浅论近代日本汉学与对中国的东方学话语

Modern Japanese Sinology and the Discourse of Orientalism against China

一直到江户时期汉学始终为日本学术的最高境界。但进入明治时代之后,日本将中国看“成落后”的国家,汉学已不再作为达到“先王之道”的学问,随之汉学渐渐地分成几门客观的、科学的学术领域。一批研究中国经典的学者及爱好汉学的作家,虽然一方面对传统中国有憧憬、向往的心情,但另一方面他们一致认为应该用从近代化获得的优势,对中国施加压力,进而改变它。在这一过程中,秉承西方列强,形成了为日本帝国主义获得殖民地提供理论支持的日本式东方学话语。

Sinology had been the zenith of Japanese leaning up to the period of Edo. But, since the period of Meiji, when Japan began to see China as a backward country, Sinology, having ceased to be rated as a leaning by which to accomplish the ＂ former kingly way of benevolence＂, had gradually been divided into several objective and scientific domains of learning. Consequently, a batch of scholars specialized in Chinese classics and writers fond of Sinology, though they yearned for the traditional China on the one hand, unanimously believed on the other hand, that by taking advantage of the superiority it had got through modernism, Japan had to exercise pressure on China so as to change it. A Japanese -style discourse of Orientalism resulted from this process , which supported theoretically Japanese Imperialists in their efforts to gain colonies, who acted on the practice of big Western powers.