Borders of Chinese Civilization: Geography and History at Empire's End

Douglas Howland

Published by Duke University Press 1996

Borders of Chinese Civilization

Geography and History at Empire's End

Douglas Howland
Edited by: Rey Chow , Harry Harootunian and Masao Miyoshi

In the series Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822382034

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

D. R. Howland is Associate Professor of History at DePaul University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Note Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I Encountering Japan
1. Civilization from the Center: The Geomoral Context of Tributary Expectations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2 Civilization as Universal Practice The Context of Writing and Poetry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
II Representing Japan
Prologue: Geographical Knowledge and Forms of Representation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
3. Journeys to the East: The Geography of Historical Sites and Self in the Travelogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
4 The Historiographical Use of Poetry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
5 The Utility of Objectification in the Geographic Treatise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
III Representing Japan's Westernization
6 Negotiating Civilization and Westernization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 352
Illustrations
- Other: 4 maps

eBook

Published: April 25, 1996
ISBN: 9780822382034