Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.3, 2019

On Mao Dun’s Historical View of “Appropriation of the Past for Presence”—Centering on Mao’s Review on Historical Dramas

(Abstract)

Liu Weidong

Mao Dun had analyzed several historical dramas themed on the story of King Goujian’s revenge as shown in the essay entitled “History and Historical Drama” in 1961. Mao Dun compared various versions, the adaption of original historical narratives, which made the readers feel the absurdity of over-adaption of history and “revising the past from present perspective”. Mao Dun gave his own answer to the debate on history and historical dramas, which not only revealed his astuteness as thinker, but also the independence in research. Cao Yu’s drama Story of King Goujian (Danjianpian) had been highly praised by Mao Dun for its adequate treatment about the tension between history and fiction. Mao Dun situated his question on the solid basis of close reading of the text and conducted his analysis independently, which was distinct from his contemporaneous fellows with methodological significance.