Mandeville's Travels A
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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/63281 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Images of the Other, Images of the Self: Reciprocal Representations of the British and the Chinese from the 1750s to the 1840s by Chia-Hwan Chen A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of Warwick Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies July 2007 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the University of Warwick for granting me Warwick Postgraduate Research Fellowship to support my project from 2002 to 2004. I am profoundly grateful to my supervisor, Professor Susan Bassnett, for her constant encouragement, insightful criticism, and unreserved support. It is indeed a great privilege to be one of her students. I am also grateful to the secretaries of the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies of the University of Warwick, Mrs Janet Bailey (now retired), Mrs Maureen Tustin and Mrs Caroline Parker, for their continual help and hard work on my behalf. Thanks also go to the following individuals for their help in collecting materials for me in Taiwan and United Kingdom: Kuo-shih Chen, Yi-cheng Huang, Je-hoon Lee, Chen-ying Li, Li-ying Lin, Shu-chen Du and Chun-yi Shih. My greatest gratitude is due to my family. I would like to thank my parents, Wen-shu Chen and Pao-chu Tsai, for their financial and spiritual supports and my sisters, Pei-pei and Hsiao-chi, for their belief in me. I would also like to thank my beloved wife, Pei-i Chou, for her complete dedication to the family and timely encouragement and understanding. My lovely son, Guan-pu, also deserves a big thank-you for being such a considerate and nice child. This thesis is dedicated to my parents for their endless love and patience. Declaration I confirm that this thesis is the author's own work and it has not been submitted for a degree at another university. A Note on Transliteration In most cases, the system of Romanization of Chinese characters used in this thesis is the Pinyin system. All Chinese book titles, phrases and words, and almost all personal and place names have been transcribed in Pinyin. Abstract During the interactions between the Chinese and the English from the 1750s to the 1840s, writers from both countries have created many distinctive images to represent "the Other" in their own discourses. Imagologists like Jean-Marc Moura (1992) and Daniel-Henri Pageaux (1994) indicated that every image of an "Other" de facto corresponds to an image of "Self." Consequently, the reciprocal images of the British and the Chinese may not only reflect individual writer's attitude towards "the Other" but also refract the self-images of each writer's own people and society. As writers are more or less conditioned by their immediate society, their images of''the Other" tend to reflect the collective ideology of a society. A study of reciprocal images in their own historical milieus will enable one to see why both parties were conditioned to produce certain images to represent "the Other" and why certain images may last longer than the others or even become stereotypes in different discourses. This thesis argues that neither the British nor the Chinese had unanimous images for each other from the 1750s to the I840s, a century prior to the first Opium War. Instead, writers of both countries had created various negative and positive images of "the Other" to meet their own intentions during this period. By discussing the political, psychological and sociological meanings of the reciprocal images of the British and the Chinese diachronically and synchronically, this thesis suggests that writers might follow certain principles and rules to formulate their own images of other people as "the Other." Keywords: image, imago logy, the Other, stereotype, Opium Wars Acknowledgement Declaration A Note on Transliteration Abstract Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction I. Motivation 1 II. Definition of image studiesllmagology 2 III. Practice and scope of image studies 8 IV. An overview of image studies of China and the Chinese in English literature 12 V. An overview of image studies of Britain and the British in Chinese literature 14 VI. Summary 17 Chapter Two: Images of the Chinese in Early European Literary Texts: Marco Polo and John Mandeville I. A historical review of early texts about China 19 II. Images of China and the Chinese in Marco Polo's Travels A. General questions about Polo's Travels 22 B. Reception of Polo's Travels 24 C. Polo's positive images of China and the Chinese 28 D. Polo's negative images of China and the Chinese 32 III. Images of China and the Chinese in Mandeville s Travels A. The credibility of Mandeville s Travels 35 B. Reception of Mandeville s Travels 40 C. Images of China and the Chinese in Mandeville s Travels 42 IV. Summary 45 Chapter Three: British Travel Accounts of China from the 1750s to the 18008 I. Historical review of early British accounts of China 47 II. George Anson's images of China and the Chinese 50 III. John Bell and his A Journey from St Petersburg to Pekin, 1719-22 A. Bell's journeys and publication of his itineraries 56 B. Bell's images of the Chinese public 58 C. Bell's images of Emperor Kanghsi and the Chinese officials 65 D. Bell's self-images of the British and the Europeans 68 E. Summary 71 IV. The first British official report of China: George Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China 72 Chapter Four: Chinese images of Britain and the British before the first Opium War I. Early Chinese images of the British before 1793 81 II. A historical review of early intercourse between Britain and China 85 A. Red-haired foreigners: early images of the British visitors 87 B. Yingguili, Yingjili and Hongmao: further understanding of Britain as a European country 89 C. Fan, ri, barbarian and savage: intentional misinterpretation of Chinese images of the British 92 D. Summary 95 III. Britain as a better land 96 A. Xie Qinggao's Hailu 100 B. Ye Zhongjin's "Yingjiliguo yiqing jilue" 108 C. Summary 111 Chapter Five: Chinese images of the British during the first Opium War, 1839-1842 I. Chinese writers' varied attitudes towards the British 114 II. Liberal writers' images of the British and the Chinese A. Lin Zexu's "Huashi yiyan" 115 B. Wei Yuan's "Yingjili xiaoji" 122 III. Conservative writers' images of the British and the Chinese A. Xiao Lingyu's "Yingjili ji" 132 B. Yao Ying's "Yingjili ditushuo" 137 IV. Summary 140 Chapter Six: China as an "Other" in English Writings from the 1750s to the 1790s I. Images of the Chinese in the works of Horace Walpole and an unknown contemporary A. Walpole's knowledge of China 144 B. Images of the Chinese in A Letter from Xo Ho 146 C. Images of the Chinese in An Answer from Lien Chi and A Letter from Philo-Briton to Lien Chi 148 D. Eccentric and unfavourable images of the Chinese in Hieroglyphic Tales 152 E. Summary 157 II. Images of China and the Chinese in Oliver Goldsmith's The Citizen of the World and other works A. Goldsmith's knowledge of China and the Chinese 159 B. Images of the Chinese in The Citizen of the World 164 C. British public's images of the Chinese in The Citizen of the World 174 D. Summary 180 Chapter Seven: China and the Chinese as a Negative "Other" in British Literature from the 1790s to the 1840s I. A historical review of political contacts between Britain and China 183 II. Two Chinas in John Wolcot's satires 184 A. A Pair of Lyric Epistles to Lord Macartney and His Ship 187 B. Odes to Kien Long, the Present Emperor of China 191 C. "Ode to the Lion Ship of War, on Her Return with the Embassy from China" 196 D. A Most Solemn and Important Epistle to the Emperor of China: On His Uncourtly and Impolitic Behavior to the Sublime Ambassadors of Great Britain 198 E. Summary 202 III. Thomas De Quincey's images of China and the Chinese A. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 203 B. "The Opium Question with China in 1840" 208 C. Summary 215 Chapter Eight: China and the Chinese as a Positive "Other" in British Literature from the 1800s to the 1840s I. China as a hybrid Other in British literature 217 II. Thomas Carlyle's images of China and the Chinese A. Carlyle and his contemporary's general images of China and the Chinese 218 B. References to China and the Chinese in Sartor Resartus 219 C. Early images of China and the Chinese in On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History 221 O. China as a model for Britain in Past and Present 223 E. A reminiscence of China's civil examination scheme in Latter-Day Pamphlets 227 F. From idealization to disillusion: Carlyle's criticism of the Chinese emperor 229 G Summary 230 III. Images of China and the Chinese in Walter Savage Landor's "Imaginary Conversations between Emperor of China and Tsing- Ti" A.