Abstract: The research work of Chinese culture in the 21st century is facing challenges from three aspects: academic history，historical literature，and the international academia. The insight and overlooking of“What and Why in Chinese Civilization”，the lecture note by well-known American Sinologist Dirk Bodde，give us both positive and negative inspirations:confronted with unprecedentedcolossal historical literature and academic resources，researchers should have the courage to reexamine and reflect on those seemingly self-evident“common sense”，challenge the rationality of the so-called“presuppositions”， “basis”，and“preconditions，recheck the multiple facets that were ignored in the past，and constantly renew and enrich their recognition of important cultural hypothesis；when utilizing classic literature，they should pay full attention to the constructive process ofits adjunction，rheological deformation，generation，classicization，and filiationso as to ensure that their adduction of proof and presentation of argument are scientific；and domestic academic circles should acquaint themselves with foreign Sinologists’fields of vision，angles，approaches，and methods in their research work and simultaneously take care of their“deconstructive”and“subversive”tendencies，keeping alert against the adverse effectscaused by conscious and unconsciouspossible misinterpretations.