A Research On Naito Konan's Chinese Investigation In 1899

It was just the time when Japan won both the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War around 1899.In such a transition and change period for Sino-Japanese relationship and East Asia international order,a large number of Japanese intellectuals traveled to China,and wrote a lot of travel notes or other written records,which not only elaborated the motivation and purpose of their visit to China,but also established a China image totally different from the previous one through the writings based on personal experience,thus finding a great opportunity for the modem Japan to regard China as a cultural other,and establish its own subjectivity-oriented cultural consciousness.Form the perspective of transcultural imagology,this paper took the first visit of Naito Konan,one of the founders of Chinese Studies in modern Japan,to China in 1989 as the research object,combined the series of documentary sources recorded in the Collected Works of Naito Konan concerning the survey and research about China,and took Naito's travel note about China-Yanshan and ChuShui as the core,so as to probe into the experience and interpretation about China in his writings,as well as the China image built on this basis through arranging the three horizons,namely,customs,people and city presented by Naito during his visits to China based on the methods of text interpretation and cultural comparison.On this basis,this paper further revealed the effects and consequence of such a China image:on the one hand,it provided the empirical experience and theoretical basis for the "contemptuous" cognition about China by modern Japanese;on the other hand,it built up the thinking mode or action mode taking China as a mirror to reflect Japan,of which the potential purpose "for Japan" accordingly obscured the possibility of China developing its own forces for reform.It is self-evident that the purpose of this study is to explore the inherent logic of the cognition about China by Japan,but at the same time,it will also think about and criticize the image of China set up in modern and even current Japan,thus providing the enlightenment and reference for China to promote the culture export strategy and build its own image now.The paper can be divided into six chapters,and the content of each chapter is as follows:Chapter 1-"Introduction":this paper tried to correctly comprehend Naito's visits to China under the background of comprehensively summarizing the visits of Japanese intellectuals to China by taking the visits of Naito Konan to China as the research object,and the book,Yanshan and Chushui as the topic selection reason and problematic consciousness of analysis materials,and arranged the preliminary studies of Naito Konan on Japan,China,and Europe and America,especially the research and exploration around the travel notes about China,so as to determine the research purpose,research methods and basic framework of this paper on this basis.Chapter 2-"Naito Konan and his visits to China":the different roles of Naito Konan,namely,journalist,historian and political theorist created his multiple identity,and the multiplicity of such identity,the knowledge system of Naito Konan,and its realistic concerns mirrored with each other,thus forming a complete system,which could show Japan's position hidden behind China concerned by Naito;it could be made clear through analysis that,Naito made his first visit to China in 1899 when the nation strength of Japan was increasingly becoming powerful and prosperous,but China was suffering from domestic strife and foreign aggression,so it was a visit for observing the situation of China,finding the possibility of confrontation with the west,reflecting on Japan's strategic ambitions,and other motivations.Chapter 3-"Investigation to the local customs and practices of China":this chapter chose several "symbolic" concepts or categories in Naito's China experience to interpret the custom image of China created in Naito's writings,such as "Southern School Painting","Temples","Great Wall" and etc.These concepts or categories not only appeared in Naito's travel notes about China,but also emerged in the narrations of other Japanese intellectuals about China.Through the analysis of these objects,the connotations of the image of Chinese customs and practices created by Naito could be presented:Southern School Painting-embody the "Stereotype" before Naito traveled to China;Temples-show the "Direct Experience" of Naito during his visit to China;Great Wall:present the "Guide to Action" of Naito after his perception about China.In other words,Naito's investigation to Chinese customs and practices presented the decline of Chinese civilization,emphasized the unique Japanese culture,prompted the"hope" of China in the future,and reflected on the possibility of future action in Japan,which covered his imagination before visiting to China,his experience during visit in China,and his ideas,cognition and action after visit;the imagination,experience,and cognition of Naito Konan about China formed an integral whole here,and became one large foundation for Naito Konan to make survey and reflection on China.Chapter 4-"Exploration to Chinese people":this chapter made an interpretation and contrast of the intellectuals drawing special attention from Naito Konan in modern China by virtue of Naito Konan's sketches and notes and historical materials.Naito Konan spoke highly of Chinese intellectuals but gave an extremely low evaluation on the ordinary people;such a sharp contrast showed the characteristic of polarization,but his cognition about Chinese intellectuals showed polarization too.Naito criticized Kang Youwei,Liang Qichao,Zhang Zhidong,and a number of reformers,and presented a "loser" image of them due to missing the opportunity of reform;praised the "far-sighted personages" who possessed both oriental traditional erudition and modern western scientific knowledge,such as Yan Fu,Wang Xiuzhi,and etc.,and established a "hoper" image of them for China and Asia;spoke highly of a batch of knowledgeable persons with profound Sinology attainment,with which he exchanged poetry and knowledge,such as Wen Tingshi,Luo Zhenyu and etc.,and represented a "scholar" image of them who promoted the transformation of traditional Chinese knowledge.Loser meant the past and outdated;hoper meant the possible and future;scholar meant the means and tools.Nevertheless,behind the images of Chinese people in such diversified types,Naito believed that the "hoper" and"scholar" were not recognized and emphasized,and showed a pessimistic attitude towards whether they could lead the reform of China.Naito grasped the future direction of China based on the polarized and negative judgment,so it showed the limitations of Naito in observing Chinese people.Chapter 5-"Survey of Chinese city":this chapter selected Beijing,Shanghai,Suzhou,Hangzhou where Naito Konan stayed for a longer time and placed emphasis as the analysis object,so as to carefully analyze the image of Chinese city in the writings of Naito by virtue of the text interpretation of Yanshan and ChuShui,namely,the "fallen Chinese empire" image represented by Beijing,the "transforming true China" image represented by Shanghai,and the "future hopeful China" image represented by Suzhou and Hangzhou.Naito did not ignore the role of Beijing as a political center in spite of its "decline";Naito found the "particularity" of Shanghai,and set it as the reference model for Japan to establish exclusive concession in Suzhou and Hangzhou;Naito paid close attention to the prosperity in Suzhou and Hangzhou,the concession situation of Japan in this region,as well as the implementation status of "education career",and regarded it as the "hope".The complicated and varied images and cognition of China were established on the reflection on the extension line in Japan's possibility in essence,so the image would be inevitable in the risk of distortion.Chapter 6-"Conclusions":"Naito Konan,s visit to China from the critical perspective".The so-called "critical" refers to the "criticism" with reflection and reconstruction significance.To be specific,one is to collect the literature data,promote ideological reflection,make an empirical exploration in combination with Naito's study on China,and reveal the effects of Naito's first visit to China on his research on China,as well as its significance;the other one is to return to the era context,rebuild the image of China,and carry out theoretical criticism and realistic thinking about Naito's visits to China from the perspective of cross-cultural imagology.In this regard,the image of China established by Naito based on his visits to China was derived based on the purpose of Japan to seek self-recognition,imagine controlling China,and try to dominate China,and it was to take China as a mirror image of Japan,and the tool for Japan to use,and regard China as the other;therefore,the observation on China based on this premise and purpose would inevitably hinder his accurate understanding and positioning of China.It went without saying that,Naito Konan set up the unique China image based on his visits to China,especially the first trip to China in 1899,which also profoundly affected his studies on China,Japanese people's cognition about China,and even the imaginations about China by the whole Japan.Such an extremely complex and constantly developing image of China appeared in "grand tour" of Naito to China,emerged in the unique "vision" of Naito in his conception and imagination about China,and even appeared behind the "strategic ambition" proposed and vigorously advocated by Naito.