Gong Zizhen, Ren Bonian, and Kang Youwei

Home , Chen Lanbin, Di Qing, Feng Zhi, Gongbi, Gong Zizhen, Haipai

Modern Transformations of Visuality in Late Qing China: Gong Zizhen, Ren Bonian, and Kang Youwei

Jian Gong

A thesis in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

School of Humanities & Languages

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

February 2016

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Date ……………………………………………...... TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Notes on Translation and Transliteration iv List of Figures v

Chapter 1. Introduction 1

1.1 Theoretical Background 1 1.2 Historical Background 11 1.3 Critical Analysis of Related Literature and Studies 24 1.4 Methodology and Significance of the Study 44

Chapter 2. The Modern Viewing Subject and Gong Zizhen’s Poetic Practice 49

2.1 The Emergence of the Modern Subject: Historical Conditions and Features 54 2.2 Gong Zizhen and his Times 67 2.3 Ways of Seeing and Characteristics of Gong’s Subjectivity 70 2.4 Conclusion 108

Chapter 3. Seeing the World through the Eyes of the Everyday: Ren Bonian 113

3.1 From Literati Painting to the Shanghai School 114 3.2 The Shanghai School of Painting and Ren Bonian’s Achievements 132 3.3 Features of Visual Construction in Ren’s Paintings 143 3.4 Conclusion 174

Chapter 4. Visual Journey in Sino-Western Comparative Perspective: Kang Youwei 177

4.1 Historical and Theoretical Context 179 4.2 Comparative Perspective in Kang Youwei’s Travel Essays 188 4.3 Historical Significance of the Sino-Western Comparative Perspective 221 4.4 Conclusion 228

Chapter 5. Conclusion 231

5.1 Introduction 232 5.2 Analysis of Image-Making in Works and Main Findings 237 5.3 Significance and Implications of the Study 250 5.4 Direction for Future Research 254 5.5 Conclusion 255

Bibliography 256

ABSTRACT

Focusing on three important art and literary forms intensely involving visual images, namely, classical Chinese poetry, traditional Chinese painting, and travel writing, this thesis examines the modern transformations of visuality in the late Qing period (1800–1911). Casting doubt on the prevalent rhetorically motivated interpretation of the use of “xiang (象 image/imagery)” in traditional

Chinese literature and art, the study offers an alternative perspective to read those images, by drawing upon the concept of “visuality” from visual studies and interpreting the making of visual images in artworks as the subject’s literary or artistic construction of visual experience. The detailed investigations of late Qing visuality and its modern changes in the practices of poet Gong Zizhen 龔自珍(1792-1841), painter Ren Bonian 任

伯年 (1840-1896), and writer Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858-1927) constitute the main body of this thesis. These investigations illuminate the underlying relationships between the construction of the visual, the artist as the viewing subject, and the viewing world, as well as their interactions in the context of late Qing China. Meanwhile, new social and cultural trends were reflected in the visual practices of those artists, including the emergence of the modern subject, the rise of popular taste in art, and the Sino-Western comparative perspective on the modern West during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In identifying these socio-cultural changes, this study argues that the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing China made an essential, if subtle, contribution to the shaping of modern Chinese intellectuals and the multiplicity of the Chinese modern.

 This periodization of late Qing China is provided by Fairbank, John K. in The Cambridge History of China (Volume 10, Late Ch’ing, 1800–1911, Part I), 1978, p. 1. ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writing of this thesis has been a long journey and I can scarcely hope to complete this journey alone without those who have helped me so much over these years. I would like to thank them all here. First of all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Associate Professor Yi Zheng and Dr. Ping Wang at the University of New South Wales, for their insightful guidance, dedicated support, and continued encouragement. I am really fortunate to have them as my supervisors. Their timely feedback and constructive suggestions at every stage of this thesis have made my writing smooth and enjoyable. I am very grateful to the staff currently or previously in Chinese programs at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales for their helpful comments on earlier versions of part or all of the draft, and their insights into and patient endurance throughout this project. They are Associate Professor Yiyan Wang, Associate Professor Linda Tsung, Dr. Wei Wang, and Ms Irene Shidong An, Associate Professor Jon von Kowallis, Dr. Haiqing Yu, Dr. Stefania Bernini, and Dr. Mira Kim. My particular gratitude must go to Dr. Bronwen Dyson at the University of Sydney for helping me with my academic English writing, and to Dr. Emily Dunn at the University of Melbourne for proofreading my thesis. I am also grateful to all my colleagues and friends for their informal talks and discussions with me on the thesis topics: Jacqui Godwin, Tao Min, Bao Hongwei, Bstsy Lau, Li Meng, Wei Miao, Qiu Zitong, Xu Jian, and Tian Mo. Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my wife Zhou Tianxiu and my little daughter Gong Yucheng, whose love, support, and patience are my source of strength during tough times, and to whom this thesis is dedicated.

iii

NOTES ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION

All Chinese-English translations are the thesis author’s unless otherwise stated.

This thesis uses traditional Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin of transliteration for Chinese terms, names and phrases, except in cases where a different conventional or preferred spelling or pronunciation exists, as is frequently the case in the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora communities with personal names (for example, Yu Ying-shih). The ordering of Chinese names follows their conventional forms, that is, family names first, followed by given names.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival, section, by Zhang Zeduan 145 Figure 2. A Portrait of Mr. Zhao Dechang and His Wife, by Ren Bonian 150 Figure 3. The Offering of Auspicious Flowers, by Ren Bonian 152 Figure 4. Loquast and Parrots, by Ren Bonian 160 Figure 5. Peach Blossom, Willow Leaves, and a Myna, by Ren Bonian 160 Figure 6. Peach Blossom, by Ren Bonian 161 Figure 7. Painting of Tao Yuanming, by Chen Hongshou 163 Figure 8. A Portrait of Ren Xun, section, by Ren Bonian 165 Figure 9. Early Spring, by Guo Xi 167 Figure 10. Ploughing, by Ren Bonian 172 Figure 11. Going Home on a Spring Day, by Ren Bonian 172

Chapter 1

Introduction

The theme ―modern transformations of visuality in late Qing China‖ carries the assumption that late Qing modernity not only significantly changed material life in China, but also brought about a profound transformation in the mindset, inclinations and behaviours of the Chinese, especially Chinese intellectuals. In this thesis, I argue that one manifestation that typifies the transformation is the change in modern Chinese intellectuals‘ ways of seeing, and their constructions of the visual in literature and art. I demonstrate this change by examining three kinds of late Qing literary and art practices that deeply involve visual images, namely, classical Chinese poetry, traditional Chinese painting, and travel writing.

This thesis is comprised of five chapters. Besides the introductory and concluding chapters, three others constitute the main body, dealing with the transformations of visuality in three late Qing literary and art practices respectively. The present chapter aims to define the project by providing its theoretical and historical background, outlining its methodology, and highlighting its significance for the field of Chinese studies.

1.1 Theoretical Background

As suggested by the title, ―visuality‖ is the core concept in my study. However, my investigation of visuality in late Qing literary and art practices begins with an

1 inquiry into the remarkable change in the use of xiang 象, the Chinese concept of image and imagery, in modern Chinese literature. Image and imagery, especially natural imagery, played a crucial role in traditional Chinese literature, aesthetics, and philosophy.1 This, however, has not been the case for modern Chinese intellectual practices; we find that in modern Chinese literature, the visual experiences that readers can enjoy are much less than those in classical Chinese literature, due to a significant reduction in the use of visual images. In particular, those vivid images containing rich cultural connotations, such as the moon and flowers, mountains and waters, spring breezes and willows, are not as highly valued and frequently used in the works of today‘s writers as in their pre-modern predecessors‘, or even those of their most recent counterparts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is clear that since the late Qing period,

Chinese intellectuals, consciously or unconsciously, have changed their modes of expressing thoughts and feelings as well as their strategies for representing images. The question then arises: How should we understand this change in the context of the unprecedented socio-cultural transformations and intellectual development in the late Qing period?

The Rhetorical Perspective on Image and its Problem

In answering this question, we should clarify the nature of the concept of image

1 Owen, Stephen. Readings in Chinese Literary Thought. 1992, pp. 33–34; Ye Lang 葉朗. Zhongguo meixueshi dagang 中國美學史大綱(Outline of the History of Chinese Aesthetics). 1985, pp. 64–77;

Zhang Dainian. Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. 2002, pp. 210–15. 2 at the outset. Although the term ―image‖ is widely used in various senses, it has never been well-defined. Most scholars are inclined to understand this concept within the framework of rhetoric. After an extensive survey of the use of ―image‖ in the Western academic traditions, James J. Y. Liu, for instance, indicates that

―the word is used to mean an expression, such as metaphor, simile, etc., that involves two elements. Indeed, some writers seem to identify ‗image‘ with

‗metaphor‘ … Professor I. A. Richards uses ‗metaphor‘ for any verbal expression involving two terms (which he calls ‗tenor‘ and ‗vehicle‘).‖2 It is the same in the field of Chinese studies: image is usually regarded as a special figure of speech, such as metaphor, simile, analogy, allegory or symbol. When comparing Western metaphor and Chinese biyu (比喻 simile/metaphor), Stephen R. Bokenkamp understands image in the Chinese poetic tradition as metaphor by adopting I. A.

Richards‘ ―vehicle‖ and ―tenor‖ for the Chinese wei yu zhiwu (為喻之物 ―that which makes the metaphor‖) and bei yu zhiwu (被喻之物 ―that which is the subject of the metaphor‖).3 Sarah Allan, in The Way of Water and Sprouts of

Virtue, argues that image is essentially the root metaphor of early Chinese philosophical thought. She claims that in the absence of a transcendental concept, the ancient Chinese turned directly to the natural world—to water and the plant life that it nourishes—for the root metaphors of their philosophical concepts.4

2 Liu, James J. Y. The Art of Chinese Poetry. 1962, pp. 101–02. 3 Bokenkamp, Stephen R. ‗Chinese Metaphor Again: Reading—and Understanding—Imagery in the

Chinese Poetic Tradition‘. 1989, pp. 211–21.

4 Allan, Sarah. The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue. 1997, preface. 3 This interpretation of image from a rhetorical perspective, however, is problematic: while proposing an acceptable explanation for the function and usage of images in Chinese texts, it cannot account for the changes in the use of images in modern Chinese literature, which took place in a collective way.

Because rhetoric, a term that originates from the West, is authoritatively defined by Aristotle as ―an ability, in each (particular) case, to see the available means of persuasion‖,5 and interpreting image as a figure of speech implies that to a significant extent, using image is a skill exercised by the individual and an intentional act for certain artistic purpose, rather than a common way in which intellectuals in a certain historical period perceive the world. Thus, the rhetorical perspective cannot explain why Chinese intellectuals collectively changed their figures of speech around the turn of the twentieth century. We need a new perspective on image to explain the evolution of literary and artistic practices at this historical juncture, which was crucial in the transformation of China towards modernity.

Visuality: An Alternative Perspective on Image

This thesis examines image instead from the viewpoint of visuality, 6 a core

5 Aristotle. Aristotle on Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. 2007, p. 37. 6 Generally, the term ―visuality‖ denotes ways of seeing or the socio-cultural construction of the visual. A detailed examination of the definition and connotations of visuality in visual culture will be given in the later part of this chapter. 4 concept in visual culture, in consideration of the close relationship between image and visual culture. This intimacy can be seen from two aspects. The first is that visual image, the most common type of image found in literature and art, is closely related to vision. According to cognitive science and ophthalmology, vision, as our dominant sense, plays a crucial role in the process by which most human beings come to know and understand the outer world. Research estimates that eighty to eighty-five percent of our perception, learning, cognition and activities are mediated by vision.7 Nevertheless, vision cannot work without image due to the latter‘s intrinsic involvement in the act of visual perception. As a matter of fact, image not only refers to the object of vision (such as the form of a person or object, a painting, or a photograph) but also indicates the outcome of vision (such as retinal image, visual imagery, or a mental picture). For this reason, it is impossible to reveal the true nature of image independently of its relationship with vision.

The second aspect that can demonstrate the inextricable relationship between image and visual culture is that image is always associated with its socio-cultural context. In his influential article ―What Is an Image?‖, W. J. T. Mitchell points out that the question of what images are is closely related to the question of what human nature is or might become; thus, one should consider the ways in which

7 Politzer, Thomas. ‗Vision Is Our Dominant Sense‘. http://www.brainline.org/content/2008/11/vision-our-dominant-sense_pageall.html, (Accessed 10 April,

2015) 5 our understanding of image is rooted in social and cultural practices.8 In other words, we can hardly develop a correct understanding of an image without examining its socio-cultural factors. Therefore, visual culture commonly regards image as a chief agent in the cultural construction of social life, and its main function as being to render the world in visual terms and offer views of the world.9

Image is thus never a transparent window on to the world. In fact, it always interprets the world in particular ways because of the mediation of visuality.

Norman Bryson explains: ―between the subject and the world is inserted the entire sum of discourses which make up visuality, that cultural construct, and makes visuality different from vision, the notion of unmediated visual experience.‖10 Here telling the difference between visuality and vision, he suggests that it is the mediation of visuality that accounts for the hidden relationship between an individual‘s visual practice and the social and cultural world he/she lives in. Bryson‘s view of visuality inspires us to probe into the nature of image and its changing use by modern Chinese intellectuals with reference to social and cultural contexts, rather than a narrow focus on the rhetorical devices employed by individuals.

The foregoing analysis of the relationship between image and vision and its

8 Mitchell, W. J. T. ‗What is an Image?‘ 1984, pp. 503–37. 9 Rose, Gillian Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London:

SAGE Publications, 2001, p. 6.

10 Bryson, Norman. ‗The Gaze in the Expanded Field‘, 1988, pp. 91–94. 6 socio-cultural context indicates that visual culture may shed new light on our understanding of image by emphasizing some of its core qualities. Although there is no standard definition of visual culture, there is a consensus that visual culture essentially works towards a social theory of visuality.11 As image in literature and art is basically a concrete manifestation of visuality, changes in the use of image can be reasonably attributed to changed visuality, which in turn is the outcome of social and cultural transformations. Compared with the individual-oriented understanding of a rhetorical perspective, this socio-cultural-oriented viewpoint based on the idea of visual culture provides a much more historically convincing explanation for the changing use of image that occurred in a collective way from the late Qing period. Thus my initial interest in image has inevitably led to an examination of what happened to visuality in late Qing literary and art practices

Study of Visuality in Chinese Art and Literature

Visual culture arose as a new cross-disciplinary field involving cultural studies, art history, critical theory, and anthropology in the 1970s and 80s. Reflecting the field‘s origins and success in Europe and North America, researchers assume that visual culture should focus on visual events in the modern and postmodern West,

11 For recent definitions of visual culture, see the following hyperlink of Georgetown University: http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/visualarts/VisualCulture/VisualCultureStudies-definitions.html,

(Accessed 23 June, 2011) 7 rather than those in non-western societies and pre-modern eras; thus relatively few studies have explored visuality in China. According to Nicholas Mirzoeff, for instance, the birth of the academic discipline of visual culture was directly related to the unprecedented explosion in both visual technologies and visual activities in the West during the second half of the twentieth century:

The gap between the wealth of visual experience in postmodern culture and the

ability to analyze that observation marks both the opportunity and the need for

visual culture as a field of study. While the different visual media have usually

been studied independently, there is now a need to interpret the postmodern

globalization of the visual as everyday life. Critics in disciplines ranging as

widely as art history, film, media studies and sociology have begun to describe

this emerging field as visual culture.12

This account of the emergence of visual culture is surely accurate, but seems to limit the scope and use of visual culture: It neglects the universality of visual practices and experiences in human societies, whether they are in the West or

East, in pre-modern or modern times. In fact, as W.J.T. Mitchell has pointed out, visual culture is not confined to modernity or the West and ―to live in any culture whatsoever is to live in a visual culture, except perhaps for those rare instances of

12 Mirzoeff, Nicholas. An Introduction to Visual Culture. 1999, p. 3. 8 societies of the blind‖.13 In this sense, visuality in the visual arts of ancient

Rome is just as worthy of rigorous study as visuality in today‘s American television soap operas. Similar points can be made for the study of visual cultures in both modern and pre-modern China.

In this respect, a few pioneering efforts have been made especially in the last two decades.14 All of these studies focus on visual arts and products that convey the typical visual experience of the Chinese through visual images, such as paintings, woodcuts, posters, prints, films, television, advertisements, and digital media. Another important kind of visual experience has been overlooked, however. This experience is usually constructed and rendered by visual imageries in literary works, especially in genres with obvious visual characteristics of imagery such as classical Chinese poetry and travel writing.

Considering that this visual field has been vastly underexplored for scholars of both visual culture and Chinese studies, I will examine late Qing visuality by taking visual imagery and the corresponding literary-visual practice into account.

In so doing, I aim to foreground noteworthy changes in image-making strategy in three major kinds of art practices—namely, classical Chinese poetry, traditional

Chinese painting, and travel writing—and thus further delineate the trajectory of

13 Mitchell, W. J. T. ‗Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture‘, 2002, p.94.

14 Influential publications on this subject include Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Chow, Rey 1995), Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China (Clunas, Craig 1997), China, Transnational Visuality, Global Postmodernity (Lu, Sheldon H.2001), The

Distorting Mirror: Visual Modernity in China (Pang, Laikwan 2007), and Picturing the True Form:

Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China (Huang, Shih-shan Susan 2012). 9 the modern transformations of late Qing visuality. Here I specially chose these authentically traditional Chinese art forms, rather than those appeared in modern times and imported from the West like film and photography. Because what I want to highlight in this thesis is the modern transformations of late Qing visuality, which took place in the field of traditional Chinese art and should be viewed as a manifestation of the latter‘s transition from tradition to modernity. At this point, it is the old or even obsolete art forms with some signs of the incipient modern, rather than those new ones emerged in the modern age, that can more effectively demonstrate this historic transition. As for the modern intertwined with the traditional in old art forms, Jon Kowallis has offered a good example in his account of subtle changes in late Qing classical poetry. According to him, ancient-style poetry, like the rising vernacular literature in early twentieth century

China, can also deliver the thoughts and feelings peculiar to modern times, such as ―the alienation, self-doubt, and sense of unprecedented change that have come to characterize the modern consciousness‖.15 Therefore, whether a literary work has characteristics of the modern is not determined by its literary form, but the writer‘s response to the challenges of his/her times. Refreshing our understanding of modern Chinese literature, Kowallis‘ study gives me a boost to quest for the modern ways of seeing in those late Qing traditional art and literary practices.

Meanwhile, as what visuality in those practices reflects are essentially late Qing

15 Kowallis, Jon Eugene von. The Subtle Revolution: Poets of the “Old Schools” during Late Qing and

Early Republican China. 2006, pp. 151-52. 10 intellectuals‘ ways of seeing, my study of the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing China will also contribute to our knowledge concerning the shaping of modern Chinese intellectuals since the second half of the nineteenth century.

1.2 Historical Background

What are the historical factors that may lead to the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing China? Considering that visuality is generally regarded as

―ways of seeing‖,16 we are sure that this concept basically involves two main elements: the object and subject of vision, that is, the world and the observer.

Their relationship can be clarified as follows: the great changes in the world give rise to the changes in the observer; the changes in the observer in turn reflects the great changes in the world; and these two kinds of changes can account for the potential change in the visuality of a certain era. In fact, researchers in the field of visual culture have used changes in the world and the observer to explain the historical transformations of visuality.17 So I will also examine these two aspects as the basic historical background of my study.

16 Duncum, Paul ‗Visual Culture: Developments, Definitions, and Directions for Art Education‘, 2001, pp.

101–12.

17 For instance, Nelson, Robert S. (ed.) Visuality Before and Beyond the Renaissance: Seeing as Others Saw. 2000; Landau, Paul S. and Kaspin, Deborah D. (eds.) Images and Empires: Visuality in Colonial and

Postcolonial Africa. 2002; and Corbett, David Peters The World in Paint: Modern Art and Visuality in

England, 1848-1914. 2004. 11 The Changing World: Modernity in Late Qing China

The first step in exploring the modern transformation of visuality in China is to locate the historical period in which that transformation occurred. Thought there is still some debate concerning when China‘s first experience of modernity exactly took place, with some scholars pointing to the late Tang and early Song era (from about the late ninth century to the tenth century) or the May Fourth movement (1919), the vast majority of scholars view modern China as beginning in the late Qing period (1800–1911)18 because of China‘s indisputably extensive encounter with the West and its modernity around that time. The following three accounts have been particularly authoritative in describing the period.

The late Qing was not regarded as crucial in the development of Chinese modernity until the theory of impact-response, advocated by John K. Fairbank in the 1950s, became a classic narrative of modernity as well as a focus of controversy in the field of Chinese studies. Arguing that in the nineteenth century,

―the more ancient and less rapidly changing‖ Chinese civilization and ―the more modern and dynamic‖ Western civilization were so completely different that they

―stood embattled‖, Fairbank asserts that a history of modern China is actually a history of the clash of these two civilizations. He also argues that due to the

―conditions of size, self-sufficiency, unresponsiveness and lack of concern

18 For different arguments about the origin of Chinese modernity, see Harriet T. Zurndorfer ‗China and

―modernity‖: the Uses of the Study of Chinese History in the Past and the Present‘, 1997, pp. 461-84. 12 among the ruling class‖, the late Qing Empire was ill-prepared for the Western impact and not capable of reacting quickly to it.19 Thus he suggests that China would have remained stagnant and would not have set out on the road to modernity without the impact of the West. As he says in The United States and

China, the West provided a central thread throughout the modern history of

China:

The Western impact of the 1840s and 1850s was a stunning blow. To the next

generation, however, from the 1860s through the 1890s, the West became a

model to imitate, the better to strengthen China to deal with the West. Finally, in

the twentieth century the West has been an inspiration for China's three

revolutions, Republican, Nationalist, and Communist.20

Though Fairbank‘s view is Eurocentric, he successfully draws attention to the late Qing Dynasty as a watershed in China‘s break with tradition by revealing the relationship between the era of dramatic change and the modern West.

Compared with his teacher Fairbank who takes more interest in the revolution, government, society, and foreign relation of late Qing China, another renowned scholar Joseph R. Levenson attempts to explain Chinese modernity from a deeper, more significant intellectual dimension—the fate of Confucianism.

19 Fairbank, John K. ‗Introduction: the old order‘ in Fairbank, John K. (ed.) The Cambridge History of

China. Volume 10. 1978, pp. 2, 6.

20 Fairbank, John K. The United States and China. 1976, p. 144. 13 In his view, Confucian China, like its outdated value system of Confucianism, became inactive and unable to deal with modernity that accompanied the Western impact in the mid- and late nineteenth century. With an elaborate analysis of modern Chinese intellectual history, he infers that Confucianism cannot engender

Chinese modernity in its own right for two main reasons. One is that it lacks a coherent scientific tradition, and so traditional Chinese society could not have developed a scientific temper without the catalytic intrusion of Western industrialism. 21 The other comes from the fact that democracy cannot be produced within the Confucian tradition, which is closely related to absolute monarchy. Levenson states: ―We have observed that a genuinely Confucian concern about satisfying the min, the people, carried no implications of

‗democracy‘, Caesarist or otherwise. On the contrary, it was essentially

Confucian to reject majority rule, with all its air of impersonal, mathematical abstraction.‖22 Therefore, modern China is doomed to abandon its traditional culture and accept a modern Western one wholesale.

To describe this tremendous change, Levenson uses vocabulary and language as metaphors: ―What the West has probably done to China is to change the latter‘s language—what China has done to the West is to enlarge the latter‘s vocabulary.‖ In other words, ―As long as one society is not being conclusively shaken up by another, foreign ideas may be exploited, as additional vocabulary,

21 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Volume 1. 1968, p. 13.

22 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Volume 2. 1968, p. 61. 14 in a domestic intellectual situation. But when foreign-impelled social subversion is fairly under way (and that has been so in China, not in the West, and in China only in the nineteenth century and after), then foreign ideas begin to displace domestic.‖23 It is clear that Levenson holds a more radical view than his teacher with respect to social and cultural transformation in late Qing China.

Compared with Fairbanks and Levenson, Leo Ou-fan Lee pays more attention to concrete social and cultural conditions and manifestations of Chinese modernity, such as the formation of the concepts of ―nation-state‖ and ―public sphere‖, by examining the interaction between modernity and modern Chinese literature, especially late Qing fiction. As he says in a chapter written for The

Cambridge History of China, ―The origins of modern Chinese literature can be traced to the late Ch‘ing period, more specifically to the last decade and a half from 1895 to 1911, in which some of the ‗modern‘ symptoms became increasingly noticeable.‖24 Pointing out that the emergence of late Qing fiction was a byproduct of journalism which evolved out of a social reaction to a series of deepening political crises, Lee opens up a new field of study for exploring modernity in late Qing China, that is, print media. He argues that early urban literary journalism was ―a half-modernized form of ‗mass media‘‖25, typified by the famous four major magazines in Shanghai that are Xin xiaoshuo 新小說(New fiction), Xiuxiang xiaoshuo 繡像小說(Illustrated fiction), Yueyue xiaoshuo 月月

23 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Volume 1. 1968, pp. 157–59.

24 See Lee, Leo Ou-fan. ‗Literary Trends I: The Quest for Modernity, 1895–1927‘, 1983, p. 452.

25 Ibid., p. 454. 15 小說(Monthly fiction), and Xiaoshuo lin 小說林(Forest of fiction).The early print media played an important role in the formation of Chinese modernity by creating new fiction, a new urban populace and public sphere, the nation as imagined community, and most importantly, by propagating Western modern ideas.

The efforts of these three prominent scholars, different as they seem, have one thing in common: they highlight the late Qing as the most significant period in the formation of Chinese modernity. At the same time, their different focuses demonstrate the multiple manifestations of late Qing modernity as well as the diversity of perspectives on the Chinese modern. Thus as far as my project is concerned, the perspective of visuality in art practices adds a new dimension to our understanding of this modernity. And late Qing China, which confronted a rapidly changing world, provides the most appropriate historical context for it.

The Changing Observer: the Emergence of Modern Intellectuals

Besides the changing world, observers also exercise great influence on the visuality of a certain era. The intellectuals of the second half of the nineteenth century were undoubtedly the best observers and recorders of late Qing China due to their constant concern with Chinese society and culture as well as their dominant role in literary and art activities. A critical question is therefore: ―What are the noteworthy changes in late Qing intellectuals?‖ According to leading

16 scholars in the field of modern Chinese intellectual history, such as Yu Ying-shih

余英時 (1930–), Xu Jilin 許紀霖(1957–), and Yamaguchi Hisakazu (1948–), traditional Chinese intellectuals, during the late Qing period, were undergoing a historic transformation into modern intellectuals. This was the product of three factors.

First, modern intellectuals were the product of social transformation in late

Qing China. Influenced by both an incipient native modernity and the external impact of Western modernity, almost every aspect of China, from politics to economy and society to culture, underwent remarkable changes in the second half of the nineteenth century. A case in point raised by Yu Ying-shih is the disruption of the relatively fixed social hierarchy of ancient china—more specifically, scholar-officials and literati lost their high social status and privileges. As the protagonists on the intellectual scene, late Qing scholar-officials and literates struggled to adequately respond to domestic strife and foreign aggression with Confucian doctrines and values. Taking up the urgent mission of pursuing modernization and saving the nation, late Qing intellectual elites tried to gear the scholastic system towards practical statesmanship, and initiated a series of social and political reforms. By doing so, they unconsciously began to change their own social and political role and acquired some characteristics of modern intellectuals, such as putting the focus of their political practices on nation and society, instead of the imperial

17 government. 26 In addition, with the introduction and publicity of Western rationalism and positivism that stemmed from modern science, Chinese intellectuals abandoned their old Sino-centric worldview and developed a new way of seeing the world, which laid a proper foundation for the modern transformation of visuality.

Second, modern intellectuals are the product of modern cities. As Xu Jilin claims, the process of modernization is necessarily accompanied by the process of urbanization. Modern cities replace secluded villages and small rural towns, and gradually become the centers of society, culture, and public relations. A prime example is the rapid rise of Shanghai as one of the most prosperous metropolises in the Far East since the mid-nineteenth century. Breaking away from geographical ties with their hometowns in rural areas, and even from their kinship ties, most traditional Chinese intellectuals flocked into big cities, such as

Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. There, they communicated with others and formed their self-identities in various urban public spaces, like teahouses, cafés, salons, bookstores, city squares, corporations, journals, and other mass media. In this way, they developed a new type of knowledge, a new ideology, a new value system, and finally, grew into a new community of urban intellectuals. 27

Distinguished from traditional literati who tended to isolate themselves from the

26 Yu Yingshi 余英時, Shi yu Zhongguo wenhua 士與中國文化(Shi and Chinese Culture). 2003, pp. 1–6, 1–8.

27 Xu Jilin 許紀霖. ‗Dushi kongjian shiye zhong de zhishifenzi yanjiu 都市空間視野中的知識分子研究

(A Study of Intellectuals From the Perspective of Urban Space)‘, 2004, pp. 123–134. 18 outer world and were accustomed to staying in their local villages and exclusive social circles, modern intellectuals were more inclined to live an unsettled life amidst the hustle and bustle of big cities, and thus more readily approached modern ideas with an open mind.

Third, modern intellectuals were also the product of the development of modern scholarship (xueshu 學術 or xuewen 學問 in Chinese). After examining the original meaning of ―xue 學(learning)‖ in the context of ancient China,

Yamaguchi Hisakazu reveals that in ancient China, ―xue‖referred to human behaviors and activities that were relevant to obtaining wisdom, rather than objective knowledge of things outside. The split between outer knowledge and inner wisdom, he further suggests, predated Confucius (551BC–479 BC), and brought about the apparent opposition between the two Confucian concepts of zundexing 尊德性(valuing the virtuous nature) and daowenxue 道問學 (learning through the study of the Confucian classics) during the Song and Ming Dynasties.

Traditional scholarship was subsequently divided into three basic types, namely composition of poetry and prose (equivalent to literature), textual criticism

(equivalent to knowledge), and Confucian self-cultivation (equivalent to wisdom).

Nevertheless, Yamaguchi argues that due to its close relationship with Confucian moral cultivation and the shaping of the ideal personality, the learning of wisdom was privileged over the learning of scientific knowledge by Chinese literati until the reigns of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing (from 1735 to 1820). This period of the late Qing witnessed the most remarkable academic achievements in

19 textology, also known as evidential research. In their concern with down-to-earth knowledge, Chinese intellectuals of that time were essentially realizing the transformation from Confucian men of letters to modern scholars.28

These three explanations for the emergence of modern Chinese intellectuals demonstrate that in China‘s transition from tradition to modernity during the late

Qing period, big changes took place for the chief observers of Chinese society and culture. These changes not only endowed the late Qing intellectuals with new characteristics and missions that were suited to modern times, but also laid a foundation for the modern transformation of their ways of seeing. Meanwhile, along with these changes in the best observers and recorders of late Qing China, another noteworthy change occurred. That is the emergence of modern subjectivity.

In fact, subjectivity, as a critical philosophical concept related to the subject

and selfhood, can be easily realized especially when we examine visuality. As

explained earlier, visuality is vital in defining the representation of visual

images as the subject‘s construction of visual experience in works of art and

literature. Since this construction is inevitably carried out by the subject, such as

a writer or an artist, and the subject‘s ways of seeing are profoundly influenced

by their social and cultural context, any serious study on visuality will involve

28 See Hisakazu, Yamaguchi ‗Zhongguo jinshi moqi chengshi zhishifenzi de bianmao: tanqiu Zhongguo jindai xueshu zhishi de mengya 中國近世末期城市知識份子的變貌：探求中國近代學術知識的萌芽

(Changes in Urban Intellectuals in Late Imperial China: A Quest for the Emergence of Modern Chinese

Scholarship)‘, 2004, pp. 1–24. 20 the concept ―subjectivity‖. In his remarkable book Roman Eyes: Visuality and

Subjectivity in Art and Text, Jas Elsner points out that though art is usually

viewed as an objective matter of material objects to be studied, appreciated, and

collected in the external world, when we turn to viewing and visuality, we will

unavoidably move from the material and the objective into the world of

subjectivities.29According to him, the reason why viewing and visuality can

give rise to subjectivity is that while being limited by the material and

ideological constraints of cultural context, visuality itself is made up of

subjective investments. Visuality works as a screen of cultural constructs and

social discourses that stand between the retina and the world, and the audience

have no choice but to look through the screen, thus acquiring their sense of

subjectivity. Elsner‘s account reveals the close relation of visuality to

subjectivity, which is embodied in the practices of both art production and

appreciation.

An important question that follows is: ―What is subjectivity?‖ Generally, the interpretation of this term in academia involves a careful comparison of it and another similar term, ―identity‖. In Subjectivity, for instance, Donald Hall begins his elaboration by pointing out the difference between these two terms:

Indeed, [Descartes‘] famous delineation in his Discourse on Method of the

cogito—―I think, therefore I am‖—sets out his definition of human ―being‖

29 Elsner, Jas. Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text. 2007, Prologue. 21 itself as one of struggling to know in spite of the futility of ever knowing

completely. And this is why the term ―subjectivity‖ is such a useful one,

meaning as it does something slightly different from the term identity, although

the two terms have sometimes been used interchangeably. For our purposes,

one‘s identity can be thought of as that particular set of traits, beliefs, and

allegiances that, in short- or long-term ways, gives one a consistent personality

and mode of social being, while subjectivity implies always a degree of thought

and self-consciousness about identity, at the same time allowing a myriad of

limitations and often unknowable, unavoidable constraints on our ability to

fully comprehend identity. Subjectivity as a critical concept invites us to

consider the question of how and from where identity arises, to what extent it is

understandable, and to what degree it is something over which we have any

measure of influence or control.30

Hall‘s elucidation suggests that to a large extent, the acquisition of subjectivity is based on the subject‘s awareness, effort, and even struggle towards consciousness of identity, while the making of one‘s identity is a more passive, spontaneous event, which is inborn or endowed by external social and cultural circumstances. Consequently, there is no doubt that different people, especially those living in different historical periods, achieve different degrees of subjectivity due to their different struggles to forge a self-conscious identity. This,

30 Hall, Donald E. Subjectivity. 2004, p. 3. 22 as Hall has argued, accounts for the fact that though human beings have pondered the question ―who am I?‖ for at least as long as we have written records of thoughts and creative output, the degree to which the pondering ―I‖ is perceived as having any specific role in, or responsibility for, creating its own ―selfhood‖ has changed dramatically over time. Indeed, historians and critics commonly differentiate the pre-modern and modern eras with reference to the development of self-consciousness because during the Renaissance, which is widely recognized as the beginning of the modern age, there was an increased self-consciousness about the fashioning of human identity.31 Jürgen Habermas also clarifies this relationship between subjectivity and modernity when elaborating Hegel‘s critical concept of modernity. He stresses that Hegel sees the modern age as universally marked by a structure of self-relation that he calls subjectivity, and that in Hegel‘s mind, the principle of the modern world is essentially freedom of subjectivity.32 The accounts referred to in this paragraph make the link between subjectivity and modernity explicit. That is, they demonstrate that the awakening and foregrounding of subjectivity—or more precisely, modern subjectivity—is one of the hallmarks of modernity. It is in this sense that the modern era is also the era of the subject.33

The close link between subjectivity and modernity suggests that modern subjectivity can be applied as a critical criterion to assess the process of late Qing

31 Hall, Donald E. Subjectivity. 2004, p. 6.

32 Habermas, Jürgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures. 1990, p. 16.

33 Hall, Donald E. Subjectivity. 2004, p.14. 23 modernity and examine the emergence of the modern subject in the last century of imperial China. As I touch upon these two historical events in this thesis mainly by investigating the modern transformations of visuality in three kinds of late Qing art practices, modern subjectivity will be primarily manifested in late

Qing literati and artists, such as poets, painters, and writers. Meanwhile, the presence of modern subjectivity in late Qing art practices constitutes a key aspect of the significant change from traditional literati and artists to modern Chinese intellectuals. Delineating it will contribute to a deeper understanding of the modern subject, and accordingly improve our knowledge of late Qing modernity.

1.3 Critical Analysis of Related Literature and Studies

The modern transformation of visuality in late Qing China has been underexplored in the field of Chinese studies to date. Nevertheless, other relevant arguments and ideas can help to clarify key concepts in this thesis. I here give a brief overview of these insights by grouping and discussing them according to three interrelated themes, that is, research on visuality, research on image in the field of visual culture, and research on image in the Chinese context.

Research on Visuality

There are two general dimensions to the exploration of visuality in the field of

24 visual studies. One is theoretical interpretation, the other is historical examination. As a keyword of visual culture, ―visuality‖ has remained theoretically undefined or under-defined to date. Generally, the term refers to

―ways of seeing‖, and it is usually thought to be one of two closely-related elements in the field of visual culture (the other being visual artifact).34 The introduction to Foster‘s renowned book Vision and Visuality is widely cited as an early example of one of the few efforts to define the term. Establishing his argument on the basis of the difference between vision and visuality, Hal Foster proposes that ―Although vision suggests sight as a physical operation, and visuality sight as a social fact, the two are not opposed as nature to culture.‖35 A similar statement comes from Norman Bryson:―Between the subject and the world is inserted the entire sum of discourses which make up visuality, that cultural construct, and makes visuality different from vision, the notion of unmediated visual experience.‖36 Therefore, vision refers to what the human eye is physiologically capable of seeing while visuality, as a social process, is ―vision socialized‖,37 or the ways in which ―what is seen and how it is seen are cultural constructed‖.38 In a more comprehensive way, visuality is also interpreted as

34 Duncum, Paul. ‗Visual Culture: Developments, Definitions, and Directions for Art Education‘, 2001, pp. 101–12.

35 Foster, Hal. ‗Preface‘, 1988, pp. ix–xiv.

36 Norman Bryson, ‗The Gaze in the Expanded Field‘, 1988, pp. 91–4. 37 Walker, John A. and Chaplin, Sarah. Visual Culture: An Introduction. 1997, p.22.

38 Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. 2001, p.

6. 25 ―how we see, how we are able, allowed, or made to see, and how we see this seeing and the unseeing therein‖.39 Besides, Mitchell offers another critical understanding of visuality as ―practices of seeing the world and especially the seeing of other people‖ and ―the social construction of vision and the visual construction of the social.‖40

These theoretical interpretations of visuality suggest that because visuality is embedded inhuman social and cultural practices, visual image is never innocent, but always displays and interprets the world in very particular ways; consequently, we can understand people‘s ways of seeing by examining the images represented in their artworks. This critical relationship between an artist‘s way of seeing and the intellectual world and the socio-cultural context of his/her time, guarantees the feasibility and validity of investigating modern Chinese intellectual history through a new perspective, that is, the study of visuality and its modern transformation in the late Qing period.

The second key area in the exploration of visuality is historical contextualization. To be sure, attaching importance to visuality is a product of the field of visual culture, and the emergence of visual culture is closely related to a new concept of history and society; modern society has been experiencing a

―cultural turn‖41 (also referred to as a ―pictorial turn‖42 or a ―visual turn‖43). An

39 Foster, Hal. ‗Preface‘ , 1988, pp. ix–xiv. 40 Mitchell, W.J.T. ‗Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture‘, 2002, pp. 86–101.

41 Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Social Change. 1990.

42 Mitchell, W. J. T. Picture Theory. 1994, p. 13. 26 early description of the historical characteristics of modern society comes from

Martin Heidegger. In ―The Age of the World Picture‖, he clarifies: ―[world picture] does not mean a picture of the world but the world conceived and grasped as a picture … the fact that the world becomes picture at all is what distinguishes the essence of the modern age‖. 44 Heidegger‘s insight was endorsed by his contemporaries. For instance, in illuminating the visual character of modern society, Guy Louis Debord put forward the term ―a society of the spectacle‖, 45 and Michel Foucault proposed the concept of a society of surveillance.46 From these early sources, one can see that from the outset visual culture was endowed with a profound interest in the history of social development, especially visual practices in different historical periods.

It is hence not surprising that there emerged a tendency for scholars to historicize the importance of the visual; as Gillian Rose describes, scholars have been ―tracing what they see as the increasing saturation of Western societies by visual images‖.47 As a result of this historicization, the visual discourses in the writings of famous Western thinkers—from Plato to Descartes, from Hegel to

Sartre, from Foucault to Habermas—have been extensively examined in the

43 Jay, Martin. ‗Cultural Relativism and the Visual Turn‘ in Journal of Visual Culture. Vol. 1. No. 3. (December 2002), pp. 267–78.

44 Heidegger, Martin. ‗The Age of the World Picture‘ in Lovitt, William (trans.) The Question Concerning

Technology, and Other Essays. 1977, p. 130. 45 Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit, 1977[1967].

46 Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. 1977.

47 Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies. 2001, p. 6. 27 context of the history of Western philosophy.48 In addition, original essays on vision and visuality in different historical periods, like Ancient Greece, the

Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth century, have been compiled.49 These historical examinations of visuality agree that the modern world is increasingly becoming a ―seen‖ phenomenon. Martin Jay coins the term

―ocularcentrism‖ to describe the apparent centrality of the visual to contemporary

Western life, 50 and Nicholas Mirzoeff suggests that the narrative of the increasing importance of the visual to contemporary Western societies is part of a wider analysis of the shift from premodernity to modernity, and from modernity to postmodernity.51

Because the academic study of visuality originated in the West, most research of it has continued to emanate from the West and concern the West. Accordingly, as is discussed subsequently in this chapter of the thesis, there have been very few studies on the history of Chinese visual theory or Chinese accounts of the visual, even though China has a splendid inheritance of visual images/imageries in both verbal and visual texts.

Research on Image in the Field of Visual Culture

48 Levin, D. M. (ed.) Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision. 1993.

49 Brennan, Teresa and Jay, Martin (eds.). Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight. 1996. 50 Jay, Martin. Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought. 1993.

51 Mirzoeff, Nicholas. ‗What is Visual Culture?‘ in Mirzoeff, Nicholas (ed.) The Visual Culture Reader.

1998, pp.3–13. 28

The question ―What is the nature of image?‖ has been a continuous concern in the field of visual culture. As a direct manifestation of visuality, image in visual or written texts is a concrete and accessible object of study. However, the essence of image itself remains an enigma, despite numerous interpretations from various perspectives. Here I will survey some main arguments.

First, the most popular understanding of image views it as a particular kind of sign created by humanity. According to W. J. T. Mitchell, the commonplace assertion of modern studies of images is that they must be understood as a kind of language, that is to say, ―instead of providing a transparent window on the world, images are now regarded as the sort of sign that presents a deceptive appearance of naturalness and transparence concealing an opaque, distorting, arbitrary mechanism of representation, a process of ideological mystification.‖52

This view defines image as a sign or an artifact, on which its creator inevitably leaves her/his ideological imprint. Thus, the interpretation of an image is by no means a simple and pure thing.

The second argument is that images ought to be regarded as a family.

Mitchell proposes a new understanding of image after a critical evaluation of the popular opinion, treating image as an active agent. He argues that image is not just an artifact passively endowed with cultural and ideological characteristics,

―but something like an actor on the historical stage … a history that parallels and

52 Mitchell, W. J. T. ―What is an Image?‖ 1984, pp. 503–37. 29 participates in the stories we tell ourselves about our own evolution from creatures ‗made in the image‘ of a creator to creatures who make themselves and their world in their own image.‖53 Consequently, he suggests that we should ground our theoretical understanding of image in social and cultural practices, as well as the history of human nature. Mitchell develops a taxonomy of the family of images, which includes graphic image, optical image, perceptual image, mental image, and verbal image. Carefully examining the characteristics of all these images, he claims that mental and verbal images are the illegitimate offspring of other proper images, because unlike real pictures or material, pictorial images, they ―seem to be images only in some doubtful, metaphoric sense‖ and ―don‘t seem to be exclusively visual‖.54 Though Mitchell suggests uncertainty by using the word ―seem‖ here, he succeeds in drawing attention to the visual character of images in the mind and images in language, which are exactly the focus of this thesis.

Third, the visual characteristics of mental and verbal images have been defended by scientific experiments and published research on visual studies. The question of ―Should one bring the mental and verbal image into the field of visual culture?‖ is a matter of some importance. An affirmative answer has been given from two aspects. On the one hand, scientific proof of the visual characteristics of mental images has come from long-running investigations. In

53 Mitchell, W. J. T. ―What is an Image?‖ 1984, pp. 503–37..

54 Ibid. 30 his Principles of Mental Imagery, the cognitive scientist Ronald A. Finke devotes a chapter entitled ―Visual Characteristics of Mental Images‖ to demonstrate these experiments, techniques, and findings. After measuring the visual field, visual acuity, oblique effect, color aftereffect, and other criteria for judging mental imagery, the scientists found ―the principle of perceptual equivalence‖ and concluded as follows:

Mental images have many visual characteristics in common with perceived

objects and events. They exhibit constraints on resolution that, in many respects,

correspond to those in visual perception. They can lead to changes in

visual-motor coordination that resemble those resulting when one adapts to

actual visual distortions. And they can provide visual contexts that influence

perception in much the same way as actual visual contexts.55

Offering a good rebuttal to Mitchell‘s view, this empirical study of mental image lays a solid foundation for regarding visual thinking and descriptive writing that involve visual image as visual practices; and it is legitimate to bring verbal imagery in literary texts into the field of visual culture.

On the other hand, in terms of practical application, there has been some research dealing with verbal imageries as the object of visual studies. For instance, in an essay entitled ―Refracting Classical Vision: Changing Cultures of

55 Finke, Ronald A. Principles of Mental Imagery. 1989. 31 Viewing‖, Simon Goldhill ―successfully challenges the conventional assumption that the privileging of ekphrasis, the picturing of set pieces from another medium such as poetry, defined virtually all of classical visual practice‖. 56 To demonstrate that the public presentation of the body of the hero in the Homeric poems is inevitably linked to ―the modality of the visual‖, Goldhill gives this excellent example:

In the Iliad, Helen, that warred-over object of desire, comes to the walls of

besieged Troy and is observed and wondered at by the assembled Trojan elders.

King Priam asks her to name particular Greeks whom she sees ranged against

the city, and the face that launched a thousand ships identifies the warriors she

has deserted. Priam‘s gaze distinguishes the leading princes of the Greek host:

the bodily form of excellence and the social status of prince—mutually

implicated categories—are visible signs, visible attributes, paraded for

recognition. This privileged scene of viewing (the teichosopia) establishes an

economics of display that is rehearsed throughout the epic: physical and social

worth is constructed in and by the gaze of others.57

It is clear that what the author refers to as ―the gaze of others‖ is chiefly

56 Brennan, Teresa and Jay, Martin, (eds.) Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight. 1996, p. 4. 57 Goldhill, Simon. ‗Refracting Classical Vision: Changing Cultures of Viewing‘ in Brennan, Teresa and

Jay, Martin (eds.) Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight. 1996, pp.

17–28. 32 manifested by the verbal imagery of the hero in the poems of Homer. Thus when

Goldhill regards ―writing about viewing‖ as ―a major contributing factor in the construction of the viewing subject,‖ 58 he has actually acknowledged image-making in literary texts as an important visual practice that should be studied in the field of visual culture.

Fourth, the meanings of an image come from three sites. Another interest in the study of image is the possible methods for interpreting images critically.

Gillian Rose offers fundamental and comprehensive knowledge of theoretical frameworks and practical analysis tools in her Visual Methodologies. She argues that there are three sites where the meanings of an image are made, that is, ―the site(s) of the production of an image, the site of the image itself, and the site(s) where it is seen by various audiences‖.59 Rose further points out that many of the theoretical disagreements about visual culture, visualities and visual objects can be understood as disputes over which of these sites is most important and why. Here, she shows that since there are different perspectives to interpret the meanings of images, taking this fact into consideration can contribute to a comprehensive understanding of visual image.

Finally, visual image can express our thoughts and feelings. According to modern cognitive theory—which holds that concepts are perceptual images by

58 Goldhill, Simon. ‗Refracting Classical Vision: Changing Cultures of Viewing‘ in Brennan, Teresa and Jay, Martin (eds.) Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight. 1996, pp.

17–28.

59 Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies. 2001, p. 16. 33 nature—the human mind can only think with the stuff of the senses, and visual imagery is a more appropriate medium of thinking than words. 60 Rudolf

Arnheim‘s theory of visual perception, based on experimental physiological and psychological knowledge, lays a foundation not only for the study of visual arts but also for a broader field of cognition research as well as the explanation of

Chinese images. Taking the inherent relationship between perception and thought into account, I would suggest that only from the perspective of human senses, particularly vision, can one comprehensively understand the subject‘strue motives behind an image as well as the visual representation of the subject‘s thoughts and feelings. This can be supported by the fact that Alexander G.

Baumgarten, who founded aesthetics as an independent discipline, stressed the dominant function of the eyes in the judgment of beauty and defined aesthetics as

―the science of perception‖.61 It is clear that in his mind, there is an intrinsic link between visual perception, visual image, and aesthetic judgment that inevitably involves human thoughts and feelings.

Research on Image in the Chinese Context

What does image mean in the Chinese context, especially in traditional Chinese culture? As a matter of fact, the Chinese character for ―image‖ is 象 xiang, which

60 Arnheim, Rudolf. Visual Thinking. 1969, pp. 232, 227, 1.

61 Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb. Reflection on Poetry. 1954, p.78. 34 had the original meaning of an elephant or the picture of an elephant. As the contemporary Chinese scholar Zhang Dainian clarifies, xiang was extended to mean image, figure, or symbol, and became an important concept in philosophy based on the Book of Changes.62 Accordingly, the first step to understanding

Chinese conceptions of ―image‖ is to examine the use of image in the Book of

Changes (周易 Zhouyi, or 易經 I Ching), which is generally recognized as the foremost of all classics and the origin of Great Tao (道 dao, or the Way, the general law of the universe) in China.

First, image is closely related to vision and visual practices. According to the

Tang scholar Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (574–648), the Book of Changes is essentially a book about image (fu yi zhe, xiang ye. 夫《易》者，象也).63 As there are numerous vivid images described in the explanatory texts accompanying its sixty-four hexagrams, much academic attention from fields such as philosophy, literature, poetics, and aesthetics has been drawn to the study of image. Although the word ―image‖ is employed many times in the book, its primary meaning is the visible forms/figures of the physical world, and the use of this term is often intimately associated with vision and human visual practices. For instance:

When in ancient times Lord Bao Xi ruled the world as sovereign, he looked

upward and observed the images in heaven and looked downward and

62 Zhang Dainian. Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. 2002, p.210.

63 See Wang Bi and Kong Yingda. (eds.) Zhouyi zhengyi 周易正義 (The Correct Interpretation of

Zhouyi). 2009, Preface. 35 observed the models that the earth provided. He observed the patterns on birds

and beasts and what things were suitable for the land. Nearby, adopting them

from his own person, and afar, adopting them from other things, he thereupon

made the eight trigrams in order to become thoroughly conversant with the

virtues inherent in the numinous and the bright and to classify the myriad

things in terms of their true, innate natures.64

The sages had the means to perceive the mysteries of the world and,

drawing comparisons to them with analogous things, made images out of

those things that seemed appropriate. This is why these are called ―images‖.65

What one sees of this is called the images. As these take physical shapes,

we may say that they are concrete things.66

The first narrative presented above was widely accepted by traditional

Chinese intellectuals as a sort of ―metanarrative‖ to explain the birth of hieroglyphics and Chinese civilization. Xu Shen 許慎 (?58–?147), for example, in The Explanation of Words and Characters, the earliest Chinese dictionary, describes the process of inventing Chinese characters using a similar plot, only changing the protagonist Lord Bao Xi into CangJie, a legendary official historian under the Yellow Emperor (huangdi 黃帝, c. 2697–2599 BC).67 Because without

64 The Classic of Changes. Translated by Lynn, Richard John. 1994, p. 77. 65 Ibid., p. 56.

66 Ibid., p. 65.

67 See Xu Shen 許慎. Shuo wen jie zi 說文解字 (The Explanation of Words and Characters). 1985, 36 exception human visual activities (e.g. looking upward, observing, looking downward, perceiving, and seeing) play a central role in these narratives, it is safe to say that the use of image in the Changes establishes something of a paradigm of the visual for later times. In other words, the ancient sages‘ visual practices laid the cornerstone for Chinese ways of seeing.

The philosophical and epistemological foundations for the formation of visual representation in ancient Chinese written texts are decisively laid by the following intellectual origins. For instance, Confucian scholars frequently referred to such concepts as ―looking upward and observing downward‖ (yuang guan fu cha 仰觀俯察), ―to create images by observation‖ (guan wu qü xiang 觀

物取象) and ―to convey meanings by creating images‖ (li xiang jin yi 立象盡意), all of which were derived from the Book of Changes. Taoists invoke concepts like ―to see Tao with the inner eye‖ (xuan lan 玄覽), ―to observe by keeping to stillness‖ (jing guan 靜觀), and ―to know Tao at a glance‖ (mu ji dao cun 目擊道

存); Buddhists havesimilar concepts like ―to see Tao by purifying the mind‖

(chenghuai guandao 澄懷觀道). All of these ideas, which were deeply embedded in traditional Chinese culture, strongly suggest that ancient thinkers preferred to use the faculty of sight 68 to observe the outer world and to use visual images to

pp.499–500.

68 Here I agree with Professor Colin McGinn‘s opinion concerning ―a more general notion of seeing‖. In his Mindsight, he claims that ―Visualizing is not the same kind of thing as seeing with one's external eyes, but it is rightly described as seeing—with one's mind's eye. Here I defend the view that seeing is a genus with two species—seeing with the body's eye and seeing with the mind's eye. The two species are fundamentally different, yet they are both genuine instances of a more general notion of seeing.‖ See 37 present thoughts. This explains why to this day so many Chinese words which have the meaning of ―view‖ or ―opinion‖ contain the characters 見 (jian, to see),

觀 (guan, to observe), or 看 (kan, to look)—for example, 主見(zhujian, views of one‘s own),意見(yijian, opinion or idea),高見(gaojian, sage advice),先見之明

(xianjian zhi ming, foresight),觀點(guandian, view, viewpoint or opinion), and 看

法(kanfa, opinion, advice, or view).

It is worth noting that in a similar way to their Oriental counterparts, Western thinkers also valued vision as a way of understanding the world during their early history. For instance, the word ―idea‖, as Chris Jenks indicates, derives from the

Greek verb meaning ―to see‖. This etymology reminds us that the way of thinking in early Western culture was guided by ―a visual paradigm‖ and that

―Looking, seeing and knowing have become perilously intertwined. Thus the manner in which we have come to understand the concept of an ‗idea‘ is deeply bound up with the issues of ‗appearance‘, of picture, and of image.‖69 Hence, the

―centrality of the eye‖ is not exclusive to Western culture, but shared by both

Western and Eastern thinkers, demonstrating that most human knowledge and thought is derived from dealing with the raw sensory material collected chiefly by the sense of sight.

Secondly, image was closely related to the Tao in ancient China. The concept that image is closely related to the Tao mainly springs from two classics, namely,

McGinn, Colin. Mindsight: Image, Dream, Meaning. 2004, p. 3.

69 Jenks, Chris. ‗The Centrality of the Eye in Western Culture: An Introduction‘ in Jenks, Chris (ed.)

Visual Culture. 1995, p. 1. 38 the Changes and the Laozi (also known as the Tao TeChing or the Book of Tao and Teh) Regarding the purpose of observing images, the Changes suggests that by adopting images and patterns of various things, Lord Bao Xi made the eight trigrams in order to become thoroughly conversant with the virtues inherent in the numinous and the bright and to classify the myriad things in terms of their true, innate natures. Such a statement is abstruse; Confucius (551–479 B.C.) more simply explains: ―As for the Changes, what does it do? The Changes deals with the way things start up and how matters reach completion, and represents the Dao that envelops the entire world. If one puts it like this, nothing can be said about it.‖70 Hence, the ancient sages‘ ultimate purpose in observing images was to illuminate the Tao hidden behind them. Here, image is obviously a medium by which the invisible Tao can be represented visibly and intuitively.

Similarly, Laozi (?571–?471 BC) argues that one can approach the invisible

Tao through observing visible images. In the Tao TeChing, the term ―大象

(daxiang, great image)‖ is used to refer to the Tao71 and the great image is invisible while images are perceivable.

He who holds the great image (Tao) attracts all the people to him.72

The great image seems formless.73

70 The Classic of Changes. Translated by Richard John Lynn. 1994, p. 63. 71 Zhang Dainian. Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. 2002, p. 213.

72 The Book of Tao and Teh. 2008, Chapter 35.

73 Ibid., Chapter 41. 39 Tao as a thing is vague and indefinite. Vague and indefinite, it presents

images; Indefinite and vague, it embodies substance.74

So vague as to defy any description, it is categorized as Nothingness, and

is called the shape without shape as well as the image without substance.75

The Hanfeizi explains the meaning of image in the Laozi as follows:

People have rarely seen a living elephant but have obtained the bones of dead

elephants. From the layout they have imagined the living creature; thus

whatsoever people imagine is called an ―elephant‖. Now even though the Way

cannot be acquired, heard or seen, the sages grasped the effects of its

appearance in order to make its form visible; thus it is said, ―the shape without

a shape as well as the image without substance.‖76

A clear awareness of the close relationship between image and the Tao encouraged later Chinese intellectuals to develop such a mode of visual cognition, that is, to know the profound meaning of something by observing its images and external manifestations. Here a well-known Chinese saying puts it best: ―When the first leaf falls from the Wutong tree, the whole world knows that autumn is

74 The Book of Tao and Teh. 2008, Chapter 21, 75 Ibid., Chapter 14.

76 Hanfeizi, Exegesis of theLaozi, as quoted in Zhang, Dainian. Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy.

2002, p. 213. 40 coming.‖ This unique mode of visual cognition explains why natural imagery is of great significance to classical Chinese poetry and traditional Chinese culture in general. In fact, taking Tao as a core concept and ultimate goal, traditional

Chinese culture and aesthetics constitute the fundamental contexts of Chinese visuality, and the most immediate and animated manifestation of Tao in one‘s daily life is nature that surrounds him. Thus image, as one important visual representation of Tao in traditional literati works, is mostly that of nature with intense moral significance and humanistic connotation. Moreover, a deep-rooted concept of ―the unity of heaven and mankind‖ (tian ren he yi 天人合一) also contributes to the Chinese intimate relation with nature and their unique way of seeing the world.

Thirdly, imagery in Chinese literary texts is usually interpreted as a rhetorical device. As previously recounted, both Chinese and Western scholars are inclined to interpret Chinese image in written texts from the angle of rhetoric. Among those interpretations, the theory of metaphor, as ―the most important figure‖ and

―a version of basic way of knowing‖ in the Western tradition,77 is probably the most influential. Sarah Allan, for instance, in her The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue holds that image is essentially the root metaphor of early Chinese philosophical thought.78 By examining the images implicit in some fundamental concepts from canonical texts, Allan gives an impressive explanation of certain

77 Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. 1997, p. 71.

78 Allan, Sarah. The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue. 1997, Preface. 41 early Chinese philosophical ideas and the relationship between Chinese language and thought.

Though this theory of metaphor can effectively interpret metaphysical meaning which is hidden behind verbal images, the terminological application of

―metaphor‖ in the traditional Chinese context is highly suspect. In fact, the

Western term of ―metaphor‖ and its validity in the cultural milieu of China have remained matters of ongoing dispute. Pauline Yu, for example, questions this conventional Western orientation, contending that ―Unlike Western metaphor,

Chinese poetic imagery does not allude to a realm that is fundamentally other from (sic) the concrete world or establish correspondences de novo between the sensible and the suprasensible. These correlations already existed, to be discovered by the poet, not manufactured.‖79 She draws the conclusion that

Chinese image is not metaphor at all, but a type of synecdoche or metonymy.

Besides the uncertainty surrounding cross-cultural validity, the frequent confusion about metaphor, symbol, analogy, metonymy, and synecdoche also contributes to the doubts about the interpretation of image within the framework of rhetoric. For instance, when examining the characteristics of Chinese language and thought, Joseph S. Wu asserts: ―It is to be noted that in the Chinese written language, abstract concepts like ‗the will,‘ Tao, and Jên are symbolized in a very concrete fashion, sometimes constructed in a metaphorical manner. A very notable way of using metaphor is to symbolize the abstract in terms of the

79 Yu, Pauline. The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition. 1987, p. 199. 42 concrete.‖80 In this statement, the notions of metaphor and symbol are so thoroughly and oddly mixed as to be indistinguishable. The same ambiguity exists among metaphor, synecdoche and metonymy, and even when one knows the theoretical distinctions, she/he still finds it difficult to tell which one or two rhetorical devices are applied in Chinese texts, especially when images simultaneously embody the characteristics of different tropes. For example, after applying Lacan‘s conceptualization of the differences between metaphor and metonymy to the analysis of the Yuan poet Ma Zhiyuan 馬致遠 (c. 1251–1321)‘s

Qiu Si (秋思 Autumn Thoughts), Gu Mingdong finally concludes: ―The images in this poem can be viewed as both metaphor and metonymy, symptom and desire, and serve the different poetic impulses: lyricism and narrative.‖81

Lastly, classical Chinese poetry is a neglected visual field for today‘s scholars. Painting is silent poetry, and poetry, painting that speaks. As a literary form distinct from prose, poetry possesses visual characteristics. On this point, the notable English critic and poet T. E. Hulme (1883–1917) claimed:

[Poetry] is not a counter language, but a visually [my emphasis] concrete

one….It always endeavours to arrest you, and to make you continuously see

[my emphasis] a physical thing, to prevent you gliding through an abstract

80 Wu, Joseph S. ‗Chinese Language and Chinese Thought‘ in Philosophy East and West. 1969, pp. 423–34.

81 Gu Mingdong. ChineseTheories of Reading and Writing: A Route to Hermeneutics and Open Poetics.

2005, p. 256. 43 process … Images in verse, are not merely decoration, but the very essence of

an intuitive language.82

James J.Y. Liu similarly stated: ―Naturally, we find numerous simple images in Chinese poetry, as in any other poetry, for it is the nature of poetic language to be concrete rather than abstract.‖83 As a matter of fact, Chinese poets did seek to create aesthetic impact through picturesque poetry in the vein of their model,

Tang poet Wang Wei 王維 (699–761).84This was such that the visual character of classical Chinese poetry inspired the American poet and critic Ezra Pound as he developed his ideas for imagism.85

1.4. Methodology and Significance of the Study

Historical Case Study

Visuality is manifested in concrete images in concrete verbal or visual texts that are created by specific individuals in a specific period of time. Thus any

82 Hulme, T. E. Speculations, pp. 134–135, as quoted in Kao, Yu-kung and Mei, Tsu-lin, ‗Syntax, Diction, and Imagery in T‘ang Poetry‘ in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 31 (1971), pp. 49–136. 83 Liu, James J. Y. The Art of Chinese Poetry. 1962, p. 104.

84 There is a popular literary anecdote in China that Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101), a great poet in the Song dynasty, once remarked that the aesthetic quality of Wang Wei‘s poems can be summed as ―the poems hold paintings within them‖. In observing his paintings, one can see that within painting there is poetry.

85See Xie, Ming. Ezra Pound and the Appropriation of Chinese Poetry: Cathay, Translation, and Imagism.

1999, pp. 3-13. 44 exploration of visuality is bound to involve case studies; the cases of the poet

Gong Zizhen, painter Ren Bonian, and travel writer Kang Youwei provide accessible and representative texts for my study. I have chosen these three figures because their lives coincided with the period under study (1800–1911), and more importantly, they were all among the most influential intellectual leaders of that time. Specifically, Gong is widely acknowledged as a pioneering modern thinker and poet in late Qing China; Ren is a great master of Shanghai School Painting, which plays a crucial role in the modern transformation of traditional Chinese painting and ―is unparalleled in the entire nineteenth century‖ 86; and as a prominent political thinker in the late Qing dynasty and the Hundred Days

Reform Movement of 1898, Kang is representative of ―the last generation of

Chinese scholar-officials‖.87 The well-known works of these men provide ideal vantage points for exploring the profound transformation of visuality in a time of great social and cultural change.

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis is ―a way to gather information about how other human beings

86 See Lee, Stella Yu. The Figure Paintings of Jen Po-Nien (1840–1896): The Emergence of a Popular

Style in Late Chinese Painting. 1981, p. 2. 87 Li Zehou 李澤厚. Zhongguo jindai sixiangshilun 中國近代思想史論 (Essays on the History of

Modern Chinese Thought). 1979, p. 93. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations of Chinese quotations in this dissertation are mine. 45 make sense of the world‖88 through words and pictures. This research project uses two main forms of textual analysis, namely interpretive and comparative historical analysis. Viewing culture as a narrative process in which particular cultural texts (i.e. a poem or a painting) consciously or unconsciously link themselves to larger stories at play in society, interpretive textual analysis seeks to reach beneath surface (denotative) meanings and examine more implicit

(connotative) social meanings. Since visuality essentially refers to the social construction of the visual and the visual construction of the social,89in this study special attention would be paid to the social and cultural world of imagery.

Meanwhile, comparative historical analysis helps place my study into a historical context and illuminates historical changes. To demonstrate the modern transformation of visuality in late Qing China, I compare various images that were created before and around that period of time. For example, the imagery of

―falling flowers‖ was very popular in traditional Chinese poetry. In Chapter 2, comparing a variety of verses relating to ―falling flowers‖ reveals crucial differences in the use of this imagery between the late Qing poet Gong Zizhen and his pre-modern predecessors.

The Methodology of Intellectual History

As my current project sheds new light on images in verbal and visual texts in the

88 Mckee, Alan. Textual Analysis: A Beginner’s Guide. 2003, p. 1.

89 Mitchell, W. J. T. ‗Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture‘, 2002, p. 100. 46 context of modern Chinese intellectual history, the methodology of intellectual history is helpful to reveal the underlying socio-cultural factors that determine the ways of seeing and demonstrate significant changes in modern Chinese intellectuals‘ perception and expression. Though there are various particular methods in the field of intellectual history, the discipline features an overarching concern for exploring human thoughts, that is, to understand concepts and texts in multiple contexts. Here the term ―context‖ can be political, intellectual, cultural or social. This common approach suggests that visuality, just like ideas, should not be viewed as an abstract proposition but a product of the culture, lives and historical context of a certain era. Therefore, an important task in the study of a specific historical visuality is to restore and reexamine its contexts through intellectual history. Moreover, a significant dimension of intellectual history is the life history of intellectuals; as Peter E. Gordon has pointed out, to study the biography of an intellectual—her childhood, her education, her travels, her friendships, personal idiosyncrasies, and so forth—is ―one means of understanding a thinker‘s thought ‗in context‘‖.90 Researching the intellectual biographies of the three protagonists of my case studies enables me to build bridges between individual and group and between intellectuals and society, thereby facilitating an appreciation of the general intellectual trend of the times in which they lived.

90 Gordon, Peter E. 2009. ―What is Intellectual History?‖ http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/documents/pgordon-whatisintellhist.pdf (Accessed 3 October,

2011). 47

Significance of the study

In short, the significance of my project can be understood from the following three aspects: First, though Chinese modernity has been explored from various perspectives, such as modern literature, translation and translingual practice, gender study, colonialism, and changing narratives, little research has addressed the subject from the perspective of visuality in Chinese intellectuals‘ visual practices. This project makes an original contribution to the field by shedding light on the subtle changes in late Qing intellectuals‘ ways of seeing and their construction of visual experience in literary and artistic works. In this way, it will supplement our understanding of Chinese modernity and the shaping of modern

Chinese intellectuals. Second, delineating the changes in the social construction of the visual and the visual construction of the social, this study presents the characteristics and manifestations of the modern transformation of Chinese visuality. Furthermore, given the particular historical period when the collapsing

Qing Empire encountered the full brunt of the West and its modernity, my research will also uncover underlying socio-cultural conditions that impacted the development of Chinese modernity. Third, drawing attention to visual characteristics of Chinese images and taking those images back to their concrete historical and cultural contexts, my study will broaden the study of Chinese images to engage with visual culture and contribute to a bigger project of reconstructing a time-honored visual tradition in China.

48 Chapter 2

The Modern Viewing Subject and Gong Zizhen’s Poetic Practice

There is a mode of vital experience—experience of space and time, of the self

and others, of life‘s possibilities and perils—that is shared by men and women all

over the world today. I will call this body of experience ―modernity‖. To be

modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power,

joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world—and, at the same time,

that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we

are. … [Modernity] pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and

renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern

is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, ―all that is solid melts into air.‖

--- Marshall Berman, All that is Solid Melts into Air91

Poetry is essentially words rendering images, and it is in accordance with images

that these words are conceived. If we abandon the images and words in a poem,

there will be no poetry. If we change the images and words, there might be a

totally new poem, or another piece that cannot be viewed as poetry.

--- Qian Zhongshu 錢鐘書, Guan Zhui Bian (管錐編)92

91 Berman, Marshall. All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. 1982, p. 15.

92 Qian Zhongshu 錢鐘書, Guan Zhui Bian 管錐編 (Limited Views: Essays on Ideas and Letters). 1979, p. 12. 49

My starting point in this chapter is the concept that poetry is a form of literature with distinct visual effects. This concept is certainly not new, but is often overlooked. In the West, the idea—that painting is silent poetry and poetry, painting that speaks—was first posed by the ancient Greek poet Simonides of

Ceos (c. 556–468 BC) in his Moralia, and was echoed in Sir Philip Sidney

(1554–1586)‘s definition of poetry as a ―speaking picture‖.93 Interestingly, in

China the renowned Song poet Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101) held a similar view; in commenting on the Tang poet Wang Wei 王維 (699–759), Su asserted that there was poetry in Wang‘s painting, and painting in Wang‘s poetry.94 All these accounts, in the West and in China, highlight the visual characteristics of poetry, which the English critic and poet T. E. Hulme (1883–1917) explained more clearly. He claimed: ―[Poetry] is not a counter language, but a visually concrete one … It always endeavors to arrest you, and to make you continuously see a physical thing, to prevent you gliding through an abstract process … Images in verse, are not merely decoration, but the very essence of an intuitive language.‖95

In this vein, leading scholar in comparative literature James J.Y. Liu also

93 Sidney, Philip. ―The Defence of Poetry‖, in Duncan-Jones, Katherine (ed.) The Oxford Authors: Sir

Philip Sidney. 1989, p. 217. For the account on Simonides of Ceos, see Duncan-Jones, p. 374. 94 Su Shi once remarked of Wang Wei that―the quality of his poems can be summed as, the poems hold a painting within them. In observing his paintings you can see that within the painting there is poetry (味摩

詰之詩，詩中有畫；觀摩詰之畫，畫中有詩).‖See Lu Kanru 陸侃如 and Feng Yuanjun 馮沅君. Zhongguo shishi 中國詩史 (The History of Chinese Poetry). 1999, p. 353.

95 Hulme, T. E. Speculations, pp. 134–135, as quoted in Kao Yu-kung and Mei Tsu-lin. ‗Syntax, Diction, and Imagery in T‘ang Poetry‘ in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 31 (1971), pp. 49–136. 50 emphasizes the importance of images, especially those in classical Chinese poetry: ―Naturally, we find numerous simple images in Chinese poetry, as in any other poetry, for it is the nature of poetic language to be concrete rather than abstract.‖96

Given the visual characteristics and effects of images in poetry, we can infer that writing poetry, or reading poetry, is to a great extent a literary practice with visually imbued experience. This visual experience, I would suggest, constitutes one of the most important human modes of interacting with the world and the times, especially for visual and literary artists. Indeed, it was in relation to experiencing the world and the times that Charles Baudelaire coined the term

―modernity‖ in his essay ―The Painter of Modern Life‖. Baudelaire used the word to designate the fleeting, ephemeral quality of life in an urban metropolis, as well as the avant-garde art in the nineteenth century that aimed to capture it.97

In this sense, the significance of modernity for an individual lies largely in his/her own experience of the modern, including the visual experience obtained from art practice. Thus, Marshall Berman, who was quoted in one of the epigraphs to this chapter, argues that the exclusive experience of the people who have lived in the modern period constitutes the essence of modernity. Proposing a constructive understanding of modernity, Berman‘s theory may account for the fact that in recent decades, visual experience and relevant visual practices in late

96 Liu, James J. Y. The Art of Chinese Poetry. 1962, p. 104.

97 Baudelaire, Charles. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. 1995, p. 13. 51 imperial China have provided an insightful perspective for scholars in Chinese studies to investigate the nature of Chinese modernity. Through this perspective, they have traced hidden relationships between visual experience and Chinese modernity by studying a wide variety of art categories, from painting, illustrated newspapers, lithograph, to woodcut, porcelain, theatre, film and even furniture.98

All of these studies, however, have neglected visual experience and its representations in literary works like classical Chinese poetry—a form of literature that conventionally features the construction of visual imagery. To redress this oversight, this chapter is committed to exploring visuality and its modern transformation in late Qing poetry through a case study of Gong Zizhen

龔自珍 (1792–1841) and his poetic-visual practice. Furthermore, I take a fresh look at modern Chinese literature from this new perspective of visuality. My study shows that while modern Chinese poetry is generally viewed as having ruptured with literary tradition in both content and form after the literary revolution of 1917,99 it still shows some internal continuities.

The late Qing poet Gong Zizhen is significant for two main reasons. First, as an enlightenment thinker at a turning point in Chinese history and also a great

98 For example, Chow, Rey. Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary

Chinese Cinema. 1995; Clunas, Craig. Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China. 1997; Lu, Sheldon H. China, Transnational Visuality, Global Postmodernity. 2001; Pang, Laikwan. The Distorting Mirror:

Visual Modernity in China. 2007.

99 Michelle Yeh, for instance, asserts that the best word to describe the history of modern Chinese poetry would be ―revolution‖, as poetry underwent a ―radical, complete, and unprecedented‖ transformation in

Chinese literary history. See Yeh, Michelle. ‗Chapter 24: Modern Poetry‘ in Mair, Victor (ed.) The

Columbia History of Chinese Literature. 2001, p. 453. 52 poet as highly regarded as the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321),100 Gong

Zizhen was probably the most representative Chinese poet of his times. Second, given that Gong‘s works become much-imitated models for writing poems for later generations, his nontraditional construction of the visual through image-making contributed to an influential mode of visuality in modern Chinese literature. In this chapter, I would argue that compared with the traditional ways of seeing manifested in classical Chinese poetry, Gong‘s new mode of visuality in his poetic practice embodied a modern subjectivity. His works thereby invite us to examine the profound changes in the literary construction of the visual and rethink the modernization of Chinese poetry in the late Qing period.

To understand Gong Zizhen as a modern viewing subject, I begin this chapter with an elucidation of the modern subject and its defining characteristics.

Then, after introducing Gong Zizhen and his times, I engage in a close reading of his poems, paying special attention to the representation of his visual experience via imageries and four noticeable inclinations in his construction of the visual—self-reflective vision, revalued vision, rationalized vision, and self-determined vision. I also investigate the underlying characteristics of subjectivity that are displayed by Gong‘s four inclinations in terms of visuality.

Respectively, these are his idealist philosophy of the subject, independent personality, social criticism, and autonomy of action. Finally, I argue that

100 Chen Xulu 陳旭麓, Jindaishi sibian lu 近代史思辨錄 (Speculations on the Modern History of China).

1984, p. 197. 53 showing core features of modern subjectivity, Gong Zizhen was one of the first modern viewing subjects in late Qing China. Through all of this discussion, I will also shed light on how intellectuals‘ ways of seeing changed, and how these changes reshaped literary concepts and contributed to the rise of modern Chinese literature in the late Qing period.

2.1 The Emergence of the Modern Subject: Historical Conditions and

Features

The notion of the modern subject is bound up with the rise of the philosophy of subjectivity in Western Europe in the seventeenth century, which traces its origin to Renė Descartes (1596–1650).101The French mathematician and enlightenment philosopher is generally recognized as the father of modern philosophy and the initiator of the modern age,102 because he challenged the traditional system of understanding based on Aristotle, and laid the philosophical foundations of modernity with the discovery of the self through his ―Cogito Argument‖ (―I think, therefore I am‖, or ―cogito, ergo sum‖ in its Latin formulation). His Discourse on

Method includes the following passage, which Bertrand Russell claimed ―is the kernel of Descartes‘ theory of knowledge and contains what is most important in

101 Bykova, Marina. ‗The Philosophy of Subjectivity from Descartes to Hegel‘ in The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy. 2007, pp. 147–53. Schwyzer, Hubert. ‗Subjectivity in

Descartes and Kant‘ in The Philosophical Quarterly. 1997, pp. 342–57.

102 Audi, Robert. (ed.) The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. 1995, p. 193. 54 his philosophy‖:103

I wished to give myself entirely to the search after truth, I thought … to reject

as absolutely false everything as to which I could imagine the least ground of

doubt, in order to see if afterwards there remained anything in my belief that

was entirely certain. … I rejected as false all the reasons formerly accepted by

me as demonstrations. And … I resolved to assume that everything that ever

entered into my mind was no more true than the illusions of my dreams. But

immediately afterwards I noticed that whilst I thus wished to think all things

false, it was absolutely essential that the ‗I‘ who thought this should be

somewhat, and remarking that this truth ―I think therefore I am‖ was so certain

and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions brought forward by

the sceptics were incapable of shaking it, I came to the conclusion that I could

receive it without scruple as the first principle of the philosophy for which I

was seeking.104

This passage shows us how Descartes begins his philosophy with doubt: according to his reasoning, everything he formerly believed can be doubted, except the existence of a thinking self. In this way he finds ―the first step towards

103 Russell, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy. 1991, p. 550. 104 Descartes, Renė. Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and of Seeking for Truth in the Sciences. Part IV. http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/descarte.htm

(Accessed 3 January, 2013). 55 certainty‖ and ―the Archimedean point from which the whole structure will grow‖; that is, ―the discovery of the existence of the self‖.105 It is worth noting that this newly discovered self does not refer to the traditional subject of the pre-modern world, but the modern subject emerging in the Enlightenment that marks the beginning of the modern era. The crucial difference between these two is that the traditional subject defers to supra-self authorities lying outside of the individual self and claiming to be higher than it, such as God, the Bible, the

Church, or divine law; 106 while the modern subject is inner-directed and self-authenticating,107 preferring to trust the thinking self—his/her own reason and judgment—rather than any external or higher authority. In this sense, the pondering ―I‖ delineated by Descartes presents the essential feature of the modern subject.

Cartesian philosophy is commonly regarded as a momentous turning point in the history of western philosophy, marking a series of significant shifts. These included a shift in focus from metaphysics to epistemology, a shift from supra-self authorities to the autonomous thinking self, and a shift from a theocentric to an anthropocentric way of understanding the world. Underlying each of these shifts, however, was a more fundamental one: a shift from looking

105 Craig, Edward (ed.) The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005, p. 181.

106 Taji-Farouki, Suha. Beshara and Ibn 'Arabi: A Movement of Sufi Spirituality in the Modern World.

2010, p. 208. 107 Heythrop Institute for Religion, Ethics & Public Life. On the Way to Life: Contemporary Culture and

Theological Development as a Framework for Catholic Education, Catechesis and Formation. 2005, p.

16. 56 outward for meaning and substance to looking inward for truth. This essential change has been described by Charles Taylor as ―the massive subjective turn of modern culture, a new form of inwardness, in which we come to think of ourselves as beings with inner depths.‖108 This subjective turn in philosophy during the Enlightenment laid the intellectual foundations for the making of the modern subject and provided a socio-cultural environment favourable to its development.

Was there a similar subjective turn in the history of Chinese philosophy?

According to Chinese scholar Fu Xiaofan 傅小凡, the answer is yes; his research shows that Chinese philosophy underwent a subjective turn from ontology to epistemology in the late Ming period (from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century). According to Fu, the great Song philosopher Zhu Xi

朱熹 (1130–1200) had built the most comprehensive and sophisticated ontology in the history of Chinese philosophy, and his Neo-Confucianism had been revered as the orthodox creed and the state ideology by imperial governments; however, his Learning of Principle (lixue 理學) lost its appeal to intellectuals during the late Ming Dynasty and its preeminent position was substituted by the

Learning of the Mind (xinxue 心學) promoted by another Neo-Confucian philosopher, Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529). Fu expands our understanding of this philosophical change:

108 Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. 1991, p.26. 57 The philosophy in the late Ming period completed a significant shift from

ontology to epistemology. As a result, the main focus of Chinese philosophy

was changed from being concerned with certain objective entities to pondering

the subject‘s mind and heart; the dominant mode of thinking was changed from

adapting the subject to the object to converting the object to work with the

subject. At that time there appeared the theory of free will and the theory of

emotionalism, which went against fatalism and aimed to break the chain of

conventional ethical codes. This shift can be called ―the subjective turn in

Chinese philosophy‖.109

Although the Learning of the Mind was founded by the Southern Song philosopher Lu Jiuyuan 陸九淵 (1139–1193), the subjective turn in Chinese philosophy took place neither in his time, nor in the Yuan dynasty and nor even in the early Ming period, because the social, historical, and intellectual conditions were not yet ripe for the popularization of subjective philosophy. Fu argues that as the commodity economy was more developed in the late Ming period and human self-awareness increased to an unprecedented extent, emancipating the mind from the stale intellectual atmosphere and enhancing the status of the subject in philosophy became more urgent.110 In that case, the

Learning of the Mind, as a concrete manifestation of the subjective philosophy,

109 Fu Xiaofan 傅小凡, Song Ming daoxue xinlun 宋明道學新論 (A New Theory of Philosophy during the Song and Ming Dynasties). 2005, Introduction.

110 Ibid., p. 152. 58 became prevalent. Besides those reasons, its prevalence owes a great deal to a pivotal figure Wang Yangming, who succeeded to Lu Jiuyuan‘s philosophy and transformed Zhu Xi‘s core concept of ―Principle‖,111 an objective entity, into a subjective one by demonstrating that ―The Mind is exactly Principle‖.112

For Wang, the reason why Principle can be recognized in everything on earth is that it never exists outside of the human mind. Therefore, he claims that the essence of the Mind is Heavenly Principle and there is only one Heavenly

Principle in the world; where there is good will, there is Heavenly Principle.113

In such an artful way, Wang Yangming in effect replaces Zhu Xi‘s ontological category of ―Principle‖, which denotes the objective laws of nature, with his own central concept of ―the Mind‖, which is an unambiguously subjective one with positive moral connotations. Taking this understanding of the Mind as the starting point for his philosophy, Wang develops a theory of conscience (liangzhi

良知) that attaches great importance to the subject‘s moral consciousness and self-discipline in the practice of Confucian self-cultivation. According to the

Chinese scholar Fu Xiaofan, as the theory of conscience emphasizes the principal position and initiative of the subject in moral practice, it is a clear manifestation

111 In Zhu Xi‘s writings, the concepts of ―Principle‖ (li 理) and ―Heavenly Principle‖ (tianli 天理) usually share the same meaning. See Shi Shaobo 史少博, Zhu Xi yixue yu lixue guanxi tanze 朱熹易學與理學關

係探賾 (A Study of the Relationship between Zhu Xi‘s Yijing Studies and his Neo-Confucianism). 2006, p. 27. 112 Wang Yangming 王陽明. Wang Yangming quanji 王陽明全集 (The Complete Works of Wang

Yangming). 1992, p. 2.

113 Ibid., pp. 2, 158. 59 of Wang Yangming‘s philosophy of subjectivity in the field of ethics.114 In practice, I would suggest, the fact that Wang Yangming had started a shift in

Chinese philosophy to the subject and its experiences and emotions is also evident in his profound and lasting influence on later generations of thinkers, including Wang Gen 王艮 (1483–1541), Li Zhi 李贄 (1527–1602), Tang

Xianzu 湯顯祖 (1550–1616), Yuan Hongdao 袁宏道 (1568–1610), and

Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610–1695), whose humanistic ideas and theories established a major intellectual trend in the late Ming and early Qing periods, which gave rise to the early Chinese Enlightenment.115

There is no question that the thought of Descartes and Wang Yangming signalled the beginning of the subjective turn in their own philosophical traditions, and provided the intellectual preconditions for the emergence of the modern subject. This, however, does not entail that the people who lived in the modern age were modern subjects. Even in the post-Cartesian era—more precisely, in the year 1784—Immanuel Kant insisted on the necessity of further advancing the project of Enlightenment and continuing to promote human progress. He called on people to work their way out of immaturity by exclaiming

114 Fu Xiaofan 傅小凡, Song Ming daoxue xinlun 宋明道學新論, pp. 216–17.

115 For the early Chinese Enlightenment, see Xiao Jianfu 蕭箑父 and Xu Sumin 許蘇民. Ming Qing qimeng xueshu liubian 明清啟蒙學術流變(The Evolution of Enlightenment Scholarship of the Ming and

Qing Dynasties). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2013. For Wang Yangming‘s influence on the early Chinese

Enlightenment, see Liu Huiping 劉輝平. ‗Wang Yangming xinxue yu Ming Qing zhiji zaoqi qimeng sichao 王陽明心學與明清之際早期啟蒙思潮(Wang Yangming‘s xinxue and the Trend of Early

Enlightenment Thought in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties)‘ in Zhongzhou xuekan 中州學刊

(Academic Journal of Zhongzhou), 1994, No. 2, pp. 70-74. 60 that ―Dare to know! (Sapere aude) ‗Have the courage to use your own understanding,‘ is therefore the motto of the enlightenment‖.116 In this sense, the modern subject implies the enlightened subject; being a modern subject involves a process of struggle for enlightenment, through which one can genuinely develop his/her modern subjectivity. It is this modern subjectivity that defines one‘s modern identity. Kant‘s call for the courage to use your own reason therefore reveals an important attribute of modern subjectivity.

An account of modern subjectivity that is more comprehensive and instructive for the purpose of this dissertation comes from Jürgen Habermas. In

The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Habermas critically examines the concept of modernity and its history in Western philosophy. He argues that Hegel was the first philosopher to develop a clear concept of modernity and also the first to raise the problem of modernity‘s self-reassurance as a fundamental philosophical problem. Therefore, in order to have a full understanding of the term ―modernity‖ and to assess popular contemporary theories of post-modernity,

Habermas asserts: ―we have to go back to‖ Hegel and ―have to get clear on the

Hegelian concept of modernity‖.117 Habermas is concerned to understand the keyword of ―subjectivity‖ in Hegel‘s philosophy:

Hegel sees the modern age as marked universally by a structure of

116 Kant, Immanuel. What is Enlightenment? See:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html (Accessed 13January, 2013).

117 See Habermas, Jürgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. 1987, p. 4. 61 self-relation that he calls subjectivity: ―The principle of the modern world is

freedom of subjectivity, the principle that all the essential factors present in

the intellectual whole are now coming into their right in the course of their

development.‖ When Hegel delineates the physiognomy of the new age (or of

the modern world), he elucidates ―subjectivity‖ by means of ―freedom‖ and

―reflection‖: ―The greatness of our time rests in the fact that freedom, the

peculiar possession of mind whereby it is at home with itself in itself, is

recognized.‖ In this context, the term ―subjectivity‖ carries primarily four

connotations: (a) individualism: in the modern world, singularity

particularized without limit can make good its pretension; (b) the right to

criticism: the principle of the modern world requires that what anyone is to

recognize shall reveal itself to him as something entitled to recognition; (c)

autonomy of action: our responsibility for what we do is a characteristic of

modern times; (d) finally, idealistic philosophy itself: Hegel considers it the

work of modern times that philosophy grasps the self-conscious (or

self-knowing) Idea.118

While it is in the specific context of Hegel‘s philosophy that Habermas interprets the term ―subjectivity‖, his interpretation can be surely viewed as a general characterization of modern subjectivity due to the fact that Hegel‘s philosophical discourse of ―modernity‖ concerns the general modern world and humans in its

118 Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, pp. 16–17. 62 own right. Considering this point, we can see that Habermas‘s account of the connotations of subjectivity not only presents four defining characteristics of the modern subject, but also offers us four criteria for judging whether or not a person is a modern subject.

Leo Ou-fan Lee‘s analysis of the May Fourth intellectuals is a case in point, which confirms the May Fourth generation of writers as modern subjects who had one of these four defining features—―individualism‖. In his essay ―Romantic

Individualism in Modern Chinese Literature‖, Lee argues that individualism was promoted by many May Fourth intellectuals.119 According to him, geren zhuyi 個

人主義 (individualism), a very popular word in the literature of that time, was frequently used by the May Fourth generation of authors as grounds for abolishing blind faith and rejecting tradition. As individualism had not developed into a highly sophisticated theoretical system in terms of politics and philosophy by the May Fourth era, Lee further points out, it is best understood as a mentality common among intellectuals of that time who valued the self and broke decisively with tradition. The rise of this individualistic mentality reflected a fierce confrontation between the self and society, which was revealed in the literary works of many brilliant writers, such as Guo Moruo 郭沫若 (1892–

1978), Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897–1931), Zhou Zuoren 周作人 (1885–1967), and Yu Dafu 郁達夫 (1896–1945). Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881–1936) was the most

119 Lee, Leo Ou-fan. ‗Romantic Individualism in Modern Chinese Literature: Some General Explanations‘ in Munro, Donald (ed.) Individualism and Holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values. 1985, pp.

239–55. 63 representative of these. In his novels, especially those written between 1918 and

1925, we frequently meet an individualistic character—a lonely hero—who devoted himself to the salvation of his people but in the end was abandoned and even sent to the guillotine by the ignorant masses that he had been endeavouring to enlighten.120 This tragic figure, Lee suggests, reflects the author Lu Xun‘s own experience and thoughts on life and society.

As Lee‘s research shows, the May Fourth writers can legitimately be viewed as a group of modern subjects bursting upon the intellectual scene in China. This, however, does not necessarily mean that those writers constituted the first wave of modern subjects in Chinese history. For one thing, it is problematic to take the

May Fourth Movement of 1919 as the genesis of Chinese modernity, although it has conventionally been regarded as a crucial historical juncture in the division between the traditional and the modern in Chinese literature. Indeed, an alternative account of the beginning of Chinese literary and cultural modernity is presented by David Der-Wei Wang in his study of late Qing fiction.

Calling into question the dominant May Fourth vision of the modern, Wang argues for the plurality of Chinese modernity by revealing the ―repressed modernities‖ of late Qing fiction, which were marginalized and suppressed by

May Fourth writers. According to him, late Qing writers experimented with diverse genres, styles, and themes in their literary practices. This was to the

120 For example, the character Xia Yu 夏瑜 in Lu Xun‘s novel ―Medicine‖ is such a lonely hero. See Lu

Xun 魯迅. Lu Xun quanji 魯迅全集(The Complete Works of Lu Xun), Volume 1. 1973, pp. 298-310. 64 extent that they turned late Qing fiction into a primary source of new concepts for modern intellectuals of the twentieth century, including political ideas, codes of conduct, emotional expressions, and views of knowledge. Through his close analysis of four genres of late Qing novels—namely, the courtesan novel, chivalric and courtroom fiction, exposés, and science fantasy—Wang elaborates these four representative modern discourses respectively: desire, justice, value, and truth/knowledge. These discourses in late Qing novels, as he suggests, move beyond those of enlightenment, rationality, and revolution established in the May

Fourth paradigm, and prove that about seventy years before 1919 there had already been many different visions of the modern and various approaches to

Chinese literary modernization. In view of this, he argues that rather than being a

―prelude‖ to the May Fourth era, the late Qing period was ―a crucial moment in which many incipient modernities competed for fulfillment‖.121

For my current research, the significance of Wang‘s study of late Qing modernity lies in these two points: first, he locates the Chinese modern in the late

Qing period, and this new-found modern age enables us to find the modern subject before the May Fourth era. Second, the multiplicity of the modern in late

Qing China not only reflects different models of modernity that coexisted, interacted, and competed in that complex context, but also, more importantly implies that for the individual or the subject of that time, there were numerous

121 Wang, David Der-Wei. Fin-de-Siecle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction,

1849–1911. 1997, p. 21. 65 possible ways of experiencing, imagining, and representing the Chinese modern.

To acknowledge the multiplicity of Chinese modernity in late Qing fiction is to accept that different writers perceived life and imagined history in different ways and in self-determined ways. This suggests that in late Qing literary practices, intellectuals manifested some degree of ―freedom of subjectivity‖—what Hegel calls ―the principle of the modern world‖. In this light, we can see that the construction of Chinese modernity was simultaneously accompanied by the construction of the modern subject. Thus, Wang‘s exposition of late Qing literary modernity is also a vivid presentation of late Qing writers‘ modern subjectivities.

Of course, the full development of modern subjectivity in the late Qing implies the probable existence of the modern subject at that time.

Both Leo Ou-fan Lee and David-Wei Wang choose to explore Chinese modernity through the novel. However, in view of the fact that poetry has a much longer history while ―the novel was a modern upstart‖,122 uncovering some signs of the modern in classical Chinese poetry may have particularly profound significance for the understanding of the transformation of tradition and the emergence of Chinese modernity. Having reviewed the origins of the modern subject and late Qing modernity, I now focus on Gong Zizhen and his poetry to unfold the modern subjectivity in his literary-visual practice, and to highlight the crucial role that the modern transformation of ways of seeing played in shaping modern Chinese intellectuals and cultural modernity.

122 Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. 1997, p. 82. 66

2.2 Gong Zizhen and his Times

Gong Zizhen (Wade–Giles: Kung Tzu-chen), a native of Hangzhou, is generally recognized as a reform-minded enlightenment thinker and a leading poet whose works both foreshadowed and influenced the modernization movements of late

Qing China. Coming from an eminent family of scholars and officials, Gong showed precocious talent and received a thorough education in both intellectual and practical affairs. However, those talents did not bring him success in his unremitting efforts for high office through the imperial examination. After spending more than twenty years in the capital of the Qing dynasty, Beijing, without any achievement in his official career, Gong left there with a strong sense of loss, and returned to his home in 1839. To commemorate the

―homecoming‖ he wrote a set of 315 quatrains titled Jihai Zashi (己亥雜詩,

Miscellaneous Poems from 1839) in which ―he made a thorough review of his past career in the capital, the highlights in his intellectual life; the state of the nation on the eve of a major war, as well as his own state of mind as he was moving progressively from the past into the future‖.123 Only two years later,

Gong died while teaching in Danyang, Jiangsu province.

The late Qing period in which Gong lived was undoubtedly an age of crisis.

123 Lo, Irving Yucheng and Schultz, William. (eds.) Waiting for the Unicorn: Poems and Lyrics of China's

Last Dynasty, 1644–1911. 1990, pp. 259–60. 67 The dynasty‘s downward path was accelerated by the First Opium War of

1839–1842, which was closely followed by a series of dramatic disasters: the

Second Opium War of 1857–1860, Russia‘s occupation of Ili in 1871, Japan‘s takeover of Liuqiu in 1874, the Sino-French war of 1883–1885, the Japanese victory over China in 1894–1895, the Scramble for Concessions of 1898, and the

Boxer War of 1900. As John K. Fairbank shows us in The Cambridge History of

China:

In retrospect, China‘s nineteenth-century experience therefore became a stark

tragedy, an unforeseen [my emphasis] and certainly enormous decline and fall

almost without equal in history. This tragedy was the more bitter because it was

so gradual, inexorable, and complete. The old order fought a rearguard action,

giving ground slowly but always against greater odds, each disaster followed by

a greater, until one by one China‘s asserted superiority over foreigners, the

central power of the emperor at Peking, the reigning Confucian orthodoxy, and

the ruling elite of scholar-officials were each in turn undermined and

destroyed.124

The ―unforeseen‖ decline and fall of the Qing Dynasty was actually foreseen by

Gong Zizhen in one of his political essays written around 1816, Yibing Zhiji

124 Fairbank, John King. (ed.) The Cambridge History of China. Volume 10, Late Ch‘ing, 1800–1911,

Part I. 1978, p. 3. 68 Zhuyi Dijiu 乙丙之際箸議第九(The Ninth Political Comment Written in 1815 and 1816). In that essay, Gong concluded his penetrating analysis of various signs of disorder by saying that ―in view of the current state of society, one knows an age of chaos is coming soon‖.125 Furthermore, as an incisive observer of his time, he predicted that the greatest danger to the Qing Dynasty would be the serious problems arising from within, such as political decay and intellectual insularity, rather than those troubles coming from without, like foreign aggression. Consequently, the appeal for immediate social and political self-reform became one of the most important themes in Gong‘s works, which had great impact on later reform intellectuals like Kang Youwei 康有為

(1858–1927) and Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873–1929).

The intellectual scene in Gong‘s time was vibrant, even though the Qing dynasty is notorious for its rigid official ideological controls, such as the use of literary inquisitions. As Hao Chang points out, ―Confucianism, not to say the whole Chinese cultural tradition, was by no means a monolithic whole but a vast and complex intellectual world divided into competing schools of thought‖.126 In the late Qing period, for instance, there were lively intellectual debates between the schools of Han Learning and Song Learning, between the New Text School and the Ancient Text School, and even between the Cheng-Zhu School and the

125 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集 (A Complete Collection of Gong Zizhen‘s Works). 1975, p. 7.

126 Chang Hao. Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Intellectual Transition in China, 1890–1907. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 2. 69 Lu-Wang School of Neo-Confucianism.127 While obviously influenced by the

Han Learning School and Gong Yang School, Gong Zizhen‘s thinking was also shaped by the ongoing humanistic trend in literature and culture that had developed since the Ming dynasty. Defending freedom for the full expression of personality and justifying the pursuit of individuality, the exponents of this trend formed a long list which included Tang Yin 唐寅 (1470–1523), Xu Wei 徐渭

(1521–1593), Tang Xianzu, Yuan Hongdao, Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640–1715), and Cao Xueqin 曹雪芹 (1715?–1763). This tenacious humanistic undercurrent repressed by the orthodox creeds of the Ming and Qing courts endowed Gong with a core belief that good poetry was premised upon the poet‘s genuine emotion and personal experience. This belief, as demonstrated later in this chapter, is a key to understanding the manifestations of modern subjectivity in

Gong‘s literary-visual practice.

2.3 Ways of Seeing and Characteristics of Gong’s Subjectivity

Self-reflective Vision and the Idealist Philosophy of the Subject

The first way of seeing that I will investigate in this chapter is what I call Gong‘s

―self-reflective vision‖, which means ―to see oneself or to render self-images in

127 Chang Hao. Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Intellectual Transition in China, 1890–1907. Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 2. 70 one‘s own poems‖. In the 1930s, when giving his opinion on Gong‘s poetry,

Chinese scholar Zhu Jieqin 朱傑勤 (1913–1990) perceptively claimed that

―One can find the existence of ‗I‘ everywhere in Gong‘s poems due to his overpowering personality‖.128 For Zhu has not elaborated on the concept of the existence of ―I‖, I would like to suggest based on my own reading of Gong‘s poems that it may contain two related implications. One is that ―I‖ is just a

Chinese character ―wo‖ 我, which serves as the first-person pronoun. The other is that ―I‖ refers to ―self-image‖, namely, the image of the poet Gong Zizhen in his poetry. Although at first glance these two kinds of the existence of ―I‖ differ, they are the same in the last analysis: they are both essentially Gong‘s effort to delineate the central character in his poetry, namely, the peot himself.

Indeed, for a writer, the easiest and most direct way to render the image of himself or herself in literary texts is to use the first-person pronoun ―I‖. The frequency of using first-person pronouns, such as wo 我, wu 吾, yu 予, and yu 余, is surprisingly high in Gong Zizhen‘s poetry. Take his famous Jihai Zashi (己亥

雜詩 Miscellaneous Poems from 1839), for example: among this set of 315 quatrains, 63 poems (an average of one in every five) contain the character wo 我.

If we count other characters for the first-person pronoun, the proportion is much higher: 11 poems contain the character wu 吾, and in Gong‘s short commentaries for those poems, there are 49 characters yu 予 and 4 characters yu 余. Even

128 Quoted in Qian Zhonglian 錢仲聯. (ed.) Gong Zizhen wenxuan 龔自珍文選 (An Anthology of Essays by Gong Zizhen). 2001, p. 351. The original Chinese sentence is ―因定庵之詩，個性絕強，處處皆有‗我‘

在。‖ 71 considering the semi-autobiographical nature of his composition, one has to wonder at Gong‘s conscious and intensive representation of the subject in his poetry. Consider the following excerpts:

When the ancients invented the characters, ghosts cried in those evenings.

/ Since learning these characters, the descendants have had so many types of

sufferings. / I fear neither ghosts nor sufferings. / It is so late that the autumn

night dyes my lamp dark green, but I am still augmenting The Explanation of

Words and Characters. (古人制字鬼神泣，後人識字百憂集。我不畏鬼複不

憂，靈文夜補秋燈碧。129)

Dealing with one tow rope needs more than ten boat trackers. / Thus you

can figure out how many trackers are required considering one thousand boats

go north via this canal. / I used to eat the grain in the government granaries

which is transferred through the Grand Canal. / I can‘t help pouring out tears for

the suffering people tonight when hearing the labor chants outside my boat. 只

籌一纜十夫多，細算千艘渡此河。我亦曾穈太倉粟，夜聞邪許淚滂沱！

From wind and thunder comes a nation‘s vital force. / What a great pity

not to hear a neighing horse! / I urge the Lord of Heaven to brace up again. /

And send down talents of all kinds to Central Plain.130 九州生氣恃風雷，萬馬

129 Unless otherwise stated, all the Chinese in quotations is provided by the author of this thesis for reference only, similarly hereinafter.

130 Golden Treasury of Yuan, Ming, Qing Poetry. Translated and Versified by Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖.

1997, p. 339. 72 齊喑究可哀。我勸天公重抖擻，不拘一格降人才。

My old friend Lin Zexu was made the imperial envoy recently. / He is now

working hard to ban the opium trade in South China and has not achieved the

final success. / I wrote a valuable article on the strategies of fighting against

enemies. / It is a great pity that there is no way to send it to him. 故人橫海拜

將軍，側立南天未蕆勳。我有陰符三百字，蠟丸難寄惜雄文。

There are more than one hundred so-called poets in lower reaches of the

Yangtze River. / Who knows that Que Li is such a wonderful place for poetry

activities? / I stood close to the walls of Confucian‘s old house, / And

delightedly heard the music that performed on stringed and woodwind

instruments thousands years ago was still lingering today in the air. 江左吟壇

百輩狂，誰知闕裡是詞場？我從宅壁低徊聽，絲竹千秋尚繞梁。

Such intensive self-representation and such strong desire to express one‘s own emotions and feelings were rare in the history of classical Chinese poetry.

Most classical Chinese poetry was set to regulated lines and characters; for instance, the Jueju 絕句 was strictly limited to just four lines and each line consisted of only five or seven characters. Therefore, the greater the number of words used to describe the subject, the fewer the words left for the representation of other content, such as nature, which was a popular theme in ancient poets‘ literary-visual practices. In this context, the priority accorded to rendering the visual imagery of the subject in Gong‘s poetry indicates a notable transformation

73 from a traditional mode of seeing to a modern one—that is, from an inclination to guan wu 觀物 (observe external things) to an inclination to guan wo 觀我

(observe myself or the subject).

Here, I borrow the term guan wu from the account of eminent scholar Wang

Guowei 王國維 (1877–1927). When discussing the important Chinese aesthetic concept yi jing 意境 (artistic conception or state) in ci 詞, a popular genre of poetry among Chinese scholar-officials, he claimed that:

There is the personal state (yu-wo chih ching) and there is the impersonal state

(wu-wo chih ching). ―With tear-filled eyes I ask the flowers but they do not

speak. / Red petals swirl past the swing away‖, ―How can I bear it? Shut within

this lonely inn against the spring cold. / Slanting through the cuckoos‘ cries the

sun‘s rays at dusk.‖ These are examples of the personal state. ―I pluck

chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, / Far distant appear the southern

mountains‖, ―The cold waves rise smoothly, quietly / White birds glide softly

down.‖ These are examples of the impersonal state. In the personal state the

poet views objects [my emphasis] in terms of himself and so everything takes

on his own coloring. In the impersonal state the poet views objects [my

emphasis] in terms of objects and so one cannot tell what is the poet himself

and what is the object.131 有有我之境，有無我之境。“淚眼問花花不語，亂

131 Rickett, Adele Austin. Wang Kuo-wei’s Jen-Chien Tz’u-Hua: A Study in Chinese Literary Criticism.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1977, pp. 40–41. 74 紅飛過秋千去”，“可堪孤館閉春寒，杜鵑聲裡斜陽暮”，有我之境也。“采

菊東籬下，悠然見南山”，“寒波淡淡起，白鳥悠悠下”，無我之境也。有我

之境，以我觀物，故物皆著我之色彩。無我之境，以物觀物，故不知何者

為我，何者為物。（王國維《人間詞話》）

Strictly speaking, the translation of guan wu in the above quote is not accurate enough, for wu 物 referred in particular to external things rather than objects or beings in the cultural milieu of ancient China.132 So in order to avoid any ambiguity, I prefer to translate guan wu as ―to view or to observe external things‖ in this chapter. Nevertheless, by using the concept guan wu in the preceding passage, Wang Guowei reveals a traditional mode of seeing shared by most ancient poets. Springing from the time-honored concept of ―guan wu qu xiang 觀物取象‖ (observing external things in order to obtain their images) in

The Book of Changes, which I discussed in the introduction to this thesis, this traditional mode of seeing contributed to the fact that external things and their imageries occupy a central place in the literary-visual practices of the Chinese

132 Wu and xin (心 heart-mind, or shen 神, spirit) are a pair of related concepts that are categorically distinct in meaning in ancient China. For instance, The Book of Rites notes that ―One‘s xin is touched because of the impact of wu. Touched by wu, xin thus need to express itself through one‘s voice‖ (See Guo Shaoyu 郭紹虞 (ed.) Zhongguo lidai wenlunxuan 中國歷代文論選 (Anthology of Literary Theories in Ancient China). 1986, pp. 61); Zhuangzi instructs: ―Be in conformance with wu so that you can truly free your xin‖ (See Zhuangzi. 2007, p. 77.); The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons also describes the wonderful state of composing as ―shen hovers together with wu‖ (See Liu Xie 劉勰, Wenxin diaolong

文心雕龍 (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons). 1992, p. 326). If we think of xin (or shen) as something inside the subject, then wu can be logically understood as something outside the subject. 75 literati, and accounts for the abundance of vivid natural images in classical

Chinese poetry.

It is clear that Gong Zizhen‘s poetic practice presents us with a mode of seeing that differs from that of his predecessors, namely, ―guan wo 觀我‖, which pays more attention to observing the subject itself instead of external things. An important question that arises is why the subject is so highly valued by Gong. It is my considered opinion that Gong‘s effort to present self-images in poetry is essentially a reasoned response to his idealist philosophy of the subject and his thoughts on literature.

The following account of Gong Zizhen reflects his basic ideas on the subject

(wo 我, I):

The Heaven and the Earth have been created by man, by the general public, not

by sages. Sages are distinguished by their difference from the general public;

therefore they always exist with the latter. The true ruler of the general public is

neither Tao (道, the Way) nor Ji (極, the great ultimate), but the ―I (我)‖, whose

name is given by itself. The light of the I creates the Sun and the Moon; the

power of the I creates mountains and rivers; the change of the I creates various

animals, birds, and insects; the principle of the I creates characters and

languages; the Qi (氣, life energy) of the I creates the Heaven and the Earth; the

Heaven and the Earth of the I creates man again; the discernment of the I

76 creates ethics and disciplines.133 天地，人所造，眾人自造，非聖人所造。聖

人也者，與眾人對立，與眾人為無盡。眾人之宰，非道非極，自名曰“我”。

我光造日月，我力造山川，我變造毛羽肖翹，我理造文字言語，我氣造天

地，我天地又造人，我分別造倫紀。（《壬癸之際胎觀第一》）

There is no denying that the term ―I‖ in the above quoted passage does not refer to a concrete person: it is neither the author himself nor anyone else, but an ontological conception of ―I‖. According to Gong Zizhen, this ―I‖ has the following three key characteristics, which make this term resembles the absolute spirit in Hegel‘s philosophy, and is best understood as a metaphysical entity like the subject with self-consciousness or just self-consciousness:

First, since the ―I‖ creates the universe, it replaces the ontological concepts of ―Principle‖ (Li 理 ) and ―Qi‖ ( 氣 , life energy) in the philosophy of neo-Confucianism, and becomes the supreme category in Gong‘s idealist philosophy. From this point, one can see that Gong‘s philosophy of the subject conflicts with neo-Confucianism, which was the exclusive official philosophy of the Qing Empire;

Second, since the ―I‖ is the true ruler of the general public, it can only be recognized as a metaphysical entity that exists by itself and needs not be of any material substance. Given the first person it implies, the ―I‖ might be best understood as ―the subject with self-consciousness‖ or just pure

133 See Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, pp. 12–13. 77 ―self-consciousness‖;

Third, since the ―I‖ has diverse manifestations, such as the light, the power, the change, and the principle, and these manifestations also have their unlimited creations, it is logical to deduce that everything in the world stemming from the

―I‖ is essentially the embodiment or incarnation of self-consciousness. In this regard, Gong‘s viewpoint is in accordance with the assertion of modern

Romantic art that reality is a mere appearance due to the ―I‖.134

The concrete manifestation of Gong‘s idealist philosophy of the subject in literature is his theory of ―the unity of poet and poetry‖. Here is his account of it:

A poet becomes famous because of his wonderful poems, and a poem is more

likely to be well-known because of its famous poet. All e great poets, such as Li

Bai, Du Fu, Han Yu, Li He, and Li Shangyin of the Tang Dynasty; Su Shi and

Huang Tingjian of the Song Dynasty; Yuan Haowen of the Yuan Dynasty, and

Wu Weiye of our times, they and their poetry are one. You can never really

understand the poems without a good knowledge of the poets, and can never

have a good knowledge of the poets without a full understanding of their poems,

for the poems have blended perfectly with the personalities and dispositions of

the poets.135 人以詩名，詩尤以人名。唐大家若李、杜、韓及昌穀、玉谿；

及宋、元，眉山、涪陵、遺山，當代吳婁東，皆詩與人為一，人外無詩，

134 Habermas, Jürgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, p. 18.

135 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 241. 78 詩外無人，其面目也完。（《書湯海秋詩集後》）

From this quotation, one can see that Gong‘s view of literature highlights the interpenetration and mutual identification between the subject and its literary works. Based on such literary thought, the self-identity of the subject becomes a constant concern and an ―eternal theme‖ in Gong‘s writings. As a result, an emphatic representation of the subject achieved by rendering its visual imageries is a central task as well as a striking trait of Gong‘s literary-visual practice in poetry.

Revalued Vision and Independent Personality

Another noticeable feature of constructing the visual in Gong‘s poetry is

―revalued vision‖. In using the word ―revalued‖ here, I stress that in contrast to most ancient poets, who meticulously followed traditional values and classical expressions in their use of poetic images, Gong Zizhen abandons stereotyped representations and conventional meanings of popular images that are frequently used in classical poetry, and always communicates new connotations and modern values by looking at ordinary things from a fresh angle. In addition, the word

―revalued‖ implies that the construction of the visual in Gong‘s poetic practice was not just a common image-making process aiming to render the subject‘s thoughts and feelings as well as aesthetic sense like many ancient poets did

79 before; it was also a special practice of value-reassessment, which endowed clichéd imagees with fresh ideas, progressive concepts, and new values that mark the modern era.

For instance, the image of ―fallen flowers‖ and its artistic representations in

Gong‘s poetry demonstrate the characteristics of ―revalued vision‖. The motif is very popular in classical Chinese poetry, and the multitudinous poems that contain it contribute to a sentimental paradigm for the formulation of aesthetic and moral values, in which fallen flowers are frequently related to the passing of spring, or golden days that are gone forever. Therefore, in the traditional cultural context, fallen flowers always aroused feelings of gloominess and sadness. Here are some poems from different historical periods:

The peach and plum flowers east of the capital / Fly up and down and here

and there. Where will they fall? / The maiden in the capital loves rosy hue; /

She would sign for the flowers falling out of view. / Her rosy color fades when

flowers fall this year. / When flowers blow again, will she pretty appear? / I‘ve

seen cypress cut down as fuel with pine trees; / I‘ve heard the mulberry fields

turn into the seas. / We see no ancients now east of capital town, / But we still

see today the wind blow flowers down. / The flowers of this year look like

those of last year; / But next year the same people will not reappear …136 (Liu

Xiyi (c.651-680), Admonition on the Part of a White-haired Old Man) 洛陽城

136 300 Tang Poems. Translated by Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖. 2006, p. 345. 80 東桃李花，飛來飛去落誰家？洛陽女兒惜顏色，行逢落花長歎息。今年花

落顏色改，明年花開複誰在？已見松柏摧為薪，更聞桑田變成海。古人無

複洛城東，今人還對落花風。年年歲歲花相似，歲歲年年人不同。„„（劉

希夷《代悲白頭翁》）

This spring morning in bed I‘m lying, / Not to awake till birds are crying. /

After one night of wind and showers, / How many are the fallen flowers!137

(Meng Haoran (689-740), A Spring Morning) 春眠不覺曉，處處聞啼鳥。夜

來風雨聲，花落知多少。（孟浩然《春曉》）

Spring fades when petals on petals fly as they please; / It grieves me to see

dots on dots waft in the breeze. / Enjoy the blooms passing away before your

eyes; / Do not refuse to drown your grief in wine and sighs! …138 (Du Fu

(712-770), The Winding River. I) 一片花飛減卻春，風飄萬點正愁人。且看

欲盡花經眼，莫厭傷多酒入唇。„„（杜甫《曲江二首》其一）

In the mansion of Prince Qi, we were often with each other meeting. / On

several occasions before Lord Cui‘s hall, I heard you singing. / It‘s now the

beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. / I meet you again at the

time when flowers are fading.139 (Du Fu (712-770), Came Across Li Guinian in

the South of the Yangtze River) 岐王宅裡尋常見，崔九堂前幾度聞。正是江

南好風景，落花時節又逢君。（杜甫《江南逢李龜年》）

137 300 Tang Poems. Translated by Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖, p. 6. 138 Ibid. p. 357.

139 Tang Yihe 唐一鶴, Yingyi Tangshi san bai shou 英譯唐詩三百首（English Translations of 300 Tang

Poems）. 2005, pp. 153–54. 81 Beyond the blind, the rain rattles down, / spring moods fading away, / yet

the gauze coverlet can't keep off the fifth watch cold. / In dream I forget I'm a

stranger here, / clutching at happiness for a moment. // Don't lean on the railing

all alone, / before these endless rivers and mountains. / Times of parting are

easy to come by, times of meeting hard. / Flowing water, fallen blossoms—

spring has gone away now, / as far as heaven from the land of man.140 (Li Yu

(937-978), Ripples Sifting Sand) 簾外雨潺潺，春意闌珊。羅衾不耐五更寒。

夢裡不知身是客，一晌貪歡。獨自莫憑欄，無限江山，別時容易見時難。

流水落花春去也，天上人間。（李煜《浪淘沙》）

In the garden, from year to year, / When spring runs riot, green grass will

appear. / The ground covered with fallen blooms, / In mist and rain grass looms.

// Again we sing the farewell song, / At dusk in the Pavilion Long. / Gone is my

friend. / The grass still grows north, south, east, west without end.141 (Lin Bu

(967-1028), Rouged Lips) 金穀年年，亂生春色誰為主？余花落處，滿地和

煙雨。/又是離歌，一闕長亭暮。王孫去，萋萋無數，南北東西路。（林逋

《點絳唇》）

… Deeply I sigh for the fallen flowers in vain; / Vaguely I seem to know

the swallows come again. / In fragrant garden path alone I still remain.142 (Yan

140 Watson, Burton. (trs. and ed.) The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the

Thirteenth Century. 1984, p. 362. 141 Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖 and Xu Ming 許明. (trs.) Songci san bai shou jianshang 宋詞三百首鑒賞(300

Song Lyrics: An Annotated Edition with Commentaries). 2006, p. 8.

142 Ibid. p. 634. 82 Shu (991-1055), Silk-Washing Stream) „ 無可奈何花落去，似曾相識燕歸來。

小園香徑獨徘徊。（晏殊《浣溪沙》）

… The third moon now, the wind and rain are raging late; / At dusk I bar

the gate, / But I can‘t bar in spring. / My tearful eyes ask flowers, but they fail

to bring / An answer, I see red blooms fly over the swing.143 (Ouyang Xiu

(1007-1072), Butterflies in Love with Flowers) „ 雨橫風狂三月暮。門掩黃

昏，無計留春住。淚眼問花花不語，亂紅飛過秋千去。（歐陽修《蝶戀花》）

Awake from dreams, I find the locked tower high; / Sober from wine, I see

the curtain hanging low. / As last year spring grief seems to grow. / Amid the

falling blooms alone stand I; / In the fine rain a pair of swallows fly. / …144

(Yan Jidao (1038-1110), Riverside Daffodils) 夢後樓臺高鎖，酒醒簾幕低垂。

去年春恨卻來時。落花人獨立，微雨燕雙飛。„（晏幾道《臨江仙》）

As flowers fall and petals fly across the sky, / Who pities the reds that fade

and the scents that die? / … / I step through my portal, holding in hand a hoe. /

On fallen petals could I bear to come and go? / … / It‘s harder to find flowers

fallen than in bloom; / Before the steps their grave-digger is filled with gloom.

/ … / See spring depart and flowers wither by and by! / This is the time when

beauty must grow old and die. / One day when spring is gone and beauty dead,

alas! / Who will care for the fallen bloom and buried lass?145 (Cao Xueqin

143 Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖 and Xu Ming 許明. (trs.) Songci san bai shou jianshang 宋詞三百首鑒賞(300 Song Lyrics: An Annotated Edition with Commentaries). 2006, p. 340.

144 Ibid. pp. 344–45.

145 Golden Treasury of Yuan, Ming and Qing Poetry. Translated by Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖, pp. 300–307. 83 (c.1715-1763), Lin Daiyu’s Elegy on Flowers) 花謝花飛飛滿天，紅消香斷有

誰憐？„手把花鋤出繡簾，忍踏落花來複去。„花開易見落難尋，階前愁

殺葬花人。„試看春殘花漸落，便是紅顏老死時。一朝春盡紅顏老，花落

人亡兩不知！（曹雪芹《葬花吟》）

From the poems quoted above, one can see that in the Chinese literati tradition, poems on ―fallen blossoms‖ are generally written in a mournful or lamentable tone. The fallen, scattered petals easily evoke affection, compassion, and melancholy. In addition, many traditional poets were emotionally sensitive people, who were keenly aware of the indifference of society, the fleetingness of time, and the uncertainty of life, and were more prone to feel a deep sense of nostalgia or sink into a gloomy mood when seeing fallen blossoms. In this event, these poets were actually projecting their personal emotions and feelings onto fallen blossoms and endowing the objective things with certain sentimental values in their poems. As a result of this centuries-old poetic practice, the image of ―fallen blossoms‖ developed into a cultural symbol of mourning for the golden days gone forever.

Although numerous earlier poems had developed a nostalgic impression of fallen flowers, Gong Zizhen sang a different tune and created a fresh artistic style that featured grandeur, optimism, and ambition. This revolutionary subversion in the aesthetic and sentimental values of the conventional image of ―fallen flowers‖ was manifested chiefly in the poet‘s anti-traditional construction of the visual; in

84 other words, the visual experience and visual effects achieved via Gong‘s poetry made readers see ―fallen flowers‖ differently. To further demonstrate this revalued vision, we will examine a well-known poem named ―Ode to the Fallen

Blossoms of the Western Suburb‖.

For me, the fallen flowers of the western suburb are amazing, yet the ancients,

seeing such a scene, always wrote poems to grieve over the passing of spring. /

When the blossoms fade and there are few visitors to the western suburb, then I

come, drinking and appreciating the wonderful view. / Last time no one

perceived my excursion to greet the spring, and this time people laughed at my

saying farewell to the spring. / When I went out of town with several friends,

we were all shocked and enchanted by the breathtaking fallen blossoms. / Like

the surging Qiantang River tides, the fallen flowers were so powerful and

dynamic. / Like the defeated troops in the battle of Kunyang, the blossoms

blanketed over hill and dale. / We even wondered whether the vast expanse of

cochineal flowers was actually the rouge poured down from the Milky Way by

thousands of heavenly maids after they washed their rosy faces? / Both

extraordinary dragons and exceptional phoenixes like to lead a wandering life. /

So why did the carp of the immortal Qin Gao insist on going to the Heaven? /

Didn‘t he see that there was nobody in the palace of the Jade Emperor, and no

fairy maiden in the thirty-six layers of heaven? / The blossoms, like the worries

and sufferings in my life, were falling down one after another unceasingly. /

85 Among all the Buddhist books that I read, what I like best is the Vimalakirti

Sutra. / According to that sutra, the flowers strewn down by heavenly maids are

heaped up to four cuns 146 high in the Pure Land, and I used to appreciate this

brilliant view through meditation. / Alas, it is impossible to go to the Paradise of

the West, for I still have worldly desires and write poetry with such ornate

rhetoric. / How can I get the trees to bloom throughout the year so that I can

enjoy such beautiful fallen flowers for all 365 days? 147 (Gong Zizhen, Ode to

the Fallen Blossoms of the Western Suburb) 西郊落花天下奇，古人但賦傷春

詩。西郊車馬一朝盡，定庵先生沽酒來賞之。先生探春人不覺，先生送春

人又嗤。呼朋亦得三四子，出城失色神皆癡。如錢塘潮夜澎湃，如昆陽戰

晨披靡；如八萬四千天女洗臉罷，齊向此地傾胭脂。奇龍怪鳳愛漂泊，琴

高之鯉何反欲上天為。玉皇宮中空若洗，三十六界無一青蛾眉。又如先生

平生之憂患，恍惚怪誕百出無窮期。先生讀書盡三藏，最喜維摩卷裡多清

詞。又聞淨土落花深四寸，暝目觀賞尤神馳。西方淨國未可到，下筆綺語

何漓漓。安得樹有不盡之花更雨新好者，三百六十日長是落花時！

In this highly romantic poem, Gong abandons the conventional mood that features in the general representation of the image ―fallen flowers‖ in the history of Chinese literature. With his typical optimism and remarkable imagination,

Gong creates an unusually bright picture for his readers; one that is a refreshing

146 The cun 寸 is a traditional Chinese unit of length, and it measures 3.33333 cm.

147 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Xijiao luohua ge 西郊落花歌(Ode to the Fallen Blossoms of the Western

Suburb)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 488. 86 and magnificent, rather than depressed and gloomy, thus creating a revalued image of ―fallen flowers‖. The beginning of this poem is far beyond all expectations, as the adjective ―amazing‖ (qi 奇) immediately stimulates the reader‘s intense curiosity about the fallen blossoms and supplants the characteristically doleful tone of earlier poems grieving over faded flowers and the vanished spring. Then the next two sentences give a brief account of the poet‘s unusually-timed excursion and his unconventional motivation. These lines indicate that Gong Zizhen was an independent person with his own convictions and an uninhibited mind. Accompanied by several like-minded friends, Gong travelled out of town to enjoy the fallen blossoms of the western suburb. Before depicting that spectacular scenery, the poet deliberately portrays the group‘s first response with two vivid words: ―shocked‖ and ―enchanted‖. In such a brief but dramatic way, the reader is led to understand that a description of the beauty before Gong‘s eyes can be expected.

The ensuing succession of fantastic figures of speech constitute the climax of the poem, in which the poet lets his imagination soar and displays his talent for constructing visual images in poetry. Gong compares the astonishing momentum of the fallen blossoms to the surging Qiantang River rides; he associates the magnificent spectacle with grand battle scenes; he describes the visually brilliant red petals as the rouge of fairy maidens. In order to imbue fallen blossoms with positive qualities such as the spirit of freedom and the love of Mother Earth, the poet compares the petals flying in the wind to wandering dragons and phoenixes,

87 as well as goddesses that come down to earth. All these figurative expressions indicate that in Gong‘s mind, real talents, just like fallen flowers, tend to be hidden in the folk and seldom found in the imperial government.148 In this sense,

Gong is not only describing flowers but also portraying the images of the poet himself as well as those real talents that were not treasured by the ruling class.

This explains why he wishes for perpetual falling flowers at the end of this poem.

When Gong Zizhen was leaving Beijing with profound regret and sadness, he wrote of falling flowers once again:

My parting grief is boundless when the sun sinks low; / Eastward I point

my whip and far away I‘ll go. / The fallen blossoms are not an unfeeling thing; /

Though turned to mud, they‘d nurture flowers‘ growth next spring. 浩蕩離愁

白日斜，吟鞭東指即天涯。落紅不是無情物，化作春泥更護花。149

The image of ―fallen flowers‖ in this poem suggests that after more than twenty years‘ struggle in the capital without any achievement in his official career, Gong felt frustrated but did not despair. In fact, he remained optimistic and confident in his own and the nation‘s future, for at the end of the poem the poet decided to

148 In traditional Chinese literature, the image of a beauty was commonly used as a metaphor for a gentleman of virtue and great talents and sometimes a metaphor for the author himself. In view of this, we see that in this poem the use of the images of fairies and heavenly maids coming down to earth also reflects this tradition.

149 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Jihai zashi zhi 5 己亥雜詩之 5 (Miscellaneous Poems from 1839, no. 5)‘ in

Golden Treasury of Yuan, Ming, Qing Poetry. Translated and Versified by Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖, p. 337. 88 devote himself to cultivating new generations, just like the fallen blossoms nurturing flowers for the next spring.

The ―revalued vision‖ reflects a set of values that is different from that which is conventional and generally accepted. Holding this unique set of values requires an independent personality and intellectual convictions. Gong Zizhen was typical of such a man; the historical record shows that in his time Gong was regarded as a bizarre, singular man. According to Qing Shi Gao (清史稿, The

Draft History of the Qing), Gong was a man of scintillating talent, but his behavior rarely accorded with traditional institutions.150 Similar descriptions of this poet, mixing both positive and negative aspects, have been found in the writings of his contemporaries as follows:

Gong has a distinctive appearance with a broad forehead, protruding

cheeks, a wiry beard, and fiery eyes. When chatting with friends in high spirits,

he likes to pat his own wrist jauntily. He is very good at intoning poems in a

fine sonorous voice, which is as bright as the sound of knocking metal and

stone;

Whenever talking about social and political affairs with those who share

the same academic interests and political ambitions, his words and passions as

well as his insights are continuously poured out like a gushing spring or an

150 Zhao Erxun 趙爾巽. (ed.) 1927. Qing Shi Gao 清史稿 (The Draft History of the Qing). See

http://www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/qingshigao/qsgx_486.htm (Accessed 8 February, 2013) 89 unceasing wind, as if he is a mighty conquering hero;

Gong is slovenly, and for ten years he has invariably worn the same old

clothes and tattered shoes;

People as diverse as humble slaves, peddlers, lowly government clerks,

and scholar-officials all call him ―Nerd Gong‖. 151

These eccentric outward manifestations of Gong‘s independent personality masked his high level of self-consciousness and intellectual independence from conventional thinking. Gong‘s defiance of social conventions and the Confucian code of ethics were an open and natural rejection of hasty compromise with common customs or the views of authority figures; rather, Gong insisted on his own rational judgment and moral evaluation. In this connection, some researchers argue that Gong Zizhen was the first scholar of genuine intellectual independence in the Qing dynasty. He commented on social and political affairs according to his own thinking, and was highly regarded by later generations for it.152

Independence of personality and intellect made it possible for Gong Zizhen to see things in an unconventional way and discover new values in ordinary things. Since individualism denotes a belief or a doctrine holding that each

151 Zhang Zulian 張祖廉, ‗Ding‘an xiansheng nianpu waiji 定盦先生年譜外紀 (Postscript to the

Chronological Biography of Mr. Ding‘an)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 632.

152 Zhang Peiheng 章培恒 and Luo Yuming 駱玉明. (eds.) Zhongguo wenxueshi 中國文學史 (The

History of Chinese Literature). 1996, p. 520. 90 person should think an act independently rather than depending on others, 153

Gong can be regarded as embodying the core features of individualism. He was an individualist who valued independence and self-reliance while resisting external interference, such as tradition or popular opinions and behaviours.

Rationalized Vision and Social Criticism

In the process of image-making, Gong was inclined to take a concrete visual object, which was usually seen with his own eyes, as a metaphor or a vehicle for expressing profound thoughts. These images can not only be interpreted as the realistic depictions of the poet‘s own visual experiences but also as metaphors for something else. Generally, these metaphoric images were used in Gong‘s protest poems and topical satires. In this relatively equivocal way, he could present his opinions on contemporary social and political issues without bringing about unwanted political persecutions such as the literary inquisition. The following poem, for example, appears to simply describe a true picture of what Gong saw on the way home from Beijing in 1839.

Is anyone willing to take care of a tree until it grows tall? / All I saw were

mud pavilions and thatched cottages. / The young willows had grown for only

for three years, / before they were felled to serve as ridge poles and beams in

153 See Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 488. 91 houses for the younger generation. [Commentary: A scene by the roadside] 154

誰肯栽培木一章？黃泥亭子白茅堂。新蒲新柳三年大，便與兒孫作屋樑。[道

旁風景如此]

In traditional Chinese culture, ―ridge poles and beams‖ often served as a metaphor for ―the pillars of the state‖ or ―persons of great ability‖. Here the young willows that grow for only three years were not solid enough to be used as pillars of a house, but they still were cut down by unwise people. According to

Chinese scholar Liu Yisheng 劉逸生 (1917-2001), this poem is a harsh satire on the triennial imperial examination, through which the ruling class expected to find the pillars of the state.155 It is evident that through this poem Gong Zizhen wants to express his dissatisfaction with the short-sighted talent policies of the

Qing government.

Similarly, this dissatisfaction can also be seen in another poem on ―roadside view‖:

I saw a deserted wife was saying goodbye to her husband‘s younger sister.

/ She said: ―Your kindness has been so tremendous that I owe your family a

lifetime‘s work.‖ / Telling some tips of running a household, / And weeping

154 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Jihai zashi zhi 24 己亥雜詩之 24 (Miscellaneous Poems from 1839, no. 24)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 511.

155 Liu Yisheng 劉逸生.(Annot.) Gong Zizhen jihai zashi zhu 龔自珍己亥雜詩注(Notes on Gong

Zizhen‘s Miscellaneous Poems from 1839). 1980, p. 27. 92 again and again, she was unwilling to leave, even though her red skirt was wet

through with tears. [Commentary: There was a deserted wife crying at the

roadside, and I wrote this poem to record what I saw.] 156 棄婦丁甯囑小姑，姑

恩莫負百年劬。米鹽種種家常話，淚濕紅裙未絕裾。[有棄婦泣于路隅，因

書所見。]

As scholar Liu Yisheng points out, the deserted wife described in this poem can be viewed as a self-portrait of Gong Zizhen, a petty official himself deserted by the imperial government. 157 There is no doubt that the poet treats the miserable life of the deserted wife as a metaphor for his own experiences in pursuing an official career, especially considering the pun ―bainian qu 百年劬‖

(literally meaning ―hard work for one hundred years‖) connotes the fact that from

Gong‘s grandfather to himself, three generations of the family had served the

Qing government in Beijing over a span of about one hundred years.

In the third poem, we can see the poet used what he saw as metaphors again:

As for playing with mud balls, you have already considered it quite well,

and now it is my turn to give you some further thoughts. / My view, though it

sounds unpleasant, is worth discussing with you. / It might be hard to tell the

156 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Jihai zashi zhi 16 《己亥雜詩》之 16 (Miscellaneous Poems from 1839, no. 16)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 510.

157 Liu Yisheng 劉逸生. (Annot.) Gong Zizhen jihai zashi zhu 龔自珍己亥雜詩注(Notes on Gong

Zizhen‘s Miscellaneous Poems from 1839). 1980, p. 18. 93 principle, but easy to tell the situation and its tendency. / As for the present,

having piled up balls from the first one to the tenth one is the current precarious

situation. [Commentary: I saw a street entertainer at the roadside and wrote this

poem as a gift for him.] 158 卿籌爛熟我籌之，我有忠言質幻師：觀理自難觀

勢易，彈丸壘到十枚時。[道旁見鬻戲術者，因贈。]

It is clear that the expression ―the current precarious situation‖ is also a pun.

The poet is seemingly exchanging views with a street performer of conjuring tricks, but in effect he is implicitly speaking truth to power and warning the ruling class about the risks it faces. The subtext is that the current political situation of the Qing Dynasty, just like the tumbledown balls piled up too high, is extremely dangerous. In fact, as Gong Zizhen foresaw, at the end of 1839 when he went home from Beijing, the First Opium War broke out.

In these three poems on ―roadside view‖, Gong rationally used visual images of ordinary things as meaningful metaphors to render profound thoughts of deep social significance. This mode of constructing the visual in Gong‘s poetry is what

I call ―rationalized vision‖.

To a great extent, this ―rationalized vision‖ was a product of the Qing dynasty's high-handed policies and Gong‘s perseverance in political and social criticism. As the early enlightenment thinker in modern China,159 Gong Zizhen

158 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Jihai zashi zhi 19 己亥雜詩之 19 (Miscellaneous Poems from 1839, no. 19)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 510.

159 See Yuan Xingpei 袁行霈, (ed.) Zhongguo wenxueshi 中國文學史 (The History of Chinese 94 was renowned for his scathing criticism of social and political issues and calling for immediate reforms. The range of Gong‘s social criticism was quite wide. As

Jonathan D. Spence has noted: ―Not only did Gong attack official corruption, court rituals such as the kowtow, and the clichés of the state examination system, he also underlined the sense that China was currently in the lowest of the three epochs—the age of chaos—with his criticisms of the judicial system, the unequal distribution of wealth, foot-binding of women, opium smoking, and all trade with foreigners.‖160 Due to realistic security considerations, Gong Zizhen had to express his thoughts and feelings in a euphemistic and implicit way. Therefore,

Gong‘s poems seldom express his sharp opinions straightforwardly; instead,

Gong always heeds the artistic requirements and aesthetic qualities of poetry.

That is to say, Gong prefers to convey his emotions and thoughts to the reader through the aesthetic appreciation of poetic images, rather than direct comment.

Consequently, through the process of rationalization, political thought and artistic representation become perfectly integrated into Gong‘s metaphorical poetic images.

It is worth noting, however, that the metaphors in Gong‘s rationalized vision are distinctly different from many common metaphors used in classical Chinese poetry. As he declares in every commentary on the poems, the hues are things that the poet really saw with his own eyes, rather than fictive or imaginary. In

Literature). 2003, p. 478.

160 Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. 1991, p. 145. 95 contrast, in the earliest extant anthology of Chinese poems, The Book of Songs, one finds: ―Large rat, large rat, / Eat no more millet we grow! / Three years you have grown fat; / No care for us you show. / We‘ll leave you now, I swear, / for a happier land, / A happier land where / We may have a free hand. […]‖.161 Here, the large rat is a metaphor for the corrupt officials, and the happier land the metaphor for a Utopia of the laboring people. Both the rat and the land, however, are fictive. Another example comes from the late Tang poet Li Shangyin 李商隱

(812–858), a real master of metaphor. In his well-known To One Unnamed, the poet writes: ―It‘s difficult for us to meet and hard to part; / The east wind is too weak to revive flowers dead. / Spring silkworm till its death spins silk from love-sick heart; / A candle but when burned out has no tears to shed. […]‖162

Here both ―spring silkworm‖ and ―a candle‖ are metaphors for warm and touching love that will never change until death. They were probably imagined by the poet, for no evidence indicates that Li Shangyin really saw these two things when he wrote this beautiful love poem.

The modern significance of Gong‘s rationalized vision lies precisely in his strategy of sticking to his own visual experience. It was this strategy that made it possible to preserve his right to social criticism while avoiding political persecution from the Qing government. Thus this strategy should be regarded as a special response to modern experience, and Gong‘s commentaries on his

161 Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖. (trs.) Book of Poetry. 2009, p. 114.

162 Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖. (trs.) 300 Tang poems. 2006, p. 213. 96 ―roadside view‖ poems as the best application of this strategy. At first glance, these brief commentaries seem to be dispensable, but a further examination shows that they are actually an organic part of the whole poem: they function as disclaimers that Gong Zizhen is purely describing what he saw by the road and that there is no political implication or other deeper meaning. In such a serious but ironic way, he successfully ridiculed the Qing government while maintaining his right to criticism. This constituted another important aspect of Gong‘s modern subjectivity.

Self-determined Vision and an Autonomous Person

What I call ―self-determined vision‖ in Gong‘s poetry refers to an inclination to construct the visual of the authentic self in a way that is determined by the poet himself and unalterable by external factors such as political persecution or conventional opinion. Even though Gong had to use implicit image representations to convey his political viewpoints and social criticism in poetry, his political courage, intellectual insight, moral integrity, and sincere patriotism were obvious. Gong‘s self-determined vision was manifest in his perseverance in putting the concept of tong xin (童心, child-like heart-mind, child-like innocence) into his image-making and promoting the expression of genuine emotions and real feelings in poetry. Scholars have noted that while Gong seldom cites the theories of Ming dynasty scholars in his works, many of his key concepts are

97 essentially similar to those of Li Zhi 李贄 (1527–1602), a prominent early enlightenment thinker in the late Ming Dynasty.163 Similarities include the highlighting of the self, the defense of private interests, the praise of ―tong xin‖, and the argument that the flourishing and waning of ―talents‖ is a key sign of the rise and fall of society. Raising the concept of ―tong xin‖ in his influential A Book to Burn, Li Zhi stated that:

The child-like heart-mind is the genuine heart-mind (zhen xin 真心). If one

denies the child-like heart-mind, then he denies the genuine heart-mind. The

child-like heart-mind is free of all falsehood (jia 假) and entirely ―genuine‖

(zhen 真); it is the ―original heart-mind‖ (ben xin 本心) at the very beginning of

the first thought. To lose the child-like heart-mind is to lose the genuine

heart-mind. To lose the genuine heart-mind is to lose the genuine self. A person

who is not genuine will never regain that with which he began.164 夫童心者，

真心也。若以童心為不可，是以真心為不可也。夫童心者，絕假純真，最

初一念之本心也。若失卻童心，便失卻真心，失卻真心，便失卻真人。人

而非真，全不復有初矣。

About one hundred years later, this viewpoint of Li Zhi was echoed by Gong

163 Zhang Peiheng 章培恒 and Luo Yuming 駱玉明. (eds.) Zhongguo Wenxueshi 中國文學史 (The History of Chinese Literature). 1996, p. 522.

164 Li Zhi 李贄. ‗Fen shu 《焚書》(A Book to Burn)‘, as quoted in Lee, Pauline C. Li Zhi, Confucianism, and the Virtue of Desire. 2012, p. 49. 98 Zizhen in his poetry. Gong‘s poetic representation of tong xin is usually associated with his dreams. Is that a determined and intentional strategy, or just the poet‘s unconscious behavior? Considering the poet‘s deliberate juxtaposition of childhood and adulthood as well as the contrast of dreams and reality in the poems on the theme of tong xin, one can see that Gong Zizhen had expended much thought and effort on planning the structure and constructing the visual in order to stress his adherence to the authentic self. As a result of this self-determined vision, the poet‘s tong xin exists only in his dream world, rather than in reality, and in such an ironic way a bitter theme is exposed: hypocrisy and falsehood pervade the world of adults.

For a deeper understanding of the representation of tong xin, let us read the poem named ―Waking up from an Afternoon Nap, I Wrote This Poem with a

Sense of Loss‖.

It seems that I am neither pining for someone nor lost in Buddhist

meditation. / With tears trickling down my cheeks, I wake up from a dream. /

Discovering the flowers in the vase and the smell from the incense burner are

not those emerging in the dream, / I suddenly realize that subconsciously I have

been seeking my child-like heart-mind for twenty-six years. 165 不似懷人不似

禪，夢回清淚一潸然。瓶花帖妥爐香定，覓我童心廿六年。

165 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Wumeng chujue, changran shicheng 午夢初覺，悵然詩成 (Waking up from an

Afternoon Nap, I Wrote This Poem with a Sense of Loss)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔

自珍全集, p. 466. 99

This poem was written in 1823, when the poet was thirty-two and had spent more than ten years in the capital of the Qing Empire Beijing as a petty official without any achievement. There are a total of four sentences in this poem. The first two paint a vivid picture of the poet, who was just waking up from an afternoon nap and could not tell whether he was still in the dream or was awake in the real world. In order to best present this barely conscious state, here in the first sentence Gong Zizhen uses two negative phrases—―seem neither to‖ and

―nor to‖ (bu si 不似) in succession—to stress that he was indeed not sure about what he was seeing and experiencing. This mental state in turn proves how deeply the poet fell into the dream and how comfortable this dream was. Gong does not tell us what he dreamt about immediately; instead, in the second sentence he provides a self-portrait featuring tears on his face. This touching visual imagery conveys the clear message that something in the poet‘s dream must have been affecting and sentimental. By this time, a strong sense of curiosity makes readers keen to read what follows.

The third sentence indicates that the poet was gradually awakening. The recognition of the flowers in the vase and the smell from the incense burner signals that the poet is finally back to reality and has realized that the previous experience was a dream. In the last sentence Gong Zizhen reveals the theme of the dream: tong xin (child-like heart-mind), that is, the genuine innocence of young children and the original purity of human nature. Here the word ―seek‖

100 (mi 覓) implies that as his childhood went by, the poet lost his tong xin somehow.

The worldly life beclouded the authentic self as an adult, so it was necessary to retrieve it. Fortunately, however, Gong himself was well aware of this, and deep down inside, as the poet declares, he had been pursuing and trying to maintain the child-like heart-mind for twenty-six years. His involuntary dream about childhood is a clear manifestation of this subconscious and latent emotion.

In chronological order these four sentences paint a set of coherent pictures about waking up from a dream, and the poet makes these pictures come alive through his impressive construction of visual imageries. These visual images do not involve any specific scenes or moving events in the dream, such as an unforgettable experience of playing truant, or a faraway voice of a mother calling her son home, and the succinct representation of the waking moment still leaves much to the reader‘s imagination. Yet the poet‘s omission of the description of his dream is not a regrettable loss but rather a technique used to perfect this meaningful poem.

It should be noted that the specially close relationship between tong xin and dreams in Gong‘s poetry not only helps the poet to express his nostalgia for a child‘s innocence, but also appears in connection with his political aspirations and visions for the nation‘s future. The following poem is a case in point:

The disillusionment concerning the so-called golden career is as

depressing as my gray hair. / Comfortingly, I have not completely lost my

101 genuine child-like heart-mind yet. / (In my dream) I shout at the moon to rise

from the bottom of the orange curtain. / And the shadows of flowers are

spectacularly spreading over the inner city and surrounding areas like surging

tides. 166 黃金華髮兩飄蕭，六九童心尚為消。叱起海紅簾底月，四廂花影

怒於潮。

This poem was the second of four that Gong Zizhen penned straight after being inspired by a dream on the thirteenth night of the tenth lunar month in 1827.

Over the past eight years, the poet had taken the metropolitan examination five times in order to win a decent job in the government of the Qing dynasty, but all those efforts failed. This is why at the beginning of this poem the poet speaks of a difficult life in a gloomy tone. For a man under the age of forty, finding grey hair on the head was undoubtedly upsetting. If this was compounded by a failed career, one can imagine how depressed the poet must have been. But the second sentence indicates that Gong still has a source of pride and happiness, as he becomes aware that he has not entirely lost his most precious possession, his tong xin (child-like heart-mind). To Gong‘s mind, being authentic and sincere is the most fundamental element of human nature, whereas various social and cultural factors—including the orthodox creed of the ruling class, predominant

Neo-Confucian ethics, and numerous didactic literary works—restrict and distort

166 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Mengzhong zuo sijueju qi er 夢中作四截句其二(The Second of the Four

Poems Conceived in My Dreams)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 496. 102 human nature. Therefore, abandoning hypocrisy and advocating sincerity in daily interactions and political activities becomes a prominent motif in Gong Zizhen‘s poetry. It was also a lifetime dream, even though it could hardly be realized in the socio-cultural context of that time.

Since his anti-traditional views of authentic humanity and an ideal society could not be openly expressed in his daily life, Gong Zizhen had to find an alternative outlet for his emotions and feelings. Hence, the poet used dreams in his poetry to create a world that was virtual, but safe enough to let his daring ideas flow. Today, Gong‘s method gives us the opportunity to appreciate a brilliant visual representation of a fantasy wonderland in the poem quoted above.

In the last two sentences, colourful visual images as various as a rising bright moon, an orange curtain, a mass of blooming flowers, and their mottled shadows spreading over the downtown area and suburbs, comprise a breathtaking moonlight scene. To be sure, this is a description of Gong‘s fantastic dream, but it can also be read as a subconscious expression of his political and social ideals, especially given that the images of ―the moon‖ and ―flowers‖ are frequently used in Gong‘s poetry as metaphors for real talents. Thus, by means of this innocent and childish dream, the poet undauntedly voices his inner thought that all talented people should regain public respect and be assigned to important positions by the ruling class, like the bright moon rising up from a humble place to the foreground. In this sense, innocent dreams play a key role in Gong‘s poetry not only as a link between his real life and the ideal world, but also as the site of

103 the poet‘s romanticism, his spirit of freedom, and enlightened thought.

A further reason why the poet holds tong xin in high regard and usually associates it with dreams in his construction of visual images is unveiled in another poem.

When I was young, my emotions, whether sorrow or happiness, were

always much stronger than those of others. / When talking or writing, I often

couldn‘t help singing or weeping, as every word was genuinely from the bottom

of my heart. / After the age of thirty, I had to mix with bureaucrats pretending to

be stupid or knowing. / Ah, only in my dreams could I regain my child-like

heart-mind. 167 少年哀樂過於人，歌泣無端字字真。既壯周旋雜癡黠，童心

來複夢中身。

In this poem, Gong Zizhen draws a sharp contrast between the world of children and the world of adults, or between the innocent and the sophisticated, in order to express his affirmation of sincerity and his disgust at hypocrisy. To the extent that reality is full of falsity and pretence, the poet must turn to dreams to regain tong xin as well as the authentic self. It is necessary, however, to emphasize that Gong‘s strategy is not a passive escape from the ugly reality so much as a self-conscious perseverance in keeping his belief in the sincerity of

167 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Jihai zashi zhi 170 己亥雜詩之 170 (Miscellaneous Poems from 1839, no. 170)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 526. 104 human nature, even as he is besieged by the insincerity of the real world. As far as Gong‘s poetic practice is concerned, this perseverance is manifested as the poet‘s self-determined vision, namely, to see the world through the eyes of innocent children and to construct visual images that can express the most genuine emotions and thoughts.

For Gong, tong xin was not only a core belief about writing, but also one of the most fundamental principles of life. As a self-determined heretic and dissenter of his time, Gong never changed the way he conducted himself in society, despite well-meaning advice and constructive criticism from his friends, who were deeply worried that Gong‘s straightforward character and harsh political comments would result in severe punishments from the Qing government. For instance, a scholar of the Changzhou School, Zhuang Shoujia 莊

綬甲 (1774–1828), thought that Gong‘s series of political comments named ―My

Humble Comments Written between the Year Yihai and the Year Bingzi‖ (乙丙之

際箸議) were too scathing, so he sent Gong a letter urging him to revise the essays. However, disagreeing with Zhuang, Gong wrote back with a poem as follows:

It is said that when the taste of writing becomes bad, the poet‘s good

fortune of mediocrity is coming. / But I don‘t understand what on earth this

good fortune of mediocrity is. / My dear friend Zhuang of Changzhou was

concerned for me, / And advised me to drastically cut and revise my essays

105 written between the year yihai and the year bingzi. 168文格漸卑庸福近，不知庸

福究如何？常州莊四能憐我，勸我狂刪乙丙書。

Another unsuccessful admonition came from a venerable old scholar of that time, Wang Qisun 王芑孫 (1755–1817). In 1817, Gong sent his writings to Wang for advice, and Wang gave him some forthright criticism in a letter, saying: ―Your scathing analyses and caustic comments about current affairs and contemporary academia can be found everywhere. However, all these words are entirely unnecessary. … Sometimes, even the imperial government and court officials are involved in your bold criticisms. If you continue to pay little attention to your speech and writing and easily offend the authorities like this, how can you get on in the world without mishap?‖169

Such efforts turned out to be futile, and as his poems display, Gong adhered to his own principle of life—tong xin—unswervingly. This adherence exposes another notable character the poet cultivates: individual autonomy. In the history of Western philosophy, the term ―autonomy‖ originated from ancient Greek

αὐτονομία (autonomia) from αὐτόνομος (autonomos), which in turn was from

αὐτο-auto-―self‖ + νόμος -nomos-―law‖. Thus, ―autonomy‖ literally means ―the

168 Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, ‗Za shi, jimao zi chun cu xia, zai jingshi zuo, de shiyousi shou No. 2 雜詩，己

卯自春徂夏，在京師作，得十有四首其二 (14 Miscellaneous Poems Composed in Beijing at the End of

Spring and the Beginning of Summer 1819, No. 2)‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 441.

169 See Zhang Zulian 張祖廉, ‗Dingan xiansheng nianpu waiji 定庵先生年譜外記‘ in Gong Zizhen 龔自

珍, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集, p. 648. 106 having or making of one‘s own laws‖. Initially, autonomy was closely associated with a state or institution, referring to ―the right of self-government, of making its own laws and administering its own affairs‖.170 However, the field in which this term is usually used has experienced a significant change in the modern era, as

Claire E. Rasmussen notes:

In much modern political thought, especially liberal theory, the concept of

autonomy has shifted from being used to describe governance at a collective

level to being an individual characteristic that determines the parameters of

legitimate political authority. … Mill‘s declaration that ―man, over himself, over

his body, is sovereign‖ embodied the view that autonomy was to be found not in

external executors of power but in the subject itself as legislator.171

It is at this individual level that the term autonomy is applied in my study of

Gong Zizhen. Emily Gill offers a detailed elucidation of the features of the autonomous individual:

First, the individual must be free to act without compulsion or threat from

external forces. Second, the individual must be a ―rational free chooser‖,

undriven by mind-altering substances or irresistible urges that would colour his

170 The Oxford Dictionary. Second Edition. Volume I. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1989, p. 807.

171 Rasmussen, Claire E. The Autonomous Animal: Self-Governance and the Modern Subject. 2011, p. xi. 107 or her choices. Finally, the individual must prescribe for himself or herself the

law to be followed, rather than allowing his or her will to be determined by

customs, practices, or the will of other individuals.172

For a person, therefore, to have autonomy is to be able to make rational decisions and independent choices without any threat from external forces. In other words, self-determination can be viewed as the essence of individual autonomy as well as a crucial trait of the modern subject. The self-determination in Gong Zizhen‘s literary-visual practice thus suggests that he was an autonomous poet.

2.4 Conclusion

Visual experience is one of the most important ways for humans to experience the world and the times, and in different historical periods it is captured and recorded in those art and literary categories that involve vision, such as poetry, painting and film. According to Marshall Berman‘s theory of modernity, the exclusive experiences—including visual experiences—of the people who had lived and have been living in the modern era constitute the essence of modernity.

Therefore, a constructive method of enriching our understanding of the nature of

172 Gill, Emily. Becoming Free: Autonomy and Diversity in the Liberal Polity. Lawrence: University of

Kansas Press, 2001, p. 17, as quoted in Rasmussen, Claire E.. The Autonomous Animal, p. xi. 108 Chinese modernity is to investigate visual experience and its new features in various types of artworks produced in late imperial China, which was a critical period in the making of Chinese modernity. To this end, this chapter has focused on visuality and its modern transformation in the classical Chinese poetry of

Gong Zizhen.

In this chapter, I have developed the central idea that Gong Zizhen was one of the earliest modern viewing subjects who emerged in late Qing China. To support this point, I have demonstrated two crucial developments. One was the necessary historical conditions under which the emergence of the modern subject could appear in both the Western and Chinese cultural milieus; the other was the concrete manifestations of modern subjectivity in Gong‘s construction of the visual in his poetry. As for the former aspect, this chapter has shown that similar to Cartesian philosophy that provided the intellectual basis for the Enlightenment,

Wang Yangming‘s Learning of the Mind in the middle of Ming dynasty also heralded the beginning of a subjective turn in philosophy, which is viewed as a shift of philosophical concern from truth and the objective to meaning and the subjective. To a significant extent, this subjective turn emancipated the mind of scholar-officials from the dominant Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism and laid a solid intellectual foundation for the subsequent emergence of the modern subject. In addition, given that modern subjectivity essentially defines the modern subject, I particularly drew upon Habermas‘ clarification of the four connotations of Hegel‘s term ―subjectivity‖ and used these to judge whether or

109 not the late Qing poet Gong Zizhen was a modern subject. On the latter, I have identified manifestations of Gong‘s modern subjectivity by investigating the four representative inclinations he used to convey visual experience in poetry.

The first was ―reflective vision‖, which implies a significant change from observing and representing external things to observing and representing the subject itself in literature. To demonstrate this feature, I investigated a prominent phenomenon: that the first-person pronoun ―wo‖ 我 (I, me, my) and the self-image of the poet can be found frequently in Gong‘s poems. This ―reflective vision‖, as I pointed out, was a product of the poet‘s idealist philosophy of the subject, which held that reality is not the material but the spiritual and that it is the subject who gives meaning to the world. His philosophy indisputably bore the impress of the mind-philosophy (or the philosophy of subjective idealism) of the

Song and Ming dynasties. As a result, the crucial task for Gong was not to present the visual images of external objects in poetry but to render the subject‘s self-image as well as its emotions and feelings.

The second poetic inclination explored in this chapter was ―revalued vision‖, which liberates traditional imageries in poetry from conventional cultural meanings and renews these imageries with modern values. In this regard, the most persuasive evidence I presented was that compared with his predecessors,

Gong sang a distinctly different tune on ―fallen flowers‖, a very popular sentimental imagery in classical Chinese poetry, and endowed it with fresh modern values, such as confidence in the future and social progress. Further

110 analysis revealed the real reason why Gong could see what was invisible to others was his independent personality, which led him to embrace critical thinking and unique standpoints.

The third poetic inclination in Gong Zizhen‘s poetry is ―rationalized vision‖, which indicates a tendency to take a concrete visual object as a metaphor or a vehicle for expressing profound thoughts. Gong‘s ―roadside view‖ poems reflected this mode, tactfully voicing Gong Zizhen‘s criticism of politics and society in an implicative way. What I want to stress is that this ―rationalized vision‖ was the poet‘s way of safeguarding his right to social criticism as he was confronted with the severe political suppression of the Qing government. His self-conscious coping strategy and persistence of critical spirit reflected modern subjectivity.

The last of Gong Zizhen‘s poetic inclinations discussed in this chapter was

―self-determined vision‖, which constructed the visual in a manner determined by the poet himself, instead of by others or any external factors. To take one example, I investigated Gong‘s belief in keeping the concept of tong xin 童心

(child-like heart-mind; child-like innocence) and expressing genuine emotions, real feelings, and outspoken political opinions in poetry, even when he was cautioned against this by his friends. In this regard, I argued that the adherence to tong xin, his principle of life, exposed one important character of the poet—―individual autonomy‖—for to be autonomous means to be able to make decisions without any external influence.

111 Through my demonstration of these four kinds of vision, I have delineated the characteristics of Gong Zizhen‘s subjectivity, that is, his idealist philosophy of the subject, his independent personality, his advocacy of the right to social criticism, and his autonomy of action. Each of these characteristics of subjectivity squarely coincides with the fundamental connotations of modern subjectivity elucidated by Habermas. Therefore, Gong Zizhen can be rightly regarded as a modern subject emerging in the late Qing period. Furthermore, his classical poetry, as a case of new wine in old bottles, heralded Chinese literary modernization in terms of its new ways of seeing as well as constructing the visual in literary texts. Thus, Gong‘s poetry and its refreshing style were looked upon as a model and a new trend by subsequent modern Chinese intellectuals including Huang Zunxian 黃遵憲 (1848–1905), Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Lu Xun.173

173 Liang Qichao made the widely accepted evaluation that ―Gong indeed made great contributions to the emancipation of late Qing thought. Among those scholars of new learning in the Guangxu period

(1875–1908), almost everyone used to adore Gong Zizhen.‖ (See Liang Qichao 梁啟超, Qingdai xueshu gailun 清代學術概論 (Intellectual Trends in the Qing Dynasty). 1998, p. 75) Wanqingyi Shihui 晚晴簃詩匯 (Collected Poems from the Wanqingyi Study, edited by Xu Shichang 徐世昌), a full collection of

Qing poems compiled in the early decades of the Republic of China, also acknowledges that ―after the

Sino-Japanese war of 1894–1895, Gong‘s poetry became so popular that almost every household had a volume, and the poets of that time were keen on imitating his style.‖ (Quoted in Ma Yazhong 馬亞中,

Zhongguo jindai shigeshi 中國近代詩歌史 (The History of Modern Chinese Poetry). 1992, p. 202.) For the influence of Gong‘s poetry on Huang Zunxian, Kang Youwei, and Liang Qichao, see ibid., pp.470–503, 556–68. For Gong‘s influence on the literary imageries and thought of Lu Xun, see Zou

Jinxian 鄒進先, ―Lu Xun and Gong Zizhen‖, in Wenxue pinglun 文學評論 (Literary Review), No. 6

(2004), pp. 34–38. 112 Chapter 3

Seeing the World through the Eyes of the Everyday: Ren Bonian

Visuality, or the visual field, as Peter de Bolla has pointed out, is by no means restricted to the philosophical and technical descriptions of optics. In a broader sense, it also encompasses the cultural domain—that is, social and cultural productions and practices.174 De Bolla‘s insight suggests that one can find modalities of the visual in different socio-cultural activities, and investigating different visual fields in any given historical context may extend our understanding of these modalities. This is what I attempt in my current research.

In the previous chapter, I examined new elements of the visual in the poetic-visual practices of late Qing China through Gong Zizhen‘s poetry; in this chapter, I will shift my focus to another visual field—Chinese painting. I will use this most typical visual art to explore the modern transformations of the visual by analyzing the artworks and painting practice of Ren Bonian 任伯年 (1840-1896), who was one of the most representative artists in nineteenth century China.

Why Ren Bonian? Besides his extraordinary artistic achievements which prove him a significant representative of Chinese painters of that time, another

173 De Bolla, Peter. ―The Visibility of Visuality‖, in Brennan, Terasa and Jay, Martin (eds.) Vision in

Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight. 1996, p. 65. 174 Cao Gonghua 曹工化, ‗Xuanze yiwang haishi qiangzhi fangqi 選擇遺忘還是強制放棄 (To Ignore

Intentionally or to Abandon Hopelessly)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.)

Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). p. 230. 113 crucial reason is that he was associated with the Shanghai School of painting;

Ren Bonian represents the artistic style and aesthetic taste of the School, which signalled the end of traditional literati painting and the beginning of modern

Chinese painting. Therefore, a study of Ren Bonian will contribute greatly to our understanding of the most notable school of painting in nineteenth-century China, as well as the critical features of Chinese painting in a time of transition. As the

Shanghai School played a significant role in the modernization of Chinese painting and Ren Bonian exerted considerable influence on later Chinese artists in areas such as subject matter and art style, my work will shed light on the subtle changes in Chinese artist-intellectuals‘ ways of seeing during the late Qing period.

I will proceed by expounding the modern transformation of visuality in late Qing painting, which Ren Bonian‘s artworks typify, arguing that the establishment of modern ways of seeing became not only an important feature of modern Chinese intellectuals, but also a crucial aspect of cultural modernity in late Qing China.

3.1 From Literati Painting to the Shanghai School

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, a dominant form of Chinese painting was literati painting, or scholar-official painting (wenren hua 文人畫 or shi dafu hua 士大夫

畫), which was created by amateur scholar-artists.175 The key criterion for

175 For the detailed history and development of Chinese literati painting, see Lin Mu 林木, Lun wenrenhua 論文人畫 (On Literati Painting). 1987, pp. 90–153. 114 differentiating professional painters from amateurs was neither their artistic skills nor their attainments, but whether painting was their means of making a living or just a hobby. As Joseph R. Levenson points out, the amateur ideal became an entrenched value of literati culture and a universal creed of life for traditional

Chinese intellectuals, especially those in the Ming and early Qing. Taking

Chinese painting as an example, Levenson demonstrates that:

Artistic style and cultivated knowledge of the approved canon of ancient

works, the ―sweetness and light‖ of a classical love of letters—these, not

specialized, ―useful‖ technical training, were the tools of intellectual

expression and the keys to social power. These were the qualities mainly

tested in the state examinations, which qualified the winners for prestige and

opportunities. … The Ming style was the amateur style; Ming culture was the

apotheosis of the amateur. … By the end of the Ming dynasty, one rule had

been firmly established in the world of painting: officials themselves were

painters, and they liked their painting best. Painters by profession were

disparaged. … The world of painting in early-modern, pre-western China

issued from and reflected a broader world of social institutions. Behind the

amateur painter and the southern critic was the anti-professional official,

whose socially high estate was the mark of his deeply respected humanistic

culture, not a technically specialized one.176

176 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Volume 1. 1968, pp. 16, 20, 115

Levenson provides such a penetrating insight on Chinese painting that the painting of the gentleman, which held the amateur ideal in high esteem, occupied a dominant position in the painting world of the Ming and early Qing dynasties.

In fact, literati painting had become such a deeply ingrained tradition for the painters in late Qing Shanghai that they had to reform it so to adapt Chinese painting to the rapidly changing world. In that sense, the tradition of the literati painting constituted a crucial cultural backdrop for the emergence of the

Shanghai School.

In the history of Chinese painting, wenren hua (literati painting) was regarded as an ideal style of painting for scholar-painters from the time the concept of shiren hua (scholar-official painting) was first developed by the eminent Song scholar, poet, and painter Su Shi. When appreciating a painting by his contemporary, a scholar named Song Hanjie 宋漢傑 (c.1040–c.1110), Su Shi made the comment that evaluating a painting by a scholar-official was exactly like choosing a swift horse—what was really important was something inside them, such as spirit or aspiration, rather than a fine appearance. He further argued that compared with the paintings of cultivated scholar-painters, the works of artisan painters were boring, because they were too concerned with superficial beauty and trivial details. Su even derided the craftsman‘s approach in a poem on painting: ―Seeking likeness purely in appearance is similar to a child‘s way of

41. 116 painting‖.177 Placing more importance on the expression of the internal spirit and thoughts in paintings, instead of the external form, Su insisted that the works of cultivated painters were superior to those of uncultivated ones. These ideas distinguished literati painters from artisan painters for the first time in the history of Chinese painting, and exerted a far-reaching influence on subsequent thinking about literati painting.

After Su Shi, another person who made a significant contribution to the theory of literati painting was Dong Qichang 董其昌 (1555–1636), a well-known scholar-artist in the Ming dynasty. Dong drew upon a Zen Buddhist term, ―the Southern School‖ (nan zong 南宗), to name the style of the literati painting. Just as Zen Buddhism had been divided into the Northern and Southern

Schools in the Tang dynasty, he asserted, Chinese painting developed into two separate, parallel currents around the same time: he also called them the Northern and Southern Schools. Nevertheless, his distinction had nothing to do with where the artist was born or worked; it was based on the distinction between two approaches to painting, namely, the ―sudden awakening‖ of the scholarly creative approach, likened to the ―sudden enlightenment‖ of the Southern School of Zen

Buddhism, and the ―gradual awakening‖ of the craftsman‘s approach, which was comparable to the ―gradual enlightenment‖ of the Northern School of Zen.178

177 Quoted in Pan Tianshou 潘天壽. Zhongguo huihuashi 中國繪畫史 (The History of Chinese Painting). 1983 [1926], p. 158.

178 Pang, Mae Anna Quan. ‗Late Ming Painting Theory‘ in Cahill, James (ed.) The Restless Landscape:

Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period. 1971, p. 25. 117 The founder of the Southern School of painting, according to Dong, was

Wang Wei of the Tang dynasty, who was followed by painters like Dong Yuan 董

源 (c. 934–962), Ju Ran 巨然 (c. tenth century), Mi Fu 米芾 (1051–1107), the

Four Great Masters of the Yuan dynasty,179 Shen Zhou 沈周 (1427–1509), Wen

Zhengming 文征明 (1470–1559), and himself. Generally, these literati painters worked in monochrome ink with a somewhat impressionistic approach and favoured expressive brushstrokes. On the other hand, the Northern School of professional painters was supposed by Dong Qichang to have begun with the

Tang painter Li Sixun 李思訓 (651–716), who pioneered a decoratively coloured landscape style of ―blue water and green mountains‖, followed by Zhao

Gan 趙幹 (c. tenth century), Zhao Boju 趙伯駒 (1120–1182), as well as masters of the Southern Song Imperial Painting Academy such as Ma Yuan 馬遠(c.

1160–1225) and Xia Gui 夏圭(c. 1195–1224). Similar to his predecessor Su Shi,

Dong Qichang held two distinctly different attitudes to these two Schools. He made his opposition to the Northern School of the professionals clear by declaring ―fei wucao dang xue ye 非吾曹當學也 (Literati painters like us should not practice it)‖.180 As for the Southern School, he appreciated it so much that he even identified himself as an excellent and proud inheritor of it. Due to his high

179 ―Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty‖ is a name used to collectively describe the four Chinese painters

Huang Gongwang 黃公望 (1269–1354), Wu Zhen 吳鎮 (1280–1354), Ni Zan 倪瓚(1301–1374), and

Wang Meng 王蒙 (1301–1385), all of whom were active in the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). 180 Dong Qichang 董其昌, ‗Huachanshi suibi 畫禪室隨筆 (Essays in the Paint-Zen Studio)‘ in Shen

Zicheng 沈子丞, (ed.) Lidai lunhua mingzhu huibian 歷代論畫名著彙編 (Collection of Works on the

Theory of Painting Through the Ages). 1982, p.253. 118 official position in the Ming imperial government as well as his immense prestige in the artistic circles of that time, his assessment of painters had a great impact.

Literati painting soon became the ideal style of painting among the scholar-painters of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The art theories of Su Shi and Dong Qichang show us the most essential feature of literati painting: it was inevitably endowed with the attributes of the cultivated scholar-amateurs, which were quite different from those of the professionals. Chen Hengke 陳衡恪(1876–1923), an eminent painter and critic of early twentieth-century China, defined literati painting in a more straightforward way, stating: ―What is literati painting? The paintings should possess the qualities of scholar-painters and should reflect their tastes. There is no need for a scholar-painter to be overly concerned about painting technique and exquisite details, but he does need to clearly express a scholar‘s thoughts and emotions through the painting. That is literati painting.‖181 Thus, in Chen‘s view, the scholars‘ personality traits, moral beliefs, cultural values, and aesthetic taste were in fact the defining feature of literati painting.

Many characteristics of literati painting stemmed from this defining feature.

For instance, landscape (shanshui 山水, literally ―mountains and waters‖) was the most popular subject matter in Chinese literati painting. Inquiry into the

181 Chen Hengke 陳衡恪, ―Wenrenhua zhi jiazhi 文人畫之價值 (The Value of the Literati Painting)‖, in Lang Shaojun 郎紹君 and Shui Tianzhong 水天中 (eds.) Ershi shiji Zhongguo meishu wenxuan 二十世

紀中國美術文選 (Collection of Papers on Chinese Fine Arts in the Twentieth Century), Volume 1, 1999, p. 67. 119 underlying cause of this feature will inevitably lead us to the intimate relationship between Chinese intellectuals and nature. 182 Nature is usually endowed with metaphysical meaning and moral significance in the Chinese cultural milieu. In Laozi‘s view, the concept of ziran 自然 (nature, or what is natural) was associated with Tao 道 (Dao, or the Way), the ultimate ontological category in Chinese philosophy, through the concept of ―dao fa ziran 道法自然

(The Tao takes what is natural as its model)‖.183 Confucius was the first to posit a relationship between nature and moral values by saying that ―zhizhe le shui, renzhe le shan 知者樂水，仁者樂山 (The wise find joy in water; the benevolent find joy in mountains).‖184 Consequently, those Chinese intellectuals who were heavily influenced by Taoism and Confucianism were strongly inclined to regard nature as a peaceful wonderland, where they could not only entertain themselves but more importantly be close to the Tao and be nourished by the great teachings of ancient sages. This was what the prominent scholar-painter Zong Bing 宗炳

(375–443) referred to as ―shanshui yi xing mei dao 山水以形媚道 (mountains

182 For details on the relationship between nature and Chinese literati, see Kubin, Wolfgang. Der durchsichtige Berg: Die Entwicklung der Naturanschauung in der chinesischen Literatur, 1985. For a

Chinese translation, see Zhongguo wenren de ziranguan 中國文人的自然觀 (Chinese Literati‘s Concepts of Nature), 1990. Another important reference book is Vogel, Hans Ulrich and Dux, Günter. (eds.)

Concepts of Nature: A Chinese-Eurorean Cross-Cultural Perspective, 2010.

183 See Lou Yulie 樓宇烈 (annot. & ed.). Laozi daodejing zhujiaoshi 老子道德經注校釋 (Annotated Version of Laizi‘s Daodejing). 2008, p. 64.

184 See Yang Bojun 楊伯峻 (annot. & ed.). Lunyu yishu 論語譯注 (Annotated Version of the Analects of

Confucius). 1980, p. 62. 120 and waters manifest the Tao with their beautiful physical qualities)‖185 in his hua shanshui xu (画山水序 Preface on Landscape Painting), the earliest essay on the theory of landscape painting in China and most probably in the world. This understanding of nature accounts for a universal phenomenon in the painting practices of scholar-amateurs, which was clearly expressed by a Ming famed painter Wen Zhengming as: ―The cultivated man, in retirement from office, frequently takes pleasure in playing with the brush and producing landscapes for his own gratification.‖186

As demonstrated above, it was natural for landscape painting to become a popular form of literati painting in China given that the Tao and its concrete manifestation nature were highly valued in the intellectual tradition of the

Chinese literati. The same was true of painting techniques and methods. Xieyi 寫

意 (freehand brushwork) became the most commonly-used technique in Chinese literati painting, while gongbi 工筆 (fine brushwork, or highly detailed brushstrokes) was usually practiced by professional artists. The most prominent characteristic of xieyi painting was its incorporation of calligraphic techniques.

The reason for this was simple—in China painting and calligraphy had the same origin, used the same materials (rice paper) and tools (ink brush), and shared the same ways of using the brush. Therefore, painting and calligraphy were, as

Zhang Yanyuan 張彥遠 (c. 815– c. 877), an art historian of the late Tang dynasty,

185 See Chen Chuanxi 陳傳席. Liuchao hualun yanjiu 六朝畫論研究 (A Study on the theory of painting in the Six Dynasties). 2006 [1984], p. 99.

186 Quoted in Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate. Volume 1, 1968, p. 20. 121 pointed out, ―the same in nature despite different names.‖187

In this sense, the essence of xieyi for Chinese scholar-officials—who were generally well-educated in poetry, calligraphy, and painting—was to write, rather than to paint a picture. Indeed, the literal meaning of xie 寫 is ―to write‖, and the character yi 意 refers to ―meaning‖; more precisely, any thoughts, emotions, intentions, and desires of the subject. Therefore, the main goal of xieyi painting was to express the inner world of the scholar-painter with the same vigorous and unrestrained brushwork as that frequently practiced in Chinese calligraphy, particularly in the running and grass scripts. A detailed and accurate representation of the appearance of things was less important than that main goal, and was even deliberately ignored in many literati paintings. As a result, the style of xieyi painting was generally free, expressive, and vibrant. It was semi-abstract, with an extreme form of simplicity and lightness.

Another distinctive characteristic of Chinese literati painting is related to colour and ink tonalities: a highly-developed appreciation of shui mo hua 水墨

畫 (ink and wash painting). Generally speaking, in this elegant style of brush painting, only plain ink, or ink with minimal colour, was applied in various concentrations on rice paper. This collective colour preference reflected the fact that there was a time-honoured aesthetic among Chinese scholar-painters that prioritised simplicity and monochrome. This was mainly due to the influence of

187 Zhang Yanyuan 張彥遠. ‗Lun hua 論畫 (On Painting)‘ in Shen Zicheng 沈子丞, (ed.) Lidai lunhua mingzhu huibian 歷代論畫名著彙編 (Collection of Works on the Theory of Painting through the Ages).

1982, p. 34. 122 Taoist philosophy. For instance, Lao Zi once said ―The five colours confuse the eye; the five sounds dull the ear; the five tastes spoil the palate.‖188 This well-known viewpoint suggested that Taoist philosophy objected to an indulgence in luxury and sensuous enjoyment, and appreciated a very natural, simple and unadorned state. Affected by this thought, Tang poet-painter Wang

Wei, the initiator of the literati painting tradition, asserted that ―In the field of painting, ink and wash painting is the most valuable type.‖189 To a large extent,

Wang‘s view established a principle for the tasteful use of colour in landscape painting by later scholar-amateurs; that is, to discard the superficial colours of beautiful nature and just paint with water and black ink to capture the true spirit of nature. In order to overcome the limitations of a restricted colour palette,

Chinese scholar-painters invented various techniques to create gradual and subtle differences in the tone of the ink. Thus Chinese ink, though monochrome, could still represent delicate and tasteful colours on rice paper by using tones ranging from deep black to silvery grey.

The relevance of the foregoing discussion to the study of Ren Bonian is that literati painting, in particular the Ming and early Qing literati painting tradition, paved the way for the Shanghai School of the late Qing period. Accordingly, the

Shanghai School of painting can be seen as a product of the creative

188 Laozi 老子. Lao Zi. 1999 [c. 540 BC], p. 25. 189 Wang Wei 王維. ‗Shanshui jue 山水訣 (The Secrets of Landscape Painting)‘ in Shen Zicheng 沈子丞

(ed.) Lidai lunhua mingzhu huibian 歷代論畫名著彙編 (Collection of Works on the Theory of Painting through the Ages). 1982, p. 30. 123 appropriation, alteration, and transformation of Chinese literati painting as it adjusted to the new aesthetic tastes of modern times. That is why the Shanghai

School of painting had quite a few similarities to literati painting, despite distinct differences. A good instance was the deliberate integration of calligraphy techniques. As the renowned modern Chinese painter Pan Tianshou 潘天壽

(1897–1971) pointed out, both Zhao Zhiqian 趙之謙 (1829–1884), a pioneer of the Shanghai School, and Wu Changshuo 吳昌碩 (1844–1927), a leading figure in the School‘s later stage, were fond of combining the typical brush strokes of ancient calligraphy with their painting practice; They particularly used the bronze ware and stone drum scripts to render images of flowers and birds in a classical, elegant, but vigorous and forceful style.190 Given the heavy influence of the literati painting tradition upon most painters of that time, it is not surprising to find signs of literati taste in their paintings. What is striking in the Shanghai style of painting, however, is that the dominant flavour is manifestly not that of literati, but a distinctively different one. This distinctive ―Shanghai taste‖ was to become the essential quality of the Shanghai School of painting, and secured its place in the history of Chinese painting.

Before an exposition of the concrete manifestations of this Shanghai taste, it is necessary for us to consider why in late Qing China, especially in the Jiangnan region,191 the literati style of painting was no longer as popular and dominant as

190 Pan Tianshou 潘天壽, Zhongguo huihuashi 中國繪畫史, p. 264.

191 The Jiangnan region refers to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta. The region encompasses the Shanghai municipality, the 124 it used to be. Instead of being an overnight process, people‘s taste in art changed over a long time, and among a variety of the factors contributing to this change, the tastemaker, who are mainly the artists, should be viewed as the most noteworthy one due to its direct effects on taste. An important attempt to reveal the subtle relationship between taste and the tastemaker has been made by the art historian Craig Clunas in his study of material culture and social status in late imperial China. For a critical understanding of his complex thoughts, here I would like to quote a concise review by Jonathan Hay, which points both to their possibilities and limitations:

The core of Clunas‘s argument concerns the significance of what he calls ―the

invention of taste‖ in the commodity economy that emerged in the lower

Yangzi region during the sixteenth century, which he sees as broadly

analogous to the commodity economy of early modern Europe. For Clunas, in

China as in Europe, in a context of economic threat to traditional social

hierarchy, ―taste comes into play, as an essential legitimator of consumption

and an ordering principle which prevents the otherwise inevitable-seeming

triumph of market forces.‖ The tastemaker, in other words, recreated social

distinctions favourable to the educated gentry elite on the new basis of cultural

judgment. This argument underestimates the degree to which the educated

southern part of Jiangsu province, the southern part of Anhui province, the northern part of Jiangxi province, and the northern part of Zhejiang province. 125 gentry elite was itself in a process of dissolution and mutation, and blurs the

distinction between the two overlapping social categories of the gentry and the

literati (the social position of the latter often being far less secure). The literati

tastemaker‘s role, as I would prefer to define it, was to reposition certain

traditional cultural skills within a new, commercially oriented elite context in

which all means of finding a secure place were valid.192

Hay makes two important points. One is that taste reflected and asserted the social status of the tastemaker, as Clunas argued. The other is that the social status of the tastemaker was unstable, and it always changed with different socio-cultural contexts. The former is evidenced by the elegant taste of the

Chinese literati in those paintings created by scholar-amateurs of high social position. As for the latter, a case in point is the significant decline of the social status of scholar-officials in late imperial China. One concrete manifestation of this change was a historical phenomenon called ―shishang heliu 士商合流 (the convergence of the scholar-official class and the merchant class)‖. As a matter of fact, a hierarchical class structure had developed in Chinese society from the late

Spring and Autumn period (546 BC–403 BC). In descending order, the four occupations or four classes were the shi 士 (gentry scholars), the nong 農

(peasant farmers), the gong 工 (artisans and craftsmen), and the shang 商

192 Hay, Jonathan. Shi Tao: Painting and Modernity in Early Qing China. 2001, p. 19. 126 (merchants and traders).193 As gentry-scholars conventionally occupied the most respected position and merchants the most humble, the former generally showed disdain for the latter. This was the case even in the practice of painting; as

Levenson suggests, ―There were overtones of anti-commercial feeling in the scholar‘s insistence that the proper artist is financially disinterested.‖194

This mentality of superiority as well as social status of scholar-officials was maintained until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the distinction between gentry-scholars and merchants became increasingly blurred. According to Yu Yingshi, two factors accounted for this meaningful change. On the one hand, the Ming imperial power‘s oppression of Confucian scholars frustrated their political aspirations and enthusiasm, and without official positions and political power, the literati‘s status declined dramatically; on the other hand, the remarkable development of the commercial economy in late imperial China as well as the consequent rapid rise in the status of merchants provided Confucian scholars with another new route to a fulfilling career and a successful life. Now, they could engage in business activities as a pastime or remake themselves from

Confucian scholars to businessmen holding Confucian values and beliefs.195 As a result of the convergence of these two social classes, the refined taste in literati painting was no longer as pure as before, inevitably mixing with business

193 Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle. China: A New History. 2006 [1998], p. 108. 194 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate. Volume 1, p. 21.

195 See Yu Yingshi 余英時, Shi yu Zhongguo wenhua 士與中國文化(Shi and Chinese Culture). 2003, pp.

527–76. 127 interests and popular taste. This change was indeed a great challenge for orthodox Confucian scholar-painters who were used to seeing themselves as virtuous, elite artists. Nevertheless, this change offered an unprecedented opportunity for traditional Chinese painting to begin its modern transformation.

One manifestation of this modern transformation was a trend towards commercialization which emerged in the Ming and Qing dynasties. According to the Chinese art historian Xu Jianrong, the commercialization of Chinese painting occurred over three stages of historical development, which were represented by three schools of painting—in chronological order, the Wu School196 (wumen huapai 吳門畫派), the Yangzhou School197 (Yangzhou huapai 揚州畫派), and the Shanghai School. Xu claims that the key players in commercial activities were ―Confucian businessmen198 (rushang 儒商)‖, who retained an intellectual adherence to Confucian ethics and elite taste. With the socioeconomic development in late imperial China, however, this position became increasingly difficult to maintain, and popular taste that caters to the masses overtook literati taste that satisfies the cultural elite in the art market. This change was embodied

196 The Wu School of painting refers to a group of Chinese painters of the Ming dynasty active in the second half of the 15th and first half of the 16th centuries. They were scholar-artists who advocated the personally expressive styles and attitudes of former artists such as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty. The Wu school was named after Wu county (吳縣) in the region of Suzhou (蘇州), where the painters lived and worked. Shen Zhou 沈周 (1427–1509) is usually cited as the founder of the School. 197 The Yangzhou School of painting refers to a group of active painters who painted in similar styles in the Yangzhou (揚州) area during the middle of the Qing dynasty. The most representative artists of the School are known as the ―eight eccentric painters of Yangzhou (揚州八怪)‖, which will be explained in a later section. 198 Confucian businessmen (rushang, also ―learned businessman‖) is a term emerged in 1990s, which defines people of the entrepreneurial or economic elite that recognise their social responsibility and therefore apply Confucian culture to their business. 128 in the paintings of the above three schools: in the Wu School of painting, the ratio of paintings that reflected literati taste versus popular taste was about 8:2; in the Yangzhou School of painting, 5:5; while in the Shanghai School of painting, the ratio was 2:8.199 These figures indicate the declining trend in literati painting, and that the Shanghai School of painting was a much more commercially-oriented style of painting, which directly catered to popular taste.

The advent of the Shanghai School of painting paralleled the remarkable rise of Shanghai as a modern metropolis in the second half of the nineteenth century.

After losing the First Opium War, the Qing government was compelled to sign the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing and permit Western merchants to trade freely at the five treaty ports of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai.

Due to its advantageous geographical location and convenient cargo transportation to both the Yangtze River and the Pacific Ocean, Shanghai, once a dull, small town, soon flourished. It became the largest international trade port in late Qing China and a vital centre of commerce between east and west. This was evidenced by the ambitious expansion of its international shipping industry. After its opening as a treaty port, Shanghai witnessed a sharp increase in the number of foreign vessels entering its waters: in 1844 there was a total of just 44 foreign ships entering the port; but this number jumped to 182 between January and

September alone in 1852. In the late 1850s, approximately 1000 foreign vessels

199 Xu Jianrong 徐建融, Yuan, Ming, Qing huihua yanjiu shilun 元明清繪畫研究十論 (Ten Essays on the Art of Painting in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties). 2004, p. 342. 129 entered the port per year and in the 1860s, this figure soared to over 5000.200 The prosperity of the international shipping industry and foreign trade became key factors in facilitating the circulation of commodities, stimulating local economic growth, promoting urban development, and improving the quality of life in

Shanghai.

Meanwhile, continuing social turbulence in late Qing China made Shanghai a relatively safe and peaceful haven as well as a hub for wealth and talent. In the

1850s, when large areas of the Jiangnan region were occupied by Taiping rebel armies, wealthy landowners and country gentlemen took refuge in Shanghai‘s foreign concessions, most of which were established by Britain, France, and

America. After the Taiping forces occupied Nanjing in 1853, the population of the Shanghai concessions dramatically increased from about 20,000 to 300,000 due to the influx of refugees.201 Under the protection of Western powers, this burgeoning cosmopolitan city attracted a multitude of merchant elites as well as artistic talent from all over the country, and eventually replaced the city of

Yangzhou as the new economic and cultural centre of the Lower Yangtze region.202

According to Haishang molin 海上墨林 (The Forest of Ink of Shanghai), an

200 Chen Zhengshu 陳正書, Shanghai tongshi: wanqing jingji 上海通史：晚清經濟 (The General History of Shanghai: Economy in the Late Qing Period). 1999, pp. 5–6, 8, 13.

201 Sun Shuqin 孫淑芹, Ren Bonian renwuhua yishulun 任伯年人物畫藝術論 (On Ren Bonian‘s Figure Paintings). 2010, p. 57.

202 Li Yu 李渝, Ren Bonian: Qingmo de shimin huajia 任伯年：清末的市民畫家 (Ren Bonian: An

Urban Painter in Late Qing China). 1985, p. 85. 130 authoritative compilation of biographies of Shanghai artists by Yang Yi 楊逸

(1864–1929), from the Song dynasty to the late Qing there were a total of 312 sojourner-artists in Shanghai. The overwhelming majority of these were painters

(305 people), most of whom arrived in Shanghai after the First Opium War.203 A late Qing monograph on the theory of Chinese painting described this migration of artists: ―Since the abolishment of the ban on maritime trade with foreign countries, trade has flourished nowhere more than Shanghai. Consequently, numerous talents have poured into this city and made a living by selling their paintings. Among them, Hu Gongshou 胡公壽 (1823–1886) and Ren Bonian were the most prominent.‖204 Thus one can see that the rise of Shanghai in the late Qing period created the socioeconomic and cultural conditions—such as a mature art market and a relatively fixed group of artists—for the later emergence of a fresh painting style as well as a new school of painting.

From its inception, the Shanghai School was deeply involved in commercialism, the lifeblood of this booming metropolis. Since most painters who were active in the field of fine arts in Shanghai came from Jiangsu and

Zhejiang provinces, they usually had cooperative ties with local art stores and civil organizations of artists in order to promote sales of their paintings. A long

203 Chen Zhengqing 陳正青, ‗Preface‘ in Yang, Yi 楊逸 and Huang, Xiexun 黃協塤. Haishang molin, guangfangyan guan quan’an, fenmo congtan 海上墨林、廣方言館全案、粉墨叢談 (The Forest of Ink of Shanghai, The Records of Guangfangyan Guan, Brief Biographies of Traditional Opera Artists). 1989 [c. 1921], p.3.

204 See Wang Zhaowen 王朝聞. (ed.) Zhongguo meishushi 中國美術史 (A History of Chinese Fine Arts).

Volume 10. 2000, p. 301. 131 list of renowned art shops displayed and sold paintings on behalf of these sojourners: guxiang shi 古香室, jiuhua tang 九華堂, deyue lou 得月樓, songhe shanfang 松鶴山房, liuying tang 六螢堂, and jiegu zhai 藉古齋.205 In addition, merchants were involved in a variety of artistic communities and groups. For instance, the members of an influential Shanghai artists‘ organization named haishang tijinguan jinshishuhuahui 海上題襟館金石書畫會 included not only notable painters and calligraphists, but also art dealers, bureaucrats, and compradors. Sheng Xuanhuai 盛宣懷 (1844–1916), the Minister of

Transportation of the Qing Empire and a great entrepreneur responsible for much of China‘s early industrialization, provided substantial financial support to the club.206 This intimate and cooperative relationship between artists and merchants, which was unprecedented in the history of Chinese painting, helped the Shanghai painters respond to modern market demands in a more active and sensitive way.

It also shaped them into a group of professional painters in the modern sense, who were fundamentally different from traditional amateur painters, most of whom had belonged to the class of scholar-officials.

3.2 The Shanghai School of Painting and Ren Bonian’s Achievements

Whereas the tastes of the literati defined the features of Chinese literati painting,

205 Wang Zhaowen 王朝聞. (ed.) Zhongguo meishushi 中國美術史 (A History of Chinese Fine Arts).

Volume 10. 2000, p. 301.

206 Ibid., p. 302. 132 popular tastes defined the Shanghai School. First, in contrast to literati painting, in which landscapes were the most common subject matter, the most popular subjects in the Shanghai School of painting were birds and flowers.207 This change was due to the inherited tradition of painting and the requirements of the contemporary art market. Chinese bird-and-flower painting had evolved into an independent genre by the Tang dynasty, and entered a flourishing period in the

Five Dynasties and the Song dynasty due to the promotion of imperial painting academies. The art form developed further during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and eventually reached its zenith in the Qing dynasty.208 As Pan Tianshou assessed, bird-and-flower painting was the most fruitful, popular, and successful of the three main genres of Chinese painting in the Qing dynasty.209

Like most Chinese painters, the artists of the Shanghai School were historically-minded; they were very familiar with the genealogy of their painting.

In fact, early masters such as the Ming painters Xu Wei 徐渭 (1521–1593),

Chen Hongshou 陳洪綬 (1598–1652), and the mid-Qing ―eight eccentric painters of Yangzhou‖,210 whose works were admired and imitated by the

207 He Hong 何鴻, Haipai huihua shizhen 海派繪畫識真 (Appreciation of the Shanghai School

Paintings). 2005, p. 3.

208 Han Wei 韓瑋, Zhongguo huaniaohua 中國花鳥畫 (Chinese Bird-and-Flower Painting). 1999, pp. 2–17. The other two main genres of Chinese painting in the Qing dynasty are landscape painting and figure painting.

209 Pan Tianshou 潘天壽, Zhongguo huihuashi 中國繪畫史, p. 256. 210 In the history of Chinese painting, ―the eight eccentric painters of Yangzhou (Yangzhou Baguai 揚州

八怪)‖ refers to eight brilliant painters of the Yangzhou School, who had a similar style and strong personalities at variance with the conventions of their own time. They were famed for their expressive 133 Shanghai School painters, were famed precisely for their superb bird-and-flower paintings. As a consequence, most of the representatives of the Shanghai School, such as Zhao Zhiqian, Ren Xiong 任熊 (1823–1857), Xu Gu 虚谷(1824–1896),

Ren Bonian, and Wu Changshuo, excelled at bird-and-flower painting.

On the other hand, bird-and-flower painting also proved well-suited to the commercialization of Chinese painting, a rising phenomenon since the Ming dynasty. The Yangzhou School of painting was a case in point. Coming from impoverished backgrounds, the School‘s artists had to support their families by selling their own paintings and thus became pioneers in the commercialization of

Chinese painting. In this situation, choosing to draw subject matter that would sell was a strategy for making profits. This was reflected in a folk adage in artistic circles in Yangzhou: ―Drawing faces brings you gold, and flowers silver; if you want to be a beggar, you should paint landscapes‖.211 This shows that in the art market of that time, figure paintings were most valuable, bird-and-flower paintings were less valuable, and landscapes were least valuable. Consequently, figures and birds-and-flowers became the favorite subject matter of the Yangzhou artists. As the leading painters of the Yangzhou School, such as Li Shan 李

鱓 (1686–1762), Zheng Xie 鄭燮(1693–1765), and Li Fangying 李方膺

(1695–1755), were less fond of figures, bird-and-flower painting turned out to be

bird-and-flower paintings. 211 Quoted in Chen Chuanxi, ‗Si Ren jiqi yishu 四任及其藝術 (On the Four Painters Whose Surnames are Ren and Their Paintings)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 61. 134 most popular in the mid-Qing art market. This preference continued to exert influence on another commercially-oriented school of painting in late Qing China, namely, the Shanghai School. Like their Yangzhou predecessors, the artists of the

Shanghai School were best known for their brilliant bird-and-flower paintings.212

The integration of the techniques of professional painters and those of scholar-amateurs become a common phenomenon in Shanghai School paintings.

As previously mentioned, there were generally two main techniques in traditional

Chinese painting: fine brushwork (gongbi 工筆) and freehand (xieyi 寫意). The former was characterized by meticulous attention to detail, while the latter, by simple, bold, and expressive strokes. Fine brushwork painting was conventionally referred to as ―court-style‖ painting due to the fact that this technique was most often used by professional painters working in imperial painting academies; yet freehand painting was held in great esteem by high educated amateur-artists. However, for some creative and ambitious artists, the skills of painting were by no means rigidly restricted within these two types in practice, and so a third painting skill emerged: fine brushwork with freehand

(jiangong daixie 兼工帶寫), or more precisely, fine brushwork with slight freehand (xiao xieyi 小寫意).

The slight freehand style was a little different from the typical literati style of wild, unrestricted large freehand (da xieyi 大寫意), and featured moderate

212 Quoted in Chen Chuanxi, ‗Si Ren jiqi yishu 四任及其藝術 (On the Four Painters Whose Surnames are Ren and Their Paintings)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 61. 135 expression and great attention to detail. This painting technique of ―fine brushwork with freehand‖ was frequently seen in Chinese bird-and-flower paintings and figure paintings, and was epitomized by the paintings of the

Shanghai School masters. For instance, in Ren Xiong‘s bird-and-flower paintings, it was routine to find both fine brushwork—which was commonly applied by the

Song artists in the Imperial Painting Academy—and freehand, which was skillfully used by the Ming painters Chen Chun 陳淳 (1483–1544), Xu Wei,

Zhou Zhimian 周之冕 (1550–1610), and Chen Hongshou, and the Qing master

Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633–1690).213 Ren Bonian was acclaimed chiefly for his bird-and-flower and figure paintings in ―fine brushwork with freehand‖ style.

In other words, Ren not only attached importance to the painstaking representation of detail, but also emphasized vigorous and vivid brushwork.

Therefore, his bird-and-flower paintings often contain line drawings of birds and flowers with exquisite details and intense colours, and bold ink-stained mountains and stones in a rough and blunt style; in his figure paintings, the faces of the characters are represented in fine brushwork style, while the clothes and background are usually handled in freehand style.

In terms of the use of colors, Shanghai School paintings were much richer, brighter, and more vibrant than those in the Ming and Qing orthodox literati paintings. I suggest that this meaningful change was not so much a departure

213 Wang Zhaowen 王朝聞. (ed.) Zhongguo meishushi 中國美術史. Volume 10, p. 304. 136 from the mainstream art of that time as a return to ancient art tradition.214 Colour in painting had been valued by artists until the Song dynasty, when ink and wash painting came into style due to a strong boost from the scholar-official class. As a matter of fact, most early Chinese paintings—from frescoes in tomb chambers to mural paintings in royal courts, and from the Han silk paintings of mythological figures to the Tang ―blue water and green mountains‖ landscapes—were of such beautiful, brilliant, and vivid colors that the word ―painting (hua 畫)‖ was traditionally referred to as ―dan qing (丹青)‖ in classical Chinese, which is literally the term for the mineral colours of cinnabar and azurite that were often used in those early paintings.215 Since the literati ink and wash painting that featured the use of minimal colors and monochromatic landscapes became the dominant and orthodox style in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, however, traditional Chinese painting had been losing its rich colors. In this sense, the application of stunning, intense colors in the Shanghai School painting can be viewed as a pleasing return to China‘s ancient tradition, heralding a renaissance of art in modern times.

This change in the use of color is not only significant for modern readers who have the benefit of viewing it against the background of the whole history of

Chinese painting, but was also surprisingly impressive for artists of that time

214 A similar viewpoint can be found in Cao Gonghua 曹工化, ―Xuanze yiwang haishi qiangzhi fangqi

選擇遺忘還是強制放棄‖, p. 232. 215 Yi Ye 一葉, ‗Fuxing Zhongguohua de secai 復興中國畫的色彩 (Reviving the Colour of Chinese

Painting)‘ in Renmin ribao (haiwai ban)人民日報（海外版）(People‘s Daily, overseas edition), August 4,

2004. See: http://www.people.com.cn/GB/paper39/12617/1133777.html（Accessed June 21, 2013）. 137 such as Ren Xiong. This representative figure of the early Shanghai School was highly praised by contemporary critics for his superb application of colours in painting. In an album of paintings entitled Dameishan guan shiyi tu 大梅山館

詩意圖 (Poetic Paintings of Big Plum Mountain Manor), Ren rendered a wide range of subjects—such as birds, flowers, figures, fairy tales, seas and mountains—with sophistication. Ren Xiong showcased his extraordinary artistry through distinctive brushwork, fantastic imagination, and rich and bright colours.216 His specific technique in using colour was most clearly demonstrated in his bird-and-flower painting. Ren Xiong was good at painting various types of flowers in vivid colors, like peony, narcissus, cotton rose, chrysanthemum, and plum blossom. To maximize artistic effect, he combined mo gu (沒骨, a literati painting skill that involved staining and dying) with gou hua (鉤花, a realistic and detailed style of flower drawing). He also preferred to paint petals directly with water-soluble pigment powder, so that the wet ink brush would naturally create multi-tonal colouring at a stroke. By adjusting the intensity and brightness of colours, he sensitively rendered diverse scenes of calyxes and corollas from different angles.217

As a favourite disciple of Ren Xiong, Ren Bonian surely inherited his master‘s colouring technique, but more importantly developed his own unique style by appropriating the concepts of composition and colour in Western

216 See Wang Zhaowen 王朝聞. (ed.) Zhongguo meishushi 中國美術史. Volume 10, p. 303.

217 Ibid, p. 304. 138 watercolor painting.218 Ren Bonian used to learn drawing skills from a good friend named Liu Dezhai 劉德齋(1843–1912). Liu was a Chinese pioneer of

Western painting and curator of the T‘ou-Se-We School of Arts and Crafts, which was founded in Shanghai in 1852 by French Catholic missionaries and was the first school to teach Western arts in China. Owing to this relationship, many art historians believe that Ren Bonian was rather open-minded and that his use of colour must have been inspired by Western watercolour painting.219 Besides the vermilion and rouge powder that are commonly used in traditional Chinese painting, for example, he chose an unusual European pigment called xiyang hong

(西洋紅, literally Western red, means carmine) to render the vibrant red colour, particularly in his bird-and-flower paintings. This was by no means an isolated phenomenon; the same can be easily found in the practices of other Shanghai

School artists, such as Zhang Xiong 张熊 (1803-1886) and Wu Changshuo.220

The features of the Shanghai school of art reflected the new artistic taste in late nineteenth-century Shanghai, which was clearly different from the literati taste that had prevailed in traditional Chinese scholar painting. The advent of the

Shanghai School in the late Qing period constituted a new attempt by Chinese artists to reform and modernize Chinese painting in various respects, including

218 Wang Zhaowen 王朝聞. (ed.) Zhongguo meishushi 中國美術史. Volume 10, p. 350.

219 Mao Jianbo 毛建波, ‗He zhe wei xian: Ren Bonian dui dangdai renwuhua de qishi 何者為先：任伯

年對當代人物畫的啟示 (The More Important Thing: Ren Bonian‘s Significance for Contemporary Figure Painting)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji

任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 126.

220 Wang Zhaowen 王朝聞. (ed.) Zhongguo meishushi 中國美術史. Volume 11, p. 350. 139 aesthetic view, painting technique, and artistic style. This attempt should be regarded as an active response by China‘s intellectuals, particularly artist-intellectuals, to the turbulent times and their dramatically changing socio-cultural milieu; thus, it was a crucial part of late Qing modernity. For a greater understanding of this significant change in the field of Chinese visual arts, we will examine Ren Bonian and his deviation from the orthodox tradition of

Chinese literati painting.

Ren Bonian (courtesy name Ren Yi 任頤), a native of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang province, was a gifted and versatile painter. He is generally recognized as a master of all three genres of Chinese painting (namely, figure, bird-and-flower, and landscape painting), and also as the most representative figure of the early

Shanghai School of painting. Ren‘s father was a minor rice merchant, but supplemented household income by painting portraits for the locals in his leisure time. Thus, Ren obtained his initial art education and training in folk portraiture during his childhood and teenage years.221 Thanks to his natural talent and hard work, Ren developed a keen sense of observation and had a strong ability to paint and sketch from life, taking nature as his model.222 Ren Bonian at one time worked as an apprentice in a fan painting studio in Shanghai before he went to

221 Xu Beihong 徐悲鴻, ‗Ren Bonian pingzhuan 任伯年評傳 (A Critical Biography of Ren Bonian)‘ in

Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集

(Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 1. 222 Huang Yongquan 黃湧泉, ‗Luelun siren 略論四任 (A Brief Account of the Four Painters Surnamed

Ren)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研

究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 12. 140 Suzhou and devoted himself to learning from artists from his hometown, Ren

Xiong and Ren Xun 任薰 (1835-1893). All these early experiences laid a solid foundation for Ren‘s future achievements in painting. In 1868, when he was twenty-eight years old, Ren returned to Shanghai, settled down, and made a living by selling his own paintings until his death. It was in this city Shanghai that Ren Bonian built up a considerable reputation and emerged onto the art scene in late Qing China as an esteemed pioneer of the Shanghai School of painting.

By the 1860s, Shanghai had burgeoned into a modern city, the capital of new economic activities founded on foreign trade and the importation of foreign technology and capital.223 Besides technology and capital, when overseas traders and missionaries, many of them English, French, and American, poured into this booming treaty port, they were inevitably accompanied by Western artistic values and cultural products. Consequently, in late nineteenth-century Shanghai traditional Chinese painting styles were increasingly influenced by new imported media, including photography, lithography, colour posters, and mass-circulation newspapers. It was in this cosmopolitan environment that a distinctive style of painting—the Shanghai School—was born.224 In contrast to the orthodox literati style that had dominated painting during the preceding three hundred years, the

Shanghai School was market-oriented, and thus reflected the taste of the rising

223 Bergѐre, Marie-Claire. Shanghai: China’s Gateway to Modernity. 2009, p. 50.

224 Hearn, Maxwell K. ‗Art in Late-Nineteenth-Century Shanghai‘ in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bulletin (New Series), Vol. 58, No. 3 (Winter, 2001), pp. 10–13. 141 merchant-bourgeois class in the late Qing period. Challenging the aesthetic preference of the scholar-gentry class, this new school of painting favoured portraiture, popular narrative topics, and colourful bird-and-flower compositions over traditional landscapes.225 All of these characteristics can be found in Ren

Bonian‘s paintings.

The significance of Ren Bonian to the history of Chinese painting lies not only in his immense contribution to the artistic maturity of the Shanghai School, but also in his provision of a fresh, feasible approach for reforming and modernizing traditional Chinese painting through his own painting practices.

This innovation was manifested in Ren‘s fusion of the painting of scholar-amateurs and the painting of professional painters, most of whom were folk artists (except court painters). Lacking a good Confucian education and a decent government job, Ren was by no means a typical member of the scholar-elite class; on the contrary, he was just one of the ordinary people, coming from a very humble background. Both his art teachers, Ren Xiong and

Ren Xun, were professional painters who depended on selling paintings for their livelihood; Ren‘s close association with Chinese folk painting stemmed from those professional painters, as well as his father. At the same time, as an artist who was deeply immersed in traditional culture, Ren was inevitably influenced by the orthodox concept of Chinese literati painting. Indeed, he used to be

225 Hearn, Maxwell K. ‗Art in Late-Nineteenth-Century Shanghai‘ in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bulletin (New Series), Vol. 58, No. 3 (Winter, 2001), pp. 10–13. 142 obsessed with imitating the works of the prominent Ming scholar-painters Xu

Wei, Chen Hongshou, and Bada Shanren 八大山人(ca. 1626–1705) and learned a lot in terms of brushstroke and composition from their work. The fusion of literati painting and folk art made Ren‘s paintings so distinctive that they were appreciated not only by the upper class but also by the common people.

3.3 Features of Visual Construction in Ren’s Paintings

Objects of Vision: Towards the Daily Life of the Common People

As a typical visual product, painting renders the viewer abundant objects of vision in the form of visual images. However, this rendering is by no means random or haphazard; all these objects of vision are carefully considered and well organized by the painter. In other words, not all visible things in daily life catch the eye of an artist; only those that are considered beautiful, pleasing, affecting, meaningful, or special might be recognized and represented as visual images by painters. As understandings of these evaluative adjectives inevitably bear social and cultural imprints, artists‘ preferences for objects of vision vary according to different backgrounds, experiences, occupations, social classes, and even genders. In literati paintings, for example, the choice of subject matter was usually narrowed to elegant things that matched the interest of those refined amateur-painters, such as secluded mountains, tranquil hillside walks, winding

143 brooks, and pastoral villages. It was also common that when drawing bird-and-flower paintings, literati artists preferred a few symbolic images endowed with moral character and lofty aspirations, such as the ―three friends of winter‖ (also known as sui han san you 歲寒三友, which referred to the pine, bamboo, and plum), the ―four gentlemen in flowers‖ (known as hua zhong sijunzi

花中四君子, namely plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum), red-crowned cranes, and gallant horses. As a vehicle of self-expression and self-amusement, literati painting can essentially be viewed as an arena in which the elite class expressed its inner world. Accordingly it seldom involved the outside world and the real lives of ordinary people. For instance, one of the most renowned realistic paintings in China is Qingming shanghe tu 清明上河圖

(Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival, see Figure 1), a scroll painting by the

Northern Song artist Zhang Zeduan 張擇端 (1085–1145).

144

(Figure 1. Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival, section of a scroll painting by

Zhang Zeduan)

This masterpiece meticulously describes the daily life of ordinary people including peasants, peddlers, jugglers, fortune tellers, teachers, and beggars, and faithfully represents the panoramic landscape of the vibrant capital Bianjing

(today‘s Kaifeng in Henan province; capital of China during the Song dynasty) and its quiet suburbs. The painting depicts the Qingming Festival, on which

Chinese people visit the graves or burial grounds of their ancestors and go outside to enjoy the greenery of springtime. Today, this painting is generally viewed as such a national treasure that it has even been called ―China‘s Mona

Lisa‖.226 For Chinese literati painters and art critics, however, this was not the

226 Bradsher, Keith. ‗China‘s Mona Lisa Makes a Rare Appearance in Hong Kong‘ in The New York

Times, July 3, 2007. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/arts/design/03pain.html?_r=3&

(Accessed June 25, 2013). 145 case. A representative criticism came from the Ming art connoisseur Zhang Chou

張醜 (1577–1643), who commented that considering the piece‘s subject matter was everyday things such as boats, wagons, city walls, bridges, and streetscapes, there was a distinct lack of the classical and elegant in the painting.227 It is thus clear that in the eyes of scholar-painters, there were indeed some dull and tasteless objects not suitable to be represented in artworks. The selectivity of objects of vision in paintings clearly reflects the socio-cultural attributes of vision, and demonstrates Hal Foster‘s conception of visuality—―vision suggests sight as a physical operation, and visuality sight as a social fact.‖228 Thus, objects of vision are an important dimension of our current investigation of the modern transformation of visuality in late Qing China.

In typical Ming and Qing literati paintings, the objects of vision had been strictly limited to what the scholar-artists wanted to represent and had seldom extended to the everyday life of ordinary people until the rise of the Shanghai

School. This significant change in objects of vision is epitomized by the impressive paintings of Ren Bonian. Ren‘s works differed from the mainstream literati paintings of the Ming and Qing dynasties in many respects, notably that they frequently represented subjects that were underestimated or despised by scholar-artists, such as the daily life of ordinary people. Besides the continuous decline of the social class of scholar-officials in late imperial China and

227 Wu Lifu 伍蠡甫. Zhongguo hualun yanjiu 中國畫論研究 (A Study on the Theory of Chinese

Painting). 1983, p. 119.

228 Foster, Hal. ‗Preface‘ in Foster, Hal. (ed.) Vision and Visuality. 1988, pp. ix–xiv. 146 subsequently the weakening role of literati taste in art practice and art appreciation, two other causes directly contributed to the change in objects of vision.

One was that Ren Bonian was never a scholar-official, and so maintained convenient access to the real world of everyday people and had plenty of opportunities to observe and bring this lively world into his paintings. His paintings reflected his common background. Ti hua shi (題畫詩, inscription poetry, or poetry inscribed on paintings) was the most representative manifestation of the concept of the san jue (三絕, ―three perfections‖, meaning equal perfection in the practices of poetry, painting, and calligraphy) that were recognized as an overarching aesthetic standard by most Chinese literati in both theory and practice.229 Nonetheless, very few poems created by Ren appeared in his paintings, and those that did were judged to be short and unsatisfactory.230 In fact, while inscription poetry was conventionally viewed as an ideal forum for scholar-artists to showcase their literary accomplishments, Ren‘s inability to write excellent inscription poems gave art historians reason to classify Ren

Bonian as a non-literati or a professional painter.231

The other key cause of Ren‘s selection of novel objects of vision in his paintings was that he had no need to cater to the tastes of the literati. As an artist

229 See Mair, Victor. (ed.) The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. 2001, pp. 466–67.

230 Chen Yongyi 陳永怡, ‗Ren Bonian he chuantong wenrenhua 任伯年和傳統文人畫 (Ren Bonian and Traditional Literati Painting)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 185.

231 Ibid. 147 who made a living by selling his own works, he endeavoured to cater chiefly for the demands of the art market—more precisely, the demands of his clients and patrons. Few of these were scholar-officials; most would have been private industrialists, small businessmen, retail merchants, feudal landlords, bureaucratic compradors, and probably some Western sojourners in Shanghai.232 Owing to this, the paintings of Ren Bonian had stronger utilitarian tendencies and fewer elements of self-amusement than were commonly found in literati paintings. It is not surprising that an overwhelming number of Ren‘s paintings were created as gifts for various practical purposes, such as to express birthday congratulations to the aged, to extend New Year greetings, to exorcise evil spirits and attract good fortune, to pray for the conception of a child, and to bless newly-opened businesses. To a considerable degree, these practical purposes determined the form and content of Ren‘s artworks; that is to say, the subject matter (or objects of vision) in his paintings were destined to be those that were familiar and accessible to the common people, rather than those just favoured by scholar-officials.

The change in objects of vision in Ren Bonian‘s paintings featured several notable characteristics. First, compared with traditional literati painting, the scope of objects of vision in Ren‘s works was significantly expanded; it included not only the landscapes, birds and flowers that were common in literati paintings,

232 Zhang Liguo 章立國, ‗Ren Bonian he haishang yishu shichang 任伯年和海上藝術市場 (Ren

Bonian and the Shanghai Art Market)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren

Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, pp. 106–07. 148 but also figures, which were seldom painted by scholar-artists. The reason why most scholar-amateurs deliberately avoided figure painting may have been partly because of the three main genres of Chinese painting, figure painting, as the master of modern Chinese painting Xu Beihong 徐悲鴻 (1895–1953) said, could best reflect the painter‘s artistic talents, efforts, and capabilities.. It demanded similarity in appearance between objects of vision and artistic images, which was at odds with the unrestrained, expressionist style that was highly valued by traditional scholar-artists.233 Besides, traditional scholar-artists disdained the realistic representation of objects of vision in paintings, especially of objects thought to be lacking in refinement.234 Thus, objects like daily necessities and home furnishings hardly appeared in literati paintings. For Ren Bonian, however, there were no such restrictions on subject matter. Void of pretentious elegance and moral prescriptions, all the objects of vision represented in his paintings remind the viewer of the real life of the common people.

A good example is A Portrait of Mr. Zhao Dechang and His Wife (Figure 2), a masterpiece created by Ren Bonian for his maternal grandparents in 1885. At that time, Ren was forty-five years old and this portrait indeed shows the great maturity of a seasoned artist. From the simple, fluent, and vivid lines that delineate body shapes and folds in clothing, one can see the painter‘s deep understanding of lines in Chinese painting as an essential visual shaping

233 Xu Beihong 徐悲鴻, ―Ren Bonian pingzhuan 任伯年評傳‖, p. 3.

234 Wu Lifu 伍蠡甫, Zhongguo hualun yanjiu 中國畫論研究, p. 119. 149 language; and from the relative transparency and stained quality of his colours, one can also easily discern the impact of Western watercolour painting on Ren

Bonian. To be sure, this painting contains many remarkable artistic characteristics, but here, as for objects of vision in this portrait, the rug under the chairs is worthy of special attention.

(Figure 2. A Portrait of Mr. Zhao Dechang and His Wife, by Ren Bonian)

This is a multi-coloured area rug with a flying red-crowned crane pattern.

The bird symbolizes longevity in the Chinese cultural context. This rug is beautiful in its own right, but a rug is such a humble and disregarded thing that

150 people often fail to notice its existence even when they sit or walk on it every day.

This was especially true for proud Chinese scholar-artists. As an art critic has pointed out, it would have been considered a shame for scholar-painters to draw pictures about such household items that were thought to lack charm and refined taste. Therefore, it is really impressive to see that Ren Bonian dared to bring a rug into his paintings.235 This example is by no means the only one in his works.

Ren painted numerous other objects that were rarely represented in literati paintings but were closely related to the daily life of the common people, from vegetables to fruits, from pets to livestock, and from furniture to antiques. The significant expansion of objects of vision in the Shanghai School of painting indicates that compared with their predecessors, late Qing artists had a much richer visual experience in their lives, and a broader vision to carry out their visual practices.

Another important aspect of the change in objects of vision is that most visual images in Ren Bonian‘s paintings, including those dealing with historical stories and mythological figures, were modelled on real life. In comparison with the images in scholar-artists‘ artworks that usually imitated the works of the old masters slavishly, Ren‘s images taken directly from contemporary life were much more approachable and impressive. It is thus little wonder that the Japanese art critic Chin Shunshin remarks that Ren Bonian‘s paintings touch the viewer with his constant feeling of modern life. The figures, birds, and flowers that he painted

235 Huang Yongquan 黃湧泉, ―Luelun siren 略論四任‖, p. 13. 151 look so real and familiar that they seem to exist in the present.236 The reason behind this sense of realness and familiarity was precisely Ren‘s careful observation and faithful representation of his daily life. This can be better understood through an appreciation of the figure painting The Offering of

Auspicious Flowers (Figure 3).

(Figure 3. The Offering of Auspicious Flowers, by Ren Bonian)

Depicting an elder man and his servant girl who are offering auspicious

236 Quoted in Gong Chanxing 龔產興, ‗Waiguo huajia pinglunjia yanzhong de Ren Bonian 外國畫家評論家眼中的任伯年 (Ren Bonian Thought the Eyes of Foreign Painters and Critics)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳

山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren

Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 33. 152 blessings to people, this figure painting was painted in 1872 when Ren Bonian had lived in Shanghai for three years. Chinese art traditionally included stylized depictions of mythological figures offering blessings, such as the Fu star

(the god of good fortune), Lu star (the god of prosperity and official rank), and

Shou star (the god of longevity). In contrast to these, the elder in this work presents the viewer with a face which belongs not to a celestial being but to a man in the street. Why does this senior look so real and familiar, unlike those fictitious mythological figures? The answer is that Ren‘s portrait was modelled on a real person. According to Chen Banding 陳半丁 (1876–1970), a disciple of

Ren Bonian, the painter once visited the Yuyuan Garden Bazaar and saw an old craftsman who was selling dough figurines being bullied by some hooligans. At the critical moment a big, tough guy gave the elder a hand to beat the hooligans off, and the elder expressed sincere gratitude to the hero before saying goodbye.

This scene left such a deep impression in Ren‘s mind that the grateful old craftsman became the image in his ―offering blessing‖ paintings.237 It is worth noting that this was not an isolated case for Ren Bonian; most images in his paintings, whether figures, flowers, or birds, were the product of observing nature and life. It was this close tie between painting and the real world that endowed Ren‘s images with a sense of reality and familiarity. As the painter was not a member of the literati-elite class and lived alongside the common people

237 Wang Bomin 王伯敏, ‗Ren Bonian de xianrui tu 任伯年的獻瑞圖 (Ren Bonian‘s Painting The

Offering of Auspicious Flowers)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren

Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 86–87. 153 throughout his life, he inevitably observed and depicted the daily life of the common people. That was distinctly different from the visual in most scholar-painters‘ artworks.

Strategy of Visual Representation: Refocusing on Visual Appeal in Painting

Specific strategies of visual representation applied by artists in their painting practices are closely related to their particular intentions or motives. The latter, in the final analysis, are determined by their preconceived notions about the nature and functions of painting. For Chinese scholar-artists, these notions mainly stemmed from Confucianism and Taoism. In The Analects, Confucius expressed his opinion and attitude about the arts clearly: ―I set my heart on the Way, base myself on virtue, lean upon benevolence for support and take my recreation in the arts.‖238 This statement indicated that the most vital thing that Confucian scholars should recognize and spend their whole lives pursuing was the Way

(Tao), and the major function of the arts was just to entertain and relax oneself.

The word ―arts‖ here refers to the Six Arts (六藝 liu yi), that is, rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics, which together formed the basis of education in ancient Chinese culture. However, the attitude of Confucius was believed to be the same towards other types of arts, including painting. As a result of this influential viewpoint, painting was not taken seriously by Chinese

238 Confucius. The Analects. 2008 [c. 500 BC], p.107. 154 scholar-gentlemen.

Meanwhile, from the Taoist perspective painting was regarded as a special skill or a specific technique that was distinct from Tao (Dao or the Way). The most significant of China‘s early interpreters of Taoism, Zhuangzi 莊子 (c.

369–c. 286 BC), for instance, once revealed his own view about Tao and skill when telling the story of the marvellous cook Ding: ―what I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill.‖239 Similar to Confucianism, Taoism considered the

Tao to be much more valuable than any skill; it was the origin of the world and the supreme norm that all people or things must respect. Therefore, according to

Feng Youlan, the lifelong pursuit of wisdom in ancient China was not ―the increase of positive knowledge‖, namely, information regarding matters of fact, but ―the elevation of the mind‖, which was indeed the purpose of the Tao.240

All the aforementioned Confucian and Taoist values and notions of the arts were so deeply entrenched in Chinese scholar-artists‘ minds that it was reasonable for them to take approaching the Tao or pursuing ―what is beyond the present actual world‖ 241 as their ultimate motive for painting, instead of perfecting artistic techniques. This motive for painting was articulated clearly and boldly by the renowned scholar-painter Ni Zan 倪瓚 (1301–1374), one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty. When remarking on his own bamboo paintings, he asserted that the only reason why he drew them was to vent his

239 Chuang, Tzu. The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. 1968 [c. 3rd century BC], p. 50.

240 Feng Youlan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. Edited by Derk Bodde. 1966, p. 5.

241 Ibid., p. 4. 155 exhilaration, so there was absolutely no need to worry whether the paintings showed likeness. For him, painting was just playing brushes in a spontaneous, intuitive way. Without seeking likeness in appearance, painting was essentially a practice for self-entertainment.242

To match this motive, Chinese scholar-artists developed their own strategy of rendering the visual in paintings, that is, using artworks as a medium of expression and focusing on the emotions or ideas that they wanted to express. In this way, the form of a painting was deliberately separated from its content and was heavily belittled by scholar-artists. As the famed Chinese art critic Chen

Hengke points out, Chinese literati painting attached utmost importance to the internal spirit, rather than the external appearance; thus, even if the depiction of the latter was poor, this was not thought to affect the quality of the literati painting so long as its representation of the internal spirit was satisfactory.243 In this respect, the essence of Chinese literati painting was its content-based quality.

Here, content did not refer to subject matter or objects in the painting, but denoted the communication of ideas, feelings, and reactions connected to the painter. With respect to form in painting, which involves line, shape, space, texture, colour, and technique, scholar-amateurs considered it a trifling matter and often left it to professional artists, such as imperial painting academy painters

242 Ni Zan 倪瓚. ‗Lun hua 論畫 (On Painting)‘ in Shen Zicheng 沈子丞, (ed.) Lidai lunhua mingzhu huibian 歷代論畫名著彙編(Collection of Works on the Theory of Painting through the Ages). 1982, p. 205. See also Cahill, James. Hills Beyond A River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279–1368.

1976, p. 167.

243 Chen Hengke 陳衡恪, ―Wenrenhua zhi jiazhi 文人畫之價值, p. 68. 156 and folk artisans. It is thus clear that Chinese scholar-artists did not care whether the representation of visual images was satisfactory; for them, the most important consideration was what they attempt to express through the medium of visual images in paintings.

This point has also been observed by an American scholar, George Rowley, in his incisive comment on the style of art in Chinese literati painting. When examining the intermediary Chinese position in the practice of painting, he said:

We are now in a position to appreciate the Chinese blending of these two

European extremes, naturalism and idealism, using naturalism in the sense of

an interest in ―things as they appear to be,‖ and idealism in the classic sense of

―things as they ought to be.‖ One is concerned with the concrete and particular,

the other with the general and typical. They represent two kinds of quest after

truth and beauty, one in the sensuous appeal of actual nature and the other in

the intellectual satisfaction of perfected nature. The Chinese shunned extreme

naturalism, although, paradoxically, no artists ever spent so much time in

contemplating the natural world; on the other hand, they distrusted extreme

rationalization, although, they insisted, more than any other people, on the

value of learning for creative effort. The natural and the ideal were fused

together in the ideational ―essence of the idea.‖ As Ch‗êng Hêng-lo put it,

―western painting is painting of the eye; Chinese painting is painting of the

idea.‖ His statement would have been complete if he had added, ―of the idea

157 and not of the ideal.‖244

It is worth noting that the Chinese painting discussed in the quotation above primarily refers to literati painting, and not all Chinese paintings were ―painting of the idea‖; many Chinese paintings, especially those created by professional painters, could rightly be considered as ―painting of the eye‖. The works of the

Southern Song academy artists, for example, were known for artistic representation that immediately appealed to the eye through obvious displays of virtuoso brushwork and convincing pictorial reality. Nevertheless, in acknowledging and emphasizing the difference between ―painting of the eye‖ and ―painting of the idea‖, Rowley‘s account essentially confirms that Chinese scholar-painters preferred to pay attention to functional aspects of painting, such as emotional expression and intellectual resonance, rather than aesthetic aspects, like visual appeal.

This said, indifference towards visual appeal was not an inherent or consistent characteristic of Chinese painting, for the history of Chinese painting is far broader than just literati painting. As a matter of fact, the Tang dynasty was a period of intellectual ferment for Chinese literati painting, and it was during the

Song and Yuan dynasties that China‘s art world witnessed the remarkable rise of that genre. Finally, the Ming and Qing dynasties are recognized as the zenith of

Chinese literati painting. This implies that artworks prior to the Tang dynasty

244 Rowley, George. Principles of Chinese Painting. 1970, p. 29. 158 were not influenced by literati artistic standards and their strategy of visual representation. It also explains why those paintings were distinct from literati paintings in terms of visual effects, usually featuring bright colours, realistic representations of people or things, spectacular details, and sophisticated skills.

In this respect, the Shanghai School of painting, which paid much more attention to visual appeal than literati paintings, can be regarded as a kind of return to the ancient art style of Chinese painting. Hence, this section of the thesis bears the subtitle ―refocusing on visual appeal in painting‖

Ren Bonian‘s paintings exemplified this renewed aesthetic focus. The visual appeal of Ren‘s paintings lies mainly in two aspects: vivid colours and realistic visual representation. First, compared with the monotony and simplicity of colours in literati painting, the variation and vibrancy of colours is much more eye-catching. Ren Bonian is therefore praised as ―the master of colouring in modern times‖.245 Ming and Qing scholar-artists valued the simple and elegant style of monochromatic ink-wash painting. This had never been seriously challenged until the popularity of the Shanghai School in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a leading figure in the Shanghai School, Ren made a significant contribution to the transformation in the use of colours. To offer a new colourful visual world, he drew on some pleasing elements of Chinese folk painting in his works, such as rich and bright colours, auspicious subjects, and a

245 See Zong Baihua 鐘白華, Meixue sanbu 美學散步 (A Leisurely Walk in the Field of Aesthetics).

1998 [1981], p. 135. 159 lively festival atmosphere. All these elements are present in Figures 4 and 5.

(Figure 4. Loquast and Parrots, by Ren Bonian) (Figure 5. Peach Blossom, Willow Leaves, and a Myna, by Ren Bonian)

In these two decorative bird-and-flower paintings, a variety of visual images that frequently appear in Chinese folk arts are impressively represented by the painter with vibrant and varied colours. For instance, golden yellow loquat fruits are also called ―gold fruits‖ by the Chinese and are usually presented as a symbol of wealth in folk art paintings; fresh pink peach blossom connotes romantic love and good fortune in the Chinese cultural context; the multi-coloured parrot and the black mynah are favourite pet birds, partly due to their wonderful talking abilities. The abundance of popular subject matter and pleasing, colourful representations of visual images in folk paintings provided Ren with plenty of inspiration to enhance the visual appeal of his artworks.

Western watercolour painting was another important source of inspiration for

Ren Bonian. It is widely believed that he learnt some of the concepts and

160 techniques of Western watercolour painting from his friend Liu Dezhai, and successfully applied them in his practice of Chinese painting. 246 This is supported by similarities in the artistic characteristics of his freehand-style paintings and those of Western watercolours. Take this Peach Blossom as an example (Figure 6):

(Figure 6. Peach Blossom, by Ren Bonian)

The visual effects and watercolour techniques in this simple and elegant painting include the clean, semi-transparent colours, various shades of pink, wet-on-wet painting techniques, and sedimentary pieces of pigment. All of these

Western elements are so proficiently handled by Ren Bonian that at first glance, this Chinese artwork looks like a genuine Western watercolour painting. In order to capture the colour of peach blossom, he boldly used an imported European

246 See Mao Jianbo 毛建波, ―He zhe wei xian: Ren Bonian dui dangdai renwuhua de qishi 何者為先：任

伯年對當代人物畫的啟示‖, p. 126. 161 pigment named xiyang hong (carmine). In fact, according to Pan Tianshou, the pigment xiyang hong was not introduced to China until the late Qing period when it was imported from the West, and Ren Bonian was the first artist to use it in the practice of Chinese painting.247 Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852–1929), one of the leading French realist painters and mentor of the famed Chinese painter Xu

Beihong, appreciated Ren Bonian‘s paintings very much and called them ―these bright vivid watercolours‖ in 1926.248 This was quite possibly because the artistic style of Ren‘s artworks was so similar to that of Western watercolor paintings,

In addition to adding vivid colours to his paintings, Ren Bonian applied another effective strategy to catch the viewers‘ eye: depicting objects in a realistic way as they were seen in everyday life. For general viewers, vivid, lifelike pictures are much more comprehensible and thus attract more interest than those addressed in an unfamiliar or unnatural way. This is most evident in figure paintings. In order to endow their artworks with classical elegance, most

Ming and Qing literati artists, for instance, were inclined to deliberately alter the bodies or outward appearances of the figures in their paintings by depicting them in a clumsy manner.249 Here a good example is the Painting of Tao Yuanming

(Figure 7) painted by the eminent late Ming scholar-artist Chen Hongshou.

247 Quoted in Li Zhongfang 李仲芳, Ren Bonian pingzhuan 任伯年評傳 (A Critical Biography of Ren

Bonian). 2013, pp. 144–47. 248 Quoted in Xu Beihong 徐悲鴻, ―Ren Bonian pingzhuan 任伯年評傳‖, p. 5.

249 Wu Lifu 伍蠡甫, Zhongguo hualun yanjiu 中國畫論研究, p. 123. See also Sun Shuqin 孫淑芹, Ren

Bonian renwuhua yishulun 任伯年人物畫藝術論, p. 77. 162

(Figure 7. Painting of Tao Yuanming, by Chen Hongshou)

In this picture, the costume and body of Tao Yuanming, a well-known poet of the Six Dynasties period (220–589 AD), is roughly outlined. Tao‘s appearance is strange and eccentric, and his facial features exaggerated. His head is massively out of proportion to the rest of the body, and his left hand holding a chrysanthemum flower looks too slight and small to be a man‘s hand. Though the figure evokes a sense of unreality, Chen Hongshou successfully presents the tranquil inner world and noble personality of the hermit poet through his intentional alteration of the figure‘s outward appearance.

This literati taste, however, seems not to have been accepted by the art market in nineteenth-century Shanghai, where the popular style of art was colourful, realistic, and decorative painting. Ren Bonian was representative of

163 this style. Though in his youth Ren imitated the works of the Ming painter Chen

Hongshou, he eventually ceased modelling himself after ancient masters and developed his own style, learning directly from nature and real life. Two crucial factors helped to bring about this shift. One was the early childhood art education he received from his father, who specialized in xie zhen 寫真 (literally, true-to-life portrayal).250 As a type of traditional Chinese portrait painting, xie zhen stresses resemblance of appearance, and it can be compared to the sketch in

Western art in terms of realistic representation of objects. Ren was required by his father to develop sharp observation skills in order to grasp the distinguishing features of objects. It is said that when he was ten years old, he memorized and accurately depicted the physical appearance of a guest who only stayed at his home for a short while.251

The other factor in Ren developing his own artistic style was his incorporation of Western painting techniques. From his friend Liu Dezhai, Ren not only learned Western sketching skills but also developed the habit of drawing from life with a 3B pencil. At a time when few Chinese people knew the pencil,

Ren even had some experience of nude drawing.252 The following portrait painting was created by Ren Bonian in 1868 for his teacher Ren Xun, whom it

250 Li Zhongfang 李仲芳, ―Ren Bonian lun 任伯年論‖, p. 151.

251 Yezi 葉子. ‗Ren Bonian de huihua fengge jiqi jianding 任伯年的繪畫風格及其鑒定 (The Painting

Style of Ren Bonian and its Identification)‘ in Wu Shanming 吳山明 and Zhou Hongying 周紅英 (eds.) Ren Bonian yanjiu wenji 任伯年研究文集 (Anthology of Ren Bonian Studies). 2004, p. 194.

252 Mao Jianbo 毛建波, ―He zhe wei xian: Ren Bonian dui dangdai renwuhua de qishi 何者為先：任伯

年對當代人物畫的啟示‖, p. 126. 164 depicts (Figure 8).

(Figure 8. A Portrait of Ren Xun, section, by Ren Bonian)

This artwork attests to Ren Bonian‘s shaping skills as well as his assimilation of the concave and convex methods of Western oil painting.

Perspective: Assimilating Western Perspective into Chinese Painting

As a very common way of visually representing three-dimensional objects and spatial relationships on a two-dimensional plane nowadays, perspective

165 constitutes a crucial aspect of the visuality of painting. The word ―perspective‖, however, was originally a Western art term, and strictly speaking, there was no corresponding word in traditional Chinese art. As Hiromitsu Kobayashi has observed, traditional Chinese perspective has been referred to in English by words such as ―vista,‖ ―distance,‖ and ―view,‖ and in paintings the Chinese used a moving focus or multiple points in a single composition, instead of the fixed focal point of Western perspective.253 In the practice of Chinese painting the concept of san yuan 三遠 (three ways to display distant views) played a key role comparable to that of Western perspective. It was created by Guo Xi (c. 1020–c.

1090), who was a famous landscape painter during the Northern Song dynasty

(960–1127 AD). In his treatise entitled Linquan Gaozhi 林泉高致 (Lofty Record of Forests and Streams), Guo claimed that there were three ways to observe distant mountains. The first was gao yuan 高遠 (high and distant), an upward view of mountain tops with a low horizon line; the second was shen yuan 深遠

(deep and distant), a combination of a perspective at eye level and a downward view into deep valleys; the third was ping yuan 平遠 (flat and distant), a view of a distant horizon with mountains and trees below eye level.254 Guo‘s concept

253 Hiromitsu Kobayashi. ‗Suzhou Prints and Western Perspective: The Painting Techniques of Jesuit Artists at the Qing Court, and Dissemination of the Contemporary Court Style of Painting to

Mid-Eighteenth-Century Chinese Society through Woodblock Prints‘ in O‘Malley, John W., Bailey,

Gauvin Alexander, Harris, Steven J. and Kennedy, T. Frank (eds.) The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773. 2006, p. 262.

254 Guo Xi 郭熙, ‗Linquan gaozhi 林泉高致 (Lofty Record of Forests and Streams)‘ in Shen Zicheng 沈

子丞, (ed.) Lidai lunhua mingzhu huibian 歷代論畫名著彙編 (Collection of Works on the Theory of 166 of san yuan, highlighting the multiple points of view from which one can look at objects, laid the foundation for traditional Chinese perspective in landscapes. His work Early Spring encapsulates his innovative techniques for rendering multiple perspectives in a single composition (Figure 9).

(Figure 9. Early Spring, by Guo Xi)

In this painting, one can not only see the peaks of majestic mountains with an upward view but also observe the leaves of trees at the base of the picture from a bird‘s-eye view. The mountain scene cannot be appreciated from a perspective with a fixed focal point; instead, it reflects the painter‘s shifting perspectives with various focal points. Accepted and advocated by later scholar-artists, Guo‘s

Painting through the Ages). 1982, p. 71. 167 visual practices and his distinctive mode of spatial representation eventually established a paradigm for the use of perspective in traditional Chinese landscapes.

This shifting perspective was easily embraced by China‘s literati class because the nature of the former was congruent with the free-spirited disposition of the latter. Superficially, the employment of the shifting perspective with multiple focal points in traditional Chinese landscapes was a matter of painting technique, but it also reflected painters‘ basic views of art, nature, and their own spirits and souls. In their minds, especially those influenced by Taoism, all things in nature shared the same attribute—―freedom‖—and this precious freedom ought not to be artificially restrained in any way. As landscape painting was regarded as a sanctuary for the soul, literati painters believed that in the world created by landscapes, man and nature could interact and complement each other to reach a state of harmony, peace, and freedom. Also, artists felt that in real life people viewed their surroundings from a mobile focal point, instead of a fixed one.

Correspondingly, Chinese scholar-artists felt it is unnecessary to restrict themselves to a limited view of the individual, time or space; they preferred to inspect the world from unrestricted, shifting points of view and paint both things which were far and things which were near, permitting more room for imagination. In this way, the shifting perspective enabled literati artists to freely express what they wanted to in their paintings.

The fate of the shifting perspective in Chinese literati painting was bound up

168 with the rise and decline of the class of scholar-officials. The late Qing period witnessed the waning popularity of literati landscape painting in an art market now patronized by the merchant-bourgeois class; it also saw the impact of

Western art as a force for change in Chinese painting. With these shifts, the traditional perspective was gradually displaced by a new method of creating illusions of depth and space in painting, namely, linear perspective. Differing from the Chinese shifting perspective that reflected the free-spirited disposition of scholar-artists, this linear perspective, widely used in Western art since the

Renaissance, was based on modern optics, projective geometry, and empirical observations. It emphasized accurate proportion, the technique of foreshortening, and realistic depiction of form. Since linear perspective works by representing the light that passes from a scene through an imaginary rectangle—the painting—to the viewer's eye, it is like looking through a window and painting what is seen directly onto the windowpane. If viewed from the same spot that the windowpane was painted from, the painted image would be identical to what was seen through the unpainted window. Each painted object in the scene is a flat, scaled-down version of the object on the other side of the window.255 Following the basic principle of light in real life, the apparent size and shape of objects and their positions with respect to foreground and background are established by multiple implied parallel lines converging at one or more vanishing points near the horizon. In this way, Western paintings with linear perspective achieve the

255 D‘Amelio, Joseph. Perspective Drawing Handbook. 2004, p. 19. 169 illusion of depth and give continuity and measurability to the spatial unit, though this kind of perspective also restrains the experience of space and the fixed points of view are inevitably limited to a bounded quantity of space.256

Linear perspective, along with Western art, was first introduced to China by the Italian priest Matteo Ricci (利瑪竇 Li Madou, 1552–1610) and other

European missionaries who produced oil paintings and copper engravings in the late Ming period. However, the integration of Western and Chinese painting owed a great deal to several talented Jesuit missionary artists who worked in the eighteenth-century Qing court, including Giuseppe Castiglione (郎世寧 Lang

Shining, active in China 1715–1766), Jean-Denis Attiret (王致誠 Wang Zhicheng, active 1738–1768), and Ignace Sichelbarth ( 艾啓蒙 Ai Qimeng, active

1745–1780). According to Hiromitsu Kobayashi, Castiglione helped to establish a Sino-Western style of painting that is recognized today as one of the styles representative of the imperial court. This new imperial art as well as its

Sino-Western painting techniques were eventually disseminated to the public, giving rise to the mass production of Chinese art that employed Western perspective, such as Suzhou woodblock prints.257

It was through precisely these sorts of artworks that Ren Bonian first came into contact with the Western concept of perspective. Ren had a keen interest in the folk art painting of the Jiangnan region, and when living in Suzhou he often

256 Rowley, George. Principles of Chinese Painting, p.62.

257 Hiromitsu Kobayashi, ‗Suzhou Prints and Western Perspective‘, p. 262. 170 visited the workshops that produced Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints near the Beisi Pagoda. 258 I suggest, however, that Ren was more immediately influenced by another type of painting, namely, portraiture in the style of Zeng

Jing 曾鯨 (1568–1650), who was the most famous portraitist of late Ming

China. Deeply impacted by the European painting techniques that had become known in his time, Zeng adopted a new realistic approach to his portraiture in which the faces of characters were represented with vivid three-dimensional effects. He did this so successfully that the Wusheng shishi 無聲詩史 (A History of Silent Poetry), a monograph on Ming painters, commented that ―his portraiture could be compared to taking images from a mirror, wonderfully obtaining both the spirit and the appearance [of the subject].‖259 His distinctive style became known as the Bochen style, after Zeng‘s courtesy name, and his followers and disciples were called the Bochen School. They were mainly active in the Lower

Yangtze region—the area where Ren Bonian lived and worked.

The folk art portrait painting that Ren Bonian learned from his father was of the Bochen style. 260 Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that Ren Bonian understood some primary concepts of Western perspective, such as the

258 Gong Chanxing 龔產興. ‗Ren Bonian zonglun 任伯年綜論 (On Ren Bonian)‘ in Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖, ed., Ren Bonian yanjiu 任伯年研究 (Study of Ren Bonian). Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2002, p. 118.

259 Quoted in Lee, Stella. ‗Figure Painters of Late Ming‘ in Cahill, James (ed.) The Restless Landscape:

Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period. 1971, p. 148. 260 Shan Guolin 單國霖. ‗Lun Ren Bonian de xiaoxianghua yishu 論任伯年的肖像畫藝術 (On Ren

Bonian‘s Portrait Painting)‘ in Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖, (ed.) Ren Bonian yanjiu 任伯年研究 (Study of Ren

Bonian). 2002, p. 175. 171 representation of three-dimensional volume and the illusion of spatial depth, from a young age. Besides his early art education, another critical opportunity for

Ren to gain access to Western painting and its perspective was his association with Liu Dezhai, the curator of the gallery at the first art school to teach Western arts in China. Learning Western life drawing from this friend, it is believed that

Ren comprehended some basic principles of perspective and mastered the skill of depicting the accurate shape and scale of objects.261

(Figure 10. Ploughing, by Ren Bonian) (Figure 11. Going Home on a Spring Day, by Ren Bonian)

A better understanding of Ren‘s perspective can be achieved by analyzing the composition of Figures 10 and 11. The first work (Figure 10) depicts an old farmer looking into the distance, where a man is ploughing his fields with a

261 Gong Chanxing 龔產興, ―Ren Bonian zonglun 任伯年綜論‖, p. 126. 172 buffalo. There is only one focal point and the spatial depth is marked by a foreground (the old farmer with a cane standing on a wooden bridge), middle distance (the two large trees at the end of the bridge), and far distance (the ploughman and a buffalo). This picture accords with the principles of Western perspective by displaying one of the most characteristic features of linear perspective, that is, objects are drawn smaller and less clearly as their distance from the observer increases. For instance, the old farmer nearby is so clearly drawn that we can even see his eyes, nose, and moustache; in contrast, the distant ploughman and his buffalo look small and indistinct. The same features of perspective can also be found in the second painting, which shows a scholar and his servant on their way home on a spring day. In contrast to the multiple focal points in literati landscapes, only one fixed focus is present in this painting. In the foreground of the picture, a big flourishing tree and a gigantic rock are meticulously drawn, and one can clearly see the swaying branches, green leaves wavering in strong winds, and the weeds growing on the rock. In the far distance a thatched cottage is discernible, although partially obscured by the huge rock.

Employing Western perspective, these two paintings create the illusion of spatial depth on a two-dimensional plane that is rarely found in traditional landscape paintings. Ren Bonian‘s innovative application of Western art techniques denotes a successful approach to the modernization of Chinese painting in the second half of the nineteenth century.

173 3.4 Conclusion

As part of a broader endeavour to demonstrate the modern transformation of visuality in late Qing China, this chapter has investigated a critical form of visual arts—Chinese painting. Specifically, it has identified emerging changes in late

Qing artists‘ ways of seeing and their construction of the visual through the analysis of Ren Bonian‘s paintings. As a leading painter of the Shanghai School,

Ren was an epitome of the artist-intellectual class in late nineteenth-century

China. His paintings provide a window through which we clearly see some new features of visual construction. These in turn reflect an active attempt to reform and modernize Chinese painting at a time when orthodox literati painting was increasingly losing its vitality and attractiveness.

These new features of visual construction in Ren‘s paintings, as my analysis has shown, can be summarized by the following three changes. First, objects of vision changed from those elegant and tasteful things—which were represented with rich symbolic meanings and moral values in scholar-artists‘ paintings—to ordinary things that were found in the daily lives of the general public. This change resulted from the continuous decline of the social class of scholar-officials and the remarkable rise of the merchant-bourgeois class in late imperial China. Traditional literati painting as well as its stereotyped subject matter were no longer popular in the art market, and were gradually replaced by the budding Shanghai School of painting with its fresh, approachable, and

174 inviting subjects. Second, the strategy of visual representation changed from indifference regarding visual appeal, which was shown by most scholar-painters, to attaching great importance to vivid colours and the realistic representation of images. This change undoubtedly suggests that the painter catered to the demand in the art market. It also indicates that Chinese painting began to get rid of the dominant literati-elite taste and artistic style by drawing on elements from folk art painting and Western painting. Third, Ren Bonian abandoned the shifting perspective with a moving focus, which was commonly used in traditional

Chinese landscapes, and assimilated the Western perspective with a single fixed focus into his paintings. This change was a product of appropriating Western concepts and techniques to reform and modernize Chinese painting. Thus, it reflects the fact that in intricate and often subtle ways, Western art had a lasting impact on traditional Chinese painting, beginning from the mid-Ming period.

Underlying socio-cultural circumstances gave rise to these changes in visual construction. The modern transformation of visuality in late Qing painting was determined by the burgeoning prosperity of Shanghai as a modern metropolis and the unavoidable importation and influence of Western art; also by the decline of literati painting and the rise of the Shanghai School. Both of these large-scale shifts and the consequent changes in visual construction were the outcomes of

China‘s social and cultural modernization, thus displaying the complexity and multiplicity of the manifestations of the modern. In this vein, the discussion of the present chapter has shown that the advent of modernity not only altered

175 material life, but also affected mentality and behaviours, such as ways of seeing.

Moreover, while the grand forces of modernity in late nineteenth-century China were vital in shaping the changes in the construction of the visual, individual subjects such as Ren Bonian also played a key role in this history. Chinese artist-intellectuals contributed much to the making of modernity, especially cultural modernity, through their active participation in modernizing Chinese painting and visual construction.

176 Chapter 4

Visual Journey in Sino-Western Comparative Perspective: Kang Youwei

Now I have finished my long journey to eleven European countries. To share

my overseas experiences with my compatriots without delay, I write this book

summarily. I wish they read the book, just as they taste a small piece of meat

(in order to tell the flavor of the whole pot of soup). In that sense, I am a chef

and I do hope my compatriots can enjoy the dishes I cook, or I am a landscape

painter and my compatriots can travel happily in the visual scenes I

represent.262

------Kang Youwei 康有為

Focusing on the modern transformation of visuality in late Qing China, I have examined Gong Zizhen‘s poetry and Ren Bonian‘s Chinese painting respectively in the previous two chapters. In this chapter, I will move my study to another important visual field, namely late Qing overseas travel writing. This type of literature has great significance for my current investigation of visuality because it contains abundant descriptions of travel experiences, most of which are visual experiences. In addition, due to the advent of modern transportation technology, overseas travel in the late 1800s and the early 1900s was inextricably linked to

262 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記 (Travels in Eleven European

Countries). 2007, p. 12. 177 the West and modernity. In other words, the emergence of the Chinese traveling to Europe and America—whether government-paid or self-funded, by ocean liner or by train—was indisputably a manifestation of late Qing modernity. Thus late

Qing overseas travel writings establish a strong connection between visuality and modernity.

It is obvious that what late Qing travelers saw in the West, like exotic scenery and particular cultural landscapes, were noticeably different from what appeared in front of their pre-modern predecessors and their contemporaries at home. And few among their audiences had been abroad or were knowledgeable about Western countries. In order to better represent the fresh visual experiences from their journey to their domestic readers, early Chinese travelers therefore had to create a new strategy for constructing the visual in their travel writings and drew on a Sino-Western comparative perspective to explain the unfamiliar. The

Sino-Western comparative perspective in late Qing overseas travel writings played a significant role in shaping and spreading the modern worldview, which displaced the traditional Sino-centric worldview and became a key characteristic of modern Chinese intellectuals. This special perspective is well exemplified in the travel accounts of Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858–1927), an eminent scholar, thinker, and political reformer of the late Qing dynasty.

This chapter is divided into three main parts. The first part introduces the historical and theoretical context of late Qing overseas travel writing. In this part, two crucial points are elucidated: first, the rise of overseas travel writing

178 accompanied late Qing China‘s historical encounters with and adaptations of

Western modernity; second, travel writing can be understood as a kind of literary construction of the author‘s visual experiences on the journey. These two points lay a solid foundation for my investigation of Kang Youwei‘s overseas travel essays. The second part of the present chapter expounds the Sino-Western comparative perspective by analyzing the travel accounts of Kang Youwei.

Overseas travel is in essence a meeting of cultures. In view of this, I examine

Kang‘s comprehensive observation and experience of Western culture. I also examine his literary construction of visual experience with reference to the three layers of culture, namely material objects in the surface layer, institutions and conventions in the middle, and values and beliefs at the inner core. To convey the writer‘s experiences of the West to domestic readers, the Sino-Western comparative perspective was widely used with respect to various layers of culture.

The application of this special perspective in Kang‘s overseas travel accounts is not so much a natural description as a deliberate writing strategy, through which the writer expressed his reflections and opinions on China‘s reform and her future. The last part is the conclusion, which provides a brief review of all my arguments in this chapter.

4.1 Historical and Theoretical Context

The Rise of Overseas Travel Writing in Late Qing China

179

Many more Chinese people traveled overseas in the late Qing period than ever before. This trend, as some researchers suggest, can justifiably be described as a great ―wave of going abroad‖ in late Qing China.263 The travelers consisted chiefly of government officials, students, and exiled reformers, who traveled not for migration or settlement but for exploration and knowledge. Coming from the

Chinese intellectual stratum, these travelers wrote a large number of travel essays, from which domestic readers of that time came to know the outer world and form their first impressions of the West. For instance, in 1868 the Qing government sent its first diplomatic mission led by the envoy Anson Burlingame to visit the

United States and major powers in Europe. After returning to China, some accompanying officials published their travel experiences. 264 That fruitful diplomatic visit spurred the Qing government to actively engage in foreign affairs by assigning diplomats to Western countries during the 1870s and 1880s.

A by-product of this policy was that many diplomats‘ overseas experiences were recorded in their travel writings, such as Shixi jicheng 使西紀程 (Records of

My Journey to the West) by Guo Songtao 郭嵩燾 (1818–1891),265 Chushi

263 See Dong Shouyi 董守義, Kuachu guomen: Qingmo chuguo chao 跨出國門：清末出國潮 (Moving beyond National Borders: The Wave of Going Abroad in Late Qing China). 1997.

264 Representative works include Zhi Gang 志剛 (1818–?), Chushi taixi ji 初使泰西紀 (My First

Mission to the West); Sun Jiagu 孫家谷 (1823–1888), Shixi shulue 使西述略 (Sketches of a Mission to the West); Zhang Deyi 張德彝 (1847–1918), Oumei huanyou ji 歐美環遊記 (Tours around Europe and

America).

265 Guo Songtao 郭嵩濤 (1818–1891) was the first Qing minister to be stationed in a Western country. 180 siguo riji 出使四國日記 (Journal of Diplomatic Mission to Four European

Countries) by Xue Fucheng 薛福成 (1838–1894),266 and Shimei jilue 使美記略

(Sketches of a Mission to the United States) by Chen Lanbin 陳蘭彬 (1816–

1895).267

Meanwhile, overseas Chinese students also played a role in the prosperity of late Qing travel writing. The first batch of overseas students was sponsored by foreign Christian mission schools or organizations that were operating in China.

One representative of this group was Rong Hong 容閎 (1828–1912), who was the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university and became known as the ―father‖ of Chinese overseas students. In 1842, Rong attended the

Morrison Academy in Hong Kong. Four years later, he was taken to the United

States by the schoolmaster Reverend Brown and continued his education there.

After graduating from Yale College in 1854, Rong returned to China and persuaded the Qing government to send students to the United States to study

Western science and engineering. In 1909, Rong published his autobiography My

Life in China and America in English, which reviewed his efforts to promote

Sino-American cultural exchanges. A second group of overseas students was chiefly sponsored by the government under the auspices of the Chinese

Educational Mission, which was initially proposed by Rong Hong. Between 1872

He served as an ambassador to England and France from 1877 through 1879. 266 Xue Fucheng 薛福成 (1838–1894) served as the Qing government‘s ambassador to Great Britain,

France, Belgium and Italy.

267 Chen Lanbin 陳蘭彬 (1816–1895) was the first Chinese minister to the United States. 181 and 1875, the Qing government dispatched four groups of students to America.

The average age of the 120 students was only twelve. These boys later contributed to the development of China‘s modern mining, transportation, education, diplomacy, and other industries.268 A third kind of student who studied abroad did so at their own expense. One representative figure was Wu

Tingfang 伍廷芳 (1842–1922), who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Acting Premier during the early years of the Republic of China. In 1874, Wu went to England to study law at University College in London, and was called to the bar at Lincoln‘s Inn in 1876, becoming the first ethnic Chinese barrister in history. His travel writings included America, through the Spectacles of an

Oriental Diplomat, which was written in English and published in 1914.

Another important force contributing to the rise of late Qing overseas travel writing was exiled dissidents and reformers. Wang Tao 王韜 (1828–1897) was an early representative of this category. He was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

In 1848, Wang Tao went to Shanghai to visit his father and made friends with

Walter Henry Medhurst, an English missionary in charge of the London

Missionary Society Press. After his father died in 1849, Wang joined the Press and worked with Medhurst for the next thirteen years. Due to his correspondence with a leader of the Taiping army, Wang became a wanted man on the government‘s list and had to flee to Hong Kong in October 1862. Five years later,

268 For more information about imperial students, see: http://www.yale.edu/cusy/imperialstudents.htm

(accessed July 20, 2014). 182 with the assistance of Medhurst‘s friend James Legge, he visited Scotland via

France and England, enjoying many exotic attractions. During his three-year journey, Wang Tao noted down his impressions of the places and later (in 1890) collated some of these materials in his travel book, Manyou suilu 漫遊隨錄

(Jottings from Carefree Travel), the very first travel book about Europe by a

Chinese scholar. In 1879, at the invitation of Japanese literati, Wang Tao spent over four months in Japan visiting cities such as Nagasaki, Nagoya and Tokyo.

His notes of this journey became Fusang youji 扶桑遊記 (Japan Travel). Other famous exiled reformers during the late Qing period include the subject of this chapter (Kang Youwei) and his younger colleague and follower, Liang Qichao

梁啟超 (1873–1929). The former wrote a travel book named Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記 (Travels in Eleven European Countries); the latter‘s travel accounts can be found in such publications as Xindalu youji 新大陸遊記

(Selected Memoir of Travels in the New World), Ouyou xinying lu 歐遊心影錄

(Excerpts from the Impressions of Travels in Europe), and Xiaweiyi youji 夏威夷

遊記 (Travel Notes on Hawaii).

Why was it not until the late Qing dynasty that more and more Chinese intellectual elites went abroad and produced such abundant travel works? On the one hand, it is hard for those living in the pre-modern era to travel abroad due to geographical obstacles and poor transportation. This is especially true for China, a land that is isolated by vast oceans to its east, freezing Siberia to its north, the barren Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to its west, and impenetrable jungles to its south.

183 Without modern means of transport, like ocean liner or plane, the number of those Chinese who traveled abroad is very small. On the other hand, owing to the deep-rooted notions of family and homeland, traditional Chinese people were unwilling to go abroad. Ancient China was a closed agricultural society; most of its people were peasant farmers, whose livelihoods were entirely based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Compared with hunter-gatherer societies or commercial/industrial societies, in which people are able to move about and to settle freely, the people in an agricultural society can hardly leave their rural villages, for their subsistence is tied to the land. Hence, the renowned sociologist and anthropologist Fei Xiaotong 費孝通 (1910–2005) stressed in his Xiangtu Zhongguo 鄉土中國 (From the Soil) that ―those who make a living directly by farming have to stick to the soil‖.269 Fei‘s argument indicates that keeping life stable and peaceful was a very simple and natural belief or value in an agricultural country like China, and leaving the homeland or abandoning the soil would go against this value. This value was reinforced by some traditional ideas, such as the political advocacy of ―emphasizing agriculture and repressing commerce (zhongben yimo 重本抑末)‖ and the Confucian moral teaching of ―do not travel far from home when your parents are alive (fumu zai, bu yuanyou 父母

在，不遠遊)‖. With the cultural background as such, Chinese literati seldom went abroad and left few overseas travel writings.

269 Fei Xiaotong 費孝通, Xiangtu Zhongguo 鄉土中國 (From the Soil). 2005 [1948], p. 3. 184 Travel Writing as Literary Construction of Visual Experience

As a kind of literary composition, travel writing has to use text or words as a vehicle for information delivery, through which the traveler-writer can smoothly share his/her personal travel experiences with readers. These experiences might include auditory experience, olfactory experience, tactile experience, and emotional experience. But the dominant component ought to be visual experience, for our eyes are generally recognized as the main passageway through which outside information comes into the brain in a direct, impressive, and comprehensive way. This is especially true for an overseas traveler. In this regard,

Tian Xiaofei 田曉菲 (1971–) has pointed out that looking is the main way of getting to know a foreign country, particularly for those who have little or no knowledge of its language.270 Her statement undoubtedly applies to late Qing

Chinese intellectual elites who traveled abroad for the first time, such as Huang

Zunxian 黃遵憲 (1848–1905) and Kang Youwei. Accordingly, their first-hand visual experiences in foreign countries constitute the main contents of their overseas travel writings.

This literary construction of travel experiences, especially visual experience, is important for a good travel essay. In most cases, people prefer to read those travel writings with plenty of picturesque descriptions that can prompt readers to

270 Tian Xiaofei. Visionary Journeys: Travel Writings from Early Medieval and Nineteenth-Century

China. 2011, p. 153. 185 visualize the vivid scenes that the travel writer has really seen. In this sense, the production and consumption of travel writing can be interpreted as the following two interrelated activities: the writer‘s construction of his/her visual experiences in the form of words, and the reader‘s reconstruction of those visual experiences in their mind. These two activities are based on the premise that the travel writer describes his/her visual experiences clearly to readers.

Thereupon, the next question is how one can represent his/her visual experiences to readers as accurately and clearly as possible, especially when the exotic scenery and customs one witnesses in the journey are completely unfamiliar to his/her readers. Before answering this question, it is necessary for us to understand what an accurate and clear description or expression is. If this is still too broad, we might ask ourselves: as far as only one word is concerned, in which situations can we affirm that the meaning of this word is clearly conveyed to the reader? According to Ferdinand de Saussure, a linguistic sign is composed of a signifier (the form that the sign takes), and a signified (the concept it represents).271 If we acknowledge that a word is a linguistic sign, then the basis for having a clear understanding of this word is to be fully aware of both its signifier and signified. Take the word ―ping-pong‖ for example. For those readers who have never heard of the sport (the signified), the word (the signifier) is insufficient to give them a proper understanding of ―ping-pong‖. Thus, the word

―ping-pong‖ is an unclear and ineffective expression. A possible solution to this

271 Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics. 1983, p. 101. 186 problem is to look for another word that is familiar to the readers and use this new word to describe what ―ping-pong‖ is. For instance, if readers know the word ―tennis‖ and its meaning, then you can explain ―ping-pong‖ as ―table tennis‖ and further tell them the similarities and differences between tennis and ping-pong. In this way, readers obtain a clear idea of this new thing called

―ping-pong‖.

The example above shows that for a clear expression of a thing with which the readers are totally unacquainted, one would do well to describe this object with reference to another similar or related thing that is familiar to readers. This method of comparison, or the comparative perspective, is often used in travel writings, as new things are commonly found on a journey. It is worth noting that for Chinese travel writers, this comparative perspective was employed almost entirely in relation to domestic travel until the late nineteenth century, when this old country truly integrated with the rest of the modern world for the first time and some intellectual elites had the precious opportunity to travel abroad. Prior to that period, without a scientific concept of the world or modern means of transport, a limited number of Chinese travelers crossed national borders, let alone embarking on a long journey to Europe or America. Hence, most of the novel things that ancient travelers met on the road and recorded in their writings were, in fact, within the boundaries of China, hence relatively familiar to their domestic readers. This explains why a comparative perspective, especially a

Sino-Western one, did not emerge until the late Qing period, when intellectual

187 elites began to venture abroad in considerable numbers.

4.2 Comparative Perspective in Kang Youwei’s Travel Essays

Travel, as David Crouch has pointed out, should be understood as an encounter.

That encounter occurs ―between people, between people and space, amongst people as socialized and embodied subjects, and in contexts in which leisure/tourism is available‖, and it is also ―between expectations and experience, desire, and so on.‖272 By using the word ―encounter‖ in his account, Crouch suggests that travel is an experience in which people (tourists or sightseers) meet the unexpected, rather than the ordinary, familiar, and foreseeable. This is particularly true when it comes to overseas travel, which is often considered as a meeting of cultures, 273 featuring distinctly different landscapes and exotic customs. This meeting usually leads to a comparison between the home and target cultures, and the comparison may touch on various layers and aspects of culture, from outer artifacts and patterns of behaviors to inner values and beliefs,274 depending on the cultural consciousness and reflective abilities of the sightseer.

272 Crouch, David. ‗Introduction: Encounters in Leisure/Tourism‘ in Crouch, David. (ed.) Leisure/

Tourism Geographies: Practices and Geographical Knowledge. 1999, p. 1.

273 Ibid., p. 1. 274 For a survey of the various aspects and layers of culture, see M. Rousseau, Denise. ―Assessing

Organizational Culture: The Case for Multiple Methods‖, in Schneider, Benjamin. (ed.) Organizational

Climate and Culture. 1990, pp.153–192. 188 Kang Youwei, known as the most important leader of the reform movement of 1898, was one such qualified cultural observer. Despite Kang‘s prominence in late imperial China and studies of it, the important role of travel in shaping his political thought and ideas about reform has hitherto been overlooked. A native of Nanhai, Guangdong Province, Kang was born into a family of scholar-officials, which accorded him a strongly Confucian intellectual background. By his early teens, however, this traditional, home-based education failed to convince him to accept Confucian classics entirely. Instead, Kang often showed dissatisfaction with the scholastic system of his time, especially its emphasis on practicing the

―eight-legged essay‖ (bagu wen 八股文), a style of essay writing with a rigid artificial structure that must be mastered to pass the civil service examination.

Because of his disdain for the eight-legged essay, he was once scolded by his uncles in 1873.275

Kang was distressed that the ―Old Learning‖ could not effectively address the severe political and social crisis of the late Qing dynasty until 1879, when he took his first trip to Hong Kong. In this prosperous British colonial city, magnificent Western buildings, tidy roads, and disciplined policemen impressed

Kang so deeply that he realized that Westerners should no longer be viewed as barbarians, as many old books of ancient China asserted; instead, the foreigners had very advanced institutions for governing a country. 276 This initial

275 Kang Youwei 康有為, Kang Nanhai zibian nianpu 康南海自編年譜 (A Chronology of Kang Youwei

Written by Himself). 2012 [1953], p. 6.

276 Ibid., pp. 9–10. 189 understanding of the West was reinforced by another trip to a treaty port,

Shanghai, three years later. According to his autobiography, these traveling experiences in his early life not only provided him the opportunity to witness

Western society and culture, but also enabled him to identify a potential way to promote national prosperity and strengthen China against external aggression—that is, to learn from the West.

In fact, during the late Qing period there was consensus among China‘s intellectual elite that the nation must learn from Western powers. This was in no small part because the country had been decisively defeated by the Europeans in the Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1856–1860). A case in point was the

Self-Strengthening Movement (1861 – 1895). This was launched by open-minded officials like Zeng Guofan 曾國藩 (1811 – 1872) and Li

Hongzhang 李鴻章 (1823–1901), who carried out a series of reforms, such as adopting Western firearms, machines, scientific knowledge and training of technical and diplomatic personnel, to modernize the Qing empire‘s economy and military. However, most intellectuals of that time sourced their knowledge of the West primarily from books; very few had the opportunity to go abroad and experience Western society and culture firsthand. In contrast, Kang Youwei‘s trips to Hong Kong and Shanghai offered him real experiences of the West that could not be gained from books. This way of learning through travel became one of his favorite methods of saving the nation, or in his own words, of ―seeking a

190 cure‖ for China‘s ―illnesses‖.277 Kang‘s early field trips thus can be considered as a prologue to his later travels—more precisely, study tours—around the world.

Kang Youwei‘s first trip abroad was in September 1898, after the Hundred

Days‘ Reform Movement was suppressed by powerful conservatives led by

Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧 (1835 – 1908). As a leader of the reform movement and the man most wanted by the Qing government, Kang had to escape to Japan. From there, Kang traveled to thirty-one countries in four continents. In 1904, he traveled Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Germany,

France, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, and Britain, and based on this transnational and transcultural journey, he wrote a travel book named Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記 (Travels in Eleven European Countries). This book provides a text through which we can examine new features of visual construction in the late Qing political elite‘s literary-visual practices.

It is common to find the Sino-Western comparative perspective in Kang

Youwei‘s overseas travel writings. This perspective deserves our attention and careful consideration because it was novel for most Chinese intellectuals of that time. In the pre-modern period the time-honored concept tianxia 天下—which literally meant ―all under heaven‖ and implied that ―the entire world belongs to the Emperor‖—formed the basis for the world view of the Chinese people. It was not until the nineteenth-century arrival of Western imperialism as well as the

European concept of the nation-state that China thought of itself seriously as part

277 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 11. 191 of an international system.278 Thus, the Sino-Western comparative perspective that appeared in late Qing literary works should be regarded as a product of

Chinese modernity.

Comparisons of Material Objects

Acts of seeing constitute such an essential part of travel that sightseeing is often viewed as the highest priority on a trip. Before the widespread availability of camera or film, tourists were able to record some of their sightseeing experiences in travel essays, as Kang Youwei did in the winter of 1904. As the outermost layer of culture, material objects, such as architecture and artifacts, come into view in an obvious way and are easily perceived by tourists. Consequently, a large number of words are used by a travel writer to describe them. For instance, in his essays Kang makes lots of vivid and detailed representations of majestic

European palaces, ancient churches, and exquisite oil paintings. These representations, however, are never innocent; instead, they are often enmeshed in a Sino-Western comparative perspective, through which Kang makes value judgments or moral judgments about Western culture using his own frame of reference—the traditional culture of his motherland, China.

Kang‘s judgments, subjective or objective, become significant when we consider that Kang is not so much a carefree tourist as a prepared observer or

278 Mitter, Rana. Modern China: A Very Short Introduction. 2008, p. 10. 192 investigator of exotic cultures. This is evidenced by the heroic statement in the preface of his travel notes:

If Heaven does feel compassion for the sick country of China, then an

urgent question must be ―what drugs can effectively cure her disease?‖ Heaven

has to collect the precious herbs of all nations, study their natures and tastes,

screen for those useful ones, examine whether they are effective, work out the

proper recipe, and make these herbs into the right medicine, so that China can

take it, instead of the wrong medicine. Therefore, Heaven must find Shennong

(神農), a legendary character who tastes bitter, poisonous plants to identify

good herbs without any risk, and ask him to taste all the herbs. Only through

this procedure can the right medicine be finally made, and can sick China be

saved.279

Here, Kang Youwei compares himself to a heroic figure in Chinese mythology, declaring that like Shennong, he will make an arduous journey and find the best ―medicine‖ to save China. This indicates that the real goal of Kang‘s overseas travel was not sightseeing, but to investigate Western politics and culture; his fundamental purpose was to make China stronger and wealthier by learning from the modern West. This determined his strategy of representing visual experiences: through the Sino-Western comparative perspective.

279 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 11. 193 This special perspective is evident in Kang‘s detailed description of St.

Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy:

The Palace of the Popes, widely lauded as the most exquisite and majestic

palace in the world, is more than 1000 meters long, 666 meters wide and has

about 11,000 rooms, owing to continuous construction under many generations

of popes in past centuries. … Its scale is unparalleled among all the palaces I

have visited in eleven European countries; the Palace of Versailles in Paris is

not even half as large, let alone other palaces. To be sure, the Chinese imperial

palace (the Forbidden City) is the world‘s largest palace complex, but it is

mainly built of dull wood and clay bricks, and one can hardly find

exquisite statues and multi-storey buildings in it. Therefore, as far as

architectural beauty and elegant decoration are concerned, the Forbidden City is

far inferior to the Palace of the Popes. … Surely, the papacy is a miraculous

thing, and I do think the Palace of the Popes is the greatest spectacle on the

earth.280

In this account, Kang uses detailed figures to explain the large scale of the

Palace and demonstrates that it is the largest palace in Europe by comparing it

with other well-known Western palaces, including the Palace of Versailles in

Paris. In order to make this grand Italian building understood to domestic

280 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 57. 194 readers who know little about it, Kang elaborates on its architectural

characteristics by making a comparison between the Palace of the Popes and the

Imperial Palace in Beijing. He argues that the Chinese building is inferior to the

Italian one in terms of architectural beauty and elegant decoration. This

comparative perspective is conducive to realizing Kang‘s ultimate goal of

finding Western things worth learning, and helping the Chinese to realize the

country‘s problems and weakness so that they can be solved or improved in the

future.

When comparing the Italian palace to its counterpart in China, Kang pays special attention to building materials. He thinks that the widespread use of marble in Italian palaces is one crucial reason for their magnificence:

In Italy, there are two kinds of local products that are well-known

throughout Europe. The first is marble, which is widely used to decorate walls

and pillars of those grand European palaces built in an ancient Roman style.

Because Italy abounds in this type of rock, the Italians are known for making

good use of marble as an important building material. … I once visited a

museum and saw a variety of colorful marble with dazzling luster. Among them,

the most precious one is a sort of yellow marble mined in the vicinity of Rome,

which has become a favorite of European people. A major reason why our

ancient palaces are not sturdy and durable enough, I suggest, is that solid stone

is rarely used to build palaces in China. The lack of beautiful marble in

195 architectural decoration contributes to the fact that few Chinese palaces are as

exquisite and majestic as their Western counterparts. This is really a pity for

Chinese civilization! As far as the Imperial Palace of Beijing is concerned, we

can see that white marble, mined from western hills of Beijing, was used to

make stone steps and handrails for important buildings such as the Hall of

Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, the Hall of Preserving

Harmony, and the Gate of Supreme Harmony. … The quality of white marble is

not as good as that of Italian marble, but the grain is also beautiful. … With

many mountains rich in mineral treasures, China has such abundant marble

reserves. If this marble can be exploited and exported abroad, won‘t our

country‘s wealth be significantly increased?281

From this account, we can see that the beautiful Italian marble left such a deep impression on Kang Youwei that he immediately associated this important building material with ancient Chinese palaces, which were mainly made of ―dull wood and clay bricks‖. Again, his comparative perspective is at work, and pushes

Kang to believe that China should follow the example of Italy by using beautiful marble in palace construction. Furthermore, he suggests that to increase the country‘s wealth, China ought to encourage the exploitation and export of marble.

Here, Kang‘s comparative perspective brings about the end result of learning from the strong points of the West to offset China‘s weaknesses. Meanwhile, this

281 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 127. 196 Sino-Western comparative perspective also exposes Kang‘s ideas of cultural nationalism, whose basic purpose is to contribute to the imagination of the

Chinese nation-state. As a prominent Confucian scholar in late Qing China,

Kang‘s cultural nationalism is a Confucianism-centered one. Regarding the role of Confucianism in Chinese cultural nationalism, John Makeham has pointed out that Confucianism has been ―a cultural formation fundamental to the identity consciousness of the Chinese (Zhonghua) nation‖.282 In Kang‘s travel writings, the cultural nationalism can be perceived everywhere, accompanying his

Sino-Western comparative perspective and endowing the latter with characteristics of the modern.

Kang‘s interest in Western material culture was of course not limited to architecture. He also showed a strong interest in Western artworks, such as paintings and classical sculptures, all of which he carefully observed and appreciated through his Sino-Western comparative perspective. This enabled him to easily discern those merits of Western works of art that set a good example for

Chinese artists:

(In a museum of Rome) One can easily see the visual images of a

complete long line of Roman emperors due to the nation‘s time-honored

appreciation of sculpture. In contrast, we can hardly find any images of the

282 Makeham, John. Lost Soul: “Confucianism” in Contemporary Chinese Academic Discourse. 2008, p.

15. 197 ancients in China. For instance, I once saw Ye Yanlan (1823–1897)‘s portraits,

which depict more than one thousand well-known people, including cabinet

ministers, scholars, literary celebrities, ladies from distinguished families, and

famous prostitutes. However, all these people are figures from the Ming and

Qing dynasties, which are not considered the real ancient times of China. Even

so, these portraits are some of the rare masterpieces of Chinese painting that

contain the images of historical figures. As far as this fact is concerned, I am

ashamed of my country‘s civilization, especially compared to that of ancient

Rome. No wonder Europeans feel proud and look down upon other people.283

The comparative method in itself was by no means new or rare. It has always been widely used in daily life; it is common knowledge that comparing with others can assist one to realize their true strengths and weaknesses. But here it should be noted that to ensure an objective and effective comparison, one has to get rid of personal stance and parochial opinions and try to see oneself from an impartial point of view; that is to say, standpoint plays a key role in determining the success or failure of an unbiased comparison. It is the same with comparing countries. For Kang Youwei, leaving China and traveling to European countries offered him an advantageous standpoint, from which he can re-understand, and re-estimate his motherland by making a relatively objective comparision. Few of

Kang‘s compatriot predecessors could form such a relatively objective judgment

283 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 84. 198 of their own country due to their lack of a Sino-Western comparative perspective, which was largely achieved in a foreign land.

This Sino-Western comparative perspective brought Kang new perceptions and knowledge of the West as well as a rethinking of China in the modern world.

Since his findings were chiefly based on overseas travelling experiences, they were bound to be infused with a sense of the exotic, unexpected, and astonishing, as is the case in the above account. When Kang was visiting a museum in Rome, this observer of Western culture discovered that almost all the images of kings of

Ancient Rome had been well-preserved in the form of figure sculptures. This was in contrast to China, where the earliest images of famous persons in existing portraits were those of the Ming dynasty. Although Kang says here that he felt ashamed of Chinese civilization, implicit in this statement is a conviction that something must be changed, not only for Chinese art, but also for other fields.

There are many examples like this in Kang‘s travel writing; he finds

Chinese counterpoints for whatever he sees in Western countries. He mentions the Forbidden City at the sight of the Palace of the Popes, he associates beautiful and durable Italian marble with Chinese palaces made out of wood and clay, and he thinks of Chinese figure paintings when appreciating the exquisite sculptures of Roman emperors. Surely this close and natural link between Kang‘s visual experiences in the West and those in China results from the fact that no matter how far he travels, his heart remains in his homeland. This is consistent with Kang‘s status as a patriotic politician and his motive for travelling abroad,

199 namely to improve China‘s reform and modernization by learning from Western powers.

Comparisons of Customs and Institutions

Generally, an institution or custom is a tradition that has existed for a long time and is accepted as an important part of a particular society. The customs and institutions of a culture are not as easily identified as material objects or physical artifacts. Considering they are often related to people‘s everyday life, it is more practical to recognize them by observing such concrete things as people‘s behaviors, their manners, costume, habits, and living conditions. Since these concrete matters are visible to a traveler, a nation‘s customs and institutions may be represented in travel notes through description. The feasibility of this method was illustrated by Kang Youwei‘s practice in his overseas travel writings, and this excellent observer of Western culture communicated those European customs and institutions to his compatriots by tactically using a Sino-Western comparative perspective.

According to Kang‘s record, his observation of the West began upon disembarking in the Italian port city of Brindisi. The following is his description of that memorable morning:

It was 1:00 a.m. when our liner reached the port of Brindisi, Italy. Because

200 the liner was going to load coal at the dock, many passengers, fearing the noise,

went ashore to look for hotels for a good sleep. But I didn‘t think the noise was

unbearable, and kept sleeping in my cabin until 6 a.m. After I disembarked and

checked into a hotel, I soon realized that a pretty penny had to be paid for many

things. In addition to the charges for room rentals and meals, one had to pay for

baths; meanwhile, tips should be given to waiters for their various services,

from table service, bed making, guarding the entrance to carrying your baggage

and operating the elevator. … Thus it can be seen that in European countries,

sharing wealth by leaving a tip is a popular custom, which shows that they

value promoting social stability over practicing thrift. Because every consumer

tips generously, the hotel staff, from grooms to waiters, will never be

down-and-out. In contrast, we Chinese always advocate the practice of thrift

and seldom leave a tip for a service; without this money, our hotels and

carriages can hardly be made exquisite and majestic, and it is almost impossible

for our handymen and waiters to make a decent living. Therefore, if one just

cares about herself/himself, then only one person can live a decent life; if one

holds concern for the welfare of society as a whole, then every individual

should share money with others.284

In this account, Kang Youwei tells of his first encounter with an exotic custom, namely, leaving a tip. In the beginning, he expresses surprise at the

284 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 26. 201 frequency of tipping during the course of simply checking into a hotel. Then he shows a fuller understanding of this behavior and speaks highly of this Western custom after comparing it with some contrary behaviors in China. It is worth noting that when describing what he saw in the Italian hotel, Kang associated the

Western custom with Chinese behaviors. As a result, he paints two pictures for readers in this account: one of Italy and the other of China. The latter stands in sharp contrast to the former; thus this comparative perspective was bound to trigger Chinese readers‘ reflection on their long-held customs.

Finding a safe, comfortable hotel is always an important task for a traveler.

After arriving in the big city of Naples, Kang had to ensure the safety of his property, because several friends had warned him about local thieves:

The common people in Italy are really poor, and many of them are cunning.

A concrete manifestation is the fact that thieves are easily found in this country.

An English businessman warned me some time ago, ―Be careful of your

luggage when staying at a hotel in Rome or Naples. Do not put money in your

suitcase, which is most likely to be stolen. My translator once stayed at a hotel

in Naples. One day he went out for a dinner and left his suit in the room,

forgetting there were two gold coins in the suit. Upon his return, he found his

coins had disappeared. I had a similar experience in a Naples hotel. When I

turned off the light and went to sleep, the housekeeper sneaked into my room

holding a lamp and looked around for my money. As soon as I poked out my

202 head to look at her, she hurriedly dimmed the light and exited.‖ Robbie, my

Austrian servant, told me a story from his stay at a hotel in Naples: that night he

fell asleep, leaving his coat unattended in the room; when he woke up the next

morning, he found that all the money in the pocket of his coat had gone. … The

local custom is similar to that in China, but theft is more rampant than in

China.285

In the above account, Kang informs the reader that stealing is rampant in

Naples in the early twentieth century. In order to prove that it is a widespread social phenomenon, he relates three hotel guests‘ stories about their personal experiences of being robbed in Naples. His narrative is so vivid that the mental images of theft can be easily imagined, in which hotel thieves seem to exist in every corner and in every minute; sometimes even a housekeeper checking the room turns out to be a thief. Here, both Kang‘s detailed description of dramatic scenes and readers‘ positive visualization of the stories contribute to a successful construction of the visual experiences of those guests being robbed in Naples.

And through this construction, a local custom is unfolded before our eyes.

This Neapolitan custom is soon associated with China through the traveler‘s comparative perspective. After depicting the stories of rampant hotel theft, an embarrassing fact is promptly exposed by Kang: China also has this notorious social issue. There is only one short sentence with respect to this, though, which

285 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 27. 203 seems to be mentioned in a casual way. This awkwardness is bound to smash the odd sense of superiority felt by some complacent Chinese readers at the thought that there are so many thieves in a European city. By referring to theft in China,

Kang calls to mind readers‘ similar experiences of being robbed at home and accomplishes a comparison between a social problem in China and the West. In other words, what readers ―see‖, or visualize, in their mind‘s eye is not a single picture but two pictures: one portrays theft in Naples; the other is about the same issue in China. This method of constructing the visual makes Kang‘s travel writings significantly different from most traditional Chinese travel writings which focus on natural landscape or folk customs within China: the former in fact opens two windows at the same time, enabling domestic readers not only to see the West as a travel destination but also to see and review their own country,

China.

After checking into a hotel, Kang Youwei took a walk down the center of the Italian city. However, his impression of Naples, which was an old and shabby city in the early 1900s, differed from that which he had obtained from books.

With respect to this, Kang wrote:

Those who have never traveled to Europe always take it for granted that in

Western countries there are luxury houses and grand mansions everywhere, and

that all the people are bound to have great talents and virtues, like those living

in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is really hard for them to believe that there is a

204 dark side to Western society, such as dirty environment, bad governance, and

rampant thieving and cheating. Therefore, as the saying goes, seeing is

believing. Based on my own travel experiences in Europe and America, I have

to say that in many respects, Western countries do not live up to my good first

impression of them, which was chiefly obtained from books. What a

disappointment! … Indeed, poverty is common in those countries that boast a

long and proud history, just as in China. Poverty cannot be solved in one

stroke.286

Clearly, Kang was somewhat disappointed with what he saw in Europe and

America. As a result of this disappointment, he came to the conclusion that one cannot overestimate the importance of on-the-spot investigation when seeking to develop a correct understanding of a new or an unfamiliar thing. The implication is that Chinese people should not worship Western powers blindly.

Due to the lack of concrete examples and vivid descriptions in the above account, it is hard for readers to visualize the negative aspects revealed by Kang during his European tour. To make his argument clear, Kang gives another example in a special section discussing Italian customs:

In general, the people of Italy are poor, since its modernization started later

than most north European countries. For instance, most of the palaces in Italy

286 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 28. 205 are so simple and unadorned that even at first glance one can see distinct

differences in architectural style between Italian and north European palaces. In

Italy, there are many peasants in ragged clothes, and most people are

uneducated. Quite a lot of Italian expatriates live in Austria or France; most of

them are considered rude and are inclined to quarrel or fight. Once contradicted,

those Italians will draw their swords without any hesitation, especially if they

are drunk. Thus the Germans, the Austrians, and the French generally think the

Italians have coarse manners, so in their everyday lives, they always avoid them.

Besides, Italian thieves are very common, especially in America, where some of

them are even poorer, dirtier, and lowlier than Chinese-Americans. … Anyway,

it is absurd and ridiculous to think highly of all Europeans if you have no

first-hand experience of European countries and their people.287

At least four images about early twentieth-century Italy are represented in the above passage: they are historic palaces with relatively simple external decoration, poor peasants in ragged clothes, rude and offensive Italian expatriates, and numerous thieves living at the very bottom of society. As a literary construction of Kang‘s visual experiences in Italy, these vivid images delineate the Italian social landscape to some extent, though they selectively show the negative aspects of this country. Of course, Kang‘s real purpose here is not to look down upon Italy and its people, but to criticize Chinese compatriots who

287 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 130. 206 have no knowledge of Western countries but show a servile attitude to Western things. In fact, having a deep understanding of Italy, Kang had a special affinity for this country. In his mind, Italy and China were very similar in many respects, from their long histories to current economic and social conditions:

Like China, Italy has bleak countryside and a huge population; like China,

Italy is suffering privation and addressing underuse of machines; like China,

Italy is a country with a long history and many old customs; like China, Italy

has many expatriates; and like China, Italy has weak industry and commerce.

Therefore, it is worthwhile for China to learn from Italy‘s current reform and

modernization.288

Kang‘s comparative perspective is displayed very clearly in the above account. The objects of comparison are two different countries, and so two images appear in our minds when we read these words. However, China and Italy have much in common according to Kang‘s analysis. This finding was surely surprising and intriguing to most Chinese readers. The similarity would have raised the question as to why Italy had become one of the Western powers with the ability to establish colonies overseas, but China remained in poverty and backwardness and even had to face being carved up by colonial powers. As an advocate of bold political reform, Kang‘s answer to this question is that China

288 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 126. 207 had never carried out a successful reform and modernization program, while Italy had in the late nineteenth century. Therefore, after comparing China and Italy, he suggests that to advance the modernization process, China should learn from

Italy rather than other European countries, due to its similar economic conditions and socio-cultural basis for development. For most of his compatriots, Kang‘s suggestion would have been persuasive and feasible, considering that he draws his conclusion after a relatively well-grounded comparison.

Kang‘s Sino-Western comparative perspective, as a new way of seeing, reflected some intellectuals‘ thinking about China‘s future and their simultaneous concern with Western modernity at the turn of the century. Their enthusiasm and attention to both China and the West helped to popularize the view that learning from the modern West could make an old China revitalized, wealthy, and strong.

Thus in the process of improving China‘s modernization, those pioneering intellectual elites adopted this Sino-Western comparative perspective. In this sense, the special perspective can be viewed as a crucial feature of those intellectual elite in terms of their ways of seeing as well as their construction of the visual in writings and artworks.

As for the concrete reform measures that China can learn from Italy, Kang raises several proposals after a careful investigation of the statecraft of Ancient

Rome. One of his proposals is to build roads. The following is his introduction to famous Roman roads:

208 Given that it had a vast territory, the Roman state figured out a good way

to improve its effective control, that is, to promote large-scale construction of

the road system. Once it conquered a country, broad, long-distance highways

would be built to connect the new territory to the capital. … Among all those

Roman roads, the longest one stretched more than 5,000 kilometers, from the

Strait of Gibraltar in the west to the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates in the east,

with its southernmost part reaching Egypt. This road was paved with solid

stones. That is why it is still reasonably well-preserved today. It was such a

huge building project that it could be compared to the Great Wall of China;

truly marvelous. (Once in use,) these Roman roads were conducive to everyday

transportation and trade in peacetime as well as the movement of troops during

wartime.289

Although Roman roads were built two thousand years ago, they are generally recognized as the rudiments of modern highways. This explains why

Kang wanted to introduce such a relic to his readers. As Kang reveals in the above account, good road systems are important for convenient transportation, flourishing trade, and military security. Thus the observer of Western culture speaks highly of the building of Roman roads by comparing it with the Great

Wall of China. His positive evaluation affirmed the Western habit of emphasizing the construction of national infrastructure. Considering this tradition had

289 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 110. 209 contributed to the success of Italy‘s modernization, Kang thinks it is worth learning for his motherland China, a backward country with poor roads.

Another reform measure that China should learn from Ancient Rome, according to Kang Youwei, was to establish banks:

After conquering other countries, the Roman rulers are bound to take

control of the economy and finance of the whole empire. One of their policies is

to establish a national bank, and deposit all state tax revenue and national rental

income in the bank. In the meantime, local banks are also established to lend

money to those who do business. In this way, financial prosperity and the

reasonable control of flows of capital and goods can be achieved.290

Like building roads, establishing banks was a long-standing tradition in Italy.

To Kang Youwei, the establishment of national and local banks was a basic state policy that paved the way for the wealth of a country and its people. This was precisely the goal of the institutional reforms that Kang advocated, and that he expected the Qing government to appreciate and adopt. His purpose in observing

Western culture and society had gone beyond the level of copying and making

Western implements or other physical products; he had begun to reflect on some good customs and institutions of the West and attempt to bring them back home.

However, those customs and institutions beneath the surface of a culture were not

290 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 110. 210 immediately perceptible; Kang identified them by examining some visible manifestations, such as roads and banks, as well as investigating their histories in the West. After a comprehensive introduction to building roads and establishing banks, Kang further compared the statecraft of Ancient Rome to the present policies of the Qing government in the following account:

Though the territory of China is bigger than Ancient Rome, its rulers take

no measures to promote road construction and improve public transportation;

they just know storing gold and silver in the national treasury, not knowing that

the establishment of a national bank can strengthen their control of the

country‘s finances. That is why China cannot meaningfully develop towards a

modern state, and has to deal with serious problems such as banditry, rebellion,

and stagnating flows of capital and goods. What the Chinese government does

today is absolutely not a good approach to governing a great power. In this

regard, it is so embarrassing to compare China with Ancient Rome.291

As an exiled politician, Kang Youwei once again raises the sensitive topic of

China‘s political reform in his notes of overseas travel. In his mind, the statecraft of Ancient Rome ought to be used in China‘s contemporary reform to advance the modernization of his motherland. The construction of roads and the establishment of banks are not just viewed as measures concerning a nation‘s

291 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 111. 211 economic development, but also as crucial to guaranteeing its long-term stability and security. From the Sino-Western comparative perspective in late Qing overseas travel writings, we can see that Chinese intellectual elites of that time, represented by Kang Youwei, retained their patriotism and political aspirations even when travelling in foreign countries.

The foregoing examples have illustrated the Sino-Western comparative perspective through which Kang represented some of the institutions and customs that he encountered on his trip to Italy. Kang‘s special perspective shows that during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Chinese intellectual elites began to pay close attention to learning from the West not only in terms of material objects, but also from some progressive elements in their folk customs and social institutions. Compared with their predecessors who advocated adopting Western military technology and armaments during the

Self-Strengthening Movement, modern Chinese intellectuals had acquired a wider and deeper understanding of the West by thinking about social and cultural reforms beyond the narrow scope of economic and military modernization. Given that Europe had moved into the modern era by that time, this involved a more comprehensive understanding of Western modernity, which proved to be a model in the making of Chinese modernity. It was during the process of expanding the knowledge of Western modernity through overseas travel that a new way of seeing China and the world emerged: the Sino-Western comparative perspective.

Thus the new perspective itself became an important element of Chinese

212 modernity and a remarkable characteristic of modern Chinese intellectuals.

Comparison of Beliefs and Values

Beliefs and values, as the inner core of a culture, are abstract concepts of what is important and worthwhile. They are invisible and can only be recognized by noting some outward manifestations such as people‘s behaviors, attitudes, activities and their outcomes. For example, the value of patriotism can be identified by observing the national flag flying in primary schools or on public holidays. Thus the key to a successful representation of a belief or a value is to give a detailed description as well as a proper elucidation of its outward manifestations, rather than just to explain the meanings of this abstract belief or value in a purely theoretical way. That is exactly what Kang Youwei did in his overseas travel writings. In order to communicate Western values to Chinese readers, Kang paid special attention to the comparison of cultural practices and values between the West and China when representing his visual experiences in

European countries.

To begin with, the value of respecting art and artists in Western culture left a deep impression on the traveler Kang Youwei:

(Of the Pantheon, also known as the Temple to all Gods) On the left side

there is a coffin of a former king of Italy, and on the right side we can see

213 Raphael‘s coffin is also offered for people paying tribute to him. Both the

covers are elaborately decorated. The fact that the coffin of a painter is placed

side by side with that of a king shows how highly Italians regard art. No wonder

they are world-class in painting. In this respect, we Chinese should feel

ashamed.292

Kang Youwei‘s first-hand experience once again bears out the proverb that seeing is believing. If Kang had not personally witnessed the artist‘s coffin alongside that of an Italian king in the Pantheon, he would hardly have believed this arrangement and attitude peculiar to Western culture. The placement of the coffins indicated the equal status of these two kinds of people, whereas in traditional Chinese culture, a strict hierarchic social class structure was supported by Confucian orthodoxy and this equality was almost impossible. This can be seen from the fact that the emperor of China held a divine title, the Son of

Heaven (Tianzi 天子), which suggested that he had the Mandate of Heaven to rule ―all under heaven (tianxia 天下)‖ (i.e., the world). Consequently, the emperor was of unparalleled status in imperial China, in death as in life. Here

Kang shares his insightful reflection on this cultural phenomenon and quickly realizes a deep-rooted cultural value that strongly influences the behavior and attitude of Italian people, that is, their heartfelt respect for art.

To demonstrate that this value is ubiquitous and universally shared by

292 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 101. 214 Italians, Kang cites his personal experience in a public park in Rome:

One evening, when visiting a big park ornamented with colored flags, I

saw many ladies and gentlemen there, with a number of mounted police officers

patrolling the park. It turned out that there was going to be a ceremony to unveil

a statue of a well-known poet at this site. I observed tens of thousands of people

gathering here and removing their hats to salute the statue. I was deeply

impressed by the scene: Italians think highly of art in such an earnest way that it

is no surprise to see the prosperity of art in this nation. This again shames my

country.293

Kang conveys a vivid picture of an Italian custom at the beginning of the twentieth century, in which thousands of citizens of Rome gather to show their respect for a poet by saluting his statue. Happening upon this by chance makes

Kang‘s experience especially authentic and believable; this story also makes readers believe that a respect for art and artists is indeed a popular value in Italy.

It is worth noting that in each of the previous two accounts, Kang laments that the Chinese do not respect art as much as Italians. Influenced by Kang‘s deliberate comparative perspective, readers are inclined to visualize two pictures in their minds successively. The first depicts the real scene in front of the traveler-writer Kang Youwei; the second picture shows the miserable situation of

293 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 101. 215 art and artists in China, which is evoked by the intentional comparison between the countries. That sharp contrast makes readers realize a huge difference in cultural values, and guides them in Kang‘s desired direction of making China a highly civilized country. In this way, Kang‘s motivation for writing determines his strategy of constructing the visual, that is, to describe visual experiences in

Europe from a Sino-Western comparative perspective. This comparative perspective, however, does not mean that he represents Western things and their

Chinese counterparts in approximately the same number of words. In fact, Kang refers to the latter in just a few words, supposing that domestic readers are quite familiar with those matters. In this way, the writer not only eliminates unnecessary words, but also leaves much room for imagination.

Kang Youwei reveals another crucial value of Italian culture, namely the value of cherishing antiquities, through his careful observation of Roman artifacts on display and reflection on this nation‘s preservation of ancient buildings, furniture, artworks, tools, and other material objects. Though there are many descriptions of this kind of experience in his travel essays, I focus on two typical accounts here to demonstrate Kang‘s remarkable Sino-Western comparative perspective, which was applied to his literary construction of visual experiences so that domestic readers could easily understand those unfamiliar foreign things. The first example is an account of his visit to the palace of

Romulus:

216 Outside the palace of Augustus, there is a piece of open land that covers

about 2500 square meters, where one can find many stone tablets and statues in

pine and cypress forests. Not far away from that open land is situated the old

palace of Romulus, which is under the ground and thus can only be looked at

from above. Very thick walls remain, and an ancient well, the top edges of

which resemble several stone steps. Romulus, who lived in the time of the King

Jing of Zhou (?–477 BC), is believed to have been the founder and the first

king of the city of Rome. Although the time of Romulus was very close to that

of Confucius (551–479 BC), his palace, built nearly 2,500 years ago, is still

very well preserved today. On the one hand, the simple design and sturdy

construction of the building was conductive to long-term preservation; on the

other hand, later generations have honored the national hero by carefully

protecting and preserving his palace. Both of these factors account for the fine

state of this ancient building, and put us Chinese to shame.294

After a detailed description of the palace of Romulus, Kang uses a brief explanation of Romulus and his time as an opportunity to tactfully change the subject to China. He mentions the time of Confucius, roughly contemporaneous with Romulus, and emphasizes that the palace of Romulus, built nearly 2,500 years ago, has been well preserved to this day. Here, an embarrassing fact that

Kang omits is that hardly a single building from Confucius‘ time remained by the

294 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 67. 217 early twentieth century; that is why he felt ashamed at the end of this tour. The same feeling resurfaced after he visited an exhibition of ancient armor in Paris:

(When entering an arsenal in Paris,) I saw the exhibition room on the

right-hand side was filled with the armor statues of sixteenth-century European

knights. Some were riding, and their horses also wore iron armor. Some knights

in iron masks left only their eyes and mouths exposed to breathe air and get a

view of the outside world. An evolutionary history of personal protective

equipment can be told by a comparative study of the craftsmanship of this

armory. There were also some Japanese armor statues on display. In fact,

Chinese history has seen many famous fighters in heavy armor, such as Li

Cunxiao (a heroic cavalry officer in the late Tang dynasty) and his iron armor,

and Di Qing (a valiant general of the Northern Song dynasty) and his copper

mask. All these pieces of equipment could have become our country‘s precious

cultural relics if they had not been lost and were well-preserved. The paucity of

cultural relics and research literature is really to China‘s great shame.295

Recounting his experience in an exhibition room that was filled with the armor statues of European knights, Kang Youwei explicitly draws attention to the awkward fact that without effective protection and preservation, many valuable cultural relics in China have been lost. His account suggests that Italy has no lack

295 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, p. 190. 218 of precious cultural relics, and has cherished its antiquities. That, in Kang‘s words, is ―to China‘s great shame‖. These harsh words not only show his strong dissatisfaction with the status quo but also expose his firm determination to pursue China‘s political and cultural reform.

Kang Youwei shares his understanding of the Western appreciation of their antiques and his reflection on the poor performance of China in the following words:

There are countless antiquities in Rome. … Generally speaking, Rome

should be ranked alongside Egypt, Athens, and India as the top four ancient

civilizations with the largest number of antiquities in the world. In this respect,

the antiquities in China are far fewer than those in Rome. The most amazing

fact is that although all these civilizations underwent lots of turbulence and

even wars, their antiquities have been well preserved and protected to this

day. … There is no doubt that preserving antiquities is conducive to cultural

inheritance and dissemination, and beneficial to developing a folk custom of

respecting and adoring heroes and sages. In addition, people‘s aesthetic pleasure

and nostalgia can be naturally aroused by the sight of those antiquities.

Nevertheless, it is really frustrating for me to find that in China most antiquities

have been destroyed while in India, Egypt, Athens, and Rome, their antiquities

still exist today. Alas, China, enjoying a rich culture and brilliant civilization, is

219 unworthy of her reputation.296

While exposed to lots of turbulence and wars during the past several thousand years, many Roman antiquities had been well preserved. This indicated that cherishing antiquities has long been established in European countries as a basic cultural value, and had taken root in the hearts of their people. Thus the social and cultural significance of preserving antiquities that Kang raises in the above account is obviously not for Westerners, but for his domestic readers. His purpose is to enlighten his compatriots with Western ideas and values, and encourage them to develop new values that are adapted to modern times.

The above examples demonstrate Kang‘s comparative perspective concerning some social beliefs and cultural values that he encountered in Italy.

While based on his attention to material objects and customs, Kang‘s observation of the West touched the innermost layer of culture. His persistence and thoroughness reflected the endeavor of Chinese intellectual elites of that time to further the country‘s reform and modernization by learning from the West.

Behind their endeavors, there were consistent political concerns and a strong sense of social responsibility that had been inherited from traditional Confucians.

This fostered a sense of national identity, and the Sino-Western comparative perspective developed with the increasing geographical mobility of Chinese intellectuals.

296 Kang Youwei 康有為, Ouzhou shiyiguo youji 歐洲十一國遊記, pp. 106–107. 220 Kang‘s overseas travelogue is a good example of this. By means of this comparative perspective, Kang not only recounts his travel in Europe, but also critically reviews Chinese society and culture. Since his introduction to the West involves all three layers of culture, his review of China is correspondingly an all-inclusive one. Moreover, as Chinese society and culture in the late Qing period were largely traditional while most European countries had already entered modern times, Kang essentially compares tradition in China and modernity in the West. Hence, Kang‘s journey through Europe is a metaphor for the journey from tradition to modernity. Learning from the West can be understood as learning Western modernity, in which the Sino-Western comparative perspective plays a key role in finding the strengths of the West and the weaknesses of China.

4.3 Historical Significance of the Sino-Western Comparative Perspective

The Sino-Western comparative perspective was not exclusive to Kang Youwei‘s travel essays, but was shared by most Chinese overseas travel writings of that time. As previously explained, intellectuals in pre-modern China rarely traveled overseas, and so it was impossible for this special comparative perspective to appear in their writings; the emergence of the Sino-Western comparative perspective was a product of late Qing modernity. This modern product was historically significant in three areas: the comprehensive reform of China at the

221 turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the modern development of

Chinese travel writing, and the intellectual history of modern China.

First, it is well-known that reform or revolution was one of the main themes of the late Qing dynasty and the early Republican period, when China was facing domestic strife and foreign aggression. Some progressive intellectuals of that time were willing to devote their lives to making the country strong and prosperous and saving the people from misery through comprehensive reform or an outright revolution. The protagonist in this chapter was one such member of the elite. As a reformist thinker and politician, Kang Youwei spent the last four decades of his life promoting his reform efforts, and never strayed from the goal of saving China through self-strengthening reforms.297

Kung-Chuan Hsiao has pointed out that even during the republican years,

Kang Youwei basically remained a reformer: ―in the 1880s and 1890s he endeavored to reshape the imperial system together with its outmoded social and intellectual ramifications; he now tried to correct what he believed to be foolish errors that were being committed in the fumbling republic.‖298 Hsiao further indicates that Kang‘s unswerving reform agenda aimed for the political, economic, and intellectual transformation of China with the modern West as his

297 During the Hundred Days‘ Reform of 1898, Kang Youwei expressed this fundamental aim of the reform movement to the Guangxu Emperor and his colleagues many times. See Kang Youwei 康有為, Kang Nanhai zibian nianpu 康南海自編年譜, pp. 42, 43, 49, 50.

298 Hsiao, Kung-Chuan. A Modern China and a New World: K’ang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian,

1858–1927. 1975, p. 193. 222 prime model.299 Therefore, in the mind of the reformer the West always occupied a particularly important position. This fueled Kang‘s zeal for learning about the

West and field trips to Europe and America.

Kang traveled overseas as a critical observer of Western society and culture rather than a carefree sightseer in order to glean insights that might benefit China.

But how could he really know what was good or bad, suitable or unsuitable, for

China? The answer was to make his judgment after a careful comparison of the

West and China. The comparative perspective helped Kang to keep an open mind and undertake a relatively impartial investigation and assessment of Western culture. That is why E. R. Hughes praised Kang‘s position on the comparison of

China and the West, saying that ―There is no discounting of foreign history in favor of Chinese, just as there is no sign of indiscriminating admiration of the

West.‖300 Indeed, it was easy for readers to find harsh criticism of traditional

Chinese culture in Kang‘s travel writings and to realize there were many things that needed to be changed or improved in China.

Second, the significance of the Sino-Western comparative perspective for the modern development of Chinese travel writing lies in the fact that it provided a new paradigm of constructing visual experiences in travel accounts for later generations of Chinese writers. This was closely related to the phenomenon of

299 Hsiao, Kung-Chuan. A Modern China and a New World: K’ang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian, 1858–1927. 1975, p. 194.

300 Hughes, E. R. The Invasion of China by the Western World. New York: Macmillan Co., 1938, p. 115.

Here quoted in Hsiao, Kung-Chuan. A Modern China and a New World, p. 598. 223 ―going abroad fever (chu guo re, 出国热)‖ at the turn of the twentieth century.

With the accelerating decline of the Qing dynasty, a emerging population shift from rural to urban areas, and the growing popularity of new thought imported from the modern West, some traditional Chinese values such as the moral teaching of ―do not travel far when your parents are alive‖ and the entrenched cultural concept of being attached to native land were approaching collapse.

Meanwhile, an itinerant lifestyle became fashionable among modern Chinese intellectuals, some of whom had opportunities to study abroad and travel Europe,

America, or Japan.

After they returned home, most of those students became the elite in all walks of life, including renowned writers. Chih-Tsing Hsia has observed that almost all the influential writers of the first half of the twentieth century had been overseas students.301 Those who once studied in or traveled to Japan included Li

Dazhao 李大釗 (1889–1927), Chen Duxiu 陳獨秀 (1879–1942), Lu Xun

魯迅 (1881–1936), Zhou Zuoren 周作人 (1885–1967), Mao Dun 茅盾

(1896–1981), Guo Moruo 郭沫若 (1892–1978), Yu Dafu 郁達夫 (1896–

1945), Lu Yin 廬隱 (1898–1934), and Cheng Fangwu 成仿吾 (1897–1984); those who were educated in Britain or America included Hu Shi 胡適 (1891–

1962), Bing Xin 冰心 (1900–1999), Zhu Ziqing 朱自清 (1898–1948), Xu

Dishan 許地山 (1894–1941), Lin Yutang 林語堂 (1895–1976), Wen Yiduo

聞一多 (1899–1946), Lao She 老舍 (1899–1966), Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897

301 Hsia, Chih-tsing. A History of Modern Chinese Fiction. 1999 [1961], p. 22. 224 –1931), and Qian Zhongshu 錢鐘書 (1910–1998); those who studied in

Germany or France included Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1868–1940), Liu Bannong

劉半農 (1891–1934), Li Jinfa 李金髮 (1900–1976), Dai Wangshu 戴望舒

(1905–1950), Feng Zhi 馮至 (1905–1993), and Ba Jin 巴金 (1904–2005).

These writers‘ overseas experiences of course provided abundant subjects and endless inspiration for the subsequent prosperity of modern Chinese travel writing. Take the decade from 1917 to 1927, for example. Many collections of overseas travel essays were published during that period, such as Qu Qiubai 瞿秋

白 (1899–1935)‘s Chidu xinshi 赤都心史 (My Impressions of the Red Capital

Moscow), Xu Zhimo‘s Ouyou manlu 歐遊漫錄 (Random Records of My Europe

Trip), and Bing Xin‘s Ji xiao duzhe 寄小讀者 (To Young Readers). Meanwhile, there were numerous overseas travel essays published separately in the decade, including Hu Shi‘s Boshidun youji 波士頓遊記 (Travel in Boston), Cheng

Fangwu‘s Dongjing 東京 (Tokyo), Wang Duqing 王獨清 (1898–1940)‘s Nanou xiaoxi 南歐消息 (Messages from Southern Europe), Xu Zhimo‘s Feilengcui shanju xianhua 翡冷翠山居閒話 (Casual Talk about My Florence Mountain

Home) and Wo suo zhidao de kangqiao 我所知道的康橋 (The Cambridge I

Know).

Although composed in different writing styles, all these travel writings employed the Sino-Western comparative perspective. For instance, in his well-known essay Casual Talk about My Florence Mountain Home, Xu Zhimo compared the Alps with Five-Old-Men Peaks in Mount Lu, Sicily with

225 Putuoshan Island, the Rhine River with the Yangtze River, and Lake Geneva with the West Lake in Hangzhou, in order to illustrate that different people in different areas with different cultural backgrounds had a similar aesthetic taste when appreciating the beauty of nature. Here, Xu constructed his visual experiences in

Europe through meaningful comparisons between beautiful natural scenery in

Europe and its counterparts in China. This comparative perspective commonly used by modern Chinese writers was inherited from their predecessors, late Qing overseas traveler-writers.

Finally, late Qing overseas travel writing helped to shape the modern worldview of Chinese intellectuals, and enabled them to imagine a new China as a modern nation-state. This modern worldview was in great contrast to the traditional Chinese worldview centered on ―all under Heaven (tianxia 天下)‖.

According to the tianxia worldview, China was the whole world.302 But during the nineteenth century, this worldview was seriously challenged by the modern,

Western view of China as just one nation in the world. The literati reluctantly acknowledged that unless China chose to come down from its pedestal and stand as a nation in the world, it would be ruined. Therefore political elites in the early twentieth century like Liang Qichao urged China to modernize and to become a nation; to cease to pay homage exclusively to its culture.303 Indeed, Joseph R.

Levenson asserts that the intellectual history of modern China can in large part be

302 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Volume 1. 1968, p. 99.

303 Ibid., p. 104. 226 viewed as the process of replacing tianxia with the concept of ―the nation‖.304

This change in the Chinese worldview was not popularized primarily by politicians or scholars, but by overseas travel writers. In their impressive works, these writers expressed the modern worldview by offering a Sino-Western comparative perspective for the representation of their exotic travel experiences.

Drawing a distinction between China and the West indicated that rather than being the center of the world, China was merely a member of the international community, and a humble one at that. Meanwhile, in the process of comparing late Qing China and Western powers, these writers showed their understanding and imagining of a new China as a modern nation-state. There is such an imagining behind Kang Youwei‘s travel accounts. According to Kung-Chuan

Hsiao, Kang envisaged that modern China was to be an independent nation with enough ―wealth and power‖ acquired through modernization to ensure that she had a fitting place in the family of nations, and her distinctive native culture would unequivocally justify her nationhood. 305 Like Kang Youwei, other overseas travel writers in the late Qing and the early Republic of China imagined and constructed an ideal modern China by boldly expressing their dissatisfaction with the status quo, appealing for social reform or revolution, and envisioning the future. The Sino-Western comparative perspective created fresh opportunities for writers to rethink the old tianxia worldview and fit China, as a nation-state rather

304 Levenson, Joseph R. Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Volume 1. 1968, p. 103.

305 Hsiao, Kung-Chuan. A Modern China and a New World, p. 597. 227 than an empire, into the scheme of the modern world.

4.4 Conclusion

This chapter has considered the modern transformation of visuality in late Qing

China in a new visual field, namely late Qing overseas travel writing. The reason

I define travel writing as a visual field is that looking and related visual experiences play a key role in people‘s travels, and the essence of travel writing is the literary construction of visual experiences, which aims to share travel experiences with readers. Thus, I have argued in this chapter that late Qing overseas travel writings contributed a new way of ―seeing‖. More precisely, they developed a modern way of constructing visual experiences—the Sino-Western comparative perspective.

In this chapter, I have situated my investigation of this Sino-Western comparative perspective in the context of the rise of late Qing overseas travel writing, and pointed out that in pre-modern times, Chinese travel writings seldom put the West—or even the world—into perspective, due to geographical barriers and authors‘ cultural beliefs and values. I have maintained that in that sense, the phenomena of ―travelling abroad fever‖ from the second half of the nineteenth century and the consequent prosperity of overseas travel writing were the products of late Qing modernity. It is therefore unsurprising to find something modern, such as the comparative perspective, in the travel notes of that time.

228 For a deep understanding of this new perspective and its specific applications in late Qing overseas travel writings, I have analyzed Travels in Eleven European

Countries by Kang Youwei, paying particular attention to his construction of visual experiences. Considering that Kang made comprehensive and in-depth observations of Western culture during his travels, I considered his cultural experience and construction from the three main layers of a culture: the outermost material objects, the intermediate customs and institutions, and the innermost beliefs and values. In terms of material objects, Kang compared

Western palaces, building materials, and artworks with their Chinese counterparts.

Using detailed descriptions, his comparisons helped Chinese readers to better understand the West and gain an awareness of the defects of traditional Chinese culture. In terms of customs and institutions, Kang elaborated on Western traditions such as leaving a tip; rampant theft in Italy; the similar national conditions between Italy and China; and some useful statecraft of Ancient Rome.

Kang indicated that the two countries had much in common, and China could learn much from Italy with regard to reform and modernization. In terms of beliefs and values, Kang told his personal stories to reveal values that were deeply rooted in Western culture, such as respect for art and artists, and the cherishing of antiquities. Through his Sino-Western comparative perspective,

Kang criticized ―backward‖ notions in traditional Chinese culture and emphasized the necessity of reform.

Based on a textual analysis of Kang‘s travel accounts, I have further

229 illuminated the historical significance of the Sino-Western comparative perspective in late Qing overseas travel writing. First, it promoted the reform and revolution of China at the turn of the century by raising awareness of the changes required. Second, it contributed to the modern development of Chinese travel writing by providing a new paradigm for constructing visual experiences in travel notes, which later generations of Chinese writers invoked. Third, it influenced the modern worldview of Chinese intellectuals, ensuring that a new China as a modern nation-state could be imagined in their works. To conclude, the

Sino-Western comparative perspective that emerged in late Qing overseas travel writings brought China and its intellectual elite a new way of seeing, and thus contributed to the grand project of Chinese modernity.

230 Chapter 5

Conclusion

Focusing on three important traditional Chinese art and literary forms involving visual images—namely, classical poetry, traditional painting, and travel writing—this study has examined the modern transformations of visuality in late

Qing China. Drawing upon the concept of ―visuality‖ from visual studies to shed light on the practice of xiang 象 (image/imagery) in traditional Chinese literature and art, this thesis has attempted to interpret the representation of visual images in literary and artistic works as the subject‘s construction of visual experience. As a kind of socio-cultural practice in nature, this construction inevitably reflects some characteristics of society and culture, and changes its strategies to adapt to the transformation of society and culture. Investigating the visual practices of the poet Gong Zizhen, the painter Ren Bonian, and the writer Kang Youwei has illuminated the modern changes in and complex interactions between the constructions of the visual, the artist as the viewing subject, and the world as the object of vision. By identifying new social and cultural trends reflected in the practices of those artists, such as the emergence of the modern subject, the rise of popular taste in art, and the comprehensive introduction of the modern Western world during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, my study has revealed that the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing China contributed to the shaping of modern Chinese intellectuals and the multiplicity of

231 the Chinese modern.

5.1 Introduction

The original inspiration for the study, as explicated in the introductory chapter, came from a critical reflection on a core concept in traditional Chinese aesthetics and culture: xiang 象 (image/imagery). I noted that in modern Chinese literature, the depictions of visual experiences are much less than those in classical Chinese literature, due to a remarkable decline in the use of visual imageries, especially those often found in classical Chinese poetry and prose. To explain this dramatic change, I inquired into the nature of image/imagery. Generally, image/imagery in traditional Chinese literature is interpreted as a rhetorical device, such as a

―metaphor‖ or ―symbol‖. However, a rhetorical device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey a meaning, with the goal of persuading the listener or reader. This indicates that using rhetoric is always an individual behavior. As such, it cannot explain why writers collectively changed their figures of speech in modern Chinese literature. For this reason, I suggested in the first chapter that ―image/imagery‖ should be conceived of in a broader socio-cultural perspective.

Given that most of the imageries in traditional Chinese literature were visual, which brought their audiences‘ visual experiences to mind quickly and easily, the concept of ―visuality‖, borrowed from visual studies, became useful in shedding

232 new light on our long-established idea of the key aesthetic concept of ―image‖ in traditional Chinese culture. The most insightful and representative definition of this concept comes from W. J. T. Mitchell, who interprets ―visuality‖ as the social construction of the visual as well as the visual construction of the social. There are two, if not more, points worthy of attention in his definition. First, using the words ―the visual‖, rather than ―visual images‖, indicates that the objects of visual studies are not limited to those that can be seen by biological eyes. For

Mitchell, the term ―visuality‖ could apply to all human practices and products that either directly involve vision or indirectly provoke visual experiences, such as visual mental imageries that can be visualized by the mind‘s eye. This legitimates my consideration of imagery in poetry and travel writing in studying visuality. Second, Mitchell‘s interpretation foregrounds the important fact that vision is never innocent; it is inevitably stained with and constrained by the viewing subject‘s socio-cultural circumstances. Thus in any piece of visual work or in any visual practice, ―the visual‖ and ―the social‖ are essentially intertwined.

This suggests that investigating the modern transformations of visuality in the visual and literary works of late Qing China may illuminate the social changes during that period. Hence, Mitchell‘s definition of visuality in effect constituted the theoretical starting point of my current study.

As the term ―visuality‖ denotes the social and cultural construction of the visual in visual studies, I argued that the representation of images in literary works can be seen as the writer‘s literary construction of his/her visual

233 experiences. In this sense, what the images show is actually the writer‘s ways of seeing. It is important to note that these ways of seeing, as a mode of visuality, are primarily determined by the society and culture of his/her day, rather than by the subject itself. Therefore, I have suggested that the changes in the use of images in modern Chinese literature were by no means an outcome of writers‘ individual behaviors (such as changing rhetorical devices), but a result of the modern transformations of visuality that were wrought by the significant changes in China‘s society and culture in modern times.

As pointed out in the introductory chapter, the object and subject of vision, that is, the external world and the observer, are two key factors that account for the potential changes in the visuality of a certain era. This thesis, thus, offered a critical review of research on historic changes in late Qing China and its intellectuals. Those changes, in fact, constituted the basic historical background of my current project. In his theory of impact-response, for instance, Fairbank has argued that it is the Western impact of the 1840s and 1850s that gave a stunning blow to late Qing China and prompted the latter to pick the path towards modernity by breaking with its tradition and learning from the modern

West. The way in which China responded to the West is further examined by

Levenson from the dimension of intellectual history. Building on his analysis and assessment of Confucianism, Levenson asserted that as scientific temper and democracy cannot be produced within the Confucian tradition, China, in order to cope with the pressure from the West, is doomed to abandon its traditional

234 culture and accept a modern Western one wholesale. As for the emergence of

Chinese modernity, Ou-fan Lee offered his insights by tracing the origin of modern Chinese literature back to the late Qing period. The above accounts of the three renowned scholars share one thing in common, that is, late Qing China is undoubtedly a critical period in which China was experiencing a historic transition from tradition to modernity. This transition had such a great impact on every aspect of Chinese society and culture that the picture of the world presented to the intellectuals of late Qing China was remarkably different from that in pre modern times.

During the late Qing period, significant changes also occurred in the intellectuals themselves. According to the scholars in the field of modern Chinese intellectual history Yu Ying-shih, Xu Jilin, and Yamaguchi Hisakazu, traditional

Chinese literati, represented by Confucian scholar-officials, were undergoing a notable transformation into modern intellectuals. The concrete manifestations of this transformation include the loss of high social status and privileges that were enjoyed by traditional literati, the rejection of conventional Sino-centric worldview, the acceptance of Western new ideas as an outcome of urbanization in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the promotion of scientific knowledge and applied learning. From these accounts of leading scholars, we see that Chinese intellectuals, as the best observers of China‘s society and culture, were experiencing some unprecedented changes during the late Qing period.

Having such a review of the historical circumstances, I indicated that

235 compared with their predecessors, late Qing intellectuals living in dramatically changing times were more likely to have different visual experiences and visual practices. As a result, visuality in their literary and artistic works would change correspondingly. Further inquiry into the modern transformations of visuality led me to examine literary and artistic practices in late Qing China. I focused on three practices typically involving visual image/imagery, that is, classical

Chinese poetry, traditional Chinese painting, and travel writing. As these practices and modern changes in them were closely associated with late Qing artists and a rapidly changing society and culture, my study was also concerned with the emergence of modern Chinese intellectuals and the multiplicity of the late Qing modern from a new point of view, namely, the modern changes in

Chinese ways of seeing and their constructions of the visual in artworks.

In contrast to existing studies of late Qing visual culture, which mainly concern new art forms emerging in modern times, such as films, photographs, pictorials, posters, and prints, I have deliberately chosen to examine traditional art forms involving visual practices. This is because those new products or technologies imported from the modern West were obvious signs of late Qing modernity in their own right. Thus, they could not elucidate why and how literary and art practices in late Qing China changed from traditional styles to modern ones, just like a butterfly cannot explain the process of metamorphosis; a caterpillar breaking out of its cocoon at the end of the pupal stage is rather more informative. The prominent late Qing poet Gong Zizhen, painter Ren Bonian,

236 writer Kang Youwei, and their works, can be likened to such ―caterpillars‖ undergoing transformation, from which we may better understand the shaping of modern Chinese intellectuals and the multiplicity of late Qing modernity.

5.2 Analysis of Image-Making in Works and Main Findings

In Chapter 2, I explored an important field of visual practice—poetry, which is probably the most appreciated literary form for ancient Chinese literati.

Representing imageries, most of which were visual, classical Chinese poetry conveyed the poet‘s thoughts, feelings, and emotions by describing memorable visual experiences. The essence of modernity, as Marshall Berman clarifies, can be viewed as the exclusive experiences of the people who had lived and have been living in the modern era. As a key component of these exclusive experiences, visual experiences should be considered in order to develop a deeper understanding of modernity. As far as the visual experiences recorded in late Qing poetry are concerned, I focused on the literary construction of visual image and its modern changes by scrutinizing the representative poems of that time. By providing Chinese literati many opportunities to encounter fresh visual experiences that were very different from those of their pre-modern predecessors, late Qing China modernized their ways of seeing as well as their constructions of visual experiences in poetry. Exerting a strong influence on their authors‘ contemporaries and later readers, the ―modernized‖ visuality in popular poems

237 also spread and promoted the further development of late Qing modernity.

To expound the modern changes of visuality in late Qing poetry, I studied the poet Gong Zizhen and some of his most representative poems. The most important reason for focusing on this particular poet was that in his works Gong clearly shows some key traits of modern subjectivity, which endow his construction of visual experiences with modern features. These traits include

Gong Zizhen‘s idealist philosophy of the subject, his individualism, his persistence of the right to political and social criticism, and his autonomy of action.

Bringing ―modern subjectivity‖, a Western concept, into the context of late

Qing China is necessary, because like the West, there was also a significant shift to the subject in both philosophy and literature in early modern China. This shift was marked by the rise of the mind philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties, and was very similar to the subjective turn during the Enlightenment period in

European countries, which heralded the birth of the modern subject as well as the making of modern subjectivity in the West. Like René Descartes, who played a pioneering role in the Western subjective turn, the Ming Neo-Confucian idealist philosopher and scholar Wang Yangming was iconic in the Chinese version of the subjective turn; his philosophy of subjectivity in the field of ethics was a prelude to the shift to the subject in Chinese philosophy. In the wake of his insights, later generations of thinkers and writers, such as Wang Gen, Li Zhi, Yuan Hongdao,

Tang Xianzu, and Huang Zongxi, continued to embrace the emotional expression

238 of self and promote humanistic values in literary and artistic works, and eventually established a noticeable intellectual trend in the late Ming and early

Qing periods which gave rise to the early Chinese Enlightenment. It was these intellectual resources with their emphasis on self-consciousness and modern subjectivity that nourished and inspired the poet Gong Zizhen, who became known as a representative enlightenment thinker in late Qing China.

Modern subjectivity, the defining feature of a modern subject, can be embodied in the different behaviors and practices of the subject. In Chapter 2, much attention was devoted to the literary-visual practice of the poet Gong

Zizhen. I argued that Gong‘s modern subjectivity was clearly reflected in his literary construction of visual experiences in poetry. In this sense, the chapter represented an image of a modern viewing subject. Here the concept of ―modern viewing subject‖ indicated that the late Qing poet Gong‘s ways of seeing were very different from his pre-modern predecessors.

The first difference I expounded was that in terms of visuality, most traditional Chinese poets exhibited a common inclination to guan wu 觀物

(observe external things) and represent relevant imageries in their poems, while

Gong Zizhen was more inclined to guan wo 觀我 (observe the subject itself).

Accordingly, intensive self-representations with abundant images about the poet himself abound in his poems. I called this new way of seeing ―self-reflective vision‖. And as I have pointed out, the most obvious manifestation of this special vision was the unprecedented frequency of use of the first-person pronouns (I,

239 me, my, myself, mine, in Chinese wo 我) in Gong‘s poems. This was a noteworthy feature in the development of classical Chinese poetry, especially considering the lasting internal factors, both socio-economic and intellectual, which speeded China to move towards the modern during the late Qing period.

I ascribed the high incidence of first-person pronouns to Gong‘s idealist philosophy of the subject and his thoughts on literature, which were inextricably linked. The former meant that in the poet Gong‘s mind, reality was not the material but the spiritual, and it was the subject, rather than any objects, that gave meaning to the world. Obviously, his philosophy was greatly influenced by the mind-philosophy (or the philosophy of subjective idealism) of the Song and

Ming dynasties. Gong‘s thoughts on literature were a corollary of his idealist philosophy of the subject. Paying special attention to the dominant role of the subject in producing good poems, Gong proposed the idea of ―the unity of poet and poetry‖, that is, a first-rate poet and his/her poems are essentially one, as the poems blend perfectly with the personality and dispositions of the poet. In this idea, Gong highlighted the interpenetration and mutual identification between the subject and its literary works. Therefore, the self-identity of the subject naturally became a constant concern and an ―eternal theme‖ in his writings. Accordingly, a main task for the poet was to represent imageries of the subject through his literary-visual practice. This accounted for the high frequency of first-person pronouns in Gong‘s poems.

The second difference in Gong‘s construction of visual experiences through

240 poetic images as compared to his pre-modern predecessors was that Gong often endowed traditional images with fresh meanings and modern values that reflected the new epoch and the changing society. I have named this way of seeing ―revalued vision‖. Taking the poetic image of ―fallen flowers‖ as an example, I analyzed why and how Gong could step out of the typical feelings of melancholy associated with this image in the minds of traditional literati and imbue it with positive modern values, such as optimism about the future and social progress. The real reason why Gong always found fresh meanings from those stereotypical poetic imageries was that he had an independent personality and an independent mindset, so he could see and think in an unconventional way.

The individualism embodied in Gong‘s literary construction of visual experiences was rarely found in the works of his predecessors.

The third difference in Gong‘s construction of visual images was that while most traditional Chinese poets associated visual experiences with their personal feelings and emotions, Gong Zizhen usually linked visual experiences with his concerns and criticism about society, politics, and the fate of the nation. He did this through a distinct way of seeing that I called ―rationalized vision‖, which reflected modern Chinese intellectuals‘ enthusiasm for politics and changing the status quo. Gong‘s poems on ―roadside view‖ demonstrated this rationalized vision. On the surface, the visual imageries in those poems are just descriptions of what Gong Zizhen saw on the way home after he resigned from a government post in Beijing; however, in a metaphorical way they convey sharp criticism and

241 are an acerbic satire on society and the Qing government. For instance, in one of his poems the precarious political situation of the Qing dynasty is compared to tumbledown balls that have been piled up too high by a street entertainer. In such a roundabout way, the poet Gong Zizhen tactically expressed political and social criticism via his literary representation of visual experiences. This strategy can not only be viewed as a wise response to the Qing government‘s severe policy of literary inquisition but also as reflecting the poet‘s insistence on his right to criticism.

The fourth difference was that compared with his pre-modern predecessors,

Gong Zizhen placed more emphasis on constructing visual experiences in a way determined by the poet himself, instead of by others or any external factors. I referred to this as ―self-determined vision‖. A typical manifestation of this way of seeing was Gong‘s representation of tong xin 童心 (child-like heart-mind, or child-like innocence) in his poems. The poet, as I have shown in Chapter 2, believed in expressing genuine emotions, real feelings, and outspoken political opinions, even in the face of well-meaning advice and admonitions from his friends. In this regard, Gong can be viewed as a modern subject with individual autonomy.

I argued that these four differences in the construction of visual experiences in poetry expose four key qualities of the poet Gong Zizhen as a modern viewing subject in late Qing China. These qualities are idealist philosophy, individualism, maintaining the right to political and social criticism, and autonomy of action.

242 These four qualities correspond to the connotations of modern subjectivity clarified by Jürgen Habermas. To be sure, making reference to Habermas‘ interpretation of the concept ―subjectivity‖ in Hegel‘s philosophy does not denote that Habermas gives the best definition of modern subjectivity in the history of philosophy. However, Habermas does delineate some key qualities of the modern subject, and this is sufficient to suggest that Gong does show some traits that are exclusive to the modern subject. It is in this sense that Gong was different from most of his pre-modern predecessors.

In Chapter 3, I shifted my focus to another visual field, that is, traditional

Chinese painting, and explored the modern transformations of visuality in this crucial field through the artworks of painter Ren Bonian, who was one of the leading artists in nineteenth-century China. Three particular aspects of Ren‘s works illuminated modern changes in ways of seeing as well as the representations of visual experiences in late Qing traditional Chinese painting.

The first was the historical background of late Qing Chinese painting. The

Shanghai School of painting that developed from the middle of the nineteenth century was a milestone in the history of Chinese painting, marking the end of traditional literati painting and the beginning of modern Chinese painting. Ren

Bonian, one of the School‘s early founders, made a great contribution to the formation of this style. As I pointed out, the rise of the Shanghai School should be viewed as the consequence of both internal and external factors. On the one hand, it was a product of the creative appropriation, alteration, and

243 transformation of Chinese literati painting; on the other hand, it was embedded in the social and cultural modernity that emerged in the bustling metropolis of

Shanghai during the late Qing period. The decline of the social class of scholar-officials and the rise of the merchant class in late imperial China, the rapid prosperity of Shanghai and its booming art market, the widespread impact of Western culture, technologies and art all had a profound influence on the

Shanghai painters of that time. These concrete manifestations of late Qing modernity changed the aesthetic taste and market expectations of both Shanghai painter-sellers and appreciator-buyers, making the style of the Shanghai School quite different from that of traditional Chinese painting. This change and the new style can clearly be seen in Ren Bonian‘s paintings.

The second aspect of Ren‘s work that illuminated modern changes in the way of seeing was the artistic characteristics of the Shanghai School and Ren

Bonian‘s life. To a large extent, the Shanghai School was a rebellion against traditional literati painting, even though most of the pioneering Shanghai School artists started painting in a literati style. A major manifestation of this rebellion was a huge change in taste. If literati taste was the defining feature of traditional literati painting, popular taste was the defining feature of the Shanghai School.

Matching this popular taste, the Shanghai School showed many distinctive artistic features in terms of subject matter, painting techniques, and the use of colors. For instance, in contrast to the simple, elegant monochrome of literati paintings, bright, bold, strong colors were commonly used by Shanghai painters

244 to cater for the needs of the art market needs at the time. This feature was fully reflected in Ren Bonian‘s paintings. As for Ren‘s life and his achievements, I laid special emphasis on two points. One was his background in folk art painting and professional painting, which explained why Ren did not become a scholar-amateur painter. The other was his significance to the whole history of

Chinese painting; his innovative practice offered later artists a feasible approach for reforming and modernizing traditional Chinese painting.

The third aspect of Ren‘s work that illuminated modern changes in visuality was new features of visual construction in Ren Bonian‘s paintings. First, the objects of visual representation changed from so-called ―elegant and tasteful‖ things, which were often found in the paintings of scholar-artists, to ordinary everyday objects that were embraced by the common people but despised by the scholar-official class. The underlying reason for this change was that with the continuous decline of the social class of scholar-officials and the remarkable rise of the merchant-bourgeois class in late imperial China, traditional literati painting as well as its stereotyped subject matters lost popularity in the art market and were gradually replaced by the budding Shanghai School of painting with its fresh, approachable, and welcoming subjects. Second, the strategy of visual representation changed from indifference towards visual appeal to attaching great importance to vivid colors and the realistic representation of images. This change reflected that the Shanghai painters catered to the demand in the art market so as to earn a good income. It also reflected a new trend that emerged in the late Qing

245 period: Chinese painting began its modern transformation by shedding the stylized scholar-artist mode of visual representation and drawing on vibrant elements from folk art painting and Western painting. Third, Ren Bonian discarded the shifting perspective with a moving focus, which was widely used in traditional Chinese landscapes, and assimilated the Western perspective with a single fixed focus into his paintings. This change was a product of appropriating the concepts and techniques of Western art to reform and modernize Chinese painting. In intricate and often imperceptible ways, Western art had a lasting impact on traditional Chinese painting from the mid-Ming period.

All those underlying socio-cultural facts that gave rise to changes in visual construction constituted important aspects of late Qing modernity. In the burgeoning prosperity of Shanghai as a modern metropolis and the unavoidable importation and influence of Western art, in the decline of literati painting and the rise of the Shanghai School, we find the factors that shaped the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing traditional painting. Both these factors and the consequent changes in visual construction were the outcomes of China‘s social and cultural modernization, and show forth the complexity and multiplicity of the manifestations of the modern. Providing a case in point, my study has shown that modernity not only significantly altered the material life of the

Chinese, but also altered their mentality and behaviors, including their ways of seeing. Considering the subject‘s key role in shaping history, I want to emphasize that while modernity in late-nineteenth-century China turned out to be the main

246 external cause of the changes in the construction of the visual, Chinese artist-intellectuals also contributed much to the making of modernity—especially cultural modernity—via their innovative practices of modernizing Chinese ways of seeing and visual constructions in artworks.

These changes in the construction of the visual show that in perception and practice, Chinese artist-intellectuals began to change their ways of seeing during the late Qing period when China was developing its inner elements of modernity as well as encountering Western modernity from the outside world. This meaningful change in ways of seeing, as I have suggested, not only reflected modern transformations in the visual practices of traditional Chinese intellectuals, but constituted an important element of late Qing modernity in its own right.

Chapter 4 considered a new visual practice, namely, late Qing overseas travel writing. The reason why I defined travel writing as a kind of visual practice was that looking and related visual experiences play a key role in our travels. Thus, the essence of travel writing could be viewed as the literary construction of a travel writer‘s visual experiences; representing impressive visual imageries is the main task of the writer‘s visual practice. My observation of visuality in late Qing travel writing therefore rested largely on a careful examination of visual imageries and how they were used by Kang Youwei. I argued that late Qing overseas travel writings contributed a new way of seeing—more precisely, a modern way of representing visual imageries—to traditional Chinese travel writing. This new way of seeing, I suggested, was a

247 Sino-Western comparative perspective. Chinese writers began to bear the hallmarks of ―late Qing modernity‖ with this new view of the world.

In Chapter 4, I set my investigation of this comparative perspective in the context of the rise of late Qing overseas travel writing. In pre-modern times,

Chinese travel writings seldom put the West—or even the world—into perspective, due to geographical barriers, cultural beliefs, and conventional values, such as the Confucian concept of ―do not travel far when your parents are alive‖. In this historical context, the phenomena of ―travelling abroad fever‖ from the second half of the nineteenth century and the consequent growth in overseas travel writing were modern, and ought to be seen as the products of late Qing modernity. As a result, modern developments such as the Sino-Western comparative perspective are common in notes from overseas travel. Kang

Youwei‘s travel notes exemplified this emerging perspective in the construction of visual experiences.

As a famed Confucian scholar and reformist politician of the late Qing period, Kang lived in exile in Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America after the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898. He took full advantage of his journeys by making efforts to search for a road to national prosperity from modern Western civilization. As a result, Kang wrote lots of travel notes recording his comprehensive observation of Western culture. I analyzed these travel accounts with respect to the following three layers of culture: the outmost material objects, the intermediate institutions and customs, and the innermost

248 beliefs and values. Since material objects such as architecture and artifacts come into view in an obvious way and are easily perceived by tourists, most travel writers spend a great number of words describing them. However, in Kang‘s travel notes those European material objects were not depicted in a simple way.

Instead, he made impressive comparisons between Western palaces, building materials and artworks, and their Chinese counterparts, which helped his domestic readers to understand the West and realize some defects in traditional

Chinese culture. In terms of institutions and customs, Kang expounded some aspects of European society such as leaving a tip, rampant theft in early twentieth century Italy, the similar national conditions between Italy and China, and the statecraft of Ancient Rome. With a thoughtful comparison between Italy and

China, Kang indicated that these two countries had much in common, and China could learn from Italy with respect to reform and modernization. As for the cultural beliefs and values of the modern Western world, Kang told personal stories to reveal values that were deep-rooted in European culture, such as the value of respecting art and artists and the value of cherishing antiquities. Through his Sino-Western comparative perspective, Kang criticized notions in traditional

Chinese culture that he felt were ―backward‖, and emphasized the necessity of profound reform in China.

Based on Kang‘s travel accounts, I also explored the historical significance of the Sino-Western comparative perspective in late Qing overseas travel writings.

It promoted the reform and revolution of China in an age of turbulence by

249 helping late Qing Chinese readers become aware of the need for change; it improved the modern development of Chinese travel writing by providing a new paradigm in the construction of visual experiences for later generations of

Chinese travel writers; finally, it shaped the modern worldview of Chinese intellectuals, through which a modern China as a nation-state could be imagined.

In brief, the Sino-Western comparative perspective that emerged in late Qing overseas travel writings brought China and its intellectual elite a new way of seeing, thus contributing to the grand project of Chinese modernity.

5.3 Significance and Implications of the Study

The changes in Chinese intellectuals‘ ways of seeing as well as in their construction of the visual (or representation of visual experiences) in artworks should be recognized as a mark of Chinese modernity alongside the modern technologies and new products of the early twentieth century. Late Qing modernity not only significantly changed the material life of this old country, but also brought about a far-reaching transformation in the mindsets and behaviors of the Chinese. One manifestation of the latter was the changes in visuality in the works of intellectuals. In that sense, my focus on those changes provides a fresh perspective through which to explore and understand Chinese modernity.

The present study has also indicated a new method of exploring the development of modern Chinese intellectuals: by approaching the subject from a

250 perspective of visuality and its modern transformations in late Qing literary and artistic practices. As making people modern is probably one of the most crucial tasks for the project of modernity, I suspect, it is incomplete to think of Chinese modernity without taking a serious examination of modern Chinese people, especially modern Chinese intellectuals, into consideration. For sure, this examination can be carried out from many aspects, and the most visible one may be the modern urban lifestyle of modern Chinese intellectuals, which was evident in such things as cars, films, coffee, newspapers, and fashions. However, many other invisible or intangible things also embodied the modern qualities of modern

Chinese intellectuals. These included the feelings, thoughts, mindset, and values peculiar to modern times, but here what I have paid special attention to is their world views—more precisely, the ways of seeing the world that were manifested in their literary or artistic constructions of the visual. Since the modern world view was an important characteristic of modern Chinese intellectuals, the modern transformations of late Qing visuality (ways of seeing) should be taken into account by any serious study of modern Chinese intellectuals.

My study of the modern transformations of late Qing visuality demonstrated such a historical fact that the beginning of Chinese modernity was accompanied by the shaping of modern Chinese intellectuals. From the modern subjectivity of the poet Gong Zizhen, the special interest in depicting everyday life in Ren

Bonian‘s painting, and the Sino-Western comparative perspectives in Kang

Youwei‘s travel writings, one can find many of the distinctive characteristics of

251 modern Chinese intellectuals. The achievement of these modern characteristics, as I have indicated, was essentially the outcome of the development of domestic socio-cultural factors in China and the outside influence of Western modernity, which were also the fundamental sources of late Qing modernity. In this respect, the process of making China modern necessarily encompassed the shaping of modern Chinese intellectuals. From the fresh perspective of late Qing visuality and its modern transformations, my thesis enriches our understanding of modern

Chinese intellectuals.

Finally, my study shows that late Qing visuality and its modern transformations are worthy of being studied in their own right. If visuality is a window through which one can not only see changes in the outside world but also in the viewing subject, I have redirected scholarly attention from the things that are inside or outside of the window to the window itself, by highlighting that visuality has similarly been changing throughout history. In other words, there have been different visualities in different historical periods, each of which is valuable to understanding historical change. Delineating the modern transformations of visuality in the practices of classical poetry, traditional painting, and travel writing respectively in this thesis, I have demonstrated that in late Qing China some cultural elites changed their ways of seeing as well as their ways of constructing visual experiences in literary and artistic works.

Owing to the inextricable links between visuality and its socio-cultural milieu, the influences of the society and culture of a particular historical period

252 were evident in the viewing subjects‘ constructions of visual experiences. For instance, when I attempted to identify the new attributes of visuality in the artworks of the renowned Shanghai School painter Ren Bonian, I found it is impossible to ignore the significant socio-cultural facts underlying the attributes, since they directly contributed to the formation of the latter. Those socio-cultural circumstances encompassed the rapid prosperity of the treaty port Shanghai as a modern metropolis during the second half of the nineteenth century, the impressive importation of Western culture and art, the decline of scholar-officials as a superior social class, the remarkable rise of the merchant-bourgeoisie class in late imperial China, the move away from literati taste and the prevalence of popular taste in art. All these developments worked on the Shanghai artists by changing their beliefs, values, attitudes, worldviews, and related ways of seeing.

Visuality, as the social construction of the visual, is bound to transform in ways that correspond to social change. This relationship reflects the viewing subject‘s active adaptation and positive adjustment to changes in the objective world.

Therefore, when the world became modern, visuality also underwent modern transformations, which influenced the formation of the modern world view and proved to be a crucial step towards the emergence of the modern subject.

In sum, the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing literary and artistic practices have provided a rich text through which to explore hitherto unnoticed aspects of Chinese modernity, such as some modern changes in

Chinese intellectuals‘ ways of seeing and the constructions of visual experiences

253 in their works in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

5.4 Direction for Future Research

Treating the ways of seeing as historical constructions, I have sought in this study to demonstrate the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing China by examining three art and literary forms intensely involving visual images, namely, classical poetry, traditional painting, and travel writing. Stemming from this project, some new subjects for future research can be suggested. Considering that traditional Chinese art is far wider in scope than poetry, painting, or travel writing, our present study on visuality in the works of late Qing literati and artists might be expanded to cover other visual fields, such as classical Chinese novel and traditional theater. Correspondingly, questions will arise out of this expansion:

How did these art or literary forms concretize the ways of seeing? During the late

Qing period were there also modern transformations of visuality occurring in these fields? And if so, how did the changes unfold? Providing more examples, future research may further demonstrate the universality and inevitability of the modern transformations of visuality in late Qing art and literary practices. As it is beyond of the scope of this thesis, I will pursue the answers to those questions later.

254 5.5 Conclusion

In the history of China, the late Qing period is widely recognized as a critical historical juncture, in which the country was going through tremendous transitions from tradition to modernity. In such an era of change, profound transformations happened in almost every sphere, from China‘s society to its culture and even to the people themselves. These comprehensive changes have provided scholars great opportunities to explore the emergence of late Qing modernity and its diverse manifestations from a variety of perspectives. This thesis has contributed to this understanding of the multiplicity of the late Qing modern by revealing the modern transformations in Chinese intellectuals‘ ways of seeing and the constructions of visual experiences in their literary and artistic practices. I have delineated the trajectory of late Qing visuality by examining new developments in the visual practices of the poet Gong Zizhen, the painter

Ren Bonian, and the travel writer Kang Youwei. These modern transformations of visuality during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were active in shaping modern Chinese intellectuals, and should be viewed as an indispensable aspect of Chinese modernity.

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