On The Japanese Images In Chinese Literature

In the historical context of the Sino-Japanese cultural communication, this dissertation tries to explore the formation and evolvement of the Japanese images in Chinese literature and the influence of the two nations' cultural, social, historical factors and writers themselves etc. upon this "alien image" so as to portray its historical vicissitudes in accordance with the principles and methods of imigology in comparative literature.Imigology was introduced into China in the 1990s and has developed quickly ever since. Enormous imigological analyses about alien ethnic groups and nations in Chinese literature have been undertaken and significant academic achievements have been made. But systematic studies on Japan which is fairly near toChina------especially that upon the Japanese images in Chinese literature since themodern age------are still comparatively deficient. Thus, this dissertation tries to makea systematic assortment of and analysis on the Japanese images in Chinese literature.This dissertation is compromised of five chapters: Chapter One: Introduction; Chapter Two: Japanese Images in Ancient Chinese Literary Works; Chapter Three: Japanese Images in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literary Works; Chapter Four: Transformation from "Barbarians (yi)" to "Others"; and Chapter Five: The Historical Background for the Formation of Alien Images. Along the line of Chinese literature development, this dissertation explores the formation and evolvement of Japanese images in Chinese literary works through analysis on specific, mainly literary, texts with the help of other reference books so as to depict the "self transformation" through the description of "others transformation".Chapter One: Introduction. In this chapter, the causes for the choice of this very topic, its academic importance and research methods are explained. Besides the employment of principles and methods of imigology, other academic research methods in receptive aesthetics, neo-historicism, orientalism etc. are also applied. The development of imigology and its status quo home and abroad are briefly introduced and Chinese scholars' theoretical thoughts on and contributions to modern imigology since its introduction into China, such as the emphasis on the interaction between "self and "others", on the study of "subject", on "comprehensive analysis" and on "interior study of text" etc. are also portrayed. Detailed elaboration is given to the cross-subject characteristics, projection and interaction etc. in imigology study.Chapter Two: Japanese Images in Ancient Chinese Literary Works. In ancient Chinese literary works, writings about Japan are various, complicated and mysterious, and this dissertation elaborates on four typical aspects. Firstly, geography. The geographic molding about Japan has gone from an imaginative one to a realistic one. The early geographic images about Japan reflect the Chinese's conception on orientation and it was until after the Qing Dynasty (1616—1911) that specific descriptions about Japanese landscape began to appear. Secondly, implements. Japan is a nation of exquisite implements and superb imitation. These implements described reflect the technical development of contemporary Japan and the ancient implements such as "Japanese furs", "Japanese papers" and "Japanese knives" etc. are then only available to senior officials and imperial clans and later they gradually become popular among the folks along with a closer contact between China and Japan. Thirdly, customs. Descriptions of and about the changes of Japanese clothing, diets, tattoos, love for martial arts, religious beliefs in birds and beasts etc. in ancient Chinese works are expounded, however, they tend to dilute due to the development of science and technology. Last, images of the Japanese. Previous to the Tang Dynasty (618—907), two completely contradictory images of the Japanese were portrayed: longeval benevolent people or "beasts with the body of a man but a head of a dog", and it was until the Tang Dynasty that the image of the Japanese was restored to the human kind, which was still idealistic to the Chinese then. In the poems of the Song Dynasty (960—1279), the Japanese became unscrupulous merchants, which originated from contemporary Japanese pirates. The relationship between the Yuan Dynasty (1206—1368) and its counterpart in Japan was terrible, so another non-human image of theJapanese emerged------Japanese pirates. From then on, the images of the Japanese asbenevolent people moved to the background and Japanese pirates took prominence.Chapter Three: Japanese Images in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literary Works is the most important part of the dissertation. Starting with the factors that influence the molding of Japanese images in contemporary literary works, such images as "natural landscape", "modern metropolis", "Japanese males", "Japanese females" and "Japanese army men" etc. are elaborated on and their formation and evolvement are explained in detail too. For example, in "The Images of Japanese Army Men", the evolvement of the Japanese army men's images are traced: from barbarous human to brutal nonhuman, then from nonhuman war machine to nonhuman beasts and ghosts, and last a stereotyped one in imigology of comparativeliterature──the Japanese devils. These changes reflect, on the one hand, theaggravation of the Japanese invaders' nonhuman guilty as "others" in Chinese territory, and on the other hand, the image creators' ("self) more profound understanding of the Japanese invaders' nature and their intensity of hatred and detest towards them. The causes for and the significance of the changes of Japanese army men's images and the limit of Japanese army men's images as well as its causes are also discussed. The author holds the opinion that there are various reasons for the complanation, standardization and conceptualization of the Japanese army men's images, such as the imbalance between the purpose of war and the diversities of war itself, the imbalance between the notion of heroic epics and the "others" in the war, the deficient understanding about national spirits of the Japanese people embodied inthe Japanese army men and the influence from the stereotyped expression──theJapanese devils etc. On specific works, a case study is made on the main features of the Japanese army men's images in the works of Yu Dafu and Xu Zhimo.Chapter Four: Transformation from "Barbarians (yi)" to "Others". Because of the establishment of a "civilized people and barbarians (yi) order", the relationship between the ancient China and its neighboring nations and areas is that between a civilized centre and uncivilized margins in the ancient Chinese's collective thinking. In literary descriptions, the images of alien ethnic groups and nations can besummarized by a stereotyped expression──"barbarians (yi)". After the Opium War(1840—1842), the "civilized people and barbarians (yi) order" began to collapse gradually along with the emergence of Western "others", which was mainly caused by the impact from the Japanese's "preference to Europe rather than Asia". This chapter elaborates on the cultural communication characteristics under the "barbarians (yi)" and the "others" notions respectively as well as the impact of Japan upon the "civilized people and barbarians (yi) order". The transformation from "barbarians (yi)" to "others" reflects the transformation from "China (sender)→Japan (receiver)", and that from "one-way sending and receiving model" to "China←(interaction)→Japan, interactive model" along the time-honored intercourse between China and Japan.Chapter Five: The Historical Background for the Formation of Alien Images. Alien images reflect a nation's "collective imagination" about a foreign country. Writers live in a particular social background, and thus there is an inevitable connection between historical background and alien images. This chapter explains in detail the four research climax upon Japan in China and the impact of the Chinese's notional changes about the Japanese and vice versa on the Japanese images in literary works.