On November 24, 2021, "Between East and West: Beyond Intellectual Thinking", the 2021 Annual Conference and Replacement Conference of the Shanghai Society for the Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Philosophy and Culture was held in Xinyifu Building, North Central Campus, East China Normal University.
Professor Wang Tianen of Shanghai University and Professor Fan Zhihui of Shanghai Normal University presided over the election meeting for the new term. The Secretary-General, Professor Liu Liangjian, delivered the report on the work of the Board of Directors, the financial report and the explanation on the amendment of the Statute of the Society. Professor Yu Zhenhua, Vice President of the Shanghai Association for the Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Philosophy and Culture, read out the list of candidates for the new (seventh) term and explained. The meeting elected Tong Shijun as the new president, Yu Zhenhua as the new executive vice president (legal representative), Sun Xiangchen, Bai Tongdong, Du Baorui, Wang Tianen and Fan Zhihui as the new vice presidents, and Liu Liangjian as the new secretary general.
Professor Yang Guorong, former President, expressed his gratitude to colleagues from various universities for their support of the work of the Society. Professor Yang traced the history of feng qi, Wang Yuanhua and other scholars of the older generation who founded the society, and pointed out that the society is characterized by comprehensiveness and aims to build a platform for mutual exchanges for disciplines such as literature, history and philosophy. The theme of this conference is "Between China and the West: Beyond Intellectual Thinking", which is a way of thinking relative to sensibility and reason, which is characterized by demarcation, that is, the unified whole is divided into different aspects. In cultural research, it is not only necessary to grasp their respective objects in different fields, but also to cross boundaries and let different disciplines show their concreteness and authenticity in a comprehensive form. Scholars in different fields should break down the boundaries of disciplines that are firmly drawn, gather together to discuss common topics, and provide multi-perspective thinking. The ability of the institute to bring together different academic institutions in various universities is also a sense of transcendence. Finally, Professor Yang said that under the leadership of the new president, Comrade Tong Shijun, the society will become better and better.
The new president, Professor Tong Shijun, recalled the work of Feng Qi, Wang Yuanhua and other older gentlemen in the 1980s. At the peak of their academic creation, they did not shirk their social responsibilities because of the weight of their academic work tasks. They formed the platform of the Comparative Studies Association, which also aimed to provide exchange opportunities for the academic community at that time and provide growth opportunities for young scholars. Professor Tong Shijun said that he will also inherit and carry forward this fine tradition, and strive to do a good job in communicating different cultural traditions, different disciplines and different units. More than thirty years have passed, and many aspects of comparative communication have changed dramatically, and now we have better conditions. At the same time, the context of the comparison between Chinese and Western cultures now is also very different from the context of that time. On a global scale, in addition to The relationship between China and the West, the Relationship between the North and the South, and between China and other cultural traditions is also extremely important.
Wang Weisong, secretary of the party leading group of the Shanghai Municipal Federation of Social Societies, delivered a speech entitled "Drawing Wisdom from Philosophy." He mentioned that on World Philosophy Day, Professor Yu Zhenhua's "On Philosophical Cultivation" was forwarded, and it received a large number of likes beyond expectations, which shows that many people are willing to praise philosophy. Wang Weisong said that the FEDERATION is the home of the society and the home of the scholars. In the future, while promoting academic prosperity and development, the society can also do a little academic popularization work, so that more people in the society can understand the work of scholars. What the FEDERATION wants to do is to show the achievements of the society, through publicity and promotion, so that more people can see, but also to further highlight the role and influence of Shanghai academia in the country and even the world, to promote the enhancement of Shanghai's urban cultural soft power, but also to contribute wisdom to solve the problems facing the world.
Professor Lin Hongxing presided over the annual conference conference meeting on "Between China and the West: Beyond Intellectual Thinking". Sun Xiangchen, Du Baorui, Wu Xiaofan and Yang Jie delivered keynote speeches.
The theme of Professor Sun Xiangchen's presentation was the challenge of Western philosophical research in the Chinese context. In his view, in the Chinese context, the study of Western philosophy is essentially a collision between Western thought and the Chinese world, which is itself a philosophical event and should become the territory of our thinking. Tracing the process of Western philosophy entering the Chinese world, the main form of work in the past 80 years has been introduction and translation, from single books to complete works of systems engineering. But this project is by no means just a simple translation, but essentially a question of how the Chinese-speaking world accepts the other, full of struggle and exclusion. For example, the translation of Dasein in "Existence and Time", the debate on the Being problem, etc., these discussions profoundly reflect the process of how Western concepts and ideas can be placed in the Chinese world, and also involve the self-transformation of the Chinese language in order to accept Western ideas. This reflects that there is always a dual context and context for any translation. If the Chinese context is not deeply considered in the study of Western philosophy, the following paradox arises - when the Chinese academic community argues about Western issues, the scholars they talk to do not understand Chinese; the scholars who can understand the work do not know what is happening in the Chinese world, and this research content has no intrinsic place in the Chinese world. On the one hand, Chinese scholars look at Western literature but present their results in Chinese; on the other hand, Chinese scholars publish their results in foreign languages but cannot promote the improvement of the Chinese language world itself. In order to solve this problem, there is another way between China and the West, that is, consciously studying Western philosophy in the Chinese world, and while understanding and analyzing Western philosophy, there should be philosophical consciousness to enter the Chinese context. We need to pay serious attention to the problems of retention and exclusion that occur in the process of translating, understanding, and studying Western philosophy, which not only requires a thorough understanding of Western philosophy, but also reflects on our own Chinese experience, and on this basis, philosophical thinking can be further improved.
Professor Du Baorui reported on his experience in studying Chinese philosophy. Professor Du recalled that when he was studying in the philosophy department of National Taiwan University, some teachers of Western philosophy questioned the legitimacy of Chinese philosophy. His own sense of the problem also lies in how to study Chinese philosophy with reasonable methods and frameworks in the approach of philosophy. If Chinese philosophical theories are to be established, there are four basic philosophical questions that are complete. The first is cosmology, and the Buddhists, Taoists, and Confucians of Chinese philosophy all have corresponding cosmology, that is, the problem of existentialism. The second is the theory of value, the value of Confucianism is benevolence, righteousness, and wisdom, the value of Zhuangzi is leisure, the value of Lao Tzu is inaction, and so on. The third is the problem of kung fu theory, which is both the ontological kung fu of psychological cultivation and the work of physical cultivation. Finally, there is the question of realmism, with Confucians proposing sages, Zhuangzi proposing real people, and Buddhism proposing arhats, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas. These four basic philosophical questions have been clearly discussed, and the theoretical construction can be considered complete.
The theme of Wu Xiaofan's report was the study of anti-theory trends in East Asian Confucianism in the 18th century. In the 18th century, three different anti-Zhuzi discourses emerged, namely The Qianjia Sinology, Tokugawa Ancient Studies, and Korean Confucianism. The rise of Qianjia Sinology was a major event in 18th-century thought, and similar things appeared in different regions and different cultural forms, which are particularly noteworthy. In the past, there were two approaches to the study of the anti-theory of the 18th century. One is to discuss Qianjia Sinology from the standpoint of the middle school of the Middle School of The Middle School represented by modern Neo-Confucianism, and regard it as a philosophy that does not see the Tao based on the position of Mental Confucianism. The other is to take Liang Qichao and Hu Shi as representatives of the Western interpretation of the Western academic position, based on the enlightenment rationality and progressive position, as a reproduction of the Renaissance or Scientism. But that's all obscured. The theoretical concerns of 18th-century Confucians had some peculiarities. The first is the discussion of the problem of the ancient precepts of life, which first means a conscious inquiry into the relationship between language and philosophy, which is of great significance, and the reinterpretation of the problem of life contains the distinction between man and matter, as well as the distinction between virtue and sex, and this form of Confucianism recognizes that the finiteness of man is not a problem that should be overcome, but the starting point of discussion. This also led to a change in the theory of work, that is, instead of pursuing inward retrograde evidence, it turned to outward exploration and progression. The second is the discussion of etiquette. The philosophy of the 18th century focused on the question of etiquette, which should be positioned as a social philosophy that discusses what is a reasonable social order, both to accommodate the reasonable demands of ordinary people's lives and to make the entire social structure operate in a rational and orderly manner. In this sense, the problem of the doll, the problem of production, the problem of Taoism, and the debate of Yixia have all surfaced. None of these issues can be covered by secondary schools or Western studies in a specific sense, and there are limits in both the middle and western interpretations.
The theme of Yang Jie's report is an attempt to explain Taoism. The Taoists that people are familiar with can be a certain wisdom of life, political theory, governing policy, management plan, ethical practice, outlook on life, cultivation, and so on. Taoism is not a clear, rigorous, consistent and deterministic system of epistemology, and it is difficult to argue that Taoism will encounter trouble by using so-called intellectual thinking. Taking natural inaction as an example, if we use logical and clear language, we need to discuss different behaviors, motivations, subjects, and different values and historical situations. Through intellectual analysis, the commonalities between nature and inaction can be depicted, but it is impossible to argue for practical things. Whether it is "interpreted in the middle" or "in the west", it is limited to the "interpretation", that is, within the scope of interpretation. Today's sinologists regard Eastern thought as a material without putting it into their own body of knowledge. Therefore, if we want to get out of the limitation of "interpretation", we need to solve the problem in practice. Therefore, Chinese philosophy needs to have self-assertion, pay more attention to the level of practical wisdom, and more specifically correspond the themes of philosophy to the problems that occur in the development of China and even the development of human civilization. Taoist philosophy, or the idea of natural inaction, can be used as an example of practicing wisdom.
After the keynote speech, the participating teachers had a lively discussion on relevant issues.
Photo: Yu Weijun