HARRO VON SENGER Earthbound China
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Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg HARRO VON SENGER Earthbound China – earthbound sinology? On the feasibility of cultural transfer from China to Europe Originalbeitrag erschienen in: Archiv orientalni: quarterly journal of African and Asian studies 63 (1995), S. 352-359 ARCHIV ORIENTALNI 63, 1995 352 Earthbound China - Earthbound Sinology?' On the Feasibility of Cultural Transfer from China to Europe Harro von Senger, Freiburg i. B./Lausanne The title of this contribution alludes to Fei Xiaotong's classical text "Xiangtu Zhongguo" which was completely translated into English by Gary R. Hamilton under the title "From the Soil". According to an advertisment, this book "describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and Western societies". "Contrast" seems also to be a basic assumption of many Western sinologists. A large number of them would certainly without reservation agree with Director Nicholas Murray Butler who stated, not only with respect to China: "The study of the Orient means the study of ancient literature, languages and customs of coun- tries and peoples so different from the Western world..." 2 . For Max Weber (1864-1920), the famous German sociologist, China was "a radically opposite system of regulation of life, indeed: another world" ("ein radi- kal entgegengesetztes System der Lebensreglementierung, ja eine andere Welt") 3.. Under the influence of the idea of "constrast" established in the second half of the 19th century', recent European and apparently also Americans Chinese studies seem to be confined to the task of researching on various aspects of Chinese culture in order to enable Western people to better understand the completely different, "other", Chinese "world". The only way to bridge the gap between China and the Occident seems to be reliable information on China based on competent Chinese studies. These Chinese studies take the concrete form of books introducing facets of China, reports on field research, and most especially, of translations of all kinds of Chinese texts, often with careful introductions, explanations and footnotes. Pursuing this theme, Professor Tilemann Grimm wrote, on the occasion of the 19th European Conference of Chinese Studies organized by himself in 1984 in Tübingen: "Sinology is [dedicated to] the exploration of China, its history, langua - ge, literature, religions, its spiritual and material culture, based on Chinese sour- ces..." ("Sinologie ist die Erforschung Chinas, seiner Geschichte, Sprache, Litera - ' I thank Martin Sychold, Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne, who as a linguistical advisor read through the manuscript. 2 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Annual Report for 1933 of the Divison of Inter- courses and Education, p. 54. Wolfgang Schluchter: Max Webers Konfuzianismusstudie: Versuch einer Einordnung, in: Schluch- ter: Max Webers Studie, p. 15, quoted from Jürgen Osterhammel: China und die Weltgesell - schaft: vom 18. Jahrhundert bis in unsere Zeit, München 1989, p. 3. ° Jürgen Osterhammel (ed.): Asien in der Neuzeit 1500-1950, Frankfurt a. M. 1994, p. 156. s See for instance: Amy Auerbacher Wilson; Sidney Leonard Greenblatt; Richard W. Wilson (eds.): Methodological Issues in Chinese Studies, New York 1983. Earthbound Sinology? 353 tur, Religionen, geistigen and materiellen Kultur aufgrund chinesicher Quellen") 6. I propose that the task of "what we in Europe call sinology"' be enlarged in the following way: "Sinology is [dedicated to] the exploration of China, its history, language, literature, religions, its spiritual and material culture, based on Chinese sources, and to the transfer of elements of its culture to Europe, based on careful evaluation of possible and desirable sino-european `cross-fertilizations — . In other words, in addition to its current function, Chinese studies should acti- vely and systematically transplant precious elements of Chinese culture into the European culture. A precondition is, of course, the profound knowledge of Euro- pean culture, at least of that sector of European culture where a transplantation of Chinese culture is considered. The transplanting sinologist must to a certain de- gree also be a "Europalogist". This function of "transplanting" sinology is not new at all. Already in the 17th and 18th century, some Jesuit missionaries, among them founding fathers of Euro- pean sinology, believed in the worldwide significance of Chinese culture. For in- stance, the French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) who exchanged letters with Leibniz (1646-1716) wanted to enrich the European Christianity with Chinese thoughts'. The basic idea that China is not something apart from Europe, that there exist possible convergences, that China can contribute to Europe's understanding of itself, all these basic ideas underlying Bouvet's plan can be considered as va- luable first steps towards a concept of a "transplanting" sinology. However, the "transplantation" dimension of Chinese studies does not seem to have much deve- loped since the Middle Ages and the epoch of the Enlightenment. Of course, over many centuries, China has had some cultural impact on Europe, mostly without the help of Chinese studies, but through other channels. I enume- 6 Tilemann Grimm: China auf den Grund gehen, in: Südwest Presse/Schwäbisches Tagblatt, Tü- bingen 8 September 1983, without indication of a page. Ibid. Compare the following definition given by Oldtich Kral, Professor of Sinology, Charles University, Prague: "Sinology unites various disciplines of humanities for a comprehensive study of the `Chinese world' ... its history, learning, philosophy, literature and art", quoted from an explanatory text at the exhibition "Mirror of the Chinese World" which was opened during the Prague Conference of EACS (on 30 August 1994) at the National Library. " Claudia von Collani (ed.): Eine wissenschaftliche Akademie für China, in: studia leibnitiana: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Philosophie und der Wissenschaft, Sonderheft 18, Stuttgart 1989, P. 18. In a letter of September 15, 1704, Bouvet writes: "[Les missionnaires de I'Academie Apostoliquel traduiroient en suite les anciens livres avec les nouveaux commentaires et to dic- tionnaire jeroglyphique, ce qui mettroit dans peu d'annees les savants d'Occident en possession des thresors qui se trouvent dans les anciens monuments de cet Orient: et leur fourniroit des moyens tres faciles pour apprendre eux mesme avec promptitude et agrement les characteres 1eroglyphiques, dont I'etude a cause jusqu'ici cant de temps, de travail et d'ennuy aux mission- naires. Par ce moyen l'Europe mesme et sur tout la France se trouveroit bien tost en estat de faire des decouvertes heaucoup plus considerables par rapport aux sciences dans les livres et jeroglyphes de la Chine, qui certainement sont unc source aussi ancienne, mais heaucoup plus pur et plus feconde que les monumens jeroglyphiques des Egyptiens, oil les plus excellens hommes, qu'ait pored la Grece, puiserent autre fois, toutes ces belles connoissances, qui depuis ont forme tous les savans hommes. qui ont paru les siecles suivans dans tout l'Occident," op. cit., p. 84. See also Virgile Pinot: La Chine et la formation de ('esprit philosophique en France ( 1 640-1740), Slatkine Reprints, Geneva 1971. 354 HARRO VON SENGER rate only some examples 9. Paper and print can trace their ancestry back to Chinese origins. The wallpaper stems from a fashion introduced from China. The ship's compass and gun-powder are inventions going back to China. The civil service adopted its modern methods of recruitment by examination under the influence of the Chinese system. Chinese entertainment has come into the home in form of mahjong and weiqi (Go), and Chinese food has become popular. Many plants were unknown to the West before the botanical expeditions of Robert Fortune and others in China. Several great thinkers and writers of the Occident have drawn some inspirations from Chinese ideas or used Chinese settings, such as: - the German philosopher Leibniz (1646-1716) whose Novissima Sinica propo- sed a cultural interchange between China and Europe 10, - the French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) whose "Orphelin de la Chine" stands out from a host of chinoiserie plays and entertainments", - the founding fathers of modern European economic theory, the two French physiocrats Quesnay (1694-1774) and Turgot (1727-1781), protagonists of a natu- ral economy shaped according to the Chinese model based on the soil and agricul- ture, who in turn influenced Adam Smith (1723-1790), author of The Wealth of Nations'', - the Russian writerTolstoy (1828-1910) who wrote and sponsored several works on Chinese philosophy', - the French writer Paul Claudel (1868-1955) with his adaptions of Chinese poems 14, - the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961) who was interested in Chinese religion and philosophy, especially in the Yijing 15, - the American poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) with his Cantos and Confucian translations'', - the German writer Brecht (1898-1956) with his Good Woman of Setzuan", - the German paedagogue and cultural philosopher Adolf Reichwein (1898-1944) with his article Der Einfluss der Lehren des Konfuzius and Lao Zi auf die deutsche ° My summary is based on: Raymond Dawson: The Value of the Study of Chinese Civilization, in: Raymond Dawson (ed.): The Legacy of China, Oxford 1964, p. 379 f. 10 Op. cit., p. 378; see also Werner Widmer: Chinesen und Europäer: aus der Einleitung zu `Novissi - ma Sinica' (1697) von Leibniz, in: