Translation, Colonization, and the Fall of Utopia
The Qing Decline as Explained through Chinese Fiction
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21741792 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William C Hedberg (Arizona State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 115-135 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Japanese Language and Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1536-7827 • E-ISSN: 2326-4586 |
| Publisher | University Library System, University of Pittsburgh (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.5195/jll.2020.79 |
| OpenAlex | W3014764828 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This study focuses on Meiji-period Japanese engagement with the late imperial Chinese novel Sequel to ‘The Water Margin’ (Shuihu houzhuan): an early Qing continuation of the classic Water Margin that focuses on the Liangshan outlaws’ colonization of a mythical “Siam” in the wake of the fall of the Northern Song dynasty. Like its parent work, Shuihu houzhuan found an enthusiastic readership beyond the borders of China. The novel was translated into Japanese several times during the Meiji period: most famously, by the poet and scholar Mori Kainan, whose translation was published by the Tokyo-based Kōin shinshisha publishing house between 1893 and 1895. In addition to the fact that Japan itself appears as a setting in the novel, I argue that Meiji-period interest in Shuihu houzhuan was related to its radically new mode of representing the central characters, who were transformed from rebellious bandits in the original Water Margin into civilized colonizers responsible for protecting and transplanting a reified Chinese essence on an international stage. This interest in expansion and colonization took on new significance against the backdrop of the First Sino-Japanese War, which bisected the publication of the translation and was explicitly addressed in both Mori’s commentary to the novel and the publishers’ marketing of the translation itself. In the context of the shifting relationship between Meiji-period Japan and Qing-period China, “Siam” is ultimately divested of its symbolic significance as a refuge from dynastic crisis and reconstituted as an unintentional trope for the complex linguistic, cultural, and political negotiation underlying Mori’s translation
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Art history · China · Economic history · Fall of man · Literature · Meiji period · Meiji Restoration · Political science · Politics · Utopia · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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