On the afternoon of December 29th, Professor Hou Jianxin,dean of European Civilization Research Institute of Tianjin Normal University and senior professor of Tianjin Normal University, was invited to give an academic lecture entitled "The Concept and Connotation of European Civilization" in our college.The lecture was presided over by Professor Zhang Shengli, a doctoral supervisor of political science of our college. Some teachers and graduate students of our college participated in the lecture together.

Hou Jianxin started with Huntington's view on the division of world civilization, and explained the concept and connotation of European civilization in three parts.First of all, Hou Jianxin described the concept of time in European civilization through the arguments of representative scholars in the field of historiography, believing that Western civilization was established after the middle ages.In view of the relationship between the western civilization and the classical civilization, he proposed that although they are connected, they are not one. Western civilization is a brand-new civilization, which contains new factors that classical civilization does not have.Secondly, Hou Jianxin explained the spatial concept of Western civilization, proposing that the concept of "Europe" was originally only used to show a difference, believing that the cultural boundary of Western civilization is actually more important than the geographical boundary. The essence of European civilization did not originate in Greece and Rome, but in the middle ages. Its historical stage is closely related to its nature. Based on the above exposition of European civilization's space-time view, Hou Jianxin proposed a meta-rule that which marked the establishment of Western civilization, and made a detailed interpretation of the resistance rights and property rights.

The teachers and students in the lecture had a lively discussion on European civilization and Oriental civilization, and Hou Jianxin gave detailed answers to them. After the lecture, Zhang Shengli spoke highly of Hou Jianxin's academic lecture and expressed his own experience and harvest on related topics. This lecture made the students have a clearer understanding of European civilization and laid a foundation for further study in the future.

（Translator：Li Xueli）