dc.description.abstract | Because of its particular geographical location, Taiwan, an island in East Asia, has emerged into world history since the 17th century. The geographical setting is very important for Taiwan, because it decides the development, the economy and the international image and status of this island. And the classic poetry of Taiwan in Ching Dynasty is worth studying because it reflects the collective sense of space and geographic cognition of the poets in the Chinese Empire Taiwan-ruling period from Ming-Zheng Dynasty to Ching Dynasty (1661-1895). All of the writers of the classic poetry of Taiwan, including officers and tourists from Mainland China, remains of Ming Dynasty, inhabitants and Taiwan natives, have revealed their cares for their lives and this land in their works from different perspectives. Therefore, studying the classic poetry of Taiwan in Ching Dynasty can help us understand the sense of space of the native and having-been-to-Taiwan Chinese poets of that period.
Space is a familiar theme or imagery in the literature. The geographic space or the activities and events happening in it could not only be the primary symbols in the literary texts, but also be the metaphor of the cognitive horizons of literary characters. The textual space formed by writing is hence abundant in social contextual meanings. The experience of space described in the literature includes the relations between human beings and nature or their environments, human beings’ sense of space, sense of place, love for homeland, and descriptions of landscapes. Studying from the view of geographic writing and with the leading ideas of human geography, this thesis focused on the space consciousness, that is, the sense of the existing-in-space or the being-in-the-world, implied in the geographic writings of the poets in Ching Dynasty.
Taiwan is a new territory of Chinese Empire in Ching Dynasty and has its own particular human and physical geographical setting, which has formed the common source of the poets’ space consciousness of Taiwan. The space consciousness of the poets reveals or conceals itself in their geographic writings and we can understand their sense of space through analyzing these works. Therefore, the attempt of this thesis is to inquire the spiritual phenomena of the being-in-the-living-world.
The writing of the main chapters is guided by poetic analysis and assisted by referring to historical materials to study the intrinsic and extrinsic structure of the poems. Methodologically, the four topics of the main chapters are united in the discourses of the space consciousness (the sense of space and the spiritual phenomena) of the poets; operationally, each chapter is divided into four sections and results in the final (4th) section, which is in fact the conclusion of each chapter, but for emphasizing the topics, it bears separately the name of “to be favored or not to be favored”, “to be comfortable or not to be comfortable”, “to inhabit or not to inhabit” and “to civilize or not to civilize”.
The topics of four main chapters are as follows:
A. Take Office / Make Tour: The Geographic Writings of Having-been-to-Taiwan Chinese Poets as officers or tourists
Studying from the view of Chu Yuan’s mythological imaginations, this chapter researches the space consciousness of having-been-to-Taiwan Chinese poets as officers or tourists and inquires their political mentality of “to be favored or not to be favored”.
B. Landscapes / Sightseeing: The Geographic Writings of the Eight-landscape Poetry in Taiwan County
Through analyzing the imaginations, the auditory and optical descriptions in the poems, this chapter studies the poets’ living phenomena (the sense of living and spiritual phenomena) reflected in their viewpoints of landscapes in Taiwan County and inquires their “to be comfortable or not to be comfortable” in their consciousness.
C. Characters / Land: The Geographic Writings of Five Princesses, Price Ning-Jing and Prince of Yan-Ping
Through studying the poets’ admirations of the figures of Five Princesses, Price Ning-Jing and Prince of Yan-Ping, this chapter inquires the recognition of the land and “to inhabit or not to inhabit” of the poets.
D. Chinese / Barbarians: The Geographic Writings of the Aborigines
Through studying the poets’ geographic cognition of the living areas of the aborigines, this chapter inquires the imperial ruling attitude of “to civilize or not to civilize”.
Based on the discourses of the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth chapters, the sixth chapter arrived at the conclusion of this thesis: the geographic writings of the classic poetry of Taiwan in Ching Dynasty reflect the poets’ cultural mentality of seeking for settling themselves. | en_US |