关键词: 现代人文学科, 新语文学, 回到语文学, 世界语文学, 当代汉学

Abstract: The western sinology is deeply influenced by philology methodologically and practically. Both sinology and philology are positioned in the institutional context of modern humanities. The idea of “worldly philology” advocated by Auerbach is a milestone for the humanistic philology. “New philology”, focusing on the materiality and sociology of text, is a trend against the two philological approaches of intellectual history and symbolic semiotics. At the same time, philology is closely related to ambiguity and hermeneutic potentiality of language. The deconstructive critics try to reconcile the contradiction between theory and philology, which, however, reveals a paradox between the promise and efficacy of philology itself. Against this background, contemporary sinology, converging with philology and emphasizing the dialectics of global-regional scholarship, takes Chinese philological tradition as an important issue. The rise and decline of philology represent a reflexive adjusting mechanism of humanities, and philology could be regarded as a regulating function. Understanding this situation is helpful for us to revisit and restate the tradition of philology in China and to engage in the global comparative discussion on philology. The meta-research of sinology as a comparative literary study will play an important intermediary role in this process.

Key words: modern humanities, new philology, the return to philology, world philology, contemporary sinology