A Data-Driven Approach To The Dissemination Of Confucianism In 18^th-20^th Century America

The dissemination of Confucianism stands at the center of China's“going-global”.To push forward the going-global of Chinese culture and make the communication effective,it is necessary to explore the environments?ways and horizons of the audience?in which the target readers assess and accept Confucianism.Previous studies on the dissemination of Confucianism in America mostly focus on the reconstruction of Confucius and Confucianism in their culture in line with the historical facts or the translations of Confucian classics.Because of the insufficient English original texts of Confucianism,it is difficult to make an adequate account of the truth through its dissemination.Considering that,this study attempts a data-driven approach to the description of the dissemination of Confucianism in specific time and regions.By employing text data mining?TDM?tools,the study focuses on exploring the diachronic changes of hotspots and the reconstruction of Confucius and Confucianism in dissemination among the American public within social and cultural context,the data being the English original texts in 18th-20th American journals.The major findings are listed as follows.Firstly,the Confucian text focused on Confucius'biography information before 1870s,and then it turned to the values and thoughts of Confucianism and its philosophy.It indicates that the attention of American public has also experienced a diachronic change.Secondly,the American journals preferred introducing Confucius and Confucianism by the Asian American narrators who once received the education of Confucianism or Chinese culture.The narration via reliable mediator can be more effective than the traditional Confucian texts.Thirdly,the Western concepts running through the reconstruction of Confucius which is not comprehensive and tendentious.Influenced by the missionary,the original reconstruction of Confucius was prone to a religion leader or a philosopher,then changed to a politician.Merely mentioned his identity of educator may unfold that the reconstruction has been a process that involves flitting and absorption of Confucianism.It would be likely to ignore the advanced Confucian thoughts of education.Fourthly,on the whole,the attitude of American journals towards Confucianism is positive with the distribution of negative attitude gradually increasing.Comparing with European dissemination,the negative attitude obviously increased at the beginning of the 20^th century America from which indicating the favor of Confucianism among American has decreased.The dissemination of Confucianism in 20^th century America public is not as effective as previous researches uncovered.The study reveals that combining Confucianism with the hotspots of journals may be a better way to disseminate Confucianism among the American public.Moreover,an adequate number of English original Confucian texts can give support for making and carrying out the policies concerning overseas publicity.We should take advantages of new media resources to disseminate Confucianism and Chinese culture effectively.