China's Response to the West (book)
China's Response To The West: A Documentary Survey, 1839-1923 is a volume of historical documents translated from the Chinese, edited and with an introduction by
The book was influential in spreading the "impact and response" analysis of China's modern history, that is, the idea that China's modern history could best be viewed as a series of responses to the impact of the West, and has been blamed for the widespread idea that China's modernity was not generated internally but had to wait for the impact of the West.
Background
Both editors were trained by Chinese historians in China in the 1930s. John Fairbank was influenced by his Chinese academic supervisors, especially Tsiang Tingfu, a Columbia University trained Chinese historian. Teng Ssu-yu studied as an undergraduate at Yenching University, where he then taught for several years before coming to the United States in 1937.
The Introduction explains that the book is "a survey of one of the most interesting, but neglected aspects of modern history -- the way in which the scholar-official class of China, faced with the aggressive expansion of the modern West, tried to understand an alien civilization and take action to preserve their own culture and their political and social institutions"; its over-running by the West was "bound to create a continuing and violent intellectual revolution...." [1]
An accompanying Research Guide gave bibliographic references and research comments.[2]
Reception and changing views
The
The historian
The historian Foster Rhea Dulles judged the book to be "fascinating and highly important" and the first translation into a European language of "a body of material that casts a sharp and illuminating light on how representatives of China's scholar-official class" attempted to control China's response to Europe and the USA during the years from 1839 to 1923. [7]
References
- Cohen, Paul A. (2010). ISBN 9780231151924.
- Dulles, Foster Rhea (1955). "Review of China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 by Ssu-yü Teng and John K. Fairbank". The American Historical Review. 60 (2): 372–373. ISSN 1937-5239.
- Harrison, Henrietta (2017). "The Qianlong Emperor's Letter to George Iii and the Early Twentieth Century Origins of Ideas About Traditional China's Foreign Relations". American Historical Review. 122 (3): 680–701. .
- Michael, Franz (1956). "The Fall of China (Review article)". World Politics. 8 (2): 296–306. S2CID 155026330.
- Têng, Ssu-yü; Fairbank, John King (1954). China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839-1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Institute of Pacific Relations. ISBN 9780674120259.
- Wang, Yi-t'ung (1955). "(Review)". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 18 (3/4): 489–494. JSTOR 2718452.
Notes
- ^ TêngFairbank (1954), p. 1.
- ^ Teng, S.-Y., & Fairbank, J. K. (1954). Research guide for China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839-1923 Harvard University Press.
- ^ Michael (1956), p. 296, 299.
- ^ Cohen (2010), p. 9-.
- ^ Cohen (2010), p. 200 n.6.
- ^ Cohen (2010), p. 12-16.
- ^ Dulles (1955).
External links
- Christian Hess, China's Response to the West UCSD Modern Chinese History (January 29, 2010)