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Conclusion THUS FA R I hav e considere d fou r o f Ts'a o Yii's eight play s tha t are of special interest to students of comparative literature and which to me are just abou t everything in him that is worth considering . For after Peking Man (1940 ) nothing authore d b y him has ever rise n abov e the level of what R . G . Collingwoo d woul d hav e calle d 'ar t a s magic'.1 Shui-pien 48; S! (Metamorphosis, 1940) , a long pla y o f fou r act s published i n the % same year as Peking Man, fall s into this category. The story, which takes place i n a n arm y hospita l i n th e grea t unoccupie d interio r o f Chin a during the war years, concerns a Chinese Nightingale of a woman docto r (Dr. Ting T^C^ ) pitte d agains t all the commonplace odd s o f wartim e reality: corruption , bureaucracy , indifferenc e an d despair. The hospital being distressingl y understaffe d an d under-equipped , mos t wounde d soldiers mus t depen d o n fat e afte r the y hav e receive d som e primitiv e treatment. Bu t doggedly Dr . Tin g fights on , working overtim e almos t every da y trying he r bes t t o sav e a s many live s a s she possibly could . But since the purpose of Metamorphosis, a s magic art, 'is to stimulate loyalty toward s countr y . . . [and] t o arous e emotion s no t discharge d there an d then',2 its pervasive negativis m must b e checked; Dr . Ting' s good servic e mus t b e recognized ; he r incompeten t an d corruptiv e colleagues mus t b e rectified. An d indee d i t is. For just before sh e was about t o giv e u p i n Ac t Two , a n incorruptible , righteou s an d self effacing Inspector General from the Department of Health unobtrusively showed up . Things , needles s t o say , wer e immediatel y pu t t o orde r and bureaucracy reformed. And Dr. Ting, now realizing that there were more nic e guy s tha n sh e had thought , regaine d he r confidenc e i n the essential goodnes s o f mankin d an d especiall y i n th e destin y o f he r 1 Amon g th e various kind s o f 'magic art' discussed in Collingwood's book , religio n and patriotis m stan d ou t as its most characteristi c manifestations . 'Th e primary func tion of all magical acts', he notes, 'is to generate in the agent or agents certain emotion s that are considered necessary or useful fo r the works of living; their secondary functio n is to generate in others, friends o r enemies of the agent, emotion useful o r detrimenta l to th e lives o f these others' . Principles of Art (Ne w York, 1958) , p. 67. 2 Ibid., p . 73. 76 Conclusion embattled country . Excitedly , 'looking forward', sh e utters th e last lin e of th e play : 'China , China , yo u ar e to gro w strong!' 3 As ca n b e see n above , th e languag e o f Metamorphosis i s intensel y emotive, whic h i s a commo n featur e wit h mos t work s o f magi c art , a s its purpos e i s t o elici t a pre-ordaine d emotiona l respons e fro m it s audience: patriotism . Ming-lang-ti t'ien §BIBfi& ^ (Brigh t skies , 1956) , publishe d i n 1956 , is, i n formul a a t least , magi c art . A stor y involvin g a U.S.-traine d bacteriologist's 'naivete ' in believing that the Americans are too humane to hav e wage d germ-warfar e i n Korea , thi s three-ac t pla y is, however, totally devoi d o f an y magica l interest . Th e proble m i s no t a t al l wit h the politica l issu e i t involve s but whethe r th e issu e a t hand i s handle d dramatically enoug h...

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