Kang Yuwei on the origins of Western Civilisation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research in the shaping of concept of civilizational development made by the prominent Chinese philosopher Kang Youwei (1858-1927). The vision of Western civilization from the point of view of a Confucian thinker is considered on the basis of the material “Travels to Italy” (1904). Kang Youwei argued that Unity is the basic law of history. From Kang’s point of view, the Roman Empire was an example of a state, which was founded according to the laws of the evolutionary development of nature and society. 19th century Italy was seen as a young state that which had not yet overcome the consequences of the “birth trauma”. Shaping his views within the Sino centric paradigm, Kang Youwei considered the world civilization as a single evolutionary process of ascending from barbarism to the heights of culture, respectively, the positive experience of the West can be used to correct China’s shortcomings and return a high political and geostrategic status to the country.