Classics of Philosophy from Peking University. Selected Works of He Lin

Author: Chen Lai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: He Li (1902-1992), styled Zi Zhao, was a native of Jintang, Sichuan. He was a modern Chinese philosopher, translator, and one of the early representatives of modern Neo-Confucianism. In 1930, he went to Germany to study at the University of Berlin, specializing in German classical philosophy. After returning to China, he taught at the Department of Philosophy at Peking University for a long time and also taught at Tsinghua University. From 1955 onwards, he served as the Director of the Department of the History of Western Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academic Committee Member of the Institute of Philosophy, the Honorary President of the Chinese Society for the Study of the History of Foreign Philosophy, and a member of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the China Democratic League, the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, and the Third and Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1982, he joined the Communist Party of China.
He Li had a deep understanding of Western philosophy and conducted in-depth research on Western modern philosophers such as Hegel, Spinoza, and Whitehead. In terms of Chinese philosophy and Confucian thought, he initially advocated that the "mind" was "fundamentally important" and believed that "one cannot speak of things without the mind." In the 1930s, he established the "New Mindology" system, which was in contrast to Feng Youlan's "New Logicism," becoming one of the advocates of modern Neo-Confucianism. He believed that Confucianism, represented by Confucius, Mencius, "Po Education," "Ritual Education," and the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties, was an excellent tradition of Chinese culture. He proposed that Western thought and culture should be absorbed through three approaches—philosophical, religious, and artistic—to reform, supplement, and develop Confucianism, aiming to achieve "a new development of Confucian thought." He believed that "Chinese culture, since the Song Confucians, can be said to have marked a new era, added a new seal, and taken a new direction." Although the thought of the Song Confucians had biases, their "philosophy was rich in the idea of loving the nation and its culture." The "method of investigating things and seeking principles" of the Song Confucians "seemed empty and abstract, but in fact had great utility."