Many scholars claim that the world has had many ‘renaissances’ in its long history: they advocate what we could call the ‘multiple renaissances’ thesis. In this article, I will focus on the history of this idea. Where and when did the ‘multiple renaissances’ thesis emerge? What intellectual exchanges and historical conditions made it possible? To answer these questions, I will first draw up a short genealogy of the idea that the European/Italian Renaissance is a ‘culture’ or a ‘social type’; then, I will show that such typological use of the renaissance made it possible to apply this concept to different historical and social configurations, not only within, but also outside Europe; finally, through an analysis of the relation between Arnold Toynbee and Hu Shi, I will show that the uses of the renaissance category in the non-European world, especially in East Asia, contributed to shaping the ‘multiple renaissances’ thesis and, through it, to redefining the perception of the renaissance in Europe proper.

许多学者声称，世界在其悠久的历史中拥有许多“文艺复兴”：他们主张我们可以称之为“多重文艺复兴”的论文。在本文中，我将重点介绍这个想法的历史。“多重文艺复兴”的论据何时何地出现？哪些知识交流和历史条件使之成为可能？为了回答这些问题，我将首先简要概述一下欧洲/意大利文艺复兴是“文化”还是“社会类型”的观念。然后，我将证明，文艺复兴时期的这种类型学上的使用使将这一概念不仅可以在欧洲境内而且可以在欧洲以外应用于不同的历史和社会形态。最后，通过分析阿诺德·汤因比（Arnold Toynbee）与胡适之间的关系，我将证明文艺复兴时期类别在非欧洲世界中的用途，