Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Translations
- Introduction: Schiller and the German Novella
- The Translations
- 1 A Magnanimous Act from Most Recent History (1782)
- 2 A Remarkable Example of Female Revenge (Taken from a Manuscript by the late Denis Diderot) (1785)
- 3 The Criminal of Lost Honor. A True Story (1786)
- 4 The Duke of Alba's Breakfast at Rudolstadt Castle in the Year 1547 (1788)
- 5 Game of Fate. A Fragment of a True Story (1789)
- 6 The Spiritualist. From the Memoirs of Count von O** (1789)
- 7 The Philosophical Dialog from The Spiritualist (1789)
- 8 Haoh-Kiöh-Tschuen (The Tale of a Perfect Match) (1800–1801)
- The Critical Essays
- Chronological List of Schiller's Literary Prose Works in English Translation
- Works Cited
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
8 - Haoh-Kiöh-Tschuen (The Tale of a Perfect Match) (1800–1801)
from The Translations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Translations
- Introduction: Schiller and the German Novella
- The Translations
- 1 A Magnanimous Act from Most Recent History (1782)
- 2 A Remarkable Example of Female Revenge (Taken from a Manuscript by the late Denis Diderot) (1785)
- 3 The Criminal of Lost Honor. A True Story (1786)
- 4 The Duke of Alba's Breakfast at Rudolstadt Castle in the Year 1547 (1788)
- 5 Game of Fate. A Fragment of a True Story (1789)
- 6 The Spiritualist. From the Memoirs of Count von O** (1789)
- 7 The Philosophical Dialog from The Spiritualist (1789)
- 8 Haoh-Kiöh-Tschuen (The Tale of a Perfect Match) (1800–1801)
- The Critical Essays
- Chronological List of Schiller's Literary Prose Works in English Translation
- Works Cited
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
Book One
IN TAMING, a great city of the CHINESE EMPIRE, there lived a noble young man named Tiehtschongu, who applied himself to scholarship. His figure was handsome, his soul magnanimous and pure; justice was his passion and it was a joy for him to stand up for the oppressed. Here he was swift and bold and not concerned about reputation; nothing could contain his fervor when he had an act of violence to avenge.
His father, named Tieh-ying, was a mandarin of justice and administered a judicial office at the court of the emperor in Peking. Because he feared the fiery disposition of his son, he had him pursue his studies at a safe distance from the court. When Tiehtschongu had reached his sixteenth year, his parents thought that the time had come for him to marry; however, he declared that he could not commit himself to such an indissoluble bond until he had found a woman in whom all the virtues of body and spirit were combined.
He was twenty years old when he read in a history book about an emperor who had demanded that the heart of one of his mandarins be removed in order to prepare a medicine out of it for the empress, who was sick. A mandarin named Pikang immediately offered himself for the operation. This great selflessness astounded the young man and reminded him of the obedience that he owed his parents and had hitherto so little shown.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Schiller's Literary Prose WorksNew Translations and Critical Essays, pp. 169 - 170Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008