Chapter 19 Chapter 18 Chitose Maru’s Trip to Shanghai——the first ship to visit China after the founding of Japan

On the morning of June 13, 1862 (the first year of Tongzhi in China and the second year of Bunku in Japan), a Japanese merchant ship painted with the name "Chitose Maru" sailed into the Huangpu River and berthed at the Shanghai Port Wharf.This is the first Japanese ship officially sent to China by the Japanese government since the Tokugawa shogunate implemented a policy of locking up the country for more than 200 years, and it is also the first attempt to open up Sino-Japanese relations since the founding of Japan.The crew of Chitose Maru also carried out many cultural exchange activities in Shanghai and left many records.Therefore, Chitose Maru's trip to Shanghai is a major event with groundbreaking historical significance in the history of modern Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.

In the 1850s, the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan was forced to found a country. It signed a series of treaties of goodwill and commercial treaties with Western countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and the Netherlands, and established diplomatic and trade relations.However, until the 1960s, there was no formal diplomatic relationship and trade agreement between Japan and its nearest neighbor, China.Therefore, from the perspectives of resisting the impact of the West, understanding the world situation, expanding the trade market, and increasing fiscal revenue, Japan believed that it was necessary to establish diplomatic and trade relations with China.They also advocated that some on-the-spot investigations of China's seaports and foreign trade should be done first. In mid-March 1862, the shogunate spent 34,000 silver dollars to purchase a British merchant ship named "Amistead" in Nagasaki.It was decided that this ship would undertake the task of going to Shanghai to investigate and conduct trade, and renamed it "Chitose Maru".This is a three-masted wooden sailing ship with a load capacity of 358 tons. The original British captain and 14 British crew members on board are still employed as nautical technical work for this voyage.The shogunate appointed eight officials headed by the shogunate Netatesuke Shichiro and the Nagasaki local official Heirokuro Numama to be in charge of negotiations and trade with China.Accompanied by seven Chinese and Western translators, doctors and clerks.At that time, the vassals were also eager to understand the situation in China, so the shogunate agreed that some vassals would send a number of vassals to accompany them as official entourages.Among them are Takasugi Shinsaku of the Hagi Domain, Godai Saisuke of the Satsuma Domain, and Nakamuta Kuranosuke of the Saga Domain, among others.In addition, there were three Nagasaki businessmen, a Dutch businessman, servants, cooks, sailors, etc., and the total number of people on board was 67.The goods carried by Chitose Maru to China for trade mainly include 250,000 jin of coal, 5,000 jin of ginseng, and aquatic products such as kelp, sea cucumber, and dried abalone.

Chitose Maru sailed from Nagasaki on June 7, 1862, arrived at Wusongkou on June 12, and was towed into the Huangpu River by steamboat on June 13.When Chitose Maru entered Shanghai Port, the Dutch flag was flown on the foremast, the British flag was flown on the middlemast, and the Japanese flag was on the mizzen. The ship was moored on the river bank near the Dutch Consulate in Shanghai in the French Concession.As the news spread, many Chinese gathered on the pier to watch, and they were particularly surprised by the Japanese costumes and the double swords on their waists.Moreover, Shanghai was under the attack of the Taiping Army at that time. It was rumored that the United Kingdom invited Japan to send troops to China to help deal with the Taiping Army. Therefore, when seeing the Chitose Maru Japanese officials and vassals wearing double swords go ashore, some people misunderstood and quietly talked about "Japan Soldiers are coming."After Chitosemaru and his party went ashore, they stayed at the hotel Hongjikan near the Dutch consulate.

On the second day after arriving in Shanghai, Japanese officials including Neritsusuke Shichiro, accompanied by the Dutch consul in Shanghai, went to the Daotai Yamen to visit Shanghai Daotai Wu Xu.In addition to the polite pleasantries, the two sides mainly discussed specific measures to carry out Japan-China trade.Japanese officials inquired in detail about the Chinese authorities' views on the current situation, Sino-Japanese trade, and policies on foreign businessmen, concessions, and taxation.Learned a lot about China's situation and China's experience in dealing with diplomatic difficulties.Japanese officials also visited the consulates of the Netherlands, Britain, France and other countries in Shanghai to inquire about issues that need to be understood and paid attention to when conducting trade with China.

Except for the shogunate officials who focused on meeting and socializing with Shanghai Daotai and consuls of various countries, other crew members of the Chitose Maru, including accompanying feudal lords, merchants, and sailors, often walked freely in Shanghai, visited, bought goods, and bought books. Feel free to interact with Chinese civilians, talk in writing or visit each other.In particular, feudal vassals with a high level of education directly contacted people from all walks of life in China through various means, conducted in-depth investigations of Chinese social conditions, and also carried out many cultural exchange activities.Generally speaking, the citizens of Shanghai are quite friendly towards the Japanese crew of Chitose Maru. There is an endless stream of Chinese people visiting the Hongji Museum. According to records, there are students, wuben, painters, doctors, businessmen, gentlemen and so on.The vassals also often exchanged ideas with Chinese literati through written conversations in Chinese characters, and discussed Song and Ming Neo Confucianism, world situation, military art, literature and other issues.For example, Hibino Teruhiro, a member of the Takasu clan, wrote "No Nose Pen Talk" which contains all his written conversations with Chinese literati in Shanghai.Japanese vassals also often exchanged poems with Chinese poets.In addition, searching for Chinese books is also an important task for the vassals.They bought a large number of books on Chinese geography, history, politics, and Chinese translations from various bookstores and book stalls in Shanghai.Of particular interest to them were Chinese local chronicles, maps, and information on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.Some books were really unavailable, so they tried to borrow them to copy them. For example, Nakamuta Kuranosuke copied important documents of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as "Tianli Yaolun", "Taiping Edict", "New Chapter of Senior Citizens" and other books.

Chitose Maru stayed in Shanghai for about two months, and left Shanghai on August 10, 1862 to return to China. Returned to Nagasaki Port, Japan on August 19.Chitose Maru and his party investigated and collected a large amount of intelligence and materials about China, which provided important information for the Japanese government to decide its policy toward China and develop trade with China.Since the country was locked down, the situation that Japanese ships and people cannot come to China for economic and cultural exchanges has begun to change. It is particularly noteworthy that most of the vassals who participated in the Chitose Maru trip to Shanghai were outstanding young junior samurai selected by various vassals in Japan.They are full of vigor, good at thinking, have keen observation skills, and at the same time have a heart of worrying about the country and the people.They regard this visit to China as a good opportunity to broaden their horizons, increase their knowledge, investigate Chinese society on the spot, sum up China's experience and lessons, and explore Japan's future.He also has a strong sense of responsibility for the investigation and research tasks assigned by his feudal lord.Therefore, they seized every opportunity to investigate China's political, economic, military, and social conditions, contact people from all walks of life in China, and collect various books, materials, and maps.The vassals also recorded in detail their personal experience and investigation results of this trip to Shanghai, and many of them wrote down one or more diaries or notes, which provided a basis for the study of the Japanese view of China and the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges in the late Bakugawa period. valuable information.The most prominent among them was Takasugi Shinsaku, a 23-year-old member of the Hagi clan.He was a student of Yoshida Shoin, and later founded the Raiders and became a famous reformer.During this trip to Shanghai, he wrote five kinds of diaries and notes by himself, namely "Navigation Diary", "Shanghai Port Stay in Japan", "Nagasaki Drowning Diary", "Inside Exploration Record" and "Exploration of Foreign Affairs", collectively known as "Five Records of You Qing".Nakamutakuranosuke, a vassal of Saga, was named a Viscount after the Meiji Restoration and was one of the founders of the modern Japanese navy.He also wrote many kinds of records, such as "Voyage Diary from Nagasaki to Shanghai", "Shanghai Travel Diary", "Miscellaneous Records of Staying in Shanghai", "Response Letter to Shanghai Daotai in Tang Dynasty", "Shanghai Crossing Diary" and so on.In addition, there are "Shanghai Miscellaneous Notes" by Nafu Jiejiro, the Saga clan, Hibino Teruhiro, the Owari Takasu clan, and "No Nose Notes", and "Boat Daily Record" by Mine Genzo, the Hizen Omura clan , "Records of Shanghai Experience in the Qing Dynasty", "Overseas Daily Records", "Records of China's Experiences", "Shanghai Biyu" and so on.The Nagasaki businessman Matsuda Yabanji who accompanied him also wrote "Diary of the Tang Kingdom Crossing the Sea".

From the diary notes of the vassals, it can be seen that their view of China has undergone a process of change.When Chitose Maru first entered Shanghai Port, most of them praised the prosperity of Shanghai when they saw the many ships in the river and the tall buildings standing on the river bank.But when they went ashore and roamed inside and outside Shanghai, they found that in stark contrast to the gorgeous bungalows in the Bund Concession was the filth and chaos of the Chinese residential areas in the old city of Shanghai, as well as the proliferation of opium and drugs.They also saw first-hand the corruption of Qing government officials and the weakness of the military.In particular, the Qing government betrayed its sovereignty and colluded with foreign troops to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so that Western invaders ran rampant in Shanghai. Even the Confucian Temple in Shanghai became barracks for British and French troops, which made the Japanese vassals very angry.Takasugi Shinsaku and other vassals summed up the lessons of China through this trip to Shanghai, and believed that only by innovating political and military affairs can we maintain national independence externally, eradicate tyranny internally, and prevent peasant uprisings.This understanding became one of the factors in their formation of the idea of ​​the "Falling Curtain Reformation".