Liu Linxi, a Literatus in the late Joseon Dynasty of Korea studied from his teacher-Li Henglao, the founder of the Huaxi School in the Joseon Dynasty, adhering to the ideas of "defending orthodoxy and rejecting heresy" and "respecting China and expelling the foreign invaders". As a general of the Righteous Army in Korea, Liu Linxi guided the struggle against Japanese aggression and national-salvation movement. And the abundant of his Chinese-style poems and essays analyzed the current affairs in East Asia. In particular, he created a large number of "Letters to Compatriots", shouting "Respect China and expel the foreign invaders", attempting to arouse the common cultural memories and common emotions of East Asians and complete the construction of his "rejecting the foreign invaders" discourse. Moreover, as an East Asian Confucian scholar, in the face of the Western military and cultural invasions in the 19th century, he borrowed the discourses of "rejecting Buddhism and Taoism" and "the debate between China and the foreign invaders " which were well-known to East Asian literati, attempting to construct an East Asian community to compete with the West, so as to maintain the subjectivity of the Korean nation and the cultural subjectivity of various East Asian countries.

Professor Cao Shunqing recently introduced the significant issue of rewriting the history of civilization, highlighting both its necessity and feasibility. This proposal has sparked scholarly debate on two key questions: Why should civilization history be rewritten? How should it be rewritten? Given the diverse cultural perspectives on civilization, this remains a complex challenge. Some scholars propose that Variation Theory offers a valuable framework for addressing this issue. This paper explores two fundamental inquiries: What theoretical foundation does Variation Theory provide for rewriting civilization history? How can its principles be practically applied? It argues that Variation Theory’s “twofold integration”—which acknowledges both civilizational continuity and the dialectical interplay of differences—establishes a robust theoretical foundation for this endeavor. On a practical level, cultural variation and heterogenization document historical civilizational exchanges and mutual learning. Rewriting civilization history through Variation Theory fosters integration through diversity, avoiding cultural assimilationism that seeks uniformity. Furthermore, the holistic thinking and mutual learning embedded in Variation Theory emphasize the importance of civilizational interactions and historical evolution. This perspective advances a more inclusive and interconnected understanding of civilization history, positioning Variation Theory as a vital theoretical and methodological guide.

Japanese arts and literature have exhibited a distinct tendency toward formalization throughout their development, with part of their formal system derived from Chinese influences. This paper takes “Shin-Gyō-Sō,” a classification originating from Chinese calligraphy that was later widely applied across various Japanese artistic disciplines, as a case study. It traces the process by which this classification, initially rooted in Chinese calligraphic styles, was integrated into Japanese culture and examines its adaptability and creative expression across different artistic fields. Finally, by revisiting the concept as a whole from both causal and consequential perspectives, the paper offers a comprehensive analysis of “Shin-Gyō-Sō.”

In the first half of the twentieth century, both the Eastern and Western worlds were in the midst of great and unprecedented changes. In the West, the rise of the workers' movement, the success of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, and the outbreak of the two world wars provoked the left-wing intellectuals in Germany to strongly criticize capitalism, imperialism and fascism. In the East, ancient China was also experiencing the pains of quasi-colonialism and semi-feudalism. Society was in turmoil, with different political forces struggling against each other, and everyone was eager to find a new way to achieve genuine salvation and survival. Anna Seghers, as a world-renowned German anti-fascist writer of the 20th century and a famous proletarian revolutionary fighter, looked to the far east at this time, witnessing and recording the proletarian revolutionary movement and anti-fascist movement in China.

The attraction of China to Seghers in the 1920s and 1930s was undoubtedly enormous. This attraction was due to multiple reasons: firstly, she had formed a bond with China when she studied Sinology in Heidelberg and Cologne in her youth; secondly, out of her disappointment with the reality and culture of Europe at that time, she turned her attention to the East, in order to find her own spiritual way out of non-European cultural traditions and to get spiritual nourishment to inspire her empathy to solve her own dilemmas; and thirdly, it was from the same ideology of Mutual support. Because at this time the European countries were in a period of violent social upheaval, deeply mired in the quagmire of economic crisis and the horror of the fascist seizure of power. The intellectuals at this stage invariably intervened directly or indirectly in politics and in social life. Proletarian literature entered a new stage, literary works were given political meanings under the pen of left-wing writers, and solidarity with the international proletarian revolutionary movement was also one of the main activities of the left-wing writers in Germany at that time. As Seghers puts it, she “recognized the interconnectedness of the contradictions in her own country and the struggles being waged in faraway China”. The literary ideology behind this watchfulness is extremely interesting to study.

Seghers has portrayed diverse and vivid images of Chinese revolutionaries in her works, embodying the heroic and fearless revolutionary image of the Chinese people in their anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles, and expressing the writer's affectionate homage to the Chinese revolution. Her works not only formed a close connection with the social reality of China at that time, but also formed a profound dialog with the revolutionary writing in global left-wing literature. We can see China a hundred years ago and the proletarian revolutionary movement in China from Seghers' writing, looking at ourselves with the gaze of the Other and adding a different perspective to this great history.

Huiwen (回文) is a unique and important literary genre in the history of Chinese literary development. Starting from the translation variation of the word huiwen in English, Guo reviews the pictorial form, richness of types, and diversity of content and meaning of huiwen poetry, and combines the compilation history of huiwen collections to briefly describe its long history and far-reaching influence. Focusing on the iconic work in the Chinese huiwen sequence: Su Hui(苏蕙)’s “Xuan Ji Map”(璇玑图), Guo combs and analyzes the general neglect of it in Chinese literary history since the 1980s, as well as the shortcomings in the few introductions. Then, Guo summarizes and explores the introduction of “Xuan Ji Map” as world literature in the history of Chinese literature and world literature in the Anglo-American Academia, analyzing the presentation dimensions, and focusing on David Hinton’s works to re-examine the Confucian and Taoist connotations and feminist implications in “Xuan Ji Map”. On this basis, Guo reviews the history of Chinese literature compiled by Chinese scholars in the early twentieth century, revealing that there was more attention and recognition given to “Xuan Ji Map”, and thus rethink the relationship between huiwen poetry and tradition and modernity, calling for future literary history writing to pay more attention to Su Hui’s “Xuan Ji Map” and other huiwen poetry.