Hu Hsiao and the Choice of Modern Chinese Intellectuals: Spine or Cover Defects

Author: Zhou Mingzhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Mr. Lei Yi from the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, translated my English book Hu Shih and Intellectual Choice in Modern China into Chinese. Because of Mr. Lei's translation, my book could meet the Chinese historical academia in China. In addition to expressing my gratitude, I also take this opportunity to briefly explain the main purpose of this book. This book is not a full biography of Hu Shih. Given the complexity and breadth of Hu Shih's life, the length required to write a full biography would likely be more than one or two times the length of this book. What I have adopted is thematic analysis. The central theme of the book is to analyze the suffering, confusion, and sense of alienation that Hu Shih experienced in the context of the transition between the old and the new and the collision between Eastern and Western cultures during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. When Hu Shih was born (1891, the 17th year of the Guangxu reign), China had already been in a state of great turmoil for over two thousand years. The traditional value system of China had begun to change fundamentally under the impact of Western culture, and China's social and political order was also disintegrating in the transition between the old and the new. Intellectuals with thoughts and feelings faced great confusion in their choices between the old and the new, in their value orientations, and in their personal futures. Hu Shih received a modern education from a young age and studied in the United States at the age of nearly nineteen. His immersion in modern thought was profound and long-lasting, and among his contemporaries in the field of modern thought, few could match him. However, many traditional values still had a great influence on his conscious and subconscious mind. Hu Shih had a natural and deep affection for China, but the ideals and realities of traditional Chinese society and politics, compared to the powerful and advanced standards of the West, made him feel weak and unwilling to identify with China. Under this torment of the old and the new, as well as Eastern and Western cultures, the choices of personal behavior and thought could no longer be clearly defined. Hu Shih accepted modern thought but could not entirely abandon the old elements that conflicted with it. He despised modern Chinese politics and society, but his harsh criticism reflected his deep concern for China. This also explains why many sensitive modern Chinese intellectuals often fell into an inescapable abyss of alienation. Throughout Hu Shih's life, wherever he was, he felt lost. After leaving the Chinese New School in Shanghai, he began to live a dissolute life. At that time, the old path to officialdom had been cut off, and modern higher education had not yet taken its place. He studied English diligently, at least subconsciously, yearning to study in the United States. On the other hand, he also criticized the United States' ill intentions toward China. Amidst his inner conflict and hesitation, his life also became uncontrolled. In Shanghai, he devoted himself to mathematics. In the United States, he specialized in agriculture. But his true interests lay in literature and history. Science was not just a subject in the minds of modern Chinese intellectuals but also a value. Hu Shih aspired to be a scientist, partly out of a desire to distance himself from the value world of China. During his time at Cornell University, he became a Christian and immediately regretted it. Later, he criticized the doctrines of Christianity and the actions of missionaries while also acknowledging their contributions to China's modernization. Hu Shih's marriage was a prominent example of the conflict between Eastern and Western cultures and the old and the new. In early 1904, at the age of just over thirteen, he was married to Jiang Dongxiu by arrangement. In the free atmosphere of the United States, he began to fall in love freely. Although he eventually married Jiang Dongxiu, his later advocacy for divorce and women's liberation were largely his unspoken sorrows and protests against tradition. Hu Shih believed in cosmopolitanism, indifferent to national sentiments and concerned only with right and wrong. However, cosmopolitanism had its own cleverness. Under the theories of world unity and international justice, he defended his country and felt at ease. But Hu Shih absolutely refused to form parties and was not willing to enter politics, always maintaining a distance from the corrupt politics of China at the time. This was clearly different from traditional intellectuals who were solely focused on entering official circles. Hu Shih's literary revolution was a fundamental critique of old literature and old values, and his advocacy for realism was a powerful indictment of the many vices in Chinese culture and society. Fundamentally, Hu Shih was anti-traditional, but his feelings were extremely complex. In different contexts and to different audiences, he spoke differently. His fondness for ancient history was partly to find historical precedents for China's modernization, partly out of his interest in literature and history, and partly to escape reality and find temporary solace in the past. Throughout his life, Hu Shih never found a role that he felt comfortable and satisfied with. The book begins and ends with analysis and explanation. My purpose is to deepen our understanding of modern Chinese intellectuals. This understanding is one that is historically empathetic. The book does not make moral judgments or political praise or condemnation. History is our memory. If we have no memory of our past, we will have no understanding of where we came from today or where we are going. The reason we have normal behavior and regulated lives, knowing when to wake up, when to go to school, where the office is, and what tomorrow's plans are, is because we have memory, because our memory gives us order and direction. A nation or a people without historical memory will also lack the ability to act and determine direction. Conversely, if we remember the past too closely or too minutely, we will also be paralyzed. Too much or too little is harmful. Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1844-1900) said that historical awareness and the ability to break free from the constraints of history are equally important. A nation, a country, and an individual must possess both the ability to remember the past and the ability to forget the past to maintain their health. Imagine a nation that devotes all its energy and time to remembering every second and every detail of the past; or an individual who remembers every action in the past, even the time of every meal, down to the minute—then what wisdom and judgment can they possess? How could they have any creativity or imagination? In our field of historical studies, on one hand, we lack memory, and many lost memories are not easily recoverable. On the other hand, we suffer from excessive memory. This flaw is evident not only in the countless accumulation of historical facts, mechanical and contentless research, but also, most obviously, in our habit of arguing with the past. We remember the merits and faults of the ancients, holding onto every detail, determined to make them clear-cut. Thus, we constantly impose our own assumed moral views on the ancients, judging their merits and faults. In recent decades, we have also constantly used blind political dogmas as the standards for judging and praising. Unfortunately, this moral and political judgment has only made our historical memory fragmented and has not deepened our understanding of the past. By weighing the ancients on a strict and empty scale, we have only denied everything in our past. What we have left for our nation and society are almost all self-denigrating collective memories. What we need today is to study the past with a calm and objective attitude, at an appropriate distance, preserving a historically meaningful memory. Spinoza (Benedict Spinoza, 1632-1677) said, "When we study the past, we should neither praise nor regret nor condemn; we should only seek to understand." How true these words are. The central theme of this book is to analyze the suffering, confusion, and sense of alienation that Hu Shih experienced in the transition between the old and the new and the collision between Eastern and Western cultures during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. While centered on Hu Shih, the book also provides a meticulous analysis of the predicament of modern intellectuals like Fu Sinian, Xu Zhimo, and Ding Ling in the face of political realities, their indecision and difficulty in accepting or rejecting traditional culture, their deep reflections on the relationship between the state and society, and even their attitudes toward family, marriage, and love, from the perspective of intellectual and psychological history. In doing so, it actually reveals the inner journey of that generation of intellectuals.