Friends by brush, enemies by sword The new generation of Meiji kanshi writers and the public and private dimensions of their poetry exchanges with Chinese from 1874 to 1905

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/35652

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Japanstudies (BA)

Dam, Thom van (2015)

Friends by brush, enemies by sword The new generation of Meiji kanshi writers and the public and private dimensions of their poetry exchanges with Chinese from 1874 to 1905

Bachelor thesis | Japanstudies (BA)

This BA final paper analyzes the large amount of classical Chinese style poetry (known in Japanese as kanshi) written by Japanese poets during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and attempts to place it in the larger context of Meiji society, Meiji world views (particularly of China) and international relations. Throughout the argument of this paper it becomes clear that, despite the fact that these poets employed the classical Chinese language and were fond of many aspects of classical Chinese culture, they considered their nation as the true successor to this classical Chinese legacy and that their judgement on modern China was harsh.