Research On North American Sinologist Hanan's Literature Activities

Patrick Hanan, the professor of Harward, the fifth President of Yanjing Institute inHarward University, is one of the most successful experts who study Chinese classical novelsin the USA. On the one hand, the sinology by Hanan is of deep peculiarity. The study had agreat break through from ontology and methodology on sinology. On the other hand, theliterary thoughts of Leo Lee and David Wang were influenced by Hanan's sinology study thateven making the whole foreign literature studies a transformation trend. Since the80s in lastcentury, Patrick Hanan has study on the Golden Lotus, the novel in Ming and Qing Dynastiesand Li Yu. His achievements were translated to Chinese linguistics circles and attracted theattentions of scholars from Taiwan, and the homeland of China.As a scholar in English World, Patrick Hanan was interested in Chinese literature. Andhis study themes, thoughts, unique study angles, achievements, and the academic spirits areall worth to be studied. Therefore, in this thesis, the author took Patrick Hanan's study onChinese literature as the theme, carried out a system analysis on Patrick Hanan's study onChinese literature and his main achievement and sought the internal mechanism and theunique research ideas and methods Main academic contribution. The author was taking Hananas an example to reflect the features and methods adopted by western sinology research, andthought the enlightenments on Chinese literature research and interpretation.There are eight sections in this thesis:Introduction: The author stated the research background, the major problems the authorplaned to be studied, and the research status at home and abroad. The author developed herpurpose of the research, significance, the research ideas and methods. Hanan's study is basedon the development and progress of global sinology research. And the basic conditions ofsinology research in foreign countries, academic trends, and development trends are the majorfoundation and external environment of Hanan's study. Only studied the literatures at homeand abroad that focused on Hanan's study, can we have a good understanding on Hanan andhis ideas of sinology. Therefore, in this chapter, the author introduced the basic researchaiming to provide a logic start and methodology for Hanan's sinology research.Chapter One: the author introduced Hanan's biography and academic track throughanalyzing the rise, development and statuds of sinology in the world especially the studyhistory and status conducted by Harvard University. The sinology study has a long history,and a systematic and scientific system has been established from the aspects of subjectdivisions, study subjects and main position. By understanding these issues, on the one hand, the basis conditions and main orientations of world sinology study could be grasped; on theother hand, the Hanan's sinology studies could also be hold comprehensively. And at the sametime, the study on Hanan could be deepened. And based on this condition, it was significant tocollecting, arranging and analyzing Hanan's academic track. The collecting and arranging ofHanan's academic ideas and life track are important guarantees for understanding his sinologystudy comprehensively. And only by this way, can we make a good and practical combinationbetween external and internal study.Chapter two is Hanan's research achievements on Chinese vernacular fiction. Theresearch on Chinese vernacular fiction is the main aspect of Hanan's study for sinology,including the research of staging and classification study of Han Chinese vernacular novel,"missionary novel," the narrative model of the translated late Qing fiction, and the writingskills of Lu Xun. These researches could be regarded as, in some degree, the first study ofChinese fiction, especially his research of missionary novel. He not only translated the novels,but also combined the novel with the right social situation of China and Western world. So hisresearches are of both literary and social sense, and in addition, Hanan's research of the lateQing fiction contributed a lot for narrative.Chapter three is the research and enlightenment of the Golden Lotus as well as itsmaterial source. Hanan's researches on the Golden Lotus has causal factors, but when gofurther, his study became inevitable, for all his researches are nuanced and subtle. As theversion, he compared multiple the Golden Lotus simultaneously both on the faithfulness andtime. And as the source of materials, he continued to study both in the historical materials andliterature materials, carefully restore the historical truth and literary truth. These researcheshave contributed a lot of fresh blood on the research of the Golden Lotus.Chapter four is Hanan's research of Li Yu, a comedy master, as well as his creativefictions. The research of Li Yu is always distinguished in Chinese academy, for Sinology is noexception. This chapter is to conduct a comprehensive analysis on Hanan's researches withover-hundred-year's researches as instruction. The author try to analyze Hanan's research invaried ways and even go further in the deep thought of Li Yu.Chapter five is Hanan's traceable method of novel and his literary theory. After a longin-depth study of the novel in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hanan has formed a series of uniqueSinology research methods. His traceable method of novel considers many factors, such as thewriter, the writer's era, the theme, the language and the style. And this method has becomeHanan's label; in this chapter, he combined traditional Chinese novel research with modernWestern literary theory to highlight the key point of the research; more important, Hanan'sresearch has found out the traces of literary history. Therefore, his research has attached greatimportance to the study of literary history with the overall concept of methodology.Chapter six is about the status of Hanan's Sinology research and the value and significance of his research in Chinese literary study. Hanan's research has influenced a lot onHarvard University, especially Leo Lee and David Wang. These two scholars' late Qingliterary study and Shanghai culture study has applied Hanan's urban literature research moreor less. In addition, Hanan's methodology is of great significance, and this approach tosinology research could get to the nature of the problem only after being fully absorbed. Inthis sense, it is very urgent for us to go in-depth in the research of Hanan's sinology researchmethod.In the conclusion part, the author summarized Hanan's academic orientation andachievements, confirmed Hanan's extraordinary status in western sinology circle. At the sametime, the author also summarized the method of marked “features” and staging studies thatHanan's adopted in the studies of the Chinese vernacular story, the research achievements ofmodern fictions especially the missionary novels', and Hanan's unique research perspectiveson Lu Xun's works. Besides, the author generalized Hannan's most typical study on theGolden Lotus and Li Yu. At the same time, the author mentioned the method of traceability–the most typical research method of Hanan, conducted a deep reflection on Hanan's spirit onconducting academic research, and confirmed his remarkable contribution in Chinese andWestern literature fields.