China Popular Itineraries |
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The Introduction of Western Culture to China |
It was only from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty that China began to have real cultural exchanges with European and American countries. This is what is often called Xi Xue Dong Jian in Chinese -- the in-troduction of modern Western science, technology and culture to China ¨C and Dong Xue Xi Jian in Chinese -- the introduction of traditional Chinese culture centered on Confucianism to the West. This turned out to be the second peri-od for China to absorb and assimilate foreign cultures on a large scale following the introduction of India's Buddhist culture to China. In a span of 100 years between the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, with the arrival of Western missionaries, the spread and diffusion of Chinese and Western cul-tures both entered upon a new phase of history. To attract the scholar-officials and to have a foothold in the Imperial Court so as to facilitate their missionary work, the missionaries from the West preached their sermons by means of sci-ence. In some cases, while propagating gospels to the Chinese people, some missionaries translated into Chinese a great number of Western books on as-tronomy, geography, mathematics, physics, and other subjects, with the re-sult that the advanced knowledge of science and technology of the West was introduced into China, thus enabling her to get the feel of the trends of devel-opment of the world. In the meantime, they helped to spread Chinese civiliza-tion to their home countries. But due to the limitations of the missionaries themselves, much of the scientific and technological knowledge they brought to China during this period was by no means about the latest achievements in the fields of natural sciences of the West. What is more, their sphere of reli-gious activity was rather limited and the people who had the opportunities to acquaint themselves with the knowledge were confined to the literati and offi-cialdom in the Imperial Court.
Between the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dy-nasty, there was an extensive introduction of Western culture, mainly West-ern technology and science, into China, including astronomy, geology, math-ematics, biology, medicine, music, drawing, architecture, machinery build-ing and gun-making technologies, of which astronomy and the lunar calendar had the greatest influence.
Astronomy and the lunar calendar had a long history in China. In the Yin Dynasty, the later period of the Shang Dynasty, the years were designated by the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. With the passage of time, these two were gradually perfected. However, partly because of the complexity of the celestial motion laws and partly because of the limitations of the science and technology, there were many miscalculations. The Shou Shi Li or Calen-dar compiled by Guo Shoujing of the Yuan Dynasty was considered to be very precise in those days. Yet, as time went on, its miscalculations became more and more obvious. Then, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Ji com-piled the Da Tong Li or Standardized Calendar on the basis of Guo' s Calen-dar. Unexpectedly it turned out to be no better. The calendar, being the ad-ministrative canon of every dynasty, was very important and should be pre-cise. A proposal was first made in 1481 for the revision of the calendar. From then on, the cry for the improvement of the existing calendar was echoed. But all the efforts were frustrated due to the objection of die-hard conservatives. In 1610, the very inexact calculation of the eclipse of the sun by the Imperial As-tronomical Observatory with an error of about an hour to the light of day ex-posed the drawbacks of the existing calendar. So the revision of the calendar became imperative. Quite a few court officials advised the court to consult the calendar brought to China by Western missionaries and to invite Western cler-gymen to help revise the existing calendar.
As many of the foreign missionaries who came to China at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasties were college-educated, they had a good knowledge of advanced Western science and technology. Matteo Ricci, an Italian, was the first Western missionary who came to China with a good mastery of advanced Western science and technology. He was versed not only in philosophy and holy scriptures, Latin and Greek, but also in mathematics and machinery building. Those who were welt grounded in the making of cal-endars and astronomical instruments later helped their Chinese counterparts in the revision of the existing calendar.
In 1583, in Zhaocling, Guangdong Province, Matteo Ricci made several kinds of astronomical instruments such as the astroscope and the globe and gave them to Chinese officials. After he went to Beijing, he had close contact with Xii Guangqi and Li Zhizao, both of whom were court officials. At that time, the cry for calendar revision became louder and louder. So Matteo Ric-a, together with Xii Guangqi, Li Zhizao and some others, translated into Chinese some Western books on astronomy. What is more, the missionaries who followed Matteo Ricci were all armed with a sound knowledge of calen-dars. The miscalculation of the eclipse of the sun by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory in 1610 finally made the Emperor determined to revise the calen-dar. In 1629, Xii Guangqi calculated the eclipse of the sun with surprising ex-actitude by using the Western calendar. After that, he presented a memorial to the emperor, asking for his permission to establish the Office for the Study of Western Calendar. During a span of 14 years, 136 volumes of calendar were compiled, which were named by Emperor Chongzhen the Chongzhen Li Shu or The Chongzhen Calendar. Emperor Chongzhen issued an imperial edict to abolish the Standardized Calendar and adopt the Western or solar calendar.
After the troops of the Qing Dynasty crossed the Great Wall, Schall yon Bell, J. A. presented to Emperor Shunzhi in 1644 an armillary sphere, a horologe and a telescope in addition to a map of the world and a calendar. Em-peror Shunzhi agreed to use the calendar presented by Schall von Bell, J. A., and renamed it the Shi Xian Li or The Imperial Calendar. And in the Au-gust of the following year, an imperial edict was issued to use the new calen-dar. Soon, Schall von Bell, J. A. was assigned to the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, which created a precedent for a missionary to be in charge of such an important institution. Up to now, the Western calendar is officially used in China.
Besides the Western calendar, the missionaries also brought with them astronomical instruments, the most important of which is telescope. The tele-scope brought to China by Matteo Ricci was called a "a-thousand-mile mirror" at that time, which was of an old European style. In 1622, Schall yon Bell, J. A. brought to China a Galillean telescope and wrote a book entitled On Telescope (Yuan Jing Shuo), introducing for the first time to the Chinese people the manufacturing process and uses of the telescope in a systematic way. After the establishment of the Office for the Study of Western Calendar in 1629, the astronomical instruments intended to be manufactured in the memorial and presented to the emperor by Xii Guangqi included 3 telescopes. It was only until 1634 that China had a telescope of its own. It was named Sight Tube. Moreover, g number of other astronomical instruments including the theodolite or transit were made with the help of the missionaries. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Ferdinand Verbiest and other missionaries also designed and made some huge astronomical instruments including the astroscope and the equatorial armillary sphere. In 1752, the e-laborate equatorial armillary sphere, made under the auspices of a missionary for 10 years, was successfully installed. It was the last huge astronomical in-strument made during the Qing Dynasty.
In the meantime, Western astronomical theories were introduced to China. As to the astrodome or celestial body, ancient Chinese did have some theories such as the theory of canopy heavens or heavenly cover cosmology and the theory of sphere-heavens. But on the whole their knowledge of the aster was anything but sound. A book on astronomy translated by Matteo Ricci ex-plained for the first time the formation of the cosmos. Yet, it still belonged to the ancient astronomic theory that regarded the earth as the center of the uni-verse. Later, Schall von Bell, J. A. wrote a book on western calendars, which made vague mention of the heliocentric theory advanced by Copernicus, a Polish astronomer. It was not until the reign of Emperor Qianlong that a French missionary came to China, presenting to the Emperor a complete map of the world, and introducing in detail the Copernican theory to the Chinese people.
The introduction of Western civilization to China at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasties was coupled with the introduction of Chinese civilization to the West, mainly characterized by the introduction of ancient Chinese culture centered on Confucianism. According to statistics, westerners wrote, between 1552 and 1773, 422 books about China, dealing with its history, geography, religion, philosophy and political system. Apart from that, they also put many Chinese classics into foreign languages. The circulation of these books in Europe not only enhanced westerners' awareness and understanding of traditional Chinese culture, but also ushered in a great upsurge in the study of Chinese culture.
Matteo Ricci was the first westerner that was engaged in the translation of the works of Confucianism. In 1594, he put int6 Latin The Four Books, namely, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius, yet he did not put them into print. In 1626, a Bel-gian missionary translated into Latin The Five Classics, namely, The Book of Songs, Collection of Ancient Texts, The Rites, The Book of Changes, The Rites and The Spring & Autumn Annals, and got them published in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. These are the first books of Confucianism pub-lished in western languages. In 1662, two missionaries from Italy and Portu-gal respectively, rendered The Great Learning into Latin, with Wisdom from China as the title of the translation and got it published in Jianchang. The earliest translation of the Analects of Confucius was also done by them two. In 1711, a missionary from Belgium, put The Four Books all into Latin. During the reigns of Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong, the French mis-sionaries in China all devoted themselves to the study and translation of The Five Classics, putting, partly or wholly, into Latin The Book of Changes, The Book of Songs, Collection of Ancient Texts and The Rites. The transla-tion and introduction of the works of Confucianism into the West attracted the attention of European intelligentsia.
While translating the works of Confucianism, westerners in China and the academic circles in Europe published a great number of books on the introduc-tion and study of China. These books covered politics, economy, culture, his-tory and geography of China, which made Chinese culture more strongly felt in the West. Of all these books, the one that exerted the greatest influence on Europe was published in Germany in 1615, with Christianity Propagation in China as its title. This book was a systematic introduction of China's cultural system, with a wide coverage of the ancient nation's political system, histo-ry, geography, social customs, ethics, Confucianism, religious beliefs and so on and so forth. It was crucial to the study and understanding of China by the Europeans and had a far-reaching influence on European civilization.
Since 1687, a large number of knowledgeable French missionaries came to China. Some of them associated themselves directly with China's scientific and technological works, thus gaining a deep and comprehensive understand-ing of Chinese culture. Therefore, it was the French missionaries in China and the scholars in Paris that played the greatest role in the introduction of Chinese civilization to the West in the 18th century. They managed to get published 3 series of books on the introduction and study of China. The 3 masterpieces of the 18th century included Letters from Christian Missionaries, The Chinese Empire and China Series or Chinese History, Learning, Art, and Customs in the Eyes of Western Missionaries in Beijing. These series of books became a must for Europeans who wanted to get a general idea or make a close study of China. Of these 3 series of books, The Chinese Empire was the most influ-ential in the academic circles. It was otherwise known as the Pyramid of Chi-nese Studies in the West.
The introduction of ancient Chinese civilization to the West also had an important impact on the enlightenment in the 18th century Europe. Ancient Chinese civilization, different from European culture, increased European peo-ple's interest in China. More important, China's political and economic sys-tems and the moral principles of Confucianism provided European enlighten-ment thinkers with source material and evidence in the establishment of their own theoretical system. They studied Chinese culture from different angles, making it part of their own theoretical system and theoretical source for the strong criticism of the tyrannical feudal rule and theocracy of the Church in Europe, which exercised a great influence on the intellectuals of the Europe at that time.
Since the Opium War in 1840, China marched into the modern period in its history. With the invasion of capitalism and imperialism of the West came the capitalist culture, ushering in the era of the introduction of Occidentalism into China on a large scale in modern Chinese history. At that time, China was left far behind the West. Because of the corrupt and conservative rule of the Qing government, the whole country was on the decline. Gradually China became a semi-colonial society at the mercy of imperialism. Therefore, the in-troduction of occidentalism into China was apparently different from that at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasties. That is to say, it was stamped with distinct colonial invasion. In the meantime, the trend of cultural exchange between the East and the West in China's modern history was reversed promptly. In other words, the spread of occidentalism in modern China occupied a leading position while the influence of Chinese culture on modern West gradually dwindled.
The introduction of occidentalism into China in modern Chinese history roughly falls into four periods.
The first period was the time between the two opium wars. During this period, the reformers from the landlord class were among the first group of people to learn from the West. The progressive Chinese, with Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan as their chief representatives, delved into the realm of knowledge. While studying the geography and history of the world, they made great ef-forts in absorbing and spreading Western culture. From 1840 to 1861, as many as 22 books touching on western geography, history, politics and mili-tary affairs were published. Among the famous authors were Wei Yuan, Xu Jishe and Liang Tingnan, to name only a few. In addition, what is really worthy of our mention is Lin Zexu, who introduced to China books on inter-national law and took the lead in applying it to international relations.
The second period was that of the Westernization Movement. During this period, the introduction and spread of Western culture was initiated under the auspices of the comprador bureaucrats, who, apart from introducing advanced science and technology from the West, brought Western civilization to China by running schools, by sending officials on diplomatic missions and students abroad, and by translating western books. The translation became the major form of introducing western culture. Books were also translated in most of the new-type schools and manufacturing shops. The translated books dealt with a variety of subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, astrono-my, medicine and agronomy. The Translation Department under the South China Manufacturing Shop alone rendered 163 books within 20 years. Be-sides, it had 32 journals, of which Current Affairs of" the West, a journal de-voted solely to the introduction of the West, had as many as 108 issues pub-lished.
The third period covered the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Revolu-tion of 1911. During this period, the propagation of Western culture reached a new level, exerting a far-reaching influence. As far as the introduction of Western civilization is concerned, this period did not confine itself to the mere introduction of the techniques of capitalist production; it went a step further.
Consequently, this period had two distinct features. One was that the at-tention was paid to the political system of the West, and to the importation of western academic thinking, especially social sciences. The bourgeois reform-ers, represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, did a pioneering job in the popularization of western social sciences in China. To satisfy the reform-ers' crying need of new knowledge, there appeared during this period over 10 kinds of books on western culture such as Western Civilization, Western Pol-itics, etc. These books, mainly selections of translations, were classified ac-cording to western criteria, that is, they were grouped in terms of branches of learning. In introducing Western culture, Yan Fu, a returned scholar from Great Britain, stood in the forefront of the times. Since 1895, he translated T. H. Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Herbert Spencer's Study of Sociology among many works, into literary Chi-nese, introducing to Chinese intellectuals the progressive thoughts of evolution and human rights endowed by Nature. In short, Yan Fu was the first and most important person to introduce to China Western philosophy, social sci-ences and scientific methodology.
During the Revolution of 1911, the propagation of Western civilization underwent a rapid development, the introduction of democratic and revolu-tionary ideology being the main stream. Beginning in 1900, the Chinese stu-dents studying in Japan established many translation societies. In the 4 years from 1901 to 1904, 533 books from Japan, Britain, USA, Germany, France, Russia, etc. were translated one by one. These books covered a wide range of subjects, namely, history, philosophy, law, politics, education, diplomacy, military service, agriculture, industry, commerce, mining, health and so on. During this period, quite a few newspapers and magazines were run both at home and abroad by the revolutionaries. The Chinese magazines published and circulated in Japan alone amounted to as many as 62. These newspapers and magazines gave wide publicity to Western nationalism and civ-il rights. By introducing the revolutionary history of the West, they accelerat-ed the pace of bourgeois democratic revolution in China.
Compared with the previous period, the propagation of Western culture during this period had a strong political flavor. Out of the urgent need of transforming Chinese politics, different bourgeois groups shifted their focus from the military to philosophy and other social sciences, which could directly meet the need of reform and revolution. The progressive Western bourgeois thoughts of evolution, human rights endowed by nature, parliamentary sys-tem and republic system were imported into China successively.
The fourth period began with the New Culture Movement, an intellectual movement resulting from the May 4th Movement of 1919. The New Culture Movement, with democracy and science as their banner, strongly criticized the old learning in feudal China. During this period, various trends of thought from the West found their way into China, such as philosophy, history, eco-nomics, sociology, politics, socialism, anarchism, pragmatism and reformism. Meanwhile, waves upon waves of young people, with high hopes and lofty as-piration, traveled across the oceans and reached Western Europe. While pur-suing a work-study program, they endeavored to seek truth to save China, and in so doing sent academic knowledge and information of various kinds back to China. At the same time, some world-famous scholars, notably John Dewey, an American pragmatic philosopher, and Bertrand Russel from Eng-land, came to lecture in China, which stimulated debates on politics and phi-losophy.
The greatest contribution regarding the introduction of Western civiliza-tion was the dissemination of Marxism in China. Among the best-known ad-vocators of Marxist ideas were Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Chen Wangdao, and Li Da. It was thanks to their introduction and dissemination that the new thoughts in Manifesto of the Communist Party, proletariat dic-tatorship in Russia and the experience of proletariat revolution began to dawn on the Chinese people. Up to now, the political and historical ideas of democ-racy and evolution, which had long been looked to as the standard, gave way to socialism and class theory. All in all, the rapid spread of Marxism in China following the New Culture Movement after 1919 was undoubtedly the greatest achievement in the introduction of Western civilization.
With the Chinese people learning more and more about the West, the in-troduction of Western culture into China experienced a process from closedness to openness, from passiveness to activeness, from the import of utensils to that of the system, and from the superficial to the core. To put it another way, from the Opium War to the Westernization Movement, from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 to the May 4th Movement, each period witnessed the introduction of something new from the West. On the whole, the core of occidentalism introduction in modern Chinese history was, among other things, mainly the knowledge of natural sciences and social sciences. The main stream was, of course, democracy and evolution. In the later years of modern China, there came a change of attention from bourgeois democracy to scientific socialism, and from evolution to Marxist theory of class. Since the October Revolution in the former Soviet Union and the May 4th Movement in China, the cultural exchange between China and the rest of the world turned over a new leaf, following the wide spread of Marxism in the country. |
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