A Resource of the Chinese New Culture          Movement:

NISHIMAKI Isamu

doi:10.20613/hikaku.38.0_62

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Other Title

中国新文化運動の源流
中国新文化運動の源流--李叔同の『音楽小雑誌』と明治日本
チュウゴクシンブンカウンドウノゲンリュウリシュクドウノオンガ
―李叔同の『音楽小雑誌』と明治日本
Li Shu-tong’s Little Music Magazine and Meiji Japan

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Description

As one of many Chinese students who came to Japan after the Russo-Japanese war, Li Shu-tong(1880-1942) published the Little Music Magazine in the spring of 1906. In this paper, I will attempt to explain how and why the magazine was born in Japan, and to shed light on Li’s relationship with Meiji Japan.　At the end of 1905，Li was planning to publish a commentary magazine which was to include commentary on music with his contemporaries in Tokyo. It is not hard to suppose that the leaders or members of the music circle consisting of Chinese students in Tokyo would participate in Li’s venture. The title of the circle was “Yinyuejiangxihui” and later “Yayayinyuehui”. Yonejiro Suzuki，a Japanese professor of music, was also invited to their study meeting. Learning European music from Suzuki, the students later became music teachers and school song writers in China.　But in December 1905, against the regulations issued by the Japanese Education Ministry, some of Li’s friends returned to China. Li was thus left to publish the magazine by himself.　From the songs Li wrote, and other articles in this magazine, his yearning to recall the national spirit of the Chinese people is obvious. In response to Meiji Nationalism, Chinese Nationalism grew.　This magazine also holds interest as a translation magazine; it contains three articles by Japanese writers, each of them translated by Li. Li also inserted two sketches of Japanese artists-twenty years later the same style can be identified in Feng Zi-kai’s work. Feng was Li’s student and his drawings eventually became popular in China.　The earliest music magazine in China, the Little Music Magazine was actually printed in Meiji Japan. During that period, many books about music were published in Japan by Chinese students. Thus, we may say that at the end of the Ching Dynasty, China imported European music via Japan.　During the New Culture Movement, many Chinese intellectuals like Feng zi-kai followed the path that Li had pioneered and, in that sense, the Little Music Magazine may be considered as one of the resources of the Chinese New Culture movement.

Journal

HIKAKU BUNGAKU Journal of Comparative Literature

HIKAKU BUNGAKU Journal of Comparative Literature 38 (0), 62-75, 1996

Japan Comparative Literature Association