dc.description.abstract | This thesis focuses on the social culture in the post-Taiping Rebellion period. Through analyzing the comprehensive literary and artistic journal “Yinghuan Souji” (《瀛寰瑣紀》) established by the “Shen Bao Press” (《申報》) , it attempts to uncover the implications of literary revival within the publication from the perspectives of “retrospection” and “reconstruction”.
Firstly, in order to reveal the reasons behind the founding of “Yinghuan Souji” and its cultural significance, this thesis delves into the establishment of the "Shen Bao Press" and its Chinese editors and authors who received traditional educations in the East while remaining open to embracing new knowledge of the West.
Secondly, it reexamines and analyzes admirable figures of the era, including military officials who sacrificed themselves for a greater cause, literati who experienced hardship and displacement, and women who were faithful and unwavering. This thesis also explores how literati praised and mourned these figures, presenting a collective healing phenomenon after the turmoil.
Furthermore, it discusses the reconstruction of water facilities and the restoration of abandoned farmlands, along with the reflections on Western culture and civilization and the reformation of literati poetry communities in a peaceful atmosphere during the post-conflict period. Through rapid dissemination and reception in newspapers and journals, this era vividly showcases the resurgence of military governance, foreign affairs, and literary activities.
Lastly, it analyzes how the articles of the journals provided alternative narratives and reshaped images of figures. The editors collected lost and scattered works from friends, relatives, and past scholars, and selected newspapers and journals as an alternative means of publication; they reexamined the works of predecessors from unique perspectives and attempted to introduce and promote them to the public; they occasionally arranged new and old works in a comparative layout to commemorate predecessors and relatives, to retrospect and innovate various aspects of cultural heritage and historical memory.
By comprehensively exploring these aspects, this thesis interprets how “Yinghuan Suoji” reconstructed the literary atmosphere and social order through retrospection, and the profound literary revival significance it contains. | en_US |