Chinese Nestorianism

Author: Zhu Qianzhi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-05-01
Features: Zhu Qianzhi (1899–1972), a native of Fuzhou City, was renowned as an encyclopedic scholar. In the 1930s, he concurrently served as the head of the History Department, Philosophy Department, and College of Arts at Sun Yat-sen University. In the 1950s, he became a professor at Peking University. In the 1960s, he joined the Philosophy and Social Sciences Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, participating in the establishment of the Institute of Religious Studies and serving as a researcher.
In academic circles, Mr. Zhu Qianzhi was hailed as an "encyclopedic scholar" with an exceptionally broad research scope, covering fields such as history, philosophy, literature, music, theater, archaeology, political science, economics, religion, culture, and Sino-foreign cultural exchange. He achieved pioneering results in each area, and many of his works, known for their depth and originality, became academic classics of the 20th century in China. Even today, they remain influential and are widely cited and studied by scholars, holding significant reference value for contemporary and future intellectual and cultural development.
To illustrate with a few examples: Revolutionary Philosophy, Philosophy of Non-Unity, and The Cosmology and Philosophy of a Sentimentalist are representative works and foundational materials of the "May Fourth Movement" intellectual trend in modern history. In Philosophy of Culture, he discussed, "The future of philosophy should be the philosophy of cultural history, in other words, cultural philosophy." This perspective has been validated in the development of contemporary world philosophy. Commentary on the Laozi was praised as the best research work at the World Conference of Sinologists held in Moscow due to its extensive collection of versions. The Influence of Chinese Philosophy on Europe, Zhu Xi Studies in Japan, and Ancient Japanese Studies and Yangming Studies in Japan are representative works in the study of Sino-foreign cultural and intellectual exchange, exerting a broad influence in both Chinese and international academia. The Influence of Ancient Chinese Music Theory on Greece and History of Chinese Music Literature are seminal works in the study of music literature history. Examination of Fusang and Chinese Monks Discovering America a Thousand Years Before Columbus were among the earliest to propose a connection between the South American continent and China, sparking extensive debate in the international academic community. Chinese Nestorianism is a milestone in the study of Chinese Christian history due to its novelty, richness, and depth.
Mr. Zhu Qianzhi authored an impressive body of work, including 42 monographs, 2 translations, and over 100 papers. (A bibliography is appended.) Some of these works have been published in scattered volumes over the past two decades; others are rare pre-liberation editions; and some have never been published. To enable the academic community to fully appreciate the vast intellectual and scholarly legacy left by Mr. Zhu, the editors have conducted a comprehensive and research, making these works available for publication.