Serious plays and tragedies are incompatible with maturity; only comedy can achieve maturity.

Nantai

As mentioned last time, only literary works that benefit all sentient beings the most, cover the widest scope of beings, and endure for the longest time are the most mature and worthy of promotion. Which works qualify? It is impossible to examine them all—even world classics alone are far too numerous. It would be more feasible to select the top 100 works for review. But which 100 should we choose?

There is no need to rack our brains. In 2002, Norway’s "Literary Olympics" invited the world to make the selection. Let us take those 100 works as the world-recognized greatest classics. Now, which among them are mature?

I offer a simple and practical method.

What is literature? Put plainly, literature is humanity’s quest for ultimate enlightenment through the adventures of literary characters. All characters begin as heroes of serious drama. When facing insurmountable hardships, these serious-drama heroes split into two groups: the cowardly and the resolute. Cowards "bow their heads under a low eave" and halt in the face of difficulty. The resolute, refusing to yield, press forward. At this point, serious drama ends, and tragedy and comedy begin.

The brave are further divided. Those who fail the trial—suffering severe injury, falling, or sacrificing their lives after being battered by the "low eave"—become tragedies. Those who succeed through wisdom, navigating the "low eave without bowing or bumping their heads", become comedies.

Can you see it? In life’s journey, no one enjoys smooth sailing; all endure eighty-one hardships. Thus, serious drama is like the trunk of a tree: it marks only the beginning of life, the foundation of all literary art, but not its peak. It embodies the growth of goodness, beauty, and truth, yet bears neither flower nor fruit—it is immature.

Tragedy is the tombstone of the defeated. Tragic literature depicts the destruction of goodness, beauty, and truth. Though brilliant flowers bloom, they are scattered by wind and rain, bearing no fruit. It too is immature, merely the middle section of the pagoda of literary art.

Comedy reaches life’s destination, representing ultimate success. Comic literature lets goodness, beauty, and truth blossom and bear fruit. Only fruit nourishes and benefits others, establishing a model for how life ought to be. Therefore, among all literary art forms, only comedy qualifies as mature literature.

Such is the relationship among serious drama, tragedy, and comedy: serious drama is the trunk, branching into tragedy and comedy. The withered branch is tragedy; the one that blossoms and bears fruit is comedy.

This is why comedy stands atop the pagoda of literary art, wearing its crown. It is why Hegel claimed comedy is superior to tragedy, Marx compared comedy to the communism of literary art, and Belinsky wrote that "to comprehend the comedic is to reach the highest peak of literary art".

Yet comedy has three branches: satire, humor, and eulogistic comedy. There remains the question of which form benefits sentient beings the most, covers the widest scope, endures the longest—and thus is the most mature.

(Which is the most mature? To be continued in the next chapter.)