A Comparative Study Of Hu Shi And Yin Haiguang’s Liberal Thought

In the history of the development of modern Chinese liberalism, as the second-generation and third-generation representative, Hu Shi and Yin Haiguang have left an indelible mark. From the May Fourth Movement Hu has got "too violent name," and he has been recognized as the leader and flag of the modern Chinese liberalism in the first half of twentieth century; Yin Haiguang is the famous Taiwan political commentator and liberal thinkers in1950s and1960s, scholars consider him to be a liberal master as famous as H. Yin Haiguang’s student, the famous scholar Li Ao once likened Hu and Yin as two dragons stuck in the Taiwan island, and they were also admired by Li. Although Hu and Yin all belong to the lineage of modern Chinese liberalism, whether on the basis of the theory of knowledge, or on the specific content of the liberal thought, there is a very big difference between Hu and Yin, and this is not accidental, this distinction fully reflects the context and trend of modern Chinese liberalism, especially the important issue of how to combine Western liberalism with China’s traditional culture and how to implement liberty and democracy in China, perhaps we can get the answer after we conduct comparative study of Hu and Yin’s thought.On the structure, this paper consists of four chapters. The first part is the preface, introducing the background and status of the topic. The first chapter compares Hu and Yin’s liberal thought from the perspective of the basis of the theory of knowledge, and dig out the fundamental differences in the guiding ideology between Hu and Yin. The second chapter is divided into four sections, we compare the specific content of Hu and Yin’s liberal thought from these four aspects:the connotation of liberty, the understanding of individualism, economic liberty and the relationship between liberalism and traditional culture. The last part is the conclusion, by the comparison and analysis of Hu and Yin’s liberal thought, to reveal the importance of a comprehensive transition of Yin’s late liberal thought for the development and turning of Chinese liberalism.