Paesaggi e civiltà del mare nelle poesie di viaggio di Binchun: dal Mar Cinese Meridionale al Mediterraneo

Abstract

This article examines the maritime imagery and transcultural representations in the travel poetry of Binchun 斌椿 (1803–1871), the first Qing official to visit Europe. His poetic collections Haiguo shengyou cao 海國勝遊草 (Notes on a Glorious Mission Overseas) and Tianwai guifan cao 天外歸帆草 (Notes on the Return Voyage to the Celestial Realm), written during and after his 1866 diplomatic journey accompanying Robert Hart, reveal how the sea became both a poetic and symbolic space for rethinking China’s relationship with the wider world. Through a close reading of selected poems, this study explores how Binchun’s encounter with maritime and Mediterranean landscapes transformed classical Chinese poetic conventions, fusing the traditional motifs of youji (travel notes) with new images of modernity, cross-cultural contact, and cosmopolitan curiosity.