On Shen Youding's Study Of Logic In Ancient China

Shen Youding is a well-known contemporary philosopher and logician in China. He devoted most of his life to the study of the history of Chinese logic and achieved a lot. Shen Youding was the first person who put forward the view of "The Three Gongsun Long", that is, Confucian Gongsun Long, debater Gongsun Long and Gongsun Long reformed by people in Jin dynasty. On the basis of distinguishing the first two terms definitely, Shen Youding emphasized that Gongsun Long reformed by people in Jin dynasty was the true author of today's Gongsunlongzi, thus started a new phase in the study of Pre-Qin logic.On the basis of scientific analysis and sound reasoning, Shen Youding believed that today's Gongsunlongzi was not totally fabricated while it retained some fragments of the original Gongsunlongzi. However, today's Gongsunlongzi could not stand for the thought of debater Gongsunlong but the logic thought of people in Jin dynasty. On method of study, Shen Youding mainly made use of earlier literature and applied argument which was not ideaistic. In this way, we can not only get an objective idea about Gongsun Long and make our study more favoring but also not be confined to the six articles of Gongsunlongzi. This helps to fully grasp the tendency of Gongsun Long theory and effectively testify that today's Gongsunlongzi was not written by debater Gongsun Long. As to the six articles of Gongsunlongzi, by making a concrete analysis of the characteristics and different ideas of each one, we can prove that today's Gongsunlongzi was not written by one person but by the team of people in Jin dynasty. Thus, it helps to solve the problem of the author of Gongsunlongzi, which has puzzled the academia for many years.Shen Youding also made an analysis of "the twenty-one debating topics in Pre-Qin dynasty "and pointed out that we should evaluate it objectively, that is, both the element of truth and element of falsehood should be taken into consideration. This opinion still has instructive significance today.Furthermore, Shen Youding made an intensive study on Mo-ching. In interpreting the original text of Mo-ching, he put forward the principle of "Letting Mo-ching interprete itself". This brought the work of interpretation to a new height . In studying of its argumentation, Shen Youding was the first to show the logic system of Mo-ching systematically, profoundly and independently. This effectively refuted the view that there was no logic in ancient China.