The Reception of Rainer Maria Rilke, and Modernism in Feng Zhi’s Sonnet: A Qiaoyi Study Case

Abstract

In light of Qiao Yi theory and practices, the article examines the literary influence of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke on the modern Chinese poet Feng Zhi (1905-1993). The article traces how the European sonnet developed within the European cultural framework, then turns to discussing how Rilke broke and lifted and ultimately “saved” this genre with his experiment, and finally shows how the European sonnet culture was expropriated into Chinese through Feng’s creative imitation and what was subjoined to it in the course of translingual practice. The article presents various Orphic motives as perceived by Rilke and the role of the modern poet as a divine messenger, and identifies the manifestations of the kindred motives in Feng’s Sonnets Collection. This article argues that the younger Feng Zhi, though nurtured in traditional Chinese culture, had already developed a kind of poetic comprehension of German which was analogous to that acquired by Rilke, and that after having been exposed to Rilke’s works his latent comprehension became vividly conscious. The Chinese tradition, even if Feng makes no explicit mention of his awareness of the fact, has nevertheless functioned everywhere and continuously as an unconscious literary foundation in Feng’s entire body of work.