China and the West

Ceva, Tommaso ; Cattaneo, Carlo Ambrogio ; Cattaneo, Tommaso. Alcune reflessioni intorno alle cose presenti della China [ID D22747].
Piero Corradini : The view was a positivist one. The myths of the Enlightenment are definitively buried : China must be studied seriously and the study of Chinese civilization is a duty for Western culture. His approach was based more on facts than on philosophical arguments. He believed in the progress of mankind and, for this reason, he could not accept the idea of the immobility of China. He tried to demonstrate that China had been, and still was, a progressive country. Evidence of this progress were the many scientific achievements of the Chinese. But the most important evidence was the fact that China had been able to bear an enormous demographic growth without expanding her territory at the expenses of her meighbours. Coming to his time, he did not hesitate in condemning the European aggressions to China, but he was slos aware that the European pressure in China could start a process of modernization, the consequencies of which would be the most important for the forthcoming history of the world.