外国汉学家研究中国方志管窥——以卜正民著《明代的社会与国家》为例

My Tunnel Vision on Foreign Sinologists' Research on Chinese Local Records Using The Chinese State in Ming Society by Timothy Brook as an Example

外国汉学家对中国的方志文化日益重视和推崇,并进行深入研究,从而更凸显出方志文化的文化价值和文化意义。文章以加拿大汉学家卜正民所著的《明代的社会与国家》为例,管窥外国汉学家对中国方志是如何认知、研究、评价的,其研究的动机、力度及特色,以及取得的成果。在世界各国的文化交流日益密切和文化大发展的时代,中国的方志文化理应在世界文化的格局中占有一席之地。

Foreign Sinologists are attaching increasingly greater importance to Chinese local records culture which is held in higher and higher esteem.They have conducted in-depth research which highlights the cultural value and cultural significance of local records culture.This article takes The Chinese State in Ming Society written by Canadian Sinologist Timothy Brook as an example,and provides us with a glimpse of how Chinese local records are learned,studied,and commented by foreign Sinologists,what their research motives,dynamism,and features are,and what achievements they have made.Timothy Brook's individual research on Chinese local records can not represent the whole picture of foreign Sinologists' research on Chinese local records,but it provides Chinese scholars with a glimpse of many valuable information and much to be studied and borrowed from.In the age of great cultural development and increasingly closer global cultural exchanges,Chinese local records culture should take its rightful position in the structure of world culture.