A Study On The Early Acceptance Of Napoleon's Image In China(1816-1911)

In the late Qing Dynasty,under the social background of the collision and blending of Chinese and Western cultures,the West,as the "other",entered the Chinese people's vision.A large number of Western politicians were recognized and accepted by all classes of Chinese society.Napoleon was one of the outstanding representatives.Napoleon's image was introduced to China earlier than Rousseau,Mrs.Rowland,Washington and other Western politicians,which were widely circulated in the last ten years of the late Qing Dynasty.After it was introduced into China,Napoleon's image changed several times in the works of different writers.At the beginning of its introduction,Napoleon's image,as a negative symbol of knowledge.And finally,Napoleon's image evolved into the enlightenment specimen,revolutionary idols and political symbols in the 1900s.A large number of popular literary works in the late Qing Dynasty further promoted the popularization of the pluralistic images of Napoleon and made him became a political and spiritual symbol that had an important influence on China's modernization process.This article mainly discusses the characteristics of Chinese people's acceptance of Napoleon's image from 1816 to 1911 in the order of time,and divides it into three stages,trying to explore three main aspects:Firstly,clarify the basic characteristics of Napoleon's image-building in different periods;Secondly,outline the evolution process of Napoleon's image in the past hundred years of China;Thirdly,pursue the reasons why Napoleon's image changed in different periods and its relationship with the political and people's social mentality in the late Qing dynasty.This dissertation is composed of five parts,the first and last parts are introduction and conclusion,the main entry section includes three chapters.The introduction part summarizes the academic trends of the study of western images in Chinese literature since the 21st century,and briefly introduces Napoleon's life and the western society's evaluation.The first chapter mainly explores the narrative of Napoleon's initial practice of China from 1816 to 1840,mainly including the writing of two missionaries,Morrison and Gutzlaff.The detailed information of Napoleon is introduced by<Chinese Monthly Magazine>and<Eastern Western Monthly Magazine>,bringing him into the cultural context of China.A Conqueror,described by Gutzlaff,had an important influence on the early intellectuals' understanding about Napoleon.The second chapter discusses the acceptance and continuing dissemination of Napoleon's image by the intellectuals in the early period of the late Qing Dynasty from 1840 to 1895.The main documents are some foreign-related historical and geographic works recorded by Wei Yuan,Xu Jishe,Wang Tao and many foreign-related travels in the early period of the late Qing Dynasty.Based on Chinese traditional culture,Wei Yuan and Xu Jishe interpreted Napoleon's image as an exotic historical lesson,which limited the general understanding about Napoleon's image in the early late Qing Dynasty and made it a negative knowledge symbol related to martial for a long time.The third chapter mainly discusses the multiple acceptance of Napoleon's image in the 1 895-191 1 years,In the works of the reformers and revolutionaries,Napoleon was regarded as an exotic hero,a new people's idol,a revolutionary model.Napoleon's image has even entered in the popular literature.During this period,Napoleon's image appeared in various documents,basically completed the process of socialization and literary,and captured a large number of worshippers and imitators at that time.The conclusion summarizes the evolution of napoleon's image in the works of different writers in the late Qing dynasty,and the characteristics and reasons behind the introduction of napoleon by different social classes and political groups.The evolution of Napoleon's image in the past hundred years indicates that the intellectuals inevitably mixed more subjective choices and conscious interpretations into their understanding and acceptance of the Western politicians' images,which is related to their own cultural,and is also a reflection on the ever-changing interaction between Chinese and Western cultures in different periods of the late Qing Dynasty.A large number of popular literary works in the late Qing Dynasty completed the integration of various images of Napoleon.Napoleon was not only an exotic person who advocated democratic revolution,but also a heroic figure who was full of heroic spirit but had to go into a cul-de-sac in the end.To a certain extent,his image stimulated people's patriotic consciousness and national spirit,which laid the foundation for the 1911 Revolution.