China News Agency, Beijing, August 26th: To understand today's China, why do we need to understand the history of the past?
——Interview with Austrian sinologist Li Xard
Author Li Jingze Ma Shuaisha
In 1975, Austrian college student Li Xard (Richard Trappel) set foot on the train bound for China, Vienna - Moscow - Beijing, all the way east, which lasted for more than ten days.
The long-distance study visit opened the door for him to know and understand China.
In the following decades, Li Xade continued to pay attention to Chinese culture and became a sinologist who has studied both ancient and modern Chinese literature, history and philosophy.
Since the establishment of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna in 2006, Li Xard has been the director of the Austrian side, dedicated to promoting local Chinese education and cross-cultural exchanges.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East-West Question", he said that China's development achievements today benefit from thousands of years of ideological accumulation. To understand today's China, we must comprehensively study China's past history and culture. Look at China with your heart and your eyes.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: As the first student of the Sinology Department of the University of Vienna, what kind of indissoluble bond do you have with China?
What prompted you to dedicate yourself to the study of Chinese culture for nearly 50 years?
Li Xade: I became interested in Chinese characters when I was in my teens. Unfortunately, there was no way to learn Chinese in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s.
In October 1973, the University of Vienna established the Sinology Department, and I was one of the first students.
By chance, I applied for a Chinese government scholarship, took a train across Siberia for more than ten days to Beijing, and studied at Beijing Language Institute (now Beijing Language and Culture University) for two semesters.
In my spare time, I rode a bicycle through the streets and alleys of Beijing, with a total mileage of more than 2,000 kilometers.
At that time, there were few vehicles on the streets of Beijing, and the city was very quiet at night.
Now, compared with 1975, the only thing that has not changed in Beijing is the street names.
The streets and alleys I rode through in those days have become wide urban expressways, and the single-storey buildings passing by have also been replaced by high-rise buildings.
After I finished studying Beiyu, I began to travel around China, and what I saw in Pudong was still a farmland.
In the past 50 years, I have witnessed the vicissitudes of life in China.
What impresses me is that Chinese people have become more open-minded.
In the 1970s, if a foreign student wanted to make a phone call at home, he had to go to the telephone building on Chang'an Avenue and wait for about an hour before it was his turn to make a call for a few minutes.
Now, whether in China or Austria, we can use social software to connect with friends at any time.
I have always been very interested in Chinese and Chinese characters. After I went to China, in addition to Chinese, I developed a strong interest in literature, philosophy, culture and various aspects of China in various periods, and did some research.
Later, I returned to the Faculty of Sinology at the University of Vienna as a teacher.
Although he is now retired, he still insists on teaching Chinese literature.
In 1967, 16-year-old Li Xade was learning Chinese.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China News Service reporter: After studying in the Sinology Department and later becoming a sinologist and director of the Confucius Institute, how did you develop Sinology, especially ancient Chinese literature research, and what inspiration did this process bring to you?
Li Xiade: As the research on Chinese literature became more and more in-depth, I began to think, how to let the world understand the history of Chinese thought through the study of Chinese literature?
How to let people understand the social history of China through the study of Chinese classical philosophy?
I think it is necessary to study Chinese traditional culture, and at the same time pay attention to the representative literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, and strive for a comprehensive and systematic understanding of Chinese culture and literary history.
In the research process, I will compare the understanding of society, the relationship between individuals and society, and existence of Chinese scientists and writers 2,500 years ago, with how philosophers in the 20th and 21st centuries studied today's society and how they viewed the relationship between China and the West. relationship for comparison.
Many ideas contained in Chinese culture have inspired me.
My post-doctoral dissertation was titled "Literary Theory of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties", which mainly studied the important document "Wen Xin Diao Long", which taught me how to look at the world: to appreciate and respect life with humility.
Especially in today's world, it is more important to respect everyone and every nation and recognize the development of history.
In order to pay tribute to "Wen Xin Diao Long", I also named the journal of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna, Austria, "Wen Xin".
When I began to look at the earth from a distant universe through the wisdom of the ancient Chinese in "Wen Xin Diao Long", I found that the existence of each life is so short in the universe, how to cherish its existence is not an exaggeration.
If people can realize this, they should treat themselves and others, cultural and social diversity more rationally and fairly, and deal with the relationship between man and nature.
Nanjing "Liu Xie and Wenxin Diaolong Memorial Hall".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo
China News Agency reporter: How has the Western understanding and research on Sinology changed over the years?
What do you think of this change?
How should we promote cultural exchanges between China and the West in the future?
Li Xia De: In the 1970s, the Western Sinology community mainly studied Chinese classical literature, classical philosophy and classical society.
After the reform and opening up, Western Sinology research has increasingly focused on contemporary China, especially observing China from the perspective of political, economic, and social development.
The research direction of the Department of Sinology has also shifted from literature and philosophy to sociology and political science. Especially now, sinologists especially like to study China from the perspective of sociology and politics.
I believe that with the development of China, it is natural for the Western Sinology community to change the perspective of China research, but China's achievements are not accidental, but benefit from thousands of years of ideological accumulation.
If the West wants to study China, there must be a comprehensive study, not just classical studies, nor just facing contemporary China.
There are some thinking and traditions in Chinese culture that transcend the limitations of history, which can be used for reference today.
For example, in the past, the imperial examinations required the study of Confucianism, and its requirements for scholarship and the importance of self-cultivation and culture play a very important role in the present and the future; Confucianism believes that individuals should contribute to the state, and the state should protect individuals. This kind of thinking still influences the choice of China's development path. In addition, both Confucianism and Taoism have a deep understanding of nature and emphasize the responsibility of individuals and countries to nature. This traditional view of nature is not only important for China, but also for other The country also has a good reference value.
If we want to understand the present of China, we must study the history of China for at least 2,500 years, including the history of Chinese culture and thought.
The study of China should not only look at one stage, but should be a comprehensive study throughout history, which requires scholars' research to be continuous and in-depth.
It should be noted that, in view of the different historical origins of China and the West, there may be obstacles in the process of cultural exchanges caused by various cross-language, cross-cultural and even different systems, but these differences also constitute the basis of friendly dialogue between China and foreign countries. The starting point, because in the process, both sides are trying to find commonalities in each other's culture.
We should strengthen the study of each other's history and culture in exchanges, build bridges for people of all ages to communicate, and pay special attention to cultivating an international perspective in education.
Sinologists visit the "Rotary Type Disk" created by Wang Zhen, the inventor of wooden movable type in the Yuan Dynasty, at the "National Book Museum" in Beijing.
Photo by Zhong Xin issued by China News Agency
China News Service reporter: As the representative of the University of Vienna in Austria to China, what efforts have you made to promote exchanges between the University of Vienna and Chinese universities, as well as cultural exchanges between China and Austria?
Where do you think the world should start to understand Chinese culture today, and what is its special significance?
Li Xiade: Since the late 1970s, I first went to China once a year, then it became three or five times a year, and then I went to China almost every month, and my footprints covered almost all provinces in China, from the northernmost to Changchun and the southernmost. To Hainan, the most east is Shanhaiguan, and the most west is Xinjiang.
Rich experience in communication shows that not only the cooperation between institutions is important, but also the contact and friendship between people.
I have been teaching Chinese in Austria for many years, and I have been the Austrian Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna for 16 years.
I not only communicated with Chinese teachers at the Confucius Institute, but also kept close contact with Chinese friends by phone.
I hope that more people will have the opportunity to go to China to see China's development and the work done by Chinese people on the spot, and to know China with their own hearts and eyes.
Of course, I also very much welcome Chinese experts, friends and all ordinary Chinese to have the opportunity to come to Austria.
Li Xade participated in the 2014 China Tibet Development Forum in Lhasa.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Taking into account the differences between Chinese and Western language systems, and starting from personal long-term experience, I believe that learning Chinese can provide people with an opportunity to understand China more deeply.
I suggest that the West learn about China from the first-hand materials, because the first-hand materials truly introduce the history of China and avoid the distortion and possible misunderstanding of the culture in the process of dissemination.
In recent years, Western media, political circles, and economic circles have been very interested in China, but there are also noises about the so-called "China threat theory". I think that's because they don't know China well enough.
Cultural exchanges between China and the West are very important, and some cultural misunderstandings, or insufficient understanding, are bringing risks.
Regardless of nationality, ethnicity or color, human beings are a community with a shared future and should move towards unity, not confrontation or even division.
Both Austria, Europe and even the Western world should increase their understanding of China.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Li Xade, Austrian Sinologist, Austrian Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna, Visiting Professor at Beijing Language and Culture University, Honorary Professor at China University of Political Science and Law, mainly engaged in Chinese classical and modern literature, Chinese and Western cultural exchanges.