Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 5, 2022

Late Qing Scholars’ Reading of Western Books and Networks of Meaning: Centering on Diaries as Historical Materials

(Abstract)

Jiang Jianguo

The study of how “Western learning” “moved Eastward” is not only about the publication and dissemination of Western writings, but also about how readers read and influenced the process as actors. In the mid-to late nineteenth century, scholars’ diaries contained many records of their purchases of Western books, and their interpretation, tastes and imagining of Western texts reveal a complex thought process of novelty, doubt and contradiction. By reading Western books, the scholars replenished their “knowledge storehouse,” scrutinized themselves and reflected on society, forming an alternative cultural landscape of Western learning and a network of meaning outside “Chinese learning.” The network of Western reading extended from Shanghai to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and Hubei, Beijing and Tianjin and from urban society to rural society, producing a clear “ripple effect” reflecting the interactive relationship between the spread of Western learning and scholarly reading, as well as the process of the intertwining of East and West and ancient and modern. Reading generates knowledge and knowledge creates belief; from this perspective, late Qing scholars’ reading of Western works was a quiet revolution.