A Study of the Early Period of Sinology in the West
西方早期汉学试析

Sinology in the West is an immediate product of the culture clashes between the East and the West ever since the great era of Geographic Discovery, with its keynote varying with the changing importance of the two civilizations. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries constituted the early period of Sinology. Missionar- ies to China, especially those Jesuits, immersed themselves in the Chinese culture and thus had a fairly deep comprehension of Chinese society, by means of either staying at the court or going to the grassroots. With the help of Chinese scholars, they studied many Chinese cultural classics and therefore presented the study of Sinology with a high starting point. They prepared handsome raw materials for the full-fledged Sinology in and after the nineteenth century, edited many books serving various functions,laid foundation of the field of Sinol- ogy, and scored series of achievements in the early researches.