Most American people who learn Chinese in China may not know the name Wei Sanwei. But they may know the name Samuel Wells Williams, which is his English name. He was an important figure in the Sino-US relations of the modern history.

He was not only one of the first missionaries who visit China, but also the pioneer of Chinese languagelearning as well as the first professor in America to research the Sinology. Some American who study in China may know that he was honored “the Father of American Sinology” because of the contributions he made as the first important expert in Chinese language studying.

It is a long process for westerners to know about China. And what they know about China was completely different in different periods. Judging from the history of sinology, the Sinology in western countries has experienced three stages which learners should know when they learn Chinese language, namely, the traveling Sinology, the missionaries Sinology and the professional Sinology.

In the three stages, the western sinologists’ understanding and feeling about China were very different. In this sense, the western sinologists in the understanding of China are “a real chameleon”. If the learners who come to study Chinese do not know the history, you will make common sense mistakes when you make comment on any one book about the western Sinology.

In order to objectively understand the history of sinology in the western countries, thus understanding the views to China that the westerners hold, we should do a profound study in the Sinology id different countries. To know the causes of changing their views toward China, we should know more about the different views on China’s histories, characters and books. Teachers in Mandarin learning courses may tell you that we should start with the missionaries Sinology when China knowledge was gradually speeded to the western countries.

For a long time, the academic circles’ evaluation on the achievements of the Sino logical works by the missionaries was not so high. It is mainly because that they didn’t do in-depth analysis of real academic from the specific texts and specific characters. They just satisfied with the general theory research. When you go to school to study Mandarin, teachers may tell you that the book “The Middle Kingdom” written by Samuel Wells Williams was the foundation for the American Sinology.

In the book “Bibliotheca Sinica “, the famous France scholar Henri Cordier put “the Middle Kingdom” in the first part “the general China” of the first classification “comprehensive books”. Learners who learn inChinese language school may know that this is the first American book that was put into this category. From this perspective, it met the historical facts to regard the book “the Middle Kingdom” as the mark of the rise of the American Sinology.

The teachers who teach Mandarin language may tell you that Wei Sanwei’s academic value is not only lay in “the Middle Kingdom”, which was the most influential and important book in the 19th century United States, furthermore, the model of American Sinology research can be seen from this book on.

From the researching way in Wei Sanwei’s life, he was generally closer to the new American mode rather than the old European mode. So it can be said that he was the leader of the American mode appeared in the 29th century. Learners in Mandarin language courses in China can see that if there is no solid research to the important characters, books and histories studied by different countries, it is relatively difficult to write a satisfying book about the history of the Sinology in different countries.

It is impossible to make the academic research in a rush development. It might possible that people of one generation can do only one thing. It is the best way to promote the research of the history of the Sinology in different countries by researching the individual case in the Sinology history. The research carried by Wei Sanwei opened the individual case research of the American missionary Sinology. Of course, all of these researches are beneficial for westerners to learn Mandarin, providing background knowledge and gaining learning interest.

In all, Wei Sanwei made great contribution to the American Sinology research. What he has done will be very beneficial to help people know the history of Sinology research and provide much background knowledge forChinese learning.