Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

HARRO VON SENGER

Earthbound China – earthbound ?

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 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: Neue archer Zeitung, no. 102, 3/4 May 1980, p. 66. " Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 378; see also Paul Demidville: Aperçu historique des etudes sino- logiques en France, in: Acta Asiatica, Tokyo 1966, p. 69, 80. Francois Quesnay is the author of the book Despotisme de la Chine (it is an "enlightened" despotism). Under the demand of Quesnay and Turgot, the French Academy of Sciences gave a hasty academic formation to two Chinese (Aloys Gao and Etienne Yang, who had been sent by Jesuits in Peking to France to complete their religious studies) and submitted them a long ques- tionnaire. This questionnaire is the origin of Turgot's book Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (1766) which inspired seven years later Adam Smith with his boo" The Wealth of Nations, Paul Demidville, op. cit., p. 73 f. "Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 378. "Paul Demidville, op. cit., p. 107 f. " Ibid.; see also Harro von Senger: Vom Zauber chinesischer Weisheit: Das Buch der Wandlungen in den deutschsprachigen Ländern, in: Daas neue China, Berlin Nr. 1, March 1993, p. 34, 37 f' t6 Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 379. 17 Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 278 f. Earthbound Sinology? 355

Jugend [The Impact of the Teachings of Confucius and Laotze upon the German youth] 18, a.s.o.t9 But if one totals all these Chinese influences, add the Maoist and Zen crazes and the Chinese elements in the New Age movement, the vestiges of chinoiserie and the budding interest in genuine Chinese art 20, it seems that China's effect on mo- dem Western spiritual culture is slight. For most Europeans, Chinese thinking, problem-consciousness, history, institutions etc. are almost unknown. This igno-

18 Original title: Einleitung: Die junge Generation von heute and die Weisheit des Ostens. This was Adolf Reichwein's introduction to his book China and Europa: geistige and künstlerische Be- ziehungen im 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1923 [China and Europe: Intellectual and Artistic Contact in the Eighteenth Century], translated into English by J. C. Powell, published in New York, 1925. Under the title Kong Zi Lao Zi xuesho dui Deguo qingnian zhi yingxiang, Wu Mi transla- ted the "Introduction: The Younger Generation of today and the wisdom of the East" into Chi- nese and published it in Xue Heng 54 (June 1926, p. If.), mentioned in: Wolfgang Bauer; Shen- Chang Hwang: German Impact on Modern Chinese Intellectual History, Wiesbaden 1982, p. 32, no. 1318. - I express my gratitude to Mrs. Chen Ningning, Shanghai Library, and Mr. Qi Wen, Shanghai, for having copied for me Wu Mi's translation in October 1994. 19 Other examples are: - the French philosopher Malebranche (1638-1715) with his Entretiens d'un philosophe chrdtien avec un philosophe chinois sur I'existence de Dieu (1708); China stands for Spinoza; Malebran- che was inspired to write this text through the Traite sur quelques points de la religion des Chinois written by Father Niccolo Langobardo. The French version was published in 1701; Virgile Pinot, op. cit., p. 329 ff.; P. Demieville, op. cit., p. 59, 67. the French vriter Fenelon (1651-1715) who added to his Dialogues des morts a discussion between Socrates and Confucius. Pinot, op. cit., p. 390ff.; Demieville, op. cit., p. 67. Stanislas Julien (1797-1873) with his Histoire et fabrication de la porcelaine chinoise (1856) for the manufacturers of porcelaine of the Imperial Manufacture in Sevres, and with Industries anciennes et modernes de l'Empire chinois (1869) containing a summary of some Chinese texts destined for the French sericulture, see P. Dmieville, op. cit., p. 80. - Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) with his On a Chinese Screen, Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 379. - Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) with his plans to transform German poetry by means of Chinese poetry and to transform the German spirit through the encounter with Asia, and with his desire to acquire the heritage of the East, see Hartmut Zelinsky: Kultur statt Macht: China and Taoismus-Rezeption in der deutschen Literatur des 20. Jh., in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18/19 May 1991, p. 65 f. Zelinsky's analysis was delivered at a symposium on "Deutsch-chinesische Spiegelungen im 20. Jahrhundert", held in Bonn in May 1990. - Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) with his novel Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun in which the doctrine of wu wei is put into the center, Zelinsky, op. cit. the German philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz (1881-1969) with his book The crisis of European culture which was influenced by Ku Hong-Ming's books full of criticism against Europe, Zelin- sky, op. cit. • the German poet Oskar Loerke (1884-1941) who was considering himself as deeply influenced by classical Chinese poets, Norbert Lang: Das Chinesische bei Oskar Loerke: zur Poetik des Dichters, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 23/24 June 1990, p. 69 f. On the influence of China on Swedish politics see Hedvig Brorsson: The Influence of East Trade on Swedish Culture and Social Thought, Center for Pacific-Asia Studies at Stockholm University, Working Paper 28, Stockholm July 1992, p. 129. See also J.J.L. Duyvendak: Holland's Contribution to Chinese Studies, The China Society, Lon- don 1950, p. 11 f.: "Here is the idealized picture of China and the Chinese that became the fashion in the 18th century, particularly among French philosophers. This picture served as positive proof that another kind of advanced civilization than our own was possible; it was a weapon in the long protracted struggle against the domination of the world and was a powerful factor in building up a new philosophy." Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 379. 356 HARRO VON SENGER ranee about one fifth of mankind is certainly one of the reasons for the European eurocentrism, for its prevailing self-assessment as being the hub of the world 21 .The contemporary German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk writes in his book "Euro- " (Frankfurt a. M. 1989) that "the space of thinking between Heidegger and [...] Lao Zi is a [...] space which has hardly been measured, which indeed has yet scarcely been noticed" ["der Denkraum zwischen Heidegger and [...] Lao Zi [...] ist ein noch kaum vermessener, ja kaum wahrgenommener Raum"1 22 . By the way, Peter Sloterdijk's book with the pretentious title "Eurotaoism" and only one single quotation from the Daodejing in the whole text of 330 pages 23 is the best proof of how meager is the knowledge of authentic Chinese taoism among contemporary European philosophers. Sloterdijk seems to apprehend this, when he writes: "The enigmatic syllable 'tao' has lately fallen into the zone of Kitsch" [Die rätselvolle Silbe tao ist neuerdings in die Kitschzone geraten"] 24 . On the other hand, there seem to exist in Europe a certain demand for non- European, especially Chinese, spiritual nourishment. Therefore, books which try to transplant Chinese things are rather successful, for instance: - Lin Yutang (1895-1976) initiated a vogue for the gentle philosophy of life'- 5, - Richard Wilhelm's (1873-1930) translation of the Yijing was linked by C.G. Jung with Western psychology and by Hermann Hesse in his Zauberberg with German literature, and is reprinted again and again'-, - the American sinologist Thomas Cleary with books like The Dao of Politics, German translation: Das Tao der Politik: Leitlinien für eine neue politische Kultur - Das klassische Lehrbuch aus dem alten China, O.W. Barth Verlag, Bern, Mün- chen, Wien 1991'', - my own Book on Stratagems in which I try to transplant the Chinese stratage - mical thinking into the West by illustrating it with many non-Chinese, and even biblical, examples, appeared in the in a eleventh edition in 1995 (first edition: 1988) 28.

21 Representative of this eurocentric attitude is Marc Fumaroli, of the College de France, who gpe s , so far as to consider the European Nations the aristocrats among the countries of the world Franziska Augstein: Alteuropäischer Scheingeist, review of Fumaroli's hook "L'Etat culture! in: Die Zeit, Hamburg, 12 February 1993, p. 19. 22 Peter Sloterdijk: Eurotaoismus: zur Kritik der politischen Kinetik, edition Suhrkamp 1450 Neue Folge Bd. 450, Frankfurt a. M. 1989, p. 14. 2' This only quotation of Lao Zi is to be found on p. 210: Wer sich auf die Zehen stellt, steht nicht fest. Wer die Beine spreizt, kommt nicht voran (Lao Zi chapter 24). 24 Sloterdijk, op. cit., p. 9. 25 Raymond Dawson, op. cit., p. 379. 26 Harro von Senger: Vom Zauber der Chinesischen Weisheit (supra note 15), p. 33 f. 2' At the Prague Conference of the EACS (30 August - 1st September 1994), 1 heard some critical remarks on Thomas Cleary. Maybe he is not doing well enough his primary sinological work of careful translation even of difficult texts. However, his way of trying to bring Chinese classica l texts "to the masses" seems to me to be carefully studied. 2N H. von Senger: Strategeme, 11th ed. (München/Bern 1995); Dutch cd.: Strategemen, Rotterdam 1990; Italian ed.: Stratagem ni, second ed. (Mailand 1991); Chinese ed.: Zhimou Stratagems 5th ed. (Shanghai 1993); English ed.: The Book of Stratagems, New York 1991 and 1993; Frenc h ed.: Stratagemes, 1992; Spanish cd.: t l libro de las estratagemas, Buenos Aires 199 3 ' Taiwanese ed.: Zhimou Xin Than ]The New Canon of Ruse], Taibci 1994. Russian Edition . Stratagemy, Moscow 1995. Earthbound Sinology? 357

These are examples of how Chinese things, either introduced by a Chinese or by sinologists, can arouse a broader Western interest and can be transplanted - as for instance the Yijing - to a certain extent into the Western culture. Adolf Muschg, Professor of literature at the Swiss Polytechnical University in Zürich and well known Swiss writer, maintained in July 1994: "The ratio of a Chinese [...], that is to say the obvious ways of behaviour conveyed to him [...] by his culture, is to such an extent fundamentally different from the European ratio, that a combination or homogenization of the [two] rationes is only possible on a most abstract level and/or only pragmatically, for instance, in the best case, in the sense of mutual delimitation of spheres of influence or in the sense of action to exclude common danger to life" ("Die ratio eines Chinesen oder die ratio eines Japaners, d.h. die kulturell vermittelten Selbstverständlichkeiten dessen, was für einen Japaner, Chinesen usw. jeweils adäquat zu handeln bedeutet, sind so grundver- schieden von der eurorpäischen ratio, dass eine Vereinigung oder Homogenisierung der diversen rationes nur ganz abstrakt und/oder nur pragmatisch geschehen kann. Im besten Fall z.B. im Sinn des Ausscheidens von Machtsphären oder des Aus- schliessens gemeinsamer lebensbedrohender Einflüsse") 29. In my opinion, Muschg's emphasis on the so-called "fundamental" difference between the Chinese and the European mind and reasoning is too exaggerated. For Chinese culture is and was at the same time earthbound and not earthbound. Earth- bound insofar as China is rooted in a heritage not shaped by ancient Greece, Rome, the ancient Germans, Judaism and Christianism. Not earthbound insofar as the Chinese, after all, are human beings like you and me. There is thus a dichotomy in Chinese things: Typically Chinese elements to be authentically found in China only are intermixed with general human components to be found every-where in the world. Thanks to these general human components Chinese things can be trans- Planted to Europe. Since these general human elements have grown in a non- European cultural soil, they might be differently developed from their European counterparts. It is exactly this non-European structure of the general human ex- tracts of Chinese things which make them attractive and useful for Europe. Let me exemplify this reasoning with an example. John Locke (1632-1704) Writes in his work Some Thoughts Concerning Education: "Cunning [...] being the ape of wisdom, is the most distant from it that can be: and, as an ape, for the likeness it has to a man, wanting what really should make him so, is by so much the uglier; cunning is only the want of understanding" ). The Chinese attitude toward cunning is quite different from this rather typical European contempt of cunning. The different Chinese attitude is crystallized in the Chinese character for "wisdom" (zhi), which means also "stratagem". Thus, Chi- nese wisdom embraces cunning. According to the prevailing Chinese point of view, cunning is a part of wisdom and not the ape of wisdom. Is the negative European view of cunning unchangeable? The answer is "no". Transplanting sinology can change it. An example of this change is the Swiss parson, doctor of theology, UI- ri Das Private und der Weltlauf: ein Gespräch mit Adolf Muschg, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 9/10 July 1994, p. 68. John Locke: Some Thoughts on Education, paragraph 140 (Wisdom). 358 HARRO VON SENGER rich Mauch with his book The Cunning Jesus [Der listige Jesus], published by the leading Swiss-German Theologischer Verlag, Zürich 1992. Stimulated by a rea- ding of my book of stratagems 3 ', Mauch analyzes Jesus through the screen of the Chinese catalogue of the 36 stratagems. This catalogue is the most concise and comprehensive condensation of cunning existing in the world. I introduced it at the meetings of EACS in Weimar 1988 and in Amsterdam 1990. Ulrich Mauch's book shows how fruitful the Chinese stratagemical approach proves for Christian theology, which until now has always considered Jesus as completely the opposite of cunning. Thanks to the Chinese catalogue of the 36 stratagems, the cunning face of Jesus can be revealed. In the Gospel of Mark, the shortest of the 4 Gospels, Mauch detected, in a first survey, at least 400 applicati- ons of one of the 36 stratagems 32 ."This result is amazing," Mauch writes, for, although the cunning content of the Gospel is so evident, "it has, until now, never been acknowledged."" "The stratagemical approach opens new possibilities of un- derstanding the biblical texts." 34 Jesus has used cunning not only in his metaphores (see for instance Luke XVI, 1-9: The dishonest bailiff, or Mark XII, 1-11: The Vine-dressers), but also in his own behaviour (see for instance Mark XI, 27-33: The leaders of the people silenced). He used cunning in order to enlarge the room to move which he needed to deliver his messsage and to live accordingly". Jesus demonstrates how the weak can apply cunning in order to get what they deserve. The art of cunning based on the ambiguity of the world and summarized in the catalogue of the 36 stratagems, Mauch concludes, "is not only a new method besi- des other methods, but also calls our attention to the necessity of correcting our concept of the world and of the truth which is based on the most trivial fiction of unambiguity."36 Finally, I would like to quote my Dutch colleague Kristofer Schipper: "If Wes- tern sinology has some significance, it's in cultural interchange. Why do so many Westerners study - you can't call it research,- Chinese culture? because we very much need it. In the world cultural system, the Orient is represented by the two great ancient civilizations of China and India. But India is still part of Indo-Euro - pean culture and close to the West - the Catholic monastic system, for example, comes from Buddhism. The only completely different from the West is China. [..•] Why should we study China? You can use botany as an analogy. Each culture is like a species of plant; it has strong points and weak points different from the others. The same kind of plant will weaken after a while if it's not cross-fertilized to improve the next generation. The botanists of the world keep a gene bank to preserve seeds that may or may not be needed now, because you never know what problems may come up with varieties that are flourishing now, and they might be

" Supra note 28. "- Ulrich Mauch: Der listige Jesus, Zürich 1992, p. 10. " Ulrich Mauch: Zugänge zum listigen Denken aus theologischer Sicht, in: Centralblatt des Schwel" zerischen Zofingervereins, Zofingen Nr. 3, April 1994, p. 166. Ulrich Mauch, ibid. Ulrich Mauch, op. cit. (note 33), p. 167. M Ulrich Mauch, op. cit. (note 32), p. 10, and op. cit. (note 33), p. 175. Earthbound Sinology? 359 needed later. But the first step of cross-fertilization is to preserve a "pure variety" with its own characteristics. So the study of traditional Chinese culture, in the long view, is really for the good of world culture." 37 Let me, however, add to these marvellous words one thought: The `cross-ferti- lization' must not wait for a distant future. Some European plants already have weak points today, as for instance the under-developed European plant of cunning. Other possible realms of Sino-European cross-fertilization could be: - worldly wisdom (Lebensklugheit) especially concerning different types of hu- man relations, rules for mastering life (Lebensbewältigung) and preserving life (yangsheng), - the treatment of power, - certain elements of Chinese thinking (dialectics, inclusiveness etc.), - integration of China-related knowledge into eurocentric conceptions of Euro- peans in fields such as philosophy, history, legal science a.s.o. European Sinologists should and can immediately start with the great project of Sino-European `cross-fertilizations' based on transplanting sinology with the per- spective of establishing a true world culture, "because [...] during this 20th - and sure also the 21st - century, Europe has a lot to learn from China...'+ 3s

Quoted from: Dang Xifang Yujian Dongfang: Guoji Hanxue Yu Hanxuejia When West Meets East: International Sinology and Sinologists], Taibei 1991, p. 119 f. Jeroom Heyndrickx, Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Director, China-Europe- Institute, Cultural Center, K.U. Leuven: Introduction, in: Phillippe Couplet (1623-1693): The Man Who Brought China to Europe, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series XXII, Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1990, p. 16.