Zhang Guogang is a professor at the School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, and distinguished professor of the Changjiang Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education of China. A Humboldt Research Fellow, he studied the history of European sinology and the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West at Hamburg University and at Trier University, Germany. He was a member of the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Steering Committee for History Teaching and vice president of the Chinese Society for Historians of China’s Foreign Relations. His works include General History of the Cultural Relations Between China and the West, The Historical Evolution of the Silk Road, History as a Mirror and the Rise and Fall of China and The Frontier of Civilization: From Ancient Times to Modern Times.

A photograph of Zhang Guogang.

Zhang Guogang

In the Chinese world order, “the West” has special meanings—from the simple geographical reference to cultural connotations. From the ancient Silk Road to the spread of modern Western learning to the East, the development of the Chinese civilization has always been accompanied by exchanges and mutual learning between the Eastern and Western civilizations, willingly or enforced. Today, however, some people think that the Chinese civilization and Western civilization are incompatible, and the rise of China is a signal of hegemony. Zhang Guogang weighs in on the validity of the “clash of civilizations” theory and the way for Eastern and Western civilizations to get closer.

CNS: How did different civilizations connect in the history of human development? How did the early Eastern and Western civilizations meet?

Zhang Guogang: Homo habilis, the most ancient representative of the human genus, and Homo ergaster, the oldest known earliest humans with modern human-like features, traveled out of Africa three times and reached Asia and Europe. With the emergence of Homo sapiens in the Paleolithic Age 250,000 years ago, human beings were divided into different groups based on skin color and body shape, and gradually parted ways culturally. From 12,000 to 10,000 BC, global warming led to the first Agricultural Revolution, which promoted the birth of the ancient human civilization. Homologous human beings shared the same intellectual capabilities, so the material civilizations created by human beings in different places had fundamental and macroscopic similarities. At the same time, they also showed regional differences in technology and materials.

From 2000 to 1000 BC, there was a large-scale exchange between the Eastern and Western ancient civilizations in Eurasia, driven by the migration of nomads. The earliest interaction between the Eastern and Western civilizations originated from the ancient Indo-Europeans. Some entered Mesopotamia, some entered India, and others migrated to northern China via Central Asia. The great migration brought shocks and new changes. Civilizations had exchanges with one another, learned from one another, merged and grew up in war and peace.

CNS: The history of exchanges between the Chinese and Western civilizations is also the process of getting to know each other. What historical stages did this process pass through?

Zhang Guogang: Exchanges among human civilizations began in the wilderness era but due to the natural conditions, their scale and forms were greatly limited. But after entering the period of civilized society, especially after the birth of nations, the exchange was influenced by multiple factors such as political power, the economy and society. In this process, China’s perception of “the West” also changed gradually.

In different historical periods, China had different degrees of passion and paths for foreign exchanges. They can be roughly divided into three periods.

The first period was before the fifteenth century and can be called the classical period. During this period, China was ahead of its neighboring countries in economy and science for a long time, and was in a more active and stronger position in the cultural exchanges with the West. From the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), the East and the West opened up direct communication channels, and material and cultural exchanges followed.

The three centuries from 1500 to 1800 can be counted as the second period, namely, the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty period. The opening of a new sea route expanded the exchange to religion, science and technology, art, ideology and politics. During this period, China and the West were in an equal position politically; the spread of Western culture to the East and Chinese culture to the West was reciprocal.

The period around the first Opium War (1840–1842) to 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, can be regarded as the third period, that is, the modern times when China was in a passive and weak position.

CNS: You said the Chinese and Western civilizations were truly two heterogeneous civilizations. Do different civilizations have similarities?

Zhang Guogang: During ancient Roman times, there were well-established sea and land routes around the Mediterranean; Western Eurasia, even South Asia and North Africa had close contacts since ancient times. Only distant China, separated by mountains and deserts, was in a relatively isolated geographical area and thus developed a unique Chinese civilization. For the Western world, China on the east of the Tianshan Mountains is the East with the “otherness.” All the civilized entities to the west of the Tianshan Mountains share some common connections in history, religion, language and war, which together reflect the uniqueness of the Chinese civilization. But that does not mean there are no similarities.

In fact, the commonality of all civilizations lies in that they work out a relationship between man and nature, man and God, man and society, and man and man. The interests in the world are both conflicting and related, so governance is needed. In the process of governance, the West emphasizes individual rights, autonomy and freedom, while China stresses group interests and collective rights, and restricts individual rights. This difference is the result of a long historical tradition. China and the West have chosen different paths, and their priorities are different. But the ultimate goal is to ensure human survival and development, improve the quality of life, and make the relationship between man, nature and society more harmonious.

CNS: You have frequently said that there was distortion and misinterpretation in the process of mutual learning among civilizations. How did this interaction, driven by self needs, influence the history of exchanges between the Chinese and Western civilizations?

Zhang Guogang: Selective interpretation or “misreading” abounds in history.

Need is an important aspect affecting cultural exchange. Take Buddhism for example. The element of filial piety in the life story of the Shakyamuni Buddha has been strengthened in China. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties (907–960), Chinese Buddhists compiled the Twenty-Four Stories of Filial Piety; Indian Zen developed into Buddhist Zen in China. The Orphan of Zhao, a Chinese play attributed to 13th-century playwright Ji Junxiang and regarded as the Chinese Hamlet, was adapted by Voltaire because its moral appeals of benevolence, royalty and justice met the needs of the European society, and Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments also reflected such moral appeals.

The same is true of commodities. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a demand for Chinese porcelain in the West. So porcelain and its production technology were introduced in the West, which were then mastered and improved to produce higher quality porcelain. The compass was invented in China, but Westerners transformed it into the mariner’s compass; in the Qing Dynasty, China introduced the compass again.

An exchange among civilizations is possible only when the recipient needs it. After the different experiences of different civilizations are interpreted, a civilization usually adds its own actual needs, which is a kind of reference and transformation for localization. Simply copying the West doesn’t work; the Western experience needs to be reformed for our own use.

CNS: The world today is a global village. As the Chinese saying goes, “All people under the heaven are one family.” If there is a common value in today’s world, what could it be? Can there be mutual recognition and integration among civilizations through exchanges and mutual learning?

Zhang Guogang: As the West took the lead in industrialization, Western civilization has remained strong for hundreds of years. However, the developing countries are still struggling with poverty and backwardness, which shows that the Western civilization cannot completely solve humanity’s development problems.

Different civilizations have their own characteristics, they coexist and complement each other; the world cannot be unified by any one civilization. Realistically, apart from the Western civilization, another civilization is needed to break the asymmetry that has existed for some time. Whether from a historical or realistic perspective, the Chinese civilization can help achieve a balance. The development of civilization requires more ideas and inclusiveness.

China pulling its 1.4 billion people out of absolute poverty and moving toward modernization is a great achievement of the human civilization. China’s dream of national rejuvenation has never meant seeking hegemony, but addressing the unbalanced development in the world and helping to achieve common prosperity.

To respect other civilizations, we must change our mindset. The world is changing, so there’s no room for complacency. We need reform. The West needs to solve its ideological disputes and stop populism while China needs to improve the rule of law, marketization, internationalization and modernization of its governance capacity. However, China’s core socialist values also contain the concepts of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, so it is possible for China and the West to complement and balance each other. This is the significance of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

(Interviewed by Qiu Yining)