Page 266 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

western civilization 2043

Hu Shih: The Difference
Between Eastern and

Western Civilizations
survived the war in a few American colleges, and spread
A onetime cultural critic who became a leading fig-
widely in the 1930s, supplementing American national
ure in the emergence of modern China, Hu Shih
history and becoming required introductory courses for
rose to prominence by promoting the use of the
a great many students.Western “civ” courses retained that
vernacular in literature—a practice that earned
privileged status until the 1960s or later so that a whole
him the title “father of the Chinese literary renais-
generation of college students acquired a modest famil-
sance.” The excerpt below describes his views on
iarity with ancient, medieval and modern European his-
the difference between eastern and western
tory, and the belief that they were heirs of that past.This
civilizations.
was accompanied by almost total ignorance of the his-
The Oriental civilization is built primarily on tory of the four-fifths of humankind excluded fromWest-
human labor as the source of power whereas the ern civ courses.
modern civilization of the West is built on the Reasons for this curricular development are not far to
basis of the power of machinery. As one of my seek. American national history was too brief to connect
American friends has put it, “each man, woman directly with ancient Greece and Rome, the staple of
and child in America possesses from twenty-five humanistic higher education as transmitted to the coun-
to thirty mechanical slaves, while it is estimated try’s Founding Fathers. Filling the gap with British history
that each man, woman and child in China has at was acceptable to many Americans of English and Scottish
his command but three quarters of one mechan- descent, but Americans whose ancestors had come from
ical slave.” An American engineer has stated the other parts of Europe wanted a broader-based past and
case in almost the same language: “Every person found it in “Western civilization” courses. And by annex-
in the United States has thirty-five invisible slaves ing Western civilization to their own national history,
working for him . . . The American workman is Americans achieved a grander, more inclusive cultural
not a wage slave, but a boss of a considerable ancestry than any single European country could boast.
force, whether he realizes it or not.” Herein lies There was a second and in many ways more powerful
the real explanation of the difference between intellectual impetus behind western civilization courses as
the two civilizations. It is a difference in degree they came on stream in the 1930s. Most college-bound
which in the course of time has almost Americans had learned a smattering of Biblical history in
amounted to a difference in kind. Sunday school, and the Christian (and Jewish) view that
Source: Hu Shih (1931). The civilizations of the East and West. New York: Simon God governed the course of events was firmly implanted
and Schuster.
in their minds. But ever since the eighteenth century a
contrary liberal, Enlightenment view of history had taken
root in a limited intellectual circle, according to which the
European superiority to Asians and Africans persisted, progress of liberty was what mattered most, and libera-
but that was based more directly on skin color than on tion from religious error by recognizing historical causes
such an intangible as western civilization. with which God had nothing to do was part of the story.
Western civ courses offered a splendid opportunity to
Western “Civ” Enters the juxtapose these rival worldviews. By pitting Reason
College Curriculum against Faith, St. Socrates against St. Paul, such courses
In the United States, however, the concept ofWestern civ- spoke to central concerns of generations of students.
ilization had a far more significant career. Courses in Choosing to focus on a few great books, works of art and
Western civilization were invented duringWorldWar I to big ideas, and showing how they changed from age to
explain to draftees what they were fighting for. These age, introduced college students to aspects of the western