Study On Chinese Language And Culture Learning And Spreading By Jesuit Missionaries In Europe From16th To18th Century

With the continuous development of the globalization today, the internationaleconomic and cultural exchange become more and more frequent. The rise of China’sinternational status makes more and more people become interested in Chineselanguage and culture. So our country is paying more attention on the promotion ofChinese language and culture in the world, and has implemented a series of promotionalmeasures, like building Confucius Institutes overseas. Based on historical materials, theearliest systematical spreading of Chinese language and culture began in the16thcentury when the Jesuit missionaries came to preach in China. They not only preachedand introduced western science and technology, but also learnt Chinese language andculture, and introduced it to Europe, which brought huge influence to the Europeansociety. During16th and18th century, it was the climax of Jesuit missionaries’preaching in China, so this dissertation takes the16th to the18th century as researchrange and takes Jesuit missionaries who came to China during this time as object. Firstit talks about the foundation of the Society of Jesus and its preaching strategies in China.Then it focuses on how they learnt and introduced Chinese language and culture. At last,it summarizes the Jesuit missionaries’ successful experiences and puts forward somesuggestions on the present promotion of Chinese language and culture based on theirexperiences.This dissertation takes literature analysis as the research method. First isextensively collecting historical materials and research results by Chinese and foreignscholars about Jesuit missionaries’ Chinese language and culture learning and spreading.Second is the arrangement of the collected materials. Then based on these materials,from the perspective of cross-cultural communication and language teaching, figuringout how they introduced Chinese language and culture to Europe, and what we can learnin the present promotion of Chinese language and culture from their experiences.When the Jesuit missionaries introduced Chinese language and culture to Europe,they realized the differences between Chinese and Western culture. If they introducedoriginally, the Europeans might not be able to understand. This might even causedcultural confliction. So they took some methods and strategies, not only avoiding thecultural confliction, but also introduced Chinese language and culture successfully. First,they introduced Chinese characters. Because culture is recorded by characters. Only when you know the characters, you can understand what it records about. Second, theyintroduced Chinese classic works. When they introduced, they catered for theEuropeans’ psychology that they wanted to find the origin of Christianity from Chineseculture. And at that time, Europe was in the age of the Enlightenment. The enlightenedideologists of Europe were trying to find a rational culture. From Jesuit missionaries’introduction about China, they found that the rationality in the Confucian Classics waswhat they wanted. So Chinese culture got their support and produced great impact tothem.Now the cultural exchange between countries is become more and more frequent.It’s very important to let others know our Chinese language and culture. Thisdissertation will provide some useful suggestions for the better promotion of Chineselanguage and culture in the world.