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Chinese novels translated into Western languages by 1827

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very few

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relatively short

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fast-paced

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love stories full of adventures

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improbable coincidences

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magic

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nothing like the Chinese novels that have since become part of the world literature canon

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The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber)

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by Cao Xueqin (1715-1764)

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one of China's Four Great Classical Novels

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the novel circulated in manuscript copies with various titles until its print publication in 1791

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first 80 chapters were written by Cao Xueqin

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the novel is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the rise and decline of author Cao Xueqin's own family and, by extension, of the Qing Dynasty

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remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese society

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takes place inside a family compound

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Journey to the West

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Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty

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known as Monkey

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an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the Western Regions, i.e. Central Asia and India, to obtain Buddhist sacred texts and returned after many trials and much suffering

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lots of adventure

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Haoqiu zhuan

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"The pleasing history" or "The fortunate union"

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a Chinese novel published in the 17th Century

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plot: the beauty, Shui Bingxin, and the scholar, Tie Zhongyu, want to avenge their fathers and go against the bureaucracy, which is corrupt

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Goethe didn't limit himself to Chinese novels

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a few years earlier, Wilhelm Grimm, wrote to his brother about Goethe's doings

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William Grimm on Goethe: "He's into Persian stuff, composed a collection of poems in the manner of Hafiz, and he is studying Arabic. And all this on top of reading from and explaining Haoqiu zhuan, another Chinese novel."

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Goethe's move to Weimar

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horizon was much wider than that of his contemporaries

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but chose to live in a small town of 6,000 people for pretty much his entire life

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he had grown up in the much larger and more cosmopolitan Frankfurt

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he was invited by the Duke of Weimar to live in that city

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the duchy only had about 20,000 subjects

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an independent entity in need of management

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Goethe made himself indispensable

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got involved in the theater

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took charge of roads, finances, and warfare

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he sent on diplomatic missions

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he fought against Napoleon

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Goethe's interest in world literature

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many people didn't understand his drive for this

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it was a matter of reading and writing

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wrote much about his travels

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had a yearning for the wider world inspired by the Persian poet Hafez

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Hafez (1326-1389)

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lauded the joys of love and wine but also targeted religious hypocrisy

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wrote a collection of poetry called the West-Eastern Divan

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bemoans the fact that he cannot travel to Persia

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he intends to bridge the distance through imaginary leaps based on his intense study of Hafez

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Faust

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visits themes found in Hafez

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also inspired by the Sanskrit play Abhijñānashākuntala

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from the 1st century BCE

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abandoned at birth by her parents, Shakuntala is reared in the secluded, sylvan hermitage of the sage Kanva, and grows up a comely but innocent maiden

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a king is enchanted by her and marries her

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also modeled on the story of Job

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Rome

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only telling his duke and butler, he set off for Rome

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the land of the Renaissance and Roman antiquity

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this made him take up writing again, inaugurating a new period of literature: Weimar Classicism

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laid the foundation for world literature