Study On The Dissemination Of The American Independence Knowledge In The Late Qing Dynasty

In 1784,the American merchant marine "Empress of China" came to China,which was not only a prelude to Sino-Us trade,but also made Chinese people start a journey of recognizing "new people" and America’s independence in their minds.Before the Opium War,American businessmen and Protestant missionarirs were intermediaries who introduced new foreign knowledges to China.And the knowledges of the history of America’s independence were spreading to a few Chinese people’s minds bit by bit.Meanwhile,in accordance to the resources of traditional Chinese culture,Chinese people began to reframe and construct the cognition of the new-born America.Since the 1870s,Japan has become the "transfer station" to spread Western learning.By way of Japan,the historical books of Chinese style American history and World history enjoyed a widespread population among readers of various social strata,which reflected that Chinese people at that time were more open to foreign knowledges.However,it seemed that traditional people under pressure from the current political situation,who focused on practical statecraft,paid no attention to America’s independence,politics and customs.During the Sino-Japanese War,the fiasco of China made Chinese people who shouldered the responsibility of saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival began to focus on Western political systems and heroic images.The specification of the novels of the independence of America and the compilation of Western textbooks by intellects had made those Western knowledges,including the independent history of America,begin to be read by people in middle and lower social classes and provide reading materials for ordinary people.At the same time,Chinese students studying abroad,especially in Japan,gradually became the principal parts to translate,introduce and spread the knowledges of America’s independenceDuring the ten years of the late Qing Dynasty,with the upsurge of Chinese people’s political awareness and the power competition among political parties,peopte of that time used the history of America’s independence as their arguments more often.Those arguments were mainly in the political debate among the anti-Manchu,the revolutionaries and the reformists.With the need of political practice by revolutionaries,Chinese people not only translated and introduced America’s the Declaration of Independence for several times,but also created the Chinese version the Declaration of Independence.Yet,thcrc was no complete worship and imitation of American political system in the social conduct at this time.