I love my motherland, and I love my compatriots. 1902, when Liang Qichao wrote such a sentence, the word "compatriots", which originally represented blood relationship, was transformed into a national symbol here, that is, "people of the same country".
Similarly, China's lion-free has become a national symbol of China in modern times, and there are such sayings as "sleeping lion" and "awakening lion". There are even rumors that even Napoleon said that "China is a sleeping lion, don't wake it, or the world will be shocked".
On February 28th, 65438, Yang Ruisong, an associate professor in the history department of Taiwan Province University of Political Science, analyzed the origin of two key words "compatriots" and "sleeping lion" that shaped China people's national identity at the "academic seminar on the separation and integration of science and technology history, ideological history and cultural history-Professor Ai Erman's retirement".
Yang Ruisong believes that the words "compatriots" and "sleeping lion" are endowed with national connotations, which are not only related to the background factors of the cultural interaction between China and Japan, but also related to the key figure Liang Qichao. The modern meaning of "compatriots" was introduced to China by Liang Qichao from Japan, while "sleeping lion" has nothing to do with Napoleon.
A best-selling Japanese novel inspired Liang Qichao.
Today, we are used to using "compatriots" to address the nationals of the same country, such as Hong Kong compatriots and Taiwan Province compatriots. However, it originally only refers to brothers and sisters born to the same parents, that is, the so-called "one-milk compatriots." From this, the meaning of "nationals of the same country" is derived. According to Yang Ruisong, it first appeared in Japan in the 9th century, and was introduced to China by Liang Qichao.
"Well, I have more than thirty-five million brothers! If the brothers are as sympathetic as we are, why not look ahead and just hope that Congress will open? Why not stand up and rejoice in the extension of civil rights? Why not take the oath, just hope that the state power will expand? ..... "Using" compatriots "to describe nationals like this, at least in Japan in the late1870s, has become a key word representing national consciousness.
1898 1898 After the coup, Liang Qichao accidentally got a Japanese best-selling novel from the captain of a Japanese warship on his way to Japan by boat. The original name of this novel is The Adventure of a Beautiful Woman.
The Japanese novel "The Adventures of Beauty" was written by a scholar from the East China Sea (Chai Shiro).
Liang Qichao not only read this novel, but also translated it later, which shows that he is full of interest in this novel. Just after Liang Qichao arrived in Japan, in the article published in the first issue of Qingyi Daily, the word "compatriots" appeared for the first time in all his previous words. He wrote: "Alas! It is time for our people to do their best to support the national system. It is based on uniting comrades to publicize that Qingyi newspaper is the eyes and ears of the people and the mouthpiece of reform. Oh! I, a national of 400 million compatriots of China, should be supervised by * *. "
In Yang Ruisong's view, there is obviously a direct causal link between the two. "In the book" The Adventures of Beauty ",the word" compatriots "in the modern sense appeared eight times." Yang Ruisong believes that the word "compatriots" in the modern sense is not a simple language problem, but indicates that Liang Qichao began to think about whether there is another bottom-up way to wake up his compatriots besides the top-down reform he tried in the past.
Liang Qichao serialized the Chinese version of The Adventures of Beauty from the first issue of Tsing Yi Daily.
The "sleeping lion" produced by mistranslation
For a long time, China has always regarded itself as a kingdom of China. Even in the face of the national crisis of life and death, many people in China still believe that China is powerful, but it has not yet been brought into play. They even think that some people of insight in the west saw the great potential of China and called China "the sleeping lion".
It is even widely said that Napoleon once said, "China is a sleeping lion. Don't wake it up, or the world will be shocked. " But according to Yang Ruisong's research, there is no exact documentary evidence about Napoleon's sleeping lion in China. This statement has a great influence in China, is generally accepted, and has also attracted the attention of foreign scholars. They searched the archives and documents about Napoleon, and the results confirmed that this statement was a complete rumor.
In fact, "China fell asleep" was often mentioned in western remarks at that time. The key point is that China was in a coma at that time, not to say that he might show his strength after waking up.
Ceng Jize, the eldest son of Zeng Guofan and a famous diplomat, responded that China slept first and then woke up. However, in a Japanese article entitled "Japanese National People's Congress Ze Long talks about the situation in China" published in Macau's Zhixinbao 1898, due to problems in context or translation, Ceng Jize's statement may be changed to "Ceng Jize is better than Zina in the sleeping lion". In this way, Ceng Jize-Zhina (China)-Sleeping Lion got in touch for the first time.
1On April 30th, 899, Liang Qichao mentioned in the article Talking about Animals that "this man said: His English name is Fran Jinxian, and zhina Minister Zeng Houjize translated his name into a sleeping lion, also called a giant who sleeps first and wakes up later." In this way, Ceng Jize's thought of sleeping first and then waking up became a "sleeping lion" here in Liang Qichao.
Yang Ruisong's possible assumption for this change is that Liang Qichao has heard Ceng Jize's saying "sleep first and then wake up", but he probably only knows the general idea of this article and has not read the content. But he has a close relationship with zhixinbao. It is likely that he got the so-called saying that Ceng Jize said China was a sleeping lion from there, and then turned it into a fable and wrote it in animal language.
After Liang Qichao's article was published, the story of sleeping lion gradually spread. For example, Cai Yuanpei 1902 organized the Qiang Ming Society in Hangzhou, and there was a statement in the announcement that "China Sleeping Lion has not yet entered the era of nationalism". Huang Zunxian wrote a poem to Liang Qichao at 1903, but he said, "Can you sleep on a lion without fear?" Later, Zou Rong and Chen Tianhua's Revolutionary Army and Suddenly Looking Back all had the saying of sleeping lion and waking lion, which played a great role in the communication process, and even the magazine Wake Lion appeared.
But in any case, compatriots and sleeping lions became symbols to shape China's national identity, which really condensed and inspired the courage of China people at that time. Even in the 1980s, hearing the theme song "The Great Wall Will Never Fall" of the Hong Kong TV series "Hero Huo Yuanjia" and singing "Don't let the country be trampled on again, the sleeping lion is waking up", can't it arouse the people of China?