The concept of "Chinese studies" came into being in19th century. At that time, the improvement trend of "western learning spreading to the east" was in full swing. In order to oppose western learning, Zhang Zhidong and Wei Yuan put forward the concept of "middle school" (Chinese studies), and advocated that "middle school should be the body and western learning should be used" in order to learn western civilization and restore Confucian classics in Han Dynasty.
Extended data
Sinology, based on pre-Qin classics and a hundred schools of thought contend, covers a whole set of unique and complete cultural and academic systems, such as Confucian Classics in Han Dynasty, Metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, Taoism in Sui and Tang Dynasties, Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, practical learning in Ming and Qing Dynasties, pre-Qin poetry, parallel prose in Six Dynasties, poetry in Tang and Song Dynasties, Yuanqu, novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and historiography in past dynasties.
There is no master-slave relationship in hundred schools of thought's theoretical coexistence resonance in the pre-Qin period. According to the role played in different periods, each theory played an explicit or implicit role in each period, but only in different fields. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", Confucianism has occupied the mainstream position in the field of ideological education, but other theories have also played an important role in different fields.
Baidu encyclopedia-Chinese studies