历史上的中西方文明究竟相似还是相异,(1)近现代国外学者进行过颇有价值的历史比较。在此过程中,尽管学者们的观点不尽一致,有时甚至截然对立,但主流意见还是比较清楚的。重温这些比较对于我们从历史角度认识世情和国情,正确总结历史经验教训,坚定不移地走改革开放道路,将中国建设成一个自由民主的现代文明国家不无价值。欧洲对古代中国历史文化的系统认识肇始于新航路开辟后的西学东渐。16世纪耶稣会士在将天主教传入晚明的同时,也把古代中国文化带回欧洲,为启蒙思想家建构世界历史体系提供了东方 Whether the history of Chinese and Western civilizations are similar or different, (1) the history of modern foreign scholars have done quite valuable. In this process, although the scholars’ opinions are not consistent and sometimes even diametrically opposed, the mainstream opinions are still relatively clear. To review these comparisons is not worthless for us to recognize the worldly conditions and national conditions from a historical perspective, to correctly sum up historical experiences and lessons, unswervingly follow the path of reform and opening up and to build China into a free and democratic modern civilized country. The systematic understanding of ancient Chinese history and culture in Europe originated from the eastward spread of Western learning after the opening of the new route. In the 16th century when the Jesuits introduced Catholicism into the late Ming, they brought the ancient Chinese culture back to Europe and provided the East for the Enlightenment thinkers to construct a world historical system