Studies On Xue Fu-cheng

This dissertation is a study of the non-fictional prose written by Xue Fu-cheng (Hsueh Fu-ch'eng), a great writer living in the late Qing Dynasty, as well as a famous capitalistic reformist thinker and an outstanding diplomat, with a focus on socio-historical interpretations. It is an attempt to trace the origins and development of Xue's literature, by analyzing the causes of success from both his prose styles and their works, with the historical setting of the late 19th century, to discuss the broader social implications and cultural context, and to examine the diversity of styles and subject matter which made up the literacy scene of the Chinese classical prose during that period.Xue Fu-cheng was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province on April 12th, 1838, whose byname was Shu-yun and Yong-an as his pen name. As a new intellectual growing up after the Opium War (1840-1842), he lived in a changing era with thinking storms raging in all their furies, when the class and national contradictions were extremely acute, the cultural conflicts between the fresh knowledge from the west and the traditional one were surprisingly sharp in the meantime.Xue Fu-cheng was an activist in the realm of politics, ideology, diplomacy and literature in modern China, by means of appealing for political and economic reforms, proposing western learning and national self-strengthening by modernization. He was one of the prominent patriotic figures who explored fearlessly, shouted loudly, and struggled dauntlessly for the prospects of motherland and destiny of the state. At the end of June 1865, Xue Fu-cheng joined Zeng Guo-fan's (Tseng Kuo-fan's) Private Bureaucracy with the great ambition of "serving the country, serving the society". Soon he made himself conspicuous for his rich experience and colorful articles due to Zeng's advice, then noted as one of "Zeng's Four Great Followers" in the world. In the mid of 1870s, Xue entered the Northern Military Bureaucracy at Li Hong-zhang's invitation as an important secretary because of his early masterpiece Views Stated to the Imperial Edict. And he was soon perfectly familiar with the current affairs. After several years of handling with foreign affairs in China's Self-strengthening Movement led by Li Hong-zhang, he gradually became quite well known in the court as a resolute advocate of reform. During the Sino-French War (1884-1885), Xue Fu-cheng was Governor of Ningshao, Zhejiang Province. Soon after he was promoted to Anchashi of Hunan Province in the autumn 1888 for remarkable achievements in his official career and resistance to French aggression.Eager to serve the country and her people with all his wisdom and energies, Xue Fu-cheng was also a great reform thinker in addition to a good official in high repute who was faithful in the discharge of his duties. His life went through the whole course of China's Self-strengthening Movement, and in the meanwhile he frequently proposed his ideas for the movement and earnestlyput them in practice as much as possible. In reality, he not only accepted the views of Lin Ze-xu's and Wei Yuan's about "learning from the West and contending with them" with an open mind and expanded them, but also summed up the thoughts of Zeng Guo-fan's and Li Hong-zhang's about "managing the society" and broadened and/or deepened them to varying degrees, which made himself transform from "from the Industrialist Group" to "beyond the Industrialist Group". Xue Fu-cheng advertised the reforms of the political and economic systems in late nineteenth century, in order to speed up the modernization process in China, especially after having acquired some knowledge of western political and economic systems in early 1890s in Europe, started to consider the way of making the reform in the democratic political system following the English constitutional monarchy.When concerning Chinese economy, he urged China to strengthen the state's power by promoting national industrialization, so as to enrich the country and benefit the people. While about China's foreign policies, he suggested that the Qing Imperial Government utilize the contradictions between/among the powers, seize some chances to revise irrational items in the unequal treaties and rules signed before, and to establish new Friendly-neighbor Relations with other countries. In the fields of education and culture, he called on the abolishment of the Imperial Examinations and initiation of new educational system. Also he proposed the adoption of advanced western technologies. He wished to improve the feudal teaching methods and train excellent talents based on Chinese traditional culture contents and simultaneously using foreign substances as subsidiary utensils. In the field of military, Xue submitted a plan that China should set a new navy with up-to-date features to replace the outmoded weaponries and equipments thoroughly, and to pretend to take a fighting stance towards the enemy as a deterrence policy, to open up a new prospect of a peaceful development in the true sense.On May 15th, Xue Fu-cheng was appointed to be a Chinese imperial ambassador to the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Belgium. During his stay in West Europe, he made an observation and research into the government administration and people's conditions there, devoted himself to regaining state sovereignty and economic rights from the West, and made unremitting efforts for vindicating China's territorial sovereignty and oversea Chinese's rights.Xue Fu-cheng was not only a hardworking official, but also a diligent writer with great attainments and courage, who got crowned with eternal glory for his works. He carried forward the good traditions of prose writing, broke through the writing regulations of Tong-cheng Style and brought forth new ideas in his literary creative working. In his opinion, literature was the wheel of society management, the key to social morality. Under the influence of Zeng Guo-fan's thoughts, Xue Fu-cheng went with the developing tendency of the day. At the same time, the important currents and cultural conflicts from the West, and the thematic concerns such as political matters, national economy and the people's livelihood from other relative statesman and/or authors, affected him, which enriched his knowledge and widened his outlook to a great extent. For this reason he called on people to find writing subjects from real life and look for inspirations from ancient books.Therefore, with an elegant style, Xue Fu-cheng set foot in almost every type of prose and wrote hundreds of wonderful works beyond universal praise, which appealed to both the more and less cultured. All Xue's writings, with exquisite colors and tremendous momentums, read fluidly and lively. For instance, his argumentative writings got to the essence of the actual social life of his time and convinced readers by reasoning. The memorials to the throne which he handed in copiously quoted the classics and made the past serve the present. The brief biography and epitaph he wrote were fulfilled with pure love for the dead, the fables and supernatural stories were pregnant with meaning which threw a sprat to catch a whale, his notes and epigraphs short and pithy as well. The travel notes fascinated and tempered with force and with mercy. The uppermost important of all, in his oversea diaries, Xue Fu-cheng did his utmost to introduce the western new and practical technologies to modern China, as well as the democratic political systems.As a milestone in history, Xue's literary theory and creation have made profound influence on the literature development up till now. His works, together with Feng Gui-fen's, Wang Tao's and etc, helped the people with lofty ideals in the Reform (Wuxu) Movement of 1898 such Liang Qi-chao to cast off all the yoke of Tongchengist out-of-date writing regulations and create the vivid and vigorous "New People Style" after the Jiawu Anti-Japanese War (1894). Xue's writings are the representative works in the literary history developing from the orthodox Tong-cheng Style, then typical Xiang-xiang Style to New People Style. In this dynamic changing process Xue acted as a non-fungible bridge that inherited the past and ushered in the future in the developing history of literature.Studying the works by Xue Fu-cheng allows us to understand and appreciate in depth an important part of the Chinese cultural heritage of classical literature. As his writing reflected both the social matters and his personal experiences, which were different from those of his descendants today, it helps us see more clearly the progress and problems of the Chinese prose writing over the past one hundred years.This dissertation consists of three parts, including Xue Fu-cheng's literature achievements, his thoughts in different fields, and his life chronicle. In Part I, the author makes (a) literary criticism in details according to the style of his writings. In Part II, the author studies varieties of Xue Fu-cheng's thoughts in different fields such as politics, economy, industries, military, foreign affairs, educations, and so on. Xue's life brief chronicle and family tree are in Part III. In addition, there is a list of Xue's literary works and other references in the Appendix.