The earliest sinological research of any real scope, however, was indebted to the Catholic church, particularly the Jesuits, during the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Most of the missionaries were scholarly men and because they were restricted from proselytizing, they often spent a considerable amount of time on academic research.

Matteo Ricci, the first Western missionary to come to China (1583), remained there for 27 years. He introduced Confucius to the West, and his records have long served as an important reference for research into the upper class culture of the Ming dynasty.

Western sinology advanced rapidly during the nineteenth century, but the motivation was based on other reasons: trade and colonialism.

For Westerners hoping to understand a civilization as complex and unfamiliar as China's, translation and textual work was a necessary basic task. Although more scholars became engaged in the field, China was still considered a largely static and self-sufficient civilization. Sinology was isolated from other academic disciplines, as Huang Chun-chieh, a professor of history at National Taiwan University, points out, and Chinese history was never linked with the historical development of the Western world as a whole.

At what time did China become seen as an integral part of the greater world system, the oikoumene, as Toynbee called it?

"That had to await the end of the nineteenth century, after imperialist encroachments following the Sino-British Opium War forced China to open its doors and interact more frequently with the West. The behavior and way of thinking of the Chinese people also underwent a dramatic change," says Chang P'eng-yuan, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica. "That marked the beginning of modern China and its entry into the world system."

Humiliations by the Western Powers, followed by attempts to reform and modernize; the transition from a feudalistic empire into a democratic system; the May Fourth movement and the War of Resistance against Japan; the fall to Communism and the Cultural Revolution, followed by further attempts at modernization and the call to learn from the "Taiwan experience"--in a short one hundred years, China has undergone sweeping and radical changes, so that the face of modern China is hard to find in the traditional sinological research of the past.

Because of this, sinology has acquired new definitions and new territories for research. It has also been affected in its growth and direction by modern historical and political trends in the West.

In Europe, which has a strong cultural background of its own, sinological research--setting out from the tasks of translation and textual criticism--was exceptionally solid and meticulous, and major figures continued to appear up until the middle of this century.

Bernhard Karlgren (1889--1978), of Sweden, was an expert in Chinese phonetics and in textual analysis of the ancient classics. R.H. Van Gulik (1910--1967), of the Netherlands, besides being an accomplished scholar, was an extreme example of the China enthusiast: he collected Chinese paintings and antiques, played the Chinese zither, and wrote beautiful Chinese calligraphy. Joseph Needham (1908-- ), of Cambridge University, gave a new evaluation and affirmation to the long-neglected achievements of Chinese science and technology.

"Unfortunately," Chang P'eng-yuan says, "these old masters of Western sinology have gradually passed away, and the European sinological tradition they represented has declined." In addition, the decline of Europe in status, power, and economic strength after the Second World War also adversely affected the development of European sinology.

The United States, which originally had no sinological tradition to speak of, was a refuge for many outstanding Chinese scholars who fled the mainland after the Communist takeover. Harvard's Li Fang-kuei and others played a major role in raising the level of sinological studies in the U.S.

"Large-scale, long-term collective research has flourished in the U.S. thanks to its ample financial resources," Huang points out. "From 1950 to 1970 alone, they turned out more than 1,000 Ph.D.s, so you can imagine how flourishing the situation is there."

American sinologists have been particularly interested in modern China, especially its response to the challenge of the West and the question of why Japan succeeded where China failed. A multidisciplinary approach combining the fruits of philosophy, history, anthropology, psychology, and other fields is common in the U.S., a practice that rigorously trained European sinologists of an older school tend to shake their heads at.

"The ups and downs of Chinese studies in the West--what's that got to do with us?" the skeptical Chinese reader may ask. "Can foreigners be better at sinology than Chinese?"

In some respects, the answer is yes. "Foreigners have one advantage in studying China: they aren't shackled by traditional concepts, and they have a broader, more open perspective," says Lu Ch'ing-pin, a scholar who is researching p'ai-hsi, a card game, from the Ming dynasty. "P'ai-hsi is considered a trivial pursuit not worth investigating in China, but in the West any subject that can contribute to knowledge is felt to beworthy of study."

"The bystander has a clearer view of the game," a Chinese proverb goes, and the message may also apply to sinology. Chu Hung-yuan, a researcher of Academia Sinica, cites the China expert J.K. Fairbank, of Harvard, as an example. The predictions he made thirty or forty years ago about the evolution of the situation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have proved astonishingly accurate.

Westerners looking at China raise questions that may never have been asked before. "Their questions may be the result of inadequate understanding or may be unanswerable, but they can still provoke us to look at our history and culture from a new perspective."

Some examples worthy of serious reflection: China had free trade long ago, yet why didn't it develop capitalism? China was an imperial power for thousands of years, so why did contact with the imperial powers of the West produce such an intense reaction? Opinions may vary, but constant discussion and interchange will lead gradually to clearer understanding.

[Picture Caption]

The mysterious, graceful image of the Orient has long proved fascinating to many Westerners. This ceramic figurine is kept in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.

The Travels of Marco Polo described China as an exotic land ot wonders, an impression that lasted in Europe for several centuries. Shown is the title page of the first printed edition.

Ancient and beautiful Cambridge University is a stronghold of British sinology.

The Royal Pavilion of George Ⅳ in southern England contains many murals with a Chinese touch.

"China fever" is still rampant in Europe. Shown here is a class at the University of Paris.

A bulletin board at Paris University.

The Percival David Foundation at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, owns a rich collection of Chinese art, among which the porcelain is particularly impressive. Roderick Whitfield, the director, is a learned expert in Chinese Buddhist art.

Two-and-a-half inch lotus feet were a big attraction in 1851 at the "Chinese collection" in London's Hyde Park.

For Young Westerners of the twentieth century, is China still a distantand exotic land?

Besides studying classical art and literature, the purview of traditional sinology, Westerners have become highly interested in modern China as well.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

The Travels of Marco Polo described China as an exotic land ot wonders, an impression that lasted in Europe for several centuries. Shown is the title page of the first printed edition.

Ancient and beautiful Cambridge University is a stronghold of British sinology.

The Royal Pavilion of George Ⅳ in southern England contains many murals with a Chinese touch.

"China fever" is still rampant in Europe. Shown here is a class at the University of Paris.

A bulletin board at Paris University.

The Percival David Foundation at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, owns a rich collection of Chinese art, among which the porcelain is particularly impressive. Roderick Whitfield, the director, is a learned expert in Chinese Buddhist art.

Two-and-a-half inch lotus feet were a big attraction in 1851 at the "Chinese collection" in London's Hyde Park.

For Young Westerners of the twentieth century, is China still a distantand exotic land?

Besides studying classical art and literature, the purview of traditional sinology, Westerners have become highly interested in modern China as well.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.

Although treated with all courtesy, mightn't Chinese treasures in a foreign land teel a bit lonely and uprooted? Shown are various Chinese artifacts from British museums.