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Protestant Expansion and Chinese Views of the West
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
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Confrontation with the British during the years 1839 to 1842 jolted the Chinese into a more realistic perception of the wider world. Before the Opium War, the Chinese took little notice of the world beyond the traditional Chinese realm; during the course of the war China's inadequate knowledge of overseas countries proved to be a strategic disadvantage. In the 1840s, knowledge of the wider world was important to China's defense against Western intrusion, and a handful of Chinese scholar-officials who shared this view engaged in the serious study of foreign nations. A small but influential group of Chinese set out to expand China's knowledge of the West; they did so in the belief that this was essential to China's survival. The comprehensive accounts put together by Wei Yüan (1794–1857) and Hsü Chi-yü (1795–1873) and shorter works by other authors suggest the importance of this new perspective in the decade after the Treaty of Nanking.
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References
1 The HKTC and Hsü Chi-yü, Ying-huan chih-lüeh (A brief survey of the oceans roundabout; 10 chüan, prefaces 1848, published 1850), are well-known geographical collections. Yao Ying K'ang-yu chi-hsing (Notes on the study of foreign geography; 16 chüan, started 1844, completed 1849?), is a shorter collection inspired by the first edition of the HKTC. Another collection was Liang T'ing-nan Hai-kuo ssu-shuo (Four treatises on maritime countries; 1846); see Hsien Yü-ch'ing Liang T'ing-nan chu-shu lu-yao (On the writings of Liang T'ing-nan), Ling-nan hsüeh-pao (Lingnan journal), 4.1, 119–54 (April 1935).Google Scholar
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49 One troubled official was Liang Chang-chü , whose essay on ‘T'ien-chuchiao’ (Christianity), in Lang-chi ts'ung-t'an (Collected essays by Liang Chang-chü; 1847), 5, 8–9, clearly indicates his apprehensive view of Westerners and their religion.
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