Sakuntala and Huan Zhu Ge Ge

      The drama Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection is about a tortuous and undulatory love story between a beautiful ascetic woman named Sakuntala and the king Dusyanta.  The descriptive language which is used in the drama highlights the story and makes impact more lively.

      The descriptive language used in Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection is remarkable and efficiently provides a very lovely and vivid atmosphere for the play.  When Dusyanta first sees Sakuntala, he is amazed by her incomparable beauty; because of the very well expressed description which is used in the book, I started to see images of Sakuntala in my mind. As an example “her lips are fresh red buds, her arms are tendrils, impatient youth is poised to blossom in her limbs.”  This kind of description is very suitable for the moment, and it is certainly making the audiences sense the scents of love.  Other than the descriptive language, I also discovered it is very interesting that there is another story in Chinese culture which is similar to this one. 

      In the ancient time, there were four great civilizations, China, Egypt, India, as well as Mesopotamia (Babylon), which were the most flourishing and well-developed regions compared to other places in the world contemporarily.  Moreover, since the Ancient India and China were so close together, they somewhat influenced and integrated with each other in certain domains, such as in religion and literature. Like the last comparison Dan and Cheng illustrated between Ramayana and Journey to the West, in these two stories, they both had a very interesting, critical and powerful character that looks like a monkey: Hanuman and Sun Wu Kong.  About this story, the “twin story” I found in Chinese literature is called Huan Zhu Ge Ge (in English is translated as “Princess Pearl”)

      In the play of Huan Zhu Ge Ge, there are many similarities with this drama.  The princess (Huan Zhu Ge Ge)’s mother is named Xia Yu He, and like Sakuntala, they both bore a child for the king, and they both violated some rules or norms (Xia Yu He is lower class Han People and the emperor is Manchu, considered as the Son of Heaven, and these two definitely cannot have any relations, not even sex). The king and emperor are both gentle and charming, and later they both separate with their women; also, the king and emperor both have left some “souvenirs” that can bring back their memories about the past with their women: Sakuntala has the ring, and Xia Yu He has the folding fan and a poem from the Chinese emperor (Qian Long Emperor).   Also in the starting scene in both stories, the king and emperor enter the play when they are hunting; and even more coincidentally, they are both hunting a buck! However, the main differences are that in the Chinese story, Xia Yu He had already died several years before, and she never gets a chance to meet with the emperor again. Huan Zhu Ge Ge is a story which is based on the journey of the princess Pearl to reunite with her father, and it is also based on the love stories between her and her soul mate. In contrast, Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection,is simply about the reunion and love between Sakuntala and the king.  Beyond the similarities and the differences, there is one quote that can use to summarize these two stories: “All shall be well. Jack shall have Jill.”

                     

For more information about the Chinese Play Huan Zhu Ge Ge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Huanzhu

Men Vs. Women

            In the past few weeks, we have read stories and poems from many different regions in various times in history, and many of them describe one or a series of dramatic battles, such as the ancient Mesopotamian poem Gilgamesh and the Indian poem Bhagavad-Gita. However, the battle described in the Greek drama Lysistrat is not between man and God nor man and his kin, but between men and women. More precisely, the story is about how (Lysistrata leads) women in Athens and Sparta overcome the men’s obstacles and social norms (rules) to pursue their rights and needs, and finally, bring peace between the two cities.

            For this drama, I did a little research on what a traditional Spartan and Athenian woman was like.  Sparta was considered to be a warrior civilization, and the class of women had a relatively high standard compared to many other ancient civilizations.  Women in Sparta were allowed to have education; they could learn fighting skills to protect themselves, and they had more freedom in their society.  However, the norms were quite different in the ancient Athenian civilization.  Women were powerless minors that barely prior to the slaves: They could not own properties; they were not educated, and their obligation was to bear children, serve their husband, and do some sewing jobs.  This recalls the status of ancient Chinese women: They were as powerless as the Athenian women, and they were treated more like personal property that belonged to their husband rather than as a wife by modern standards.   However, Chinese women never took a stand before their men to declare or pursue their rights or needs like the Athenian and Spartan women, whose men of course, were outraged about women’s “rebellion.”

            In the play, the men think that women are weak and tiny, and only men are the representatives of strength and power. They are acting quite tough, well, at least before the Koryphaios of men has failed his demonstration of snaring the Koryphaios of women’s neck.  Even though all the men are saying things like “no fancy grappling with these grannies,” the woman still wins the tussle when the Koryphaios of men tries to snare her.  Then, the role changes after that: It is the women’s turn to show that they are as powerful as the men can be.  Sarcastically, on women’s side, they also have some issues.  The First, Second and Third Woman all have different kinds of excuses to avoid the battle with the men, and I think it illustrates that many women are naturally afraid of trouble (battle) and lacking confidence because they have never experienced things like that nor have been taught to do so.  I can tell that it is a harsh battle for both sides.

            After I read the conflicts in the story, I think the men versus women issue is similar to a question we might have asked when we were young: Does the egg appear first or the chicken?  Obviously, whether it is chicken or egg, they cannot be separated from each other because there is a strong bond of existence in between.  This also applies to whether men should reign over women, or women reign over men.  In my opinion, there is no win or lose because they cannot live without each other, and they need each other as their essence of life.  In the end of the story, the war between two cities has stopped, and wives and husbands’ reunions have drawn a happy ending to the story. Therefore, to the question about who should rule over the other is: They should work together equally, and in harmony. 

Candle vs. Firework

After I read this tragic Greek drama Antigone, I felt that this is actually a very good story that had many meaningful perspectives behind it.  In this drama, it mentions about the perspectives of what is mean to be loyalty to a country/city, what action will consider being treasonous, and the king Creon’s opinion about how money can lead to evil action.  There are many great thoughts that coming from this drama, and what I interested in is two types of behavior, or say attitude towards to our life: to be like a candle or firework. 

            The background of drama Antigone is based on a city called Thebes, and from the conversation between Antigone and her sister Ismene, we know that their brother have killed each other in the battle; one fought for the city of Thebes, and another considered to be a traitor who fought for the enemy of Thebes.  Also in the conversation about whether they should ignore the law and bury the brother who died as a traitor, or just leave it because the king strictly prohibits anyone to bury the body, Antigone and Ismene present two different life attitudes, which I may represent as “firework and candle.”  Antigone’s attitude and opinion is that as a sister, she have to bury both of her brothers regardless whether they are honored or dishonored; she willing to do it because she thinks that it is her obligation to do as a family member.  Also, she indicates that even if she will be putting in death penalty for bury the body, she still thinks that it is a great honor to do so, and her death will be a glory.  Antigone’s attitude is like a firework, strong, unconstrained, shine brightly, but it won’t last long. Antigone will do regardless about the law, but follow what is truly right in her heart; she’s not afraid of deathly restrictions, but only focuses on her loyalty for her family, and it is her glory to do so.  Compare to Antigone, her sister Ismene’s attitude is more legally fit into her society.   She is afraid of death, she want to be obedient to the king, and she does not think Antigone’s idea is good.  Ismene’s characteristic is more like a candle, mild, submissive, and it can last long.

            In my perspective, to be like a firework, we have to have lots of courage, and firmly solid faith to things that we insist on, and it is never easy to be one.  Most of the time, we are ordinary people like candles, peaceful, mild, obedient to the manmade laws and certain society norms in our life.  The question is, when one day we realize that the law or society goes wrong and unfair, will we have the courage to take a stand and fight against it, like Antigone? Or should we choose to adopt it and let it be? Fireworks’ strong, unconstrained beauty or candles’ mild, long last life is what we have to choose to be.