Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:06:59.044Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Confucian Legacy

World-Historical Writing at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2021

Xin Fan
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Fredonia
Get access

Summary

Prior to the late nineteenth century, Chinese scholar-officials studied ancient Chinese history to make sense of contemporary affairs. Thus, rather than situating themselves in global space when they traveled outside China, they attempted to situate the world within China’s historical time. This chapter contends that world-historical writing emerged in China in the early twentieth century after the rise of print capitalism as an attempt to address concerns about global space. Specifically, the question of how to make sense of China’s decline in the global order motivated scholarly interest. In this effort, the temporal dimension of ancient history remained relevant. In An Outline of Western History, Zhou Weihan juxtaposes the histories of foreign countries with Chinese chronologies. Zhou’s book is possibly the first Chinese-language work on ancient world history written by a Chinese scholar. In it, he stresses the value of ancient history and dismisses notions of fundamental differences among cultures in modern identities. As he repeatedly asserts, “Peoples throughout China and the West are alike – their intellects are the same.” Zhou’s absence of a cultural nationalist view is especially striking compared to the views expressed in later nationalist works published in China by the end of the twentieth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
World History and National Identity in China
The Twentieth Century
, pp. 16 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Confucian Legacy
  • Xin Fan
  • Book: World History and National Identity in China
  • Online publication: 19 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108903653.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Confucian Legacy
  • Xin Fan
  • Book: World History and National Identity in China
  • Online publication: 19 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108903653.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Confucian Legacy
  • Xin Fan
  • Book: World History and National Identity in China
  • Online publication: 19 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108903653.002
Available formats
×