THE WAY OF LITERATURE MODERNIZATION IN THE AREA OF CHINESE CHARACTER CULTURE (Basing on Vietnamese and Japanese Literature Documents)

The area of Chinese character culture that comprises 4 nations- China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam- has been established more than 2000 years before according to the domination of Chinese culture belonged to the strongest empire in the world that time. It is possible to name this area as The cultural area of East Asia, but the name may become controversial in case of including Vietnam. In fact, the concept The cultural area of East Asia refers to cultural meaning, so it may be considered the same with The area of Chinese character culture, but is different from North Eart Asia which seems to emphasize the geopolitical meaning. At the beginning of XIX century, the nations in this area were occupied one after the other by Empires from the West: the Opium Wars occurred as a signal of the invasion of the West into China in 1842, The black ships from America appeared in Uraga port and forced the Tokugawa government to open in 1853, the battleships from France and Spain attacked the fortifications in Son Tra peninsula to start French invasion into Dai Nam in 1858. Pre-modern history began at that time and ended in 1945 or a little while later. Literature modernization was according to pre-modern history. It is possible to name Pre-modernization as it has been named in some cases, however, due to some common features of the area, the change to the modern model was not progressive, but instead was interrupted, so it is usually named Modernization to mention that the modern time consists of some different period of modernization, and Pre-modernization is the first. The way of literature modernization in the nations belonging to the area of Chinese character culture is tortuous, zigzaged and unequal, with some mutually interposed progresses, and was defined by historical conditions as well as national identities. Below are some basic sketches. 1. Literature modernization was originated in the demand for innovating the countries Literature modernization in the area of Chinese character culture was neither progressive nor originated from the immanent factors in each national literature. Although the demand for literation innovation had emerged in the late medieval period, the new age in literature was not really begun if the nations in the area were not forced to open, facing with the invasion from the West. The failure of Confucian scholars and samurai brought the ideal of innovation for the countries. Modern literature was according to the innovations as well as the struggles for independence in East Asia. The innovating movement originated in overlooking the world focused on the West. There were three common literature phenomenons in the two countries: the appearance of the travel stories, the emergence of translated literature and the beginning of innovative literature with civilizationism. In that period people ceaselessly traveled and traveled: going out of their houses, going out of their villages, and going out of their countries. So, the genre of travel stories became dominant: Otsuki Tsunesuke (1818- 1857) with Far West Summary, Kitagawa Naokai with A diary on the way crossing Amarican Sea, and the most famous were the comic story Horse step on the way to the West by Kanagaki Robun that described eyewitnesses about London Fair, and The facts in the West by Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834- 1901)- a great innovator.

It was the same in Vietnam. The beginning was the genre of travel stories written by writers, great madarin who had chances to go to the West on business, and the most typical was A diary on the journey to the West by Pham Phu Thu published in 1863. Works by writers who were collaborating with French people were: A travel to the North in 1876 by Truong Vinh Ky, A travel to the West (1889), A workshop of countries (1891) by Truong Minh Ky. All of them were volumes of seven-seven-sixeight word poetries that described eyewitnesses on the way on business to the North of Vietnam or to France. This progress was also extended and finally flourished at the beginning of XX century with the works by Phan Boi Chau, Tran Chanh Chieu, ect. Literature is the door opened to the world. Among the travel stories mentioned above, political travel stories was the most important, because through that works writers could talked about Western civilization to show that the home country has been behind the times and has many weaknesses also. Translation was appreciated. The earliest, the most plentiful and the freest translation was in Japan, beginning with civilizing works by Western studying intellectuals, such as: Self Help by Samuel Smiles (English scholar), On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (English philosopher), translated by Nakamura Masanao (1870- 1871), Social Contract Theory by Rousseaux, translated by Hattori Toku in 1877. In Vietnam, governing French allowed to translate all categories unless the books subjected freedom or civil rights. For this reason, although Social Contract Theory by J. J. Rousseaux was translated into Japanese in 1877, it was semipublicly translated into Vietnamese 50 years later. It is possible to say that, to the writer who inclined to innovating, translation is not simply a literary work, but also an academic activity to open the peoples mind, to raise the peoples enthusiasm, after the policy of the innovating movement.