Oldal 49 [49]
PATRICK ÁRMSTRONG
Laws does not draw attention to the significance of the fact that this exemplar
is derived from Chinese mythology (rather than from, say, Greek or Roman,
with which Beckett was of course very familiar). Ihrough this assimilation
of Laloys study of Chinese music, Beckett displays an affinity with Chinese
thought and mythology, using the myth as a metaphor for a “purely melodic”
work of fiction."
A second and perhaps more influential source was Herbert A. Giles’s The
Civilisation of China. Beckett’s Dream Notebook, a miscellany that included
entries from Laloy’s idiosyncratic academic text, is particularly illuminating
in showing that he almost concurrently studied Giles’s history. Although
Lidan Lin is one of the only critics to have argued for the influence of Giles’s
Civilisation on Beckett, it was certainly an important source for the young
author, broadening his philosophical and cultural scope by exposing him to
Sinic culture and early Eastern thought." Certain expressions from Giles’s
Civilisation, such as “rent silk” and “partner of my porridge days,” were copied
verbatim into the early short story Echos Bones." The inclusion of Giles’s
peculiar phrases throughout Dream and More Pricks Than Kicks suggests
that the study of Chinese civilization linguistically and imaginatively engaged
the young author.
The following sentence in Giles offered an early and significant introduction
to Lao-Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher and author: “at a very remote
day, some say a thousand, others six hundred, years before the Christian era,
there flourished a wise man named Lao Tzu [...] understood to mean the Old
Philosopher.””° Over forty years later, this mysterious description of “a wise
man” who, significantly for Beckett, predated “the Christian era” remained
in his mind, given his clear reference to Lao-Tzu in That Time as, “that old
Chinaman long before Christ born with long white hair.”*' This identification
is confirmed by Antoni Libera, who notes that “during production the author
explained that here is meant Lao-Tse [an alternative spelling of Lao-Tzu or
Laozi, sometimes translated as ‘Old Master’].””? Critical studies of the play
have previously undervalued the significance of this allusion, which indicates
a return to the “origins of thought” through early Eastern culture.
1 Beckett: Dream, 10.
18 Lidan Lin: Samuel Beckett’s Encounter with the East, English Studies, Vol. 91, No. 6, (2010),
634.
Samuel Beckett: Dream Notebook, ed. John Pilling, Reading, Beckett International Foundation,
1999, 70—76; Beckett: Echos Bones, ed. Mark Nixon, London, Faber and Faber, 2014, 12, 27.
20 Herbert A. Giles: The Civilisation of China, Los Angeles, Indo-European Publishing, 2010,
31-32.
2 Beckett: That Time, 390.
2 Antoni Libera: Reading That Time, in Robin J. David — Lance St. J. Butler (eds.): Make Sense
Who May, Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe Limited, 1988, 97.
+ 48 e