Yang Lihua: How do you view the discussion of "is there a philosophy in China"?
China News Service, Beijing, September 6 Title: Yang Lihua: How to view the discussion of "is there a philosophy in China"?
Author Li Hanxue Liu Yueqing
In the process of China's modernization, the traditional academic structure is also encountering western modern scholarship, encountering both external and self-examination and reflection. "Is there any philosophy in China?" It is one of the discussions that has emerged in this context. Does the fact that ancient Chinese thinkers presented their claims in a different way than Western philosophers mean that there is no philosophy in China? How to understand the character of Chinese philosophy and its influence in today's China? Yang Lihua, a professor in the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, recently gave an exclusive interview to China News Agency's "East and West Question" to discuss the above topics.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: How did the discussion on "Is There a Philosophy in China" begin? In this regard, what important positive and negative views have been produced by Chinese and foreign academic circles?
Yang Lihua: The discussion of whether there is a philosophy in China has actually existed since the emergence of the discipline of "Chinese philosophy". The name of the discipline "philosophy" is translated from Japanese, Chinese itself does not have a corresponding word for "philosophy". A Japanese scholar named Western Zhou was the first to use the chinese characters "philosophy" to translate "philosophy"; later "philosophy" was referred to the Chinese world, using it to refer to the root ideas of China.
The teaching and writing of the "History of Chinese Philosophy" gradually began. In 1912, the Department of Philosophy of Peking University was formally established, the first philosophy department in China, and the name at that time was "Peking University Liberal Arts Philosophy Gate", which had "Chinese Philosophy Gate". Mr. Feng Youlan and others are the first students of the Chinese Philosophy Department.
At that time, It was Mr. Chen Dichen who gave a lecture, and after Hu Shi returned, he had a new way of lecturing. Mr. Chen began from ancient times, and according to records, he spoke for a semester before talking about Zhou Gong. Hu Shi, on the other hand, began with Lao Tzu, who introduced the positivist, intellectual history approach. Later, Hu Shi soon published the "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy", but only wrote the first volume, and the next volume was not written again, because his mind changed -- he began to think that There was no philosophy in China, only thought, so later he basically stopped talking about Chinese philosophy, and the Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy was only in the first volume.
But this issue has always been controversial, and Mr. Feng Youlan said in the two-volume History of Chinese Philosophy: "To describe the history of an era and a nation without its philosophy is like 'painting the dragon without finishing the eye', as Bacon said." To study the history of a people of an epoch without studying its philosophy is to have a thorough understanding of its people of its time. In Mr. Feng's view, philosophy is the essence of the spirit of the times and the spirit of the nation. So of course we must emphasize Chinese philosophy.
Chinese philosophy has been questioned since an early period, and in the process of research and development of Chinese philosophy, there have been people who continue to question and discuss. In the past 20 years, the discussion of whether China has a philosophy has mainly focused on around 2000. How did this discussion arise? There are several backgrounds:
The first is the development trend of philosophy itself. Throughout the 20th century, in Europe and the United States, especially in Britain and the United States, analytic philosophy dominated. A considerable number of researchers or philosophers of analytic philosophy tend to disparage other philosophies as non-philosophies, which had a relatively large impact in the 20th century. But even so, analytic philosophy cannot occupy the entire field of philosophy, because there is clearly a tradition of continental philosophy in the veins of philosophy. For example, according to analytic philosophy, was Hegel a philosopher?
In another context, the question of whether China has philosophy can be understood as a question of the height of civilization. Some scholars deny Chinese philosophy to deny the height of our civilization, that is, to believe that Chinese civilization has no root thinking, or cannot prove the existence of such thinking. From the background of civilization theory, whether China has philosophy or not is a question that must be answered.
In modern times, as Western civilization has gradually gained the upper hand, they have become more and more inclined to reduce other peoples and civilizations to sub-hierarchical civilizations, even uncivilized. At the end of the 19th century, the Japanese scholar Fukuzawa Yukichi's "Outline of Civilization Theory" showed a very strong tradition of civilization theory, that is, western civilization is the highest level, while Eastern civilization, especially Chinese civilization, is low- This mentality can also be said to be the focus behind the question of whether China has philosophy or not. Although many people do not say this clearly, some of them fundamentally deny the height of Chinese civilization.
The above is the clue to the background in which I think the question of whether China has philosophy or not.
Infographic: Students in Fuzhou hold a traditional Confucian ceremony to worship teachers. Photo by Lu Ming, reporter of China News Service
If we compare this question to the truth, the question of "whether there is philosophy in China" must first have a standard form of philosophy before it can be asked. If there is such a form of thought called philosophy, and it is unique, and this form of thought cannot be found in the Chinese intellectual tradition, it can be said that there is no philosophy in China. But is there a standard form of philosophy in the Western philosophical tradition? No, not to this day, and not in the future, so in this sense, "whether China has philosophy" is fundamentally a false question.
On the other hand, they believe that Chinese philosophy does not speculate or argue, so its philosophical character is relatively weak. And some of our own Chinese philosophical researchers have also used vague terms such as "realm" and "spiritual form" to talk about Chinese philosophy, which is equivalent to cooperating with the above statement in a sense. How can it be philosophy without speculation and argumentation? Speaking of the pre-Qin era, we can find that the important philosophical issues to be faced and raised in the history of philosophy were generally raised during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and were considered, debated and debated in a rational and speculative way. When Chinese philosophers prove their views and ideas, they often do not adopt a strict form of argument, but in fact they have their own way of argumentation.
In fact, there is also a misunderstanding that everyone thinks that Western philosophy is "argument", but if you seriously look at the history of Western philosophy, how many arguments are really generally accepted by everyone? How many philosophers have made their views in the form of strict formal arguments? Therefore, most people are actually the same as the clouds, just an impressionistic generalization, and there are a lot of symbolic sayings in Western philosophy, such as the famous "overflow theory".
On the background analysis of the debate on whether there is a philosophy in China, I have just talked about the problem of tendencies within philosophy, the problem of civilization theory, the question of whether there is a standard philosophical form, and the misunderstanding of Chinese philosophy. The most important of these is the misunderstanding of Chinese philosophy. I have spent all these years trying to correct this misconception, which is to write our own arguments in a new form.
China News Service: How would you answer the question "Is there a philosophy in China?"
Yang Lihua: Of course, China has root-cause thinking, unless it is an eye problem, how can it not be seen? Lao Tzu's "Tao can be Tao, very Tao" is the root thinking, "There are things mixed, born in heaven and earth, lonely, independent and not changing, circumspect without dying, can be the mother of heaven and earth." Isn't this also a reflection on the root of all things? Isn't the "Dedication to Knowledge" chapter in Mencius the most fundamental reflection on the world? How developed are the elements of optics, geometry, and logic in Ink Discernment! There are a group of people in this world who do not listen to reason, and it is useless to say anything, such as thinking that China has no philosophy and that Chinese civilization is a low-level civilization. Some people asked me about the exchange between China and the West, how to talk to the West, and I said that I didn't need to talk to them about anything, and one day they wanted to learn Chinese and they would naturally learn.
It is no accident that the proposal of "whether there is a philosophy in China", especially within the Chinese academic circles, and has produced such a great controversy, is that a large number of scholars have stubbornly reduced Chinese thought to non-philosophy. When they say that there is no philosophy in China, they obviously do not think that philosophy is bad, they think that philosophy is good, so China must "not have it." Just like some people say that there is no science in China, science is good, China will not have it. In their view, there would be no philosophy in a civilization of such a low level as China. But I will continue to reason on various occasions. I only use "Chinese philosophy" and "Confucius philosophy", and try not to use words like "Confucius thought". Confucius was of course thoughtful, and philosophy is a form of thought.
Infographic: In a primary school, students pass by the confucius sculpture on campus and bow. Photo by Wang Dongming
China News Service: Today, how are some of China's classic philosophical ideas embodied in the modern life of the Chinese?
Yang Lihua: Everywhere. In recent years, I have often said that our Chinese spirit was shaped by these great philosophers. These great philosophers are not far from us, and people like Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, zhuangzi, and their ideas are at the foundation of our language, at the foundation of our thoughts, at the foundation of the way we feel the world, and at the foundation of the structure of our practice. In our daily lives, in any behavior and habit, there is Confucius. For example Chinese used to saving, Confucius said that "people have no far-reaching worries, there must be near-term worries", which is a fundamental understanding of the world - we do not know what will happen in the future, we believe that the world cannot always be one-way good, the world rises and falls, our lives also rise and fall, even if we are in a better stage, we must also prepare for the future may be bad.
This civilization of this worldly character in China makes us Chinese fundamentally different way of seeing the world than others. I have made this clear in my article "The Civilization of Character and Knowledge in This World".
Although a generation is different from a generation, no matter how it changes, as long as the Chinese language is there, Chinese thought and Chinese philosophy are there; Chinese language is there, Chinese character is there; Chinese classics are there, Chinese thought, And Chinese roots are there, and it will shape generations of people. Regardless of the family structure, no matter what new forms of change will occur in the relationship between people, that basic value is there, that is, the character of Chinese civilization in this life and the spirit of knowledge based on this life' character.
This worldly character is the foundation of Chinese philosophical character. Philosophy, general thought, religion, art... All aspects of Chinese civilization embody a very strong character in this life. "This life" is against the "other shore", and our civilization is not pursued on the other shore. When a civilization pursues the other shore, "this life" is generally seen as a defect. If we project the dissatisfaction of this life in which we live onto an illusory shadow, call that thing the other shore, and aim at the other shore, then this life is the process, to be overcome and transcended. But Chinese not. The foundation of Chinese civilization is that this life is the only purpose and the only process. This has led to a completely different path of civilization and philosophical vision. Because the other side requires too many assumptions, and this life is directly presented, Chinese philosophy has a particularly fundamental character - the character of this life. Chinese's fundamental vision of the world is the least hypothetical, there are not so many fictions, we don't have to invent original sin, God's creation, heaven and hell, doomsday judgment, the Garden of Eden, none of these fictions. Therefore, the expression of Chinese philosophy is always concise, the so-called "dry to easy to know, Kun to simple ability, easy to simplify and the world's reason to get it."
Infographic: Library. Photo by Wang Jia
China News Service: In contemporary Chinese philosophical research, many academic concepts from the West have also begun to be used as analytical tools. So how do you think contemporary Chinese philosophical scholars should make Chinese philosophy speak "Chinese language" and give Chinese philosophy new vitality?
Yang Lihua: I have this attitude: thinking in Chinese. The so-called thinking in Chinese means that there are no pure Chinese philosophical concepts or pure Western philosophical concepts, which have entered the modern Chinese world. The language of the times constitutes the boundaries of thinking, and the greatest thinkers of an era are trying to broaden, or at least fully realize, the possibilities of language, the possibilities of thinking, in this era. For example, the word "natural" still retains the Confucian philosophical teachings of the two Song Dynasties, and once it is said that "natural" is "inevitable", in the context of Song Ming theory, "of course" and "inevitable" are unified. But the "of course" and "certainty" that we are talking about today are not uniform. This is actually the influence of Western philosophy on our concept of language. So when we revisit the question of the relationship between "certainty" and "necessity," we can neither leave aside the inherent context of China nor the already soaked Western intellectual tradition.
Contemporary scholars should be honest in the face of scholarship, knowledge, and truth. The responsibility of philosophy in our time is not how to communicate with other academic circles or gain international recognition, but to truly think in the overall soil of the academic environment, ideological environment, and language environment of our time, and to obtain a new form of philosophical exploration that is powerful for the times, rooted in ancient China, and has a broad enough modern vision. Among the major civilizations in the world, there is nothing that has not been translated into Chinese, and the soil of modern Chinese is good enough that what we lack is seeds. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Professor of the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, Doctor of Philosophy, born in 1971 in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province, graduated from Daqing No. 56 Middle School. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering from Zhejiang University (1992), a master's degree in philosophy from Peking University (1995), and a doctorate in philosophy from Peking University (1998). He is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, and the vice dean of the Graduate School of Peking University. His research interests include the history of Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Taoism and Taoism, and in recent years, he has focused on the study of Song and Ming philosophy and Wei and Jin philosophy.
Source: China News Network