Modern Notions of Civilization and Culture in China PDF Download

Author: Weigui Fang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811335583
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
This Key Concepts pivot examines the fundamental Chinese ideas of ‘Civilization’ and ‘culture’, considering their extensive influence both over Chinese society and East Asian societies. The pivot analyses the traditional connotations of those two concepts and their evolution in the Sino-Western exchanges as well as their renewed interpretation and application by contemporary Chinese scholars. It analyses how the years 1840-1900 which mark a period of major transition in China challenged these concepts, and highlights how the pursuit of innovation and international perspective gave birth to new values ​​and paradigm shifts, and culminated in the May Fourth New Culture Movement. Considering the underlying humanistic ideas in the key concepts of traditional Chinese civilisation and culture, this pivot contributes to this series of Chinese Key Concept by offering a unique analysis of the conceptual evolutions brought about by the change of values in 21st century China.

Author: Robert E. Murowchick
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806126838
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, and historians chronicle the evolution of Chinese culture and history from antiquity to present times

Author: Lai Chen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811033676
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Drawing on the core values of western civilization, the author refines the counterparts in Chinese civilization, summarized as four core principles: duty before freedom, obedience before rights, community before individual, and harmony before conflict. Focusing on guoxue or Sinology as the basis of his approach, the author provides detailed explanations of traditional Chinese values. Recent scholars have addressed the concept of guoxue since the modern age, sorting through it and piecing it together, which has produced an extremely abundant range of information. However, given that the concepts and theories involved have been left largely unanalyzed, this book develops a theoretical treatment of them in several important respects. First, it analyzes the mindset of guoxue, examining the dominant ideas and values of the era from which the term “guoxue” arose, focusing on its connection to early changes and trends in society and culture, and distinguishing three key phases of development. Past scholars mainly had in mind the range of objects studied in guoxue when defining it, and what this book underscores is the meaning of guoxue as a modern body of research. Secondly, it assesses several phases in the modern evolution of the body of guoxue research from the beginning to the end of the 20th century, i.e., ending with the later phase of the National Heritage movement. Third and lastly, the book explores the various main modes of modern guoxue, which correspond step by step with the evolutionary phases of guoxue research.

Author: Jana S. Rošker
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443867721
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
The editors are grateful to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for its generous support of their research work which enabled them to publish the present book. The present book carefully maps the Chinese modernisation discourse, highlighting its relationship to other, similar discourses, and situating it within historical and theoretical contexts. In contrast to the majority of recent discussions of a “Chinese development model” that tend to focus more on institutional then cultural factors, and are more narrowly concerned with economic matters than overall social development, the book offers several important focal points for many presently overlooked issues and dilemmas. The multifaceted perspectives contained in this anthology are not limited to economic, social, and ecological issues, but also include political and social functions of ideologies and cultural conditioned values, representing the axial epistemological grounds of modern Chinese society. 2011 was the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. The centennial is relevant not only in terms of state ideology, but also plays a significant role within academic research into Chinese society and culture. This historic turning point likewise represents the symbolic and concrete linkages and tensions between tradition and modernity, progress and conservatism, traditional values and the demands for adjustment to contemporary societies. The book shows that Chinese transition from tradition to modernity cannot be understood in a framework of a unified general model of society, but rather through a more complex insight into the interrelations among elements of physical environment, social structure, philosophy, history, and culture.

Author: Joseph R. Levenson
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1789128226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
The distinction between “history” and “value” is the ground of this penetrating work. Liang Ch’i-ch’ao began writing in the 1890’s, as one who was straining against his tradition intellectually, seeing value elsewhere, but still emotionally tied to it, held by his history. How history contrived such a tension, how its release in Liang went together with the release of Confucian China from life, is the grand subject. And in drawing the times out of Liang’s intellectual life, Mr. Levenson contributes much of more general interest—a new understanding of the concepts of anachronism, analogy, contemporaneity, the generation, historical relativism, historical context, cultural and national identity, personal identity, and the distinction (crucial to comprehension of why ideas ever change) between “thinking” and “thought.” “A brilliant study of the life and work of an exceptional writer who shaped the political thought of modern China...Told with a humanist understanding far removed from the dry-as-dust manner usually ascribed to front-rank historians...this detailed account of a maker of modern China will interest not only the scholar in Far Eastern affairs, but will hold enthralled all students of the human mind in its never-ending quest for adjustment in a world of change.”—Asia Major “Why was the Confucian tradition found wanting? Why was westernization rejected? Why was Nationalism not enough for China? To these and many similar questions Liang’s life and writings provide the best answer. Mr. Levenson has interpreted them with real insight into the nature of Chinese civilization.”—Times Literary Supplement “Advances enough brilliant and challenging hypotheses to invigorate studies of Chinese intellectual history for a long time to come....[Levenson’s study] shows throughout a compassionate understanding of the harsh dilemmas, the bitter tragedies that the last century has brought to all Chinese.”—Arthur F. Wright

Author: Jacques Gernet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521497817
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 836

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Book Description
When published in 1982, this translation of Professor Jacques Gernet's masterly survey of the history and culture of China was immediately welcomed by critics and readers. This revised and updated edition makes it more useful for students and for the general reader concerned with the broad sweep of China's past.

Author: Ying-shih Yü
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231542003
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
The recipient of the Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities and the Tang Prize for "revolutionary research" in Sinology, Ying-shih Yü is a premier scholar of Chinese studies. Chinese History and Culture volumes 1 and 2 bring his extraordinary oeuvre to English-speaking readers. Spanning two thousand years of social, intellectual, and political change, the essays in these volumes investigate two central questions through all aspects of Chinese life: what core values sustained this ancient civilization through centuries of upheaval, and in what ways did these values survive in modern times? From Ying-shih Yü's perspective, the Dao, or the Way, constitutes the inner core of Chinese civilization. His work explores the unique dynamics between Chinese intellectuals' discourse on the Dao, or moral principles for a symbolized ideal world order, and their criticism of contemporary reality throughout Chinese history. Volume 2 of Chinese History and Culture completes Ying-shih Yü's systematic reconstruction and exploration of Chinese thought over two millennia and its impact on Chinese identity. Essays address the rise of Qing Confucianism, the development of the Dai Zhen and Zhu Xi traditions, and the response of the historian Zhang Xuecheng to the Dai Zhen approach. They take stock of the thematic importance of Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century masterpiece Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber) and the influence of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, as well as the radicalization of China in the twentieth century and the fundamental upheavals of modernization and revolution. Ying-shih Yü also discusses the decline of elite culture in modern China, the relationships among democracy, human rights, and Confucianism, and changing conceptions of national history. He reflects on the Chinese approach to history in general and the larger political and cultural function of chronological biographies. By situating China's modern encounter with the West in a wider historical frame, this second volume of Chinese History and Culture clarifies its more curious turns and contemplates the importance of a renewed interest in the traditional Chinese values recognizing common humanity and human dignity.

Author: Timothy Hugh Barrett
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520064410
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The thirteen essays in this volume, all by experts in the field of Chinese studies, reflect the diversity of approaches scholars follow in the study of China's past. Together they reveal the depth and vitality of Chinese civilization and demonstrate how an understanding of traditional China can enrich and broaden our own contemporary worldview.

Author: Qizhi Zhang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662464829
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 467

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Book Description
This book breaks with convention and provides an overview of Chinese history in the form of special topics. These topics include the major issues of “A Scientific Approach to the Origins of Chinese Civilization,” “Ancient Chinese Society and the Change of Dynasties,” “The Golden Ages of the Han, Tang and Qing Dynasties: a Comparative Analysis,” “Transportation Systems and Cultural Communication in Ancient China,” “Ethnic Relations in Chinese History,” “The Systems of Politics, Law and Selecting Officials in Ancient China,” “Agriculture, Handicraft and Commerce in Ancient China,” “The Military Thought and Military Systems of Ancient China,” “The Rich and Colorful Social Life in Ancient China,” “The Evolution of Ancient Chinese Thought,” “The Treasure House of Ancient Chinese Literature and Art,” “The Emergence and Progress of Ancient Chinese Historiography,” “Reflection on Ancient Chinese Science and Technology,” “New Issues in the Modern History of China,” and “A General Progression to the Socialist Modernization of the People’s Republic of China.” The book is based on current literature and research by university students. The modern history section is relatively concise, while the topics related to ancient Chinese history are longer, reflecting the country’s rich history and corresponding wealth of materials. There is also an in-depth discussion on the socialist modernization of the People’s Republic of China. The book provides insights into Chinese history, allowing readers “to see the value of civilization through history; to see the preciseness of history through civilization.” It focuses on the social background, lifestyle and development processes to illustrate ideologies and ideas.

Author: Fayuan Zhu
Publisher: Cn Times Books Incorporated
ISBN: 9781627740333
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
To understand China, we need to step into the palace of her culture and explore her rich history. With this in mind, a group of scholars from China and America have put this book together as a kind of primer on all things China, from art and science to religion and society. They have tried to offer here a panoramic view of the totality of Chinese culture, using only the most representative material, to introduce to the West the most typical aspects of Chinese civilization and life.