On March 11, Wang Ruilai, a researcher at the The Research Institute for Oriental Cultures of Gakushuin University, Japan, visited our Institute and held an academic lecture. The lecture focuses on the discussion of the Tang and Song reform theories in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century in the new century, and explore the Western modernity with free rationality as the core feature since the Renaissance by comparing China and the West, and trace its historical change and group characteristics in the traditional Chinese Song and Yuan dynasties.

Researcher Wang Ruilai first clarified the context of the Tang and Song reform theories from the perspective of academic history, and defined the difference between the Song and Yuan reform theories and the Tang and Song reform theories. He also distinguishes the existing theories of “the transition of the two Song dynasties” and “the transition of Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties” in the academic circle. The final question is, when did the “modernity” of traditional China begin?

The lecture presents an international academic vision, thinking about the old paradigm and concluding the new paradigm in the context of a long period of academic history; It provides a research perspective and demonstration for the historical origin of traditional Chinese modernity. It also provides a possible way of thinking for the academic innovation of undergraduate and graduate students majoring in public administration.