Religion Tolerance in the Chinese and German Literatur:A Comparison between Lessing’s Drama “Nathan der Weise” and Fan, Wen’s novel “Tibet Jesus”

• Main Authors: Liu, Hsin-Hsin, 劉欣鑫
• Other Authors: Yen, Cha-Jen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09854421864667034916

碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 德國語文學系 === 98 === Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was a German writer in the 18th century. In his drama “Nathan der Weise”(Nathan the Wise, 1779) showed his ideal of religion tolerance. Tolerance means to respect, accept, understand others folks and religions. Lessing’s drama “Nathan der Weise” (Nathan the Wise) and Fan Wen’s novel “The Tibet Jesus” both contain varied cultures and background, but they have similar idea about tolerance. Based on such idea of tolerance, this study employs comparative method of research between Chinese and western literature, and attempts to analyze way in which these two writers showed their respective idea of tolerance. Lessing was against partiality in religions, and promoted respect toward other religions. He thought that people cannot choose the environment in which they were born, but they can decide what to believe in. People are free, they should not be regarded with prejudice just because their ethnicity and religion. Fan Wen is a writer of the present day, his writings represent the history of Tibet over a century, and he maintains that people should have respect and understanding toward others. This study compares these two writings, with the hope that people can be inspred and have deeper reflection on the topic of tolerance regarding ethnicity and religions.