Kang Youwei’s Cultural Views During His Travels In Europe

Kang Youwei is an outstanding representative in the modern development history of China.The reform cause led by him has greatly promoted the transformation of China’s modernization.After the failure of the Reform movement of 1898,during his trip to Europe,the current situation of western civilization had a great impact on Kang Youwei’s thoughts at that time.In order to further explore the way to save China,he conducted an in-depth investigation and understanding of the western countries,and it was during this period that his thoughts changed greatly.This paper mainly studies the development and evolution of Kang Youwei’s cultural thoughts during his tour in Europe,reveals the development process of Kang Youwei’s understanding of Chinese and Western society and culture during this period,and explores the internal reasons for this change,in order to contribute to a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Kang Youwei’s later thoughts.On the other hand,it also shows from the side the tortuous process of people with lofty ideals exploring the modernization of Chinese culture,which provides valuable reference for us to correctly treat western science and culture under the conditions of the current world development.Kang Youwei’s view of Chinese and Western culture has experienced different stages of development.Before the coup of 1898,he initially contacted "Western learning",because of admiring the achievements of western science and technology and system,so he was inclined to westernization.After the failure of the Reform movement of 1898,Kang went into exile overseas.Field observation made him eliminate the worship of the western society,and called on the people not to "completely westernization",but to favor the road of "integration and connection of Chinese and Western cultures".The specific performance is: first,from the beginning of the radical change to conservative improvement.After the failure of two campaigns,Kang Youwei realized that copying the way of western change did not play a role and was not suitable for China.China’s system,technology and culture had its inherent advantages.Therefore,he began to abandon the radical reform method to save the country from danger,but turned his goal to China’s political system and cultural system,and tried to improve the defects of the system in a moderate way.Second,the initial tendency of "westernization" and a certain degree of "Eurocentrism" to advocate the reform of China should be "the combination of Chinese and Western cultures".With the deepening of the investigation of European countries,kang break through the above in various contradictions,comply with the trend of historical progress,in the collision of Chinese and western culture,find a way of Chinese and western culture huitong,for the preservation of traditional culture and innovation and development points out the possible development direction,also for us in today’s environment how to correctly face Chinese and western culture provides reference.Apart from the introduction part,the research content is mainly divided into four parts:the first part is the introduction;the second part describes the initial transformation of Kang Youwei’s western understanding;the third part discusses what Kang Youwei saw and thought of the change;the fourth part summarizes the meaning and value of Kang Youwei’s later thoughts.