Appropriating the West in Late Qing and Early Republican China

383 Pages·2005·5.34 MB·English

by  Theodore Huters

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Bringing the World Home
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5 Appropriating theWest in Late Qing
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and Early Republican China
TheodoreHuters
UniversityofHawai‘iPress
Honolulu

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© 2005 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Huters, Theodore.
Bringing the world home : appropriating the West in late Qing and early
Republican China / Theodore Huters.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8248-2838-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Chinese
literature—20th century—Western influences. I. Title.
PL2302.H88 2005
895.1’09005—dc22
2004023334
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid- free paper and meet the
guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the
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the public good. The open-access ISBN for this book is 978-0-8248-7401-8.
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The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-
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Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.
For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Cover art:
Detail from “Ten New Scenes from the Foreign Zone, #2” (Xinchu
yichang shijing [hou]), a color woodblock print from about 1893, published in
New Year Pictures from the Late Qing, (Qingmo nianhua), v. 2, edited by Zhu
Junzhou, Shanghai Library (Beijing: People’s Art Press [Renmin meishu chu-
banshe], 2000.)
Designed by University of Hawai‘i Press production staff
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Preface vii
Introduction 1
Part I. Late Qing Ideas
Chapter1.ChinaasOrigin 23
Chapter2.Appropriations:AnotherLookatYanFu
andWesternIdeas 43
Chapter3.NewWaysofWriting 74
Chapter4.NewTheoriesoftheNovel 100
Part II. Late Qing Novels
Chapter5.WuJianren:EngagingtheWorld 123
Chapter6.MeldingEastandWest:WuJianren’s
NewStoryoftheStone 151
Chapter7.ImpossibleRepresentations:VisionsofChina
andtheWestinFlowerinaSeaofRetribution 173

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Part III.The New Republic
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Notes 279
GlossaryofChineseandJapaneseTerms 325
WorksCited 335
Index 363

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T his study had its genesis in a sudden realization in the early 1990s
thatmodernChineseliterarycritics,incastigatingwhattheytookas
themanifoldflawsoftheChineseliterarytradition,wereinvariablymore
likely to place unique blame on that tradition for what turn out to be,
afterallissaidanddone,theuniversalproblemsofallliterature.Thatthis
hypercritical disposition dovetailed with the general post-1919 intellec-
tualdenunciationoftheChinesepastdidnotsomuchsupplyananswer
tothequestionitraisedastodeepenthemystery:whatmadetheChinese
intellectualsofthetwentiethcenturysodeterminedtoheapobloquy—
farinexcessofwhatanyobjectivemeasurewoulddemand—ontheirown
socialandintellectualtraditions?
AsItracedthisproblem,itquicklybecameevidentthatthisnega-
tiveperspectivedidnotspringfull-grownfromthedemonstratorsinBei-
jingonMay4,1919,butratherhadbegunmorethantwentyyearsearlier,
intheperiodofintrospectionandcrisisthatfollowedChina’sdevastating
defeatbyanupstartJapanin1894–1895.Lookingintotheyearsbetween
thatfatefulwarandthelate1910s,Idiscoveredatrueworldofdifference,
wherethenewandtheoldintertwinedandjostledeachotherinwaysthat
thelaternarrativesofanexclusivemodernityortheearlierdiscourseof
aself-consistenttraditiondidnotseemtoallowfor.Intheinterestsofun-
coveringavisionoftheintellectuallifeofafascinatingbutindeterminate
age,Iexploredthispeculiarcrossingofliteratureandhistory.Thepath
Ipursuedwasquirkyandidiosyncratictobesure,butnomoresothan
werethetimesthemselves.
The study also entailed looking back at the foundational Western
workinmodernChineseintellectualhistory,oncesuchadominantpres-
ence in the sinological world but now generally seen as remote to the
Americanscholarlycommunity,bothintimeandhistoricalsignificance.

Partlybecauseofthisdistance,itisnothardthesedaystofindfaultwith
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thepioneeringformulationsofJosephLevensonandBenjaminSchwartz
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R fortheirgenerallypessimisticassessmentofthepossibilityofaChinese
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W traditionthatmaystillhavesignifiedevenafterChina’srealizationofthe
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H need for fundamental reform. But their engagement with what I think
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G arestillessentialquestionsofcross-culturalinquirycontinuestocompel
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GI attention,ifonlytoattempttocometogripswiththefaultsthatalater
N
I generation finds in their arguments, many of which have become basic
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B
postulatesinourfield.Myinquiryherewasalsoinspiredbyalargenum-
/
s berofworksofintellectualhistoryproducedafter1990inChina,where
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e theacademicworldcontinuestobevitallyinterestedinquestionsofhow
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Hu theaccommodationbetweenChinaandtheWesthasworkeditselfout.

5 Itremainstotalkabitabouttheroleofliteratureinthisstudy.When
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7 Iusetheword‘‘literature,’’Iamreferringtoasmallersubsetofthataugust
body consisting largely of xiaoshuo, or fictional narrative, and the prose
essay.AsBonnieMcDougallhasrecentlyargued,awell-justifieddebate
continuesaboutthequalityandeventhenatureofmodernChineselit-
erature.Ifeventheevaluationofthepost-1918‘‘NewLiterature’’isstillto
bedetermined,thenhowisonetodealwiththeliteratureofthisperiod
in between, traditionally spurned by both students of the modern and
studentsofthepremodern?Inotherwords,thenovelsIexaminedhave
neverbeensecureintheirrelationshipwiththecanon.Thisuncertainty
hasposedaninterestingproblem,butIhavebegunfromthepremiseof
discussingonlyworkthatIenjoyedreading.Comingupwithstandardsof
evaluationtojustifymytastes,however,hasbeenbyfarthemoredifficult
task. Rather than trying to force these narratives into standard critical
categories,Ihavetakenthisstudyasachallengetothecategoriesthem-
selves,inthehopethatworksfromradicallydifferentcontextsandtimes
can add to, rather than merely reify, our ordinary touchstones of judg-
ment.
During the course of research and writing, I have incurred substantial
intellectual debts, and I wish here to offer thanks to some of the many
people who engaged in critical discussion of my ideas and/or gave me
thechancetopresentearlierversionsoftheideassetouthere.Alookat
thelistwillgosomeway,Iwouldhope,towardconvincingreadersthat
aninternationalcommunityofscholarshasbeenforgedoverthelastde-
cade,adevelopmentthathasrenderedintellectualinquiryallthemore
worthwhile. I thank all of these people sincerely for their help and cri-
tiquesbutabsolvethemofallblameforwhateverflawsthereadermayde-
tectinwhatIhavewritten.IherebyexpressmygratitudetoCynthiaBro-
kaw,ChenJianhua,ChenPingyuan,ChenSihe,Kai-wingChow,Milena
Doleželová-Velingerová,PrasenjitDuara,BenElman,JoshFogel,FuPo-

shek, Ge Zhaoguang, Denise Gimpel, Bryna Goodman, Jonathan Hay,
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GailHershatter,MichelHockx,HuYing,AndrewJones,JoanJudge,Lan
D
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R Dizhi,WendyLarson,LiTuo,LydiaLiu,MengYue,LisaRofel,William
O
W Rowe,HaunSaussy,WilliamSchaeffer,ShangWei,XiaobingTang,Rudolf
E
H Wagner,FredWakeman,DavidWang,WangHui,WangXiaoming,Wang
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G Yuanhua,BinWong,LawrenceWong,XiaXiaohong,XiongYuezhi,Xu
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GI Baogeng,YanJiayan,CathyYeh,MichelleYeh,YehWen-hsin,YuanJin,
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I ZhangXudong,ZhouWu,andJohnZou.
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I owe a separate debt of gratitude to the many graduate students
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s whohaveparticipatedinmyseminarsandespeciallytheweeklyFriday-
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e afternoondiscussionsovertheyears.Theyhavemadetheissuesrelevant
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Hu andhavelentbothwisdomandintensitytotheconversationaboutideas.

5 This group includes Eileen Cheng, Chi Ta-wei, Cong Xiaoping, Steven
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7 Day,GaoJin,RogerHart,FeliciaHo,HuMing-hui,HuangYibing,Euge-
nia Lean, Li Li, Jeff Loree, Meng Yue, Makiko Mori,Wendy Schwartz,
Vivian Shen, Andrew Stuckey, Mirana Szeto, Wang Chaohua, and Wu
Shengqing.
IreserveparticularthankstoMingFeng-yingforbothputtingup
withandencouragingthefinalstagesoffinishingthislonglabor.

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