19th Century Russian Intelligentsia on Chinese Civilization

• Main Authors: HsiuChen Shen, 沈秀珍
• Other Authors: V. V. Maliavin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/63973289856575496752

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 俄羅斯研究所 === 91 === 　　The thesis deals with the most influential views on China among Russian sinologists, thinkers and writers but especially the so called Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century. As this study shows, the above mentioned views and evaluations of Chinese civilization played a prominent part in the formation of the intelligentsia’s social thought. The study discloses close links between political thought of intelligentsia and its views on China. 　　The research methods of this thesis include documentary analysis, history analysis, cross-cultural and comparative civilization. The study is based on various kinds of Chinese, Russian, English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish literary sources. 　　Two main attitudes to Chinese civilization can be discerned in the 19th century Russia. The background was a heir to the legacy of the European age of Enlightenment, its main representative being N. Bichurin. The first one is exemplified by the famous writer L. Tolstoy, a vehement critic of the West, who admired Chinese civilization. The second trend was nourished by the idea of the so called “Yellow Peril” upheld both by liberal and by the socialist thinkers. Its main advocates were thinkers of quite different kinds: A. Herzen, V. Soloviov and some leading writers in the beginning of the 20th century: D. Merezhkovsky, V. Ivanov, A. Bely et al. 　　This thesis contains five chapters: Introduction, Background of the 19th Century, L. Tolstoy on Chinese Civilization, Russian Intelligentsia’s Thoughts Relating to the “Yellow Peril” and Conclusion.