Xiao Gongquan

Xiao Gongquan

Xiao Gongquan (November 29, 1897 - November 4, 1981) was born in Taihe, Jiangxi Province. After graduating from Tsinghua University in 1920, he went to the United States to study journalism at the University of Missouri and philosophy at Cornell University. After receiving a doctorate from Cornell University in 1926, he returned to China and taught in Nankai University, Northeastern University, Yanjing University, Tsinghua University, etc. After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he moved to Chengdu and taught in Sichuan University, Chengdu Yanjing University and Guanghua University. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, he continued to teach in Guanghua University and Sichuan University. In 1948, he was elected academician of the first Academia Sinica of the Republic of China. At the end of 1949, he went to the United States to become a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, and retired in 1968. On November 4, 1981, he died in his residence in Seattle, USA.

Life of the characters

Profile

Xiao Gongquan, named Gongfu, was born in Taihe, Jiangxi Province.

He studied in a private school when he was young. In 1915, he studied in Shanghai YMCA middle school. He was admitted to Tsinghua University in 1918. During the May 4th movement, he participated in the founding of Minzhong daily.

In 1920, he went to the United States to study. He successively studied at the University of Missouri and Cornell University, majoring in political philosophy. In 1926, he received a doctorate from Cornell University. After returning to China in 1948, he was a professor of Chinese and foreign courses, such as ideological and political history, Tsinghua University, Southwest China University, etc. He was the first academician of Academia Sinica.

In the autumn of 1948, he went to Taiwan and became a professor of Taiwan University. In September 1949, he left Taiwan for the United States and served as a visiting professor at the Institute of Far East and Soviet studies at Washington University. He retired in 1968 and died in 1981.

Mr. Xiao Gongquan was born out of the world, born in adversity, studied abroad, dominated China and ended up in a foreign land. In the past 100 years, he has made a firm foothold in the cultural change, went deep into the western academic city, and then peacefully made a compromise between the new and old learning of China and the west, hammered and melted it. He has made a great contribution to the research of Chinese politics and constitutionalism The footprints and influence.

Xiao Gongquan devoted all his life to the study of political science, especially the teaching and research of the history of political thought, and made great contributions to the development of Political Science in China. All of his works are compiled by Professor Wang rongzu as a nine volume complete works of Xiao Gongquan.

Student days

All his life, Xiao Gongquan taught in universities at home and abroad. He had many disciples and was highly praised in the world academic circle for his humanistic research. His life can be clearly divided into two periods

From the 28th year of Guangxu (1902) to the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926), Xiao Gongquan was a student. In these 24 years, he started his old style education in his hometown private school, and completed his doctorate in the Department of philosophy of YMCA middle school, Tsinghua School, University of Missouri and Cornell University.

In the process of Xiao Gongquan's academic thinking, Tsinghua humanities education had a far-reaching influence on him. During this period of time, the cultivation of new and old knowledge in China and the West laid a solid foundation for his lifelong study, and was also the internal energy of his education career.

The age of Professor

From 1926 to 1968 was Xiao Gongquan's teaching age. During these 42 years, he has successively or simultaneously taught in 12 universities in China: National University, Southern University, Nankai University, Northeast University, Yanjing University, Tsinghua University, Beijing University, Sichuan University, Guanghua University, West China University, Politics University, Taiwan University, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

Character works

Mr. Xiao Gongquan's works include: his doctoral thesis political pluralism, introduced by Professor George e.g. Catlin, published by a famous London publishing house, and listed as one of the "international psychological philosophy and scientific methods series"; constitutionalism and democracy has written a series of famous books published in China since he moved to Tsinghua University in 1932 and before he left China in 1948 There are twenty-two political commentaries in newspapers and magazines; the history of Chinese political thought was approved by the Ministry of education as the "book for universities"; rural China (in English), won the "humanities academic award" of the American Association of academic organizations; asking for advice, memoirs; Kang Youwei's reform and the study of datong thought (in English). His works were compiled into complete works of Xiao Gongquan by his disciple Mr. Wang rongzu, including nine volumes.

The history of Chinese political thought is the representative work of Mr. Xiao. It is widely spread and is often used as a teaching material and main reference book in universities.

From the pre Qin period to the early Republic of China, the book is divided into three parts according to the historical background of political thought: 1) the political thought of feudal world, 2) the political thought of autocratic world, 3) the political thought of modern country.

Mr. Xiao wandered between Chinese and Western cultures. Taking western culture as a reference, he made a comprehensive and unique study of Chinese traditional political culture. He saw the similarities and differences, discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese traditional political thoughts, analyzed them in detail, and had a clear context. He was not only a work of ideological history, but also a political analysis and exposition. The whole book was eloquent and powerful, which has become a Chinese political ideology It is a systematic foundation work to sort out and criticize Chinese traditional political thoughts in the academic field.

Throughout Chinese politics, Xiao Gongquan pointed out in the history of Chinese political thought that from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the end of the Qing Dynasty, with monarchy as the center, "the theory of autocratic regime is more accurate and complete than that of China." According to Xiao Gongquan, in the past two thousand years, China's political system and ideology have "inherited more than created.".

With his rigorous academic training, Mr. Xiao pointed out the difference between China's inherent "people-oriented" thought and democracy. Mr. Gongquan said: "the view of Mencius that people are precious is different from that of modern civil rights. In short, the idea of civil rights must contain the three concepts of people's enjoyment, people's possession and people's rule. Therefore, the people are not only for the purpose of politics, but the subject of the state must have the right to participate in the state affairs automatically. By this measure, Mencius valued the people, but the principle and system of rule by the people were unheard of. (Xiao Gongquan: history of Chinese Political Thought) on the surface, democracy is just more than the people-oriented "rule by the people". It seems that the people-oriented and democracy are very close. In fact, the two are totally different. From a political point of view, the right of "rule by the people" is at the core. The so-called "rule by the people" means that the people manage their own public affairs.

Mr. Xiao did not confine himself to the study of political thought in the high wall of the college. He also actively participated in the political debates in reality, and endorsed democracy and freedom with his solid education and plain language. Through persuasive analysis, Xiao Gongquan did not agree with the three stages of "military administration, political training and constitutional government" that the national government designated for China's political development at that time, but advocated the immediate implementation of constitutional government.

Xiao Gongquan particularly clearly stated that constitutionalism itself is the process of political training. We can not seek political training outside the constitutional government: "I would like to make a definite statement that I sympathize with Mr. Zhang (foquan) and Mr. Hu (SHI) that they can start constitutional government at any time. In my opinion, there is no other way to train the ability of constitutionalism except to carry out constitutional administration. We can no longer repeat the mistakes of our predecessors in "political training theory". However, we should not belittle the weakness of our people. Although we can not seek political training outside the implementation of constitutionalism, we must strive to "develop the temperament of rule by the people" in the implementation of constitutionalism. The intellectual class should always pay attention to improving their "qualifications to participate in politics, so as to set an example for the general backward people.". What is democracy? Our simple answer is: the people have the opportunity to speak, to hear all kinds of words and news, to choose their way of life freely by peaceful means, to choose their government and policies by peaceful means - and these opportunities will be available and used here and now in the future - that is, down-to-earth democracy. If this kind of democracy can't be achieved, but it is not democracy, but the thief of democracy. " (on democracy)

Since his early years, Xiao Gongquan has made great efforts to political pluralism and made great achievements. He pointed out that the theory puts the old idea of constitutional protection of individual freedom on a broader, positive and solid basis, which is an important political idea that monists should absorb. Although Xiao discussed political pluralism after later political scholar Dahl（ RobertA.Dahl ）Different. But in the author's opinion, Xiao's more classical political pluralism with a little tension has more theoretical power.

Xiao's political pluralism was certainly related to the academic and political hot spots in the United States at that time. At that time, political pluralism was an important topic in the field of political theory in the United States. At the same time, for this thoughtful young man who was born in the late Qing Dynasty and was enthusiastic about reading the people's daily and personally participated in the May 4th movement, it was obviously challenging to use political pluralism to compare China's real politics The subject of the project.

This political pluralism provides a theoretical and practical opportunity to alleviate the political monism on the basis of American Constitution, and it is a kind of balance to some Hegelian color in Xiao Gongquan's own thought.

Academic thought

Mr. Xiao Gongquan is not only a scholar of Chinese and Western learning in the 20th century, but also a steady "old school" figure. He does not agree to "overthrow Kongdian", and advocates to treat Confucius' thought differently from the "Confucian education" used by autocratic emperors. He thinks that traditional elementary education, though harmful to human nature, is not an effective training of basic skills

Chinese PinYin : Xiao Gong Quan