西式馬車、輪船、火車等新式交通工具在近代傳入中國，大大擴展了國人行走世界的腳步，並帶來新的時空觀念與感受。近代文學對各種新式交通工具及其帶來的種種變化有著豐富的表現。本文通過分析近代文學對於新式交通工具的表現，展示近代新式交通工具如何參與了城市流動空間的書寫、現代日常生活形態與公共空間／時間秩序的塑造、視覺經驗的更新，與自我認知的感覺。同時，在小說敘事中，這些旅行的工具手段作為重要的關節點，密切參與了故事的講述與小說的結構。舟馬車這些旅行的物質手段絕非靜態的、外在的工具，而是通過重新組織時空關係、提供公共空間，進而重組現代性生活秩序，與近代國人對個體與自我的把握。

The modern vehicles such as western carriages, steamships and trainswere introduced into China in late Qing period. They greatly influencedChinese way of travel and brought new ideas and senses of time and space.There are abundant texts regarding modern vehicles in the late Qing andrepublican literature which show that new vehicles deeply participate in thewriting of urban space of flow, the formation of modern daily life and publicorder of space and time, the renovation of visual experience and the establishmentof the self. These new vehicles also function as important toolsto structure and conjunction the story narration. This essay wants to showthat the modern vehicles are not simply physical and exterior tools but importantfactors that reorganize the time and space relation, provide publicspace, and thus reconstruct the modern daily life order and recognize theself.