A Study Of Christian Religious Scholars In Jiangnan In Modern China

In Yangtze Delta area of late-Qing-early-Republican period, a number of Chinese Christian literati worked hard in literary field. Their efforts and fruits not only reflect a facet of Chinese literary world of that time, but also have reference to people today. Attention has been paid rather little on this group, and there is still much space of extension and penetration for relative research. By the study of late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta, the dissertation attempts to sort the material about the relationship between literature and Christianity in China of this period so as to make a supplement to historical documents of the research on literature and literary criticism. For the research on late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese literature, a comprehensive and multi-level observation of native Christian literati is helpful to widen its coverage and to get close to the verities of the literature of that time. The exploration of inner mechanism is useful to explain various phenomena in this study; it is also a kind of attempt in methodology. Many modern Chinese writers were influenced by Christianity in their writing, so this research has an inner connection with the studies of modern Chinese literature, too.The introduction explains some key words in the title, and then interprets the research motivation. Whereafter, it lists the research findings in the field of Chinese literature and makes simple analyses and discussions of them. On this basis, it briefly defines the boundary of the dissertation and introduces the research methods.Chapter One reviews the transmission of Christianity in China and makes a summarized introduction to late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta by simple classification and explication, which provides a historical background to later investigation and a perceptual knowledge of research objects to readers. Then, in the aspects of literary translation and production, literary thoughts, and literary activities, the dissertation observes the literary performance of late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta. It connects close reading with other methods, paying attention to the message of the text itself as well as the interaction between literature and external conditions. Chapter Two discusses the literary translation and production of late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta. Its introduction of translation includes both the translation in the field of’pure literature’ and the other kind of translated works implying literariness. When observing the literary production, it chooses poetry, argumentative writings and fiction to lump the authors and the works notable, trying to explain their correlation with Chinese literary tradition and searching for the new phenomena nurtured by Western culture. In the meanwhile, this chapter keeps an eye on the authors and the works’ influence of in Chinese literary circle. Chapter Three covers the literary thoughts of late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta. First, it discourses on translation theory and translation criticism; second, it introduces the theory and criticism of the literature in Chinese language; third, it analyzes this group’s compilation of anthology as well as their editing of periodicals and newspapers. Some Chinese Christian literati’s international literary vision and great attention to local literary tradition can be seen in this chapter. Chapter Four discusses the literary activities of late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta. This group in the midst of a literature exchange network influenced by Christian faith, their literary exchange existed either in publishing or other social activities Christianity joined in. In late-Qing-early-Republican China, publishing experienced a significant change. The enormous literature exchange platforms formed in publication circulation were not only between editors and readers, but also among publishers.The conclusion attempts to summarize the literary performance of late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta in three aspects: accomplishments and deficiencies, contemporary impacts, and the link to later Chinese literature. Late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta set foot in all literary branches like translation, creation and criticism. In their literary translations, there emerged many ’the first time’s in China’s translation history of late-Qing-early-Republican period, which not only deserves the honour of initiation but also has special reference to subsequent translators. On the basis of the knowledge of Western language and culture, some members of this group presented realistic and thorough translation theory and criticism and ranked in the forefront of translators. In the field of literary production, to some extent, late-Qing-early-Republican Chinese Christian literati in Yangtze Delta made contribution to the innovation of genre, content, theme and literary knowledge. In the process of compiling and editing publications,in the exchanges through the vehicle of newspapers and periodicals, or under the promotion made by various leagues and organizations, they showed their own literary talent; meanwhile,they gradually helped and attracted more people to join them. While this group made contributions to contemporary Chinese literature, its insufficiency was quite obvious. Nevertheless, it still had some influence in Chinese literary world of that period, which emerges clearer from the studies of modern Chinese literature from angles of authors, works and cultural resources.