On Xiao Jiefu’s Thoughts Of Enlightment

Xiao Jiefu, the famous contemporary philosopher of China, is known at home andabroad for the research of Ming and Qing Enlightenment philosophy. Basis on theprevious studies, Xiao Jiefu proposed the theory of Ming and Qing Enlightenment bycomparing the similarities and differences of the Chinese philosophy and Westernphilosophy and with the method of Marxist contradiction analysis. Xiao Jiefu deem thatthe self-criticism trend of Feudalism is China’s Renaissance or enlightenment underspecific historical conditions of the16th century to17th century. And at that time, Wangfuzhi, Huang Zongxi, Yan Yuan, and Dai zhen were the representative of the China’sRenaissance movement. Xiao Jiefu’s theory of Ming and Qing Enlightenment covered theself-centered shortage of "the western culture originated from China" and "wholesalewesternization. Xiao Jiefu not only demonstrated that our national traditional cultureitself has its modern history radical bud, but also proved the inner necessity which theChinese culture would tend to modernization. At the same time, Xiao Jiefu take the Mingand Qing Enlightenment theory as a way to solve the problem of traditional and modern.Therefore, this thesis is divided into three parts. The first part introduced the realisticorigins and theoretical origins of the enlightenment thought of Xiao Jiefu. The second partused Marxist philosophy to define the connotation of this thought and make a furtherargumentation from the sides of both confucianism and Taoism. The third part describedthe three major themes of this thought:New ehics of individual liberation;DemocraticPolitical Thought;Scientific thought.