Although most of China has been full of turmoil for thousands of years, the tide of civilization has never receded on the stage of Chinese history, and cultural traditions have survived to this day......
——Wei Lixian, A Brief History of Chinese Civilization
Written by Wei Lixian
Translated by Yang Kaixuan
★ Great Chinese civilization in the eyes of Westerners! ★ Germany sinologist Wei Lixian interprets the history of Chinese civilization from a new perspective! ★ He was hailed as a world-renowned sinologist ★ in the 20th century, "China's spiritual envoy in the West" ★ and "Marco ·Polo who discovered China's inner world"
It has survived for thousands of years, and this is a prominent feature that distinguishes Chinese civilization from many ancient civilizations in the world. However, this conclusion is not an invention of contemporary Chinese scholars, as many people in the international sinology community have recognized it as early as about a hundred years ago, and the German sinologist Wei Lixian is one of them. This sinologist came to China as a missionary, but not only did he not preach, but he also preached Chinese culture to Westerners. In his later years, he wrote a book "A Brief History of Chinese Civilization", which tells the development of Chinese civilization from ancient times to the Qing Dynasty, which condenses his profound insights into Chinese civilization.
The Chinese Mind of William
When I met William, he looked like a Chinese not only in writing and speaking, but also in his demeanor. Oriental views and ancient Chinese culture have gradually penetrated into the depths of his heart.
- Jung, "On Richard · William"
Portrait of William Wai
Born in Stuttgart, ·Germany Stuttgart, Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930), born Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930), was a world-renowned sinologist of the 20th century. Educated in Christian theology at an early age, he came to Qingdao, China, in 1899 to spread the gospel. However, during his time in China, he did not baptize any Chinese, but brought Chinese ideas to Europe.
Wei Lixian, who came to China, was quickly attracted by the long civilization here, systematically studied the Chinese language and culture, and had extensive exchanges with Chinese intellectuals, including Lao Naixuan, who represented traditional thought, and leaders of the New Culture Movement such as Liang Qichao and Hu Shih. He has lived in China for 25 years and spent nearly half of his life. During this period, he translated classics such as "Analects", "Mencius", "University", "Liji", "I Ching", "Lü's Spring and Autumn", "Tao Te Ching", "Liezi" and "Zhuangzi" into German, bringing traditional Chinese thought and culture into the mainstream of Germany thought and influencing Hesse, Jung and others. After the I Ching was translated into English, it even became the sacred book of the hippie movement in United States in the 70s of the 20th century. Ji Xianlin once spoke highly of Wei Lixian as one of the most famous foreigners in the "East and West".
In 1967, the English translation of Wei Lixian's "I Ching" was a book shadow
In addition to translating classical Chinese texts, the scholarly research results of Wei Lixian should not be overlooked, and "A Brief History of Chinese Civilization" is one of the most important ones. In this book, it is not difficult to find that the breadth of Weber's understanding of Chinese culture and his unique vision of historical criticism may still bring a lot of inspiration to people's understanding of Chinese history and culture. In the book, he not only uses traditional history books as the basis for his discussion, but also uses ancient ruins, cultural relics, calligraphy and paintings, inscriptions and other physical historical materials to corroborate.
In addition, Wai emphasized the importance of oral traditions, which he believes have endured for thousands of years due to the powerful power of traditional ideas, which have been preserved largely orally:
"The Chinese spirit has given birth to an unusually strong tradition. It is true that written history has long been known in China, but for a long time it was only a stopgap measure, a supplement to oral history. Even Confucius's writings were very brief (e.g., the Spring and Autumn Period and the Book of Changes), and his ideas were mainly transmitted by word of mouth. In China, just like other Eastern civilizations, this custom has led to cultural traditions becoming a very solid and reliable thing. ”
However, the emphasis on oral tradition does not mean the neglect of writing, and in another place in the book, Wai points out the importance of Chinese characters in the continuation of Chinese civilization: "The unique Chinese characters may be one of the reasons why the Chinese tradition is more enduring than the Roman tradition." The alphabet used in Europe can only copy the pronunciation of the language. When the pronunciation changes, the spoken language becomes incomprehensible and the entire literary work loses its meaning. …… Chinese writing is still ideograms, and this pronunciation is likely passed down through memory. In fact, the pronunciation has undergone radical changes since the integration of foreign tribes into China, but this does not make the script obscure. …… This is the main reason why Chinese culture will not disappear completely, and that its traditions have been able to survive ethnic and linguistic changes. ”
If the above discussion of historical materials shows a scholarly thinking, then the depiction of the life scenes of ancient Chinese ancestors shows the romantic feelings of this "Chinese heart":
"In the spring, everything comes back to life, and the trees sprout new shoots. It is the beginning of the year, like the early morning of the day, the beginning of all things. Thunder and lightning are the agents of spring, and the roaring thunder wakes the creatures of the earth from their slumber. The warm spring breeze melts the solid ice, and the trees thrive in the breeze. All things conform to nature and grow unbridled. Each seed strives to grow into a perfect plant. Then comes the middle of summer, the most beautiful time of the year. All beings see each other, and the grass and trees are lush and lush. Bright sunlight poured down on the earth, tempting humans to leave their homes and gather in the wilderness. …… The White Tiger Star dominates the night sky in late autumn. In autumn and winter, only the sorrowful cry of autumn insects and lonely dead branches remain. Some lives die because they can't bear the cold. Winter has arrived, and the heavens and the earth have fallen silent. ”
What is the history of civilization?
The historian of civilization is also the noblest in history. However, it is not easy for the author to be able to snare the facts of thousands of years in his chest, eat them, and make the following judgments with a special vision, beyond the image, and then for a complete history of civilization.
——Liang Qichao, "Oriental Yuedan"
Weber's extensive experience of living in China and his thorough understanding of Chinese classics provided him with a solid foundation for his sinological studies, which enabled him to condense the history of thousands of years of Chinese civilization into a 300-page book. Obviously, 300 pages cannot carry all the historical events and details of thousands of years, so on such a leafy tree of history, what branches and leaves did Wei Lixian pick up and include them in the scope of "civilization history"?
In fact, the way of writing the history of civilization was not the first of its kind by Wei Lixian, and this way of writing history was vigorously sought after by the new intellectuals of the time in the Chinese intellectual circles more than 100 years ago. At the beginning of the 20th century, when Wei Lixian first arrived in China, a new trend of historiography emerged in China, and this trend of thought was helped by the extensive translation of Japan history books by Liang Qichao and others, and these Chinese intellectuals were the objects of Wei Lixian's exchange. At that time, a large number of Japan books entitled "History of Civilization" and "History of Civilization" were introduced to China. It can be seen that the word "civilization" in the history of civilization in the beginning was synonymous with "civilization", especially for "barbarism", and in response to the impact of the West, the urgency of Chinese and Japanese intellectuals to justify their own cultural traditions was the same.
The inside page of the Chinese translation of Nakanishi Cowlang's "History of Shina Civilization" in 1901
Interestingly, this way of writing history, which has the connotation of resisting Western culture, was born under the influence of the research on the history of Western civilization by Europeans such as Voltaire, Backer, and Guizot in the 19th century. On the one hand, just as Voltaire's "Treatise on Customs" not only talks about politics and war, but also focuses on ethnicity, religion, philosophy, system, customs, technology, art, etc., Wei Lixian's "A Brief History of Chinese Civilization" also focuses on all aspects of society and culture. Of course, this style of writing may also stem from Weber's own interest, not forgetting that he first entered China as a missionary, and perhaps it was his socio-cultural concern that gave him a potential perspective on China.
On the other hand, the history of Chinese civilization has advanced compared with the research of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The study of the history of civilization, whether in the West or in Japan, places great emphasis on the superiority of "civilization" over "barbarism". In Wilhelm's case, the reader can see a more inclusive and neutral attitude, accompanied by a subtle shift in the meaning of the word "civilization." Wai no longer emphasizes the binary opposition between "civility" and "barbarism"; He is no longer obsessed with the egocentrism that is common in historical writing, so he uses the word "civilization" with the meaning of "cultural community", beyond narrow nationalism, which is exactly what modern China wants to express when it uses the term "Chinese civilization".
In contrast to the repeated emphasis on "Han culture" in the early 20th century civilization history works, Wei Lixian emphasized that Chinese civilization was formed by the combined action of many factors:
"Civilization, like all life, originated from the exchange of races and cultures. China's splendid civilization is also the product of the integration of various primitive civilizations. ”
Furthermore, based on the analysis of archaeological evidence and literature, he believes that there were two centers in ancient China, one is the continental civilization formed by the Western farming peoples, that is, the tribes of ancient China, and the other is the maritime civilization formed by the eastern fishing and hunting peoples; The nomadic peoples of the northwest were the third important factor influencing the formation of Chinese civilization, but it did not have an impact until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Contemporary mainland history research also believes that it was the exchange and integration of civilizations that promoted the development of Chinese civilization, and Wei Lixian had this insight a century ago.
First translation in Chinese, elegant hardcover
A Brief History of Chinese Civilization, the last work on Chinese culture in his life, was published in German in 1928 and translated by Joan · Joshua in 1929. After nearly a century, the Chinese version will finally come out in 2024.
The Chinese translation is based on the 1929 English translation, which is not only faithful to the original text and beautifully written, but also adds concise notes where necessary to aid reading, so that readers who are interested in the history of Chinese civilization but know relatively little about it can understand the original text smoothly.
The book is designed with a double cover inside and outside, the outer cover is designed with red and yellow contrasting colors, and the inner cover is made of the traditional Chinese color of immortal red, and the paper with tree texture is selected to fit the theme of the book. The inner and outer seals are made of Tang dragon and phoenix pattern jade ring pattern, using bronzing, white, and silver stamping processes. The whole is elegant and solemn, but it is smart.
This publication is not only to commemorate and comfort Wei Lixian, the "great German Chinese", but also because of the academic value and cultural significance of this book for the present and the future. Let's meet with "A Brief History of Chinese Civilization" in this season of lush vegetation and feel the vitality of Chinese civilization for thousands of years.
1. Liang Qichao, New Historiography, The Commercial Press, 2014. 2. Liang Qichao, History of Pre-Qin Political Thought, The Commercial Press, 2014. 3. Guizot, A History of European Civilization, The Commercial Press, 2005. 4. Guizot, History of France Civilization, The Commercial Press, 2000. 5. Voltaire, On Customs, The Commercial Press, 2000.