History of Chinese Culture Spreading Westward to Europe

Author: (French) Kazuo Ando
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-07-01
Features: This monumental work comprehensively explores the influence of Chinese culture on Europe from the Roman Empire era to the French Revolution. It is a significant academic achievement in Kazuo Ando's research on the "Westward Spread of Eastern Learning." The book was ultimately written based on the author's lecture notes at the University of Paris, later compiled and published as The Eastern Philosophy. It was awarded the Balsan Academic Prize and made Ando one of the few scholars honored with this distinction for their comparative studies of Chinese and Western cultures. The book provides a macroscopic and comprehensive discussion of the history of Chinese culture spreading to Europe. It examines the cultural exchange between China and Europe, the dissemination and reception of Chinese culture in Europe, with a particular focus on the 18th century. The entire work is extensive, spanning over a thousand years vertically and covering all cultural factors—philosophy, history, religion, literature, drama, mathematics, customs, aesthetics, language and writing, diplomatic relations, love, ethics, and more. This research must be conducted on the basis of "bridging East and West," and it is by no means an easy task for scholars from either China or Europe. Precisely because of this, this renowned masterpiece, with its rich and wide-ranging sources and original and objective arguments, is even more highly praised for its rarity.