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INTRODUCTION
It is well known that the nations of Europe and North America take the lead in the majority of disciplines in the academic world today. In most fields, unless a scholarly work makes reference in some way or other to the findings of Euro-American research, it is not considered worthy of mention. It is not, however, so common for the accomplishments of Euro-American scholars to be taken up by Japanese and Chinese scholars working in the field of ancient Chinese history. Presumably one reason for this is that in East Asia, especially in Japan and China, there are long and rich traditions of scholarship on Chinese ancient history that reach back to premodern times. Yet to just what extent is the research of European and American scholars referenced in the introductory books and general surveys concerning ancient Chinese history that are published in Japan and China?
My purpose in posing this question is not to claim that the level of European and American scholarship on ancient Chinese history is low. Needless to say, there have been more than a few eminent researchers in Europe and America, such as Edouard Chavannes, Bernhard Karlgren and others, who have made great contributions to the field of ancient Chinese history. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the reason such a situation persists is that Euro-American research on ancient Chinese history constitutes a separate constellation of scholarship that is virtually distinct from that of Japan and China; in other words, a wall appears to exist between Sino-Japanese and Euro-American researchers.
On the other hand, while Sino-Japanese researchers into Chinese ancient history have certainly produced a massive body of scholarship, when we consider the extent to which these Sino-Japanese scholars have been able to make their findings known to the world at large, it is not necessarily the case that they have been as successful as their European and American counterparts. In short, it seems that the present state of ancient Chinese historical research might be described as one in which something of a gap exists between the accumulation of a body of research and the ability to make these findings available.
Given this situation, it was of great interest to me to...