New China: A Future History (2)--化　境　神　似

New China: A Future History (2)

by Liang Qichao 梁启超

(Note to those of you reading this on the RSS feed: BlogChina sends out the entire front-page text of these articles, but it does not give any indication of whether a given article continues inside the cut. The serials will always end with (待续), so if that is not present in the feed, be aware that you are missing the bottom half of the article. I am not sure how to solve this problem in other individual articles.)

Chapter 1: Prologue

OUR STORY takes place in the 2513th year after the birth of Confucius (the present year is the 2453rd), that is, 2062 CE (the present year is 2002 CE)¹, a rényín² year. On the first of January (lunar calendar) the National People's Renewal Movement celebrated its 50th anniversary. This same time also happened to be the date of formation of the new All-Nation Peace Conference, with powerful ministers from all countries having just signed the Peace Treaty in Nanjing (note)³. Because special conditions had already come up in the All-Nation Treaty - our nation's government and the representatives of other nations altogether put forward dozens of planks, none of which had been agreed upon - those representatives stayed in China for the time being.

This coincided with the celebrations our country was holding, and all of our allies sent warships in congratulations. The King and Queen of England, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, the Premier of Russia and his wife (note), the Premier of the Philippines and his wife (note), and the Premier of Hungary and his wife all came themselves to congratulate us. There were many others, all high-level officials who represented their countries in expressing their good wishes, and they congregated in hurried, bustling Nanjing. At that time the Chinese populace decided to hold an exhibition in Shanghai, one which would be different from the norm. It would not only exhibit commercial and artistic objects, but educational and religious groups of all kinds could use this time to hold a unified meeting (this is called the "Great Harmony"⁴). A meeting of famous scholars and doctors from every country would number no fewer than several thousand people; a meeting of students from every country would be no fewer than tens of thousands of people (gloss: Those invited especially for religious studies would already number in the tens of thousands; for the remainder I do not know an exact number). There would be speaking platforms everywhere, and lectures would be held everyday, turning the huge city of Shanghai, including Jiangbei, Wusongkou, and Chongwen county, into a massive exhibition center. (Immense, immense!) This is not a full description, however.

One group on the list was the history division of the Beijing Metropolitan University Literature Department⁵. Because they wanted to display the uniqueness of Chinese history, on the one hand to encourage patriotism among the people, and on the other hand to show foreigners evidence of the changes the descendents of the Yellow Emperor had undergone during their development, they reserved a large lecture hall at the center of the exhibition to present the lectures of thirty-odd PhD's. Also present were lecturers on the history of Chinese politics, Chinese philosophy, religion, livelihood, finance, customs, and literature - this too is not an exhaustive list. (gloss: It is unmistakable that in the future, Chinese history will be the most important subject in the world. The world's largest nationality, unique qualities cultivated over thousands of years - who can compare with this?)

One subject on the list was a lecture by the famous doctor of literature, the esteemed Prof. Kong, currently serving as the chairman of the National Education Association. This Prof. Kong, named Hongdao, styled Juemin⁶, was from Qufu county in Shandong; that is, he was the descendant of a branch of the family of Confucius. He was called Professor Qufu by his students, and was 76 years old this year (he is currently 16). From his youth he traveled at his own expense, studying in Japan, America, England, Germany, and France. At the time of the reforms, he had been engaged in national affairs with various upstanding citizens, and had spent two terms in prison (his sorrows were for those of the whole country⁷). When the new government was established, he was on te drafting committee for the new constitution. He was transferred to a position as undersecretary of the education department, later resigning due to illness, but put all his energies into the affairs of the people's education. Because of this he was put up for secretary of the education conference.

But let us return to our main topic. This venerable doctor, then, lectured on what kind of history? None other than that book we love to hear read, A History of China's Past 60 Years. Is not the period from the renyin year in the 28th year of Guangxu's reign to this renyin year precisely sixty years? (No wonder.)

Those sixty years could be called the great critical juncture deciding whether China continued or perished, the great drama of her intense scramble for survival. This period brought surprises and headaches, tragedy and delight without bound. Miscellaneous accounts had been published by the government and private citizens, not in small numbers, but there had not yet been a truly complete, detailed book written. The scholarship and papers of this professor Kong have stood out from contemporaries. (Truly standout). Moreover, since he has personally experienced every situation (I'm afraid the future must be personally experienced), such a lecture would certainly be even more intimate and interesting, it goes without saying.

At that time the Metropolitan University and the National Education Conference issued a name list that announced when the scholars would be speaking at the lecture hall during the history conference at the exhibition. The time of the lecture was fixed for 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon of every other day⁸. The first lecture was held on the first of February, and on that day men and women who purchased tickets to listen to the lecture numbered at least 20,000. Among them were 1000 foreigners, including people from England, America, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, and India.

This Professor Kong was discussing Chinese history in China, so he certainly used Chinese. The reader might inquire how the foreigners were able to understand him. It turns out that since the reforms, rapid progress was made in many disciplines, and countries in Europe and America began to send students over to study. According to old annual records, the entire county had over 30,000 international students, of whom over 1200 have graduated and returned home. Naturally, these students were able to understand Chinese, so when they heard that China's foremost Confucian scholar was lecturing, how could they fail to attend? (gloss: Not exactly what you would think of those studying Chinese today⁹.)

But enough of this trivia. Let us say that from starting from that day, when Prof. Kong ascended the podium to begin his lecture, stenographers provided by the Historical Society sat beside him working their pens to record from start to finish this History of China's Past 60 Years, not leaving out a single word. As they were taking it down in shorthand, they would send telegrams to the New Fiction magazine for publication. (The telegram fee was not insubstantial.)

If the reader wishes to know the contents of Prof. Kong's lecture, please look at the next chapter for an explanation¹⁰.

(待续)

Notes

As part of their movement to re-imagine Confucian philosophy for the modern era, Kang Youwei and his disciples established their calendar with the birth of Confucius. Here, in testament to the haphazard way in which Liang says he wrote this story, both the western and Confucian dates are off by a century. Liang is writing in 1902 about the events of 1962.
renyin: The traditional Chinese calendar was calculated from the interaction of a set of 10 "heavenly stems" with 12 "earthly branches". Every 60 years the cycle would repeat itself. This compares with the western measurement of centuries, cf. García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude.
note: present in the original text. As was common in works of the time, Liang will often interject comments in the author's voice, or merely call attention to items of a particular significance. All translation notes will be appended as footnotes.
Great Harmony: Utopian society that was the culmination of the philosophy of Kang's school. It draws its inspiration from the rather un-Confucian first few paragraphs of the Liyun section of the Book of Rites.
Beijing Metropolitan University: 京师大学校 Founded 1898, it was one of the only lasting fruits of the aborted 100 Days Reform spearheaded by Liang and Kang. In 1912 the school was renamed Peking University.
Juemin: 觉民 Many of the names Liang chooses for his characters have symbolic meaning, some from a near-homophone, and others quite overt. The literal meaning of juémín is "awaken the people".
his sorrows...: Translation uncertain. Comments appreciated; please refer to the original (marked in light blue).
every other day: Translation uncertain. Comments appreciated; please refer to the original (marked in light blue).
Compare Liang's predictions with the latest numbers.
If the reader wishes to know...: This is the standard formula used to end chapters in traditional Chinese fiction. Originating from the need for oral storytellers to sell their listeners on the next section, by Liang's time it had long been merely a formal device, used regardless of whether the story had reached a cliffhanger or not.

【作者: neohet】【访问统计:】【2005年01月13日星期四 00:33】【注册】【打印】

化　境　神　似