The Pain of the Atlas of the Sea Kingdom: The Different Fates of a Book in China and Japan
Text/Yanyu, Liushen Leilei
One
April 23rd, in addition to being World Book Day, is also a person's birthday, which is Wei Yuan.
He wrote a book, which is the famous "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom",
There was a passage between China and Japan about this book
Let's talk about the past today.
To put it simply, more than 100 years ago, when they were also bullied by foreign powers, China did not read the book "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", but Japan read it seriously.
Later, Japan rose rapidly and became a modern power, and at one time beat China.
Of course, Japan certainly didn't just become stronger because of reading an extra book, but it is undeniable that this book played a crucial role.
Two
Wei yuan
bear
at 179
4 years, a native of Shaoyang, Hunan, is an intellectual who "opens his eyes to see the world", and is famous in modern history
Thinker, politician, writer.
Because of his young talent, he once named Gong Zizhen and called him "Gong Wei".
Later, he settled in Nanjing, compiled the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" with his heart, and had a close relationship with the governor Lin Zexu. The writing of "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" is also largely due to Lin Zexu's foreshadowing and influence.
As for the content of this book, everyone has basically learned it in history class, and they all understand it well. Just a brief remark here. In the book, Wei Yuan expounded his ideas on improving the map and making the country rich and the army strong, and also introduced the rich knowledge of the political economy, military science and technology, geography and history of Western countries.
For example, in the "Raising the Sea", Wei Yuan profoundly summarized the reasons for the fiasco of the Opium War, and put forward strategies to deal with the enemy from various aspects such as defense, battle, strategy, troops, and funds.
"World Geography" introduces the geographical history, social system, astronomical calendar, customs and habits of overseas countries, among which the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Russia are the most detailed.
"Western Techniques" covers the introduction of advanced Western weapons technology such as firearms manufacturing and battleship drawings.
In terms of science and technology alone, the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" introduced the most advanced astronomical knowledge such as Copernicus's "heliocentric theory" and the Portuguese Magis's "Astronomical Theory of the Earth", as well as advanced knowledge of shipbuilding, shipbuilding, and firearms, which was a priceless treasure for China at that time.
However, what happened to the book in China at the time was a big surprise.
Three
In August 1842, the First Opium War ended. In December 1842, Wei Yuan completed the first fifty-volume Atlas of the Sea Kingdom. The two are less than four months apart.
It can be seen from the speed at which the book was written, at that time
Take Wei Yuan and Lin Zexu as well
The people with lofty ideals who are represented are strongly worried about the future of the country and the nation.
Therefore, after receiving Lin Zexu's commission in 1841, Wei Yuan began the compilation of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" non-stop.
"Three years of Fangshu, two precepts of rivers and mountains", Wei Yuan and Lin Zexu clearly knew that there was not much time left for China.
However, after the publication of the book, it did not make any splash for a long time. According to Mr. Hong Jiulai, in the first ten years of its existence, only six editions were published, and its dissemination was limited to a few places along the coast.
In September 1847, an English newspaper in Canton stated: "We have never heard of such a book in any of the bookstores of Canton......"
At this time, it had been five years since the publication of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", and it was rare to see even Guangzhou, which was the most open to the outside world at that time, let alone other places.
There were also a few enlightened officials who knew about the Atlas of the Sea Kingdom, but to no avail. A royal historian named Zhu Qi thought that "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" was good, but because people were soft-spoken, they couldn't reach the heavens.
Until more than ten years after the publication of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", the high-level Qing court was still very unfamiliar with this book.
In the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858), Wang Maoyin, the then military minister, recommended this book to Emperor Xianfeng because of the critical situation, but he recommended the first edition of the 50-volume "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", in fact, the more detailed 100-volume edition of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" had been compiled in 1852.
This also shows how cold this book was in the Qing Dynasty.
Four
Far from being unpopular, the book was boycotted and vilified by mainstream conservatives.
The Qing Dynasty was still immersed in the illusion of the Celestial Empire, very arrogant and ignorant.
For example, during the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty had been beaten by the British, and in order to appease the foreigners, the Qing government removed Lin Zexu from his post and sent Qishan as a minister to Guangdong to negotiate with the British. Qi Shan was complacent for a while and said: "I am not like Governor Lin, who is a big official of the Heavenly Empire and spies on foreign affairs all day long. ”
The two countries are at war,
Qi Shan actually felt that spying on Yiqing was a matter of loss, and Qin Cha was like this, which can understand why China and Britain have been at war for a long time, and the Qing Emperor still doesn't know where England is located.
Arrogance and ignorance are a bunch of twins. Matteo Ricci, a foreigner, once drew a map of the world for the Qing court, but when the Qing bureaucrats found that the location of the Qing Dynasty on the world map was "slightly west and close to the north", and was not in the center of the world, and the area was not the first in the world, they denounced it as a heresy of "unbridled talk".
The content of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" introduces the weapons and artillery of foreigners and the political system, which is also called a strange trick. If Liang Tingfang, who is already considered an enlightened person, he can't accept the idea of mastering the long skills of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", thinking that "it is worse to lose the body"!
Some officials even said bluntly, learning from foreigners, "Ancient and modern times are unreasonable!"
A similar encounter with the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" was another book a few years later, "Yinghuan Zhiluo", which was also attacked for "Zhang Waiyi's arrogance, damaging China's mighty" and "inconsequential, especially hurting the national body", and was finally forced to stop printing.
Wei Yuan's friend Yao Ying summed up the embarrassing experience of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" in the Qing Dynasty at that time: "The world has violated the taboo of the public ....... the world. "If you engage in popular science again, beware of social death.
Five
Compared with the embarrassment of "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" in China, the scene next door to Japan is different.
It is said that Japan's closure was not much stronger than the Qing Dynasty at the beginning, and the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" was introduced to Japan in 1851, but because of the text about Catholicism in the book, this book was banned by the shogunate's "Tenpo Suppression of Western Studies" in Japan, and it could not flow into the market at all.
The transformation took place in 1854, the year in which 15 more "Atlases of the Sea Kingdom" entered Japan, but this time they were not banned, but 7 were officially requisitioned, and the remaining 8 were allowed to enter the private sector.
Why this change?
Because of the 1853 US-Japan Black Ship Incident, to paraphrase our words, the US imperialist guns opened the door to Japan.
The same being beaten by others, the same loss of power and humiliating the country, and the same learning from foreigners, Japan showed a completely different sense of crisis from the Qing Dynasty: it urgently needed to seek world knowledge and deal with the people.
Therefore, when they saw the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom," which recorded the political geography and military science and technology of the West in such detail, the Japanese could not hide their excitement and read it hungrily.
The Japanese Shanmuda said: "The invasion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty by the British is the overthrow of the front car, and the rear car cannot be undisciplined." However, this book is the most useful today. ”
In 1854, Shihiro Shiotani directly pointed out in the "Preface to the Republication of the Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" that the name of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" is geography, but in fact it is a military canon.
Shimazu Saibin, the lord of the Satsuma Domain, learned about the national conditions and military strength of Britain and France through the Atlas of the Sea Kingdom, which became a must-read book for the Satsuma Domain at that time.
The famous Japanese scholar Yoshida Shoin highly recognized the master's long technique proposed in the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" to control the razor, and taught his Japanese students in this way, and one of his students was named Ito Hirobumi, who later became the prime minister of Japan and launched the Sino-Japanese War.
In addition, Sakuma Zozan, Saigo Takamori, and Kido Takayoshi were all fans of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", and many of them became the leaders of the Meiji Restoration.
Because of their admiration for "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", they often respect Wei Yuan very much, and regard him as a spiritual mentor and friend.
The enlightened thinker Sakuma Xiangshan read Wei Yuan's "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" and exclaimed: "Woohoo! Yu and Wei were born in a foreign land, do not know each other's names, and when they feel it, they are the same age, and there are also people who have secret coincidences with what they see!
Six
There are several statistics that can directly reflect the popularity of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" in Japan.
For example, the price of the "Atlas of the Sea Country" was 130 mesh when it first entered Japan in 1851, and in 1854 it rose to 180 mesh, and in 1859, the price rose all the way to 436 mesh.
In just a few years, it has nearly tripled, and a Chinese book has become expensive for a while. Why are prices rising so fast? It boils down to too many people who want to see it.
The Japanese scholar Lai Ol said in the "Preface to the Translation of the Illustrated Chronicles of the Sea Kingdom": "It is a pity that there are only dozens of copies of it, so the sea hopes to see its books!" "Everyone in the sea hopes to read this book, which shows how popular the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" is in Japan.
According to the statistics of the Japanese scholar Shintaro Ayuzawa, in just three years from 1854 to 1856, there were as many as 21 kinds of "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" published in Japan.
These copies have a strong purpose, they are not all copies, but very accurately selected the content of the introduction of the national conditions of the Japanese government and the public, such as strengthening coastal defense, firearms manufacturing, and the United States and Britain.
Compared with China's indifference and resistance to the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" at that time, it was a world of difference.
If the national disaster a hundred years ago was an exam, how did the two candidates in China and Japan widen the gap, these numbers may be one of the answers.
Seven
After that, the gap between the national fortunes of the two countries quickly widened.
In 1861, 20 years after the Atlas of the Sea Kingdom was written in China, the Qing Dynasty finally began to learn from the "Westernization Movement" in the West.
When it comes to the past 20 years, Zuo Zongtang said with regret: "The book is completed, Wei Zi died, and in the next 20 years, the situation is the same." ”
You have had the secret book of magic for 20 years, but China has not changed at all, and the world can wait for you for 20 years?
In 1868, after more than 10 years of best-selling in Japan, Japan also began the vigorous Meiji Restoration, after more than 20 years of development, in 1895, the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese Naval War, Japan defeated China in World War I, and established its status as a great power.
A pair of neighbors, one lost for twenty years, and the other seized for twenty years, this contrast is not strong, nor can it be said that it is ironic.
Thinking of this, even the Japanese themselves sighed:
"A loyal and wise man who worries about the country writes books, and his king does not use them, but he invests in other countries. ”
Today, nearly two centuries have passed since Wei Yuan and his writings. This reading past between China and Japan is still emotional.
Liu Xiang, a great scholar of the Han Dynasty, said: "Books are like medicine, and good reading can cure foolishness." ”
What is the use of reading, probably this is the answer.
Bibliography:
"Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" explores the different origins of China and Japan——
LIU Changgeng;
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Comparison of the Spread and Influence of the Atlas of the Sea in China and Japan - Liu Yan;
The circulation of books and the reception of reading in East Asia in the mid-nineteenth century——— taking Wei Yuan's Atlas of the Sea as an example - Wu Wenjie. Thanks as well.