Study On The Travels Of The West By Chinese In The Late Qing Dynasty

This PhD. Dissertation tries to analyze and research the travels which were written in the late Qing Dynasty. These travels are mainly about the western countries, especially the USA and the countries in the European continent. Travel does not only mean going to another places, but also is accompanied with the irreplaceable cross-border experience. The process from departure to arrival is the speculative development that contains observation, self-reflection, appreciation, and sublimation. China during the late Qing Dynasty was sufficient atmosphere of shock waves and suffered from both domestic trouble and foreign aggression. At that time the west bounds set their feet on the journey to the west one after another, and left a lot of travels. These travels are not only the marvelous literary works but also the valuable historical documents, which could help to restore the process of Chinese people's self-salvation and struggle against the western aggression that happened a hundred years ago. This PhD. Dissertation attempts to survey the travels from the perspectives of comparative literature and the travelling theory. The effective combination of theory and text analysis helps to restore the situation of society in the late Qing Dynasty, and brings out the best in each other.This dissertation falls into five parts.The first part reviews the background of the travels in the late Qing Dynasty, and points out that the travels emerged as the result of the China's development from isolation to open. Besides, the extension of traditional geography and the promotion of the modern media are all the important reasons. The contents of travels changed from depicting the natural scenes to describing the situations of society with the development of politics and science. Instead of natural landscape, the west bounds paid more attention to the habits and customs, politics and etiquette, handicraft and manufacture. In the travels the scenery and cultures of the foreign countries were associated with the poor and severe situations in China. The narrative strategy of"Greatness in Trivialness"makes the travels bearing"great narration with politics". The travels are diverse because of the authors'different social positions, distinct literary knowledge and various concerns. As a result, these travels are all-embracing but uneven in the artistic standard.The second part depicts that the traditional world perspective and cultural perspective of the late Qing Dynasty were impacted and shocked by the journey to the West through the travels. During the process of travel the traditional Sinocentrism collapsed and a brand-new world-view came into being. The west bounds began to abandon the ignorance during the transition from"observing"to"be observed". The image of western countries, which were long-term demonized, became mild and objective gradually. The west bounds were immersed in the western-style daily life, as a consequence some cultural misunderstandings and estrangements vanished slowly through the communications between Western culture and Chinese culture.The third chapter and fourth chapter separately describe the west bounds'acknowledge of science and their imagination of democracy. The scientific world is full of wonders and mystery, while the presidential and parliamentary systems in the western countries are very orderly. However, because of lacking the corresponding knowledge system and cognitive formulas, the west bounds could do nothing but conjecture and imagine them through the Confucian classics and edification. Therefore, the viewpoint of"the western culture originated from China"and"the society of ancient China reappearing in modern western countries"emerged and became the tools of interpreting and imagining the western science and democracy. From knowing none science at all to accepting the fundamental scientific concept, from appreciating the"Washington myths"to imagining the western democracy, although their understanding of science and democracy were often accompanied with errors and falsehood, the west bounds began to understand Science and Democracy, which paved the way for spreading the democratic rights and scientific spirits during the May Fourth New Culture Movement.The fifth chapter investigates the connections between the overseas travel and literary revolutions of modern times. Liang Qichao put forward the imaginations of"revolution in poems","revolution in literature"and"revolution in novels"when he was abroad. Huang Zunxian's idea of"combining the daily talk with literature"and"creating a new style of poem"provided enough imaginary space for travel and literary revolution. The travels of Tongcheng School were combined the traditional grammar with foreign scenery, employing the new thoughts and new words, revealed a new chapter of the classical travel essays. Afterwards the talented Liang Qichao derived essences from the literary style reform movement of Meiji Period, and combined the train of thought in western literary with newspaper style. As a consequence he created"New Literary Style"which stormed the barricades and enjoyed great popularity among people. It was amazing that there were so many travels with various themes in the late Qing Dynasty. The combinations of colorful overseas experiences with traditional Chinese poems unexpectedly turned a new page of poem revolution in the late Qing Dynasty. The west bounds exaggerated purposely the"overseas experience"in novels through the seemingly certain but in fact ambiguous expressions of opinion, and advocated the mystery of novel saving nations. As a form of the entertainment, drama drew attention of most west bounds. They associated the magnificent arena images with the subtle science and technology. Therefore, they appealed for reforming and developing the Chinese operas to revive the spirit of Chinese people.All these travels led an ambiguous scenery and impression of the western society to Chinese people of the late Qing Dynasty, from which the west bounds observed the dangerous crisis of the traditional Chinese culture. It is not necessary to criticize the shallow acknowledge and coarse realization that are reflected from these travels. Anyway, the process of travel itself is more worth thinking and appreciating. From the travels, the Chinese people's constantly strive and struggle to become stronger could be seen, and the trace of changes in the late Qing Dynasty from traditional society to modern society, and from traditional culture to modern culture could also be recognized. Time flies, and one century has past. Making cautious inquiries about the future through reflecting on the past is what this dissertation wants to research.