RT Article
T1 The Opposites and Unity: A Study of Chinese Taoist Thought Found in Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game
JF Literature and theology
VO 34
IS 4
SP 503
OP 509
A1 Tang, Xianyun
A1 Zheng, Boren
LA English
PB Oxford University Press
YR 2020
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1742825141
AB Hermann Hesse was keenly aware of the spiritual and social crises of war-torn Europe. He explored possible solutions to these problems in his writing and was interested in drawing on the resources of oriental philosophies. Of particular importance was the thought of Chinese Taoism. Hesse frequently mentioned his understanding of the Taoist philosophies of Laozi (老子) and Zhuangzi (庄子) in letters to his friends, and Taoist ideas such as ‘Tao’ (道) or ‘One’ and ‘polar opposites and unity’ recur across his work. This article will trace Hesse’s understanding of the Taoist thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and analyse the influence of Chinese Taoism on Hesse’s masterpiece, The Glass Bead Game (1943).
DO 10.1093/litthe/fraa022