Modern Chinese Literature- Qing Dynasty
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lateqing20201.pptxLate Qing Dynasty
Western imperialism and the challenge of Western military and technological superiority
Opium War (1840-42) fought over British sale of opium (needed to redress a trade imbalance with China); China loses and gives up, in the Treaty of Nanjing, Hongkong and opens more treaty ports, the establishment of Foreign Settlements in Shanghai as a treaty port
Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the beginning of cultural questioning of tradition
Reformist Responses
Self-Strengthening Movement (1860s and 1870s)
100 Days of Reform (1898)
Wei Yuan (1794-1856)
“师夷长技以制夷” Learn the superior techniques of the foreigners in order to compete with them
The Reform Movement of 1898
“中学为体，西学为用” Chinese learning should remain the essence, but Western learning be used for practical development
Kang Youwei 康有为 (1858-1927)
Liang Qichao 梁启超 (1873-1929)
Introduction of Western Ideas Through Translation
works on economics, politics, evolutionism, law (Yan Fu)
19th-century European Realist and Romantic novels (Lin Shu)
Yan Fu and Lin Shu: Translating the Modern
Yan Fu (1853-1921) translated Thomas Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics (《天演论》1897) , Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (《原富》1902), among others, and promoted the social Darwinist idea of the “survival of the fittest.”
advocate for the creation of fiction as a way to enlighten people
The Revolution of the Affection
Lin Shu (1852-1924) translated La Dame aux Camélias (Alexandre Dumas, fils )《巴黎茶花女遗事》 (1898)
可怜一卷茶花女，斷盡支那蕩子腸。 (Yan Fu)
Liang Qichao梁启超 (1873-1929) and the New Fiction 小说
1902, Liang established a journal in Japan called New Fiction and wrote an inaugural editorial entitled “On the Relationship between Fiction and the Government of the People.”
“The reformation of the government of the people must begin with a revolution in fiction, and the renovation of the people must begin with the renovation of fiction.”
Changing attitudes toward literature
inversion of traditional generic hierarchies (classical Chinese: poetry, prose essay, history, philosophy; vernacular language: fiction and some drama)
new role for fiction
Fiction boom in late Qing
The rise of journalism, magazines devoted to fiction, newspaper feuilleton, 1905 the abolishment of state examination and its impact on scholars
satirical novel criticizing corruption, bureaucracy, social injustices: Wu Jianren, Strange Events Witnessed over the Past 20 Years; Li Boyuan, Bureaucracy Exposed
sentimental novels, Wu Jianren, Sea of Regrets
courtesan novels, Han Bangqing (Sing-song girls of Shanghai), Zeng Pu (Flowers in a Sinful Sea)
