The Death of a Master of Chinese Classics - Cultural Discontinuity in a Century of China

Author: Tongdao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: Mr. Tongdao's book, which first catches people's attention, is its title——《The Death of a National Scholar of Chinese Studies》. The 13 national scholars of Chinese studies written about in the book are not unfamiliar to China's intellectual community, but why are they focused on their deaths? In other words, what can readers see through the deaths of these national scholars? On this issue, our editors and the author have had in-depth discussions during the writing process. We now present our publishers' understanding to you: To explain the author's intention, we first need to clarify a concept—what exactly is "Chinese Studies"? This is also one of the most frequently asked questions during the early research phase of this book. Regarding the definition of "Chinese Studies," there are currently two opinions: One is to continue the definition of Zhang Taiyan, which includes textual studies, classical studies, and history, and this view is widely held in academia; The other is a more popular understanding, that is, "Chinese Studies" is traditional culture. The book believes that the term "traditional culture" is too broad, while the terms "textual studies, classical studies, and history" are too academic and cannot accommodate the knowledge level of all social strata. Based on these two viewpoints, the book proposes: "Chinese Studies" is a social mainstream value system that takes textual studies, classical studies, historical studies, and other academic knowledge as its carrier, and represents the ideological concepts of the intellectual class.