East Asian Four Gods and Western Scholarship: A Study of Omissions and Challenges

East Asian Four Gods and Western Scholarship: A Study of Omissions and Challenges

【背景】四神是东亚一种独特的文化现象，引起了学术界广泛关注。尽管其重要性不言而喻，但西方学术界对这一文化方面的研究仍然有所欠缺。 【目的】本文旨在强调西方学术界目前存在的空白，并倡导深入研究围绕 “四神” 的文化的必要性。 【方法】本研究采用CiteSpace 对Web of Science 收录的论文进行定量分析。 【结果】研究结果显示，西方学术界对四神文化的研究非常有限，以至于这些文化元素往往无法得到准确地译解。 【结论】这种差异突显了西方学术界在全球多元文化研究中存在局限性。为应对《四神》相关研究所面临的挑战，建议将建立适当的译名作为基础步骤，并采用基于四重证据法进行进一步探索。

[Background] The Four Gods, a distinct cultural phenomenon prevalent in East Asia, has garnered significant attention within academic circles. Despite its importance, this cultural aspect remains largely underexplored within Western academic. [Purpose] The objective of this article is to highlight the existing gaps in Western academic and to advocate for the necessity of conducting in-depth studies on the culture surrounding the Four Gods. [Method]This research employs CiteSpace for the quantitative analysis of papers indexed in the Web of Science. [Result] The findings indicate a significant scarcity of Western academic pertaining to the cultures of the Four Gods, to the extent that accurate translation of these cultural elements is often unattainable. [Conclusion] This discrepancy highlights the limited perspective of the Western academic community regarding multicultural studies globally. To address the challenges in researching the Four Gods, the paper suggests establishing a suitable translation as a foundational step, followed by adopting a research method based on quadruple evidence method.