Interdisciplinary Studies in Turkey: New Ideas New Strategies

Copyright 2016 Eyup Saritas.

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ISBN: 978-1-4907-7282-0 (sc)

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Contents

Dedication

Foreword

PART ONE

Research In Chinese Studies

Chapter 1 A Review On The Opinion Of Lu Xun In Transition From Traditionalism To Modernism In China

Chapter 2 On Paul Pelliot The French Sinologist

Chapter 3 A General Outlook On Sinology Researches Of 19Th Century

PART TWO

Research In History

Chapter 4 This Is The Renewed Publication And Analysis Of The Work Of Asik Mehmed B. Umar Al Hanafi Who Lived In The 17Th Century, Which Is A Reflection On The History Of Madina.

Chapter 5 Germany And Islamophobia

Chapter 6 Importance Of The Books Of Judgements In The Axis Of Justice In The Ottoman Empire And The Example Of Ayintab As Per The Maraş Book Of Judgements Number 3

Chapter 7 The Dönme-Community Of Saloniki

PART THREE

Research In Literature

Chapter 8 Mother Mary In Classical Turkish Literature

Chapter 9 A General Outlook On Condition Of The Turks In Iran In Xviii Century

PART FOUR

Research In Music

Chapter 10 J. S. Bach’s Art Of Fugue And Richard Wagner’s Musical Drama From A Philosophical Perspective

Chapter 11 Effects Of The Concept Of National Ideology In The Formation Phases Of Turkish Music Revolution On Musical Structuring And Experiences

PART FIVE

Research In European Studies

Chapter 12 Corporations Taking Place In The European Union Common Foreign And Security Policy And The Operation Of The Decision Making Procedure

PART SIX

Research In Art Technology

Chapter 13 The History And Development Of Copper And Tin Technology In Anatolia

DEDICATION

l dedication this book to my teacher Yaşar Çağbayır.

FOREWORD

The information age facilitates life easier on the one hand and enables all to have access to any desired information in the shortest possible time. Scientific studies that are products of great efforts keep pace with globalism to a substantial extent thanks to advanced technologies that shorten long distances. As scientists, we need to disregard negative impacts of globalism on all aspects of life and endeavour to make use of its positive effects. Consequently, as scientists that come up with good works after long and dedicated efforts, we need to cut off ties with locality in modern information age. As it will be seen, what is meant by locality is not scientists’ working on local issues but addressing to a group limited to one’s own country only. For instance, a scientific paper published in Turkey about a village or borough in Ankara might not easily exceed the narrow restriction of locality. Likewise, publishing in Dutch a scientific work on a historical or social problem in the city of Leiden would be hardly possible to provide scientifically influential conclusions.

Within this direction, the first two chapters of this book, which intends to present to the attention of the American world of science genuine works concentrating upon sinology, history, literature, music, European studies, and technology of art produced by scientists that hold office at different universities throughout Turkey was written Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eyüp Sarıtaş, an academic ember at the Chinese Language and Literature at Istanbul University, and the said chapter relates to sinology discipline, which is quite a popular academic subject nowadays. The first chapter provides elaborate information about the transition phase of traditionalism and modernity, along with a set of features thereof, as originally interpreted by Lu Xun, a well-known Chinese author, who pioneered modernisation in social, literature and cultural aspects in China. Interesting information about Paul Pelliot, one of the leading sinologists in France, and his remarkable works in sinology discipline is provided in second chapter of the book. Lale Aydın, a young sinologist and a research assistant in the department, provides significant information about developments and advancements in sinology in Europe in the 19th century in chapter three. Chapter four is written by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurettin Gemici, an academic member of the Faculty of Theology at Istanbul University, who made contributions with precious information about the history of Medina in the 17th century. Chapter 5 is also written by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurettin Gemici, employing an analytical approach to Islamphobia of German people. Chapter six is written by Sevde Nur Güldiken, a doctoral student in history department, and it competently discusses the Ottoman Empire and Ayıntab based on the Ottoman sources at first hand. Assist. Prof. Dr. Hatice Arslan provides us information about an apostatic community living in Thessaloniki in Greece in chapter seven. In chapter eight, Assist. Prof. Dr. Bünyamin Ayçiçeği discusses Mother Mary as a theme in classical Turkish literature. Gamze Gizem Avcıoğlu, who conducts studies in Persian Language and Literature, is the writer of chapter nine that provides extensive details and information about Turkish people in Persian literature in the 18th century.

Assoc. Prof. Uğur Erken, an academic member at the Philosophy Department of Istanbul University compared the musical drama of famous German composer J. S. Bach and Richard Wagner from a perspective point of view in chapter ten. Assoc. Dr. Gülşen Erdal, an academic member from Kocaeli University is the writer of chapter eleven that provides excellent evaluations on national ideology and music. Assist. Prof. Dr. Tarık Demir, an academic member of Nişantaşı University provides an analysis on the foreigner’s and security policies of the European Union in chapter twelve. In chapter thirteen, Assist. Prof. Dr. Gülder Emre, an academic member of Istanbul University, discusses a very interesting subject about the development of copper technology in Anatolia, thus makes contributions for the protection of cultural assets.

Editor

Eyup Saritas

PART ONE

RESEARCH IN CHINESE STUDIES

CHAPTER 1

A REVIEW ON THE OPINION OF LU XUN IN TRANSITION FROM TRADITIONALISM TO MODERNISM IN CHINA

Assoc. Dr. Eyüp SARITAŞ

Abstract

As the founder of modern and realistic Chinese literature, Lu Xun served as a man of letters, educator, translator and reformist As a quite versatile historical figure, Lu Xun received a very solid and stout education for classical Chinese, held significant offices, and went to Japan for studying medicine as his grandfather bequeathed his being sent to Japan or Europe for that purpose. During his stay in Japan, Lu Xun strongly believed that the only way to get rid of fossilisation was to adopt an occidental approach, so he penned essays for social criticism to start with. After returning to his homeland, he took offices in bureaucratic circles and translated from western literature. With the effect of the restoration period in China after 1915 and social poverty that aggravated gradually, he took up an active role in and by way of literature.

As it is clear from the foregoing, Lu Xun intended to save the society from obsolete and oppressive rules and to level it up for modern communities. He lighted the way for the Chinese society in its modernisation process in literature, education and social life by way of the works penned by him to this end. According to Lu Xun, the Chinese community needed to turn its face to the west if it desired to set free from the encircling and stringent effects of the obsolete system. China’s being invaded by Japan disappointed Lu Xun extremely, and from then on he believed that his people should fight a bitter struggle against the obsolete culture and establish a new national identity; he masterfully employed literature in his fight for a cause. In this review essay, we will focus on Lu Xun’s approach to the Chinese traditionalism and modernisation and will criticise from a Turkish sinologist’s approach as to whether the way proposed by Lu Xun was a means of modernisation or westernisation, and will eventually endeavour to reveal how he approached his traditional culture while pursuing his aspiration for modernisation. Even though westernisation is often misperceived as modernisation, it is a known fact that the big guns of the western culture swept the idiosyncratic features of the oriental culture.

Key Words: Lu Xun, China, Modernity.

INTRODUCTION

Having received traditional Chinese education in his childhood, Lu Xun is recognised as the author, who breathed a new life to and modernised the Chinese literature. He was also a prominent person as a revolutionist, reformist and translator in addition to his literary identity. It is an undeniable fact that Lu Xun brought a breath of fresh air to the Chinese cultural life. One cannot argue having tried the world literature of the twentieth century unless reading Hemingway, Gorki, Hugo, Borges, and Tanpınar. Likewise, one cannot count himself having tried the modern Chinese literature unless reading Lu Xun. Consequently, Lu Xun is the threshold gate to the modern Chinese literature.

Characteristics of the times when Lu Xun lived underlined his literary notions, his people and homeland and which particular matters he would focus on in the future. When he went to Nanjing for his studies, constitutional reform and modernisation movement were on the rise. Since 1840 when the Great Britain wide opened the feudal gates of China, all coastal towns of China, whether big or small in size, were exposed to successive pirate attacks. Other foreign intruders that came after the Great Britain spread their influence up to the inland territories of China. The Qing Dynasty whose divine empire collapsed for good surrendered to the foreign intruders. The empire and corrupt feudal class surrendered to the heavy guns of the foreign intruders, however the Chinese people were not in the least frightened by the British battleship; as a means of stupefying the Chinese people by the hand of the Britons, opium was no use, either.¹ As in the recent history of Turkey, the people of China put up resistance on the face of the western countries that were keeping China under pressure when the last members of the dynasty were incapable of defending the territory. Chinese students that were studying in Japan launched an extensive and comprehensive movement for social awakening and resistance in the post-dynasty period. The great Chinese author Lu Xun, who went to Japan for studying medicine, comprehended that not medicine but letters were what was being primarily sought after by the people of China in harsh times. This is how he tended towards literature, issued magazines and newspapers. Demonstrating that he was also a significant reformist, Lu Xun succeeded in raising awareness of the people to a considerable extent through his essays, stories and literary texts. Capable of using literature as a very effective means, Lu Xun surrendered his soul to an absolute fight. Even though nobody saw into his soul and mood, he did not give up on his ways. According to Lu Xun, people of China were not conscious people, consequently he hoped the society would change and progress at a great speed. Unfortunately, the society did not accept but rejected him and failed to understand his aspirations. What was he supposed to do then? What Lu Xun needed to do was to lay down his life for his ideals. Why on earth does one worry about a dog that is drowning? This is a symbol. People with dark hearts never change for the better. Bad ones should be shot down. Even if the dog that is drowning raises his head, it would not quit his habit of biting, and would finally bite you. Even if we agree or disagree with Lu Xun, he represents a crucial extent of the national identity. What is meant here reveals the spirit of resistance of a nation, which has been under pressure for a prolonged timer.²

Not sufficing with writing literary works, Lu Xun showed great interest in positive sciences. In our opinion, Lu Xun lived in a dark atmosphere that was heavy with intense influence from its own community. The greatest mission adopted by the author is to save his people. Some contemporary Chinese researchers defended that Lu Xun stood by the history and culture as a cultural figure that never made concessions on his stance on the face of Chinese people’s then-current position and structure. Lu Xun paved the ground for a great social reform since the beginning of his active life, and hoped to save his people in the light of sciences.³

A. LU XUN AND INTRODUCTION OF COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE IN LITERATURE

On examining the stories and essays by Lu Xun, it is easily understood that he had a very solid background of literary knowledge, and employed an easy-to-comprehend style and language. Lu Xun assumed a position as the editor of a journal, published under the name of New Youth in 1918 when he endeavoured to introduce colloquial language in the national literature with his first story named A Mad Man’s Diary. By introducing colloquial language to literature, Lu Xun undoubtedly sided against the centuries-old system that prevailed in the world of Chinese literature. The fact that he employed colloquial language on the one hand and followed realism movement in literature on the other hand can be referred to as one of the numerous significant contributions to the modern Chinese literature. That Lu Xun employed a plain language in literature should never be construed as he rejected classical Chinese wording. On the contrary, he followed with the literary realism in his works and never lost an opportunity of using examples from the classical Chinese wordings. He undertook the mission of enlightening his people with his autobiographic works wherein he masterfully employed a simple language in a sensitive way.

Having penned nearly 30 works and a numerous essays, Lu Xun stood by the oppressed, gave importance to human beings and demanded a modernised society. In his essays, named Nahan, and Duraksama, published in 1922, he followed up with the literary realism on the one hand and made use of classical Chinese wording tradition on the other hand. With his autobiographic works wherein he employed a very sensitive language and mostly a sarcastic sense of humour, he undertook the mission of enlightening his people.

With the influence of writings that contained new opinions published on the journal named Xin Nianqing (New Youth), for which Lu Xun spent great efforts, the contemporary Chinese language that was in use gained importance in spread of the pompous and hardly-possible-to-understand classical Chinese. In other words, the journal of New Youth symbolised contemporary Chinese’ replacing the classical language. A brand new page was turned for using contemporary Chinese thanks to the works of Lu Xun, which were written in a clear language.⁴

B. ON THE IMPARTIALITY OF LU XUN

With his works written in the 20s of the twentieth century without having affiliations with any of the political parties of the time, Lu Xun supported communists of Mao Zedong circles without making propaganda for the Communist Party of China in his works free from dogmatism. Even though Lu Xun spent a substantial portion of his life away from the dogma of the left and right, he tended towards the Communist party right before his death. However he never actually participated in the party, though. This gave reason to Mao to place Lu Xun at the revolutionist divine level of the People’s Republic of China. As once accepted by Mao, if Lu Xun got to see the times after 1949, he would very probably cease to support the new regime. That he died prematurely enabled and paved the ground for the Communist Party to use Lu Xun as a figure, and he became the sole author whose works were published and read freely amongst the works of Chinese literature for the second half of the twentieth century in 1950-1970.⁵

C. WESTERNISATION: THE GREAT IDEALS OF LU XUN

Considering the works and general activities of Lu Xun, it becomes clear that the most privileged target was westernisation for him. After losing his father, he began to see that traditional education was no use, and in 1898 he went to Nanjing, the capital city of the time, and joined the Naval Academy of Jiangnan. According to the traditions of the time, people that did not sign up for the traditional Confucianist education, but studied foreign courses at foreign schools were not welcomed; people that received modern education were accepted as if having sold their soul to the foreign lands. Lu Xun resisted the tradition, and joined the Naval Academy of Nanjing, which symbolises the fact that he took a step off from the feudal social life and approached the modern life.

Seeing that the naval academy was not for him, Lu Xun was admitted to the railway and mining school and enjoyed access to a set of disciplines and scientific works, of which traditional education was unaware. Evolution and Ethics by Huxley was the most influential book for him. The book opened the gates of concepts such as struggle for life and natural selection for Lu Xun for the first time. He devoured the book and the influence of the book in his tender soul did not go down for a long time. Theory of evolution by Darwin did not affect struggle for life Lu Xun but penetrated also the inner world of the intelligentsia and the youth that reacted against the feudal, imperialist and co-conspirator order due to effects of the imperialist interventions back in the time in China that had a prolonged history of feudalism. Concepts such as struggle for life encouraged the youth and the intelligentsia that were concerned about the future of China to fight against the feudal and co-conspirator order and to get organised to this effect. Lu Xun took place in the anti-imperialist ad anti-feudal fight that were on the rise in China in the late nineteenth century, it is therefore quite normal for the young Lu Xun to read the book in a great excitement and with enthusiasm.⁶

Lu Xun found a non-traditional system of education at the Naval Academy of Nanjing. He expresses his opinions on this matter in the foreword of his work named scream as follows:

"No need to lie. I went to the school in Nanjing and learned that there were a set of sciences called natural history, arithmetic, geography, history, art and physical education. There was no physiology course, though, but we were studying books containing new information on the human anatomy and on chemistry and medical knowledge. When I drew a comparison with the explanations made by and prescriptions written out by the physicians I met until then and the newly acquired information and knowledge, I understood that Chinese physicians were nothing but mere humbugs that deceived their patients whether knowingly or unknowingly, and I felt a great mercy for the poor people that hoped for help from these physicians, and for the poor family of these patients, too. More importantly, I learned from the translated books of history that the European medicine was widely acknowledged and that a reformist movement got off the ground in Japan.⁷

On examining the works by Lu Xun in general, it is clearly understood that the literary and political approach adopted by the western world was substantial acknowledged. Having entirely rejected the traditional system of education that highlighted the ethnic identity of China and intended to sustain classical cultural values, Lu Xun adopted an occidental system of education and preferred to pioneer in implementing whatever he learned from the western countries in his homeland. Upon the other hand, Lu Xun protested western countries that showed more interests in China in the nineteenth century, arrived there with imperial purposes, and finally rendered the country as a semi-colony. In a sense, Lu Xun became a westerner despite western countries. As specified above, although Lu Xun produced in classical Chinese literature as he was interested in the subject matters pertaining to the era of dynasties, the number remains insignificant compared to all existing works. In addition, Lu Xun did not play active roles in leftist or rightist ideologies during his life, whereas his intellectual support to the Communist Party of China enabled us to see into his ideological work though partially.

Lu Xun witnessed transition from the imperial era to the republic period in China. He left the Manchurian style, braided long hair for a free hairstyle during his stay in Japan for his medical education, and it might, though partially, suggest that he assumed an attitude against the non-Chinese Manchurian dominance. That Lu Xun cut his Manchurian style, braided long hair a short while after arriving in Japan has a very great symbolic meaning because that hair style, which was widely accepted and practiced during the reign of Qing Dynasty in China, pointed out to an underdeveloped and broken-down mental set. Any and all kinds of thinking and traditions away from modernity were worthless for Lu Xun, and they