The Qing Dynasty used to have government officials address various issues by dispatching or making them reside abroad from diplomatic necessities, and diplomats who went out to sea during the period were Chinese who experienced Western society and cul...
The Qing Dynasty used to have government officials address various issues by dispatching or making them reside abroad from diplomatic necessities, and diplomats who went out to sea during the period were Chinese who experienced Western society and culture earliest. Dispatch of Guo, Song-tao party in 1876 was a true starting point that traditional Chinese intellectuals went to Europe across the ocean and started to understand Western civilization. This thesis considers recognition for the ocean civilization of the West from Guo, Song-tao party’s viewpoint during the Yangwo Movement(Chinese Westernized Reform). In those days, England was a country that decided global standards related to the ocean, and was the most powerful nation concerning the ocean. The diary a Chinese diplomate left contains high level information on the ocean civilization of England.
This thesis summarized the process of Guo, Song-tao party‘s going into government service, ocean culture that the party experienced in the ocean and ocean civilization they experienced in England in sequence. To put it concretely, this thesis includes memory of ocean voyage, innovation in geographic perspective, the Suez Canal, steamship and warship, artillery and artillery unit, aquarium, maritime technology, maritime law etc. The process that Guo, Song-tao party realizes the ocean civilization of the West is meaningful as it shows crack of China-centered world order simultaneously with construction of a modern nation-state. The ocean civilization that the party experienced was not at all easy to understand with scientific technology of England with more than 200 years of root.