Yeats and Kipling : Similarities and Differences in their View of Asia

本研究的目的是阐明英裔爱尔兰作家W·B·叶芝(1865-1939)和英裔印度作家鲁迪亚德·吉卜林(1865-1936)在亚洲宗教观上的异同。我们主要考察了两位作家如何在他们的诗歌和小说中使用神、神和神，并得出了以下结论：(1)吉卜林在很大程度上不是指印度教的神，而是指神，而是指基督教的神或神。前一个事实表明，他对印度教这一亚洲宗教深表敬意。后一个事实表明，他有意无意地讽刺了天主教和新教之间的历史冲突，可以被解读为从众神中挑选并选择了自己的上帝，并以自己的方式崇拜它。这些事实最终反映了他的相对论意识，即作为一神论的基督教和作为多神论的亚洲宗教在文化价值上是平等的。(2)与吉卜林不同，叶芝一贯将基督教的神性称为上帝，并将亚洲的神性称为神。从这个意义上说，他对神灵的命名是传统的。此外，与吉卜林不同的是，他对基督教和亚洲宗教都相当挑剔，因为他认为它们都迫使礼拜者将自己献给他们的上帝或神。(3)与吉卜林相比，固守自我的叶芝缺乏对亚洲宗教的同情。与吉卜林相比，叶芝更多地是以欧洲为导向(或古典希腊导向)。

The aim of the present research project is to clarify similarities and differences in views of Asian religions between an Anglo-Irish writer W.B.Yeats (1865-1939) and an Anglo-Indian writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). We have chiefly examined how the two writers use the terms God, Gods and gods in their poems and fictions, and reached the following conclusions : (1) Kipling for the most part refers to the divinities of Hinduism not as gods, but as Gods, whereas he refers to the divinity of Christianity either as God or Gods. The former fact suggests that he pays his deep respect to Hinduism, one of the Asian religions. The latter fact suggests that he consciously or unconsciously satirizes the historical conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism which can be interpreted to have picked and chosen their own God from among Gods and have worshiped it in their own manner. These facts ultimately reflect his relativistic sense that both Christianity as monotheism and Asian religions as polytheism are equal to each other in terms of cultural value. (2) Unlike Kipling, Yeats consistently refers to Christian divinity as God, and to Asian ones as gods. In this sense, his naming of divinities is traditional. Also, unlike Kipling, he is quite critical both of Christianity and Asian religions because he thinks that they all compel worshipers to abandon their own self to their God or gods. (3) In comparison with Kipling, Yeats, who sticks stubbornly to his own self, lack a sympathy to Asian religions. Yeats is more Europe-oriented (or classical Greek-oriented) than Kipling.