a noted philosopher

a noted philosopher

Feng Youlan (1895.12.04 ～ 1990.11.26) was born in Qiyi Town, Tanghe County, Nanyang City, Henan Province. He is a famous philosopher and educator in contemporary China.

He graduated from Philosophy Department of Peking University in 1918. In 1924, he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and studied under John Dewey. After returning to China, he successively served as Professor, chairman of the Department of philosophy and Dean of the school of liberal arts of Tsinghua University, professor and Dean of the school of liberal arts of southwest United University, deputy to the Fourth National People's Congress, member of the second to fourth CPPCC, member of the sixth to seventh CPPCC Standing Committee, and obtained honorary doctorates of literature from Princeton University, Delhi University and Columbia University. His works include the history of Chinese philosophy, the brief history of Chinese philosophy, the new edition of the history of Chinese philosophy, the six books of Zhenyuan, etc. He has become an important academic classic in China in the 20th century and has a far-reaching influence on the contemporary Chinese academic circles and even the foreign academic circles. He is known as the "modern new Confucianism".

At 20:45 on November 26, 1990, he died in Beijing Friendship Hospital at the age of 95.

Life of the characters

Seeking a career as a student

He was born in Qiyi Town, Tanghe County, Nanyang City, Henan Province on December 4, 1895.

In 1902, Feng Youlan went to school at the age of seven. He read the book of songs first, then the Analects of Confucius and Mencius, then the great learning and the doctrine of the mean, and recited them from beginning to end. Because of his father's busy official business, the burden of educating his children naturally falls on Feng's mother Wu Qingzhi, who knows roughly the characters. At that time, children attached more importance to memory than understanding, so he barely finished reading the book of changes, the book of changes and Zuozhuan.

In 1907, the Feng family hired teachers to take charge of Feng Youlan's education, and formally set up classical Chinese, arithmetic, writing, composition and other subjects. Because the course is relatively easy, Feng Youlan often reads some new books and Periodicals Collected by his father in his spare time, and begins to get in touch with some world knowledge. At the age of 12, Feng Youlan's father, Feng Taiyi, died of a sudden illness. He followed his mother back to his hometown, Tanghe, and continued to hire teachers to teach. During this period, he began to read books with democratic color, such as Huang Zongxi's Ming Yi to be visited.

In 1910, according to his mother's advice, he was admitted to Tanghe County primary school.

In the spring of 1911, he was admitted to the middle school class of Kaifeng Zhongzhou public school (now Henan University). He returned to Tanghe in summer and married Wu Shuzhen, the niece of Mrs. Wu Tai.

In the summer of 1912, he transferred to Wuchang Zhonghua school. In the winter of 1912, Feng Youlan was admitted to the preparatory class of Shanghai No.2 Middle School with excellent results. At that time, all the courses of Shanghai No.2 Middle School used the original English textbooks, and one of the teachers also used a book named "outline of logic" by Yvonne as an English reading book. Because of this, Feng Youlan became interested in formal logic and philosophy.

In September 1915, Feng Youlan was admitted to the Liberal Arts Department of Peking University and began to receive systematic philosophical training.

He graduated from the Department of philosophy of Peking University in June 1918. In the autumn of 1918, he was a teacher of Chinese cultivation in Henan first industrial school. In the last year of his graduation, Hu Shi and Liang Shuming came to Peking University to teach. Feng Youlan met with them and benefited a lot. He was very enlightening to his later research on Chinese and western philosophy, especially on the relationship between Chinese and Western culture.

In 1919, he went to the United States to study.

In 1924, he received a doctorate from Columbia University.

marriage

After graduating from Peking University, Feng Youlan returned to Kaifeng. The first thing he did was to get married and start a family. He took the first step in his life. Feng Youlan's marriage, like the philosopher's philosophical creation, has the color of modern enlightenment. His marriage seems to break the feudal brand of "parents' orders, matchmaker's words". In the preface to sansongtang, Mr. Feng Youlan said: "in 1911, he married Wu Shuzhen, the niece of Mrs. Wu Tai in Tanghe. In 1913, he went back to Tanghe for a holiday in the summer. Only then did he know that his wife Wu Shuzhen had died. "In 1914, when Feng Youlan was studying in Shanghai No.2 Middle School, he was introduced by his classmates to meet Ren zaikun, a native of Henan Xincai. In 1915, he was engaged to Ms. Ren zaikun. Ren zaikun was the third daughter of Ren Zhiming, the predecessor of the 1911 Revolution. His father first advocated women's Liberation in Henan, and sent his three daughters, including Ren zaikun, to Beijing Women's normal school, the highest school for women at that time, to receive modern education. When Feng Youlan and Ren zaikun got engaged, it was when Ren zaikun was studying in women's normal school, so the two families made an appointment: they could get married after Ren zaikun graduated. In the summer of 1918, Feng Youlan graduated from the Department of philosophy of Peking University, and Ren zaikun also finished all the courses of Beijing Women's normal school. They both got diplomas from two universities and went back to Kaifeng to get married. Feng Youlan was 23 years old and Ren zaikun was 24 years old. As a philosopher, Feng Youlan often thinks about society, life and philosophy. The burden of family life completely fell on Ren zaikun, who was born in a noble family and had received higher education. It was because of such a good wife and mother that Feng Youlan devoted himself to his creation. From the summer of 1918 to the autumn of 1977, this couple, who can really be regarded as sharing weal and woe, went through a long road of 59 years together.

Start publication

In June 1918, Feng Youlan graduated from Peking University and returned to Kaifeng. In 1919, the May 4th Movement broke out and quickly spread to the whole country. Although Feng Youlan didn't arrive in person, he responded positively and started a publication named "voice of the heart" with several friends. In the speech he drafted, he clearly pointed out: "the purpose of this magazine is to import external thoughts and publish conscientious opinions, so as to break the stereotypes in society and education, wake up their dreams, and instruct them to promote their progress with the road of future." Feng Youlan, who was born at this time, also made serious thinking and Exploration on such issues. As he said in his later memories, "since I was a student in Wuchang Zhonghua school in 1915, I have written several books and many articles in the past 60 years. The issues discussed are, to put it in a unified way, the eastern and Western cultural issues centered on the history of philosophy. I was born in a period of cultural contradiction and struggle. How to understand this contradiction, how to deal with this struggle, and how to deal with myself in this struggle are the problems I have solved and answered positively. "

Investigation in the United States

In December 1919, Feng Youlan visited the United States. In January 1920, he studied in the Graduate School of Columbia University in the United States. He was a teacher of new realism Meng Dage and pragmatism master Dewey. In 1923, he wrote two articles "Bergson's philosophical method" and "mental force" to introduce Bergson's philosophical thoughts to the domestic ideological circles. At the same time, he wrote the article why there is no science in China from Bergson's philosophical point of view, pointing out that the reason why there is no modern science in China is not that the Chinese people are stupid and "can't do it or can't do it". Because Chinese tradition pays attention to what human is, that is, human character and cultivation, but not to what human has, that is, knowledge and power; Chinese philosophy pursues inward, aiming at the perfection of human nature. Western philosophy, on the other hand, seeks to understand nature and conquer the outside world. It is the different ideals and pursuits of Chinese and western philosophy that lead to the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and lead to the absence of the backwardness of modern science in China. During his visit to the United States, Feng Youlan also had the honor to meet Tagore, an Indian scholar who was visiting and lecturing in the United States. He discussed several issues of eastern and Western cultures together, compiled the record of the conversation into an article "talking with Tagore of India" and published it in the second issue of the third volume of "new trends" in China. At the same time, he also paid close attention to the domestic academic circles. In 1921, Liang Shuming published the book Eastern and Western cultures and their philosophy. He believed that the dispute between Chinese and Western cultures was not the dispute between ancient and modern times, but the fundamental difference of "desire" as the root of culture. Based on this theory, he carried out a comprehensive comparative study of Eastern and Western cultures. At that time, Feng Youlan's views on this book were quite similar. He immediately wrote Liang Shuming's eastern and Western culture and philosophy in English to introduce Liang Shuming's works and thoughts to American academic circles.

Teaching in China

In 1923, under the guidance of Dewey and others, Feng Youlan completed his doctoral dissertation comparative study of life ideal (also known as the theory of heaven and man's profit and loss). In this paper, Feng Youlan divided the world's philosophy into three categories: the first category is damage, the second category is benefit, and the third category is middle. The divergence of these three schools of philosophy stems from the different views on "nature" and "man-made". He believes that there are only two kinds of things experienced by human beings: one is "natural" and the other is "human". "It's a natural thing to live and die without being treated by others. The existence of man-made things must depend on man, which is just opposite to nature. "Some philosophers see the beauty of nature, but they fight against man-made realm to damage the school of Taoism. For example, Lao Zhuang, who advocated" absolute saint and wisdom "," absolute benevolence and righteousness "and" absolute cleverness and profit "in ancient China, is a typical type. Some philosophers see the beauty of man-made realm, and advocate the transformation of natural realm for the benefit of human beings Taoism, such as the western philosophy that advocates the transformation and conquest of nature and the Chinese Mohist school that "human beings are superior to nature", belongs to this kind of school; while some philosophers hold the attitude of compromise and advocate the benefits of both nature and human beings, which is the middle school. This school should be represented by the Confucian philosophers who advocate "the unity of nature and human beings". For these three schools, Feng advocated a tolerant attitude, let them go their own ways and go side by side, but his preference for Confucianism made him obviously inclined to the Confucian philosophy of the middle school. This is Feng Youlan

Chinese PinYin : Feng You Lan