Foreign Chinese education spread in ancient China

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As the Chinese culture is open to the outside world, many foreign religions and thoughts have come to China to become an integrated part of our life. In China’s history there have been three occasions when foreign cultures were introduced into China. The first was shortly after the first century AD, when Indian Buddhism spread into China. The second was in the middle ofthe 17th century when missionaries brought along with them the civilization of the West. Thethird was at the time of China’s May Fourth Movement in 1919 when various trends of thought of the West, especially Marxism, were brought into China.

Indian Buddhism, first introduced in the late Han Dynasty, entered its heyday in the Tang Dynasty through the Wei and Jin Period and Southern and Northern Dynasties. The great Tang monk scholar Xuanzang（602-664）made a great pilgrimage and brought back many sutras.Xuanzang traveled by land and wrote a report of the countries he saw，called The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions，which witnessed the cultural exchanges between China and the world.During the Song Dynasty，some Chinese Buddhismwas absorbed by the native Confucianism to create a new system of Neo-Confucianism.Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism from Persia and Nestorianism from Syria reached China and found followers and believers around the same period.

During the period from the 16th century to the 18th century，many European Christian missionaries came to China where they learned the Chinese language，got to know the local customs and way of life and made many friends among Chinese intellectuals and officials.Matteo Ricci（1552-1610），an Italian Jesuit，came to stay in China for 27 years and he was welcomed to the academies and gained many influential friendships.Later he became the court mathematician in Beijing.He published the first maps of China ever available to the West.For the first time the Chinese had an idea of the distribution of oceans and landmasses.He introduced trigonometric and astronomical instruments，and translated the first six books of Euclid into Chinese.

Some enlightened Chinese intellectuals and officials came to show their interest in the Western natural sciences and learned them from the foreign missionaries and promoted their scientific research.

As a result，such great scholars as Xu Guangqi（1562-1633）and Li Zhizao（1565-1630）appeared in the field of science and technology.This situation continued until the early Qing Dynasty，and even Emperor Kangxi was keen in learning geometry and land surveying from the foreign missionaries.

From the late Ming Dynasty，China began to take a close-door policy，which made China lag behind the fast-developing world.fBut when China Picture 16-5 Mateo Ricci was under the great threat of capitalist invasion in modern times，especially after the Opium Wars，a number of personalities of broad vision began to turn to the West for national salvation.

They introduced a flood of modern culture and science.Lin Zexu（1785—1850）；“the first Chinese who opened his eyes to look at the outside world，”organized a large team to translate Western books and magazines.Meanwhile，a well-known scholar，Wei Yuan（1794-1857），proposed that the Chinese should“learn advanced foreign technology and use it to beat foreign invaders.”The great translator of the age was Yan Fu（1854-1921），who introduced the biological evolution of Charles Darwin（1809-1882）and Thomas Henry Huxley（1825-1895）into China for the first time；his works had a great impact on China’s intellectual community.Of course，what we call”the great Marxism”was once outlandish.The great thought，which has been in practice in China for almost a century，brings the nation a brand-new appearance.

The facts mentioned above show the nature of the openness of Chinese culture，and the rich Chinese culture needs a mix with foreign cultures.This is the law of history，and any retroaction will bring a setback for the healthy advancement of the Chinese culture.We are lucky in an enlightened age，and the nation takes an overall open-door policy to the world to take in every positive factor from other nations，which will ultimately turn over a new leaf in the history of Chinese culture.