I have been reading Mr. Xu Ben's books for more than ten years. His first Chinese book should be "Toward Postmodernity and Postcolonialization" (China Social Science Publishing House, 1996 edition), on the day of his birth, I was still in junior high school in a small city in northern Anhui Province, and the popular "post-study" at that time was like a fantasy, and naturally had no chance to know Jing. I got acquainted with his book until 2005, the book "Intellectuals - My Thoughts and Our Behavior" (East China Normal University Press, 2005 edition), just look at the title, almost a manifesto book, which is exactly the trend and characteristics of that era, when intellectual research can be described as a prominent science, the name of the book containing "intellectuals" such as the carp across the river; the times are easy to change, and now the title of "intellectuals" is only afraid of lack of people. This book, rather than letting me see Xu Ben's thoughts, is more likely to make me feel grateful for his feelings.
As far as I can see, from 2005 to 2015, in the past ten years, Xu Ben has published thirteen books in the Chinese mainland. At the beginning of 2016, Sanhui Books launched Xu Ben's portfolio, which almost exhausted the important works previously published. This is undoubtedly a blessing for the reader. For me, there is also another surprise, that is, the long-awaited "Rule and Education: From Citizens to Citizens" (Central Compilation and Publishing House, 2016 edition) has finally been introduced, I think that this book is in a central position above Xu Ben's writing and ideological landscape, and its publication is like the finishing touch. This also gave me an opportunity to talk about the experience and feelings of reading Xu Ben over the years.
Xu Ben
Straight thorn era dark
From scholar to intellectual
Put all the books published by Xu Ben in a row, and we will find a clear vein. Bounded by 2010. His previous writings, which have tended to be academic, range from Toward Postmodern and Postcolonial to Public Life toward Dignity: Global Justice and Civic Identity, can be seen by looking at the title and flipping through the table of contents. The scholarship here refers not only to the style of the article, but also to the basis of thought: although he speaks to reality, he still regards himself as a scholar. Since then, his works, such as "Between Fools and Heroes: Two Faces of Mass Society" and "What is Good Public Life", including the seemingly academic monograph "Decadence and Silence: Perspective on Cynic Culture", the main body of the articles included in Xu Ben's characterization, called "public essays", according to our usual parlance, is the commentary. Xu Ben, who wrote these books, was closer to public intellectuals.
The identities of scholars and public intellectuals are not contradictory, and they can be combined. There are many figures who are scholars and public intellectuals. I force a distinction here to outline Xu Ben's turn: it is not difficult to find that in the past ten years, his public concern has become more and more intense, his speeches facing reality have become more and more intensive, his language and style have become more and more straightforward, and the sharpness of criticism has become sharper. Although this is only a formal turn, and the essence of its thinking has not changed significantly, the emergence of the turn can still explain some problems. Because of the turn like Xu Ben, he was not alone. If in the 1990s, intellectuals retreated from the hustle and bustle of the square to the cold and silent study, then after the new century, the trend was just the opposite. Needless to say, humanistic scholars who study politics, law, economics, society, and history, even science and engineering scholars who study mathematics, medicine, and science, cannot suppress and hide their concern for reality, and break out of the college, to the public media, to the streets and fields. Behind this is the excitement of the times. The drastic transformation of the times has led not only to the revaluation of the value of scholarship, but also to the reshaping of the vocation of intellectuals, which is the theme explored in the book "Intellectuals - My Thoughts and Our Actions".
Re-reading this book today, I can't help but think of Borges. In 1969, at the age of 70, Borges prefaced his first collection of poems, Passions of Buenos Aires, in which he wrote: "I find that the young man who wrote these things in 1923 is essentially the gentleman who either approves or modifies them today... For me, Passion for Buenos Aires embraced everything I later wrote. Like Passion in Buenos Aires, Intellectuals – My Thoughts and Our Actions encompassed almost all of the topics that Xu Ben wrote about the following decade: "Intellectuals and Civic Politics" led to "What is Good Public Life," "Politics is everyone's Side Hustle," "Bright Dialogue," "Domination and Education: From Citizens to Citizens," "Masquerade Mass Society and Cynicism," and "Between Fools and Heroes," "Decadence and Silence: Perspectives on Cynicism," and " The Memory and Forgetting of Cultural Criticism "leads to "What Reason Man Remembers"... With this clarity, one can understand his turn, in popular terms, only his way of dealing with the world, and what remains unchanged is his fundamental relationship with the world. Over the past ten years, his thoughts have been consistent, like a sharp and stoic light, piercing the darkness of the times.
Works by Zeng Fanzhi
Shaping civic rationality
Fulfill the duties of an intellectual
In the preface to Intellectuals– My Thoughts and Our Actions, Xu Ben redefines intellectuals: "Intellectuals are those who try to think and use them to overcome the deficits of public life. Intellectual politics is not only concerned with academic disputes and self-positioning distinctions within specialized circles, not only with the distribution of intellectual power resources and benefits, but also with the provision of special knowledge to the broad masses of citizens so that they can make more rational and humane choices when planning their own lives, designing their quality of life, and looking forward to future changes. There are two statements worth noting here, one is to "overcome the shortcomings of public life thinking" and the other is to "provide special knowledge for the general public community". Bright Dialogue is both a critique of the "deficits in public life thinking" and a "special knowledge" for Chinese citizens and those who aspire to become citizens.
Chinese like to be reasonable, but they can't be reasonable. What our political life is dominated by propaganda and positions, while our daily life is dominated by sophistry and will, has in common not only the lack of a clear rationality, but also the lack of a feasible path to pursue a clear rationality. Needless to say that the power and the people, on the basis of intellectuals alone, throughout the twentieth century, how many people can be called reasonable? In the first half of the famous articles, Liang Qichao is good at moving people with emotion, not convincing people with reason, Chen Duxiu is murderous, Lu Xun has the style of knife and pen, speculating on motives, personal attacks, etc. are his usual tricks, these means are the taboo of reasoning, and there is probably only one Hu Shi, who adheres to the bottom line of reasoning. As for the second half, it is even more insufficiency. Some people respect Gu Zhun, but although Gu Zhun is the forerunner of thought, the language he uses is full of ideological cruelty and does not conform to reasonable standards (of course, this is the limitation of the times and should not be harshly criticized). It was not until the turn of the century that Wang Xiaobo, Dao Erden, and Xu Ben emerged, the reasoners of the road, in the thorny bush intertwined with power and cynicism, the blue wisps of the road to enlighten the mountains and forests.
Compared with his peers, Xu Ben's characteristic is that he not only reasons, but also teaches people how to reason, and "Bright Dialogue" is a reasoning textbook. This echoes the old adage that it is better to teach people to fish than to teach people to fish, and Xu Ben's quote from Andrei Kidd: "What matters is your gaze, not what you see." In this regard, the value of reasoning is not only in the truth spoken, but also in the process of reasoning, the training and tempering of the reasoner: how to speak must be based, how to pay attention to logic, how to respect the other party, how to tolerate the opinions of different people... It is on this basis that "reasoning will truly become a value norm and a way of life."
The value norm of reasoning, that is, the cultivation and cultivation of civic consciousness. Xu Ben has always stressed that reasoning is an indispensable quality of citizens, and reasoning is that citizens are reasoning. I have concluded that reasoning for individuals can shape a civic reason, and for society, it can shape a public reason. This sentence is the feeling of reading Xu Ben.
Based on the intimate relationship between reasoning and citizens, Bright Dialogue: Eighteen Lectures on Public Reasoning is suitable for co-reading with Rule and Education: From Citizens to Citizens. I have no intention of favoring one over the other, but I must point out that the destination and foundation of this theoretical textbook or Xu Ben's other books are precisely "Rule and Education: From The People to the Citizen", just as the essence of Xu Ben's thought is precisely the word "citizen", and the prefix "China" can be added before these two words. Although Xu Ben is drifting in a foreign country, he is still concerned about his homeland, he is not alienated from the suffering of the motherland, but he knows what China needs most urgently at present, so over the years, he has always adhered to the citizen-oriented position, adhered to the citizen's words, popularized the concept of citizenship, and promoted civic education, so as to fulfill the duties of an intellectual person and a Chinese duty.
I often recommend Xu Ben's books, especially Bright Dialogue: Eighteen Lectures on Public Reasoning and Domination and Education: From National to Citizen. Someone asked me: Can you sum up Xu Ben's thoughts in one sentence? I pondered for half a moment and replied: Reason in the world of scoundrels, and establish people in the land of cynicism. Whoever is established is a citizen.
"Intellectual politics is not only concerned with academic struggles and self-positioning distinctions within specialized circles, not only with the distribution of intellectual power resources and benefits, but also with the provision of special knowledge to the broad masses of citizens so that they can make more rational and humane choices when planning their own lives, designing their quality of life, and looking forward to future changes."
This article was published in the B02 edition of the Beijing News Book Review Weekly on April 9, text: Yu Ge, Editor: Bai Lin, unauthorized other public names may not be reprinted.