Yin Haiguang

Yin Haiguang

Yin Haiguang (December 5, 1919 - September 16, 1969), male, formerly known as Yin Fusheng, was born in Tuanfeng County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province. He is a famous Chinese logician and philosopher. He once studied in Mr. Jin Yuelin, a famous logician and philosopher. After graduating from Southwest Associated University, he entered the Institute of philosophy of Tsinghua University and taught in Jinling University (one of the predecessors of Nanjing University). After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he joined the youth army. He came to Taiwan in 1949 and taught in the Department of philosophy of Taiwan University in August of the same year. He was the chief writer of central daily and free China. Influenced by Russell and Hayek, he wrote articles based on scientific methods, individualism and the spirit of democratic enlightenment, known as the pioneer of Taiwan liberalism. On September 16, 1969, Yin Haiguang died of illness at the age of 50 and was buried in the "freedom cemetery" in Nangang, Taipei.

In 1996, Nanjing University set up the "Yin Haiguang logic scholarship" to inherit the wishes of Yin Haiguang, an outstanding alumnus, famous logician and philosopher of Nanjing University, and promote the revitalization of Chinese logic education and the cultivation of excellent talents.

Profile

In his decades of academic career, Yin Haiguang has been introducing western formal logic and scientific methodology to China. He has written thoughts and methods, on the independence of cognition, and the prospect of Chinese culture. He devoted all his life to the research, teaching and propaganda of modern logic. The reason is that he believes that there is a lack of cognitive factors in Chinese culture, which must be remedied by the input of Western positivist philosophy. He believes that the underdevelopment of cognitive factors in Chinese traditional culture is fundamentally due to the pan moralism tendency of Confucian culture and the "ancient worship" value orientation of Chinese culture. Therefore, Yin Haiguang strongly advocated "cognitive independence" and emphasized "independent thinking". Yin Haiguang is a liberalist full of critical spirit and adheres to the spirit of science, democracy and freedom all his life.

Main works

Speech on logic

Prospect of Chinese culture

The meaning of life

Thoughts and methods

The ethical basis of freedom

Life of the characters

Ups and downs of life

Yin Haiguang, formerly known as Yin Fusheng, was born on December 5, 1919 in yinjialou village, Huilongshan Town, Huanggang City (now Huilongshan Town, Tuanfeng County, Huanggang City).

At the age of 7, he moved to shangbahe town with his parents.

At the age of 13, he was brought to Wuchang by his uncle Yin Ziheng, a revolutionary of 1911, to study in Wuchang middle school.

At the age of 16, he published an academic paper in Oriental Magazine. When he was a sophomore in high school at the age of 17, he published a 400000 word translation of basic logic in Zhengzhong book company.

In the autumn of 1938, with the help of the famous philosopher Jin Yuelin, Yin Haiguang was admitted to the Department of philosophy of Southwest Associated University. Four years later, he was admitted to the Institute of philosophy of Tsinghua University, specializing in western philosophy.

In 1944, he joined the war of resistance against Japan and went to India to learn military automobile driving skills.

In 1945, he transferred to Chongqing independent publishing house.

In the autumn of 1946, he was drawn into the KMT camp by his fellow townsman Tao Xisheng. He successively worked in the Propaganda Department of the KMT Central Committee and the central daily, and took a detour.

On November 4, 1948, he published an editorial in the "Central Daily" to "clear up the hearts of the people" and fiercely attacked the internal and external policies of the rich and noble families and the Kuomintang. He was denounced by Chiang Kai Shek and almost lost his job.

In March 1949, Yin Haiguang went to Taiwan with the central daily. He was still the chief writer of the newspaper, acting as the chief writer, and also the chief writer of the national daily. On May 12 of the same year, Yin Haiguang once again angered Chiang Kai Shek by publishing an editorial in the Central Daily that "the foundation of fortification lies in the heart of the people", saying that the military and political personnel who fled Taiwan with Chiang Kai Shek were "political rubbish". He was besieged and criticized by the Kuomintang, and was forced to leave the central daily to teach in the Department of philosophy of Taiwan University. Since then, Yin Haiguang left the KMT camp and turned into a liberalist.

In November 1949, he, together with Hu Shi and Lei Zhen, founded the influential comprehensive semimonthly "free China" in Taipei, serving as the editorial board member and chief writer. Although the publishers of this magazine are Hu Shi and Lei Zhen, because Hu Shi is not in Taiwan, Lei Zhen is mainly responsible for administrative affairs, but the real soul is Yin Haiguang. He used his words and ideas to guide free China, which made its circulation soar and sell well at home and abroad.

Arrive in Taiwan

After arriving in Taiwan, Yin Haiguang paid close attention to politics and the people. He believes that if a scholar does not care about the future of the nation and the sufferings of the people, even if he has received the best education, he is not qualified to be an intellectual. A bloody scholar should always share a common destiny with the people, have a sense of justice and dare to tell the truth.

He saw that after Chiang's father and son fled Taiwan, they still used a set of methods on the mainland to rule the people of Taiwan, killing innocent people indiscriminately and engaging in white terror. He was extremely resentful. As a scholar, he raised the two banners of democracy and science to confront the Taiwan authorities. Taking "free China" and "motherland" weekly in Hong Kong as positions, he tried his best to expose Taiwan's dark politics, and attacked Chiang's father and son's reign of terror and various illegal acts.

Since the end of 1949, Chiang Kai Shek has been calling for "a counter offensive against the mainland" all day long, saying that "a counter offensive" will be realized in a certain year and month, and making "a counter offensive against the mainland" the "basic national policy" of the authorities. At that time, no one in Taiwan doubted, let alone touched Chiang Kai Shek's "basic national policy.". After studying Chiang Kai Shek's slogans of "counterattack against the mainland", Yin Haiguang felt very absurd and ridiculous. He boldly wrote an editorial of "counterattack against the mainland" in "free China", which thoroughly exposed Chiang Kai Shek's deceptive trick of deceiving the Taiwan people, and predicted that Taiwan would eventually be reunited with the mainland peacefully. Another example is that when Chiang Kai Shek's second "term of office" expired in 1960, he tried all kinds of despicable means to seek "three consecutive terms" in order to pass on his son in the future. Yin Haiguang was very indignant about this. He repeatedly wrote articles in newspapers and periodicals against it, exposing the various behaviors of Jiang's father and son in the "third term".

On the other hand, Yin Haiguang saw that most of Taiwan's intellectuals were in a numb "hibernation" state. He took advantage of the forms of holding seminars, writing articles and publishing books to actively introduce new philosophical thoughts such as Hayek and Karl Babel, vigorously publicize Russell's philosophy and the spirit of the May 4th Movement, enlighten the broad knowledge youth and the people, and encourage the people, especially the young generation, to be brave He rose to fight against autocratic and autocratic rule. As a result, he became the spiritual leader, anti riot standard bearer, democracy fighter and Enlightenment master most admired by the people of Taiwan, especially the young people, in the 1950s and 1960s.

In his later years, he had a new understanding of Chinese traditional culture, and made great efforts to find the spiritual tradition of freedom and democracy. He shook hands with Xu Fuguan, the great master of Neo Confucianism, and made peace, ending the decades long cultural debate. It is an important spiritual event in the history of modern Chinese culture.

achievement

Yin Haiguang is not only an arrogant critic, but also a scholar with keen thoughts. His criticism is based on his knowledge, and his concern is freedom, democracy, science and social justice. What he studies is analytical philosophy and cultural issues. His success lies in that he applies his knowledge to criticism. Yin Haiguang was the most famous political commentator in Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. His articles are incisive and profound, his language is fluent and concise, his logic is strong, and his arguments are powerful. His essays, such as "anti Communist is not the talisman of dark politics", "the psychology and style of political commentary in recent years", "the river flowing to the East can not be stopped" and so on, have always been the models of political commentators in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Until now, Li Ao also said: in addition to the ideological direction, Yin Haiguang's political essays are so brilliant that his enemies and friends are disgraced by them, and so far no one has surpassed them.

After his death, some of the disciples he trained became figures who fought against the Kuomintang tyranny in Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s, and some became famous philosophers, writers and historians, such as Li Ao, Lin Yusheng and Chen guying. Among them, the most successful one is Li Ao, who is famous at home and abroad. Bo Yang, Yan Yuanshu, Long Yingtai, Sima Wenwu and other well-known commentators in Taiwan were all greatly influenced by Yin Haiguang.

Because Yin Haiguang had been fighting against totalitarianism and tyranny in Taiwan for a long time, Chiang's father and son hated him to the bone, and used the party, government and army to persecute him cruelly. They criticized and encircled him in the newspapers for five years. In September 1969, Yin Haiguang died of advanced gastric cancer.

Although Yin Haiguang lived only 50 years old, he left more than 8 million words of works. His representative works include the new introduction of logic, thought and method, the prospect of Chinese culture, etc.

Buried in the "cemetery of freedom"

Before he died, Lei Zhen found a small resting place in Nangang, Taipei, and named it "liberty cemetery". His son, Decheng, is also here with his father. There is an open space between them, which is left to his wife, Song Ying, who has lived together in adversity for more than half a century. Along the steep stone steps, there are also several tombs where Yin Haiguang and other colleagues and friends of free China are buried.

When Yin Haiguang was buried, Xia Junlu, his wife, sent a letter to Mr. Lei Zhen from the United States, instructing him to engrave the words "free thinker" on his tombstone. Inspired by this, Lei Zhen named this cemetery "freedom cemetery".

influence

In the last 20 years of the 20th century, the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong all set off a publishing fever of Yin Haiguang's works: Taiwan published the complete works of Yin Haiguang in 18 volumes, Hong Kong published several volumes of Yin Haiguang's works successively, and many publishing houses in the mainland also published Yin Haiguang's prospects for Chinese culture successively

Chinese PinYin : Yin Hai Guang