The Study On The Awareness Of Zhang Taiyan's Evolutionary Theory

Due to the eastward transmission of western sciences in the modern time,intensive collides started to take place between the traditional Chinese and western thoughts.Chinese intellectuals had to make explorations in the direction wedged between the new sciences and traditional Chinese knowledge to seek a way out at the node when the nation is on the critical occasion of survival or extinction.Zhang Taiyan is one of the representatives of modern philosophy.Although affected by philosophy,which experienced two transformations between the true meaning and the common meaning,his ideology is not fairly systematic and is full of complexity and repeatability,it interprets the new ideas of Chinese ancient civilization based on modern natural science.His interpretation not only promotes the modern transformation of traditional Chinese ancient civilization,but also critically identifies the difference in the value of natural science in materiality and consciousness,which sets a good example for modern academic thought.Centering the awareness of Zhang Taiyan on the conception of evolution,this thesis deals with the thoughts implied in the progress of Zhang's awareness and that agree with the Theory of Biological Evolution so as to learn the inter-connection and mutual combination between the traditional Chinese thoughts and the natural sciences in modern time.The study includes five parts,the first is introduction,which is mainly to clarify the progress of study on the awareness of Zhang Taiyan on the conception of evolution and the logic structure in this thesis.The second part stresses on the awareness of Zhang on the Theory of Biological Evolution,which,as one of the main achievements in the natural sciences of western countries in modern time,makes the indelible contributions to the study on the origin of the mankind and the development of races,etc.It had received many crazy fans and aroused intensive debates after introduced to China,many famous scholars including Yan Fu,Kang Youwei and Sun Yat-sen have put forward their unique opinions concerning the theory.For the purpose of "exploring new theories and develop ancient sciences",Zhang Taiyan commented Chinese ancient civilization by the theory of evolution so as to thoroughly expounded the science ideology of biological evolution theory including "Theory of Use and Disuse",theory of ethnology,theory of heredity etc.Zhang's explanation reflected his aspiration to break traditional scientific spirit and revolutionary spirit so as to further promote the wide spreading of western natural science in China.The third section summarizes Zhang Taiyan's thought of cosmogony.Although receiving traditional education,he did not stick to the traditional cosmology "the universe is invariant,so is the natural law".On the basis of extensively reading western learning and acquiring western natural science knowledge,he put forward his cosmology view with the characteristics of times by traditional characters,which covered numerous natural sciences like astronomy,geology,biology and theology.He also criticized creationism and the feudal concept of natural law,based on which he stated his own religious view and advocated the innovation of thought and practice.The fourth section introduces Zhang Taiyan's thought of social evolutionism.In the era when the theory of evolution was highly praised in society,Zhang Taiyan kept his clear mind and found a new path.He saw the positive significance of the theory of evolution to China's reality and also realized its negative influence on social morality.Therefore,he reflected on the theory thoroughly and proposed "the tow-way evolution theory"which emphasized that people should not go with the stream in a chaotic world but reasonably apply the natural scientific gains in "the world of substance" and effectively identify its influence in "the world of consciousness".He hoped to alert Chinese people that we must not copy western mode but seek a path suitable to the situation of China under the guidance of reasonable scientific spirit.The fifth section is a conclusion,which aims to introduce the spreading process of the theory of evolution and its influences.The author summarizes the characteristics of Zhang Taiyan's thought of the theory of evolution and its value to Chinese society and its revolution.At last,Zhang saw the spark of the collision between the theory of evolution and Chinese ancient civilization during the period when western learning was widely introduced into China.