Yan Fu And Guowen Daily

Yan Fu is one of the most important ideologists, educationists, and translators in Chinese modern history. He was also a superior in China's navy, acting a significant role in Chinese modern history. His thought actually had a critical influence on Chinese modern ideology history. As a representative of"Improving Group", his thought of saving China exceeded his generation."Guowen Daily"was a unique newspaper which was originated by Yan Fu. Guowen Daily was published from 1897 to 1899. These two years were considered as the most active period for Improving Group's activities. As Improving Group's base area in North China, its reports about Wuxu Reform and Weiji Resorm were very candid and fearless. In this article, the reasons why YanFu originated the newspaper, and its contribution to China's news industry and society will be discussed, based on the real historical events.1. Why Yan Fu originated"Guowen Daily"After finishing the study in The Royal Naval College at Greenwich and being back in China, Yan Fu's political career did not go well.Actually in the beginning, he was set store by the government. But due to his straight-forward character and flunky's incitement, he was alienated to Li Hongzhang who was a key minister in the government. In the end, Yan Fu even condemned Li Hongzhang, which caused the clash openly. In this situation, Yan Fu felt extremely tough to work in"North Ocean Navy".At that moment, the society could not recognize the value of a person who has expatriating experiences. Yan Fu was even abused as a "fake foreign ghost". This made him very eager to higher social status and he chose the traditional exam system as his entrance to fame-and-gain. Unfortunately, he failed 4 times in the examinations during 1885 to 1893. This resulted that Yan Fu's confidence of being a politician was destroyed, and at the same time, he decided to choose another way to contribute his knowledge and value to the society.While he was frustrated and awake from his political dream, newspaper industry was booming to its climax. According to incomplete statistics, there were approx. 120 different Chinese newspapers in China from 1893 to 1898, 80% of which were run by Chinese people. By seeing the newspapers'power and infection, Yan Fu decided to diffuse his learning via newspaper, and became active in saving the nation from extinction. However, publishing articles in newspaper had a lot of restrictions. Thus Yan Fu started his own newspaper career.2. Yan Fu's ideology of running a newspaperIn Yan Fu's articles,"acquaintance"was mentioned and stressed very often. He even concluded the vision of"Guowen Daily"as"to achieve acquaintance". He thought that closeness was the main cause of problems of China. His point of"acquaintance from China to foreign countries"was more emphasizing on knowing about other countries. The most estimable thing was that he analyzed the asymmetry on"acquaintance through high grade to low grade"and"acquaintance through China to foreign countries". He thought understanding the need of lower ranks was more important than the high ranks when talking about"acquaintance through high grade to low grade"; familiarity with other countries was more important when talking about"acquaintance through China to foreign countries". He said:"acquaintance makes progresses, and closeness makes backslide."Besides that, Yan Fu has given a new definition of"acquaintance": choices between learning from others and keeping being self, should be measured according to the fitness of situation– choose the option which fits the country best. Communication is the key to achieve acquaintance. Yan Fu made two versions of his newspaper: one was for readers with high level literacy; another version was for readers with low level literacy.Yan Fu has different understanding on the media - newspaper. He persisted in writing with ancient prose. No mater in format and term, or citation, he inherited the"Tongcheng"style. This was also Yan Fu's feature that he brought this style to his newspaper. In the letter to Liang Qichao, he wrote:"composition should be the wings of ideal, the sounds of emotion. So rough rhetoric cannot express precise theory; magnificent sentiment cannot be described with contemptible style."He thought it was readers'fault if ancient prose could not be understood.Yan Fu made some rules for the newspaper office in the beginning when he originated Guowen Daily. One of the rules was to regulate the behavior of the staff in the office. That was very valuable that he setup the ethics for news operators in so short period. Before he stopped the newspaper, he mentioned again about the problems of ethics of newspaper practitioners through his article"talking about difficulties". In the articles, he strongly blamed the newspaper practitioners who were lack of ethics in their jobs, and expressed his hate on the untrue reports.3. Springhead of Yan Fu's newspaper thoughtYan Fu's thought of running a newspaper was not completely formed when he run the newspaper, but his thought of saving China was incarnated through his newspaper. The process of running the newspa per is also the process that he carried out his thought of saving-China. That made his newspaper focus a lot on saving China.Yan Fu's liberalism is the resource of his thought of acquaintance. He considered that freedom is a significant factor of China's development. He pointed newspaper as a tool to pursue freedom when he run the newspaper. Separating different reader groups, and writing with ancient prose were due to his elitism. The above options were based on Yan Fu's understanding to the Chinese society while he run the newspaper.