On The Prehistory Of Chinese-Western Comparative Literature

摘　要：

关键词：
　　The earlist prehistory of western comparative literature can be traced back to the Ancient Rome, as the literature of that period (in ancient Latin) intentionally imitated the Ancient Greek literature(in ancient Greek), like the Virgil’s Aeneid was an imitation of Homeric epic, so the writers and theorists of Ancient Rome always compare the differences and similarities of the two periods、nationalities and languages that reflected in literature.
　　In Medieval, because of the same religion belief(Christian) and language(Latin), all the nationalities in Europe formed a Cultural Community. To the late period of Medieval, Renaissance combined writers with intellectuals, they vigorously absorbing the essence of folk culture, as well as excavating and reviving the ancient culture(Ancient Greek-Roman culture) tradition.
  The Enlightenment provided a more broad platform for the active contact of different nations. Traslation versions of literary works emerged vastly; works of French ideologists were traslated into various kinds of languages and were diffused all over Europe; Shakespeare’s dramas occupied almost all the stages, and the mutual references and influences among the works became a commom phenomenon. Under such historical circumstances, the consciousness of compare sprouted, and laid a solid foundation for the final formation and further development of comparative literature.
　　As an academic discipline and a mode of intellectual inquiry and scholarly production, comparative literature was imported to China from the West, via Japan, in the early twentieth century. At a time of major intellectual and social shifts of the country and when many Chinese writers, artists, as well as scholars took upon themselves to reform traditional values and practices. In the scholarship of literature new areas of study were established and comparative literature was one of them.
　　However,according to the current-existed literature recordation, the beginning of comparative literature research in China was in the Han Dynasty, based on two conditions: contact with alien culture and the stand of dealing with literature research from an international perspective. From the late period of Eastern Han,Buddhism started its diffusion in China,and then prospered among all the stratums, which led to the gradual deepen of the communication between Chinese culture and Indian cultue.
　　The prehistory of Chinese and Western comparative literature demonstrates that only with the mutual communication and interaction can we form a sense of comparison,thus to constantly enrich the practical and theoretical experience.