Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy is a work that cannot be bypassed by understanding philosophy. There are probably more than ten Chinese translations, and the one I have in my hand is a translation by Taiwanese translator Liu Qi. Although it was translated in the 1960s, it is now read without any barriers, without sentences that are difficult to understand, and it is very smooth and easy to read.
Although the folio of this book is different from other philosophical books, the wide margins of each page are very suitable for writing annotations and impressions. After all, when reading philosophical works, how can you not feel it!
The Birth of Tragedy is Nietzsche's work of studying classical philology in his youth, but it is not a completely academic work, but a work written in literary strokes full of personal creativity, and it can be said that it is also a work of art.
Although Nietzsche wrote a preface sixteen years later that he had an insurmountable dislike or strangeness for his work as a young man, he also considered it an original work by a young man, with infinite courage and melancholy of a young man, as well as bold innovation. Yes, we can read not only philosophical reflections from Nietzsche's delicate and genius sensibility, but also a cultural treatise written in surging poetic sentences.
In this book, Nietzsche wants to explain the cultural phenomenon in Greece through the rise and fall of the tragic spirit of Greece.
The tragedies in the book refer specifically to Greek tragedies, not to what we call them on a daily basis. What we call tragedy on a daily basis is actually tragedy. Greek tragedy is a combination of the spirit of Apollo and the spirit of Dionysus.
The spirit of Apollo, the spirit of the sun god (sun god) that we are familiar with, is a combination of beauty and power, focusing on plastic arts, focusing on contemplation, and is a dream world, requiring self-control: "know yourself" and "do not overdo everything".
The spirit of Dionysus, the spirit of Dionysus, is ecstatic, unbridled, permeating nature, mysterious and selfless, demanding the tearing of illusions and symbolically expressing the essence of nature.
The japanese mood gives the wine look a beautiful form, and the wine look gives the japanese look vitality. The two measurements are combined to break free from tragedism and reach the tragic spirit of re-affirming life.
Nietzsche believed that Socrates' emphasis on knowledge was equivalent to emphasizing the calm observation of the world in the spirit of the sun god, and the spirit of Dionysus was snuffed out by this reason, and from then on, Sequeirs embarked on the path of pure intellectualism.
Although Nietzsche said that this book was written for "artists with analytical and reflective tendencies", we can also benefit from it, in addition to being able to understand Greece a little deeper and advance the concept of art, Nietzsche's ardent emphasis and analysis of "life" can make us know and reflect on our life and meaning again.
Title: The Birth of Tragedy
Author: Nietzsche
️ Translator: Liu Qi
©️ Publisher: Taiwan Straits Publishing House
™️ Publishing company: Zhuo Wentianyu