This dissertation studies how German-Austrian author Robert Musil (1880-1942) and Chinese author Zhang Taiyan (1869-1936) pursue the same project: reconciling the tension between a plural phenomenal world and an inconceivable in their respective texts Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man without Qualities) and “Qiwulunshi” (齊物論釋, An Interpretation of ‘Equalizing Assessments of Things’). To conduct this comparative research, the dissertation develops the method which sees the same project both authors pursue as the common basis for comparison. The result of this comparison can be summarized in four similarities and two major differences. The dissertation finds out that both Musil’s and Zhang’s texts negate a single universal discourse dominating the phenomenal world. Instead, they believe that this realm should embrace a plurality of perspectives. Both texts also aspire for a metaphysical realm which unites the plurality in the phenomenal realm. However, given that the metaphysical realm is nothingness, and it precedes human consciousness, the unity remains an inconceivable realm. The plural phenomenal world and the united metaphysical world seem to be incompatible to each other. Facing this problem, both texts attempt to reconcile the tension by seeking a synthesized representation which includes both the plural phenomenal world and the unified metaphysical world. However, there are two major differences which can be perceived in both texts. Whereas Musil’s text puts its focus on the human world and believe in human potentials, Zhang’s text is not only confined within this human realm, and he acknowledges the insurmountable limitation of human powers. Building on confidence in human capacity, Musil’s text constantly explores different forms of human interactions. Therefore, the novel becomes the optimal genre for Musil to extend his endless explorations in the human. In contrast, Zhang sees the limitation of humans and he therefore negates human’s chances to approach the metaphysical realm. As a result, Zhang sole explorations in the human world cannot bring him further. Zhang thus does not need to further explore human potentials in a novel, but rather lays out his logical analysis in an argumentative form. The dissertation follows the MLA style.

Right after the romantic scene where Ch’i-ch’iao sheds her pearl tears in front of the window, the “lonely madness”—in C. T. Hsia’s words—of Ch’i-ch’iao’s later life unfolds. And its first episode is Ch’i-ch’iao binding her daughter’s feet. Ch’i-ch’iao bursts into anger when she suddenly spots her nephew Ch’un-hsi having intimate bodily contact with her daughter Ch’ang-an; but in fact Ch’un-hsi was only holding and lifting down Ch’ang-an when the latter tips backward on a tea table. After a long lesson that girls should take care of themselves and their money, Ch’i-ch’iao, still not believing that Ch’ang-an takes her teaching to heart, decides to bind her feet. However, at the time when this episode happens (around the early 1920s), footbinding is no longer fashionable. Ch’i-ch’iao’s relatives on her husband’s side, conservative though they are, are letting out women’s bound feet, and even the amahs (elder female servants) recognize that women with small feet would have trouble getting engaged. This episode, thus at first look, will be a manifestation of extreme conservatism.Nevertheless, given the fact that Ch’i-ch’iao herself tucks cotton in her shoes to pretend that her feet are not bound, she is not deaf to new trends; instead, she herself participates in the imitation of fashion to some degree. More strangely, after one year or so, Ch’i-ch’iao’s own enthusiasm wanes, and she lets Ch’ang-an’s feet loose after relatives’ persuasion. Such an incomplete result forms a contrast against Ch’i-ch’iao’s unstoppable passion before footbinding, and together with her peculiar divergence from the mainstream, it compels us to reconsider her motives. Many scholars point out that Ch’i-ch’iao changes from a victim of “feudalism” to an oppressor in the system. Some other scholars believe the footbinding episode is caused by Ch’i-ch’iao’s madness. However, the feudalism theory is too mechanistic to accommodate the subtlety of the story and it neglects Ch’i-ch’iao’s own reformed feet, and the madness theory does not even care to explore the logic of the madness. More importantly, the tendency to tag Ch’i-ch’iao as feudal and mad without a deep investigation into the development of this character only banishes her from readers’ sympathy into the alienated land of eternal evilness, rendering her the indestructible scar in the history of modern Chinese literature. All of this blocks our way to gain a deeper insight into the character and do justice to the story itself. Yet, the footbinding episode is of importance in the structure of the story. It links the first and second halves of the story and constitutes the parallel of the Shih-fang episode, the one many scholars pay the most attention. Therefore, an analysis of it would offer us possible insights into both Ch’i-ch’iao’s past life and the later episode, especially the Shih-fang one.