Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations

Guido Anichini

doi:doi:10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations

Guido Anichini^*

Published in Languages, Literatures and Cultures (Volume 2, Issue 1)

Received: 6 January 2026 Accepted: 16 January 2026 Published: 30 January 2026

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Abstract

This paper reinterprets Kang Youwei’s (1858–1927) Neapolitan Travelogue as a pivotal text in the late Qing intellectual transition from the tianxia (天下, “All Under Heaven”) world order to the modern system of nation-states. Written during Kang’s European exile following the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the work transforms his journey through Naples and Pompeii into a site of theoretical experimentation, rather than a mere record of travel. Through a comparative reading of Italian antiquity and Confucian historiography, this study argues that Kang employed Southern Italy as a mirror through which to reimagine China’s relationship to modernity and global civilisation. By analysing Kang’s encounters with Naples’s urban layers, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Mediterranean landscape, the paper introduces the concept of Comparative Antiquarianism—a method through which Kang reconciled China’s imperial heritage with the demands of progress. Naples, viewed as a “living ruin,” provided a tangible embodiment of his sanshi (三世, “Three Ages”) theory, where disorder, transition, and harmony coexist within the same temporal and spatial field. For Kang, Pompeii’s excavation offered archaeological proof for a cyclical conception of modernity, transforming the city into a jian (鑑, “mirror”) warning China of the dangers of political inertia and moral complacency. Rejecting the Social Darwinist hierarchies that dominated early twentieth-century thought, Kang proposed instead a civilisational parity between East and West—an equative gaze that saw both as participants in a shared human cycle of rise, decline, and renewal. Ultimately, Kang’s Yidali youji reframed Sino-Western relations through a utopian vision of Global Harmony (Datong 大同), where Confucian ethics and modern industrial achievements coexist. His Neapolitan reflections thus reveal an alternative, transcultural genealogy of modernity grounded in mutual recognition rather than binary opposition.

Published in	Languages, Literatures and Cultures (Volume 2, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14
Page(s)	51-58
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Kang Youwei, Yidali Youji, Sanhi Theory, Comparative Antiquarianism, Tianxia Nation-State, Cyclical Modernity, Confucian Reform, Global Datong

References

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[2]	Cohen, Paul, Discovering History in China. American Historical Writing on the recent Chinese past, Columbia University Press, New York, 1984.
[3]	Mishra, Pankaj, From the ruins of Empire. The revolt against the West and the remaking of Asia, Penguin, London, 2012.
[4]	Hsiao, Kung-chuan. A Modern China and a New World: K’ang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian, 1858–1927. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975.
[5]	Duara, Prasenjit, Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
[6]	Brusadelli, Federico. Kang Youwei and the Notion of World History.” Oriens Extremus 56, 2017 pp. 101–125.
[7]	Fidan, Giray, Chinese Intellectual Kang Youwei and Ottoman Modernization, in European Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 1450-2267, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2012.
[8]	Karl, Rebecca, Staging the world: Chinese nationalism at the turn of the twentieth century, Duke University Press, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822382473
[9]	Brusadelli, Federico, "A tale of two utopias: Kang Youwei's communism, Mao Zedong's classicism and the 'accommodating look' of the Marxist Li Zehou", Asian Studies, 5, 1 (2017), pp. 103-128. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2017.5.1.103-128
[10]	Li Zongfang: T Kang Youwei's Confucian Reforms in the Late Qing Dynasty. Rhodes College, 2018.
[11]	Zarrow, Peter: After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885-1924. Stanford University Press, 2012.
[12]	Reynolds, Douglas R, China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. Harvard University Asia Center, 1993.
[13]	Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon, 1978.
[14]	Wang MingMing 王明明, The Ambit of Flourishing Peace: Kang Youwei’s Perspective of Euroasian Civilization as seen in The Travelogue of Italy, in Chinese Journal of Chinese Sociology, 2019.
[15]	Miller, Peter N. and François Louis (eds.), Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500-1800, University of Michigan Press / Bard Graduate Center, Ann Arbor, 2012.
[16]	Gan Y., Kang Youwei’s Establishment of the Three Ages Theory. Asian Studies, 12(1), 2024, 165-193. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2024.12.1.165-193
[17]	Worden, M. J., A Chinese Reformer in Exile: Kang Youwei and the Chinese Empire Reform Association in North America, 1899–1911. Brill, Leiden (Open Access). Studio su esilio e rete transnazionale Baohuanghui. Evento MOCA NYC, 29 ott. 2025.
[18]	Dong, Madeleine Yue. Republican Beijing: The City and Its Histories. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003.
[19]	Adler, Joseph A. Reconstructing the Confucian Dao: Zhu Xi's Appropriation of Zhou Dunyi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014. (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture).
[20]	Sun J and Amrantidou D., Jintui (進退) as A Dynamic Moral Agency in Confucian Ethics: Advance Retreat and Situational Harmony, in Confucian Moral Philosophy in the 21^st century, Routledge, London 2025.
[21]	Kang Youwei (康有為), Ouzhoushiyiguo Youji er zhong 歐洲是一國遊記二種, In Zhong Zhuhe 鐘叔河, Zouxiang shijie congshu 走向世界從書, Yuelu shushe chuban 岳麓书社出版, Changsha, 2005.
[22]	Kang Youwei (康有為), Datong shu 大同書, Zhonghua shuju, Beijing, 1985.

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Anichini, G. (2026). Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations. Languages, Literatures and Cultures, 2(1), 51-58. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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Anichini, G. Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2026, 2(1), 51-58. doi: 10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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Anichini G. Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations. Lang Lit Cult. 2026;2(1):51-58. doi: 10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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@article{10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14,
  author = {Guido Anichini},
  title = {Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations},
  journal = {Languages, Literatures and Cultures},
  volume = {2},
  number = {1},
  pages = {51-58},
  doi = {10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.llc.20260201.14},
  abstract = {This paper reinterprets Kang Youwei’s (1858–1927) Neapolitan Travelogue as a pivotal text in the late Qing intellectual transition from the tianxia (天下, “All Under Heaven”) world order to the modern system of nation-states. Written during Kang’s European exile following the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the work transforms his journey through Naples and Pompeii into a site of theoretical experimentation, rather than a mere record of travel. Through a comparative reading of Italian antiquity and Confucian historiography, this study argues that Kang employed Southern Italy as a mirror through which to reimagine China’s relationship to modernity and global civilisation. By analysing Kang’s encounters with Naples’s urban layers, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Mediterranean landscape, the paper introduces the concept of Comparative Antiquarianism—a method through which Kang reconciled China’s imperial heritage with the demands of progress. Naples, viewed as a “living ruin,” provided a tangible embodiment of his sanshi (三世, “Three Ages”) theory, where disorder, transition, and harmony coexist within the same temporal and spatial field. For Kang, Pompeii’s excavation offered archaeological proof for a cyclical conception of modernity, transforming the city into a jian (鑑, “mirror”) warning China of the dangers of political inertia and moral complacency. Rejecting the Social Darwinist hierarchies that dominated early twentieth-century thought, Kang proposed instead a civilisational parity between East and West—an equative gaze that saw both as participants in a shared human cycle of rise, decline, and renewal. Ultimately, Kang’s Yidali youji reframed Sino-Western relations through a utopian vision of Global Harmony (Datong 大同), where Confucian ethics and modern industrial achievements coexist. His Neapolitan reflections thus reveal an alternative, transcultural genealogy of modernity grounded in mutual recognition rather than binary opposition.},
 year = {2026}
}

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AB  - This paper reinterprets Kang Youwei’s (1858–1927) Neapolitan Travelogue as a pivotal text in the late Qing intellectual transition from the tianxia (天下, “All Under Heaven”) world order to the modern system of nation-states. Written during Kang’s European exile following the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the work transforms his journey through Naples and Pompeii into a site of theoretical experimentation, rather than a mere record of travel. Through a comparative reading of Italian antiquity and Confucian historiography, this study argues that Kang employed Southern Italy as a mirror through which to reimagine China’s relationship to modernity and global civilisation. By analysing Kang’s encounters with Naples’s urban layers, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Mediterranean landscape, the paper introduces the concept of Comparative Antiquarianism—a method through which Kang reconciled China’s imperial heritage with the demands of progress. Naples, viewed as a “living ruin,” provided a tangible embodiment of his sanshi (三世, “Three Ages”) theory, where disorder, transition, and harmony coexist within the same temporal and spatial field. For Kang, Pompeii’s excavation offered archaeological proof for a cyclical conception of modernity, transforming the city into a jian (鑑, “mirror”) warning China of the dangers of political inertia and moral complacency. Rejecting the Social Darwinist hierarchies that dominated early twentieth-century thought, Kang proposed instead a civilisational parity between East and West—an equative gaze that saw both as participants in a shared human cycle of rise, decline, and renewal. Ultimately, Kang’s Yidali youji reframed Sino-Western relations through a utopian vision of Global Harmony (Datong 大同), where Confucian ethics and modern industrial achievements coexist. His Neapolitan reflections thus reveal an alternative, transcultural genealogy of modernity grounded in mutual recognition rather than binary opposition.
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Guido Anichini

Independent Scholar, Milan, Italy

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http://orcid.org/0009-0001-1946-2462

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Anichini, G. (2026). Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations. Languages, Literatures and Cultures, 2(1), 51-58. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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Anichini, G. Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2026, 2(1), 51-58. doi: 10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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Anichini G. Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations. Lang Lit Cult. 2026;2(1):51-58. doi: 10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14

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@article{10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14,
  author = {Guido Anichini},
  title = {Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations},
  journal = {Languages, Literatures and Cultures},
  volume = {2},
  number = {1},
  pages = {51-58},
  doi = {10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.llc.20260201.14},
  abstract = {This paper reinterprets Kang Youwei’s (1858–1927) Neapolitan Travelogue as a pivotal text in the late Qing intellectual transition from the tianxia (天下, “All Under Heaven”) world order to the modern system of nation-states. Written during Kang’s European exile following the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the work transforms his journey through Naples and Pompeii into a site of theoretical experimentation, rather than a mere record of travel. Through a comparative reading of Italian antiquity and Confucian historiography, this study argues that Kang employed Southern Italy as a mirror through which to reimagine China’s relationship to modernity and global civilisation. By analysing Kang’s encounters with Naples’s urban layers, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Mediterranean landscape, the paper introduces the concept of Comparative Antiquarianism—a method through which Kang reconciled China’s imperial heritage with the demands of progress. Naples, viewed as a “living ruin,” provided a tangible embodiment of his sanshi (三世, “Three Ages”) theory, where disorder, transition, and harmony coexist within the same temporal and spatial field. For Kang, Pompeii’s excavation offered archaeological proof for a cyclical conception of modernity, transforming the city into a jian (鑑, “mirror”) warning China of the dangers of political inertia and moral complacency. Rejecting the Social Darwinist hierarchies that dominated early twentieth-century thought, Kang proposed instead a civilisational parity between East and West—an equative gaze that saw both as participants in a shared human cycle of rise, decline, and renewal. Ultimately, Kang’s Yidali youji reframed Sino-Western relations through a utopian vision of Global Harmony (Datong 大同), where Confucian ethics and modern industrial achievements coexist. His Neapolitan reflections thus reveal an alternative, transcultural genealogy of modernity grounded in mutual recognition rather than binary opposition.},
 year = {2026}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Between Empire and Modernity, Kang Youwei's Neapolitan and Pompeian Travelogue as a Catalyst for Reimagining Sino-Western Relations
AU  - Guido Anichini
Y1  - 2026/01/30
PY  - 2026
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14
T2  - Languages, Literatures and Cultures
JF  - Languages, Literatures and Cultures
JO  - Languages, Literatures and Cultures
SP  - 51
EP  - 58
PB  - Science Publishing Group
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.llc.20260201.14
AB  - This paper reinterprets Kang Youwei’s (1858–1927) Neapolitan Travelogue as a pivotal text in the late Qing intellectual transition from the tianxia (天下, “All Under Heaven”) world order to the modern system of nation-states. Written during Kang’s European exile following the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, the work transforms his journey through Naples and Pompeii into a site of theoretical experimentation, rather than a mere record of travel. Through a comparative reading of Italian antiquity and Confucian historiography, this study argues that Kang employed Southern Italy as a mirror through which to reimagine China’s relationship to modernity and global civilisation. By analysing Kang’s encounters with Naples’s urban layers, the ruins of Pompeii, and the Mediterranean landscape, the paper introduces the concept of Comparative Antiquarianism—a method through which Kang reconciled China’s imperial heritage with the demands of progress. Naples, viewed as a “living ruin,” provided a tangible embodiment of his sanshi (三世, “Three Ages”) theory, where disorder, transition, and harmony coexist within the same temporal and spatial field. For Kang, Pompeii’s excavation offered archaeological proof for a cyclical conception of modernity, transforming the city into a jian (鑑, “mirror”) warning China of the dangers of political inertia and moral complacency. Rejecting the Social Darwinist hierarchies that dominated early twentieth-century thought, Kang proposed instead a civilisational parity between East and West—an equative gaze that saw both as participants in a shared human cycle of rise, decline, and renewal. Ultimately, Kang’s Yidali youji reframed Sino-Western relations through a utopian vision of Global Harmony (Datong 大同), where Confucian ethics and modern industrial achievements coexist. His Neapolitan reflections thus reveal an alternative, transcultural genealogy of modernity grounded in mutual recognition rather than binary opposition.
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
ER  -

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