费正清美国汉学之父

费正清美国汉学之父 哈尔滨师范大学 题 目 费正清美国汉学之父 学 生 年 级 2010级 专 业 英语教育 系 别 英语教育系 学 院 西语学院 哈尔滨师范大学 2013年6月 OPTIONAL COURSE PAPER ENGLISH DEPARTMENT HARBIN NORMAL UNIERSITY TITLE: John King Fairbank: the Founder of American Sinology STUDENT: Qi Wenjun GRADE: Grade 2010 MAJOR: English Education DEPARTMENT: English Department COLLEGE: Faculty of Western Languages and Literatures June, 2013 HARBIN NORMAL UNIVERSITY John King Fairbank: the Founder of American Sinology QI -Wenjun Abstract: John King Fairbank, the founder of American Sinology, promoted the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. He advanced the well-known “impact-response” model to interpret the conflict between Chinese and Western civilization. Sino-American relation has been influenced by his research Key words: John King Fairbank; American Sinology; the founder; the “impact-response” model; Sino-American relation. John king Fairbank (1907-1991), lifelong professor of history at Harvard University, the founder of modern Chinese studies in the United States, was the single most important figure in the development of China Studies in America .He advanced the famous “impact-response” model. His research has a very strong influence on Sino-American relation. 1.The founder of American Sinology In 1929,after graduating from Harvard, Fairbank boarded ship for England to take up a Rhodes Scholarship. His mentor, Charles Kingsley Webster told him that secret diplomatic papers of the Chinese government had just been published in Beijing. Webster convinced Fairbank to use these Chinese official documents to study Chinese contemporary diplomatic history and recommended him to read The International Relations of the Chinese Empire by Hosea Ballou Morse, who became his mentor later. He recalled later that “China appealed to me at age twenty-two as something interesting that no one else seemed to be doing”. In 1932, he came to Beijing to learn Chinese and History and collect historical data to write his Oxford D.Phil thesis. Four years in China showed him that behind every specialized historical topic lay a broader challenge: understanding the immense differences between Chinese civilization and American civilization. That broader challenge would dominate his life. He was interested in studying Chinese history and culture. With the help of Jiang Tingfu, Fairbank began to study Ch’ing documents and “treaty ports” documents. In 1936,he returned to America from China with his wife. Harvard appointed him instructor in History and he set about building a modern China program. The Fairbank Center was founded in 1955.The center was originally called the Center for East Asian Research. Under Professor Fairbank’s leadership, the center took an active role in promoting the study of modern and contemporary China from a social science perspective. At the time, this focus marked a sharp departure from the field of the Classical Sinology, which had emphasized the study of texts from a humanistic perspective. The Center for East Asian Research was renamed as the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research following Professor Fairbank’s retirement, in honor of his signal contributions to China studies through his teaching and publications. Fairbank had acquired great achievement that others never surpass in his academic research. According to the incomplete statistics, Fairbank published and edited more than sixty writings, two hundred theses, one hundred and sixty book reviews, fifty prefaces for others, a lot of exclusive interviews and videos. His scholarly results can be classified into three groups: The first, broad and profound treatises, for example, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: the Opening of the Treaty ports, Ch’ing Administration: Three Studies, China Perceived: Images and Policies in China-American Relations, etc. The second, works and teaching materials which suit both refined and popular tastes, for instance, The United States and China, A History of East Asian Civilization, The Great Chinese Revolution, China: A New History, East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, etc. The third, reference books. He toiled plenty of time and energy just for the benefit of others, for example, Ch’ing Documents: An Introductory syllabus, A Documentary History of Chinese Communism, Modern China: A Bibliographical Guide to Chinese Works, etc. As the father of American Sinology, Fairbank possesses the quality of being an academic entrepreneur. He was circumspect and farsighted. He was the first man who realized the importance of China studies. He was good at collecting funds. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,the U.S. government , foundations, and academic institutions began to appreciate the desirability--indeed the of developing expertise in the study of contemporary China. Fairbank necessity— managed to convince the Ford Foundation to contribute $30 million to build up the field of East Asian studies. And the National Defense Education Act allocated government scholarships to the study of so called“critical”languages including modern Chinese.(1) He reserved his finest efforts for training China specialists. For his graduate students, there was“Ch’ing Documents”both historical seminar and cultural immersion. For undergraduates, Fairbank and Edwin O. Reischauer offered“The History of East Asian Civilization,”quickly dubbed “Rice Paddies,”which became the Harvard students’ port of entry into China and Japan. For the sake of developing China studies, Fairbank tried every means to gather and collect talents. Besides providing scholarships, for over 30 years he and his wife hosted parties every Thursday afternoon for Harvard students and scholars, visitors from elsewhere, friends and relatives. “All we could offer weekly was a warm welcome, a chance to talk with us and with each other, plus tea ,cucumber sandwiches and brownies. Luckily this unchanging menu amused guests returning after twenty years and made them feel at home.”(2) The Thursday party was a major contribution towards the development of China studies. He himself proudly called this method“the invention of collecting talents.” Ezra Vogel, the second director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, mentioned Fairbank’s outstanding contribution as the founder. He said that Fairbank was the great founder and an excellent architect of a foundation in the field of contemporary China studies in the United States,--- without the confident and untiring fighter who developed the uncultivated land to found the Center for East Asian Research, it is impossible for us to have such a thriving research field today. 2.Fairbank’s famous“impact-response”model Fairbank mainly studied the contemporary history of China. He observed and examined China from his own special angle of view for more than half a century. In the 1950 he advanced his famous“impact-response”model as an instrument to interpret the conflict between Chinese and Western civilization. In The Cambridge History of China Fairbank pointed out that Chinese civilization and Western civilization are irreconcilable. He thought that Western development litary-entrepreneurial,”and Chinese development model wasmodel was “industrial-mi “agrarian-nomadic-bureaucratic”. Modern Western civilization was full of vitality but ancient oriental civilization was full of stubborn inertia. The impetus of Chinese historical process was from Western invasion. But because of its stubborn inertia, China couldn’t make effective response to Western challenge, which hindered China’s developing process. China was only compelled to make response under the full impact of the West. The“impact-response”model runs through most of his works, for example, The United States and China, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: the Opening of the Treaty Ports, China’s Response to the West-A Documentary Survey. For many years, there has been an argument over his model. Historians passed different judgements on his historical ideas. Paul A. Cohen, Fairbank’s student, is the most famous representative figure who criticizes the “impact-response”model. He set up his own theory framework to study Chinese contemporary history. That is“China Centered Approach”. Fairbank admitted that his historical ideas were not flawless. He partially corrected his former ideas in the book named China: A New History and the new edition The United States and China. But his basic framework has not changed. 3.Fairbank and Sino-American relation Fairbank’s research results and scholarly activities have had decisive influence on the development of Sino-American relation. In 1948, he published The United States and China, which is mainly about Chinese natural phenomena, historical development, social structure, cultural conventions, life style, the past and present situation of Sino-American relation. The book fit in with the needs of the American public who knew little of China . Fairbank said frankly that he wrote the book in order to let people who cared for the American diplomatic policies know what they should know. It was The United States and China that Richard M. Nixon read before he visited China in1972 Fairbank supported the Chinese Communist Party. He said , “Communism suits China, not suit America”. During World War Two, US government service in China quickened Fairbank’s sense of mission. In Chongqing, he was struck by the declining morale of the Nationalist government, and horrified by the grim lives of his old Beijing friends in their West China refuge. There began two lifelong commitment: to supporting liberal Chinese academics, morally and materially; and to warning Americans about China’s catastrophe, He gradually realized that if the United States remained tied to the inept and corrupt Nationalist regime , Sino-American common ground would shrink to nothing .(6) Back at Harvard after the war as Professor of History, Fairbank spoke beyond Harvard Yard to the American public. China’s revolution, he insisted, was home-grown, “not only genuinely Communist but genuinely Chinese”, and that in any event there was nothing the US could do to stop it. Understanding Chinese history was the key to dealing with China as it really is.(6)“The Maoist revolution is on the whole the best thing that has happened to the Chinese people in many centuries .”(3) He managed to help China join the United Nation in 1971. Then he promoted China and America to establish diplomatic relation in 1979.He said it was in 1979 that the thirty years of aloofness between China and America ended, and his fifty years of appeal as a China specialist ended, too. Because of Fairbank’s contribution to promoting to the development of Sino-American relations, Fairbank was invited to visit China by Chinese government in 1971. In1979, Deng Xiaoping visited America, and Fairbank was invited to take part in the state banquet together with President Carter and Deng Xiaoping. But he expressed different political views about Taiwan in different political situation. We should know that he was an American and he served his country. What he had done was only for the sake of America. Fairbank, not only the founder but also a generator of American Sinology, devoted all his efforts to the cause of American Sinology. 4.War service and the controversy over the "Loss of China" Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Fairbank was enlisted to work for the US government, which included service in the OSS and the Office of War Information in Chongqing, the temporary capital of Nationalist China. There, like most foreign observers, he witnessed the corruption of the government headed by Chiang Kai-shek, which left a deeply negative impression of the Kuomintang. When he returned to Harvard after the war, Fairbank inaugurated a Master's Degree program in Area Studies. Harvard at that time was one of several major universities in the United States with Asian study programs The Area Studies approach at Harvard was multi-disciplinary and aimed to train journalists, government officials, and others who did not want careers in academia. This broad approach, combined with Fairbank's experience in China during the war, shaped his United States and China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Foreign Policy Library, 1948). This survey went through new editions in 1958 and 1970, each synthesizing scholarship in the field for students and the general public. In the 1960's he studied Chinese at the Taipei Language Institute. In 1972, in preparation for Nixon's visit, the book was read by leaders on both sides. Fairbank was among the so-called China Hands who predicted the victory of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party and advocated establishing relations with the new government. Although Fairbank argued that this would be in the American national interest, many Americans accused the China Hands of selling out an ally and promoting the spread of Communism and Soviet influence. In 1949, Fairbank was targeted for criticism of being "soft" on Communism, and was denied a visa to visit Japan. In 1952, he testified before the McCarran Committee, but his secure position at Harvard protected him. Ironically, many of Fairbank's Chinese friends and colleagues who returned to China after 1949, such as Fei Xiaotong and Chen Han-seng, would later be attacked for being "pro-American" as the Chinese Communist party became more rigidly communist. 5.Development of China Studies Fairbank taught at Harvard until he retired in 1977 and published a number of both academic and non-academic works on China, many of which would reach a wide audience outside academia. He also published an expanded revision of his doctoral dissertation as Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast in 1953. Fairbank helped establish Harvard as the premier center for East Asian studies. He raised money to support fellowships for many graduate students, trained numerous influential China historians at Harvard and placed them widely in universities and colleges in the US and overseas. He welcomed and funded researchers from all over the world to spend time in Cambridge and hosted a series of conferences which brought scholars together and yielded publications, many of which Fairbank edited. He established the influential Harvard East Asian Series which provided a venue for his students to publish their dissertations which was essential for achieving tenure. He was known as a relentless but supportive editor. Fairbank and his colleagues at Harvard, Edwin O. Reischauer and Albert Craig wrote the dominant textbook on China and Japan, A History of East Asian Civilization and Fairbank established strong links to influential figures in Washington D.C. both by training journalists, government officials, and others and by working with the government on China policy. In 1966, Fairbank and the Sinologist Denis C. Twitchett, then at Cambridge University set in motion the plans for The Cambridge History of China. Originally intended to cover the entire history of China in six volumes, the project grew until it reached its present expected size of 15 volumes. Twitchett and Fairbank divided the history between them, with Fairbank editing the volumes on modern (post 1800) China, while Twitchett took responsibility for the period from the Qin to early Qing. Fairbank edited and wrote parts of volumes 10 through 15, the last of which appeared in the year after his death. Historical association In December 1969, radical historians tried unsuccessfully to persuade the American Historical Association to pass an anti-Vietnam War resolution. "A debacle unfolded as Harvard historian (and AHA president in 1968) John Fairbank literally wrestled the microphone from Zinn's hands." Correspondence by Fairbank, Zinn and other historians, published by the AHA in 1970, is online in what Fairbank called "our briefly-famous Struggle for the Mike". 6.Death Fairbank finished the manuscript of his final book, China: A New History in the summer of 1991. On September 14, 1991 he delivered the manuscript to Harvard University Press, then returned home and suffered a fatal heart attack. 7.Conclusion Fairbank’s study of Chinese advocates that the academic thought combines with practice. First, Fairbank is a key feature of academic empirical emphasis, and not interested in building a huge theoretical system. Second, he made the famous "Impact- response" model, used as a tool to explain the conflict between Chinese and Western civilizations. Fairbank is a controversial figure. Not only is he a top scholar, but also a statesman and a foreign critic. “His views as the situation develops where there are many self-contradictory, thus incurred the criticism and condemnation from all sides. Such an important figure, we need to understand his ideas on Chinese history, through his research, to re-examine our own history. 8.Representative works , Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842-1854. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953. , "Patterns Behind the Tientsin Massacre." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 20, no. 3/4 (1957): 480-511. , Ch'ing Administration: Three Studies. (with Têng Ssu-yü) Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies, V. 19. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. , Chinabound: a fifty-year memoir. New York : Harper & Row, 1982. , The United States and China. 4th, enl. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. , China: A New History. (with Merle Goldman) Enl. ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992. Bibliography : [1] John King Fairbank, Chinabound; A Fifty-Year Memoir [M] ( New York: Harper and Row,1982):366;Richard Madsen, China and the American Dream[M] ( Berkeley: University of California Press,1995):55-56 [2] Terri Teleen, Wilma Cannon Fairbank[J], Fairbank Center Newsletter, Winter 1994 [3] Ross Terrill, Mao in history-Chinese’s Perception of Mao Zedong[J], The National Interest, Summer,1998 thed..[4] John King Fairbank, The United States and China, 4 [M] Harvard. University Press,1983 [5] Ssu-yu Teng and John K. Fairbank, China’s Response to the West, [M] Harvard University Press ,1954 [6] Albert M.Craig, Akira Iriye,Rodrick L.MacFarquhar, Ernest R.May, Benjamin I.Schwartz , Philip A.Kuhn, John King Fairbank,[J] Harvard University Gazette, January8, 1993 中文摘要 摘要:费正清，美国汉学的奠基人，推动现代和当代中国研究，从社会科学的角度。他提出了著名的“冲击 - 反应”模式来解释中国和西方文明之间的冲突。中美关系已经受到他的研究影响。 关键词:费正清 美国汉学的创始人 “冲击 - 反应”模式 中美关系