A Study Of Feng Youlan’s Views On Chinese And Western Culture

Since the Opium War,foreign powers have invaded China by means of force,which has brought a severe impact on China’s politics,economy and culture so that the Chinese nation had to seek a path of national salvation with self-improvement.Since New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement,people’s reflection and exploration of the conflict between China and the West have shifted from material and institutional level to cultural level.After that,differences between Chinese and Western culture has become the focus of discussion among Chinese people.Feng Youlan is a well-known Chinese philosopher,philosopher historian and educator.He used “three books on Chinese philosophy history to interpret ancient and modern times,six philosophy books to record Zhen and Yuan” to summarize his main academic achievements in life.As an enthusiastic young man who grew up during the May Fourth Movement,Feng Youlan’s philosophical research has always focused on Chinese and Western cultures.His cultural explorations have developed with the trends and tides of the times.In the early 20 th century,the May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement was in full swing,and extensive discussions on the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and the direction where Chinese culture was headed were generated.Feng Youlan focused on “why Chinese culture was backward and where the differences between Chinese and Western cultures lied in”.Feng Youlan attributed the reason to China’s deficiency on science at that time.Furtherly,he concluded that the reason why China did not develop science was that Chinese culture advocated to explore human beings inwardly,which determined the “nature” method,the way that emphasized on the inner needs of people rather than on the outside.In contrast,Western culture sought outwards according to the “man-made” method,which meant seeking truth from the outside world and the nature.In the 1920 s,Feng Youlan was studying for his doctorate in the United States.In that period,he realized that there were many similarities in the human’s life-long development between Chinese and Western cultures from Western philosophy.Both have several the same types.Based on the idea of “gains and loss” proposed by Lao Tzu,the Chinese and Western philosophy of life is divided into three categories of “the philosophy of loss”,“the philosophy of gain” and “eclecticism” including ten schools.The first category advocates to restrict people’s desires to seek for happiness;the second advocates to search for happiness outwards;the third refers to explore outwards at a limited level.After returning to China,Feng Youlan continued his research on the philosophy of life,and participated in the “The Controversy between Science and Metaphysics” in which he proposed a new outlook on life.In the 1930 s,against the widespread spread of Marxism in China,Feng Youlan gradually accepted the historical materialism and realized the law of social development from low to high.Thus,he converted his research focus from “differences between China and the West” to “differences between ancient and modern times”.He realized that the differences between Chinese and Western cultures were due to the differences of the times.That is,Chinese culture originated from the ancient time while the Western culture originated from the modern time.The dialectical development of Feng Youlan’s cultural outlook made him realize the possibility of mutual interpretation between the two cultures.In the 1940 s,witnessing the War of Resistance against Japan and the need of founding of a new China,Feng Youlan believed that industrialization was the only way for China’s modernization.In the discussion of China’s modernization,Feng Youlan continued the “differences between ancient and modern times”.Based on the dichotomy of “the common” and “the special”,he put forward the theory of cultural types.He believed that the west had a social-oriented industrial society,and its culture boasted the characteristics of industry.In contrast,China had a family-oriented agricultural society which developed an agricultural culture.Instead of the features of “total westernization” or “Chinese-oriented”,China’s learning from the West was to learn its industrial culture,keeping the basic morals unchanged and preserving Chinese national literature and arts.After the founding of the People’s Republic of China,the Communist Party of China,guided by Marxism,implemented intellectual’s policy of “be united,educated and transformed”.Feng Youlan actively followed the policy and participated in the construction of socialism,and worked hard to learn Marxist theory.Thus,he applied Marxist theory into his research.Witnessing the criticism and destruction of traditional Chinese culture in the 1950 s,Feng Youlan proposed boldly the “abstract inheritance method”,which aims to preserve the traditional lifeblood of Chinese culture.After the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution,the ideological trend of “thought emancipation and truth seeking” was established,and the policy of reform and opening up has been implemented.Under the context,intellectuals were benefiting from the policy,and with it,the “cultural hit” prevailed in the 1980 s.Feng Youlan was enlighted.Noticing the reform and opening up created a new era for China’s cultural development,he believed that the problem of “learning from the West” in the new era has been basically addressed,and the current problem in the following stage lied in how to build a new cultural system-Marxism with Chinese characteristics.Focusing on “what elements of Chinese classical philosophy could be absorbed by Marxism with Chinese characteristics”,Feng Youlan wrote seven-volume New Release to the History of Chinese Philosophy on his own.These volumes provided nutrition for the development of Chinese culture.Feng Youlan researches Chinese and Western cultures for nearly a century.His reflection on culture embodies the changes of the twentieth century,and also shows his patriotic enthusiasm and national feelings.Feng Youlan’s conceptions on Chinese and Western cultures are inseparable from the reflection and evaluation of Chinese traditional culture and the thinking of the further development of Chinese culture,which shows Feng’s dedication and intention to Chinese traditional culture in the face of Chinese and Western cultural conflicts.Feng Youlan’s exploration of Chinese and Western cultures not only involve Chinese and Western cultures,but also take Marxism into consideration after the War of Liberation.Furthermore,his research on the relationship between China,the West,and Marxism also provides the foundation for forward development.