A Tentative Probe Into The Sinologist W.A.P.Martin’s Interpretation Of Chinese Culture

W.A.P. Martin took the positions of the administrator of Tong Wen Guan and Beijing University and so on. He is of great importance in cultural communication between China and the West. The academic circle researches him more from the perspective of history and religion history. However, the research is seldom conducted from the angle of the comparative literature. Moreover, more systematic and overall analysis concerning W.A.P. Martin’s Chinese cultural views is ignored and should be attached importance to.In this paper, firstly, the background and reason that W.A.P. Martin disseminated the Chinese culture to the western countries are ascertained. Then, the social reason of two-way exchange and spread of the culture between China and the West in this period and the history progress of two cultures’conflicts and fusion are explored and reflected. At the same time, great pains are taken to analyze how W.A.P. Martin explained Confucianism, Daoism, Chinese historical culture and "The Renaissance in China" concretely. Besides, main contents, hot subject in culture, value orientation and inner connection of Sino-Western cultural exchanges in this period have been analyzed deeply. Moreover, W.A.P. Martin’s impact and limitation in cultural communication between China and West are pointed out. Finally, the significance and experience of cultural communication in this period is summarized.W.A.P. Martin was quite an efficient Sinologist in the two-way dissemination of the East and the West enthusiasticly. His achievements are remarkable but his contradictions and limitation are obvious. His multiple ideology and knowledge structure leads to the complexity of his ideas and thinking pattern. He was not only a missionary committed in Christianity spread, but also a sinologist who was keen on studying Chinese culture and maintain cultural communication and interaction between China and foreign countries and an educators who had modern idea and engaged in social reform in the late Qing Dynasty. His special multiple identity results in his different starting points and angles of observation in recognizing things. As a result, the conclusion he reached and the knowledge he acquired were complicated and contradictory. Therefore truth should be sought from facts and a concrete analysis of concrete problems be made. In conclusion, generalizations without any difference should be avoided in the research of W.A.P. Martin.