在元代,西域人华化现象十分普遍,廉希宪是其中的代表,被誉为色目人中理学名臣第一。在元代四书学北传的背景之下,廉希宪受早期交游诸儒或太极书院的影响,精研《孟子》,深究《孟子》性善、义利、仁暴之旨,被元世祖赞为“廉孟子”。其出处行事,亦多方面体现出《孟子》思想之精髓。对于西域人之华化,有学者表示赞赏,认为是“进夷狄而中国之”;有学者则批评之,认为尚远远不足。民族、文明、政权之间的相互错综,共同构成了元代鲜活的历史。
During the Yuan Dynasty, Lian Xixian was generally regarded as the representative who had been highly sinicized in the Western Regions. Besides, he was also the first of Semu ministers excelling in Confucianism. Influenced by other Confucianists or Taiji Academy during the northward promotion of the Four Books studies of Yuan Dynasty, Lian Xixian became a distinguished scholar of Mencius, especially of the doctrine of goodness of human nature, moral and profit, and benevolence and ruthlessness in this book, and practiced the theory of Mencius in various aspects so that he was praised as "Lian Mencius" by the Emperor Kublai Khan. Some scholars approved of the sinicization of the people in the Western Regions as the "civilization of barbarians", while others thought of it as only a sinicization at a low level. The living and complex history of Yuan Dynasty was just composed of different nations, different civilizations, and the government.