Jorge Luis Borges: China through the eyes of the other, or a dialogue beyond time, language and culture.

Sarah Anas AUBRY PhD candidate at City University of Hong Kong in Chinese Translation and Linguistic. saaubry2@student.cityu.edu.hk Abstract : Because Michel Foucault used it in his Order of Things, we know the famous Chinese Encyclopedia Borges quotes in his essay The Analytical language of John Wilkins. This is not the only occurrence in which Borges mentions China, as a matter of act he uses it often and in his essay as much as in his fictions. For who is familiar with Borgess work, one knows that he developed a poetic language in which we find symbols such as labyrinths, mirrors, library, etc. China is obviously part of the borgean language. Thinking about Stuart Halls statement: representation connects meaning to culture (1997), we ask then what meaning China acquires in Borgess symbolic? Is it the ultimate Other Longxi Zhang speak about when he says that: for the West China as a land of the Far East becomes traditionally the image of the ultimate Other. (1988) Going further, we also question the repercussion of this Chinese representation in contemporary writer such as Xi Chuan who, on his own admission, is influenced by the Argentinean poet. Eventually, this reflection will bring into light a dialogue between the two poets. Introduction: Michelle Yeh (2008) wrote an article titled There Are no Camels in the Koran: What Is Modern about Modern Chinese Poetry in which she quotes an article Jorge Luis Borges (1997) wrote about the Argentinean writer and the tradition. What is interesting is that she applies Borgess argument; local color is not necessary in Argentinean poetry to make it Argentinean 1 to discuss the case of Chinese authors and Chineseness and modernity. In another article, Longxi Zhang (1988, p.110) also uses Jorge Luis Borges to counterbalance the common idea that: For the West, then, China as a land in the far East becomes traditionally the image of the ultimate other. He adds later on, that Borges is particularly sensitive to the problematic of the Other, and the theme of doubles identities runs throughout his works. In these works the Other often turns out to be no other than the Self. (Ibid, p.113). Yeh and Zhangs articles show how the Argentinean author is linked with China, and how the problematic of national authenticity in writing can be shared by nations that are expected to be not only geographically but also culturally very far form each other.

La idea de que la poesa argentina debe abundar en rasgos diferenciales argentinos y en color local argentino me parece una equivocacin. The idea that Argentinean poetry must be full of distinguishing Argentinean features and local color seems to be a mistake. (Borges, 1997, trans. is mine)

I will not speak about identity it self: question the meaning of being Chinese or Argentinean in the 20th century. I will rather observe the definition of an identity when mirrored by another using Ferdinand de Saussures idea that difference matters because it is essential to meaning () We know what black means, Saussure argued, not because there is some essence of blackness but because we can contrast it with its opposite white. (Hall, 1997, p.234). Therefore, I will first look at how Borges uses and represents China in his work. Then I will question the Argentinean authors influence on Chinese poet Xi Chuan who said: Pound and Borges generate a symmetry in my creative impulse; when I am wild, I need Borges to temper me and when I am too conventional I am relying on Pound.2 And precisely see how Borgess image of China plays a role in Xis creation.

First it is necessary to point out that [Borges] playfully mixes his readings with inventions and blurs the boundaries between essay and story. (Zhang, 1988, p.112). And indeed, in Borges the ambiguity of reality is recurrent concern, as we are going to see. We will start with the example of the fictitious Chinese encyclopedia, very famous since Michel Foucault (1966) used it in his Les Mots et les Choses. The quote Foucault uses can be found in the essay El Idioma Analtico de John Wilkins. This essay is about a real person: John Wilkins, but with fake sources, among them is a certain Chinese encyclopaedia entitled Celestial Empire of benevolent Knowledge (Borges, 19) which illustrate an abnormal way of organizing things just as Wilkins supposedly does in his analytic language. It is very interesting to note that, as Zhang (1988) stresses it, Foucault (1970, p.xix) uses the Chinese encyclopedia to show how China represents the ultimate other: In our dreamworld is not China precisely this privileged site of space ? () whose name alone constitutes for the West a vast reservoir of utopias. But what the philosopher seems to omit is the parallel Borges draws between Willinkss and the Chinese methodology, which doesnt make China another but if not the same one similar. We find another example in Borgess (1984, p.42) Book of Imaginary Beings. There is a chapter about the Chinese Dragon in which the writer mentions Confucius and Lao Zi : We read in the Historical Record of Ssu-ma Chien that Confucius went to consult the archivist or librarian Lao-tzu []. In this passage, Borges identifies himself with Lao Zi. Indeed as he says: [i]n my stories I suppose the only character is myself () [m]yself in
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Words Xi Chuan said at a book review in October 2012, my own sources.

imaginary times or in imaginary situation (Borges, 1982, p.161) we know that when Borges who at the time was himself librarian, insists on the fact that Lao Zi is a librarian, it is a direct reference to himself. In the poem El Guardin de Libros, Borges even becomes Chinese:
() () Qu me impide soar que alguna vez What can stop me from dreaming that once descifr la sabidura I could decipher wisdom y dibuj con aplicada mano los smbolos? And drew the symbols with practiced hand? Mi nombre es Hsiang. Soy el custodia de los My name is Hsiang. I am he who guards the libros books, que acaso son los ltimos, Which are perhaps the last ones to remain, porque nada sabemos del Imperio Because we know nothing of the Empire y del Hijo del Cielo. And the Son of Heaven. () () (Borges, 1999, p.284) (trans. C. Tomlinson, 1999, p.285)

In this passage, Borges is dreaming that he is Chinese, and therefore we tackle two essential aspects of his work; first, the dream: [t]he idea of the world as a dream is not alien to me. () I know that when I write I have to enrich the dream (Borges, 1982, p. 164). Therefore, any elements that appear in Borgess world are enrich[ing] the dream and therefore they acquire a fictitious dimension. No wonder then that Borges (2000, p.29) often quote over and over again Zhuang Zi : He (Zhuang Zi) dreamt that he was a butterfly, and, on waking up, he did not know whether he was a man who had been dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly who was now dreaming he was a man. This story is representative of the feeling the reader has when lost in Borges maze between genres, reality and fiction, self and other. This leads us to the second aspect tackled by the poem we quote: the question of identity which is essential in Borges, we recall Zhangs (1988, p.113) quote: Borges is particularly sensitive to the problematic of the Other, and the theme of double identities runs throughout his works. In these works, the Other often turns out to be no other than the Self. We can even go further analyzing the essay we mentioned in the introduction: El Escritor Argentino y la Tradicin (1997) and a poem titled Los Gauchos In both he questions the Argentinean identity coming to the conclusion that identity is a creation therefore, Borges can be Chinese. But let us look at the poem; the gauchos are originally farmers who lived in the pampas all over South America. With the independence of Argentina in 1810, and the search for an Argentinean cultural identity, gauchos became its representative; they became part of history in spite of themselves. As any symbols, they refer as much to what is imagined in fantasy as to what is perceived as real. (Hall, 1997, p. 263) In his poem resorting to irony, Borges

differentiates the real gauchos form the symbol they became.

Los Gauchos Quin les hubiera dicho que sus mayores vinieron por un mar, quin les hubiera dicho lo que son un mar y sus aguas. Mestizos de la sangre del hombre blanco, lo tuvieron en poco, mestizos de la sangre del hombre rojo, fueron sus enemigos. Muchos no habrn odo jams la palabra gauchos, o la habrn odo como injuria. Aprendieron los caminos de las estrellas, los hbitos del aire y del pjaro, las profecas de las nubes del Sur y del la luna con un cerco. Fueron pastores de la hacienda brava, firmes en el cabello del desierto que haban domado esa maana, enlazadores, marcadores, troperos, capataces, hombres de la partida policial, alguna vez matreros; alguno, el escuchado, fue el payador. Cantaba sin premura, porque el alba tarda en clarear, y no alzaba la voz. Haba peones tigreros; amparados en el poncho el brazo izquierdo, el derecho suma el cuchillo en el vientre del animal, abalanzado y alto. El dialogo pausado, el mate y el naipe fueron formas de su tiempo. La diferencia de otros campesinos, eran capaces de irona. Eran sufridos, castos y pobres. La hospitalidad fue su fiesta. Alguna noche los perdi el pendenciero alcohol de los sbados. Moran y mataban con inocencia. No eran devotos, fuera de alguna oscura supersticin, pero la dura vida les ense el culto del coraje. Hombres de la ciudad les fabricaron un dialecto y una posea de metforas rsticas. Ciertamente no fueron aventureros, pero un arreo los llevaba muy lejos y ms lejos de las guerras. No dieron a la historia un solo caudillo. Fueron hombres de Lpez, de Ramrez, de Artigas, de Quiroga, de Bustos, de Pedro Campbel, de Rosas, de Urquiza, de aquel Ricardo Lpez Jordn que hizo matar a Urquiza, de Pealoza y de Saravia. No murieron por esa cosa abstracta, la patria, sino por un patrn casual, una ira o por la invitacin de un peligro. Su ceniza est perdida en remotas regiones del continente, en republicas de cuya historia nada supieron, en campos de batalla, hoy famosos. Hilario Ascasubi los vio cantando y combatiendo. Vivieron su destino como en un sueo, sin saber quienes eran o qu eran. Tal vez lo mismo nos ocurre a nosotros. (Borges 2003, pp. 257-8)

The poem is divided in two parts, the first part that goes until Hombres de la ciudad () is descriptive, the poet sets the atmosphere. It is full of terms that are specifically Argentinean: gauchos, payador, poncho, mate, etc. This part is oriented toward nature and simplicity. Borges starts reminding the reader that gauchos are originally not form Argentina: [] their predecessor came by a sea *3 [] sus mayores vinieron por un mar, and that now they forgot everything form the sea: who would have told them what are the sea and its waters * quin les hubiera dicho lo que son un mar y sus aguas meaning that time has past and gauchos have changed, inducing that they are not fixed in time. He also points out that what is now considered local color was normal at another epoch: The unhurried dialogue, the
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Translations followed by a star are mine.

mate and the cards were the forms of their time. * El dialogo pausado, el mate y el naipe fueron las formas de su tiempo. In the second part, the poet opposes the nature of the first part to culture, countryside and city, and shows that it is the intellectuals who partly created gauchos: Men from the city invented for them a dialect and a poetry made of rustic metaphors. Hombres de la ciudad les fabricaron un dialecto y una poesa de metafora rsticas.* Borges here refers to two aspects: on one hand the fact that gauchos were invented and on the hand he points out the difference between poetry effectively composed by gauchos who were popular poets from the countryside and form the suburb [who] versified general themes [] and did it with a vocabulary very general too poetas populares del campo y del suburbio versifican temas generales [] y lo hacen en un lxico muy general tambin (Borges, 1997)*, and poesa gauchesca which is written by poets gauchescos who cultivate a language deliberately popular, which is not used by popular poets cultivan un lenguaje deliberadamente popular, que los poetas populares no ensayan. (Ibid.)* As mentioned above, gauchos are a symbol used by Argentina to create a national identity in which every Argentinean should be able to recognize himself, in other words: they have been used to generate patriotism. And yet, with irony, Borges reminds his readership that the gauchos didnt die for this abstract thing; homeland () no murieron por esa cosa abstracta, la patria ()*. And he concludes his poem suggesting that [t]hey lived their destiny as in a dream, without knowing who they were or what they were. / Maybe the same is happening to us. Vivieron su destino como en un sueo, sin saber quines eran o qu eran. / Tal vez lo mismo nos ocurre a nosotros.* The final verse echoes the first one, with the idea that human being are constantly changing and at the same it confirms what we sense in the poem: for Borges, symbols, nations and history are made up, in The Guardian of Books Borges (trans. by C. Tomlinson 1999, p.289) clearly expresses: () the imagined and the past are one and the same. He also said once in an interview: The present will be known by the historians or by the novelists who call themselves historians. (Borges, 1982, p.1) We note again the omnipresent idea that reality is merging into imagination, blurring all boundaries. As Zhang (1988, p.112) puts it: Borges sees the universe as a labyrinth with its innumerable passages, corridors, tortuous paths, and blind alleys () literary creation for Borges is also the making of a labyrinth. By connecting the name of a real sinologist with an invented title Borges create a maze that tends to puzzle and mislead his readers. Now that we speak about labyrinth it is necessary to mention the short story: The Garden of Forking Path which is about labyrinth but also identity.

The labyrinth is double, we find it first in the thread of the story itself, which loses the readers by its complexity, second, in the story, there is a book written by a Chinese scholar named Tsui Pn, that is a labyrinth which contains all possibilities because times forks, perpetually in countless futures (Borges, trans. A. Hurley, 1998, p. 127). The idea of the labyrinth is important because, as we already pointed out, Borges likes to confuse his readership, and therefore the theme of identity and nationality is also part of the labyrinth. Indeed, the protagonist, Yu Tsun is a Chinese spy, working for Germany. But he also is the descendant of the Chinese scholar Tsui Pn. A third character I will mention is Stephen Albert a British sinologist who deciphers the mystery of the book-labyrinth. Each of them characters represents a deferent Chinese identity and they summarize Borges vision of it. Yu Tsun is the modern Chinese, he incarnates the borgean theme of the double we mentioned earlier as he is a Chinese spy in England for Germany. He is concerned by racism and struggles for equality: I sensed that the Leader looked down on the people of my race [] I wanted to prove him that a yellow man could save his armies (Ibid., p.121). Tsui Pn corresponds to the stereotype of the Chinese scholar who prefers to leave the court and live a simple life to dedicate himself to his passions: Governor of the province in which he had been born, a man learned in astronomy, astrology, and unwearyingly interpretation of canonical books a chess player a renowned poet and calligrapher he abandoned it all in order to compose a book and a labyrinth (Ibid., p.124) and therefore he is semi-mythical which is reinforced by that fact that at the time of the narrative, he is dead. He participates to the creation of a mythical China. We also observe how Borges is aware of Chinese stereotypes and mocks them, through the last character Stephen Albert, an English, who reveals to Yu Tsun the secret of Tsui Pns labyrinth, at one point, Albert says in a supposed Chinese way: I, an English barbarian, have somehow been chosen to unveil the diaphanous mystery (Ibid.). Albert represents the usurpation of identity; he is English but acts as he thinks that a Chinese would act, based on common preconceived ideas. Weve seen that China is a borgean theme like mirrors, labyrinths, books, etc. We have seen how the self and the other merge in Borges essay or fiction, which allows us to extend his reflection about national identity to any identity as Yeh did in her article we quoted at the beginning of this essay. Which is also what we are going to do in the following.

Now that we have observed China in Borges, its time to observe Borges in China and see how a dialogue is established with Xi Chuan. First we will see that Xi Chuan also questions the veracity of history like Borges did in Los Gauchos only Xi is questioning it form a Chinese perspective in the poem On Wang 6

Ximengs Blue-green Landscape Scroll, A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains . Second, we will analyze how Xi uses Borges in his poetry through the poem Rereading Borgess Poetry.

Very visual, Xi Chuan uses the Chinese landscape , in the poem On Wang Ximengs Blue-green Landscape Scroll, A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains (Xi, trans. Lucas Klein 2011, p.227). Those landscapes are typical, because they became China in the imaginary of Europe and later the rest of the world, and they still are, as Xi expresses it. At the beginning he warns the spectator not to recognize himself in the painting: Dont bother looking for yourself in these figures (Ibid.) because the nameless figures are but embellishments to the landscape (Ibid.) Xi opposes traditional Chinese figures invented by Wang Ximeng , the painter: figures dressed in white to the people today [who] dress in black (Ibid.) who are the modern Chinese. In both images white and black are the mourning colors, the difference is that white is the traditional color while black is a contemporary color, which shows a Western influence. Their activities are opposed too, the first ones are free and have countryside ideals activities: people walking though the mountains follow their own directions, their own plans [] walk, rest, fish, and trade among themselves at all the while surrounded by green and blue. [] (Ibid.) While black dressed people: show up at banquets, concerts, and funerals surrounded by gold and more gold. (Ibid.) The people from the painting have a peaceful and simple life, but they are chimerical, surrounded by green and blue which refers to Wangs painting technique: the blue green landscapes that consist of using

exclusivly blue and green colors which gives to the painting a irrealistic touch, therefore, when Xi reminds the reader that the people of the painting are surrounded by those fake colors it is to remind him that they are chimerical. By contrast, the modern people have busy and important lives, but the last part of the line which in Chinese speaks about gold color shows that their lives is not more tangible then the ones of the figures in the painting, because it is only color. The poet adds that these figures clothed in white were never born, and so of course will never die (Ibid.). The fact that the figures were never born means that they dont exist; they are an invention of the painter, therefore they cannot faithfully represent China. Although they do represent it and this image will never die because it is an image, a utopia (Ibid.). Like Borges, Xi doubts history and he clearly separates the history as witnessed by the painting and the real one, when he says: () unaware that the boy [the painter] would pass away soon after painting A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountain (Ibid.) No matter what happens to the painter, the painting remains and tells a story that becomes part of history. So we see that Xi Chuan starting with the same topic than Borges adds his own vision to it. Which is a sort of answer to a question Borges would have asked through his texts. Let us observe what happens when Xi is directly referring to the Argentinean poet in Rereading Borgess Poetry :
The precision of this statement emerges form the chaos of the past this pure force, like the rhythm of a dripping faucet annotates the aporia of history touching starlight I leave night to the earth night that licks the earths crevices: that forked memory No Man is a man No Where is a place a No Man in No Where has written these lines I must decipher in the shadows I give up scouring the world of dust for the author, and lift my head to see

a librarian, lethargically, and only for his livelihood preserving the order of the universe and books trans. L. Klein

The above poem functions as a multidimensional dialogue, that never ends. Xi Chuan is tackling some of Borgess themes: shadow, night, books with the recurrent reference to the importance of past, history and the forked memory, giving those borgean theme his own reading as we are going to see. When the reader starts the poem, he doesnt finish the fist line and he already notices that it is not really a first line. Indeed, the poet speaks about the precision of this statement , and the reader will never know what statement it is, as if he would have burst in a conversation. In the same verse Xi uses one of his favorite literary device: the paradox opposing the precision of the statement and the chaos of the past . This is directly linked with the next verese in which he mentions the gaps of history (Klein translated as aporia of history) and how they are filled with a dripping faucet . Xi is here referring to Borgess constant inventing of history we observed in the poem Los Gauchos. But Xi goes deeper adding his cynicism. Obviously he agrees with Borges when he says that () the imagined and the past are one and the same () lo imaginado y lo pasado ya son lo mismo (Borges, trans. C. Tomlinson, 1999, pp. 282-3). The paradox ridicules the invention of history: it cannot be precise because it comes form the chaotic past. The tool used to fill the gaps reinforces the cynicism: a faucet that is dysfunctional.

In the next verses, the word night reminds us Borgess blindness that left night to earth for him, and this night, this blindness, is heeling reality: it licks the earths cervices like an animal would lick his wounds. Because being blind allows Borges to have a selective memory, as he says in the famous In Praise of the Shadow Elogio de la Sombra: women are what they were so many years ago las mujeres son lo que fueron hace ya tantos aos(Borges, trans. A. and W. Barnstone 2003, p.257) This idea of a selective memory is confirmed in Xis poem with the word forking or . It is a direct

allusion to Borgess short story we analyzed already, The Garden of Forking Path in Chinese: , in which time is forking into an invisible labyrinth invisible laberinto (Borges trans. A. Hurley 1998, p.124) creating several futures, several times, which themselves proliferate and fork diversoso provenires, diversos tiempos que tambin proliferan y se bifurcan (Ibid.) Xi Chuan in his poem tinges Borgess concept by saying that its memory that forks, but with the same result than in the fiction: creation of other versions. As proof, Borges (1982, p.6) says that his [] memories are memories of the books [he] read, and in In Praise of the Shadow (2003, p.257) he adds: [f]rom the generations of texts on the earth I have read only a few, / the ones I keep reading in memory, / reading and distorting. De las generaciones de los textos que hay en la tierra / slo habr ledo unos pocos, / los que sigo leyendo en la memoria, / leyendo y transformando. Like Xi Chuan suggests it in his poem.

Shadow is another theme that Borges likes that appears in the second stanza of Xis poem. We mentioned already In Praise of The Shadow. In this poem Borges (2003, p.257) explains how aging and blindness are leading him to his center in other words the essence of himself and as the end of the poem reads: Soon I will know who I am Pronto sabr quin soy. At the moment Borges writes he does not know who he is, therefore he is a No Man . He also does not know where he is; he explains in the poem that because he is blind, he is loosing sight of Buenos Aires, he is living among vague and luminous forms / that are not yet darkness entre formas luminosas y vagas / que no son an la tiniebla (Ibid.) a No Where . The only thing left to him is to decipher himself in the shadow . The word decipher implies several dimensions: the first one is Borgess level, as we said he has to decipher himself, the second level is Xi Chuans level, he has to decipher Borges, to be able understand him and write this poem. The third level is the readers level, he has to decipher Xi Chuans poem to be able to understand it and his relationship with Borges. Those three deferent levels are representatives of the dialogue that is established between people beyond time, space and culture, themes that are important to both poets. But in the following verse, Xi shows his disagreement vis--vis Borgess extrem passion for books. In this verse Xi stop deciphering Borgess work scouring the world of dust for the author , in doing so he leaves the books which represent fiction and faces

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reality: lift my head to see . What he sees is: a librarian, lethargically, and only for his livelihood / preserving the order of the universe and books . The librarian is obviously Borges, and the adjective that defines him is lethargic as translated by Klein or lazy. We note the presence of the adverb only , which counterbalances the importance of the word livelihood and of preserving the order of the universe and books . This abrupt ending echoes the impression of bursting into a conversation that the read had at the beginning of the poem because it is not an ending but the beginning of a reflection about the importance of books that reminds us what Borges (1982, p.6) said in an interview: I hope to go to China and to India. I was already there since Ive read Kinpling and the Tao Te Ching, and shows that for him books are more valuable that realty. It is also the answer to the question we asked in the introduction, what kind of China is Borgess China, not surprisingly, it is the China of the books.

This dialogue we have pointed out between a Chinese and an Argentinean poet opens a discussion about world literature as Goethe foresaw it: [Literature belongs] like all good things, to the whole world, and can be fostered only by untrammeled intercourse among all contemporaries, continually bearing in mind what we have inherited from the past (quoted by Strich 1949, 35). World literature, not as a hierarchical economic market, governed by power relationships, but as a world literary system, in terms of circulation and exchange.

Bibliography: Borges, Jorges Luis, 1974. The Book of Imaginary Beings. Translated from Spanish by N.T. di Giovanni. Harmondswoth: Peguins Books. ---------- 1974. Historia Universal de la Infamia, Madrid: Alianza. ---------- 1982. Borges at Eighty, ed. Willis Barnstone. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. ----------1993. The Analytical Language of John Wilkins. Translated from Spanish by L. G. Vzquez [on line] Available at: http://www.alamut.com/subj/artiface/language/johnWilkins.html [Accessed February 13, 2013].

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---------- 1997. El Escritor Argentino y la Tradicin [on line] Available at: http://www.revistacontratiempo.com.ar/borges_tradicion.htm [Accessed February 13, 2013]. ---------- 1998. The Garden of Forking Paths. Translated from Spanish by A. Hurley. In Collected Fictions Jorge Luis Borges. New York: Viking, pp. 119-128. ---------- 1998. Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations, R.Burgin ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ---------- 1999. Selected Poems Jorge Luis Borges, A. Coleman ed. New York: Viking. ---------- 2000. This craft of Verse, C.-A. Mihailescu ed. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. ---------- 2003. Obra Potica 2. Madrid: Alienza. ---------- 2004. Goethe, J. W., 2013. On World Literature. In : World Literature A Reader. T. Dhaen , C. Domngez and M. Rosendahl Thomsen. New York: Routledge, pp. 9-15. Hall, S. ed., 1997. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage and Open University. Foucault, M., 1970. The Order of Things a Translation of Les Mots et les Choses. New York: Pantheon Books. Wallerstein, I., 1974. The Modern World-System I. San Diego: Academia Press. Xi, C., 2012. Notes on the Mosquito, Selected Poems. Translated from Chinese by L. Klein. New York: New Directions Book. Yeh M., 2008. There Are no Camels in the Koran: What Is Modern about Modern Chinese Poetry. In: C. Lupke ed 2008. New Perspectives on Cotemporary Chinese Poetry. New York : Palgarve Macmillan, pp. 9-26. Zhang L., 1988. The Myth of the Other: China in the Eyes of the West. Critical Inquiry, 15 Autumn, pp.108-131.

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