Display The Chinese From The West

Mr. Qian-mu (钱穆, 1895-1990), styled binsi, born in Wuxi, was a famous scholar in the field of Chinese study with special methods and contributions in the 20th century. Because of the conservatism in matters of culture (文化保守主义), Qian-mu kept national culture in his mind with compassion and sense of anxiety. He was in the full conviction that Chinese traditional literature(中国传统文学)had not been dead and nourished a hope of it. So that, as the opposite of Chinese traditional literature, the West literature(西方文学) that Qian-mu studied is more arrestive, and it will reflect Qian-mu's real attitude to Chinese traditional literature from another side.In the preface, the article introduces the importance and particularity of Qian-mu's West literature study during his academic career. Qian-mu's West literature study is valuable although it has not yet been given enough insight for some reasons.Part 1, the West literature under the comparative between Chinese culture and West culture, tries to give a brief insight into the West literature by Qian-mu's study, on the base of introductions of the differences between the two kind cultures. In Qian-mu's opinion, in the West literature, there is no authors' heart while Chinese traditional literature always expresses authors' heart.Part 2, Qian-mu's read Shakespeare, is a typical case, which can distinctly show something about Qian-mu's real attitude to Chinese traditional literature and West literature. Qian-mu considered that the literature should reflect author's life, but the literature written by Shakespeare not. But in fact, Shakespeare is just the good example to prove his viewpoint. Qian-mu's mistake in this point, because of not only his lack in the knowledge of West, but also his intent on preaching down the West literature and driving up Chinese traditional literature.Part 3, display the value of Chinese traditional literature by the study of the West literature, briefly summarizes Qian-mu's discusses on some important questions in the historic process of Chinese literature. This article reviews his profound analysis in three facets. First, Qian-mu's study about the West is just to decorate for the Chinese; he always gave priority to the Chinese instead of the West, it related to the transform of the society and the culture. Secondly, the discuss between Chinese traditional literature and the West literature amplified on the discuss between new literature and traditional literature.