The Chinese Philosopher and English Cosmopolitanism in the 18th Century

Abstract:Due to its construction of an image of modern Chinese philosopher who comments and reflects on what he has seen in England in comparison to China,Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World (1760) has contradictorily been interpreted in two ways:One considers it as an orientalist discourse denigrating Chinese culture,while the other takes is as an utopian fabrication idealizing Chinese culture.Seeking “difference” between English and Chinese cultures is the underlying logic of these two types of interpretations.On the contrary,rooting on the “sameness” between them,this essay offers a new understanding about The Citizen of the World through a close textual analysis.The aim is to demonstrate how The Citizen of the World makes use of the image of Chinese philosopher to represent English cosmopolitanism featured with “polite” and “universal” and how the principle of equality operates through English cosmopolitanism.

Key words:cosmopolitanism;cosmopolite;Oliver Goldsmith;Chinoiserie

Ⅰ.Introduction

A book that has been hailed as one of the most important miscellaneous essay collections in the 18th century,Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World (1760),creates a world of difference from Addison’s The Spectator,Steele’s The Tatler and Johnson’s The Rambler by offering “a little philosophic realm and social world all his own” (Buckland,2010,45).The essential difference lies in the identity of the protagonist:a native Chinese philosopher rather than an English “spectator”,“tatler” or “rambler”.Although all the protagonists are assigned the same role to comment and criticize on all the aspects of English society,once the Chinese cultural standpoint owned by the Chinese philosopher is transplanted into English society,the entanglement and collision between English and Chinese perspectives catalyzes a totally new understanding about English society,which also fosters Scholars’ comparative interpretations about the essay collection.

The Citizen of the World has been contradictorily interpreted in two ways:One considers it as an orientalist discourse intending to realize self-presentation and self-confirmation by means of denigrating Chinese culture,〔1〕while the other takes is as an English utopian fabrication aiming to make self-criticism by way of idealizing Chinese culture.Influenced by the postcolonial way of understanding about the world,scholars tend to approach this book in the light of the binary opposition between self and other,and seeking “difference” between English and Chinese cultures is the underlying logic of these two types of interpretations.The established studies neglect the important information that the complete title of the book is “The Citizen of the World,or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher”,Goldsmith equates the Chinese philosopher with the image of a citizen of world.In addition,the Chinese philosopher considers himself in the light of a cosmopolite,and finds as much satisfaction in scheming for the countries in which he happens to reside,as for that in which he was born.(II,229)〔2〕He is a cosmopolite beyond the Chinese identity.Moreover,Goldsmith titles his essay collection as “The Citizen of the World”,which implies the discussions are not limited to the boundary of England or China,but extending to the whole world.Some attempt will be made in this essay to show that the wholisitc view rather than the comparative standpoint can express Goldsmith’s intention that he is advocating cosmopolitanism in the essay collection.

Cosmopolitanism originates from Greek Stoic,referring to “the citizen of the world”.This is the origin of Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World.A key concern is how precisely to define cosmopolitanism.For this concept has gone through a long development over a long historical period and has been imprinted with a variety of connotations.But “the nebulous core shared by all cosmopolitan views is the idea that all human beings,regardless of their political affiliation,are (or can and should be) citizens in a single community”.〔3〕Under this core,we can label cosmopolitanism as an ideal before the 20th century (Lauren,2009,437),as a practice during the 20th century (Lauren,2009,437),and as a “way of being in the world” from the beginning of the 21st century (Glenda,2010,370).

Goldsmith belongs to the 18th century also called the Enlightenment Age when cosmopolitanism is a social and political ideal which imagines the world as a city.The hypothesis that “all humans share certain fundamental characteristics would seem to suggest a point of unification for humankind as a whole”〔4〕is quite essential to the 18th century ideal of cosmopolitanism,and it provides a sound conceptual framework to understand English cosmopolitanism,while Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World exemplifies some aspects of English cosmopolitanism.The context in which Goldsmith chooses the image of a Chinese philosopher to propose cosmopolitanism and the features of cosmopolitanism represented in The Citizen of the Worldwill be mainly explored in this essay.

Ⅱ.The “context” of goldsmith’s Chinese cosmopolite

The fictional protagonist,Lien Chi Altangi is a native of Honan in China,and he has learned English,but entirely a stranger to English manners and customs.This brief introduction states the origin of the protagonist and his aim to visit England — to learn something about English manners and customs.But Goldsmith does not put him in an inferior position to admire English culture,instead,places him in a superior cosmopolite position to comment,criticize,and even satirize on English society.Since pride is most valued by Englishmen (I,39),how can Oliver Goldsmith legitimize the Chinese philosopher’s critical and satirical discourse on English society and culture?

In the Connoisseur,Number 73 warned that “the Chinese taste which has already taken possession of our gardens,our buildings,and our furniture,will also soon find its way into our churches.” (Qian,2005,194) The critic’s warning reflects that the Chinese taste has remarkably proliferated over the English daily life,influencing their inner decorations,outer garden design and architecture style as well.In The Citizen of the World,Goldsmith mentions about this phenomenon:A noble lady uses Chinese jars to decorate her furniture,Chinese temple to her garden,and Englishmen have filled their houses with Chinese furniture,their public gardens with Chinese fire-works and their very ponds with Chinese fish.(II,229) Finding its way into “their churches”— the representative of European decoration and architecture art is an exaggeration.But this warning implies the culmination of the Chinoiserie craze in the Eighteenth-Century England.Chinoiserie mainly refers to the European interpretation,appreciation and imitation of Chinese artistic traditions,especially in the decorative arts,garden design,and architecture.It appeared in the 17th century and was popularized in the 18th century due to the rise in trade with China.(Beevers,2009,19) This craze for Chinese taste contextualizes Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World,and offers a legitimate basis for the Chinese philosopher’s discursive fabrication of the English society.

The first important reason for the craze for Chinese taste is the impact of positive and admirable image of China in the English texts.In 1736,the English translation of The Citizen of the Worldwritten by a French missionary residing in Pekin for 32 years was published in London.The Map of China is delineated in the book,and it provides specific information about Chinese dynasties and provinces.The most noteworthy is that the writer uses the image of Confucius as the book cover and calls him “celebrated Chinese philosopher”.The writer of the history had thoroughly studied about Chinese history and culture,and he knew Confucianism is the dominant philosophical thought in China.Then we can see why Goldsmith chooses a Chinese philosopher who is a disciple of Confucianism as his protagonist.The English translator dedicated this book to the Prince of Wales,and described China as “the most remarkable of all countries yet known” and “the most potent and flourishing nation of the east” and he also considered this book as “a subject worthy the attention of the greatest prince;for nothing has a tendency to enlarge the mind more than a view of the manners,customs,policy,and religion of a people who once thought themselves the politest in the world.”(Duhalde,1736,preface) It is demonstrated that the history of China can play an instructive role in cultivating English mind.

Another typical example which can display the positive image of China is a book published in 1752 — A Particular Account of the Emperor of China’s Gardens near Pekin,the writer wrote:

Indeed any one that is just come from seeing the buildings in France and Italy,is apt to have but little taste,or attention,for whatever he may meet with in the other parts of the world … However I must except out of this rule,the Palace of the Emperor of Pekin,and his pleasure-houses;for in them everything is truly great and beautiful,both as to the design and the execution:and they struck me the more,because I have never seen anything that bore any manner of resemblance to them,in any part of the world that I have been in before.(Beaumont,1752,5)

In the writer’s eyes,the design of Chinese royal buildings is new,creative,and beautiful,which is unmatchable,even in comparison with French and Italian architecture.

The second important reason for the craze for Chinese taste is that China forms an integral and indispensible part of English global imagination.China is not merely the embodiment of itself,but it also is the embodiment of English recognition about the whole world.China,as a cultural entity,has imbedded in the collective consciousness of English literary circle shaping their perception of the whole world.Addison in The Tatler (No.69,May 19,1711) writes:

Our rooms are filled with pyramids of China,and adorned with the workmanship of Japan:Our morning’s draught comes to us from the remotest corners of the Earth:We repair our bodies by the drugs of America,and repose ourselves under Indian canopies.My Friend Sir Andrew calls the vineyards of France our gardens;the Spice-Islands our hot-beds;the Persians our silk-weavers,and the Chinese our potters.Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare necessaries of life,but traffick gives us greater variety of what is useful,and at the same time supplies us with everything that is convenient and ornamental.Nor is it the least part of this our happiness,that whilst we enjoy the remotest products of the North and South,we are free from those extremities of weather which give them birth;That our eyes are refreshed with the green fields of Britain,at the same time that our palates are feasted with fruits that rise between the Tropicks.”(Steele & Addison,Vol.II,No.69)

Here we meet at least two major implications described below:(1) Chinese cultural products,pyramids or pots,are only a part of English consumption of world’s cultural products,they also have Indian canopies and Persian silks.Therefore,in some way,the craze for Chinese taste can be understood both as English interests in China or Chinese culture and as their interests in other countries,for instance, The History of Japan was published in 1727; The Universal History of the World was published in 1755.The history of India,Korea,Persia and other countries had been published during the 18th century in England.(2) The text demonstrates the writer’s global imagination about the world ranging from Asia,Africa,Europe to America.This global imagination is based on geographical discoveries and commercial communication among continents.Englishmen in the 18th century have a general recognition about the world that the earth is a globe consisting two parts,“the right-hand circle shows the old World or Europe,Asia and Africa;and the left-hand circle shows the new world or America.(Bowen,1752,2)” And just as Alison Games once described that during this era,“Global processes knit the early modern world together,enabling people to perceive in its entirety a world once experienced only in fragments.Maritime and navigational advances accelerated the pace of connection and the rate of communication among distant continents.”(Games,2008,6)

What role does China play in this global imagination?The attention should be paid to the rhetoric of this text.Addison starts his extensive survey of the world from the pyramids of China.Why doesn’t he begin from Japan,America or other countries?This rhetoric is not singular in the 18th century,Samuel Johnson in his famous The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749),begins with “Let Observation with extensive View,/ Survey Mankind from China to Peru”.China occupies the Far East of the globe and has a long history of civilization,therefore,spatially and culturally,it represents the typical culture of the East.In order to gain the knowledge about the world,China will be unavoidable part of knowledge.

Then we can understand why Goldsmith chooses a Chinese philosopher as his protagonist.The positive image of China during that period is one of the reasons that Goldsmith uses a Chinese philosopher in his essays;another reason is China is the most important part of English global consciousness.Lien Chi Altangi travels from China (the eastern end of Eurasia) to England (the western end of Eurasia),and the comprehensive cultural knowledge gained through travelling enables him to become a “cosmopolite”.All the primary texts mentioned above were published before Goldsmith’s text,and their textual images of China form the context for Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World.

Ⅲ.The “Text” of Goldsmith’s Chinese Cosmopolite

In Addison’s text,we can sense a cosmopolitan spirit.London,as a metropolitan city lying in the centre of the world,is enjoying various products served by the countries all over the world.London is a cosmopolitan city in a consumptive sense on an unequal footing with other countries.In dialogue with this cosmopolitan English centrism,Oliver Goldsmith transforms Chinese culture from consumed object to critical subject by putting the Chinese philosopher in the centre of discourse.The Chinese philosopher is empowered by him to write the text,although this written text is based upon the previous context,it distinguishes from its predecessors,for the cultural otherness of the Chinese philosopher enables Goldsmith to consider the whole world as one city where all the nations have an inseparable relation with each other,especially how to treat others based on human sense or human reason rather than prejudice or partiality is the prime basis of his cosmopolitanism which fosters two features of a cosmopolite.

Wayne Booth thinks “Lien Chi Altangi was not consistently the exotic visitor,wise in Chinese matters,ignorant of English ways,” and Lien Chi Altangi is a self-portrait of an English genius rather than a Chinese philosopher.(Booth,1976,S92) Predicting this response,Goldsmith wrote in the preface of The Citizen of the World:

They expressed the same surprise at his knowledge that the Chinese do at ours.“How comes it (said they),that the Europeans,so remote from China,think with so much justice and precision! They have never read our books,they scarcely know even our letters,and yet they talk and reason just as we do.” The truth is,the Chinese and we are very much alike.Different degrees of refinement,and not of distance,mark the distinctions among mankind.Savages of the most opposite climates have all but all character of improvidence and rapacity;and tutored nations,however separate,make use of the very same method to procure refined enjoyment.(II,ii)

Goldsmith’s response,which emphasizes on alikeness between Chinese and English,to the possible questioning,indicates the first feature of English cosmopolitanism — politeness.

Even though Chinese and English occupy the Far East and Far West of Eurasia,the distance does not produce the sharp difference between their thinking,one of the most important reasons for this alikeness is that both of them are tutored and civilized nations,and one common characteristic of these nations is that they know how to procure refined enjoyment.What “refined enjoyment” refers to is the pursuit of luxuries.The English craze of Chinese taste is a typical example of “refined enjoyment”.Chinaware,Chinese tea and Chinese silk,these non-daily necessities of English life,are all expensive and extravagant to the middle class families.Jonathan Swift once wrote to Steele,“What do I know whether China is dear or not;I once took a fancy of resolving to go mad for it,but now it is off.”(Steele and Addison,1899,261) The madness for luxuries has penetrated into the daily life of English middle class.

Goldsmith holds an appreciative attitude towards luxuries.Luxury can increases our want while increasing our capacity for happiness,can invoke our curiosity,thus give us a desire of becoming wiser,can make society united and can improve our virtues.Goldsmith summarizes his argument of luxury by use of Confucius’s words,“That we should enjoy as many of the luxuries of life as are consistent with our own safety,and the prosperity of others;and that he who find out a new pleasure,is one of the most useful members of society.” (II,44) Goldsmith’s attitude towards luxury is different from his contemporary critics.Samuel Johnson thinks that “extravagance,though dictated by vanity,and incited by voluptuousness,seldom procures ultimately either applause or pleasure” (Johnson,1753,5),while Goldsmith considers extravagance as “so harmless a vanity” that he not only pardons but approves it,for “a desire to be more excellent than others is what actually makes us so;and as thousands find a livelihood in society by such appetites,none but the ignorant inveigh against them.” (II,8)The appetite for luxury and extravagance consistent with people’s safety is regarded as a driving force for social development and prosperity.

The fundamental reason for Goldsmith’s positive recognition of luxury and extravagance is that these refined enjoyments are the embodiment of a polite society.Goldsmith frequently uses “polite” in the essay collection to refer to Chinese or English,and considers England as a polite society at a polite age.When he uses “polite”,he usually associates it with “refine” or “refined”,for example,in talking about new publications in England,“In proportion as society refines,new books must ever become more necessary…In a polite age,almost every person becomes a reader.” (II,67)

We can conclude that why Goldsmith calls Lien Chi Altangi as a “cosmopolite”.Firstly,China and England are both polite societies,therefore,the unity based on politeness between East and West is realized and China and England are on an equal footing.Secondly,Lien Chi Altangi must first be a “polite”,and then he can be qualified to be a “cosmopolite”.Goldsmith’s cosmopolitanism is limited to civilized,refined and polite nations excluding those uncivilized,barbarous,and savage nations.This is demonstrated by his frequent use of contrast between them,for instance,“Savage rusticity is reclaimed by oral admonition alone;but the elegant excesses of refinement are best corrected by the still voice of studious inquiry.” (II,67) The savage of Thibet who treat their enemies cruelly,“kills those he subdues”,on the contrary,“the polite Chinese and civilized European seem even to love their enemies”.(I,43) Therefore,the equality and unity between different nations are conditionally confined to civilized ones.

In the 18th century,there are lots of travel narratives talking about other cultures,but most of them are limited to a narrow scope of knowledge.The narrative written by merchants just tell people the price of different commodities,missioners are concerned with the number he converted to Christianity,travelers are interested in marriages and funerals,inscriptions,rivers and mountains.But none of them are concerned with discovering “the genius,the government,and disposition of the people”.(I,293) This distinctly claims the mission of The Citizen of the World,but what empowers Lien Chi Altangi to carry out this mission is the universal view on the world that he possesses.The universal view is another feature of English cosmopolitanism.Goldsmith defines “universal” in the following way.

He should be a man of a philosophical turn,one apt to deduce consequences of general utility from particular occurrences,neither swollen with pride,nor harden by prejudice,neither wedded to one particular system,nor instructed only in one particular science:neither wholly a botanist,nor quite an antiquarian;his mind should be tinctured with miscellaneous knowledge,and his manner humanized by an intercourse with men.(II,222)

Specifically,a person who has a universal view means that he must could take a general view rather than a specific view on the world;he must not be bounded by a particular system of knowledge or discipline;he must be knowledgeable;most importantly,he must hold a humanist view on human beings.Under the framework of Goldsmith’s cosmopolitanism,basically,the “universal” lays down the fundamental principle which means how to treat others or other cultures without prejudice.

Zhang Longxi pointed out,“China as a land in the Far East becomes traditionally the image of the ultimate Other”.(Zhang,1988,113) “Ultimate” indicates this other in western fabrication occupies the opposite position of self.This doesn’t tell an entire truth,but it tells a partial one.Even during the culmination of Chinoiserie craze in England,there is a derogative voice towards China considering it as a degenerating barbarous nation.This is demonstrated in The Citizen of the World.A distinguished lady invited the Chinese philosopher to her house furnished with Chinese style.She was “charmed with the outlandish cut of his face”,and “bewitched by the exotic breadth of his forehead”.(I,59) In an English gentleman’s opinion,“Eastern tales should always be sonorous,lofty,musical,and unmeaning.” (I,167) Wherever Lien Chi Altangi came,he raised either diffidence or astonishment;some fancied him no Chinese,because he was formed more like a man than a monster and others wondered to find one borne five thousand miles from England,endued with common sense.(I,163) The Englishmen consider the Chinese philosopher as an outlandish idiot rather than a reasonable creature.In the light of Edward Said’s post-colonial theory,we can explain this phenomenon as this that they are exoticizing and orientalizing Chinese.

Goldsmith challenges the orientalist discourse which degrades and blasphemes China and Chinese culture.According to Oliver Goldsmith,two sources contributing to the construction of prejudice and twisted image of China or Chinese are ignorance and love for wonders “The writers of books in Europe seem to think themselves authorized to say what they please” (I,70),even though they know little about Chinese history and culture.The authoritative knowledge which comes from a false source produces the ignorant understanding about the other culture.Englishmen are fond of sights and monsters,they are “instead of desiring to see things as they should be,they are rather solicitous of seeing them as they ought not be”.(I,232),for example,to see a woman mantua-maker who wrought without hands,to see a painter to draw by his foot.Lien Chi Altangi frequently receives invitations from men of distinction.But he was not treated a friend,but to satisfy curiosity.He thought that “the same eagerness which excites them to see a Chinese,would have made equally proud of a visit from the rhinoceros.” (I,220) In the following letter,Goldsmith uses an allegory to poignantly satirize on their eagerness for twisted things and attributes this eagerness to their deformity of mind.

In contrast with those ignorant Englishmen’s understanding of other cultures,Lien Chi Altangi demonstrates a totally different perception:

When I had just quitted my native country,and crossed the Chinese wall,I fancied every deviation from the customs and manners of China was a departing from nature;I smiled at the blue lips and red forelieads of the Tonguese;and could hardly contain when I saw the Daures dress their heads with horns;the Ostiacks powered with red earth;and the Calmuck beauties,tricked out in all the finery of sheep skin,appeared highly ridiculous;but I soon perceived that the ridicule lay not in them but in me;that I falsely condemned others of absurdity,because they happened to differ from a standard originally founded in prejudice or partiality.(I,7-8)

The reason that we perceive other cultures’ absurdity is not because other cultures are really ridiculous,but because the criteria of our perception are founded on prejudice or partiality.The Chinese philosopher’s realization of partial standpoint of one’s own culture displays a cosmopolite’s universal equal view at the world.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

By way of summing up,it may be said in general that English cosmopolitanism is an ideal or speculative imagination about the world in comparison to the modern practice of cosmopolitanism in the fields of politics,sociology,philanthropy,and ethics,etc.In this English cosmopolitan construction,two facts must be stated:firstly,China plays an important and unique role due to its geographical position,cultural politeness and Confucian philosophy demonstrating the “impact of Asian culture upon Western understanding” (Jones,3);secondly,prejudice and partiality are roots of misunderstandings and misrecognitions of other cultures,and the hierarchical superiority/inferiority dichotomy between self and other,between England and China or between West and East cannot be fully applied to conceive the cultural varieties in the 18th century England,for English cosmopolitanism has been tried to transcend this paradigm by taking a wholistic rather than a comparative standpoint.

English cosmopolitanism represented by The Citizen of the Worldopens a window for us to view self/other dyad from a new perspective,which is crucially important for us understand the cosmopolitan relationship between cultures in the 18th century.After entering into the 19th century,colonialism and imperialism become dominant in the cultural world of England,and inequality,instead of equality between different civilizations,becomes the basic principle of English cosmopolitanism.