Huang Zunxian 黄遵憲（1848－1905） and His Association with Meiji Era Japanese Literati(bunjin 文人)

Huang Zunxian arrived as Counselor to the Imperial Qing Legation to Tokyo in 1877. Already well-known in China as a poet and prose writer, he quickly began to write poems and prose works about his new experiences in Meiji Japan. During the five years he was in Japan, he also made the acquaintance of many leading Japanese literati of the day, such as Okochi Teruna, Ishikawa Kosai, Shigeno Yasutsugu, Nakamura Masanao, Mori Kainan, and Ukai Tetsujo, seventy-fifth Chief Priest of the Chion'in in Kyoto. Huang's writings and kanbun and kanshi works by his Japanese acquaintances as well as a voluminous collection of hitsudan (brush talks) kept by Okochi all reflect the culturally rich, intellectually sophisticated, and personally friendly relationship between Huang and his Chinese colleagues and these Japanese bunjin. Exploration of these sources also provides a window into early modern Japanese-Chinese cultural relations and intellectual history.