从王韬看十九世纪中叶中国文人的日本观

A Study of Modern Chinese Intellectuals' Conception of Japan in the Mid-19th Century through Wang Tao

十九世纪中叶,王韬在上海墨海书馆工作时期,通过英美新教传教士了解到日本社会正在发生天翻地覆的变化,开始逐步改变中国文人对日本传统的"社会集体想象",成为近代中国最早关注日本明治维新的人士之一。60年代初到香港以后,他通过与日本人密切接触,对日本文化有了进一步的认识。明治维新之后正在崛起的日本开始跃跃欲试向外扩张,而昔日高高在上的大清帝国却一步步衰弱下来;二者地位近乎戏剧性的变化,使得王韬笔下的日本形象充满了矛盾。王韬对日本认识的演变在近代中国知识分子中颇具代表性,反映了晚清这个新旧交替的特定时代中国文人日本观的复杂性和矛盾性。

In the middle of the 19th century,when he worked in the London Mission Society Press,Wang Tao began to know that a great reformation was taking place in Japan through the introduction of the Protestant missionaries,and started to change the Chinese collective imagination of Japan.After he came to Hong Kong at the first years of the 1860s,he began to contact with the Japanese by himself,and he had further understanding of Japanese.Japan began to try to expand after the Meijirshin,while the same time the Qing empire slacked off progressively.The dramatic changes of the position of the two countries made Wang Tao＇s conception of Japan full of contradictory.The development of Wang Tao＇s conception of Japan was a representative of the modern intellectuals,which reflected the perplexity and the contradiction of the certain times.