Abstract
Centering upon the novel, Electrical World, this chapter makes an in-depth exploration and analysis of the imagination of the world order in late Qing science fiction. This essay argues that the “King of Electricity” in Electrical World is the most successful literary image of the scientist in late Qing fiction. This figure signifies the revival of traditional Chinese worship of sage-kings in the heyday of scientific utopianism, and has representative significance for our understanding of the modern Chinese view of science and scientists. Concerning the remaking of the world order, unlike the mirror-image-remaking that establishes China’s hegemony, both Electrical World and New Ramblings of the Rustic Elder seek to transcend nationalism through advanced science and technology, but turn out to be entangled between cosmopolitanism and nationalism, and it is such a complex that defines these texts’ emotional intensity and depth of thought.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Translator’s note: whenever possible, I include original English text or authoritative translations. Citations for Bacon include both the Wegemer edition, and the Chinese translation.
- 2.
City-state narratives are a longstanding part of the western utopian tradition, beginning with Plato’s Republic and continuing on into the early modern narratives including Utopia, The City of the Sun, New Atlantis, Christianopolis and others, ideal societies are often limited to city-states or alliances among city-states. On the other hand, in the classical Chinese tradition, “small states with modest populations” and similar peach-garden narratives comprise the utopian mainstream. China and the west alike have both fostered expansive political ideals like the Stoic’s notion of the cosmopolis, medieval Christianity’s dream of world unity, and the utopian pursuit of the unification of all under heaven (tianxia datong) featured in the Book of Rites (Li Ji) chapter “Ceremonial usages” (liyun). But while these ideals all offer a significant political rhetoric, they did not make a significant impact in the realm of fictional narrative. Moreover, they were of limited scope. There was no space for heterodox believers in the ideal Christian world, and in comparison to the spectacular clashes between the “middle kingdom,” and “barbarian races” recorded in China’s historical annals, the “grand unity” featured in the Book of Rites exists only on paper. Only in the nineteenth century as the development of a capitalist world system gradually incorporated humanity, dispersed across all corners of the globe into a single organic entity, did the world order truly become the object of conscious creation and manipulation. Only then was an all-encompassing cosmotopia taking the entire planet as its realm, and the entirety of humanity in all its flourishing diversity as its subject a possibility.
- 3.
Paraphrase of Mencius Tai Wen Gong 1.4.
- 4.
Translations of the passages from Wu Jianren’s New Story of the Stone are courtesy of Elizabeth Evans, whose translation of the novel is forthcoming from Columbia University Press.
References
Anon. “Zhongguo weiyi zhi wenxue bao Xin xiaoshuo.” Xinmin congbao, vol. 14, 1902: (advertising insert).
Bacon, Francis. Xin Daxi dao 新大西岛 [New Atlantis], translated by He Xin. Beijing: Shangwu yinshu guan, 2012.
———. New Atlantis, edited by Gerard B. Wegemer. Dallas: CTMS Publishers, 2020.
Biheguan zhuren. Xin Jiyuan [The New Era], annotated by He Shengsui. In: Zhongguo jindai xiaoshuo daxi. Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 1989.
Cai Yuanpei. Xinnian meng 新年梦 [New Year’s Dream], edited by Gao Pingshu. Cai Yuanpei quanji [Collected Works of Cai Yuanpei], vol. 1. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984.
Elman, Benjamin. Zhongguo jindai kexue de wenhua shi [A Cultural History of Modern Science in China], translated by Wang Hongxia et. al. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2009.
Gaoyangshi bucaizi. Dian shijie 电世界 [Electrical World]. Xiaoshuo shibao, vol. 1, 1909, pp. 1–58.
Haynes, Roslynn D. From Faust to Strangelove: Representation of the Scientist in Western Literature. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Lu, Shi’e 陆士谔. Xin yesou puyan [New Ramblings of the Rustic Elder], 2 volumes. Shanghai: Yahua shuju, 1928.
Lu, Xun. “Yuejie luxing bianyan” in Lu Xun quanji vol. 10. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2005.
Luo, Zhitian 罗志田. Lixiang yu xianshi” qingji minchu shijie zhuyi yu minzu zhuyi de guanlian hudong 理想与现实:清季民初世界主义与民族主义的关联互动 [Globalism and Racism Late Qing and Early Republican China]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2009.
Stiles, Anne. Literature in “Mind”: H. G. Wells and the Evolution of the Mad Scientist[J]. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 70, 2009, (2): 317–339.
Wu Jianren 吴趼人. Xin shitou ji 新石头记 [New Story of the Stone], annotated by Huang Lin. Shibo menghuan sanbuqu 世博梦幻三部曲. Shanghai: Dongfang chuban zhongxin, 2010.
———. “Zuijin shehui wochuo shi xu.” In Ershi shiji Zhongguo xiaoshuo lilun ziliao vol. 1. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1997.
Zhang Zhi 张治. “Dongfang wenhua pengzhuang zhong de tianren huaixiang: wan Qing kehuan xiaoshuo yu xiandai xing” 东西文化碰撞中的天人怀想:晚清科幻小说与现代性 [Eastern ruminations on heaven and man in a moment of shock: late Qing SF and modernity]. 现代性与中国科幻文学 [Modernity and Chinese SF], edited by Zhang Zhi, Hu Jun and Feng Zhen. Fuzhou: Fujian shaonian ertong chubanshe, 2006, pp. 3–74.
“Zhongguo weiyi zhi wenxue bao Xin xiaoshuo (China’s only literary journal: New Fiction).” Xinmin congbao, vol. 14, 1902, advertising insert.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Li , G. (2024). The King of Electricity from the East: Science, Technology, and the Vision of World Order in Late Qing China. In: Song, M., Isaacson, N., Li, H. (eds) Chinese Science Fiction. Studies in Global Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53541-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53541-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-53540-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-53541-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)