The modern west first learned about China through missionaries. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, missionaries introduced the influence of China culture to the west, which was fully studied in Chinese and western works. Worth thinking about: Why?
The historical mission of cultural exchange between China and the West will fall on the shoulders of missionaries again and again. This is actually related to the specific social structure in the West. Since the Middle Ages, the church has been the center of European academic culture. The establishment and control of the church
All kinds of schools have been deep-rooted traditions in Europe until modern times. Education and religion, science and religion often grow, develop and conflict in the same institution. This situation has not changed since the bourgeois revolution.
Divide it into parts. Until the end of 19, most universities in the United States were founded by churches. It can be seen that the relationship between church and educational scholarship is close. French scholar Paul Demieville
Commenting on Matteo Ricci's activities, he said: "The purpose of this kind of research is not only to thoroughly understand China, so as to better naturalize China, but also to promote a more thorough understanding.
China, this will not benefit China, but benefit Europe. "(1) Europe thoroughly understand whether China is also beneficial to China, this is a very complicated problem. But at least we see missionaries playing here.
The pioneer of sinology, and under the conditions at that time, only missionaries in China could undertake this historical task. The same thing happened in the modern history of China. Since19th century, with
With the development of industry and commerce in Europe and North America, trade and colonial expansion became the trend of the world at that time, and more missionaries sailed to the East from Mount Tiantai. China once again became the theme of missionary writing. If it is explained that missionaries care about the Qing Dynasty,
If China's research works can be counted, there are countless works about China by missionaries in the late Qing Dynasty. Alexander Wylie (Alexandria
Wylie,1815-1887) counted the publications of 338 missionaries in China in 1867, of which 787 were published only in Chinese. Missionaries became prolific writers,
It has played a role in introducing China culture to western society. Undoubtedly, there were many disadvantages for early missionaries to study China's social culture. First, at first, most of them didn't know the language and writing in China.
Many people, with some exceptions, such as Ma Lixun, were called the most proficient Chinese talent in Europe at that time.
James Legge's Deep Understanding of China's Characters; Karl Gutzlaff (Charles
Gutzaff) Chinese is good, and he can speak Mandarin and several dialects. But learning Chinese well is not an easy task after all. People say that what they write in Chinese is "ambiguous". Ma Lixun himself admitted that he knew Chinese.
Limited. Under such conditions, it is obviously difficult to fully understand Chinese materials. Second, they are foreigners, and they grew up under the influence of Christian culture. They should understand thousands of years of history, including many reasons for Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
The subtleties of China culture are not easy. Thirdly, they came to China in an era of flourishing capitalist culture, and their strong sense of psychological superiority made them consciously or unconsciously produce something when observing the East.
This prejudice exaggerates one's views into general conclusions. However, as bystanders, their research also has obvious advantages.