3On the Research of Global History andCultural Interaction in East Asia
LI Xuetao*, SHEN Guowei**

I

Compared with previous research that has been conducted on world
history, which separately focuses on each geographical region and history as
it relates to different fields, the research concepts of global history break thespell of “nation”, the concept which is characteristic of modern times. Its
research field is humanity as a whole that is made up of different regions,
nationalities, religions, cultures and languages. The disciplinary division
between East Asia’s history and the world’s history vanishes accordingly, andthey are all integrated into the global history for the overall research.
Since the era of great sea voyages, Europe has been accustomed toexporting its interests to every corner of the world by spreading its nationalor religious ideologies, a trend which is one of the features of modernity and,in a real sense, has contributed to the formation of world trade. The formation of the global trading system has given rise to the reallocation of global
resources and the spread of European technology throughout the world. The
grand voyage of the aliens stimulates the formation of a national consciousness, and the relationship between sovereign states has been defined in theform of various treaties. From the perspective of the colonial expansion with
Europe as the center, the world is merely a collection of places within thereach of Europe. As a discipline, the establishment of global history breaks up
the monopoly of the viewpoints of Euro-centrism with the development ofcross-cultural interaction. The previous practice which takes the historicalexperience of Europe as the criteria for measuring other societies’ development has been abandoned by today’s academic circle. William McNeill	 * Prof. Li Xuetao 李雪涛 is dean of School of History at Beijing Foreign Studies
University.
** Prof. Shen Guowei 沈国威 is director of Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies
at Kansai University.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 10 2019（1917-2016）, the father of global history, claims, “Historical change waslargely provoked by encounters with strangers.”1 In particular, the contact andcommunication with heterogeneous cultures occasionally give rise to theadjustment and change of numerous established conventions. To a large
extent, historical transformation is triggered by the encounters of one culture
with a foreign culture, and it is this drive that fomented the formation anddevelopment of Eurasian “ecumene”. Marshall Hodgson（1922-1968）even
believes, “The evolution of Western Europe depended on the course ofdevelopment of Afro-Eurasian historical life as a whole.”2
The concepts of global history transcend the ways people have viewed
the world and space in the past. Although the birth of modernity began in theWest, it came into being as a result of the collision between the West andother heterogeneous civilizations. Michael Geyer（1947-）, a German professorof European history at The University of Chicago, and Charles Bright,
another historian at The University of Chicago, even state that non-Westerncountries（including China）, as a kind of counter-force, are the sources of thestrength for generating global integration, helping the world merge graduallyin the process of integration and connecting the regional histories with world
history as a whole.3
Global history, as a kind of methodology and a field of research, isactually a superordinate concept and a broad academic domain waiting to be
explored, and no one one has the means to exhaust the potential knowledge
contained therein. At present, we are now integrating the research results inevery domain of global history and East Asia from the perspective of
academic history, in the hope of discovering some new research results on
global history and East Asia. The topic, Research of Global History andCultural Interaction in East Asia, is a major that is not only only confined toa certain person in a certain discipline, but is inevitably the outcome of positive participation and close interaction of scholars in different majors anddisciplines, and only after the concerted efforts of several generations can wehope to achieve preliminary results.

II

East Asian Cultural Interaction Studies is an important academic concept
which was proposed by a research team of Kansai University, Japan. The
1 William McNeill, “The Changing Shape of World History,” History and Theory, Vol.
34, No. 2 (May, 1995), pp. 8-26, see p. 15 here.
2 Marshall Hodgson, “The Interrelations of Societies in History,” Comparative Studies
in Society and History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jan., 1963), pp. 227-250, see p. 250 here.
3 Michael Geyer & Charles Bright, “World History in a Global Age,” The American
Historical Review, Vol. 100, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 1034-1060.

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reason why “interaction” is used rather than “communication” is that the teamdefines the characteristics of its research as cross-border, interactive, mutual
views between the peripheral area and the central area. In June 2007, theMinistries of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan
approved the plan of the Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies（ICIS）for
which the scholars of history, intellectual history, and East-West language
contact in Kansai University had jointly applied. In October of the same year,
Professor Yu Ying-shih （1930-） presented an in-depth exposition on thecivilization theory of Arnold Joseph Toynbee（1889-1975）and Huntington
Samuel （1927-2008） in a keynote speech delivered at the preliminary
convention of the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia. In his speech,
he stated the significance of establishing the Cultural Interaction Studies andsetting up this international society for promoting related research. In June
2009, the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia was formally set up in
Osaka, Japan. The tenet of the Society is to have a dynamic command of theformation, interaction, conflict, transition, and integration etc. between thecultures in East Asia, conducting the cultural interaction by synthesizing avariety of methodologies of the humanities, namely the multi-directional
interpretation with mutual interference. They hope through this process toimprove academic exchanges among scholars from East Asian countries.
While conducting academic research, the scholars on the team advocatethat they should strive to carry out their research with global vision andcreativity. Although the Society has set their research object as “culturalinteraction in East Asia”, “the cultural interaction between the East and theWest in East Asia” and “the cultural interaction between various regions ofEast Asia” are also included in the topic of research. While analyzing theactual characteristics of cultural interaction, the team will transcend and breakthrough the so-called “one-to-one “research limitations between two countries
or two regions, and strive to flexibly use the “many-to-many” research
approach among many countries and regions. The geographical division basedon nations, civilizations or terrestrial space cannot be the research boundaryof scholars nowadays.4

III

For the view of global history and East Asian Cultural Interaction Studies,
the cultural resource of East Asia in itself can also provide some uniqueperspectives and theoretical support. “Tao”（“道” in Chinese, meaning prin4 See the subtitle of The Birth of the Modern World by Sir Christopher Bayly（19452015）-”global connections and comparisons”. Christopher Bayly, The Birth of theModern world 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons, Oxford 2004.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 10 2019ciple or logos）and “Utensil”（“器”in Chinese, meaning tool or utensil）are apair of significant categories in the history of Chinese philosophy. Just as The
Great Treatise I of The Book of Changes states, “The metaphysical is called
Tao, and the physical is called Utensil.” It can be concluded that the “Tao”
refers to intangible principles, while “Utensil” refers to the tangible tools.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, philosophers conducted in-depth discussions on the relationship between the “Tao” and “Utensil”. Zhu Xi, who
followed the viewpoint of Cheng Yi （1033-1107） and Cheng Hao （10321085）, two famous philosophers during the Song Dynasty, conceived that“Everything which has forms and appearances are Qi （“气” in Chinese,
meaning substance or existence）, and those which are the principles of Utensil
are Tao.”（Book to Lu Zijing）Here he emphasizes that “Tao” and “Utensil”
are not separate concepts, and there is no difference between them.5 On theother hand, Lu Jiuyuan（1139-1193）, another philosopher during the Southern
Song Dynasty, disagreed with Zhu Xi’s viewpoint regarding the Tao andUtensil, and argued that the Tao is fundamental while the Utensil is nonessential, and purposed that the Tao comes before the Utensil.6
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as Western Learning was being
introduced into China along with Christianity, most traditional intellectuals
believed that the so-called Western Learning was just the “art of being acommon man” at the “Utensil” level, rejected the “Tao” of Western Learning,
and accepted the scientific knowledge of modern times conditionally. What
Xu Gunagqi（1562-1633）learned from Matteo Ricci（1552-1610）was no
more than astronomy and calendrical calculations of Western Learning introduced by the missionaries, which were indeed lost in the traditional Chinese
Learning. Around the middle of the 19th century, Zheng Guanying（18421921）, a famous enlightenment thinker, advocated that the “Tao is fundamental while Utensil is non-essential”, in which “Tao” refers to the tradi5 “Utensil is Tao, while Tao is Utensil. Tao isn’t separated from Utensil, and Tao isjust the principle of Utensil. For example, a chair is a Utensil. Being seated is theprinciple of this chair. The human body is a Utensil, and the language and theaction are the principles of the human body. Principle is only above Utensil, and theprinciple and Utensil are not separated from each other.” Li Jingde, Zhuzi yulei（Classified Conversations of Zhu Xi）, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1986, Vol.77, p.
1970.
6 “The acquisition of morality is primary, the comprehension of skill is secondary, theacquisition of morality is put first, and the fulfillment is put after […] Archery,chariot-riding, calligraphy and mathematics etc. are skills, which are humble, base,inferior and insignificant.” Lu Jiuyuan (1139-1193), “Yu Tao Zanzhong” (Letter to
Tao Zanzhong), in Xiangshan xiansheng quanji (The Complete Works of Xiangshan),Sibu Congkan chubian, Jing Shanghai hanfenlou Ming edition, Vol.1161, juan 15, p.
2a-b.

On the Research of Global History and Cultural Interaction in East Asia

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tional Confucian ethical principles, and “Utensil” refers to the westernscience and technology. However, the Confucian ethical principles, the lifeblood of Chinese culture and the basis for maintaining the foundation ofChina’s political structure and ruling order, cannot be impacted or evenreplaced by Western Learning. Any attempt to enter the level of “Tao”
through “Utensil” is bound to meet firm opposition from the court officials. If“Tao is fundamental while Utensil is non-essential” is still a philosophicalpoint of view, then the later “Chinese-style westernization” is the real practical proposition, which has become the general policy guiding the New Dealfor decades by the Westernizationers. Arnold Joseph Toynbee（1889-1975）, a
British historian, penned in his analysis of “psychology of clash” when the
Far East was shocked by the West:“…the reception of a foreign culture is a painful as well as a hazardous
undertaking; and the victim’s instinctive repugnance to innovations thatthreaten to upset his traditional way of life makes the experience all theworse for him…”7
Since the late Ming Dynasty, the Chinese court officials deeply believedthat Western Learning embodied “an omen of subverting their traditional
lifestyle” and thus resisted it instinctively. Even until the late Qing Dynasty,
Zeng Guofan（1811-1872）, who was head of the distinctive officials in the
Tung-Chih Restoration, still believed, “The merit of the West is nothing morethan the ingenious manufacturing, powerful ships and cannons. Since thebarbarians do not know any etiquette, they could not provide convincing
speeches on politics. Even though there is politics for them, it does nothing
but refer to defying their superiors, and start rebellions, expels and murders
the monarch, scorns the cardinal guides and the constant virtues, and goesagainst ethics. Do they deserve to be followed?”8 According to
Neo-Confucianism, everything in Confucian tradition has been elevated to thelevel of “Tao”, while Western Learning is only worth our learning at the levelof “Utensil”. This is much like the so-called “inlaying” craftsmanship: if
something is embedded in the gap of another system and is integrated to be awhole, it could achieve more practical performance in the new system.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Western Learning only played a role of“inlaying” as an “object”. It is easier to understand the relationship between
Chinese Learning and the so-called “Western Learning” during the Ming andQing Dynasties using the theory of Tao and Utensil.
7 Arnold Joseph Toynbee, The World and the West, (NY and London: Oxford University
Press, 1953), pp. 81-82.
8 Quoted from Xuan Fan’s “Zhengzhi zhi yinguo guanxi lun”（On the Relationship
Between Cause and Effect in Politics）, in: Dongfang Zazhi（Eastern Miscellany）,
1910, Vol.7, No.12, p. 283.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 10 2019

As for the subsequent conditions, we hope to borrow the “harmony” notionof the Huayan Sect for proper explanation. Harmony means completeness andintegration without obstacle. That is, all subjects can maintain their original
stance complete and intact as a whole, and can interact and integrate witheach other without contradiction or conflict. The ideal state of two subjects
interacting and integrating is expressed here. Fernand Braudel（1902-1985）, a
French historian, claims that although the cultural belts based on geographicalenvironments are relatively stable, they also propagate and permeate mutually, and there is no cultural boundary which is unchangeable and completely
closed.9 William McNeill adds that the ultimate spring of human variability,of course, lies in our capacity to invent new ideas, practices and institutions.
But invention flourishes best when contact with strangers compels different
ways of thinking and doing to compete for attention.10 Therefore, it is theinteraction between cultures that promotes progress of human society.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Western Learning, merely as a means of“inlaying”, played a decorative role in Confucianism at the level of Utensil,
which obviously could not meet the needs of the society. In his first essay,
Yan Fu regarded “western techniques” such as the steam turbine and militarymachinery, etc. as “the rough skills at a physical level.”11 However, in his
essay On Our Salvation which he wrote two months later, he borrowed
Chuang-tzu’s viewpoint that the “Tao is omnipresent and revealed in the
humble objects of life” to express Francis Bacon’s（1561-1626）12 scientificview of nature. Later, Yan Fu tirelessly added the propositions on principles
and methods of metaphysics provided by physics in his translations anddiscussions, including Evolution and Ethics.13 However, Chinese traditional
intellectuals such as Tang Zhen （1856-1917）, believe that the westerners’“Utensil” must have some kind of Tao value behind its instrumental characteristics, he says, “Perhaps what China held on to was the Tao of metaphysics, while what the west specialized in was the Utensil of physics. China
cherished its Tao headstrongly and gradually lost its so-called Utensil, while
the West strived to work on the Utensil while sometimes secretly catering the
9 Fernand Braudel, translated by Xiao Chang etc., Wenming shigang（Grammaire desCivilisations）, Nanning: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2003, p. 30-32.
10 William McNeill, “The Changing Shape of World History,” History and Theory, Vol.
34, No. 2, (May 1995), p.15.
11 Yan Fu, “Lun shibian zhi ji”（On the Urgent Change of the World）, edited by Wang
Shi, Yan Fu Ji 1（The Collection of Yan Fu I）, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, January
1986, p. 2.
12 Yan Fu, “Jiuwang juelun”（On Our Salvation）, edited by Wang Shi, Yan Fu Ji 1（TheCollection of Yan Fu I）, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, January 1986, p. 46.
13 Shen Guowei, Yan Fu yu kexue（Yan Fu and Science）, Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing
House, May 2017.

On the Research of Global History and Cultural Interaction in East Asia

9

Tao. The West adhered to and pursued it, transformed and comprehended it,
truly understood it, and invented objects that were derived from China. Why
could not China invent objects that were derived from the West?”14 After that,“harmony”, as the interaction and integration between the subjects in different
cultures, gradually replaced “inlaying” to become the new paradigm ofcultural interaction,15

IV

Therefore, the holistic study of the humanities has become a trend in thisglobalized world. The “Global Turn” of history as seen in the backdrop of amodern globalized world, is a global view of history and accepting global
history as a research object: the former is a kind of new perspective and new
method of historical research and historical writing, i.e. compiling macroscopic world history, investigating microscopic historical cases with the viewsof integration and relation, or understanding cross-country historicalphenomena with a transnational vision; while the latter is a research domain
and a branch of history studies, i.e. the study of history transcending nations.
Global history and East Asian Cultural Interaction Studies aims at eliminating
the boundary between nationality and country, placing the research object ina broad and correlative context so as to understand and explore from ancomprehensive viewpoint, and breaking through the various kinds of previous
centrist prejudice of human cognition. The 9th International Symposium ofSociety for Cultural Interaction in East Asia was held in Beijing Foreign
Studies University, during which the latest achievements assuming the above
context as the research standpoint and methods in the fields of global history
and cultural interaction in East Asia were demonstrated. Basically, what
global history and cultural interaction emphasize is global interaction. The
theme of this annual conference was “View of Global History andKnowledge Transfer in East Asia”. The contents of the symposium include
14 “Zhiyan-Zhongxue diliu” （Warnings-Secondary Education No. 6）, in: Xiaoshan
wenshi ziliao xuanji 4 – Tang Shouqian shiliao zhuanji （Selected works of theCounty Xiaoshan Literary and Historical Materials. Vol. Four- The Monograph ofHistorical Material by Tang Shouqian）, 1993, Xiaoshan: Zhechu Shulin（90）, No.
59, p. 225.
15 On the conceptual applications of “inlaying（xianqian 镶嵌）” and “harmony (yuanrong 圆融)”, appreciation is given to Professor Kun-Chiang Chang, in the
Department of East Asian Studies, Taiwan Normal University, who delivered aspeech – “Wushidao de ‘fenliu 分流’ yu ‘shentou 渗透’ xin quanshi” （The New
Interpretation of Bushido’s “Distributary” and “Infiltration”）at “the 8th International
Symposium of Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia”, which was included in
The Conference Proceedings on the 8th Annual Symposium of Society for Cultural
Interaction in East Asia, Osaka: Kansai University, May 2016, pp.665-671.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 10 2019

the investigation into the interactions formed in the domains of politics,
economy and culture etc. between East Asia and other people groups withdifferent regions, nationalities, cultures since the Age of Sail. Besides theresearch on the generally & regionally global history and cultural interactionin East Asia, the monographic research between the world and the cultures in
East Asia is also included, such as the history of trade, immigration, missionaries, linguistic communication, knowledge transfer, science and technology,
disease, concepts, translation and overseas study etc. These subjects areincluded because they are related with the “problem-oriented history” advocated by the Annales School in France. The Annales School stressed thesignificance of “analysis” and “questioning” in historical research.
Liu Xincheng (1952- ) listed the eight forms of interactive modes
expressed by western scholars on global history: 1. Elaborate the mutuality
and bidirectionality of cultural influence when different groups of people“encounter” each other; 2. Describe every sort of “communicative network”
or “symbiosis circle” ever existing in human history; 3. Expound how theinventions of one region give rise to the chain reactions in the world; 4.
Discuss the relationship between “small places” and the “big world”; 5. “Theglobalization of local history”; 6. The thematic comparative studies on a
global scale; 7. The research on ecological history and environmental history;
8. Evaluate the laws of interaction and destiny.16 The above-listed themes of
Global History and East Asia could all be summed up in the interactivemodes listed by LIU Xincheng. The American historian Jerry Bentley (19492012) claimed that world history (global history) investigated “historical
processes that have not respected national, political, geographical, or cultural
boundary lines, but rather have inﬂuenced affairs on transregional, continental, hemispheric, and global scales. These processes include climaticchanges, biological diffusions, the spread of infectious and contagious
diseases, mass migrations, transfers of technology, campaigns of imperial
expansion, cross-cultural trade, the spread of ideas and ideals, and the expansion of religious faiths and cultural traditions.”17 The history of culturaldevelopment in East Asia not only has its own distinctive tradition, it also ishistory with incessant innovations and breakthroughs resulting from contact
and interaction within East Asia and between East Asia and the rest of theworld. It is in the light of the research on global history and cultural interaction in East Asia that we see that the present civilization of East Asia origi16 Liu Xincheng, “Zai hudong zhong goujian shijie lishi” (Building the World History
in Interaction), in: Guangming Ribao (Guangming Daily), February 17, 2009.
17 Jerry H. Bentley, “The New World History,” in Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, eds., A
Companion to Western Historical Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 393-416,
see p. 393 here.

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nated from divergent cultural contact and thus displays the global meaning of
East Asian culture.
Global history and cultural interaction focus on the cultural exchanges
between Europe and East Asia since the Age of Sail. The historical, ideological, religious and cultural contents of ancient East Asia are discussed, which
are the re-elucidation and reconstruction under the impact of Western
Learning. After getting rid of its original context and strands, the ideology of
East Asia takes on the unexpected, fresh interpretation and a meaning in the
new context. Every kind of ideology has the social and academic soil inwhich they grow and develop, and the change of soil would apparently resultin the difference between citrus and trifoliate orange. Any awareness of the
problems is a re-reflection based on the stimulation from the era and environment. Strange thoughts and concepts become activated in the new context
once integrated into the strand and context of local culture, and thus play apivotal role. As for the research conducted on East Asia, scholars in exotic
countries have brought the culture of East Asia into their context, signifyingthat the culture of East Asia has transcended its original historical space andtime, and achieved the extra value.