The Study On The East China Sea Poetry

The literature of oceanology in traditional Chinese literature is a field that is undertheorized; especially the pomes narrated the East China Sea. Those texts occupied significant portion in traditional Chinese literature and manifest itself as an indispensable part in the study of Chinese traditional literature. In this paper, I will examines the development of the poems of East China Sea in Qing dynasty, with emphasize on the cultural interactions within the East China Sea community. In analyzing the historical literatures about the cultural interactions in three major seaways, the China- Ryukyu,China-Japan, Mainland China-Taiwan, it is expected to identify the narrators of East China Sea and develop the textual analysis accordingly. Meanwhile, the poems of Diaoyu Islands and Mang Cang Yuan Gao of Zhang Fei will be study as individual cases to examines the motivation of author for their works.We will be examining the oceanography of ancient China. This part will set the geographical limit on the study of the poems of East China sea. Since the discourse of“East China Sea” has not been ubiquitously used until the time of the premodern, this chapter will be focused on providing the academic evidence and theoretical approach for the limit of the argument for East China Sea in Late Qing dynasty. In addition, the genealogy of oceanography about East China Sea will help to view the cultural community of East China Sea as a dynamic process in a historical perspective. Again, this paper will provide the historical context for future textual analysis.And then we will be focused on the formation of East China Sea cultural community.The East China Sea cultural community designates the cultural communication between Mainland China, Japan, Ryukyu island, Taiwan and other islands within the circle of Sinophone cultural radiation. This type of communication is founded upon the system of cultural interactions between different communities in ancient East Asian. The formation of the East Asian cultural community relies on the cultural homogeneity under the tribute system, the exploration of marine sovereign of the great Qing Empire, and the importing values from the peripherals to center in the collapse of the tribute system. In tracing the formulation of cultural community centered in the East China Sea, this paper will provide aauthentic historical context for the creative writings and support the main thesis of this paper, the cultural communication.The poetic activities of ambassadors to Ryukyu Islands. The ambassadors with the mission of conferring the title to the nobles in Ryukyu islands is the significant cultural groups in terms of the astonishing numbers of literary works. It not only provides the source of literature for further study, but also implies significant literary value. They are not only ambassadors of the empire, but the leading poetic groups among their contemporaries. The poems narrated when they setting their journey to Ryukyu, floating on East China Sea, and returning back to the continent are centered around their expedition,which inherently posses the concept of the maritime literature.The multilayered perception of ocean on the sea route. Taiwan is an inalienable territory of China since ancient times.The central government has never relaxed its jurisdiction. between Ming and Qing dynasty, Taiwan has been regarded as major enemy of Qing Empire and the most significant border affairs at such time due to the Ming loyalists reside there. In this critical period, the poets on the sea routes express their contradictory sentiments of the longing for their homeland and the exploration of the border of Qing Empire. In 1683 BC, Taiwan was officially under the control of Qing Government. Since then, the cultural image of Taiwan as border and homeland is projected by the cultural emigration of the officials to Taiwan and the cultural immigration of the literacies from Taiwan back to mainland. Within this complexed cultural background, the multilayered East Asian Sea poets emerged.The fifth Chapter is the sea routes of Japan, the epilogue of cultural expedition. It seems to be silent compare to other sea routes, such as Taiwan and Ryukyu islands. Parallel to the absent of official record, the cultural interactions are faded into invisibility. The exportation of books, however, become the fundamental means of cultural communication between China and Japan. The ban on maritime trade has almost cut the communications between the literacies in Japan and China. Meanwhile, the numbers of literacies traveled across the sea has significantly declined, which leaves the vacuum of the literatures on the sea routes to Japan. Fortunately, in the beginning of Qing dynasty, groups of Confucians and monks sailed to Japan, who leaves us the record of their experience on the journey to japan on the routes on East China Sea. This Chapter will be developed with the study on this particular group.In the remain parts of this paper, it will be concluded with the poems after 1840 and complete the ancient to the pre modern part of the East China Sea poems, which will make the study a comprehensive system.With the Qing dynasty as historical background, the cultural aspect as the connection,the poems of East China sea as literature text to study, this paper has demonstrated the literary value of the poems of East China Sea and shows an approach to study the ancient Chinese Maritime poems.