The Other Shore by Gao Xingjian Read Free Book Online

endeavours. [0-42] He is transcendental but not totally otherworldly, his antics being the follies of his own humanity. He listens carefully (this is symbolized by cleaning his ears, a gesture imbued with Buddhist meanings), and he observes with indifference that he has seen through the emptiness of human desires and sufferings. Perhaps the personification of Gao Xingjian’s idea of “indifferent observation,” he is content in the wordless wisdom accorded to him by his attainment of the state of Zen. If the drama between Man and Woman is “dialogue,” the Monk’s pantomime tricks are a “rebuttal,” an unspoken challenge to and ultimate denial of any possibility of meaning in language and in life’s activities.
    Monk’s on-stage presence invokes a meaning beyond words. His role is meaningful in its meaninglessness, evincing a negative capability discernible in the hopeless world of Man and Woman. There remains in this paradox a capacity, a virtue that comes with the loss of referentiality, an attitude towards life derived from the understanding of the illogicality and the unstated meaning of language in Zen. [0-43] Gao Xingjian claims that he has no intention to promote Zen Buddhism or to expound its teachings: he is only interested in nudging the audience into contemplation, so that they can come close to the state of wordless and unspoken wisdom. [0-44] At the end, the Monk reveals a greyish blue sky, which is eternal and peaceful, a symbol of the quiet acceptance of the way of the universe.
     
    Nocturnal Wanderer 夜遊神 (Yeyoushen) ( 1993 )
    The subject matter of Nocturnal Wanderer is a dream, and through the dream the inner world of the protagonist, Traveller, is revealed in all its horror and insidiousness. The world of reality, with which the play begins, inspires the dream and provides the dramatis personae for the dream world. Traveller enters the dream world and becomes Sleepwalker, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery in his encounters with Tramp, Prostitute, Thug and Master, the various characters corresponding to the passengers Traveller meets on the train. The metamorphoses of people in the real world into dream world characters are accomplished in and through Traveller’s psyche and its workings: they are imaginings and representations indicative of his secret fears and desires. In this way the dream is set up as an exploration of Traveller’s consciousness.
    Gao Xingjian has said that the play is about good and evil, about man, Satan, and God, and about man’s self-consciousness. [0-45] In the dream, goodness, seen as Sleepwalker’s conscience and innate sense of rectitude, is invariably suppressed and displaced by evil, either voluntarily or as an expedient. And Sleepwalker, an everyman figure whose only wish is to take a stroll in the night, just cannot escape being encroached upon by evil—Thug who threatens his life, Master who wants to control his thoughts, and Prostitute who tempts his soul (she later turns into his friend and critic exposing the lies in his life). Man is not born evil; in the case of Sleepwalker, evil is thrust upon him by a world infested with crime and violence. Consequently he is transformed into a murderer more flagitious than Thug or Master, someone who readily abandons his sensibility, his conscience and his sense of morality. He kills Tramp, who with the sagacity of a Buddhist monk represents salvation for his soul, thus depriving himself of any chance of redemption. He even rejects his head, which symbolizes thinking and reason, as he tramples upon it and breaks it into pieces.
    At the end of the play Sleepwalker becomes fascinated by evil; in fact, he is obsessed with it. But just when he manages to bury his guilt by rationalization, feeling happy for himself in his newfound pleasure in violence, he encounters his double, perhaps the narrating “I” in the nightmare. The two grapple with each other in a fight: Sleepwalker still has to run the gauntlet