The Collation And Study Of Wu Zhongshi’s Korean Travel Writings In Qing Dynasty

Wu Zhongshi,style name is Fangbo,born in Guian,Zhejiang.The eighth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu(1882),Wu visited the north Korean economyas as an official of China Merchants Steamship Navigation Company,in order to prepare for the opening of trade between China and North Korea.Wu zhongshi’s five articles on Korean travel are rich in content,which observe and record many phenomena of Korean society at that time with the eyes of others,and are of great literature and historical value to the study of Korean society in 1882.This paper is divided into four chaptersThe first chapter is the introduction.To expounds the purpose and significance,list the relevant status,and present the study extension and methods.The second chapter is introduce the relevant information of Wu Zhongshi himself,five of his travel essays,and analyze the background of creation.Because the general situation of Wu Zhongshi’s life and other works did not appear in the official history,the information was very scarce,so the author focused on the process and method of searching the information of Wu Zhongshi’s history.Wu Zhongshi’s mission to Korea was mainly for the purpose of studying Korean business,which coincided with the signing of the Treaty of Trade between Korea and the United States.Therefore,the background of his creation not only included the political aspects such as the unstable supranational-vassal relationship between China and Korea,but also included the urgent economic problems such as the exploitation of North Korea after the Asahi TradeThe third chapter is the important and core content of this paper.First of all,we use the classification method and interdisciplinary comparative literature classification method to analyze a variety of cultural factors: political system,economy and commerce,geography and national defense,as well as the broad social life including food,clothing,housing,transportation and folk customs.The second section of the third chapter discusses the strong subjective feelings behind Wu Zhongshi’s writings and the reasons and manifestations of the change in the perspective of the Chinese envoys to Korea in the late Qing Dynasty such as Wu Zhongshi,and makes a comparative study with the envoys records in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.At the end of this chapter,the author analyzes and explores the literary characteristics of the five documentaries.Not only are the ingenious connections among the five documentaries extremely rigorous and interesting,but also the words themselves are concise and clever,neatly decorated,and harmonious in tone,forming a clear and simple style of writing on the whole.At the same time,it also has the characteristics of complete and unified structure and diversified style.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the value of Wu Zhong’s historical records,mainly the value of historical materials.First of all,the article records Wu Zhongshi’s route and itinerary to the DPRK in detail,which provides detailed information for the study of the route between China and the DPRK.Secondly,the author makes up for the lack of relevant information about Wu Zhongshi himself.Third,the five articles involve a great deal of content about the Badao of Korea,especially the Korean Situation,which records the Badao’s natural and human geography in detail and preserves the historical data of the Badao of Korea.Finally,it provides data for the study of the political,economic and social life of Korea in 1882.