Borders Of Chinese Civilization: Geography And History At Empire's End (asia-pacific: Culture, Politics, And Society)

D. R. Howland explores China's representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century and, in so doing, examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbors. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, he undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan-the travel diary, poetry, and the geographical treatise. In his discussion of the practice of "brushtalk," in which Chinese scholars communicated with the Japanese by exchanging ideographs, Howland further shows how the Chinese viewed the communication of their language and its dominant modes-history and poetry-as the textual and cultural basis of a shared civilization between the two societies. With Japan's decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China's relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change-one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China's worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as "kin," based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a "barbarian," an alien force molded by European influence. By probing China's poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China's comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism. Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Note 10 Introduction 12 I Encountering Japan 20 I. Civilization from the Center: The Geomoral Context of Tributary Expectation 22 2. Civilization as Universal Practice: The Context of Writing and Poetry 54 II Representing Japan 80 Prologue: Geographical Knowledge and Forms of Representation 82 3. Journeys to the East: The Geography of Historical Sites and Self in the Travelogue 91 4. The Historiographical Use of Poetry: The Poems on Diverse Japanese Affairs 119 5. The Utility of Objectification in the Geographic Treatise 168 III Representing Japan's Westernization 206 6. Negotiating Civilization and Westernization 208 Afterword 253 Notes 262 Bibliography 314 Glossary 334 Index 344 Explores China's representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century. This work examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbours. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, it offers an analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan.