Nietzsche's "Zarathustra"

Author: Dai Hui
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Heidegger planned to teach the course " Nietzsche's Metaphysics" in the winter semester of 1941-1942. In addition to the lecture notes he wrote, there were preparatory notes, with the question "Who is Zarathustra" prominently displayed. (Heidegger's Complete Works, Volume 50, Page 84) Heidegger is a philosopher who evaluates Nietzsche's thought from a philosophical perspective. His interpretation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and his explication of H?lderlin's poetry are timeless. Interestingly, the published results of the "Nietzsche's Metaphysics" course were replaced with "H?lderlin's Ode 'Sehnsucht'." In the autumn of 1973, while preparing the publication of Heidegger's Complete Works, Heidegger designated that the lecture notes "Nietzsche's Metaphysics" and "Introduction to Philosophy: Thought and Poetry" be combined into one volume. The latter was a course he had to abandon when he was forced to leave his position, with the full title "Introduction to Philosophy as a Guide to True Thought through the Thinker Nietzsche and the Poet H?lderlin," during the winter semester of 1944-1945, and the course was only taught for two hours. The shift in courses marked a turning point in the philosopher's thought. Heidegger believed that Nietzsche's thought was the final form of metaphysical thinking to date, while the poetry of H?lderlin contained the measure of future thinking—the presence and withdrawal of the gods. The combination of the two lecture notes into one volume illustrates the intrinsic connection between the two modes of thinking. The philosopher encountered Nietzsche and H?lderlin precisely within the tension of this connection, with the latter becoming the near neighbor of thought. The word "encounter" is one Heidegger favored, signifying the immediacy of thought, and Heidegger's understanding of immediacy is presence. The relationship between presence and temporality, however, leads thought to lose its own immediacy. Returning to "Who is Zarathustra?" Heidegger said the question could not be answered in a few words; the answer could only be experienced through an encounter with Zarathustra. Where would such an encounter take place? This was determined by what Zarathustra was. (Heidegger's Complete Works, Volume 50, Page 85) However, what a work is, is not determined by the author. Here, Heidegger states: "The greatest creators are those whose boundaries are already given in their works, meaning they are determined at the limit, so close that the creators remain purely within their boundaries, knowing it yet unable to articulate it." (Heidegger's Complete Works, Volume 50, Page 86) In short, Zarathustra is the teacher of the doctrine of eternal recurrence, teaching others self-transcendence through this doctrine, yet he himself is not yet the übermensch. In Heidegger's interpretive language, the eternal recurrence of the same is the metaphysical explanation of the will to power in the existence of beings. The whole world presents itself as nihilism under the perfect rule of subjectivity and reaches the critical point of its historical turn, yet the person who completes this history has not yet arrived. Who is Zarathustra? This question, for Heidegger, is linked to "What is metaphysics?" His admiration and critique of Nietzsche are aimed at the crisis of metaphysical thinking in historical reality. This modern perspective determined Heidegger's view of Nietzsche as the end of metaphysics. Although he believed that Nietzsche not only inverted the relationship between the sensory and the supersensory—the beginning of Plato's philosophy—but also overcame the gap between the sensory and the supersensory, the subversion of metaphysics still bound Nietzsche to its relationship, and the other mode of thinking that opens a new world remained in the future. At this point, we can understand why Heidegger abandoned the Nietzsche theme in his 1941 lecture. However, the question "Who is Zarathustra?" cannot be replaced by "What is Zarathustra?" Heidegger himself transcended the horizon of the world, placing the question of "Who" in the dimension of language: "Who is Zarathustra?—What is his language?—What is he in language?" (Heidegger's Complete Works, Volume 50, Page 85) Let us attempt to answer these three questions one by one, starting with the last: Zarathustra is first the proclaimer of the übermensch in his own language. His first proclamation is "God is dead," this historical event completely distinguishing Zarathustra from history and the saints left by history. In his later self-revelation, the first to appear is "the godless one"; if this only separates him from medieval philosophy and is not yet enough to free him from what is called moral metaphysics, then "the approver of life" marks out Zarathustra's new vision of the modern world. For this reason, the second volume of Thus Spoke Zarathustra opens with the declaration that the wisdom of life is "wild wisdom," nurtured by its young child on the barren mountains and steep cliffs; yet only by overcoming the decadent modern art and religious ideology can the founder of the new world endure the pain of birth. Therefore, Zarathustra must become "the approver of suffering," that is, "the approver of eternal recurrence." The teacher of the doctrine of eternal recurrence is the only identity of the übermensch proclaimer's earthly existence. Perhaps it answers "What is Zarathustra." However, without the action of self-transcendence, one cannot discern the naturalness and worldliness of the eternal recurrence of the same, which is also the difference in meaning between the chorus of animals and Zarathustra's response in The Healer. Both have their own significance. The übermensch proclaimer not only ends world history with the action of value transformation but also constructs the spiritual world of the to-be-übermensch through the action of self-transcendence. Finally, the teacher of eternal recurrence himself is his doctrine. He speaks the knowledge that establishes the new world and, in this word, destroys it, thereby the spirit transcends itself, giving the soul love for the world and a hymn of eternal return in love. Zarathustra's language constructs the world of the modern soul. Zarathustra is both the deliverer of the new world and the newborn. The child of wisdom, though not born in the dimension of the world, leaves the circle of the eternal recurrence of the same in Nietzsche's unique tragic art. The nine articles in the two books, except for The Spiritual Body and Art, which explains the origin and mission of Nietzsche's tragic art, directly address the themes of the works. Here, Nietzsche's thought is seen as the core reflection of modernity, reflecting on the lack of creativity in human value from the dimension of the will. The experience of the lack of creativity in human essence is a shared modern basic experience for both Nietzsche and Heidegger, and also the driving force of their thought. The difference lies in that Heidegger grasps it from the dimension of knowledge and also expands the whole of world experience from this dimension. Nietzsche's thought first clarifies the unique skepticism it possesses, which is also a resistance to Schopenhauer's pessimism and the decadent ideology it represents. Boredom with life is the root of nihilism, and the reason lies in the body's despair over itself. Nietzsche's skeptical spirit no longer starts from society but from the direct experience of the fall within oneself, cutting life with the spirit, completing the distinction between man and oneself. The will of man to self-transcendence in the historical crisis of nihilism is the will of the übermensch. It affirms the perfection of suffering in its original faith in oneself, possesses and loves the world of life. The corresponding art, in terms of the specificity of language, is the art of interpreting the spirit, and in terms of the specificity of the world, it is the art of the soul's self-redemption. The Hymn of Truth and the Soul summarizes the structure of the work and the development of the übermensch thought in the order of the preface to Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the following three volumes, aiming to reveal the overall experience of the world that cannot be ignored in Nietzsche's unique mode of expression. It is this unique world construction that establishes Nietzsche's thought in the modern world and places Nietzsche's reflection on the history of humanity on the foundation of the modern world. The attentive reader will not fail to notice that under the three subheadings "The Path of the Creator," "Autumn Waters on Solitary Mountain," and "The Wandering Man and the Unforeseen Sea," there are three bold word groups. If you list them as keywords separately under the three subheadings and interpret them according to the following rational relationships, you may be surprised:
1. Virtue
2. Spiritual World
3. Soul World
The dominant relationship order is language, world, history; it can also be read as power, will, knowledge.
In Love and Justice, thought appears directly in the form of faith, revealing myself through the virtue of gift. This love chooses me, gives me to myself, creating new truth in the distinction between me and myself. Although it negates the wisdom of Christ, it still reminds one of the commandment of love; although it lacks the virtue of humility, it still reminds one of the perfect embodiment of the Son's will to the Father, the truth he performed. However, what replaces faith is the passion of distance—the free intuition of life's self-transcendence, and what replaces the substantiality of personality is loyalty to the earth.
Who Should Be Grateful in Giving and Taking?, Men and Women, and The Dancing Earth directly relate to The Night Song, The Dance Song, and The Grave Song, forming the core spiritual trilogy of the work, which corresponds to the trilogy of the soul: The Great Longing, Another Dance Song, and The Seven Seals. The trilogy of the soul is the climax of the work, and the third volume of Thus Spoke Zarathustra also ends with the hymn of the soul that loves eternally. The body, spirit, and soul all belong to the earth; they are the self-distinction and self-transcendence of life within itself; the spirit's cutting of life opens the sky of the earth, and the relationship between the three constitutes the world, revealing the complete content of the will to the to-be-übermensch. At this point, the mission of proclaiming the übermensch is complete. Self-transcendence, as the truth of the godless one, is the self-redemption of man and himself that Nietzsche demands in the historical reality of nihilism. Self-transcendence gains certainty of knowledge through the faith of the eternal recurrence of the same, and the wisdom of the brave promises the possibility of the übermensch world.
The other essay, The Song of the Night Wanderer, touches on the content of the fourth part, but the only thing it concerns is the final and ultimate difference between Zarathustra and the übermensch—as day and midnight. The former still belongs to the interpretive art of the poet, while the latter is the world where the soul begins to dance. It is worth mentioning again the metaphor of the "vine" in The Round Dance of Zarathustra. The Dionysian soul has finally cut off the legacy of history; its child has been born—the joy of life has become the circle of eternal recurrence. Nietzsche distinguishes the bitter sweetness of sympathy in the love symbolized by the vine and replaces the wisdom of Christ with the faith of the eternal recurrence of the same. "Dionysus against the crucified Jesus" is realized in the life and death of the modern soul.
Earlier, it was mentioned that the three specifications of the übermensch proclaimer are, in the world that reevaluates all values, the godless one, the approver of life, and the teacher of the doctrine of eternal recurrence. However, here, in the world of Nietzsche's soul, the approver of life occupies the central position; it is the measure of language. The Face and the Riddle and Faith and the World focus on examining the lineage of the eternal recurrence of the same in the work. First, as "the primordial thought," it is the thought of the spirit of self-transcendence; then, it is the "solitary face" brought by thought—the thought that reflects on temporality, the immediacy of the thinker, eternal recurrence appears before the thinker as the object of historical consciousness, revealing its ugliness and threat; finally, it is the abyss of myself—the spirit of self-transcendence once knew the world conscience and its pure sky in Before Dawn, but here the conscience is broken, the substantial spirit dissolves in my own confession, this is death, and also eternal awakening. The affirmation of this abyss makes the experience of the spirit a new knowledge for the soul—"The Healer." The godless world establishes a new order in faith, and with "The Healer" comes the eternal separation of all things and the soul world, and their dance together in recurrence. The existence of the soul is to give, and in the world's rotation, I gain the mirror of myself. Love's justice, with the soul's discerning eye, distinguishes "as it is" and "as the will of self-transcendence should be"; love's judgment is an eternal gift, accepting the illusion of unfairness, discovering the beauty of the world with beautiful words—as beauty is the effusion of the soul's goodness.
Written in the early spring of 2005 in Nanjing