金景善筆下的北京形象研究

Abstract

During the Daoguang period, visiting Korean envoys were more or less influenced by the Northern Learning Theory, which lessened their hostility to the Qing Dynasty and led them to advocate advanced science and technology to improve the people’s livelihood in Korea. Moreover, Western science technology and culture had been gradually introduced into China by this time. The Korean envoys of the Daoguang period had a broader international perspective than earlier envoys and were able to view the Qing Dynasty and themselves in a more diverse cultural context. In the twelfth year of Daoguang (1832), Jin Jingshan went to China as the Condescendence official and collected what he saw and heard in China as YanYuanZhiZhi, in which he describes the real style of Beijing in the Daoguang period with keen observations and deep insight, which gives this work high research value. the image of Beijing described by Jin Jingshan has the following aspects: First, Beijing was a magnificent city with a rich culture and a long history that had not lost the style of the imperial capital. Second, it was a society where east met west. In Beijing, where envoys from various countries lived, various cultures met and collided. However, due to the limitations of the time, Jin Jingshan’s acceptance of western scientific knowledge remained at the level of objects, and he thus failed to realize that great changes in the world were underway. Third, Beijing hosted a bustling and luxurious market. The shops presented a carnival scene: abundant material and people, a wide range of goods, well-developed and smooth trade, and people living and working in peace and contentment. However, hidden behind this grandiosity was the crisis of luxury and irreconcilable contradiction between Manchu and Han, which revealed the inevitability of the Qing Dynasty’s decline. Fourth was the magnificent landscape. On the one hand, Jin Jingshan admired the magnificent beauty of the landscape and the great national strength and superb skills behind it; on the other hand, the rulers who built these landscapes were evaluated as profligate. This contradictory attitude embodies Jin Jingshan’s wavering between two views of China, “the differentiation of Hua & Yi” and “the China of Northern Learning,” which were the common conceptions of Korean envoys during the Daoguang period who tried to separate the high skills of the Qing Dynasty from its barbarian culture.