The Image Of China In The Writings Of Segalen

Victor Segalen is the famous French poet, writer and sinologist, and he had ever come to China for three times, living in China as long as seven years. With strong China complex, he created massive poetries, essays and novels with the theme of China, and Segalen is known as Chinese Poet in France. In numerous literary works with exotic culture popular with seeking of exotic curious scenery at the beginning of 19 th and 20 th Century, these works created by Segalen with advanced aesthetic ideal and spiritual pursuit were unique and distinctive in that era. Since 1960 s, his works have attracted the research interest of more and more literary critics and researchers. So far, the academics home and abroad have gradually deepened the research on Segalen, and rich Chinese images in his works have been interpreted in various ways. One interpretation recognized by most of researchers is to regard Chinese images created by Segalen as the Chinese Vision blending imagination and reality. However, the shaping mechanism of the so-called “Vision” is some vague, with some misunderstandings of interpretation of most specific images, and unique aesthetic pursuit of Segalen needs further teasing of the effect on Chinese images created by him. Therefore, to eliminate these misunderstandings and explain the uniqueness and innovation of Chinese images created by him with Segalen’s aesthetic pursuit as the starting point has become the original intention and purpose of this paper.Segalen affected deeply by Nietzsche philosophy came to China with the initial purpose of enriching imagination and looking for non-religious spiritual support. The spiritual support he pursued is neither a sense of satisfaction for a moment got by curiosity of exotic customs and environment, nor an unreal sense of fullness got by integration of Others into self spirit, but the deep feelings that may bring good ideas of infinite exploration space and the Self. In order to understand the Segalen’s purpose of pursuing Chinese culture, this paper uses the imagologie theory and breaks the traditional standard with the intensive reading method of the text, and summarizes the outstanding characteristics of Chinese images in his works from multiple perspectives and multiple levels with Segalen’s unique aesthetic pursuit as the standard; this paper abandons rigid ideas of post colonialism and returns to the specific historical context for thorough analysis of complex shaping factors of these Chinese images; this paper teases the impact of aesthetic taste of Segalen on his creation of Chinese images with his theory of exotic culture. After completing the work, the author finds that in Segalen’s works, whether the real or imagined Chinese images contain his dream of pursuing difference aesthetics, and the shaped Chinese images are placed in the net of Self, Real and Imagination. Segalen gained the strong literary power aroused by heterogeneous culture collision in continuous understanding and mining of Chinese culture and Chinese themes, and he gradually perfected and enriched the Self Kingdom in free spiritual world based on such force. Therefore, Chinese images in Segalen’s works form a painting of Chinese impression focusing on unreal imagination and real phenomenon with the love of difference beauty and enthusiasm of self-exploration as the keynote.To pursue difference and explore self is an endless trip, while China is the most beautiful scenery that Segalen ever met during this trip. He found the Difference within the spirit and mined the Self from the soul with Chinese profound culture, and sought all the Forms that can express this feeling of the world and self-existence, to constantly explore the reality and imagination, known and unknown boundary. Segalen’s unremitting exploration enthusiasm is worth affirmation and appreciation in the era full of confusion and nothingness. The difference beauty with coexistence of diversity pursued by him in all his life can bring us a lot of thinking and inspiration in today’s era where the culture tends to assimilation.