"The World Literature" On The Eve Of The Ship Narrative

The Chinese is always having the tradition and courage to explore the foreign civilization. The culture of China is very inclusive and open. After the Ming and Qing dynasties’s seclusion, the enthusiasm of exploration was hitted and the scale of exploration was greatly reduced. After the Opium War in 1840, the Western powers invaded China by force, the Qing government was forced to face the influx of western countries. In order to get rid of the passive situation of being beaten, the Qing government sent a large number of diplomatic envoys to the western countries, other social classes have also advanced liberal boat float on the sea, to the world. These people according to their own personal experience to write a lot of travel writing, called the occidental travel notes now, including what they saw、listened and thought in the ship.The late Qing dynasty travelers rely mainly on the ship to the western countries, which is the narrative of liner. In this paper, through the analysis of the ship narrative of the occidental travel notes in the late Qing dynasty, I will research the ideas and consciousness of the Chinese in late Qing dynasty who go to the world.The occidental travel notes in late Qing dynasty has a very high literary value, occupys a special position in the history of literature. In the content it mainly describes the other and the other culture.In this process the author naturally or half unconsciously comparied civilization between Chinese and Western. Its form is more flexible and more interesting, brought in the Western elements, gradually fits the Western modern rhythm. All this contributed to comparison and fusion of Chinese literature and Western literature, To make a useful try and set the stage for the Chinese world literature. So the occidental travel notes in late Qing dynasty is the early literary form of Chinese world literature.This paper mainly discusses the liner narrative in the occidental travel notes in late Qing dynasty.It is just what the occidental travelers saw and thought in the ocean ships,which is written in their travel notes. Of course it also includes their activites in the port cities when the ship was berthing in each port, because it is an important part of their sea travel. The content of liner narrative of the occidental travel notes are very rich, including the travelers’s daily activities on their ships, their conversation with the Westerners or non Westerners, the view of the sea and other people’s behavior they saw on the ship, their thought and feeling on the ship, and so on. No matter what they wrote, the content is around the formation of world consciousness. The ship’s life makes the overseas travelers recognized the world in space and geography.It also boost their understanding about the consciousness of the world from the culture and thought. The physical space of the consciousness of the world is mainly reflected in the views of the ocean, the discovery and investigation of foreign territory; The culture and thinking of the consciousness of the world is reflected in the identity of the system and culture of the western, completely instead of self-important, arrogant and conservation.