The Seeking for Civilization:Modernization Theory in the Intellectual History of the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China
Modernization is the main theme of the intellectual history in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.After the Opium War the ancient Chinese agricultural civilization was chal-lenged by the modern industrial civilization which originated in Western Europe.China adopted the inte-gration of modern civilization through cultural transmission in the clash of civilizations.Generations of national elites have carried out arduous and unremitting reform practice and intellectual exploration for China's modernization,in the face of momentous changes of a like not seen in three thousand years.The gradual evolution of new concepts of"Foreign Affairs","prosperity","Reform","new people","revolution","civilization","new culture","westernization"and"modernization"showed the tortu-ous evolution of the theoretical form of early Chinese modernization in the intellectual history of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China From the"Westernization"trend of"Chinese culture as sys-tem and western culture as means"in the late Qing Dynasty to the distinction between"civilization"and"culture","modernization"and"westernization"of the intellectual circle in the 1930s,the theoreti-cal form of early Chinese modernization tends to mature.