A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

On the screen, Shen Moyan stood in front of the podium, making sure the students were quiet before speaking.

"We've finished reading the plot of 'Thunderstorm' and learned about the characters' relationships. Today, we'll explore a deeper question." Shen Moyan placed his textbook on the podium, rested his hands on the edge of the desk, and scanned the class. "What exactly is 'Thunderstorm' about?"

The classroom was silent for a few seconds before a boy in the back row raised his hand: "Feudal ethics are cannibalistic."

"Yes, but not entirely." Shen Moyan wrote these words on the blackboard, then turned around. "The feudal ethics can devour people. This answer can be applied to Xianglin's wife, and it can also be applied to Kong Yiji, but Thunderstorm is not quite the same. Xianglin's wife was devoured by the feudal ethics, and Kong Yiji was crushed by the imperial examination system, but what about Fanyi? She resisted. What about Zhou Ping? He also resisted. What about Sifeng? She also struggled."

She paused.

"But they still died."

"Therefore, 'Thunderstorm' is not about the idea that Confucian ethics can devour people; it is about the powerlessness of people in the face of fate."

She wrote two words on the blackboard: Destiny.

"Zhou Puyuan thought he could control everything, but he couldn't control anything. Fanyi thought she could escape by capturing Zhou Ping, but she pushed everyone into the abyss. Zhou Ping thought he could start over by taking Sifeng away, but he walked into a dead end. Sifeng thought she could keep her happiness as long as she kept it a secret, but the poisonous oath she made came true word for word."

"Everyone is struggling desperately, but the direction in which everyone struggles is precisely the direction that pushes them into the abyss."

Under the sky, a group of people gathered in front of the old farmer's house, and a young man became dissatisfied.

"Why are you talking about fate?" He turned to the person next to him and said, "That Zhou Puyuan family treats their wives like objects and their children like pawns. When something goes wrong, they say it's just bad luck. What a load of rubbish! It's all their own doing!"

The old farmer waved his hand at him, "Keep listening to Master Shen."

There was a moment of silence in the classroom.

A girl wearing glasses raised her hand: "Teacher, I have a question."

"you say."

"Isn't this plot arrangement too coincidental? Shiping's daughter just happens to become a maid in the Zhou family, Zhou Ping just happens to fall in love with her own younger sister, Lu Dahai just happens to be Zhou Puyuan's son, and then everyone just happens to bump into each other on a stormy night..."

Some people in the classroom nodded in agreement.

Shen Moyan smiled.

"That's a good question. It's not being pedantic; it's genuinely thinking about how the script should be written."

She picked up the chalk and wrote five words on the blackboard: Ancient Greek Tragedy.

"To answer this question, we must temporarily leave Thunderstorm and head west to ancient Greece."

"During his university years, Cao Yu read extensively on ancient Greek tragedies, especially the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides."

The conception and structure of "Thunderstorm" were deeply influenced by ancient Greek tragedy. The "coincidence" you see in "Thunderstorm" is not called coincidence in ancient Greek tragedy, but fate.

"There is a very famous work in ancient Greek tragedy called Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles."

The story tells of Laius, the king of Thebes, who learned from an oracle that his son would one day kill his father and marry his mother.

To escape this fate, he handed his newborn baby to a shepherd and told him to abandon him in the mountains.

The shepherd, unable to bear the sight, secretly entrusted the infant to a shepherd in a neighboring country. The baby was adopted by the king of that neighboring country and named Oedipus.

"Years later, Oedipus grew up and heard the same oracle: you will kill your father and marry your mother in the future."

He was terrified and immediately left his adoptive parents' country, vowing never to return.

Then on the road, he got into an argument with a stranger and accidentally killed him.

He continued on his journey to Thebes, where he solved the riddle of the Sphinx, saved the city, was crowned the new king, and married the widow of the former king.

It wasn't until the plague struck and the truth was revealed that he learned the man he had killed on the road was his own father, Laius.

The queen he married was his biological mother.

Shen Moyan paused for a moment, waiting for the students' expressions to change from confusion to shock.

"Oedipus did nothing wrong. His parents wanted to kill him, so he fled. He heard an oracle, so he fled."

He was trying to escape fate with every step, but with every step he stepped into fate's trap.

This is the core theme of ancient Greek tragedy: the more a person struggles, the closer they get to tragedy.

"The ancient Greeks believed in fate. Fate is not something that someone harms you, nor is it something you do out of your own hands. Fate is a force that is above all else. You are born under its influence, and you can't escape it no matter how hard you try."

The characters in ancient Greek tragedies are not fighting against any particular person; they are fighting against fate, against oracles, against destiny, and this struggle is destined to fail.

"Everyone in 'Thunderstorm' is also fighting against fate. Shi Ping says, 'It is fate, an unfair fate that sent me here.' This is not shirking responsibility; it is Cao Yu using the style of ancient Greek tragedy to write a Chinese story."

Shen Moyan drew a line on the blackboard, writing "China" on the left and "Greece" on the right.

"The question from that student actually raises a larger issue: why did Cao Yu seek inspiration from ancient Greek tragedies? Can't China's own literary tradition provide these resources?"

She turned around and looked at the whole class.

"Chinese literature and ancient Greek literature have taken two different paths from the very beginning. It's not a question of which is superior or inferior; it's just that the scenery seen on the two paths is different."

Let's take some time today to explore both of these paths.

She circled the two characters for "China" and wrote four characters: "礼乐文明" (rites, music, civilization).

"The orthodox source of Chinese literature is the Book of Songs, which consists of the four categories of Feng, Ya, and Song. Feng refers to folk songs, Ya to aristocratic songs, and Song to ancestral temple sacrifices."

These three voices, taken together, point to the same thing: order.

Confucius said, "Poetry can inspire, can be observed, can be used for social interaction, and can express grievances," but he added at the end, "It teaches about serving one's father in the near term and serving one's ruler in the distant term." From the pre-Qin period onward, the essence of Chinese literature has been intertwined with ethical and moral education.

She paused for a moment.

“Resentment is permissible, but it must be expressed in moderation. It should be “sorrowful but not agonizing, joyful but not licentious”, which is the aesthetic principle of the Book of Songs.

You can complain in your poems, criticize the king, and lament your fate, but you cannot lose control.

After you've finished criticizing, you still need to return to order.

The four characters "gentle and kind" have been the main thread of Chinese literature for two thousand years. Even the exiled poets and the talented but unappreciated writers had their limits in their grief and indignation.

"But the essence of ancient Greek literature is conflict, not gentleness, kindness, frugality and humility, but a head-on collision between man and fate."

She began listing the works on the blackboard.

"Oedipus Rex is about a man who, no matter how hard he tries, cannot escape the fate of killing his father and marrying his mother."

Antigone is about a woman who chooses the laws of the city over the laws of nature, and pays for it with her life.

Medea tells the story of a woman abandoned by her husband who kills her two sons in revenge against the unfaithful man.

She put down the chalk and turned around.

"Did you notice the difference?"

"The conflicts in Chinese literature are conflicts between people."

Subject and king, son and father, individual and family.

This is an ethical dilemma that can be resolved if one party makes concessions.

"A benevolent ruler and a loyal subject, a kind father and a filial son"—this is the solution offered by Confucianism. You could say it's idealistic, but it does offer a path to reconciliation.

She paused, then emphasized her words.

"The conflict in ancient Greek literature is a conflict between people and fate. Fate is not something you can negotiate and reconcile with."

This is the most fundamental difference between ancient Greek tragedy and Chinese literature.

Chinese literature is ethical; it is concerned with how relationships between people should be.

Ancient Greek literature exists; it is concerned with humanity's place in the universe.

The core question of the former is "what to do", while the core question of the latter is "why".

Why did the ancient Greeks write stories about fighting against fate and being destined to fail?

The ancient Greeks were asking themselves: If the outcome is predetermined, why should people struggle? If defeat is inevitable, where is human dignity?

Their answer was, "I know you're going to lose, but I want to see what you do before you lose."

Let's see if you're scared, if you beg for mercy, or if you kneel down.

Oedipus ultimately blinded himself, yet he survived, living on with all the pain and sin. You can destroy him, but he won't accept it.

This is the essence of ancient Greek tragedy: not gentleness, courtesy, frugality, or modesty; not sorrow without bitterness, nor leaving a way out for everything; but rather confronting it head-on. It's like fate standing on the mountaintop while you stand at the foot, knowing you can't win, yet still letting out that cry.

Chinese literature teaches you how to live and thrive within order, while ancient Greek literature questions how much dignity you have left in the face of fate.

One is the wisdom to engage with the world, and the other is the courage to hit a wall.