Research on Western Studies (First Issue)

Author: Peng Xiaoyu, Zhang Xushan, Editors-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-12-01
Features: In the minds of the Chinese people, Western learning may have a fairly clear concept—that is, the knowledge of the Western world. However, this distinction between the East and the West, though seemingly clear, becomes entangled when examined closely. We can only broadly say that Western learning here refers to the knowledge of Western Europe and the United States. Of course, among these disciplines, this journal focuses only on the social sciences and humanities, while being unable to explore natural sciences, technical sciences, and others. The Chinese people's contact with Western learning has a long history. Starting from the introduction of Western learning by missionaries like Matteo Ricci in the late Ming Dynasty, it has been over four hundred years. Even if we count from the period after the Opium Wars when the Chinese began to learn from the West, it has been a full half-century. During this time, various ideas and actions such as Sinocentrism combined with Western learning, complete Westernization, complete Sovietization (the knowledge of the Soviet Union is also Western), and the now quite influential complete Westernization have emerged. It can be said that our research on Western learning has been quite extensive. However, until today, our Western learning has not yet reached the world's top level. The proof is that we lack world-class Western learning works and almost no scholars who can compete with first-class Western scholars. The cause of this situation is mainly due to the long-term weakness of our country's national strength, which could not provide us with abundant resources for Western learning and favorable conditions for studying it. But it may also be related to the mindset of our scholars over the years. The attitude of Chinese scholars toward Western learning may vary greatly, but broadly speaking, it falls into two categories: one is to take national studies as the foundation, learning Western learning only to acquire some theories and methods to study national studies; the other is to believe that since we are behind, we have no right to question or debate with Western learning. Of course, many people want to seriously study Western learning and explore a unique path for Chinese research on Western learning, but limited by conditions, they have not achieved particularly outstanding results. Now, our comprehensive national strength has greatly improved, and we have relatively good conditions for researching Western learning. Through the efforts of several generations of Western learning scholars, we have also accumulated considerable academic resources for Western learning, as well as relatively outstanding middle-aged and young scholars in Western learning. Therefore, this journal dares to propose the study of Western learning as its goal. We hope:
1. To study Western learning with an equal mindset and a global perspective. Since the dawn of humanity, many great civilizations have emerged, all of which have contributed to human development. In modern times, the West has been at the forefront of human development, and there are many aspects worth learning from. However, learning does not mean blindly following or worshipping. Instead, Western civilization should also be placed in the long river of human history and studied and evaluated from a global perspective. In the past, we fiercely opposed Eurocentrism, but in reality, we may not have fully understood its essence. Today, we should not create an Eastern centrism or any other centrism either.
2. To promote a down-to-earth and serious academic atmosphere. Studying Western learning requires first passing the language and textual barrier, which demands hard work. Research should start from primary sources. As the ancients said, "Every word must have a source," which may be a bit overly rigid, but it is essential to be well-founded and credible. If one only circles around the results of Western research or secondary materials, it will be difficult to achieve any originality or innovation.
3. We hope to start from materials and achieve theoretical innovation in the study of Western learning. Doubt is the beginning of innovation. We must dare to question the existing theories, methods, and conclusions of Western learning. With doubt comes problems, and with problems comes research. Of course, doubt is not aimless speculation but requires serious study of materials, a global perspective for comparison and observation, and the establishment of multiple reference frameworks. With the correct and scientific problems, we have the key to solving them. Then, we must still put in hard work to address the problems and achieve innovation. We hope to gradually build our own systems, theories, and methods in various disciplines of Western learning through bit-by-bit accumulation and brick-by-brick construction. Only then can we produce first-class works and scholars in Western learning. Of course, we do not want to create a comprehensive and all-encompassing system without specific research. Greek learning is generally considered the source of Western learning, so Greek studies and Byzantine studies are the first areas this journal will focus on. At the same time, we hope to promote and develop Western learning through this journal. Therefore, all Western disciplines, whether philosophy, history, linguistics, law, economics, political science, sociology, or religious studies, are within the scope of this journal's focus. However, we hope to study Western learning from the beginning, so it may be a bit more traditional than contemporary.