Ts'ao Yü, the Reluctant Disciple of Chekhov: A Comparative Study of Sunrise and The Cherry Orchard

TS'AO YU, THE RELUCTANT DISCIPLE OF CHEKHOV: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SUNRISE AND THE CHERRY ORCHARD IN POINT OF PROGREsS, THE INTERIM YEARS BETWEEN Thunderstorm (1934)1 and Sunrise (1936) were most beneficial to the artistic growth of Ts'ao Vii, for in these three years he had gradually become aware of the limitation of his own craft as expressed in Thunderstorm. "I have recently become more and more disappointed-to the point of nausea-with Thunderstorm," he confessed in his Postscript to Sunrise; "I find its structure too 'theatrical,' a result of my overdependence on the magic of stage tricks."2 Sunrise, then, presumably denotes Ts'ao Vii's conscious rejection of the mechanical technique of the well-made plays. No longer a follower of Scribe, he is now drawn to the "tearful drama"s of Chekhov : I still can remember how I was carried away a few years ago by the profundity of Chekhov's art; how I had closed my eyes, after reading The Three Sisters, and a picture of autumnal sadness emerged before me. I saw in my eyes the three sisters -Masha, Irina, and Olga-huddled together before the window, with moistened sorrow in their big eyes, listening to the cheerful notes of the music gradually faded away; I saw Olga, the oldest of the three, kept murmuring to herself, as if mourning for the dreariness of her life, the futility of hope and the monotony of existence . . . then tears began to well up in my eyes and I was no longer able to lift up my head.4 Whether The Three Sisters can be read as a drama of sadness 1 For a summary and discussion of this play, see my article "Two Emancipated Phaedras: Chou Fan-yi and Abbie Putnam as Social Rebels," The Journal of Asian Studies, XXV, 4 (August 1966). 2 Ts'ao Yii, "Postscript," Sunrise (Shanghai, 1936), p. xiv. 8 David Magarshack. notes that Chekhov was most resentful of the fact that his comedies, The Cherry Orchard for one, were so often willfully misrepresented as tragedies by his producers during his lifetime. In reply to a telegram from Nemirovich-Danchenko who complained that there were too many "weeping characters" in The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov demanded: "Where are they? There is only one such character-Varya, but that is because she is a crybaby by nature and her tears ought not to arouse any feelings of gloom in the audience. I often put down 'through tears' in my stage directions, but that shows only the mood of the characters and not tears." Quoted by David Magarshack, Chekhov the Dramatist (New York. 1960), p. 274. 4 "Postscript." Sunrise, p. xiv. 358 1967 SWMise AND The Cherry Orchard, 359 and despair as the above comments seem to suggest is a question to be considered later in more fitting context. What is important in this statement is that it signifies a turning point in the artistic concept of Ts'ao Yii. That he should have singled out The Three Sisters as an object for admiration and emulation is in itself an example of improving taste. For The Three Sisters, being one of the four last plays that David Magarshack classifies as "plays of indirect action,"5 has little on the surface for a man of such dissimilar sentiments and interests as the author of Thunderstorm to feel attracted to. Characteristic of Chekhov's plays of indirect-action, The Three Sisters makes no attempt to assail society or individuals, gives no "social message," and is in general devoid of a tangible "moral purpose." In fact, in view of his former artistic predilections, one would not be surprised at all if Ts'ao Yii had responded to this playas Tolstoy once did during one of his conversations with Chekhov. "You know I can't stand Shakespeare," he is reported as saying, "but your plays are even worse. Shakespeare after all does seize his reader by the collar and lead him to a certain goal without letting him get lost on the way. But where is one to get to with your heroes? From the sofa to the . . . and back?"6 And, for fear of his...