Introduction: the “vectors” of Chinese history
Viren MURTHY and SUN Ge
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This volume contains essays by the important Japanese sinologist and intellectual historian, Mizoguchi Yūzō (1932–2010). Born in Nagoya, he studied in the literature department in Tokyo University and then went to graduate school in Nagoya University. He was a student of Iriya Yoshitaka, the famous sinologist. Mizoguchi has taught at Saitama University, Hitotsubashi University and Tokyo University. He was also a Distinguished Professor at Tokyo University. Mizoguchi Yūzō left a number of important works throughout his life. The selection is unable to provide a complete picture of Mizoguchi’s ideas about the principle of Chinese history, but it provides an entry point for English readers to understand Mizoguchi’s work. In this introduction, we attempt to bring out certain key ideas of Mizoguchi’s writings and discuss his historical and theoretical significance.
Notes on contributors
Viren Murthy teaches transnational Asian History and researches Chinese and Japanese intellectual history in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of The Political Philosophy of Zhang Taiyan: The Resistance of Consciousness (Brill, 2011) and co-editor with Axel Schneider of The Challenge of Linear Time: Nationhood and the Politics of History in East Asia (Brill, 2013), and co-editor with PrasenjitDuara and Andrew Sartori of A Companion to Global Historical Thought, (Blackwell, 2014). He is currently working on a project tentatively entitled: Pan-Asianism and the Conundrums of Post-colonial Modernity.
Sun Ge孫歌 obtained her PhD in politics at Faculty of Law, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and is currently the research fellow at Institute of Literary Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science. Her researches focus on Japanese intellectual history. Her monographs include: 探尋歷史的「基體」 [In search of the “matrix” of history] (2016), 我们为什么要谈东亚 [Why do we need to talk about East-Asia?] (2011), 把握進入歷史的瞬間 [Grasp the moment when we enter history] (2010), 竹內好的悖論 [Takeuchi Yoshimi’s paradox] (2005), 主體彌散的空間 [The space where the subject dissolves] (2002), and 亞洲意味著什麼 [What does Asia mean] (2001).