On The Concepts Of "Orient" And "Occident": The Origin And Evolution

The concepts of “Orient” and “Occident” are the core of this paper. However, due to different research perspectives and classification criteria,the understandings toward the concepts of the Orient and the West are not identical, or even are greatly different. It will lead to misconception,confusion or absurdness if we use these two concepts without scientific explanation and definition,not to mention respect and understanding different nationalities.Therefore,I will trace the source and conduct a comprehensive analysis on the concepts of Westerner’s “the Orient” and Easterner’s “the Occident” based on scientific definition.From a historical perspective,“the Orient” had been a constantly changing concept for a long time in history.The concept of “the Orient” has been existed in Europesince the ancient Greek.With the broadening vision of the Europeans and the extending communications among different areas and nationalities,“the Oriental World”extended from West Asia,North Asia,and South Asia to East Asia and finally covered the entire Asian and African areas. Westerner’s impression on the Eastern World has been changing constantly. The Easterners’, especially the Chinese’s understanding of “the Occident” originated from imagination and has been constantly developing and changing during the historical process.Until today,the concept returns to science and reason from stories and imaginations.The human being has been though transition from partial perspective to universal perspective in the development of historical thought. “Orient” and “Occident” are two ancient concepts that are given different meanings by different eras.Tracing the source of the concepts and understanding their laws of development will promote the communication among different civilizations and the understanding between Eastern and Western cultures and will benefit the World Peace, the globalization process and the national “One Belt and One Road(OBAOR)” project.