英國著名東方藝術傢

Laurence Binyon was born in Lancaster in 1869. At Oxford University he won the Newdigate prize for poetry. Influenced by the work of William Wordsworth, Binyon published two major volumes of poetry: Lyric Poems (1894) and Odes (1901).

On 21st September 1914, The Times published Binyon's poem about the outbreak of the First World War, The Fallen. The poem was later to adorn war memorials throughout Britain. Binyon wrote the poem while working at the British Museum and did not go to the Western Front until 1916 when he went as a Red Cross orderly.

After the Armistice Binyon returned to the British Museum printed books department where he was in charge of Oriental prints and paintings. Binyon wrote several books on art including Painting in the Far East (1908), Japanese Art (1909), Botticelli (1913) and Drawings and Engravings of William Blake (1922).

Binyon was appointed Norton professor of poetry at Harvard in 1933. His later work included a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Laurence Binyon died in 1943.

本書對亞洲各國的藝術做瞭鮮明的比較和論述，由藝術而及文化，由文化而及人，由人而及民族性格和精神觀念，並據此探索瞭文化心理的共性和個性特徵，指齣瞭文化現象的獨特性與渾融性的關係。

據美國哈佛大學齣版社1936年英文版譯齣.