The School of History and the Institute for Global History, Beijing Foreign Studies University

The School of History and the Institute for Global History of Beijing Foreign Studies University was founded in December 2017. It aims to become a significant platform in China for international scholars to conduct research on global history. The school offers course on the histories of China and regions across the world from a global perspective. In terms of research, it is the school’s goal to understand history through interactions, especially the interaction between China and the world in modern terms. The school pays special attention to the fields of the history of ideas, the knowledge transfer and scholarly exchange, and the cultural and linguistic contact between the East and the West.

“A Style of Chinese Respect”: Lord Macartney’s Reply to the Imperial Edicts of Emperor Qianlong in 1793

In 1793, King George III of Great Britain sent an official embassy led by Lord George Macartney to China in the hope of getting more favourable trading terms. However, all the requests made by Lord Macartney were rejected flatly in two imperial edicts issued by the Chinese Emperor Qianlong when the embassy was about to leave China. The present paper focuses on Lord Macartney’s response to the two imperial edicts, in particular the official reply Macartney made to the Qing court in the form of a “note” to Heshen before the embassy left China. In the note, Macartney touched upon several important issues, including the sensitive one about the relative status of the two countries. To Macartney, these issues were so crucial that he felt obliged to make a response promptly. The tactful way adopted by Macartney to handle them deserves our special attention.

Between Sinology and Japanology: Léon de Rosny and Oriental Studies in France

This contribution on Léon de Rosny 羅尼 (1837–1914), the founder of modern Japanese Studies in France, deals with the trajectory of his formation and track record in Chinese and Japanese Studies. It highlights the role and significance his training in Chinese Studies under the guidance of Stanislas Julien played in his scholarly development and orientation, both as a sinologist and a japanologist. A self-taught student of the Japanese language, he pioneered the development of teaching material for Japanese language and literature, while also producing scholarly translations of classical literature, both Chinese and Japanese. We clearly discern a trajectory: the initial focus is on the study of Chinese, it subsequently shifts towards Japanese Studies from the 1850s on, to reach its apogee in the 1870s, while from the late 1870s on it appears to tilt towards Chinese Studies again. We conclude by an assessment of the merits and demerits of his scholarly production in these two areas of what was called “Oriental Studies” in the France of his time.