Huang Zunxian Western Thought

In modem China, the advanced Chinese people kept on searching the truth from the west in order to resist the aggression of the western imperialist powers and make the progress of Chinese society. Huang Zunxian was the outstanding one of them. However, in a long time we only regarded him as a famous patriotic poet and diplomat and overlooked his historic position in the modem enlightenment and modernization of China and his great social effection as an outstanding thinker and politician. For this the article tries to have a deep discussion on his thought of western learning. The first part is on the forming of an?s thought of western learning. Huang went abroad in 1877 and came back in 1894. During the long diplomatic time he intensively studied Japan, the USA and England etc, and accepted the theory of evolution and the theory of appointment with the people as two advanced thinking weapons, which affected the ideological area greatly in modern China. He advocated to study from the western and made a model of western learning with Japanese experience as the reference, which showed that his thought of western learning had been primarily formed. The second part is on the development of Huang?s thought of western learning. After the sino ?Japanese war of 1894 ?1895, with the development of the times Huang called for saving China and resisting the invasion while he called for democracy and freedom and resisted feudal autocratic oppression. So he put forward the theory of three periods of evolution, which made the thought of evolutional history better, the theory of dividing the rights of the official with the people, which reformed the western thought of civil rights, and the theory of self ?? ?governing of the locality, which made his plan of western learning more proper for the chinese condition. All of these showed the development of his thought of western learning. The third part is on the deepening of Huang?s thought of western learning. After the failure of Wuxu Reforms, facing the turbulent political situation, Huang?s thought of western learning had a new development. On the theory of evolution, with the Chinese traditional theory of?shi?he reformed the western thought of evolution and formed the theory of historic tendency. On the thought of civil rights, facing the dangerous situation, for the prospect of his motherland he decisively took a step which was most difficult, but also most important for himself. He put forward the thought of criticizing monarchic power according to the theory of natural right and the people?s sovereign rights, which attacked autoeratic monarchy violently. On the plan of Western learning, with the yearning for thewestern democratic republic, he primarily made a blueprint of the Great Harmony for the coming society of China. All of these showed that his thought of Western learning had been deepened to a new level. The fourth part is on the historical evaluation of Huang?s thought of western learning. The western advanced thoughts is the theoratic basis of Huang?s thought of Western learning. If he hadn?t accepted the western theory of evolution and civil rights, he couldn?t have formed the model of Japan, the plan of self ?governing of the locality and the blueprint of democratic republic. In fact the theory of evolution, the thought of civil rights and the plan of Western learning is an organic system. With the theory of evolution and the...