Title

Geography, Evolution and Civilization: Images of the World in Overseas Poems by Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei

Author

Kong Hiu-fai

Genre

Article

Pages

79-123

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202303_53(1).0003

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

overseas poems, Liang Qichao 梁啟超, Kang Youwei 康有為, geographical determinism, evolutionism

Abstract

Overseas poems, a neglected type of poetry, reflect the development of the times and the characteristics of civilization. The modern era was not only a critical period of social transformation, but it was also a time of rapid development in overseas poems. Due to their academic and political backgrounds as well as their travel experiences, the overseas poems of Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858-1927) and Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929), which represent the apex of the genre, show a pattern absent in the poems of other contemporary poets. Their poems were influenced by the theories of geographical determinism and evolutionism. They wanted to find decisive factors regarding the geographical environment from the investigation of different civilizations in the world, and they summed up the laws affecting evolution such as geographical location, sea power, material resources and colonization, which could be used as points of reference in China’s future development. Their vision and cultural consciousness were different from those of the Han centralism of the past, in that they embodied the turn of facing the ocean and actively merging into modern civilization, presenting a macro image on a world scale.