The Rise and Decline of Sinology in Late Qing Dynasty

In late Qing, Sinology, which had been the mainstream Confucian subject in Qianlong period, began to decline, but this decline was not direct. From the Opium War of 1840 to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, Sinology was still the most influential scholastic trend. Late Qing Sinologists followed the glorious tradition of old scholars to continue their research in Confucian classics, phonology, etc. Late Qing Sinology had the historical characteristics of being real,open and adaptivedue to changed social environment and changed along with the changing society. It inherited many negative elements from traditional Confucianism but also absorbed a lot of positive factors from changing times and exerted a complicated and multi-layered influence on modern China's society and culture.