ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

In the previous research on the compilation of Chinese literary history in Japan, there is still a lack of specific organization on how Western academic thought was incorporated into the compilation of Chinese literary history. This article addresses the deficiencies in this area, specifically and comprehensively examines the process of how the Japanese absorbed Western modern academic thought in the first 30 years of the compilation started from the Meiji period, from the perspectives of the backgrounds, motivations, and methodologies of the nine early authors. Among the early famous nine authors, seven were professors at universities, and they took two different routes, one through travelling in China and the other through studying in the West, with Tokyo as the center. The University of Tokyo was the main training ground for these authors, while Waseda University served as the base for teaching and publishing Chinese literary history. The traditional Confucian education and the introduction of the Western education system in the Meiji era created a new type of talent with a combination of Sinology and Western academic thought, laying the foundation for the compilation of Chinese literary history. Faced with the pressure of the popularity of Western literature, scholars who insisted on Sinology attempted to take advantage of their familiarity with Chinese and their knowledge of modern academic methods to be the first to compile a history of Chinese literature before Westerners and Chinese. Suematsu Kenchō wrote the first introductory book on pre-Qin literature in England, and fifteen years later, Kojo Teikichi wrote the first general history of ancient Chinese literature using the Chinese dynasty chronology and Taine’s theory of literary criticism. Later, with the introduction of Western historical periodization by Toyohachi Fujita and Yasukuni Matsudaira, and the emphasis on popular literature by Tanerō Sasakawa, in the early 20th century, two general histories of ancient Chinese literature –Tokuji Kubo’s The History of Chinese Literature and Kenkichirō Kojima’s An Outline of Chinese Literature History - were born that not only used Western historical periodization and Taine’s theory of literary criticism, but also further narrowed down the definition of literary works to a modern level.

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