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Abstract In ancient times China was primarily a continental state, where maritime geography was of marginal importance and exerted a rather limited influence on literature. With the eastward expansion of Western maritime powers and the dissemination of Western learning, the term “Pacific Ocean”?was introduced to China, prompting Chinese intellectuals to pay attention to and engage in discussions on Pacific-related issues. This marked the first time the Chinese people established an explicit connection with the Pacific, thereby giving rise to Pacific-themed literary writing—hereafter referred to as Pacific writing. In the early stage of such writing, the ocean and shipboard spaces embodied modernity in terms of scientific and technological enlightenment. Among early writers, Huang Zunxian excelled in the artistic construction of Pacific spaces; furthermore, he abandoned the traditional view of China as a central continental power, no longer viewing maritime geography as marginalized.?Although the lack of spatial identity with the Pacific was still prevalent, the incipient modernity demonstrated in these early works foreshadowed the inevitable arrival of a new era for Chinese Pacific-themed literary writing.
Liang Qichao forged an exceptionally close bond with the Pacific. Firstly, he possessed extensive experiences of voyaging across the ocean. Secondly, he embraced the Pacific Age Theory, Sea Power Theory, and the maritime humanistic geographical thoughts of Hegel and other scholars, thereby acquiring a profound understanding of the significance of the Pacific. Thirdly, he formulated the vision of building China into a powerful maritime nation, elevating his personal connection with the Pacific to a state of profound spiritual yearning. Driven by these maritime geographical factors, Liang actively engaged in Pacific writing.
The rise of maritime literary is manifested in three aspects. First, Pacific geography shaped Pacific writing. Liang conveyed the theme that China must become a powerful maritime nation, constructed a maritime spiritual homeland, and expressed a sense of maritime spatial identity. Within the Pacific space he constructed, Chinese literature demonstrated the modernity of both individuals and the nation in an unprecedented manner. In his works, the natural and human geography of the Pacific is isomorphic with his imagination of China as a maritime power, and the maritime space exhibited magnificent, vigorous, and progressive maritime aesthetic characteristics. Second, Liang’s Pacific-themed works were widely celebrated masterpieces of his time. Moreover, inspired by maritime geography, he formulated theories on revolutionizing the literary world, playing a pivotal role in the preliminary reconstruction of Chinese literature. Finally, Liang’s Pacific writing significantly contributed to the construction of a maritime humanistic environment in modern China. Under his influence, coupled with the progressive deepening of the human-ocean relationship during the late Qing dynasty and the Republican period, the rising momentum of maritime literary was sustained and further developed. Particularly in the maritime writing of the Republican period, maritime geography exerted a profound influence on maritime literature. The theme of building China into a maritime state was strengthened, the connotation of ocean home was enriched, and the connotation of human modernity within the maritime space became increasingly diverse. Maritime literature, thereby, evolved into a major literary genre, even rivaling rural and urban literature at that time. It fostered a sense of maritime awareness among readers and facilitated the formation of an ocean-friendly humanistic?atmosphere.
In summary, this paper, with literary geography as a methodological approach, systematically examines the maritime literature from 1900 to 1949. It explores the profound influence of maritime geography on maritime literature, reveals the artistic innovations of maritime literature in themes, spaces, and aesthetics, discusses its prominent status and its role in fostering an ocean-friendly humanistic environment, and proposes the new academic thought of the rise of maritime literary. This study significantly advances the research on modern maritime literature and expands the scope of literary geography as a discipline.
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Published: 04 July 2026
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