For foreigners, Chinese, especially ancient Chinese, is particularly difficult to learn.
But this has not prevented generations of sinologists from admiring and delving into Chinese history and culture.
The British sinologist Joseph Needham learned the first Chinese word to learn was "cigarette"; the American sinologist Shi Jingqian, the name "Jingqian" means "admiring Sima Qian".
Figure / Unsplash
01
Western Studies of Sinology,
Where did you go?
It is said that some German students, unable to read the books of German philosophers, turned to the English translation.
If you are not quite sure when you read the Analects or Lao Tzu, you can also try the English version.
Chinese are not the original readers of sinology or Sinology works, it is necessary and rewarding for us to introduce and read such books.
Professor Zhang Guogang of the Department of History of Tsinghua University said in "Dialogue of Civilizations": "Western research on Sinology has now reached a level that Chinese counterparts cannot ignore. ”
"For example, the study of modern Chinese history cannot bypass Fairbank's treatises, the study of the history of science and technology cannot fail to read Needham's works, and the study of ancient phonology cannot ignore the works of Gao Benhan."
"Lu is the only one in the history of the Qin and Han Dynasties, Cui Ruide is the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Kollif is the history of Mongolia and Yuan, and Xie Henai is the history of social culture, and there are many incisive treatises."
02
"Psychological things are self-contained"
——The internal mechanism of Chinese studies
Last month, Lu Weiyi, a British sinologist and emeritus professor at Cambridge University, Zhou Xirui, professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego, and Ye Jiaying, director of the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture at Nankai University and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, won the Sixth World Contribution Award for Chinese Studies.
Ye Jiaying recalled that when teaching at Harvard University, a couplet hung in a conference room of the school, which read, "Civilization can benefit the old and the new, and the psychological things are the same."
American historian Zhou Xirui
Civilization, culture, new culture and old culture are integrated and increased with each other, and have richer roles and connotations; whether they are Westerners or Easterners, there are basically the same places in psychology.
In this regard, Mr. Qian Zhongshu made a specific discussion in "On Chinese Poetry".
He said that there is no epic in China, and Chinese poetry is precocious and short, with endless words and endless meanings, but the content of Chinese and Western poetry is often the same, and the style is often implicit.
Tao Yuanming said, "Like the mountain qi day and night, the birds are in harmony", and Goethe said, "The birds sleep quietly, and I also want to rest".
Johann von Goethe (28.8.1749 – 22.3.1832)
03
Western Sinologists:
Looking at the moon through the curtain, there are insights in a glance
Gu Bin, a German scholar, said that when he was lecturing in China, some students asked: "How can foreigners understand Chinese culture?" ”
He replied: "Sometimes, if you are far away from a certain culture, it will be good for your thinking or thinking; if you are too close to a culture, there are too many commonplace things, and you will feel that you know everything, and you may not want to know more..."
"Yuwen Soan has been studying Tang Dynasty poetry all his life, and he is naturally an expert in Tang Dynasty poetry, and I am afraid that many Chinese scholars cannot compare with him."
Foreigners study China, similar to southerners watching the life of Northeasterners.
For how to keep warm and how to play with snow, northeasterners are already natural and familiar with the chest, but southerners are very surprised and observe more carefully.
Sinologists are often able to take a unique approach to China, see the big from the small, and are very novel in both the questions and the research methods.
Ge Zhaoguang, a professor at Tsinghua University, said in his book "Ten Treatises on Extraterritorial Chinese Studies" that the Romanian-American scholar Elied did not understand Chinese, and his analysis of China's affairs was often quite in-depth and accurate.
"Chinese studying Chinese affairs, the advantage is that people can make direct and appropriate judgments about many specific phenomena in a familiar context."
"But the disadvantage is also here, familiar knowledge background often makes researchers go straight down along the traditional inertia, not likely to jump out of the mountain to reflect on the object of study, so often the thinking is always too consistent."
Sometimes when I read the Chinese studies works of Europeans and Americans, I always feel that their thinking is very peculiar.
"Chinese scholars always excavate materials from historical documents and examine them in the order of historical chronicles. But European and American researchers often use sociological and anthropological methods... The Chinese learning of Westerners can be described as 'looking at the moon through the curtain', although sometimes hazy, but often there is insight in a glance. ”
For example, Shi Jingqian's "Kangxi", "According to Kangxi's cognition, successful thinking depends on the openness and flexibility of the mind." He expressed interest in geometry, mechanics, astronomy, graphics, optics, medicine, and algebra. ”
Kangxi believed that "the glassware that foreigners specialize in, after the people of Middle-earth learn the principle of manufacturing, the blue comes out of the blue." ”
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Sinology in Western universities:
A fascinating "methodology"
In terms of software and hardware, Sinology has accumulated a lot.
An admissions advertisement for the Department of Chinese at the University of Cambridge said: "Students who are interested in Chinese art can take advantage of the collections of the FitzwilliamLian Museum; young people who are interested in studying China's scientific and technological achievements can seek advice from the Needham Institute; and all students can use the university library's first-class Chinese collection in Europe." ”
In 2013, The Atlantic reported that thousands of Harvard students were studying ancient Chinese philosophy.
Imagine a world where relationships are confusing, narcissistic, selfish, and there are many opinions about how people should live in harmony.
This looks like 21st-century America. But Pu Ming, a harvard professor, painted a picture of 700 engrossed students of 2,500 years ago.
At Harvard, Pu Ming's "Course in Ancient Chinese Moral and Political Theory" ranked third among the most popular courses. Even higher than that are introductions to economics and computer science.
The students in the class crowded to the door, and finally Harvard arranged the class to the largest theater on campus.
Pu Ming asked students to read the original works (English translations) such as the Analects, Mencius, and the Tao Te Ching, and then apply their teachings to their daily lives.
He told the students: "Eastern philosophical thought represents the wisdom of ancient human beings, telling a wiser, more complete, and more ideal way of living. But many people think that the West determines the direction of history and provides a perspective on everything. This perspective prevents us from seeing things as they really are. ”
The important position, achievements, and influence of Sinology in the West that cannot be ignored enlightens us from another perspective: looking at the moon through the curtain and gaining insights in a glance may help us to break away from the original perspective limitations and get the answer to understand the present from the broader world.
So why not look: what did they see differently? What can we get out of it?
Jiangsu People's Publishing House, which publishes the "Overseas China Studies Series", invites authoritative scholars in various fields to launch a blockbuster course "Understanding China: Chinese Civilization from a Global Perspective" in view of the observation and interpretation of "rooms" outside the house, looking at "What is China" from a global perspective, and also putting forward their own views.
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