Two Types of Travelers in the History of the Transmission of Western Economic Knowledge in Late Qing and Early Republican China

The history of the transmission of Western knowledge to China-Western Learning or Xixue-usually revolves around travelers. What is unmentioned, however, is that the identity of the two types of Chinese travelers of economic knowledge evolved throughout the Western Learning Movement. One-way travelers introduced political economy as a means to improve institutions and statecraft. First-generation Chinese students overseas continued to promote economics as a science capable of enriching a nation's wealth but focused on the theoretical aspect. The second-generation students became economics professionals, who were primarily concerned with practical economic problems and created a scene of practical pluralism of economics during the interwar period. Not all travelers were of the same quality. To judge between the good and bad traveler, further criteria are required. It can be said that good travelers may have a correct understanding of Western theory, and that their translations are faithful, yielding the knowledge they transmitted with integrity. But travelers confronted the problems of trading off faithful and significant knowledge transmissions. Such conundrums can be explained by distinguishing between their distinct conceptions of economics-economics as statecraft, as science, and as a discipline characterized by its practical pluralism-concerning travelers' ideas of solving China's practical economic problems in different periods

China · Economics · Economy · Epistemology · Pluralism (philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Quality (philosophy · Social science · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law

• The Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie's Land Tax Policy in Wartime China

  Hsiang-Ke Chao, Hsiao-Ting Lin•History of Political Economy•2024

  Incluir item

• Yan Fu and the Tasks of the Translator

  David Wright•New Terms for New Ideas•2001

  Incluir item

• Intellectual change and the reform movement, 1890–8

  Open Access•Hao Chang•The Cambridge History of China•1980

  Incluir item

• Changing Chinese views of Western relations, 1840–95

  Open Access•Yen-P'Ing Hao, Erh-Min Wang•The Cambridge History of China•1980

  Incluir item

• How Knowledge Moves

  John Krige•How Knowledge Moves•2018

  Incluir item

• The Discovery of Chinese Logic

  Joachim Kurtz•The discovery of Chinese logic•2011

  Incluir item

• Global and Transnational History

  Open Access•Akira Iriye•Global and Transnational History•2013

  Incluir item

• Representation and Idealization

  Hsiang-Ke Chao•East Asian Science Technology and…•2020

  Incluir item

• Jingji xue. The History of the Introduction of Western Economic Ideas into China, 1850-1950

  Thierry Pairault•T oung Pao•2008

  Incluir item

• Adam Smith in Imperial China

  Open Access•Olga N Borokh•OEconomia•2012

  Incluir item

• H. D. Fong and the Study of Chinese Economic Development

  Paul B Trescott•History of Political Economy•2002

  Incluir item

• American Economics

  Michael S Morgan, Mary S Morgan et al.•History of Political Economy•1998

  Incluir item

• Western Impact on China Through Translation

  Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien•The Far Eastern Quarterly•1954

  Incluir item

• How Keynesian Economics Came to China

  Paul B Trescott•History of Political Economy•2012

  Incluir item

• Scottish Political Economy Comes to the Far East

  Paul B Trescott•History of Political Economy•1989

  Incluir item

• In Search of Wealth and Power

  Benjamin Schwartz, Benjamin Scwartz et al.•In Search of Wealth and Power•1964

  Incluir item