Abstract:
The Opium War and the subsequent opening of the five treaty ports are often considered the beginning of a new era in China’s history. On the surface, the conflict was relatively constricted, and when relying on Western war reports, there is a danger of interpreting it as a minor affair. However, its effects on Chinese intellectuals (which are still felt today) can only be better understood by reading the contemporary reactions of literati. The events surrounding the Opium War were discussed not only in political prose, but also in poetry.
Taking the treaty port Shanghai as a case study, this paper looks at how the war itself, the Treaty of Nanking and the subsequent opening of the city to merchants and missionaries are treated in the contemporary poetry of Wang Tao 王韜 (1828–1897), Li Shanlan 李善蘭 (1810–1882), and Jiang Dunfu 蔣敦復 (1808–1867). Their poems show that the intellectuals blamed the Westerners for their aggression, but also the Qing government for the lack of defense, subsequent leniency, and its lack of trying to impose trade controls. We also see the shame they felt for working and living in a treaty port. This talk presents a selection of their poems to provide an idea of their imagery, tone, and content and to shed light on the perception of the events.
Short Biography - Sebastian Eicher
Sebastian is an associate professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He completed both his MA in Classical Sinology (2011) and his PhD (2016) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, with his doctoral thesis focusing on the historiography of the Later Han dynasty (25–220 CE). Since 2016, he has taught Classical Chinese and philosophy to BA and MA students, moving from Munich to Venice in 2022. He recently completed his Habilitationsschrift, which examines the autobiographical writings and political thought of Shanghai treaty port intellectuals, specifically Jiang Dunfu, Wang Tao, and Guan Sifu.