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The translation, circulation and development of the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” – Taking the academic life of Youlan as the middle
Author: Lian Fan
Source: “Beijing Social Sciences” Issue 2, 2024
Abstract: Youlan applied and developed the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” created by Oriental during his overseas studies (1920-1923). After returning to China (1924-1926), he translated it into the Chinese concept of “New Confucian (Study)”. Later, due to the need to construct the Confucian history of the Song and Ming dynasties, coupled with the uncertainty of the concept of “New Confucianism”, after the end of 1932, Rong Youlan discussed the traditional concept of “Taoism” including Cheng and Zhu’s cognition and Wang Shu’s xinxue, and referred to the Song and Ming dynasties. But Li Shicen (1926), Xie Fuya (1928), Chen Yinke (1934) and others all applied this concept under the influence of Rongyoulan. After the 40th century, the concept of “new Confucianism (study)” was used to refer to the new Confucianism (study) of other eras such as the present, and marked that this concept became popular in the academic world in the country at that time. Around the 50th century, the trends of Baohao.comBo De translated the “Simplified History of Chinese Philosophy” and other theories of “Simplified History of Chinese Philosophy” promoted the popularization of the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)”. In the process of spreading and developing the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)”, the new Confucianism at home and abroad (represented by Rongyoulan and Di Bairui) played a key role in inheriting the new Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties and advocating the new development of the new Confucianism at home and abroad.
1. Introduction
According to research in the academic community, Hu Yang is the earliest Chinese scholar known to apply the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” (the earliest English name appeared in the 19th Century) created by the East. Hu Yi’s student, Rongyoulan, also applied this concept during his overseas study in the american period and translated it into the Chinese “New Confucianism (Study)” after returning to China. Later, when Derk Bodde translated Rongyoulan’s two-volume “History of Chinese Philosophy”, he applied the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” to promote the spread of this concept. The above is a large description of the flow process from the Eastern concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” to the Chinese concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)”.
But for the key figure in this process, the academic community often only pays attention to his most influential works such as “History of Chinese Philosophy” and “Simplified History of Chinese Philosophy”, and ignores the academic experience and discussions of Rongyoulan during his early years of studying abroad and after returning to China. Although Liu Shuxian and Cai Zhongde and others did some research in this regardBut it is not thorough and detailed, and has missed many details, and has not combined the landscape of the times and the academic process of Youyoulan to deeply explore its reasons. This has also led to the fact that the academic world has not yet fully understood the relationship between Youyoulan and the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” and the flow and development process of this concept in the modern academic world. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
This article takes Rongyoulan’s academic life as a thread, and first examines Rong’s application and development of the Eastern concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” in his early years, and then explores Rong’s first Chinese “New Confucianism (Study)” The flow of the concept of ” and its development. On this basis, we explored the process and origin of the concept of “Taoism” by the concept of “Taoism” after the 30th century. We also explained the popularity of the concepts of “Neo-Confucian(ism)” and “Neo-Confucian(ism)” in the academic world at that time.
2. During his study, the application and development of the concept of “Neo-Confucian(ism)”
<p A essay published in Monist's journal is "The Logic of the Science" and wants to translate it. [6, 7] This reflects that under the influence of Hu Xing, Rongyoulan emphasizes the learning of oriental scientific logic methods and tries to study the differences between Chinese and Western civilizations on this basis. [8] At the same time, this is closely related to the debate on the issue of Chinese and Western civilizations that aroused from 1915 to 1927.
At that time, the civilized and old-minded people continued to think about “Chinese and Western use” in the late Qing Dynasty and reviving the original Confucianism (Confucianism), and believed that the direct reason for the backward and beaten modern China was that Chinese civilization did not develop science (material civilization) like Eastern civilization. During the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the anti-traditionalism represented by Hu Yang proposed the verb of “defeating Kongjia Store” and “civilian and scientific”, and advocated cleaning up traditions and learning the East in the field of cognitive form and political system. Although Rongyoulan returned to Henan from his postgraduate degree in 1918 and opened the seal, he created the “Heart Voice” with his friends in 1919 to respond to the May Fourth New Civilization Movement. It is in this era that seeks to find a civilization that has not produced science in China from the perspective of Chinese and Western comparisons.Views and thinking about the origin. This is the starting point of Rongyoulan’s self-described his philosophy research life. [7]
With such question-based awareness, Rongyoulan wrote a paper in the winter of 1920 as “Why China Has No Science: An Interpretation of the History and Consequences of Chinese Philosophy.” [9] Later in the fall of 1921, the essay was published at the discussion meeting of the Department of Philosophy in Colombia. The article was published in Volume 32, No. 3 of the International Journal of Ethics in April 1922.
It is worth noting that in this article, Rongyoulan applied the concept of “Neo-Confucianism” six times, and used it to refer to the Song and Ming New Confucianism, which included Cheng and Zhu Degree and King Shu Xinxue. Rongyoulan pointed out:
” (“Big School”) has made the Confucianism career goals and methods unresolved. The philosophers of Neo-Confucianism (the same below) chose these chapters and unconsciously entered the Buddhist thinking when they understood. Their differences between the original Confucianism was to propose what they called “nature principles” to oppose “human desires”. These concepts were actually subject to the Buddhist “laws” and “<a The revelation of concepts such as "动动动动动动动" has always been discussed by no one before. True Confucianism, as mentioned later, believes that although human nature is good, its goodness is just a budding, or in Mencius's words, it is a "end" and must be cultivated, developed and completed.
However, according to the Neo-Confucianism, the laws of nature have long been and are forever complete. Although they are blocked by human desires, as long as these human desires are clear, the true spirit will be like a stone ordinary It emits light. This is very similar to what Lao Tzu said. However, the new Confucianism still has the most basic differences with Buddha and Laozi, and it is extremely powerful. It believes that in order to “swallow” the desires of human beings and restore the laws of nature, people do not need to maintain a complete denial of life. What he needs is based on the laws of nature Life, and as long as the natural principles and talents are sufficiently realized in life.”[10]
Before this passage, Rongyoulan used the original text of “Big School”, and then pointed out that the new Confucians of the Song Dynasty unconsciously entered the Buddhist and Laozi’s thoughts when they wrote “Big School”. When Zhu Xi explained the “On the Bright Virtue” in “Big Learning”: “The bright virtue is what man gains from heaven, but the virtuous spirit is not ignorant.It is to deal with all things with a variety of principles. But it is confined by the atmosphere and obscured by human desires, and sometimes it is dull; however, the brightness of its essence has not yet subsided. Therefore, those who learn to understand it because of what they have developed to restore the beginning. ”[11] Rongyoulan pointed out that Zhu Xi’s initiative to preserve the law of heaven and to absorb human desires (change the quality of the atmosphere to revive the law of heaven) was influenced by the teaching of “law” (for “the law of heaven”) and “no clarity” (for “human desires”), and on the other hand, it was influenced by Lao Tzu’s “driving for the Tao” Kung Fu.
The good nature i TC: