Yu Dafu's Views Of Japan

The experiences and literary achievements of the modern Chinese intellectual Yu Dafu have a very close relationship with Japan. Discoursing upon Yu Dafu's views of Japan has a positive meaning to understand his literary achievements, his Temperament characteristics and the Chinese intellectuals'exploration of the fate of nation in the whole early 20th century. However, the current domestic scholars who study Yu Dafu still largely focus on the relationship of Yu Dafu and Japanese literature, lack an orbicular description of Yu Dafu's views of Japan and the comprehension of its inner meaning. This paper attempts to describe the meaning of Yu Dafu's views of Japan and evaluate its value. This paper divides Yu Dafu's views of Japan into three parts: the view of Japanese culture, the view of Japanese nationality and the view of Japanese Literature.1. Yu Dafu's view of Japanese culture includes his evaluation of Japanese traditional culture and modern culture. The evaluation of Traditional Japanese culture reflects Yu Dafu's precise criticism on Japanese culture, also reflects his temperament and his style of writing; his description of the various changes about modern Japan corroded by"material civilization"reflects his sense of loss, from which we can also see Yu Dafu's acuminous discernment.2. Yu Dafu's view of Japanese people is his judgment of Japanese national character. His description of"hard enterprise"of Japanese people reflects his anxiety for Chinese people in the milk-toast situation. His comparison on Sino-Japanese national character exposes that while his romantic temperament traits created a brilliant achievement in literature, led to his tragedy in real life.3. Yu Dafu's view of Japanese literature includes Japanese classical literature and modern Japanese literature. His study of Japanese classical literature enriches his literature inditement; his study of modern Japanese literature, especially the Japanese romanticism literature, reflects the inheritance and development of his novels from the Chinese and Japanese two different literary traditions, also reflects the unique character of his works.