Historical Understanding in China and the West

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
Philip J. Ivanhoe
Keyword(s):  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Late Qing Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
Chinese Philosopher ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Independent Field ◽  
Distinctive Type

Abstract This essay describes and compares three attempts to provide accounts of the nature of historical consciousness, along with accompanying explanations of how one comes to have historical knowledge. It explores, compares, and contrasts the views of the late Qing dynasty Chinese philosopher Zhang Xuecheng 章學誠 (1738–1801) and two Western philosophers – R.G. Collingwood (1889–1943) and Louis O. Mink (1921–83). These three thinkers all present historical understanding as a distinctive type of knowledge and share the aim of defending the discipline of history as a special, independent field of intellectual endeavor. Aside from analyzing these aspects of their respective theories, this essay aims to stimulate extensive and nuanced comparisons between Chinese and more recent Western forms of historical consciousness. While the comparison presented here is but one way forward, it not only seeks to offer specific insights generated by the comparative project but also to set forth a range of themes worthy of future study. For example, the analysis presented here shows that Zhang’s reflections on how historians relate to the past can contribute to current discussions of epistemic virtues.

The significance of family reminiscing for children’s historical consciousness

2021 ◽  
pp. 175069802110498
Author(s):  
Jukka Rantala
Keyword(s):  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Success ◽  
Historical Sites

Ten years ago, I set out to study the ways in which Finnish children encounter the past. Back then, I found that parents and grandparents play an important role as sources of historical knowledge. In early 2020, I duplicated the same interview study with 78 children between 10 and 12 years of age. Despite the changes in media culture, looking at photographs and visiting historical sites together with family have retained their relevance as historical activities. Storytelling through family mementos is also commonplace. Although the historical discourse of families revolves around everyday topics, the Finnish wars of 1939–1945 are still strongly present in historical storytelling. Against the backdrop of their parents’ and grandparents’ lives, children perceive history as a progress narrative, which inspires them to believe in their nation’s and their own future success. In this article, I explore the significance of family reminiscing for children’s historical consciousness.

scholarly journals Constructing historical thinking and inclusive identities: Analysis of heritage education activities

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Câmara Pinto ◽  
Alex Ibáñez-Etxeberria
Keyword(s):  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
School Students ◽  
Heritage Education ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This paper addresses the value of effective, significant heritage education pedagogic activities and tasks when teaching heritage topics in history and social science lessons. Heritage pedagogy needs to challenge students' preconceptions about their heritage and encourage learning about it: the investigation, interpretation and provenance of its sources and its significance. Our article is based on a research project in Portugal and Spain to evaluate the impact of heritage education pedagogy on students' historical understanding and their development of national identity. This paper's research involved secondary school students in northern Portugal. To assess their understanding of heritage, they completed a questionnaire at a heritage site with a focus on buildings, archaeological remains and museum artefacts that related to aspects of national history studied in schools. Analysis of their questionnaires revealed the relationship between students' interpretation of the heritage site's historical evidence and their historical consciousness. Although most students treated the heritage site buildings, remains and artefacts as sources of factual information about a fixed, given and largely unremembered past, several students questioned, hypothesized, and treated the sources as historically contextualized evidence that dovetailed with their existing historical knowledge. Contextualized interpretation is essential to historical understanding; accordingly, students studying heritage should be trained to analyse its historical sources in relation to their historicity. More generally, teaching about heritage should give students opportunities to challenge preconceptions they hold about it, and to learn how to deal with different, contrasting, difficult and controversial interpretations of heritage topics and sites in their historical contexts.

scholarly journals Asijské umění a umělecké řemeslo ve sbírce Západočeského muzea v Plzni

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Jindřich Mleziva
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Decorative Arts ◽  
Late Qing Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
The Public ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Woodblock Prints ◽  
History Of ◽  
Popular Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century

The collection of the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen includes significant examples of artworks and decorative arts from Asia. The history of this collection dates back to the last quarter of the 19th century, when these items were a part of a collection of the West Bohemian Museum of Decorative Arts in Pilsen. The first director of the museum, architect Josef Škorpil (1856–1931), contributed to the creation of the decorative arts collection and the acquisition of objects from the Far and Middle East. Thanks to its acquisition activities throughout Europe, a significant decorative arts collection was established in Pilsen. Its importance goes beyond the Pilsen region. The concept of creating this collection was in accordance with the emergence of decorative arts museums in Europe. The collection, together with the Asian objects, was presented to the public as a part of an exposition opened in 1913. Today, the Asian collection consists of Chinese and Korean objects, mainly ceramics and porcelain, as well as exceptionally well-preserved textiles from the late Qing Dynasty. The Japanese portable Buddhist altar zushi or a set of Japanese woodblock prints of the ukiyo-e style are among the most unique acquisitions. A relatively modest set of items from the Middle East includes typical examples of decorative arts from Iran, Turkey or Syria. The objects are still a popular subject of research and have also become a part of the new decorative arts permanent exhibition of the museum that was opened in 2017.

scholarly journals The Use of Lace and Passementerie in China in the Qing Dynasty

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Huicui Miao ◽  
Feng Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Historical Documents ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Late Qing Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Exchanges ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Late Qing Dynasty

With the increasing normalization of social exchanges between China and the west in the late Qing Dynasty, a large number of Western skills and products brought by missionaries were introduced into China, including a large number of lace and passemeterie. The description and analysis of such trimmings are not sufficient now. This paper takes the court dress at that time as the physical reference, analyzes it according to historical documents and western techniques. It shows that the earlier lace used is metal lace; During the Guangxu period, a large number of net lace appeared; At the same time, passemeterie was also widely used in China. Chinese society has no clear conceptual difference between lace and passemeterie, and they both are used as an edge decoration product from other culture.

scholarly journals The Meaning of the Past: The Perception and Appreciation of History Among Dutch Genealogists

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 27-43
Author(s):  
Kees Ribbens ◽  
Gerben J Westerhof ◽  
Cor Van Halen
Keyword(s):  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
Place Of Residence ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Her Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geographical Separation ◽  
The Family

Genealogy is a popular hobby in the Netherlands nowadays. This article presents findings from a survey of 192 members of the Dutch Genealogical Society. This research focuses on the meanings genealogists attach to the past and on the emotions and activities connected to this. Dutch genealogists associate past and history with positive matters. They perceive the past as a source of knowledge and as a beneficial contrast to the present. They show a specific interest in the period between 1500 and 1900, the respondent's place of residence and region, his or her family life and the life cycle. Most of the genealogists are looking for those sources of information that reinforce an emotional connectedness to the past. Their appreciation of historical knowledge shows the continuity that they experience between the present and the past. Nevertheless many genealogists clearly consider the past as different, as a contrast to the present. Judging by their own definitions of terms, genealogists have more interest for 'past' in the sense of what is close by and small-scale, and therefore almost directly accessible, than for 'history' in the sense of the authorized knowledge from the dominant historical canon. Genealogists are a diverse group. Particularly the level of education and the connectedness with the region and place of residence influence the way in which history is perceived. Gender seems to play only a limited role here. Genealogists with higher levels of education have a broader interest, particularly with respect to larger geographical areas and to topics concerning society at large. Education and a geographical separation with the family past seem to stimulate a stronger development of the traditional notion of historical consciousness in addition to an interest in family history.

scholarly journals Genre of non-fiction works of Serik Abikenovich and methods of teaching it

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-84
Author(s):  
Aray ZHUNDIBAYEVA ◽  
◽  
Meyirgul MURALBEK
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Family Names ◽  
Historical Figures

The article examines non-fiction f Serik Abikenuly and considers of his work in terms of a time of events in a plot, characters, a historical reality of toponymic names and teaching of his written works. The author of the article relied on the critical opinions of scientists-researchers of the Romance genre, demonstrating an artistic solution and a reality of life. In the analysis of his written works, it was proved that the place, time of the event, the existence of characters in life was proved by the example of the works of other scientists and writers. The article considers S. Abikenuly's documentary prose that are contributed in reviving of historical figures, family names, secret legends of the kazakh steppe, heroes of the early xx century, the role of knowledge of the remnants of the past in the formation of historical consciousness. Teaching of a written work based on historical data plays an important role in the formation of historical knowledge and national identity of learners. Therefore, in addition to the analysis of literature, the article shows the methods of teaching it.

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