsky and the story «Notes from the Spirit World» by Zhang Tian-yi: a dystopian mortal mirror of the political regime

Dubakov Leonid ORCID: 0000-0003-1172-7435 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Faculty of Philology, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University 518172, China, Shenzhen, Guojidasueyuan str., 1 dubakov_leonid@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Li Yuitin Master’s Degree student of the Faculty of Philology of the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University. 518172, China, Guangdong region, Shenzhen, Guojidasueyuan str., 1 kamikazeli@yandex.ru

A. T. Tvardovsky's poem "Terkin in the Next World" (1944 – 1963) and Zhang Tian-yi's novella "Notes from the Spirit World" as well as, for example, V. Y. Bryusov's short story "The Republic of the Southern Cross" and Lao She's novel "Notes from the Cat City" (comparison of which in the specified key also possible), written in different years and in different cultures. And it is obvious that the Russian poet and the Chinese writer could not be familiar with each other's works: the novel Zhang Tian-yi was published in the Soviet Union in 1970, the poem by Tvardovsky came to the reader more than three decades after the publication of "Notes from the Spirit World". But both texts proceed from a similar plot convention – the movement of the hero in the otherworld – and a similar idea – to satirically show the underside of the state regime of his country in a troubled time ^{[1; 2; 3]}.

A number of other figurative and motional references can be seen between the works. For example, these are the figures of the guides- Virgil – Terkin's comrade-in–arms and an old friend of the protagonist of the story Zhang Tian-yi - Mr. Xiao Zhong-no. Han Shi-qian, like Terkin, like Dante ^[4], resides in the afterlife in an indefinite state, similar and unlike a dream. Both heroes who have arrived in the afterlife ^[5] are subjected to a test, which may end up for them being placed in "purgatory". An important episode is a meeting with a local writer, which allows the authors to speak about the non–textual literary situation. Etc.  

The poem "Terkin in the next world", first of all, is a satirical poem, however, for example, in the article "The story of a fake (An episode of the struggle around "Terkin in the next world"). Transcript of the discussion. Publication and comments by V. and O. Tvardovskikh", published in the journal "Questions of Literature" in 2007, it is characterized as a "poetic dystopia" ^[6]. And indeed, many genre-forming and style-forming signs of dystopia are visible in it.

B. A. Lanin in the article "The Anatomy of literary dystopia" designates twelve signs of dystopia ^[6]. 1. Among them is a dispute with utopia or a utopian project. 2. A pseudo-carnival based on fear associated with the adoration of the ruler and hatred of dissidents. 3. The transformation of reality into theater, as the hero loses his sense of reality. 4. The eccentricity of the main character, who turns out to be such, because he thinks about what is happening around him. 5. Life turned into a ritual due to the automation of existence. 6. Suppression of the sexual and its awakening in the rebellious hero. 7. Allegorical, manifested in the appeal to animal images. 8. The interchangeability of utopia and dystopia within the text. 9. The presence of fiction. 10. Static time. 11. A closed space for a person and an open space for the state. 12. Passions that take possession of the inhabitants of dystopia.

Based on the provisions of the article by B. A. Lanin, we will analyze the similarities and differences of "Terkin in the next world" and "Notes from the spirit world".

1. V. V. Agenosov, speaking about "Notes from the spirit world", notes that "A positive ideal is present in the subtext, in the reflections of narrators" ^{[8, p. 771]}. In other words, the dispute with utopia in Zhang Tian-yi's story is unmanifested, but there is. This is evidenced by the subject of criticism itself – first of all, it is a nationalist ideology that is at the heart of the spirit world, the consequence of which is catastrophic social and property inequality. The probable utopian basis of this perverted ideology was the Confucianism brought to life and at the same time narrowly understood by the authorities. In the Letter about "Notes from the Spirit World" that precedes the main narrative, the hero-narrator Han Shi-qian speaks about the spirit world in a complimentary way: "... everything is reasonable and expedient there, they solve things quickly and clearly" ^{[9, p. 105]}. But the further he describes the spirit world and its social structure, the more doubts he has: "All the rest of the text of the story refutes this positive assessment, giving it an ironic sound. Before us is the obvious destruction of utopia" ^{[8, p. 762]}.

In "Terkin in the next world", utopia, which has degenerated into a dystopia, is also not directly called. And moreover, the criticism of such an (anti) utopia is not entrusted to the hero- narrator – Terkin, This function is assigned to the author present in the text. At the same time, to talk about repression, Tvardovsky uses periphrases. So, the GULAG is designated in his image as a Special Department: "...There – in rows, over the years / Were in the ranks invisible / Kolyma and Magadan, / Vorkuta with Narym. // Over the line because of the line, / With a small difference, / The permafrost region. / I wrote them off to eternity. // Because of the wire that – / White-grayed – / With their special article / Attached to the case ..." ^{[10, pp. 68-69]}. The head of state is in the image of the Supreme ^[11], who is both alive and dead at the same time: "... And alive. Partly. // For the living, the native father, / And the law, and the banner, / He is with us, like a dead man, – / He is with them and with us" ^{[10, p. 71]}.

2. Looking at commoners-oligarchs in the spirit world with obsequiousness, high society protects its status, fearing the blurring of the boundaries between the upper and lower tiers. For example, Mr. Xiao warns Han Shi-qian that he is going to have breakfast too early: "... the police and detectives will be interested in you: are you an impostor from the lower tier?" ^{[9, p. 120]}.

In "Terkin in the next world", the conversation about the Supreme causes fear in Terkin: "But from such words a chill / Ran through the skin ..." ^{[10, p. 72]}. On the "other" light, an emergency is introduced when there is a danger that a living person has arrived from above. Comrade Terkin, who has heard that he wants to live, is going to report about it: "But about what you want to live, / Friendship, you know, friendship, / I am obliged to report ... / – It is clear ... – ... where it is necessary" ^{[10, p. 83]}. In the "other" world, the fear of the living sits in the dead and denunciation flourishes. This fear is so deep, akin to the dead, that even close friendship cannot be stronger than the feeling of mortal community.

But it can also be noted that "Terkin in the next world" and "Notes from the spirit world" differ in the degree of fear, because there is a difference between the fear of possible loss of material goods and the fear for life (which remains a memory of the dead in Tvardovsky's poem).

3. Han Shi-qian and Terkin, who found themselves in the "other" world, are being tested. For the first, it is a property qualification designed not to miss an impostor from the lower tier, for the second, it is a test for embeddedness in the death system. At the same time, the bureaucracy of the "other" world at Tvardovsky is a macabre carnival. Faceless (because there are no specific faces depicted) department after department demand from Terkin either a photo card or a certificate from a doctor, knowing that he arrived from the front line. The inspection table, in response to Terkin's discontent, refers to the order: "But the law of the Table is harsh, / The voice of the deceased: / Is personal affairs, / And the general order" ^{[10, p. 19]}.

The degree of carnivalization of life is directly proportional to the power of fear. In this sense, the bureaucratic carnival of "Terkin in the next world" surpasses the absurd existence of the spirit world in terms of self-forgetfulness.

4. The heroes of Tvardovsky and Zhang Tian-yi are eccentric – in the sense that they do not get along with the reality in which they find themselves. So, Han Shi-qian, thinking, doubting, keeping a diary, often gets trapped in the spirit world. For example, he does not agree with the article by Wei San-shan, in which he claimed that children are eaten in the world of people. Because of this, the hero of the story was under the threat of prosecution.

The author in "Terkin in the next world" is distracted from the image of an employee of "Grobgazeta" and imagines what he was like during his lifetime. This micro-plot introduces a non-textual reality into the poem. Tvardovsky describes how he went through censorship more than once, and predicts the reaction of officials and critics to the continuation of "Terkin": "Dust from the dust of the other world, / Will say: What's that one? // What kind of intrigue or attempt / To resurrect yesterday, / A relic of a relic / Or a shadow on our fence? // However, he will say, and it is no wonder / That you have chosen a shaky path. / Therefore – from the collective / Broke away – that's the point" ^{[10, p. 35]}. Tvardovsky reproduces typical replicas of the guardian of literature, who tries to solve complex problems of creativity with the help of narrow ideological stamps.

The hero of Tvardovsky, who has experience of jokingly ironic resistance to stagnant reality, is active even being dead (among the dead). And this activity allows him to escape to earth. Han Shi-qian is a man of other cultural attitudes, a man of tact, calmly returning home against the background of complex events in the spirit world. 

5. The higher society of the Spirit World lives by its own written and unwritten laws. The commoner Lu Yue-lao, being a very rich and very influential person, nevertheless has to prove his simplicity and democracy. To do this, he sweeps the floor in full view of his supporters for a certain time with his own hands. V. V. Agenosov notes that at the same time, according to the principle of contrast, Zhang Tien-yi depicts an orgy with the participation of commoners, during which none of those present deny themselves anything. The only one who didn't seem to be tempted by the "fake crumbs" (prostitutes) was Han Shi-qian.

Terkin, who has encountered the bureaucracy in the "other" world, which is not in a hurry to arrange him for the night, is going to complain to the newspaper. This posthumous bureaucracy is ritualized by nature: the deceased must go through all departments and fulfill all their requirements, even formal and absurd ones, because that is the order.

In this case, the concept of "ritual" is applied to different phenomena – cultural in the case of a Chinese text and socio-professional in the case of a Soviet work. The ritual of "sweeping" is ridiculous because it is hypocritical, but the Confucian ritual itself is not disputed as an ancient ideal. Rituals, invented by the bureaucracy, are aimed at preserving the system and subjugating a person, and therefore are definitely bad. 

6. Sexual is suppressed both in the story of Zhang-Tian-yi and in "Terkin in the next world". Han Shi-qian's first encounter with the spirits produces a scandal. He doesn't have a cover on his nose. All inhabitants of the spirit world necessarily cover it: "The nose is a symbol of the masculine principle, and the cover of the masculine principle is nothing but a manifestation of a person's ability to feel shame; that's actually why they cover the "upper place"" ^{[9, p. 107]}. Zhang Tian-yi ironically points out the conventionality of this custom, especially conditional, because during the orgy, when the covers were removed from the noses of the "fake crumbs", none of the inhabitants of the upper tier felt any particular shame.

Tvardovsky also exposes the hypocrisy of the "other" world. Comrade Terkin tells him about a certain stereo tube, through which you can look at the neighboring "that" light (that is, "bourgeois"), and among other things you can see eroticism there: "And such, brother, mamzeli, / That is, just naked..." ^{[10, p. 7]}. And it is no coincidence that the words about women end with an ellipsis in this stanza: suppressed sexuality closes the speech about the corporeal.

In Zhang Tian-and sexual hypocrisy in the spirit world is associated with the inability to cope with his bodily nature, in Tvardovsky's poem it is connected with something like curiosity or envy of the bourgeois world. 

7. In the story "Notes from the Spirit World" there is an episode in which the dogs of the commoner Pan Lo appear at the reception, followed by six spirits in tailcoats. Greetings are heard, and Han Shi-qian is surprised to learn that the greetings are addressed to dogs as representatives of the commoner, but not to the spirits in tailcoats, who are his domestic slaves. In other words, the lower tiers in the spirit world are lower in status than pets. Ba Shan-dou about the lower tiers: "Feeble-minded savages, animals" ^{[9, p. 125]}.

For Tvardovsky, the dead remain human, even after they have ceased to live. At least, in "our" "that" light, which remains a world of order and discipline. The bourgeois "that" light is not described in the poem.

8. In the story of Zhang Tien-yi, utopia is present only nominally. The narrator claims that "everything in the spirit world was pleasing to the eye" ^{[10, p. 171]}, but there is no specifics behind this statement, and what is depicted raises great doubts. So, for example, it is impossible to consider the political squabbles of oligarchs destroying the world of spirits as democracy.

Tvardovsky ironically outlines the contours of utopia in the poem. Comrade Terkin, telling him about "our" "that" light and comparing it with the "bourgeois" "that" light, uses self–revealing cliches taken from political teachings: "Our that light in the afterlife is /The best and advanced", "It is scientifically justified" ^{[10, p. 48]}; "Here is science, there is dope...", "There their foundations are shaky, / Here the foundation is unbreakable" ^{[10, p. 49]}; "There, firstly, discipline / Is weak against our people. / And, please, a picture: / Here is a column, there is a crowd. // Our other world is organized / With full clarity in everything: / Planned by zones, / Separated by departments" ^{[10, p. 50]}. The utopia of "our" "that" world is the utopia of an authoritarian regime built on discipline and propaganda. At the same time, the stamps of Terkin's comrade can be easily applied to the opposite side.

9. Zhang Tian-yi's initial fantastic assumption is a journey into the spirit world, which he perceives as an experiment. At the same time, Han Shi-qian applies the experiment as a scientific method to spiritualism – a religious-mystical-philosophical teaching, and the method itself consists in burning a letter to a deceased friend over the body of the hero, which possibly dates back to the ancient Chinese ritual of burning paper ( (sh?ozh?)) for communication with the afterlife.

The fiction of "Terkin in the next world" is the Moscow post–war reality, which is perceived as fiction by a significant part of the population of the USSR. So, the underworld of the poem resembles the Moscow metro: "Look – it's light, warm, / Passages-transitions – / Like a metro station, / Slightly lower arches" ^{[10, p. 6-7]}, stereo tube – TV: "The whole light is next door / Behind the glass in front of you" ^{[10, p. 76]}.

10. Time in "Notes from the spirit world" and in "Terkin in the next world" is the time of eternity. Each of Han Shi-qian's notes opens with the indication "Any day...". On any given day, the life of the spirit world, although constantly changing, remains essentially the same: spirits can penetrate from the lower tier to the upper one, or even a revolution can occur, but the two-tiered structure of society is unshakable. Just as political passions and the change of oligarchs do not affect the political system.

The words "eternity", "eternal" are repeated by Tvardovsky many times: "There is an eternal weekend everywhere" ^{[10, p. 38]}, "Eternity flows forever" ^{[10, p. 45]}, "Eternal time reserve" ^{[10, p. 55]}, etc. Against the background of this sad, analgesic eternity, love of life Terkina by contrast looks like dissidence: "My day is more precious to eternity, / any infinity" ^{[10, p. 85]}.

11. The reality of the spirit world is structured in two tiers – this is a division along the social vertical: at the bottom – spirits who are infringed in their rights, at the top – the sovereign elite. Zhang Tian-yi, through the mouth of one of the characters, indicates the similarity of this structure with Buddhist hells. And although in the "Notes from the spirit world" eighteen Buddhist hells are reduced to two, their function is the same: "Contrary to the assurances of the inhabitant of the spirit world Xiao Zhong-no, the reader passes through all eighteen circles of Buddhist hell, where they are tortured, however, not in the usual banal ways, but more sophisticated and thoughtful – the instruments of torture are pharisaism and clamor, ignorance and stupidity, hypocrisy and hypocrisy" ^{[12, p. 176]}.

"That" light, on which Terkin appeared, resembles underground Moscow, the underside of the city – its metro. But the train in this "metro" travels, as a rule, not in a circle, but in one direction and ends in a dead end. Tvardovsky does not describe the afterlife in detail, but it obviously resembles Soviet public places: many different institutions (tables); "passages-transitions" between them; probably the architecture of the Stalinist Empire. In this world, you can be part of the system, but you can't live. It is no coincidence that Terkina does not find a home for herself. The afterlife of "Terkin in the next world" is a space of signs – semaphores, pointers, emblems that guide a person and thereby limit him. In general, reality, just like Zhang Tian-yi's, is divided into two parts by Tvardovsky. But not on the social vertical, but on the ideological horizontal: there is "our" "that" light and the bourgeois "that" light. At the same time, "Everyone has their own walls / With a joint ceiling. / Two of those lights, two systems, / And the border is locked" ^{[10, p. 44]}.

12. In Zhang Tian-yi and Tvardovsky, the desire of the heroes to die is their natural state. Moreover, the literary critic Sima Si-du, a specialist in decadence, additionally tortures himself in order to be a match for the subject being studied. Decadence, as it is described and ridiculed by Zhang Tian-yi, turns out to be a sign of the decay of society.

On the contrary, the astonished Han Shi-qian does not fit into the deadened nationalist oligarchism of the spirit world and Terkin is too alive for the afterlife, in which "No peace <...> / No fun is given. / They have sorted out into fours / And are chasing dominoes" ^{[10, p. 53]}.

So, the poem "Terkin in the Next world" by A. T. Tvardovsky and "Notes from the Spirit World" by Zhang Tian-yi contain genre-forming signs of dystopia. As in the case of "The Republic of the Southern Cross" and "Notes on the Cat State", there are multiple figurative and motivational roll calls between the works. And there are even more of them than Bryusov and Lao She – up to the coincidence of individual episodes. The inhabitants of the afterlife, in which Terkin found himself, and the world of spirits are the image of fellow citizens–contemporaries of the authors, the image of those people who live in a dysfunctional state, which is infected primarily with spiritual necrosis (for the Soviet writer, it is also filled with mass death - from war and from repression). In other words, Tvardovsky's poem and Zhang Tian-yi's novella act as a dystopian mortal mirror for the ruling regime – authoritarian in the case of "Terkin in the Next World", pseudo–liberal, and in fact - oligarchic and nationalistic in the case of "Notes from the Spirit World".