The authors consider new views of the classical versus vernacular dichotomy that are especially central to the new historiography of China and East Asian languages. Based on recent debates initiated by Sheldon Pollock's findings for South Asia, we examine alternative frameworks for understanding East Asian languages between 1000 and 1919. Using new sources, making new connections, and re-examining old assumptions, we have asked whether and why East and SE Asian languages (e.g., Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Jurchen, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese) should be analysed in light of a Eurocentric dichotomy of Latin versus vernaculars. This discussion has encouraged us to explore whether European modernity is an appropriate standard at all for East Asia. Individually and collectively, we have sought to establish linkages between societies without making a priori assumptions about the countries' internal structures or the genealogy of their connections.

在长期的历史进程中，对汉语的认识构成了西方现代知识的一部分。本书从世界文学的思想谱系出发，论述了语文学和世界文学的关系，并在此基础上，主要考察西方汉语观形成、发展、传播和扩散的过程及其在思想史上的意义，尤其重点关注它在西方思想史内部的承续，以及对现代中国语言、文学和思想的影响。通过将西方汉语观与中国语言文字改革运动联系在一起，作者发掘了现代语言思想和知识话语体系之间的联系，说明中国语言改革运动和新文化运动并不是孤立的、完全本土化的社会实践，而是具有世界意义的现象。汉语成为西方现代学术与现代中国文化之间接触的纽带和媒介，这就是“汉语的意义”。