Why China did not have a Renaissance – and why that matters : : An interdisciplinary Dialogue / / Thomas Maissen, Barbara Mittler.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Contemporary Collection eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Maissen, Thomas,; Mittler, Barbara,
• MitwirkendeR: Banerjee, Milinda,; Maissen, Thomas,; Meurer, Sebastian,; Mittler, Barbara,; Richter, Susan,
• Place / Publishing House: München ;, Wien : : De Gruyter Oldenbourg, , [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Critical Readings in Global Intellectual History , 1
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XVII, 238 p.)

Concepts of historical progress or decline and the idea of a cycle of historical movement have existed in many civilizations. In spite of claims that they be transnational or even universal, periodization schemes invariably reveal specific social and cultural predispositions.Our dialogue, which brings together a Sinologist and a scholar of early modern History in Europe, considers periodization as a historical phenomenon, studying the case of the “Renaissance.” Understood in the tradition of J. Burckhardt, who referred back to ideas voiced by the humanists of the 14th and 15th centuries, and focusing on the particularities of humanist dialogue which informed the making of the “Renaissance” in Italy, our discussion highlights elements that distinguish it from other movements that have proclaimed themselves as “r/Renaissances,” studying, in particular, the Chinese Renaissance in the early 20th century.While disagreeing on several fundamental issues, we suggest that interdisciplinary and interregional dialogue is a format useful to addressing some of the more far-reaching questions in global history, e.g. whether and when a periodization scheme such as “Renaissance” can fruitfully be applied to describe non-European experiences.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Series editors’ note -- Prologue -- Periodization in a global context -- Introduction -- Epochal changes in a global context – Toward a History-in-common -- Defining epochs in global history – Can we write a History-in-common without shared concepts? -- Part I. Periodization -- Europe: Secularizing teleological models -- China: Engendering teleological models -- Part II .Renaissances -- The view from Europe: The Renaissance -- The view from China: r/Renaissances -- Conclusion -- The Renaissance and the rise of the West -- Renaissance-in-common? History-as-dialogue -- Epilogue -- Why China did not have a Renaissance – and why that matters: Conflicting approaches to periodization -- Appendix -- Sources from the European Renaissance -- Sources from the Chinese Renaissance -- Acknowledgements -- Works cited -- Index of names and places