Basic Research on the Discussion about Chinese and Western Culture by Protestant Missionaries in the Late Qing

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02248
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of thought
• Research Institution: Fukushima University
• Principal Investigator: Teshirogi Yuji 福島大学, 経済経営学類, 教授 (20207468)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 清末中国 / 宣教師 / 知識人 / 西洋情報 / 中国認識（自己認識） / 西欧受容 / 国民性批判 / 日清戦争

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the late Qing and the early Republican China, intellectuals generally compared the national characteristic of China to that of Western countries and evaluated Chinese negatively and Western positively. This thesis deals with the questions of how the valuation was formed and what its relationship was to the missionaries’ discourse from the middle of 1870s until around the First Sino-Japanese War. Specifically, this thesis organizes and analyzes important criticisms on the Chinese national characteristic made by well-known missionaries such as Young John Allen and Ernst Faber and proves that they considerably influenced the formation of the self-recognition of contemporary Chinese intellectuals such as Zhong Tianwei, Zheng Guanying, and Liang Qichao by comparing and examining works written by the missionaries and the intellectuals.

Free Research Field

中国近代思想史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来、清末中国に宣教師経由の西洋情報の蓄積があったことは知られていたが、その知識人への影響は、ティモシー・リチャードやアーサー・スミスの言説の影響が注目されてきた程度で、宣教師の著作を研究の史料とすること自体まれだった。1980年代以降、上海を中心に宣教師研究が成果挙げているが、他方その成果が十分に受入れられない状況も存在する。それは清末知識人が複雑な民族心理ゆえに宣教師の影響に言及しなかったことと深く関わっている。本研究はそうした歪んだ研究状況を打破し、また中国近代の自己認識への理解を大きく前進させた点で、学術的意義をもつものといえる。