西方全球史中的中国书写:学术史视角的思考

The Writing on China in Western Global History——Reflections from the Perspective of Academic History

西方全球史学者从多种不同的视角来书写中国,如威廉·麦克尼尔的文明互动视角、贡德·弗兰克的世界体系视角、王国斌和彭慕兰的中西比较研究、S.A.M.艾兹赫德从全球视野将中国放在世界历史中叙述等,虽然视角不同,但他们在书写中国过程中都突出了中国在世界历史上的地位和作用,对中华文明在世界文明发展史上的贡献做了阐述。影响这种中国书写的主要因素,在于中国的崛起使全球史学者重新认识和思考中国在全球化进程中的作用,并使他们找到了反对欧洲中心论的重要动力。然而,全球史中的中国书写仍需要改变目前以经济史为主的现状,加强文化史视角的研究,并对中国与欧亚大陆各地区之间的文化交流给予更多的关注。

Western scholars of global history wrote about China from various perspectives, such as cultural interaction of William McNeil, world system of Gunder Frank, comparative study of China and the west of R. Bin Wong and Kenneth Pomeranz, and S. A. M. Adshead’s narration of China in world history from a global perspective. Despite their different perspectives, they all highlighted China’s status and role in world history, and expounded contributions of Chinese civilization to the development of world civilization. What influences their writing on China is the rise of China, which makes historians rediscover and rethink China’s role in globalization, and provide them an important impetus against Euro-centralism.However, the current focus of writing on China needs to shift from mere economic history to a broader scope of cultural history and environmental history, with more attention to cultural exchanges between China and various regions of Eurasia.