COMPTES RENDUS - AFEC

Comptes rendus
tif, il ne peut se départir de l'impression que l'ouvrage tend avant tout, à
travers une relecture de l'histoire, à le doter d'un profil de médiateur cultu­
rel.
Françoise Kreissler
INALCO
Lydia H. Liu, The Clash of Empires. The Invention of China in Modem
World Making, Cambridge (Mass.), London : Harvard University Press,
2004. xiii-318 pages
Toward the end of the first century of the Tokugawa period (1600-1868),
the well known scholar Asami Keisai fêkMMM (1652-1711) struggled
with the assimilation of Chinese Neo-Confucianism onto the alien terrain
of his native Japan. He wrote: "The terms 'Middle Kingdonï (Chûgoku ^
H) and 'barbarian' {iteki ^$^C [Chinese, yidi - JF]) hâve been used in
Confucian writings for a long time. For that reason, ever since Confucian
books came to be widely studied in our country, those who read thèse
books call China (kara HH) the 'Middle Kingdom' and call our country
'barbarian.' In extrême cases, some [Japanese] people lament the fact that
they were born in a 'barbarian' land. How disgraceful!" '
While sharing the révérence of the great majority of his fellow Japanese
Neo-Confucians for the homeland of civilization in China, Keisai
nonetheless argued that places where the Way was practiced properly -
including Japan, Korea, and elsewhere - should certainly hâve been considered
part of the "Middle Kingdom." How could Confucius's universal
principles hâve been solely applicable to China? Unlike Confucius, however,
later Confucians had effusively "preached their concept of the Middle
Kingdom versus barbarian lands" 2 for centuries. As a resuit, Keisai
doubted the world would correctly see that their views were really a distortion
of Confucian thought.
I wonder if Keisai and others like him would hâve been convinced
by one of the main thèmes of Lydia H. Liu's new book, namely that the
terms yi {% and yidi i%%k. were never meant by Chinese (or Manchus) to
Etudes chinoises, vol. XXIV (2005)