A Study On The History Of The Sea

Before 16 Century BC, human societies remained relatively isolated, and there was little communication between different civilizations. Around 1500, navigators from the West European countries explored new sea routes, since when different civilizations have communicated more and more so that human beings have become more and more integrated, which is now called globalization. The essence of globalization is " interaction ", namely, different societies and cultures meet, contact, communicate, exchange and hence mutually influence each other. The starting point was the rising of capitalism in the West Europe and the impetus was the collision and integration of European and American modernism and the cultures of different regions and different nations. West Europe was the creator and deliverer of modernism. Western industrialization and democracy, accompanied by globalization, has forcefully swept Asia, America and Africa. No matter what, different regions and nations of this world had to be gradually modernized. Faced with the brand new Western Capitalism, Maps and Records of the World was the first Chinese effort to learn from the west. From the angle of globalization and modernization, this dissertation is a study of its text, focusing on how we should actively respond to the western challenges, clear-mindedly study the world situation, introduce the whole world in detail and learn from the west. The dissertation consists of 5 chapters.Chapter 1An introduction of the life experience and ideas of Yuan Wei, writer of Maps and Records of the World in Section 1and the book in Section 2 as well. In Section 1, Yuan Wei’s main life experiences, writings and ideas are briefly covered. His life experienced can be divided into three parts:youth, middle age, and senior stage. As far as his ideas are concerned, they may be categorized as the idea of changing, the idea of practicality and the idea of learning from the strengths of the western countries. Section 2 is a brief introduction of Maps and Records of the World from the perspectives of background, relevant materials, content, different version and Chinese and Western cultural views. The background includes then historical reality and Yuan Wei’s personal preparation. Being closely related to Opium War, it started during the war and finished three months after the signing of the Nanjing Treaty. As to the relevant materials, it covers a vast area, featuring the combination of log, argument, map and form. The choosing of versions mainly covers Chinese version and various versions of the Japanese selection. Culturally, it not only introduces the situations of different countries but also the western idea that the earth is round and runs around the center the sun, which effectively traditional Chinese idea that China is the center of the world, meanwhile it insists on the Chinese culture being the center of our country so that puts forward the idea that Chinese and western culture can fit into each other ahead of that time.Chapter 2A study of the "Sea Section" of the Maps and Records of the World. This section is both an outline of sea defense and also a great enlightenment, in which the strategy of learning from the advantages of the foreign countries in order to resist them is well expressed. " On Defense " " On fighting " and " On treaty " are independent and at the same time complementary to each other. "Defense" is the focus of preventing the foreign invasion. When confronting enemy force, the priority must be the defense of our sea. "Fighting" and "peaceful negotiation" are both based on the solid " Defense ". Only when the " Defense " is successful can we seize the opportunity to fight back. When we succeed in our " Defense " and " Fighting ", we should not isolate our own country. We should ban the selling and consuming of the opium while opening to the outside world, doing business with different countries in this world. This section is not simply about the "Defense" against the invasion of western countries, but also how we should communicate with the capitalist countries peacefully in this quickly developing world. Therefore, this section is rather enlightening to the Chinese. We should open our eyes and begin to learn about the western world and have a brand new view of the world. We should learn from the western world, the more, the better, pay due attention to the sea defense and thus change the development trajectory of attaching importance to the land defense while little importance to the sea defense so that we may gradually enter the Sea Age, reform and open to the outside world so that we may change the concept of emphasizing agriculture while paying little attention to business and gradually attach due importance to the development of industry and business and especially doing business with foreign countries, and change our national ethos so that we may allow the modern blood to flow into our national culture.Chapter 3It is about the main body if the book, which consists of 66 volumes, which introduce many countries in the world, among which European countries are more emphasized while the UK is the center, for the book mainly deals with understanding, learning from and fighting against the UK. In 18 and 19th century, the British colonial forces were deep into Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, Thailand and Burma, where appeared a shift trend between the effect China had on the three countries and western countries especially Britain on them. The anti-Chinese incidents happened twice in Ming and Qing Dynasty shows that Western colonial forces were deep into the Southeast Asia, and colonized Southeast in government force and military means. The time from the late Ming dynasty to the Qing Dynasty before the Opium War is a turning period when the order of Southeast Asia changed greatly. In this period, the order of the Southeast Asia changed from tributary system features China and colonial system of Britain. This chapter concludes that " turning the enemy’s enemy to fight the enemy " is the outcome of knowing of the enemy, which is a superb strategy that should be given certain affirmation. At that time, most of the areas of the world were or about to be colonized by European countries, among which the UK was the strongest and the biggest opponent of China, so it becomes the center of the book, featuring the understanding, learning from and controlling of the UK. Around the Opium War, the European countries made big progress in their science and technology. The book puts forward the idea that we should not just learn from them the making of war ships, fire arms, training and keeping of soldiers, but also many other aspects of the western society. As to the UK, it was powerful in economy and politics as well, which is worth admiring. As to Russia, it was a great empire spanning Asia and Europe, so it was better to befriend Russia to fight against the UK under the threat of the UK’s invasion. As for U.S. A, it was a perfect country not just because it defeated the UK but also it had the most advanced democratic political system.Chapter 4The influence that the Maps and Records of the World has done to our country and abroad is been discussed in this chapter. When it got published, it exerted widespread influence both in the modern China and the whole world as well, due to its spirit of pioneering and controlling power. However, the Maps and Records of the World didn’t get the government’s attention for the first 20 years, but its value has been realized with the rise of the Westernization Movement and the Reform Movement. The main idea of the book—" Barbarians technology " is endowed with new connotation, along with the development of the history, gradually highlighting its immortal value beyond time and space. The Sea Section has received widespread attention in Japan. New enlightenment thinkers and politicians under the influence of the Sea Section initiated a successful revolution in Japan. It is a thought-provoking phenomenon that the influence of Maps and Records of the World is totally different between in China and in Japan. It was also introduced into Korea, which brought about due enlightenment. Moreover, it also received much attention in the western countries.Chapter 5This chapter is a comparison of the Maps and Records of the World and the Universal Records from the perspectives of idea, content and influence. As to the idea, both of the books were written during the Opium War, thus it was obvious their purpose was to protect China from the foreign invasion. The difference lie in that the former made its idea more clear while the latter relatively hidden, but both of the books still uttered the strongest voices of that time. As to the content, both have their own special features, that is. the former covers wider area of knowledge while the latter appears more brief and cogent in the conveying of knowledge. Both of them are excellent in the literature work. As to the influence, the former is bigger than the latter, however, they actually compensate each other in content, so we tend to put them together to consider the understanding and learning from the western countries.ConclusionThis conclusion focuses on the strategy of learning from the advantages of the foreign countries in order to resist them and discusses the value of the Maps and Records of the World in the changing of Chinese cultural views. The book itself is a breakthrough for it set a new beginning of how we treat the foreign countries so that it greatly broadened our horizon which it still keeps Chinese culture at its center and thus keeps our own cultural esteem. The book helped us find a better way to deal with the foreign countries and regain our psychological balance as well, while at the same time started our first step of learning from the western countries so that it gave us a way out of our cultural worries, which is a crucial step towards the modernization of our culture. Everything is beautiful in its own way, while everything’s beauty contributes to the harmony of the whole being. We can understand the significance of the strategy of learning from the advantages of the foreign countries to resist them from this very angle.