Teoretski diskurzi tradicionalnega evroameriškega in tradicionalnega kitajskega zgodovinopisja

Abstract

This paper is within the scope of comparative historiography. It conveys a comparative analysis between Chinese and Euro-American historiographical traditions and deals with problems of cultural and in the narrow sense ideological understandings of contextual data, discursive structures and fundamental concepts of the two above-mentioned historiographical surroundings. Western scholars have been scientifically oriented ever since the days of ancient Greece. Western cultural history has always emphasized the importance of observation and objective interpretation, which can be explained by a unique history of science in fields of logic, mathematics, biology, physics, etc. Chinese tradition, on the other hand, has always employed moral phraseology and literary-symbolic principles, which have also influenced its historiography. Therefore, classical works of Chinese historiography have above all emphasized tenors of moral and ideological nature. This Chinese moral pragmatism, if we denominate it in that way, is in great contrast to scientific tendencies, which derive from the Western tradition. This is a fact of which Chinese scholars are more and more aware of.