1500-1800- The Great Encounter of East and West

Author: Meng Dewei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: Between 1500 and 1800, the mutual influence between the East and the West was intermittent. Although the impact between the two sides was not balanced, this exchange was always bidirectional. When it came to adopting certain ideas from foreign civilizations, the attitudes of both sides were often vastly different, but the dynamic process of absorbing and assimilating foreign culture was similar. For example, when Chinese scholars who believed in Christianity tried to use Christian ideas to replace the influence of Buddhism and Taoism on Confucianism, the Enlightenment thinkers in Europe were using Confucian thought to replace the magical role of Christianity under the influence of natural religion and reason. The three centuries from 1500 to 1800 were a period when China had a strong influence on Europe and even the entire world, while the two subsequent centuries (1800–2000) were the opposite, when Western civilization in Europe and North America exerted influence on China. From 1500 to 1800, missionaries carrying Christian doctrines and Western civilization in China faced far more rejection than welcome. Similarly, the European admiration for China gradually faded over time. We can understand the past through historical patterns. These patterns combine the objectively presented history with the subjectively chosen past to form a hybrid. This is a dynamic tension, because as history unfolds, the relationship between the past and the present also adapts accordingly. The four chapters of this book explore this tension, focusing on: (1) China's acceptance of Western civilization and Christianity, (2) China's rejection of them, (3) Europe's acceptance of Chinese culture and Confucianism, and (4) Europe's rejection of them. The arrangement of these chapters shows a symmetry, although this neat symmetry may not be fully validated in fact, I still believe it is fundamentally correct, because it is the encounter between two equally great cultures. I am not suggesting that greatness is a relative standard, to the point where any culture can claim to be great. The greatness of Chinese civilization and European civilization lies in their proven ability to influence large parts of the world.
—Meng Dewei
This is a brilliant introduction to that great period of East-West encounter. Meng Dewei devoted his life to this research, condensing it into this concise and accessible book. The following analyses by him are particularly valuable: the aesthetic influence between the East and the West, theories of language and race, and the internal conflicts that existed among Chinese scholars and within the Catholic Church, ultimately leading to their division.
—Jung Chang
No one is more qualified than Meng Dewei to interpret the topic of East-West encounter between 1500 and 1800. Because he devoted his entire life to this research and has long established a dominant position in the field of East-West exchange studies in the United States.
—Derk Bodde
If we examine from a deeper historical perspective, China's rise as a world power is not a novel concept but a return to past history. Indeed, after 1800, China became a backward empire that could no longer communicate with the modern world until it was subjected to substantive imperialist aggression. As Marx wrote in the New York Daily Tribune in 1858, China was "a vast empire, withered in the gaps of time, isolated by force from normal international exchange, and thus forced to continue self-deception in the delusions of the Celestial Empire." But if we go back to the period of 1500–1800, we see a completely different picture: then, China was a truly powerful world power, Europe was still in its early stages of development, and the United States was still a beautiful wilderness. People have always debated whether history is cyclical, but never reached a consensus. However, even if history does not repeat itself in a broad sense, we tend to find repetitions of past patterns in it and uncover their meaning. Recent history has witnessed a shift in how the Western world views China, characterized by mutual respect rather than a sense of superiority. Returning to a more distant period (1500–1800), to find more respect for China from the West—this is the theme and purpose of this book. This book offers original insights into the history of East-West relations, pointing out that 1500–1800 and 1800–present are two major phases in the process of East-West exchange. The former period saw cultural exchange based on mutual interaction and reciprocity, with more open acceptance between the two sides. The latter period, due to the social reasons of both sides, this positive cultural trend was interrupted, leading to long-term misunderstandings between East and West, especially from the perspective of the West. It was not until 1997, with the return of Hong Kong (and Macau), that an era of rejection ended, marked by China's rise and its deeper dialogue with the world.