Western Sinologists Research Articles

Wen, Literature, and Belles Lettres: Reconfiguring Chinese Literature in Nineteenth-Century English Sinology

ABSTRACT This article examines the fluid nature of literature as exemplified both semantically and conceptually in the English-language studies of Chinese literature conducted by Western Sinologists in the nineteenth century. If Chinese literary modernization of the early twentieth century is seen as shaped by the contact with foreign literary theories, Sinologists in the nineteenth century had already engaged actively with English literary concepts to reconfigure Chinese literature in their English-language writings. This article contends that, regardless of their impact on Chinese literary modernity, the Sinologists’ conceptions underlined the aesthetic and generic concerns that are fundamental to the modern understanding of literature and thereby fostered a renewed imagination of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world. Examining a wide range of primary materials, including dictionaries and Sinological writings, this article aims to unfold their transcultural naming and legitimizing process that gave rise to the knowledge category of Chinese literature through contingent English and Chinese literary terminology, narrative frameworks, and categorization schemes. This article traces the unnoticed history in comparative literary history to offer a genealogical understanding of the Western conception of Chinese literature. It also provides a new dimension for reviewing and analyzing the dialogue and interplay between Western and Chinese literary ideas within the Sinologists’ writings prior to the overwhelming influence of Western literary ideas during the period of Chinese literary modernity.

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Perspectives Based on the Spread of Christianity in China

The process of spreading Christianity in China is also the process of localizing Christianity in China. According to historical records, there was the first religious and cultural exchange between East and West in the Tang Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, Mark Polo brought China into the European horizon, and Matteo Ricci spread Christianity by studying Confucian classics, which also promoted the development of Western sinology; After centuries of outbreak of contradictions within the Christian church, coupled with the blows of imperialist and capitalist power politics in modern times, Christianity in China has been viewed as a binary opposition, many of which are influenced by political factors. But today, the role of Chinese scholars in academia is increasingly non-negligible, and many examples demonstrate the importance of breaking down stable stereotypes and looking at different cultures from a more open-minded and dynamic cross-cultural perspective.

With What Voice Does China Speak? Sinology, Orientalism and the Debate on Sinologism

Abstract The arrival of postcolonial theory in China and the country’s global rise came with the realization that its self-image is often distorted by Western ideological discourse, conveyed through Western Sinology. Drawing from Edward Said’s Orientalism, some Chinese scholars have classified the ideological dimensions of Western Sinology as Sinologism, and have pointed out its implications for China’s capacity to think of itself on its own terms. The concept has sparked debate mainly inside Chinese academia about the objective quality of Western Sinology. This article will attempt a critical overview of two major formulations of Sinologism, underlining its major presuppositions and placing the notion in the broader context of China’s anxieties of “academic colonization” by Western intellectual practices. It will conclude by arguing that attempts to discredit Western Sinology rely on some problematic assumptions and suggests East-West comparative studies as an alternative way of dialectically constructing Chinese identity.

On Some Principles of Rendering Old Chinese Administrative Terms into Russian

The administrative apparatus played a very important role in traditional China. Chinas bureaucracy was the most developed, elaborated and sophisticated in the world of that time. Therefore, all the old Chinese texts, both artistic, historical, and sometimes even philosophical, are full of names of institutions and offices. But there is still no generally accepted system of rendering old Chinese designations of institutions and administrative posts into European languages, in both Russian and Western Sinology. This is not accidental. Any attempt to propose a systematic interpretation of the meaning and translation into other languages of this complex terminology encounters a number of serious obstacles. In this article, we propose and illustrate some principles, using which it would be possible to approach the solution of this problem.

A Review of the Book «The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han» by Mark E. Lewis

The review of the book (Lewis M.E. The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han. Cambridge (MA): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007) sums up the contents of the book and reviews its value for the world Han studies as well as those methods and research traditions of Western sinology in Ancient China studies which lay in the very base of the book creation. After paying respect to the advantages of the book, the author of this review discusses the effectiveness of methods used in the book for studying Chinese Ancient history.

The Poetics of Early Chinese Thought: How the Shijing Shaped the Chinese Philosophical Tradition by Michael Hunter

Reviewed by: The Poetics of Early Chinese Thought: How the Shijing Shaped the Chinese Philosophical Tradition by Michael Hunter Giusi Tamburello Michael Hunter. The Poetics of Early Chinese Thought: How the Shijing Shaped the Chinese Philosophical Tradition. New York: Columbia UP, 2021. Pp. 240. US$145.00 hardcover, US$35.00 paperback, US$34.99 ebook. At times, by a fortuitous concatenation of circumstances, one happens to chance upon a text and become utterly absorbed by it. This is what happened to me while reading Michael Hunter’s volume The Poetics of Early Chinese Thought: How the Shijing Shaped the Chinese Philosophical Tradition. For someone like me, engaged in research on Modern and Contemporary Chinese poetry, the Shijing 詩經 (Classic of Poetry) represents “the” Chinese collection of poetry, the one from which Chinese poetry springs. Western sinologists and scholars, such as James Legge in the nineteenth century, Marcel Granet, Arthur Waley, Bernard Karlgren, and Ezra Pound in the twentieth century, have long been publishing seminal works about Chinese classical poetry, delving into the complexity of the study of the Shijing. This substantial body of academic work conveys the impression that this collection of poems belongs to another ‘level of knowledge,’ one that stands out from the rest and appears somehow to be ‘out of reach.’ Composed between the eleventh and sixth centuries BC, the three hundred-plus poems collected in the Shijing are written in ancient Chinese, and modern readers may have difficulties interpreting the work today. Furthermore, having become a fundamental part of the training of imperial officials who had to learn the Five Classics (Wu Jing 五經)-including, as Hunter also mentions, the Changes (Yi 易), Documents (Shu 書), Annals (Chunqiu 春 秋), and Ritual (Li 禮) classics (3)-the [End Page 559] Shijing plays a key role in the Chinese literary canon. Thanks to its prominent position in Chinese culture, it enjoys great cultural prestige. On popular websites too, the Shijing (in English, the Wikipedia entry is Classic of Poetry) is included among the “Five Classics,” or is considered one of the “Six Classics” when Music (Yue 乐) is included, or again one of the “Five Classics” (on Baidu 百度, the Chinese website similar to Wikipedia, we find 成为《六经》及《五经》之一). By referring to them, Wikipedia and Baidu also indicate how the “Classics” were the basis for the knowledge of the learned and cultured elite. It is interesting, at this point, to notice that the Shijing is generally recognized as belonging to the Chinese literary canon. Thus, to engage with a critical volume discussing the Shijing means that the potential reader will also be approaching the volume with reverential respect. The very title of Michael Hunter’s volume triggers this same sentiment as we find in it two key elements that introduce the complexity of the work: “poetics” and “philosophical tradition.” Through his analysis, Hunter brings to light the intimate connection that exists between the first Chinese poetic productions, as they are represented in the Shijing, and the development of Chinese philosophical thought. The interdisciplinary approach that Hunter applies to his research enhances the way poetics and philosophy resonate with each other. Indeed, his point of view stems from the observation that the position of the Shijing is in some respects puzzling: even though so many elements from the Shijing can be detected in the works of poets and philosophers who have shaped Chinese civilization, it has become increasingly marginalized. Therefore, we must reread the canonical texts of Chinese philosophical thought in search of traces of the Shijing that can contribute to its contextualization from a more contemporary point of view. The path Hunter follows is indicated by the titles of the five chapters that follow the introduction: “Reading the Shi,” “A Poetry of Return,” “Shi Poetics beyond the Shi,” “The Shi and the Verses of Chu (Chuci 楚辭),” and “The Shi versus the Masters.” Together, they describe the progressive shifting of the analysis from the poetic corpus of the Shijing and its characteristics to its reverberation on the cultural environment. Through this process, the reader is offered the means to follow the development of Hunter’s idea of classical Chinese philosophical thought that has been modelled on literary assumptions rooted in the world vision of ancient Chinese...

Из истории западной и русской трактовок «сердечной заповеди» древнекитайского «Шу цзина»

Autochthonous traditional Chinese thought in its most developed form could be found in the philosophy of Neo-Confucianism, which continues to be a sig­nificant factor in the modern national consciousness of the Chinese people. At the same time, the pre-emptive attention of Western Sinology and Russian Chinese studies to early Confucianism does not fully take into account the Neo-Confucian interpretation of the ancient Chinese classics. Russian and Western translations of the so-called Sixteen-Word Heart Admonition (Shi liu zi xin chuan), a passage from Chapter III “Da Yu mo” (Councel of Yu the Great) of the ancient Chinese classic The Book of Historical Documents (Shujing) by A. Gaubil, N.Ya. Bichurin, D.P. Sivillov, W.H. Medhurst, J. Legge, S. Couvreur, and W.G. Old demonstrate the gradual assimilation of its Neo-Confucian inter­pretation by Western and Russian translators. Archimandrite Daniil (Dmitry P. Sivillov), in his unpublished Russian translation of Shujing of the early 1840s, adopted this interpretation earlier and understood it better than the others. It is assumed that rejection of the Manchu language mediation and peruse of the con­temporary Neo-Confucian commentaries played the key role in his success. The importance of Neo-Confucian hermeneutics research for the studies of tradi­tional Chinese philosophy, including ancient Chinese classics, is emphasized. The text of the previously unpublished Shujing Chapter III Da Yu mo Russian transla­tion by archimandrite Daniil is attached.

Boym and Rémusat: Communication of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Rise of Western Sinology

This article provides an introduction to Michel Boym (1612–1659) and Jean Pierre Abel Rémusat (1788–1832) and examines the research on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) conducted by the two prominent sinologists. This work points out that Michel Boym introduced TCM to the West and Rémusat was the first to write a doctoral thesis on TCM. A historical overview of the translation, communication and impact of TCM in Europe at that time reveals that this communication of TCM to the West played a significant role in the rise of the study of Sinology in Europe.

A Critical Review of the Development of Sinology in the Western World

This paper critically reviews the development of sinology in the western world since the seventeenth century, with particular reference to Europe and North America. It focuses on three main thematic areas—scientific positivism and philology, translation and interpretation, and history and philosophy—discussing and parsing the wide variety of scholarship across disciplines. Observing and responding to the scholarship of individual scholars, the author examines the cultural contexts and intellectual characteristics of western sinology, with a view to assessing its scholarly and philosophical impact on East Asian scholars. The lesson to be learnt is that while western sinology offers opportunities and stimuli for creatively rethinking our exploration and understanding of the multiple dimensions of China in intercultural terms, East Asian sinologists must deepen their knowledge of their own history and culture in order to be effective interlocutors in the ongoing dialogues.

Some Reflections on the Methodology of the Studies on Missionary Sinology

This article reflects methodologically on the studies of the so-called “missionary Sinology,” which scholars in the past decades have classified as a distinct Sinological category. The author revisits the three issues of Sinological methodology discussed by scholars: whether it is a scientific discipline and the comparison between Old and New Sinology and Object or Method, on the basis of Chinese, Western, Japanese, and Australian Sinologists’ literature. This article highlights the Jesuits’ crucial role and influence in laying the foundation for French academic Sinology, the close connection between Catholic and Protestant missionaries in Chinese studies and the paradigm change in methodology from Prémare’s unified method to differentiated approaches to Chinese studies that have, in modern times, developed into independent disciplines.

The Rise of ‘Asian History’ in Mainland China in the 1950s: A Global Perspective

ABSTRACT With the decolonization of Asia since the late 1940s, ‘Asian History’ quickly rose to a prominent position in some countries. Although the People's Republic of China reformed its higher education system by following the USSR model in the 1950s, ‘Asian History’ was an exception. A Harvard-trained historian Zhou Yiliang played the leading role in developing Asian History programmes and curriculum. He re-oriented ‘Asian History’ by combining both the late imperial Chinese historiographical and educational tradition and the revolutionary historiography embedded in contemporary ideology. He introduced this new designation in Leiden in 1955 when the PRC historians were confronted with the Western Sinologists for the first time since the beginning of the Cold War. The newly designed ‘Asian History’ programme in the PRC not only served the new regime for its state building project as a rising Asian power, but also demonstrated its de-Orientalizing intellectual vigour, which undermined the USSR's Orientalist approach. Due to the Sino-Soviet split in 1960, the PRC replaced ‘Asian History’ with Asian-African History since it posited itself as a leader of African and Asian countries.

The Cconcept of Sustainable Authoritarianism" in the Era of Xi Jinping

The article investigates the research of western specialists on China in the era of Xi Jinping. Although Western media and scientific community have gathered a huge amount of factual material on modern China, including Xi Jinping’s China, however western sinology has not produced a paradigm that could shed light on the inner workings of Chinese socialism. From our point of view, the mainstream narrative of “Authoritarian Resilience” has its inconsistencies.

О РАЗВИТИИ МЕТОДА ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ИДЕОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ ПИСЬМЕННОСТЕЙ В ИСТОРИИ СИНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИНГВИСТИКИ (ПО РАБОТАМ АВТОРОВ XIX В.)

The article explores briefly the history of research in one of the most arguable topics in Sinological linguistics — the definition of an ideographic script, i. e. the Chinese writing system perceptions in the Russian and Western sinology of the 19th century. J.-F. Champolion’s and T. Young’s discoveries of the nature of hieroglyphic script, its function and evolution, as well as their decipherment of the ancient Egyptians texts, naturally influenced the broad field of oriental linguistics, having stimulated researches of other hieroglyphic writing systems. The present article touches briefly upon works of the American scholars P. DuPanceau and S. Andrews, the British naturalist G. T. Lay, the French diplomat J.-M. Callery and the well-renowned Russian sinologists I. Bičurin and V. P. Vasilyev. Basing on the selection of works, relevant to the article’s subject matter, the author aims to illustrate the evolution of Sinological knowledge in one of its most arguable topics — the nature hieroglyphic script, its structure and modification over time. Selected passages from the above mentioned authors, their exchange of opinions and comments to each other’s works tend to demonstrate the development of the research methodology itself — the gradual shift from labelling the Chinese script with ideographic stamp to the recognition of its phono-semantic dimensions and its transformation towards a phonetic system of writing.

Translating ancient Chinese legal works

AbstractThe notion of narrative is a very productive concept in many disciplines, and it has been introduced and applied effectively in translation studies, where the specific narrative typology and narrative features are drawn and outlined. Based on the understanding of translation and the analysis of narrative features by Baker, this paper examines the issues in translating ancient Chinese legal works. The default narrative features in ancient Chinese legal works are firstly given a detailed explanation, then the challenges to the Western sinologists in re-narrating ancient Chinese legal stories, especially for the purposes of constructing a “moral” world for the Western readers. For the purpose of successful communication, the fundamental elements in Chinese legal tradition should be given more attention. Thus a contextualized narrative strategy is proposed for application in translating ancient Chinese legal works. For successful communication, it requires on the part of the narrator a degree of creative adaptation.

Chinese Culture Translation and Communication: A Case Study of A Dream of Red Mansions

By comparing and analyzing the differences between Yang Xianyi's and Hawkes' versions of A Dream of Red Mansions from the perspective of communication studies to uncover the deficiencies neglected by most Chinese scholars on Chinese culture translation. To improve the communication effect, China must make an account of the potential of Western sinologists and the process of translation and dissemination.

Boundary-Work and Discipline Construction: Boundary Strategies to Institutionalize Guoxue as a Discipline and Its Failure

The construction of knowledge boundaries is an important mechanism in the formation of disciplines. This article examines and analyzes boundary strategies and difficulties in the institutionalization of guoxue (“national studies” or “Chinese classics”) as a discipline in recent years from the perspective of boundary-work. To establish guoxue as a discipline, proponents of the discipline have proposed the knowledge strategies of “new guoxue” and “broad guoxue,” so as to dispel potential conflict between guoxue and the external political environment. In addition, in the construction of the discipline, proponents have emphasized the differences between Chinese and Western scholarship, and also made analogy to Western Sinology, to highlight the necessity of constructing a holistic “discipline of guoxue.” However, these strategies and efforts have not achieved the objective of building guoxue as a discipline. One important reason is that guoxue studies are, to a very great extent, embedded in Chinese literature, Chinese history, Chinese philosophy and other related disciplines. The knowledge boundaries between guoxue and these disciplines are fuzzy, and the construction of the discipline lacks driving force from daily research practices. The process of to build a guoxue discipline can contribute to reflect on the existing discipline governance system in mainland China.

Challenges in Translating Chinese Classics into English: Example of Biography of Huan Tan and Feng Yan from Book of the Later Han

As one of the Early Four Historiographies, Fan Ye’s Book of the Later Han preserves significant works of both historical and literary value. This is something increasingly significant in response to the dynamic growth in popularity of classical Chinese texts among Western sinologists. Through reading the English translation of the “Biography of Huan Tan and Feng Yan” from the Book of the Later Han, the followingthree issues are arguably noteworthy for the translator’s consideration. Firstly, the English translation may involve aninterim step of intralingual translation from classical Chinese to modern Chinese, before a subsequent interlingual translation from modern Chinese to English. While this facilitates the process of translation,the vernacular translation also involves further risks in misinterpretation. Secondly, translation of such historiographical work which consists of literary works by various writers with numerous historical references,not only requires the translator to conduct additional analysis and write explanatory notes, it also makes the English output inaccessible to most readers. Thirdly,the highly interdisciplinary knowledge in relevant historiography not only demands a high quality of competency in translators, but also arguably acts as a catalyst for further academic research in the process of close reading and research. This paper intends to analyse the above three issues through a case study on the “Biography of Huan Tan and Feng Yan”, thereby demonstrating how the translation of Chinese classics is anarduous yet meaningful challenge.

Revisiting the Medical Work of George Soulié De Morant

It is now time to revisit the medical work of George Soulié de Morant (1878–1955). Over the past 64 years, studies and research on acupuncture-moxibustion have undergone exceptional growth in China, and Western sinology has made remarkable progress. A careful rereading will bring a new light to this decisive work.

“Sinologism”: Rethinking the Legitimacy of Sinology as Knowledge

Editors’ This article starts with a question on the nature and function of Sinological studies and casts doubts on the legitimacy of Sinology as a pure and objective branch of learning. After briefly reviewing the rise of Sinology as a branch of knowledge, it conducts a critical analysis of its major premises and orientations. Subjecting them to a scrutiny in terms of postmodern and postcolonial theories of knowledge production, it draws the conclusion that Sinology differs from Oriental studies only in degree, but not in kind. Recognizing the complexity of the field, the article nevertheless suggests that in the final analysis, Western Sinology comes more closely to a narrative, a type of discourse, which produces knowledge of China not entirely on objective reality, but with cultural and ideological imaginations.

In the Shadows of the Dao: Laozi, the Sage, and the Daodejing by Thomas Michael

Reviewed by: In the Shadows of the Dao: Laozi, the Sage, and the Daodejing by Thomas Michael Robin R. Wang (bio) In the Shadows of the Dao: Laozi, the Sage, and the Daodejing. By Thomas Michael. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. Pp. xx + 311. Hardcover $90.00, isbn 978-1-4384-5897-7. The Daodejing is a fascinating text that has captivated scholarly minds and the popular imagination for centuries. Is it a manual for self-cultivation and government, a work of philosophy providing a metaphysical account of reality, or a treatise for deep mystical insight? Is it perhaps an ethical masterpiece intended for the ruling class, with concrete strategic suggestions aimed at remedying the moral and political turmoil surrounding Warring States China? Or is it a way of life characterized by simplicity, calmness, and freedom from the tyranny of desire? In a comprehensive and refined study, Thomas Michael sheds new light on the Daodejing in his effort to read it apart from Western Sinology's inheritance of Wang Bi's Confucian commentarial tradition. Michael's synthetic reading discovers weaving through the text a hidden core treasure of yangsheng 養生 ("the nurture of life"), a specific regimen coupling breath circulation with techniques of bodily movement. In other words, the Daodejing is all about yangsheng. It exhibits the distilled knowledge of ancient yangsheng masters that was transmitted through the generations of their yangsheng disciples. Its central content concerns the possibility of transforming the physical body in the production of a Sage, a person who is one with the Dao. Michael attributes these teachings to a movement that he calls "early Daoism" (p. 12). This defined term sets up a frame of reference separate from the more standard distinction between "philosophical" (daojia) and "religious" (daojiao) Daoism. He rightly points out that there was no single monolithic tradition that can be designated as Daoism in early China; rather, [End Page 654] there were multiple groups and lineages that demand to be attended to much more closely. Following the introduction in chapter 1, chapter 2 conducts a penetrating discussion of modern scholarship on Daoism. It displays the stark differences between modern English-and French-language scholarship on the subject. Michael then compares these traditions to their modern Chinese counterpart, and this is one of many striking features of the book. He engages some of the most influential modern Chinese scholars of Daoism, including Xu Dishan 许地山, Fu Qinjia 傅勤家, Qing Xitai 卿希泰, Ren Jiyu 任繼愈, and Hu Fushen 胡孚琛. This is an impressive and valuable analysis of how modern Chinese scholars have differently constructed their own understandings of early Daoism, and Michael's integrative method sets a powerful model for future cross-cultural studies. Chapter 3 examines various readings of the Daodejing. Michael supports the daojia/daojiao split that has served as the primary interpretive approach to it, but he decisively revises our understanding of its historical construction. Modern scholars misconceive it to refer simply to a philosophical versus a religious reading, thereby reducing the rich history of its many diverse readings into a neat either/or container. Against this, Michael demonstrates that daojia refers to a Confucian reading of the Wang Bi commentary, while daojiao refers to a Daoist reading of the Heshang Gong commentary, and he documents the origins of this split in the court debates of the late Tang and early Song. Chapter 4 attends to the Dao itself as separately conceived by Laozi and Confucius. Michael begins by exploring the range of its ancient meanings primarily from the Shijing 詩經, and shows how these two foundational thinkers advanced their conceptions of it in fundamentally opposite directions. For Confucius, the Dao concerns the perfect society, whereas for Laozi it concerns the cosmos as a whole. Michael goes on to show how each thinker then developed different paths of cultivation, the former centered on moral and the latter on physical cultivation, and this sets the stage for his ensuing explorations of the Daodejing. Chapter 5 is the critical pivot of Michael's entire study. Here he explores the hiddenness of early Daoism as a mountainous tradition of yangsheng masters and disciples from whence the Daodejing was born. He argues that these teachings remained hidden until they...