Biographical Review of Hu Qiu Bai's Academic Thought

Author: Yu Yuhua
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-01-01
Features: Reviewing the development of Chinese academia in the 20th century, it can be said that: it was a century of abundance, innovation, and glory. Over a hundred years, renowned scholars emerged, stars shone brightly, achievements were abundant, and new ideas were constantly introduced. Traditional Chinese academia underwent transformation, with a large influx of Western academia. Through the exchange, collision, and integration of Chinese and Western academia, 20th-century Chinese academic culture was born and rapidly grew. Within a century, new breakthroughs and significant progress were made in various academic fields, establishing a complete system of modern Chinese academic culture. Reviewing and summarizing the academic development of the 20th century, clarifying its right and wrongs, is a meaningful endeavor, an essential step to advancing 21st-century academia and further constructing socialist academic culture in China. Traditional Chinese academic culture has a long history, profound roots, and has produced brilliant achievements and substantial accumulations. It has long nurtured the Chinese people, shaping the character and spirit of the Chinese nation, holding an important position in the history of world academic culture. However, since the mid-19th century, with the invasion of imperialism into China, Western academic culture was also introduced. The spread of Western learning to the East went through several stages: first, the dissemination of material civilization, followed by institutional and spiritual civilization, until Marxism entered China. Western academic culture is vast and far-reaching in influence. Upon entering China, it took root, blossomed, and bore fruit. It changed the direction and pace of development of Chinese academic thought and even the entire society, leading China from a traditional feudal society into a modern one. During this period, there were intense struggles and gradual integration between Chinese and Western learning, between old and new learning, and between traditional and modern academia. The 20th-century academic culture of China was born through this struggle and integration. The modernization of Chinese academia began with Yan Fu's translation of Western academic classics. In the late 19th century, he translated "Evolution and Ethics" by Thomas Huxley, introducing the theory of evolution to the Chinese people and bringing about a revolutionary change in academic thought. Later, he successively translated Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill's "A System of Logic," Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Sociology," Montesquieu's "The Spirit of the Laws," John Stuart Mill's "A System of Logic," and John Stuart Mill's "Elements of Logic." These were fields rarely studied or written about in traditional Chinese academia, providing references for modern Chinese economics, political science, law, sociology, and logic, which thus emerged. In 1901, Liang Qichao published "On the Historiography of China," explaining the difference between modern and traditional historiography: "With the advancement of world academia, the role of modern historians differs from that of their predecessors. Earlier historians merely recorded facts, while modern historians must explain the relationships and causes and effects of these facts. Earlier historians only recorded the rise and fall of a few powerful individuals or families, though called history, it was merely a genealogy of a person or family. Modern historians must explore the overall movement and progress of human society, the experiences of the entire nation, and their interrelationships." He passionately called for the revolution of historiography, believing it was a matter of great importance to the nation's survival. He said, "If the revolution in historiography does not occur, our country will be irredeemable. Among all things, this is the most important." At this time, Xia Zengyou wrote "A New Middle School Textbook on the History of China," the first modern Chinese general history written in a chapter-by-chapter format. Other disciplines also entered the modern era at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, Shen Jiaben founded the Law Society and "The Journal of the Law Society," marking the beginning of modern Chinese jurisprudence. Wang Guowei and Luo Zhenyu's study of oracle bones unearthed at Yinxu can be considered the origin of modern archaeology. Zhang Taiyan's study of Indian philosophy and Wang Guowei's study of Schopenhauer pioneered the study of foreign philosophy by modern Chinese scholars. During the May Fourth Movement, Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi advocated literary revolution, giving birth to modern Chinese literature. Hu Shi wrote "Outlines of the History of Chinese Philosophy," the first analysis and study of ancient Chinese thought from a Western perspective. As for natural sciences, in the late 19th century, scholars like Li Shanlan, Xu Shu, and Hua Hengfang translated numerous works and laid extensive groundwork. In 1915, Chinese students studying abroad in the United States founded the Chinese Scientific Society and launched "The Scientific Monthly," marking the gradual development of modern Chinese natural science research. The 20th-century Chinese academia was a product of advanced intellectuals seeking truth to save the nation from Western thought. Western theories and numerous works surged into China like a flood opening its. Chinese scholars, rooted in their own foundation, selected, differentiated, and absorbed, creating academic culture suited to their time. As Chinese scholars, born and raised in China, educated within its culture, were inevitably deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture. The scholars of the 20th century, coming from the old era, were generally proficient in traditional Chinese culture. The fierce anti-traditionalists of the May Fourth Movement, such as Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Qian Xuantong, and Wu Yu, strove to oppose old traditions and break away from them, yet traditional culture had already permeated their blood, making it impossible for them to completely sever ties with it. As they themselves said, they had fought their way out of the old camp and turned against it. Even "total Westernization" advocates like Chen Xujing could not escape traditional culture. As long as you are Chinese and have been educated in Chinese culture, you cannot completely escape its influence. "Today's me" cannot entirely oppose and discard "yesterday's me." Similarly, 20th-century Chinese scholars, no matter how conservative or stubborn their thoughts, could not completely oppose Western academic culture. The superiority and advancement of Western academic culture became increasingly evident, and people could not help but accept it to some extent. There were no complete opponents or discards of Western academic culture. Modern life's clothing, food, housing, and transportation were largely influenced by the West: Western suits, Western-style meals, Western-style houses, cars, and airplanes. Western civilization was everywhere. Whose life could be separated from these? Mao Dun, in "The Midnight Sun," portrayed Wu Laotai, a stubborn and ignorant old man, who, upon arriving in Shanghai from the countryside, recited "The Great Response to" but lived in a Western-style house and could only travel by car. The-pulling, retro advocate Su Hongming was actually a university scholar with a comprehensive Western education. The major characteristic of the 20th century was the struggle and integration of Chinese and Western culture. People grew up in a cultural atmosphere that was both Chinese and Western, neither Chinese nor Western, and a blend of both. The struggle and integration of these two heterogeneous cultures would not end in a short time. Historically, the introduction of Buddhist culture into China underwent the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang, and Song dynasties, with Confucianism and Buddhism engaging in intense struggles and mutual rejection before gradually integrating, giving rise to Confucianized Buddhism—Zen Buddhism—and Buddhistized Confucianism—Neo-Confucianism. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jesuit missionaries brought Western culture to China. Despite the support of figures like Xu Guangqi, Li Zhi, even the emperors Shunzhi and Kangxi, they faced strong resistance from Confucianism. After one or two hundred years, it faded away without taking root or bearing fruit. It shows that the integration of heterogeneous cultures, especially the birth of new academic culture from integration, is a long, slow, and arduous process. After the Opium War, the spread of Western culture in China was the third time heterogeneous culture entered China, with greater momentum and far-reaching influence than the previous two. Due to the superiority of Western academic culture, traditional Chinese culture seemed inferior. By the end of the last century, in the clash between Chinese and Western learning, Chinese learning had lost its footing and was defeated. It is necessary to learn from the strengths of Western learning, "taking the West as the teacher," and to recreate Chinese academic culture on its foundation to rebuild it. Against this historical backdrop, through the unremitting efforts of Chinese scholars, 20th-century Chinese academia was nurtured, emerged, and displayed a new face and vigorous vitality. 20th-century Chinese academic culture, broadly speaking, has the following characteristics:
1. Guided by the theory of evolution and materialist history. Traditional Chinese academia praised the institutions and figures of ancient times, revered the sages and belittled the later kings, considering Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, and the Duke of Zhou and Confucius as the bearers of the Way. Believing that the ancient Way had been lost, the later generations were filled with strife and conflict, and society gradually declined. In the late 19th century, Yan Fu translated "Evolution and Ethics," and the principles of social evolution became popular nationwide, completely changing outdated concepts. The Chinese people understood to observe and study human society from the perspective of evolutionary history, arriving at conclusions entirely different from those of the ancients. Thus, 20th-century academic culture abandoned traditional concepts and established modern new ones. Around the May Fourth Movement, Marxism entered China, and advanced intellectuals grasped the scientific materialist history, further understanding productivity and production relations, economic base and superstructure, objective laws and subjective initiative in social development, guiding the study of academic culture under the guidance of materialist history and scientific methods. 20th-century Chinese academic culture made significant progress. All 20th-century Chinese scholars believed in the theory of evolution. After 1949, materialist history held the dominant position, nurturing and fostering a large number of scholars under its guidance.
2. A new knowledge classification system was formed. Traditional Chinese academia was divided into classics, history, philosophy, and literature, not strictly based on disciplinary classification, with classics being particularly important and superior, encompassing everything. The "I Ching" included mathematics, philosophy, and natural sciences; the "Book of Documents" included political science, history, and geography; the "Book of Songs" included literature, art, and natural sciences; the "Book of Rites" included political science, ethics, and pedagogy; the "Spring and Autumn Annals" included history and political science. Many disciplines were still in their infancy, yet to fully differentiate from the general classics, with extremely blurred boundaries between them. 20th-century Chinese academic culture grew vigorously and comprehensively, forming a new knowledge classification system. Natural sciences adopted the academic achievements accumulated over centuries in the West, becoming an independent major. Within it, there were numerous branches, establishing major disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, agriculture, engineering, and medicine, with abundant categories and content, reaching a high level and benefiting national and economic well-being. In the humanities and social sciences, literature, history, and philosophy were separated, forming their respective specialties. New disciplines such as economics, law, pedagogy, sociology, journalism, political science, and psychology emerged and became independent. Due to the rapid progress of human society in the 20th century, people's understanding of nature, society, and themselves deepened, with knowledge and information volume growing immensely, and the content and scope of academic culture expanding, completely breaking the old framework of classics, history, philosophy, and literature, forming a new classification system of modern social and natural sciences.
3. The application of rational methods. Traditional academic research methods were not precise enough, logic was not rigorous, and reasoning and judgment had a certain subjective color. Academic pursuits involved intuitive insights, deep meditation, self-reflection, and self-cultivation. Certain non-rational methods, such as imaginative, intuitive, faith-based, speculative, and emotional approaches, as long as they could express the state of the research object—whether real or illusory—could form certain academic knowledge, such as ancient theories of the vast seas and nine states, the theory of (heaven and earth interaction), and (clear mind and visible nature). In the 20th century, Chinese academia introduced Western research methods, using induction and deduction, emphasizing evidence, "without evidence, no belief," and "a single piece of evidence is not valid," discarding subjective biases, and adopting a calm, objective attitude to conduct specific and accurate cognitive activities on determined objects. In natural sciences, microscopes, telescopes, and other scientific instruments and experimental methods were used. In social sciences, research methods focused on investigation and collection of first-hand material. 20th-century academic culture pursued precise and specific understanding of the rich diversity of the real world, thereby recognizing its essence and laws. Modern academia values rational spirit rather than intuition, faith, or authority.
4. High-pitched patriotism. When China entered the 20th century, imperialist aggression became fiercer, and the oppression of feudal warlords and the Nationalist government became more brutal. Facing internal and external troubles, the people lived in hardship. 20th-century Chinese scholars witnessed the fragmentation of the nation and the suffering of the people, filled with deep compassion, awakening their sense of responsibility, and generously taking the salvation of the nation upon themselves. They painstakingly explored and dedicatedly researched in various academic fields, all for the purpose of saving the country. 20th-century Chinese academic culture was born and developed in the stormy years of hardship. Opposing imperialist aggression and feudal oppression, striving for national prosperity and people's happiness was the common strong desire of 20th-century scholars. Those in natural sciences hoped for salvation through science, those in economics through industrial development, those in pedagogy through education, those in political science through national prosperity, those in philosophy through reviving the national spirit, those in history through using historical experience to educate and mobilize the people, and those in literature through shaping the heroic images of the nation's unyielding heroes. 20th-century Chinese academic culture emerged alongside China's hardships, promoting the nation's progress, calling for national awakening, and inspiring the struggles of the masses. Therefore, patriotism permeated it, becoming its main spiritual support. 20th-century Chinese academic culture upheld the banner of patriotism.