On Germans Coming To China In The 19th Century And Their "Civilization" Of China

There is a long history of communication and interaction between Europe and China. When we explore the dynamic development and evolution of cultural exchanges between Europe and China in modern times from perspective of "Modernity", we will find it provides a new possibility of looking over cultural exchanges currently. As the core strength of the capitalist world, Europeans have gradually introduced the concept of "Modernity" into China through mutual interaction with China, which is particularly performed as permeation of the Chinese traditional culture through the expansion of the modern capitalist civilization. As the cognitive subject of China, Europeans’paradigm of the Chinese civilization has experienced three large shifts in modern times, during which the encounter of modernity between Europe and China exists all the time. Based on the macro-historical background of the three paradigm shifts between European and Chinese civilizations, the importance of China-Europe cultural exchanges in such process in the 19th century could be highlighted. In the context of "Modernity" meeting, it has a certain academic significance and value to understand the history the research of Sino-Germany communication from trials and paradigm shifts of civilization by those Germans who came to China in the nineteenth Century.The basic idea of this study is based on a series of factors related to the modern social development during the human progress, for example, checks and balances of political organizations, economic and trade communication, science and technology, culture and spiritual beliefs, etc., through this kind of concept of "civilization" to study the paradigm shifts of the "civilization" attempts made by Germans who came to China in the nineteenth century. Under the historical background of the interaction of globalization and in the history of Sino-German communication, by clue of the attempt of Germans against China during the renovation of civilization and on the basis of text analysis, this dissertation is focused on the research of three Germans who came to China in the 19th century:Protestant missionary Carl Gutzlaff (1803-1851), geographer Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen (1833-1905) and Sinologist Otto Franke (1863-1946). As representative of Germans coming to China in the nineteenth century, Gutzlaff, Richthofen and Franke had made different cognitive views of the present situation of Chinese civilization through different personal awareness and experience in China, and tried to carry out the transformation of Chinese "civilization" based on this cognition, by which we can find out three different kinds of "civilization" paradigms. These paradigms of civilization transformation are also involved into the cognitive process of Europeans for the transformation of Chinese civilization in the nineteenth century, which have formed the process of paradigm shifts from the microscopic point of view and formed a richer perspective dimension.The question consciousness of this dissertation is:How did the Germans come to China in the 19th century, especially how did Gutzlaff, Richthofen and Franke try to achieve the extent of civilization in China? How to understand the different development of the path of civilization as well as the historical position from the longitudinal and transverse historical angle?This dissertation consists of introduction, text, bibliography and appendix:At the very beginning is an introduction of the topic and reasons, the scope of the study and the definitions of the core concepts, literature review, meaning, method, general outline etc. of this research;The first chapter focus on the coupling of the civilized world between Europe and China, describing the interaction between Europe and China before the 19th century from the different stages of history:the Rome times, the age of sail and the enlightenment until 18th century, meanwhile the encounter between Germany and China before the 19th century;Based on the historical background of the 19th century and the further contacts between Germany and China, the second chapter discusses the different forms of "Description of China" written by those Germans who came to China in the 19th century, the version of Gutzlaff, Richthofen and Franke’s works and their specific itineraries of experience in China;In the third chapter, text analysis of the articles of Gutzlaff. Richthofen and Franke plays a fundamental role, the author demonstrates their understanding of the current situation of Chinese civilization from the following points:the situation of the social and economic development in China. Chinese people’s humanity and Chinese people’s spiritual beliefs;The fourth chapter aims at answering one question:How did Gutzlaff. Richthofen and Franke try to achieve the extent of civilization in China. From the start of their specific activities in China and their awareness of the status of Chinese civilization, chapter IV presents different civilizing attempts from aspects of Christianity, science, technology and academy;Based on the previous text analysis, the fifth chapter analyses firstly the historical and personal factors which have influenced the change of the Chinese civilization paradigm, and the internal inheriting and criticizing relationship between the different civilization paradigm, afterwards concludes the longitudinal and lateral historical position of the different civilization paradigm;In the sixth chapter, the author summaries the conclusion, points out the inadequacies of the study and research directions in the future.The last part of this dissertation is the bibliography and appendix. The appendix involves a list of Germans who came to China in the 19th century, Chinese translation of the German texts of Gutzlaff, Richthofen and Franke on China, as well as some archives files etc. as reference.This dissertation attempts to analyze the change and development of Germans’ understanding about China and the different civilization paradigm against China on the basis of text analysis, re-understands the development of relations between China and Germany as well as Europe from the perspective of interaction and exchange of civilization. This is also the purpose and expectation of this study.