The Academic Thought Of Zuo Zongtang

A certain thought and culture is a reflection of politics and economy of a certain society in ideology. Meanwhile, it influences the individual of this society. So is academic thought. At Zuo Zong-tang's time, China was in the course of turning from feudalism into capitalism, which certainly had new reflection in academic thought. Therefore, studying the academic thought of Zuo Zong-tang has profound historical and practical significance in both researching the academic history of modern China and grasping the politics and economy of modern Chinese society. At present, the achievements of studying Zuo Zong-tang is abundant and the involving points are wide. But there is little research on Zuo Zong-tang's academic thought. I want to do a preliminary study on it, hoping academic circles make more thorough study on the problem.This thesis analyses the cause of Zuo Zong-tang's academic thought coming into being from four aspects——background characteristic of times, academic tradition, the influence of his family, the guide and encouragement of his teachers and friends. The change of social politics and economy of late Qing and the picture of Zuo Zong-tang studying, growing up reappears in it. This thesis discusses the intension of Zuo Zong-tang's academic thought, it contains abiding strictly by Cheng and Zhu's idealist philosophy, studying for the purpose of application, learning from the West. It explains the change from the tradition to the modern, and affirms its historical position and influence. Today, some problems raised in the academic thought of Zuo Zong-tang have yet been keeping on. Only critically inheriting national excellent traditional culture and absorbing and drawing lessons from excellent western culture, then can we build new socialist culture fit for the condition of China better. Studying the academic thought of Zuo Zong-tang, absorbing and drawing useful historical experience from it is our very starting point.