Chinese Scholars’ Understanding Of Japan Before First Sino-Japanese War From Five Japan Travel Notes

It’s Jia-wu year again, many Chinese feel painful in their hearts. In First Sino-Japanese War in1894,the imperial court was defeated by a once student who prostrated itself in worship; a great power wasforced by the gun muzzle of a small country to sign a treaty signed under coercion. The emperor, thescholar-bureaucrats and even common people all felt unprecedented huge shame, and their self-confidencecollapsed all of a sudden, with the pessimistic mood of “the nation is in peril” pervading the whole society.Why did China fail in First Sino-Japanese War National strength and strategy and tactics areundoubtedly of the most importance; however, some potential recessive factors also need to take intoaccount. Before First Sino-Japanese War, how did Chinese, in particular the scholars who connected theemperor and the public regard Japan which was deemed as “separated by ten heavy fogs across a narrowstrip of water” is a recessive factor that could not be ignored.The five Japan Travel Notes before First Sino-Japanese War were written by five traditional Chinesescholars who had traveled to Japan. They elaborated on the styles of government officials and the people inJapan in the year before First Sino-Japanese War, from which we could not only get a view of true Japanesefeatures, such as “naked bathing men and women”,“singing and dancing geisha girls”, etc., but also see theshadows of western world, such as “the specimens of birds are the same as those in Shanghai PolytechnicInstitution” and “the county government completely copies the western style”. The five Chinese scholarsprovide us with the interpenetration between Japan and western world, between tradition andmodernization, and among various time and space factors。...