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Rediscovering the Yellow River and the Yangtze River: the Circulation of Discourses on the North–South Dichotomy between Late Qing China and Meiji Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Fei Chen
Fei Chen*
Affiliation:
Shanghai Normal University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: chenfei1313@gmail.com
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Abstract

Many novels, poems, and academic works produced in the last decades of Qing China were characterized by a structure of North–South dichotomy. While existing studies have investigated the root of this narrative structure in Chinese traditions, this article tries to uncover Japan's lesser-known role in the revitalization of traditional discourses. It first discusses how Japanese intellectuals, such as Shiga Shigetaka and Naitō Konan, reconfigured Chinese discourses on the North–South dichotomy as theories to assert Japan's superiority over China. It goes on to examine how Liang Qichao appropriated Japanese theories to mobilize southern Chinese to participate in state politics. It then explores how Chinese revolutionary students in Japan exploited Japanese intellectuals’ and Liang's discourses to promote a cross-provincial consciousness by representing China as a river-based region writ large. Lastly, it reveals how the restructured discourses on the North–South dichotomy were manipulated by revolutionaries after they flowed back to China.

Keywords

North–South dichotomylocal consciousnessnational consciousnessthe Yellow Riverthe Yangtze River
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 33 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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