Comparing Ancient Worlds: Past, Present and Future

• 作 者: Walter SCHEIDEL
• 机 构: Stanford University
• 出 处: 2012年中国世界古代史国际学术讨论会
• 发表日期: 2012年11期

　　Once no more than a rare oddity, comparative studies of ancient western Eurasia (primarily the Greco-Roman Mediterranean but also the Near East) and ancient China have recently begun to proliferate.In an informal survey of relevant scholarship in western languages I count 3 separate publications prior to 1990, 14 in the 1990s, and 26 since 2000.This trend, reinforced by the growing presence of East/West comparisons in more general works of historical research, suggests a bright future for this approach.It may ultimately lead to the creation of new academic fields such as premodern comparative world history and what one might call Comparative Classics (focusing on the classical Greek and Chinese traditions).This, in turn, will facilitate intellectual exchange and academic cooperation between Chinese and Western historians.In my presentation, I review these developments, asking how they have evolved over time and whether they have already changed our perception of ancient history, and suggest an agenda for future work in this area.