Chapter 18 Chapter 17 Rosen and His "Japanese Diary"——The Pioneer of Modern Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange

From the Opium War to the 1870s, since China and Japan had not yet established diplomatic relations, except for a few merchant ships that went to Japan for trade, there were very few exchanges with each other, which brought difficulties to the cultural exchanges between China and Japan.However, if we dig deeper into the historical materials, we can still find the deeds of some pioneers, such as the Cantonese man Luo Sen who traveled to Japan with the Perry fleet of the United States and wrote the first travel notes to Japan in modern China. The book wrote the first chapter of modern Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.

In July 1853, Commodore Perry, commander of the U.S. East India Fleet, led an expeditionary fleet of four U.S. warships into Edo Bay (today’s Tokyo Bay) near the seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, demanding that Japan open a port for trade.Because the hulls of American warships were painted black and steamers emitted black smoke, the Japanese called them "black ships."Under the threat of force from the United States, the shogunate was forced to accept the American president's credentials and promised to give a reply next year. In February 1854, the Perry fleet entered Edo Bay again, and the shogunate had to send representatives to negotiate with Perry in Yokohama.During the negotiations, the Japanese were surprised to find that there was a Chinese among the American personnel who disembarked from the black ship.At that time, the Japanese painter Akako Shogata was ordered to make portraits of American personnel. Among them was a short and fat Chinese with a round face, long braids, a melon cap, and a folding fan, with the words "Lawsen from the Qing Dynasty" written next to it.There are also several portraits of him holding an umbrella, shaking a fan and writing.Rosen's name and records can often be seen in the notes, diaries, and records of the talks between the two sides of the Japanese personnel who participated in the reception of the US representatives at that time.

So, what kind of character is Rosen, and why did he come to Japan with the Perry fleet?Luo Sen, courtesy name Xiang Qiao, was a literati in Nanhai County, Guangdong.When he lived in Hong Kong, he had contacts with British and American missionaries and could speak a little English.His friend William Williams, an American missionary, was the interpreter for the Perry fleet's trip to Japan. During his first visit to Japan in 1853, he felt that Chinese was inseparable from dealing with the Japanese and making agreements.Therefore, when the Perry fleet set off for Japan again in 1854, he invited his friend Rosen to act as the Chinese translator for the fleet.Rosen felt that this was an opportunity to broaden his horizons and display his ambitions, so he accepted the invitation to go to Japan together.

Under the threat of force from the American fleet with seven warships and more than one hundred cannons, the Japanese shogunate was forced to accept Perry's demands. In March 1854, the two sides signed the "Japan-US Treaty of Goodwill" (also known as the "Kanagawa Treaty"), which stipulated that Japan would open ports such as Shimoda and Hakodate, and the United States could also send consulates to Shimoda.This is the first international treaty signed between Japan and a Western country, and it also marks that Japan's door to the country has finally been knocked open.Lawson was an eyewitness to the founding of Japan. He had written conversations with Japanese representatives and officials in Chinese and translated documents from both sides (documents related to treaties generally have Chinese versions).

Lawson also carried out many Sino-Japanese cultural exchange activities during his stay in Japan.He made friends with people from all walks of life in Japan. In addition to officials, he also had contacts with literati, scholars, and monks. Many Japanese people also took the initiative to communicate and write with Lawson. ("Japanese Diary") He found that Japanese people "love Chinese characters and poems". Many people sang Chinese poems with him, gave each other calligraphy and paintings, and more people asked him to write inscriptions and fans.According to his diary, he wrote more than 500 fans for the Japanese within one month in Yokohama, while in Shimoda, "the number of fans he wrote could not exceed a thousand handles" in one month.Up to now, in the Matsumae Castle Archives in Hakodate City, Hokkaido, Japan, there is still a large fan with a poem written by Lawson and donated to the old Kanjieyou of the Matsumae clan.Lawson also consulted with Japanese calligraphers.He heard that Yun Songwo, a literati from Shimoda, was good at oral calligraphy (that is, writing with a pen in his mouth), and asked him to write more than a dozen cursive scripts, which are quite "flying like dragons and phoenixes".This is probably the earliest calligraphy exchange between China and Japan in modern times.

Rosen also introduced to the Japanese people the political situation in China at that time, especially the peasant uprising in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which the Japanese were very concerned about.He lent his book "Nanjing Chronicle" about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to Japanese official Kenjiro Hirayama to read.For the first time the Japanese were given a detailed account of the Taiping Revolution approaching the truth.This work was later translated into Japanese by Yoshida Shoin, titled "The Chaos of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty", and it was widely circulated in Japan. In March 1859, when Lawson had a written conversation with Japanese officials at the Yokohama Hotel, he also corrected many Japanese misinformation about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as pointing out that Hong Xiuquan was the Taiping King instead of the Little Swordsmanship, and that the Qing emperor did not flee to North Korea, etc. And showed a tendency to sympathize with the peasant uprising.

Many Japanese officials and literati competed to sing harmony with Rosen or exchange poems.Many poems were recorded in his diary, such as a poem presented to him by a Japanese official: In Shimoda, a Japanese once asked Lawson: You are a Chinese scholar, why do you want to be an interpreter for Westerners?Luo Sen answered him with a poem expressing his ambition, and wrote a seven-character poem. The last four lines are: Expressed his own ambition and pride, and expressed Rosen's lofty ambition to go to the world and adapt to the trend of the new era.On the eve of leaving Japan, Lawson bid farewell to his Japanese friends.Hirayama Kenjiro recorded a poem from the Tang Dynasty on the fan as a commemoration: "Advise you to drink more wine, and there will be no old friends when you leave Yangguan in the west." Luo Sen also wrote a poem to answer, and wrote it on the fan. The poem reads:

During his visit to Japan, Luo Sen also wrote the first Japanese travel notes with high historical and literary value in modern China. When he returned to Hong Kong with the Perry fleet in August 1854, he titled his travel note "Japanese Diary" and handed it over to the Chinese monthly "Xiao You Guan Zhen" sponsored by Hong Kong Yinghua College for publication.It was serialized in three installments, November 1854, December 1854, and January 1855. The editor of "Xiao You Guan Zhen" added a note in front, saying that the author is the editor's "everyday confidant and friend", and publishing this diary can increase readers' knowledge and make everyone "new and refreshing".

In "Japanese Diary", Lawson described the landscape, human conditions, customs, and products of Yokohama, Shimoda, Hakodate (now Hakodate City, Hokkaido) and other places in Japan with vivid writing.He also had good impressions and compliments on the Japanese society and people at that time.He praised Japan's social security, "There is no one who steals like a mouse or a dog." He also expressed his appreciation for Japan's system of selecting scholars, thinking that China only selects scholars based on stereotyped articles, while Japan's "literature, martial arts, art, body, and speech" Take all."In Yokohama, seeing Japanese strongmen who could lift two or three bags of rice weighing more than 200 catties at a time, he couldn't help but admire: "It shows that there are so many brave men in Japan!" In Shimoda, he also praised a Gui Zhengmin, a Japanese teenager, "although he is young, he wears two swords, is high-spirited and good at answering", smart, handsome and attractive.

As the Chinese translator of the Perry Fleet, Rosen personally participated in the US-Japan negotiation and signing activities, so his "Japanese Diary" is also an important historical material for studying the history of the founding of modern Japan.Rosen also recorded the grand reception banquet held by Perry on the US ship after the signing of the "Kanagawa Treaty".A batch of modern equipment donated by the United States to the Japanese government was exhibited in Yokohama, which not only attracted a large number of Japanese audiences, but also aroused great interest of Lawson.In his diary, he described trains, motorboats, telegraphs, cameras, etc. in a tone of surprise and praise.Many of these modernized instruments newly invented in Europe and America were seen by Japanese and Chinese for the first time, so they felt novelty. Rosen's description is probably one of the earliest records of them by the Chinese.

Lawson's "Japanese Diary" also recorded various cultural exchange activities during his visit to Japan, and collected many poems sung with Japanese friends. These are valuable materials for studying the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges in the early modern times .Before Lawson, although some people had been to Japan, most of them were officials, businessmen, sailors, and occasionally a few literati, painters, monks, doctors, etc., but very few people left Japan travel notes.Since the early Qing Dynasty, only the "Sleeve Sea" written by Wang Peng, a painter who traveled to Japan with merchant ships many times during the Qianlong period, can be regarded as a travel note on Japan.However, Wang Peng's activities were limited to the Nagasaki China Business Hall, so his observations were limited.Lawson traveled around Yokohama, Shimoda, Hakodate and other places in Japan, and met many Japanese officials, literati, and common people. In addition, when he came to Japan, he was at a turning point in the history of East Asia.Therefore, his "Japanese Diary" is incomparable to "Sleeve Sea" in terms of the breadth, depth, historical and literary value of observing Japan. It can be said that it is the first Japanese travel note with high value in China. . Lawson later lived in Hong Kong, and there are few records in historical records. In fact, he still had contacts with Japanese people. In 1865, the Japanese government sent a senior official, Shibata Takenaka, to contact raw material technicians for the Yokosuka Iron Works. When passing through Hong Kong, he met with Lawson at the hotel. book. In the early 1850s, when the exchanges between China and Japan were very rare, Lawson came to Japan and carried out many friendly exchanges. He also wrote the first Japanese travel notes of modern Chinese. This pioneer contribution, we should not forget.