Jing Changji (1903-1982), initially named Yanzhao, later changed his name to Changji, the character Younan. As a university philosopher and Buddhist scholar, Jing Changji devoted his life to research and education. In the "Records of the Study of The Temple", many articles recalling Liu Yizheng mention that Jing Chang was one of the highest in liumen, talented and intelligent, and wrote a translator Yin Fu. Judging only from the authors of Xueheng and the number of articles they published, the ones who ranked at the top were Liu Yizheng and Wu Mi, followed by their disciples Miao Fenglin and Jing Changji.
In 1903, Jing Changji was born in Tai County, Jiangsu Province. The Jing family is a scholarly family, but by the time of his father's generation, he had already fallen in the middle of the family. He has many brothers and sisters, and his father is also strict in his family. In 1912, Jing Changji entered a private school and finished reading four books. In 1913, he entered the North Elementary School, but the school was closed for only one or two months. In the spring of 1914, he entered the Taizhou Private Wucheng Higher Primary School. Due to his good grades in Chinese, he was promoted to a class. In 1916, he graduated from the private Wucheng Higher Primary School. In the summer, almost at the same time as the opening of the South High School, I entered Nanjing No. 1 Middle School.
In 1919, Jing Changji graduated from Nanjing No. 1 Middle School and entered the Department of Chinese Literature and History of Nanjing Higher Normal School. At this time, the Department of Chinese Literature and History gathered famous Confucian Shuoyan such as Liu Yizheng and Wang Boxun, and among the students were young talents such as Hu Huanyong, Chen Xunci, Zhang Qiyun, and Miao Fenglin. Jing Changji studied here and continued to improve his studies. According to his own account, "Four years at NSC was the greatest key to forming my life's ambition to study" ("Memories and Impressions of School Life Since the Republic of China"). In the past four years, he has actively participated in the relevant activities of research institutions such as the Society for the Study of History and Geography, the Society for the Study of Literature and Philosophy, and has published many papers in Xueheng, the Journal of Literature and Philosophy, and the Journal of History and Geography, and has gradually identified philosophical research as his academic interest.
In the winter of 1922, Jing Changji completed his studies at Nanjing High School ahead of schedule, and in January of the following year, he entered Nanjing Indochina College with his classmate Miao Fenglin, where he studied wisdom without studying wisdom under Ouyang. In Jing Changji's subsequent writings, the shadow of Buddhism, especially solipsism, flashes from time to time, which shows the influence of study and research in this period on him. In September, on the recommendation of Wu Mi, Jing Changji was hired as a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy of Northeastern University in Shenyang to teach the science of wisdom. He was later promoted to professor and also a professor in the Department of History, teaching Western history. In the summer of 1928, due to the changing situation in the northeast, Jing Changji returned to the south with his wife. In the spring of the following year, he was recommended by Liu Yizheng to become a professor of philosophy at Chengdu University. After two and a half years in Chengdu, he successively compiled five kinds of philosophical lecture notes, which were published in 1932 under the name of "New Philosophical Theories".
In 1931, Jing Changji returned to Nanjing to teach at the National Central University. By April 1936, Zhu Kezhen was transferred from Central University to Zhejiang University as president, and Jing Changjifu was transferred from Zhu Kezhen to Zhejiang University to teach. In 1937, with the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Jing Changji returned to his hometown of Taizhou. In September 1939, he was appointed as the principal of Taizhou Shimin Middle School. On the eve of the fall of Taizhou, Jing Changji resigned as principal in December 1940 due to his reluctance to "cooperate" with the Japanese. After that, until the victory of the War of Resistance, he studied behind closed doors. During this period, Jing Changji was invited by the abbot of Guangxiao Temple, Emperor Weizong, to teach logic classes to the monks of the Buddhist colleges run by the temple. In 1947, a revised version of the lecture notes was officially published under the name "New Detective of Fame and Reason".
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Jing Changji successively taught at Wuhan University and Anhui University. In 1949, he returned to his hometown and taught at Taizhou Middle School in Jiangsu Province. In 1961, he became a teacher at Yangzhou Normal University and retired in 1965.
Jing Changji
Judging from Jing Changji's life, the interaction with Xueheng colleagues and Nangao teachers and friends is of key significance. In addition to the related matters mentioned above, in terms of the publications in which they published articles, the top two are Xueheng and Guofeng. "Xueheng" is mainly presided over by Wu Mi, while "National Style" was founded by Liu Yizheng, Miao Fenglin, Zhang Qiyun and so on. In terms of his field of study, it is mainly philosophy and solipsism. Philosophical studies began under the direct influence of Liu Boming and Wu Mi, while the study of solipsism was conducted in the last semester of study at Nangao, under the guidance of Ouyang Jingwu of the Inner College of Indochina. Jing Changji's academic roots are here, and his academic contributions are also reflected in these aspects.
First of all, as a high foot of Liumen, Jing Changji is very supportive of the cause of "Xueheng" and actively participates in it. Wu Mi clearly recorded in her diary: "Half a year later (1922), except for Hu Xianhua, Shao Zupingjun, Liu Yizheng, Miao Fenglin, and Jingchang Jijun, the basic members of the Xueheng Society did not ask about social affairs or talk about the contents of the magazine. "Xueheng" magazine has faced two suspension crises, Liu men's teachers and apprentices have been fully funded, and Jing Changji has also taken the initiative to donate as a subsidy for the publication of "Xueheng". It can be said that the reason why "Xueheng" has been able to persist for more than ten years is that Liumen's masters and apprentices, including Jing Changji, have played an important role. In addition, in terms of cultural point of view, Jing Changji is basically in line with his division commander. In 1922, in response to the satire of the "new culture" youth on the xueheng people, Jing Changji put forward his own views in the vernacular, pointing out that they only grasped the details and could not rationally criticize the main idea. By 1936, Jing Changji also criticized the naivety and bias of the New Culture Movement in his article "Discussion on the New Sanitation Movement".
Secondly, Jing Changji's achievements in the field of philosophy are particularly prominent. He was fluent in philosophy, literature, logic, linguistics and other disciplines, especially philosophical writings. Among them, the books published include "Philosophical Papers", "New Theories of Philosophy", "New Theories of Moral Philosophy", "New Explorations of Famous Theories" and so on. In the preface to the Collected Philosophical Papers, he has the following self-description: "One is not superstitious about the ancients; the second is not to rely on xizhe; the third is not to collect evidence for thought; the fourth is not to use mysteries, difficulties, and shallow texts; the fifth is not to analyze the correct name and define nuclear theory, which is not contrary to the spirit of science; the sixth is to go to The Chinese and follow the truth, to stop evil and stop the lawsuit, and to be harmless to the hearts of the people of the world." These six points are a systematic summary of his academic thought, and also the fundamental principle of his philosophical thinking. This emphasis on independent thinking and bold skepticism is also reflected in other writings, and he even proposes: "Philosophy is a study that is much like mathematics and far from history, and needs to be pondered without having to be examined." Here, we can see the more unique side of Jing Changji in the Liumen And xueheng school, and this is one of the reasons why he can get the praise of his teachers and friends.
Third, Jing Changji was also quite accomplished in Buddhism, especially in the field of wisdom. After studying solipsism from Ouyang at Nanjing Indochina College, Jing Changji's academic career was associated with solipsism. His essays on Buddhism include "Seeing different species", "Seeing different kinds of doubts", "The concept of consciousness that can be forgotten and empty", "The wisdom of wisdom and the present interpretation", "Dharma Picking", "Indian Tantric Examination: With the Kalachakra Vajrayogini" and so on. Among them, the article "The Concept of Knowledge that Can Both Forget Emptiness and Emptiness" has attracted the attention of the Italian scholar Duo Qian, and "Seeing Different Kinds of Discrimination" has directly triggered one of the three major academic public cases in the modern Chinese Buddhist community (especially the wisdom of knowledge): that is, the relationship between seeing and xiang in the study of wisdom. Jing Changji believes that since the establishment of solipsism, there has been a misunderstanding of the relationship between seeing and seeing. He advocated the ancient doctrine of respecting An Hui, while the basic test advocated seeing different species, which caused major controversy. As soon as the article came out, Tang Dayuan waited for it to refute it. Finally, Master Taixu also personally wrote the article "Seeing Different Kinds of Discernment and Interpretation", and the controversy only stopped.
Jingchang's letters from Chen Xunci
In addition, Jing Changji also participated in the translation of some foreign language works. His important translations include Principles of Literary Criticism (co-translated with Qian Kunxin) and The Five Dialogues of Plato (co-translated with Guo Bingong). The first chapter of The Principles of Literary Criticism was published in the second issue of the Journal of Literature and Philosophy in 1922. The following year, the complete translation was issued by the Commercial Press. This is the "first original book of western literature basic theory translated into a book" in China, not only that, but it also represents the literary and cultural position of the Xueheng school, and expresses many criticisms of new literature in the translation preface and translation. In March 1922, the third issue of Xueheng published Jing Changji's translation of Socrates' Self-Identification, and since then, the first Chinese translation of the Socrates Dialogues has been published in Xueheng magazine. By 1933, the Five Dialogues of Plato were published by the National Compilation Museum, accompanied by Guo Bingong's "Plato's Theory of Etti" and Jing Changji's "A Brief Commentary on Plato's Theory". Socrates is an important foundation of Western culture, and the Xueheng school responds to the impact of Western studies and new cultural movements on Chinese thought and scholarship by translating its classic works.
In addition to the above activities, Jing Changji also has a story related to the "Eight Thousand Sacks" incident. In 1921, the Beiyang government sold some of the archives of the Ming and Qing Cabinet Treasury in sacks to a paper mill, but was fortunately rescued by Luo Zhenyu in time, which is the famous "Eight Thousand Sacks of Archives Incident" in the history of archives. At that time, Wang Guowei wrote an article in Tsinghua Weekly, writing eight thousand sacks of Qing Palace archives, Anyang Yin Ruins Oracle, Xiyu Mujian and Dunhuang Han and Tang Dynasties, and calling them the "four major discoveries" of modern Chinese culture.
Most of the 8,000 sacks are now in the First Historical Archives of China, while others are in the Liaoning Provincial Archives and the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The Taizhou Museum also preserves more than 750 archives in 8,000 sacks, thanks to Jing Changji. In the early years of the Republic of China, Su Enpei sat in a lecture at the home of Yuan Jialiang, a foreign ministry official in Beijing. Around 1925, when Su Enpei was walking on the street, he saw that there were many files on a scrap car, so he bought it. After going home to sort it out, Fang knew that it was the Ouchi archives. Since then, Su Enpei has treated these archives as antiques. He once wrote such a verse: "The Upper Edict throws away the crippled paper, and Lao Su collects heavy official documents." Subsequently, Su Enpei left Beijing to return home, and this batch of archives has always been with him. Later, Jing Changji learned that Su Enpei had this "treasure", so he often went to enjoy and play, talking about the past and the present. In 1948, when Su Enpei was dying, because his son was far overseas, he gave these files to Jing Changji. In the spring of 1958, Taizhou prepared to build a museum, and the government called on people from all walks of life to donate their cultural relics and books. Because of the files in Jing Changji's home, Wang Shiqin, then vice mayor, took the initiative to mobilize at the door. Jing Changji had been branded a "rightist" at that time, and considering the safety of the archives, he personally sent the archives to the Taizhou Museum in July of that year.
Jing Changji's life seems ordinary, but it is unusual. To some extent, his thoughts and actions are the product of the joint action of the xueheng group in the context of the collision of old and new cultures. To better understand the Xueheng school and that era of drastic changes, in addition to the founders of the schools such as Liu Yizheng and Wu Mi, who were at the forefront, we should also pay attention to the followers such as Jing Changji and Miao Fenglin who followed closely behind.