By comparing the phonetics of Classical Chinese with that of ethnic minorities and foreign languages they were highly successful in deciphering and interpreting these multi-lingual documents and manus.Their accomplishments not only surpassed that of traditional Chinese“scholarship on the northwestern regions”of the Qing dynasty but have also left a magnificent chapter in the history of China studies in western academia.Despite the fact that Chinese studies in the world has now been highly diversified in terms of methodology and content,historical and philological study of China's western regions remains an interdisciplinary field that is very influential and capable of attracting and rallying scholars from various countries all over the world.Although the object of China studies is China,the methodology and academic standard of China studies should be internationalized.In order to foster dialogue among scho-lars of China studies within and outside China,and to truly connect Chinese scholarship with the rest of the world,we must emphasize and strengthen the historical and philological study of China's western regions.
Thirdly,Chinese scholars have certain advantage over western scholars when entering the field of historical and philological studies of China's western regions-not only do the large number of ancient Chinese documents about China's western region provide an irreplaceable foundation for researches on history and culture of the region,in addition many of the languages of the region are still in use by minority ethnic groups within the borders of China today.Chinese scholars should have played an important role in this field.Indeed,the study of China's western region in China did experience a brief period of glory with the leadership of outstanding scholars such as Chen Yinke,Wang Guowei and Chen Yuan and etc.during the 1930 and 1940s.Regrettably,this tradition has not been sustained and developed.
While today Wang Guowei and Chen Yinke are praised as the greatest scholars of Chinese studies,Chinese scholarship on China's western regions is far from advanced in comparison with that of the West and Japan.Instead,few Chinese scholars are capable of participating in discourses of the field,and quite a number of subfields are on the brim of extinction.Such a serious situation is an obstacle for Chinese scholars to raising the quality of academic research to the highest international standard,and it will also hamper the harmonious co-exis-tence and prosperity of various cultures within China.In light of this,we are eager to promote historical and philological studies of China's western regions,to encourage Chinese scholars to play up our strength in this special field,and to close the gap between Chinese scholarship and the best scholarship of the world in this field.We also plan to use the School of China Studies at Renmin University of China as the base for training the next generation of scholars in the field of historical and philological studies of China's western regions and revive the endangered subfields.
It must be noted that Xiyu,or Western Region is a historical concept,with the actual geographic area indicated by this term often expanding or contracting in different time periods.There is a difference between a broadly and narrowly defined Western Region:the latter includes the area south of the Tianshan Mountain,north of the Kunlun Mountain,and east of Cungling and west of the Yumen Pass.Broadly defined,the Western Region includes all the areas beyond the western frontier of the dynasties centered on China proper.In other words,besides those included in the narrowly defined western region,the broadly defined western region included West Asia,South Asia,and even parts of North Africa and Europe.Due to the fact that the western region was an area of frequent migration and mingling of peoples before the modern era,it was a melting pot of Eastern and Western cultures.There were countless interactions among various ethnic groups,religions,languages and cultures that had once appeared in this region in history.