Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T08:21:03.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Feng Youlan and Dialectical/Historical Materialism, 1930s–1950s*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2015

XIAOQING DIANA LIN*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Indiana University Northwest, United States of America Email: dchenlin@iun.edu

Abstract

This article explores the acceptance of Marxism by a non-Marxist Chinese philosopher, Feng Youlan, before and after 1949. Previous studies have largely focused on establishment intellectuals in the study of Marxism and intellectuals in China, and this article seeks to fill the lacuna on the intellectual potential Marxism offered to non-Communist intellectuals in China. This article finds that for Feng Youlan, a non-Marxist Chinese intellectual, Marxism was able to provide meaningful venues for his attempt to modernize Chinese knowledge and transform Chinese culture. A Marxist emphasis on universal rules governing all human societies on the same stage of development, Marxist presentist approaches to history, and most of all, a Marxist emphasis on praxis, aided Chinese intellectuals like Feng in constructing new approaches to learning the Chinese past. The Marxist emphasis on praxis helped deepen the discussion of experience, a concept central to a reconstruction of Confucian learning in modern China, after the Communist takeover of China in 1949. Eventually the state monopoly of the definition of Marxist praxis stifled the spontaneous search for a new understanding of experience in Communist China. Nonetheless, Marxism had a transformative and lasting impact on modern Chinese scholarship, as seen from the example of Feng Youlan.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I want to thank Arif Dirlik and Heidi Ross for suggestions for improvement on earlier versions of this article, and the two anonymous reviewers for their very constructive advice on revision. This article was first presented at a colloquium at Indiana University East Asian Studies Center in November 2011. I thank the participants at the colloquium for their comments. The research and writing of this article was funded by a New Frontiers research fellowship from Indiana University.

References

1 For instance, Goldman, Merle, Cheek, Timothy, and Lee Hamrin, Carol (1987), China's Intellectuals and the State: In Search of a New Relationship (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar; Goldman, Merle (1981), China's Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar; Fogel, Joshua (1987), Ai Ssu-ch'I's Contribution to the Development of Chinese Marxism (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cheek, Timothy (1997), Propaganda and Culture in Mao's China: Deng Tuo and the Intelligentsia (Oxford: Clarendon Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schwarcz, Vera (1992), The Time for Telling Truth Is Running Out: Conversations with Zhang Shenfu (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press)Google Scholar; and Mazur, Mary (2009), Wu Han, Historian, Son of China's Times (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books)Google Scholar.

2 Youlan, Feng (1921), Bogesen de zhexuefangfa (Bergson's philosophical methods), Xinchao, 3 (1)Google Scholar. Reprinted in Youlan, Feng (1992), Sansongtang quanji (The complete works of the master of the Three Pine House), v.11 (Kaifeng: Henan remin chubanshe), pp. 2026.Google Scholar

3 James, William (1981), Principles of Psychology, vols. 1 & II (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press), p. 924.Google Scholar Quoted in Gale, Richard (1991), Pragmatism versus mysticism, the divided life of William James, Philosophical Perspectives, 5: p. 245CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Gale, Pragmatism versus mysticism, p. 245.

5 Youlan, Feng (1922), Lunbijiaodongxi (On comparing China and the West), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.11, pp. 5459.Google Scholar

6 Such demarcation did appear from time to time in his later writings in the 1930s, especially in his emphasis on a level of mysticism in Chinese thinking of the universe versus a more logical approach to the universe by the West, but consistently throughout his life, Feng sought to compare Chinese and Western cultures more along similar lines, for example metaphysical lines, than polar opposite ones.

7 Feng, Bogesen de zhexuefangfa, pp. 8–9.

8 Ibid., pp. 8–19.

9 Youlan, Feng (Yu-lan Fung) (1922), Why China has no science: an interpretation of the history and consequences of Chinese philosophy, International Journal of Ethics, 32 (3): pp. 237263.Google Scholar

10 For an in-depth discussion of Liang, see Alitto, Guy (1986), The Last Confucian: Liang Shuming and the Chinese Delimma of Modernity (Berkeley, California: University of California Press).Google Scholar For a specific discussion of Liang's religious views, see Meynard, Thierry (2010), The Religious Philosophy of Liang Shuming: The Hidden Buddhist (Leiden: Brill).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Lai, Chen (2006), Liang Shuming zaoqi de dongxi wenhuaguan (Liang Shuming's early views on East West cultures), in Chen Lai, Chuantong yu xiandai renwenzhuyi de shiye (Tradition and present: a humanist's view) (Beijing: Peking University Press), pp. 102103.Google Scholar

12 Chen, Liang Shuming zaoqi de dongxi wenhuaguan, pp. 110–115.

13 Youlan, Feng (1926), Rensheng zhexue (人生哲学) (Philosophy of life), in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.1: (Kaifeng: Henan renmin, 1985), pp. 346547.Google Scholar This is the Chinese translation of his PhD thesis (Columbia University, 1923), with some expansion but basically in keeping with his main ideas in his thesis from chapters 1 to 11. Chapters 12 and 13 were new chapters added in the Chinese translation.

14 Youlan, Feng (1959), Sishinian de huigu (四十年的回顾) (Reflection on the past forty years) (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe), pp. 610.Google Scholar

15 Youlan, Feng (1981), Sansongtang zixu (三松堂自序) (Self-preface by the master of the House of Three Pines), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.1, pp. 190196.Google Scholar

16 Feng, Sansongtang zixu, p. 196.

17 Feng, Rensheng zhexue, chaps 12–13, in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.1, pp. 508547.Google Scholar

18 For Feng's influence from New Realism, see Diana Lin, Xiaoqing (2014), Creating modern Chinese metaphysics: Feng Youlan and New Realism, Modern China, 40 (1): pp. 4073.Google Scholar

19 Feng, Rensheng zhexue, chaps 12–13.

20 Feng, Sansongtang zixu, p. 194. When Feng made this comment in his memoir written in 1986, he seemed to quite forget that he included Plato and most pre-modern European thinkers in the group of those who held a negative attitude on life, while Confucians in China were included in his group of those who had a positive attitude towards this world. The comment quoted here was probably directed towards modern European thinking versus Chinese thinking on the eve of the Opium War. But even so it would be a gross generalization, and a very biased one at that.

21 See Xiaoqing Lin, Diana (2012), Developing the Academic Discipline of Chinese Philosophy: The Departments of Philosophy at Peking, Tsinghua, and Yenching Universities (1910s–1930s), in Makeham, John (ed.), Learning to Emulate the Wise: The Genesis of Chinese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline in Early Twentieth Century China (Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press), pp. 131165.Google Scholar

22 See Kurtz, Joachim (2011), The Discovery of Chinese Logic (Leiden and Boston: Brill).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Youlan, Feng (1934), Zhongguo zhexueshi (History of Chinese Philosophy), v.2,Google Scholar in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.3 (Zhengzhou: Henan renminchubanshe, 1989).Google Scholar

24 Feng Youlan (1931), Zhongguo zhexueshi, v.1, in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.2 (Zhengzhou: Henan renminchubanshe, 1988), pp. 82107Google Scholar.

25 Youlan, Feng (Fung Yu-lan) and Bodde, Derk (1952), History of Chinese Philosophy, v.2 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1983), pp. 175189.Google Scholar

26 Feng, Zhongguo zhexueshi, v.1, pp. 183–210.

27 Feng Youlan (1950), Xinlixue de ziwojiantao, (A self-criticism of my New Philosophy of Principles), Remin ribao (People's Daily), 11 October.

28 Youlan, Feng (1924), Yizhong renshengguan (一种人生观) (A view on life), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.1, p. 576.Google Scholar

29 Dirlik, Arif (1978), Revolution and History: The Origins of Marxist Historiography in China, 1919–1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 7475.Google Scholar

30 Dirlik, Revolution and History, p. 83.

31 Dirlik, Arif (1987), Culturalism as hegemonic ideology and liberating practice, Cultural Critique, 6: pp. 4142.Google Scholar

32 Dirlik, Revolution and History, pp. 256–268.

33 Youlan, Feng (1938), Xinlixue (New philosophy of principle), in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.4, Youguang, Tu (ed.) (Zhengzhou: Henan renmin, 1986), p. 116.Google Scholar

34 Feng, Zhongguo zhexueshi, v.1, pp. 20, 23–33. Feng, Sishinian de huigu, p. 23; Feng, Chen (2003), Ershi shiji sanshi niandai feng youlan sixiangde weiwushi quxiang (Feng Youlan's materialistic approaches and tendencies in the 1930s), Shixue yuekan, 1: 8186.Google Scholar

35 Feng Youlan (1950), Xinlixue de ziwojiantao (A self-criticism of my New philosophy of principles), Remin ribao, 11 October.

36 Youlan, Feng (2000), The Hall of Three Pines: An Account of My Life, Mair, Denis (trans.) (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press), pp. 9495.Google Scholar

37 Feng, Sansongtang zixu, pp. 76–85.

38 Ibid., pp. 240–241.

39 There is extensive literature on the introduction and reception of Darwin in China. For my summary here I have primarily drawn upon Pusey, James (1983), China and Charles Darwin (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Pusey, James (2009), Global Darwin: revolutionary road, Nature, 462: pp. 162163.Google Scholar

40 Feng, Why China has no science.

41 Zhongde, Cai (ed.) (1993), Feng Youlan xiansheng nianpu chubian (A preliminary chronology of Mr Feng Youlan), in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.15 (Zhengzhou: Henan renmin, 2000), pp. 159163.Google Scholar

42 Youlan, Feng (1939), Xinshilun (A new treatise on practical affairs), chaps 4–6, in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.4, pp. 252288.Google Scholar

43 Youlan, Feng (1940), Xinshixun (New treatise on the way of life), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.4, pp. 369510.Google Scholar

44 Lianhe, Deng (2008), Feng youlan xinshixun zhongguo chuantong daode guanniande lixinghua zhuanhuan (Feng Youlan's rationalization of traditional Chinese concepts through his New treatise on the way of life), Nanjing shehui kexue, 2: 3641.Google Scholar

45 Youlan, Feng (1942), Xinyuanren (A new treatise on the nature of man), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.4, pp. 511697.Google Scholar

46 Ibid.

47 Lai, Chen (2006), Shengxian zhihou de rensheng zhuixun (Pursuit of life's goals after attaining sagehood), Zhexue yanjiu, 2: pp. 4344.Google Scholar

48 See Lin, Creating modern Chinese metaphysics, pp. 40–73.

49 Sheng, Hu (1943), Ping Feng Youlan zhu xinshilun (On Feng Youlan's New treatise on practical affairs), in Sheng, Hu, Lixing yu ziyou (Rationality and freedom) (Shanghai: Huaxia, 1946), pp.176190.Google Scholar

50 Dirlik, Arif (1983), The predicament of Marxist revolutionary consciousness: Mao Zedong, Antonio Gramsci, and the reformulation of Marxist revolutionary theory, Modern China, 9 (2): p. 192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 Dirlik, Arif (1997), Modernism and antimodernism in Mao Zedong's Marxism, in Dirlik, Arif, Healy, Paul, and Knight, Nick (eds), Critical Perspectives on Mao Zedong's Thought (New Jersey: Humanities Press International), pp. 7276.Google Scholar

52 Richard Levy (1997), Mao, Marx, political economy and the Chinese revolution: Good questions, poor answers, in Dirlik et al. (eds), Critical Perspectives on Mao Zedong's Thought, p. 157.

53 Dirlik, The predicament of Marxist revolutionary consciousness, pp. 196–197.

54 One recently published monograph on Feng called his philosophy ‘metaphorical metaphysics’. See Chen, Derong (2011), Metaphorical Metaphysics in Chinese History: Illustrated with Feng Youlan's New Metaphysics (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books).Google Scholar

55 U, Eddy (2007), The making of Chinese intellectuals: representations and organization in the Thought Reform Campaign, The China Quarterly, 192: pp. 971989, especially 972, 977.Google Scholar

56 U, The making of Chinese intellectuals, pp. 971–989.

57 DeMare, Brian James (2009), Casting (off) their stinking airs: Chinese intellectuals and land reform, The China Journal, 67: pp. 109130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 Guo Moruo (1954), Sandian jianyi (Three suggestions), Renmin ribao, 9 December.

59 Fangxiang, Li (2007), Xiandai xueshu pipan dui makesi zhuyi zhongguohua de shuangchong yingxiang (The double impact of contemporary intellectual criticism on the Sinicization of Marxism), Dangdai zhongguoshi yanjiu, 14 (6): pp. 8586.Google Scholar

60 Li, Xiandai xueshu pipan, pp. 85–92.

61 Cai (ed.), Feng Youlan xiansheng nianpu chubian, p. 397.

62 See, for instance, Dirlik, Arif (1977), The problem of class viewpoint versus historicism in Chinese historiography, Modern China, 3 (4): pp. 465488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarDirlik, Arif (2011), The triumph of the modern: Marxism and Chinese social history, in idem, Culture and History in Postrevolutionary China: The Perspective of Global Modernity (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press), pp. 7790.Google ScholarEdmunds, Clifford (1987), The politics of historiography: Jian Bozan's historicism, in , Goldman et al. (eds), China's Intellectuals and the State, pp. 65106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 Youlan, Feng (1950), Yinian xuexide zongjie (A summary of this year's studies), in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13 (Kaifeng: Henan renmin, 1994), pp. 885889.Google Scholar

64 Youlan, Feng (1950), Canjia tugai de shouhuo (My rewards for participation in the land reform), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13, pp. 890892.Google Scholar

65 Feng, Canjia tugai de shouhuo, p. 897.

66 Youlan, Feng (1951), Shijianlun malie zhuyidi fazhan yu zhongguo zhexue chuantong wenti di jiejue (On Practice: the development of Marxist thought and solution to practical problems in China), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13, p. 18.Google Scholar

67 Youlan, Feng (1951), Xuexi shijianlun de shouhuo (Reaping the reward of studying On Practice), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13, p. 32.Google Scholar

68 Youlan, Feng (1951), Shijianlun, maliezhuyi difazhan yu zhongguo zhexue chuantong wentidi jiejue (On Practice as a further development of Marxism and solution to traditional problems in Chinese philosophy), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13, pp. 728.Google Scholar

69 Feng, Xuexi shijianlun de shouhuo, pp. 29–34.

70 Youlan, Feng (1951), Duiyu gongchandangde renshi dizhuanbian (Changes in my views of the Chinese Communist Party), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13, pp. 936937.Google Scholar

71 Youlan, Feng (1951), Kangmei yuanchao duiyu wode qishi (What fighting America to support North Korea has taught me), in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.13, pp. 926929.Google Scholar

72 Mao Mingjia (1950), Duiyu xinlixue sixiang de pipan (Criticism of New philosophy of principles), Guangming ribao, 8 October.

73 Feng Youlan (1950), Xinlixue de ziwo jiantao (A self-criticism of New philosophy of principles), Renmin ribao, 11 October. Mao Mingjia (1950), Cong ziwo piping dao dui xinlixue sixiangde piping (From Feng's Self-criticism to criticism against New philosophy of principles), Guangming ribao, 6 August.

74 Yixing, Zhang (2007), Wushi nianqiande nachang zhexue zhengming (The philosophy debate of 50 years ago), Zhexue yanjiu, 1: 56.Google Scholar

75 Zhixue, Liang and Xia, Chen (2007), Lun duilimian de tongyi he douzheng, dui zhongguo zhexueshi zuotanhui de fansi (On the unification and struggle between antagonistic sides: reflections on the symposium on the history of Chinese philosophy of 1957), Wenhua sikao, 7: 410.Google Scholar

76 Liang and Chen, Lun duilimian de tongyi he douzheng, p. 5.

77 Youlan, Feng (1956), Guoqu zhexueshi gongzuodi ziwo pipan (A self-criticism of my previous work in the history of philosophy), in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, 2nd edn, v.14 (Zhengzhou, Henan remin, 2000), pp. 932953.Google Scholar

78 Youlan, Feng (1957), Zhongguo zhexue yichande jicheng wenti (On the inheritance of China's philosophical legacy), in Youlan, Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.12 (Zhengzhou: Henan remin, 1992), pp. 98101.Google Scholar

79 Feng, Zhongguo zhexue yichande jicheng wenti, p. 103.

80 Haiwen, Yang (2001), Chouxiang jichengfa de lishi mingyun (The historical fate of ‘Abstract Inheritance’), Shehui kexue luntan, 7: 32.Google Scholar

81 Hu Sheng (1957), Guanyu zhexueshi deyanjiu (On the study of history of philosophy), Remin ribao, 29–30 March.

82 Feng Youlan (1957), Zailun zhongguo zhexue yichan di jicheng wenti (Another treatise on inheriting the legacy of Chinese philosophy), Remin ribao, 29–30 March.

83 Jiadong, Zheng (2001), Xueshu yu zhengzhi zhijian Feng youlan yu zhongguo makesi zhuyi (Between scholarship and politics Feng Youlan and Chinese Marxism) (Taipei: Shuiniu chubanshe), pp. 213223.Google Scholar

84 Yang, Chouxiang jichengfa de lishi mingyun, p. 33.

85 Guanyu zhongguo zhexueshi gongzuo huiyi zhong taolunde yixie wenti (Some problems discussed at the working conference of the history of Chinese philosophy) (1957), Zhexue yanjiu, 3: 141–146.

86 U, Eddy (2013), Intellectuals and alternative socialist paths in the early Mao years, The China Journal, 70: 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

87 Paul Healy (1997), A paragon of Marxist orthodoxy, in Dirlik, Healy, and Knight (eds), Critical Perspectives on Mao Zedong's Thought, p. 127.

88 Yang, Chouxiang jichengfa de lishi mingyun, pp. 32–33.

89 Cai (ed.), Feng Youlan xiansheng nianpu chubian, pp. 449–451.

90 Feng Youlan (1958), Shuli yige duilimian (Playing the devil's advocate), Guangming ribao, 8 June.

91 Zisong, Wang (1959), Feng Youlan de zhexue shi weishei fuwude (Who does Feng Youlan's philosophy serve), Zhexue yanjiu, 1: 19, 3236.Google Scholar

92 Feng, Guan (1959), Jielu xinyuanren de yuanxing (Reveal the true nature of A new treatise on the nature of man), Zhexue yanjiu, 2: 1835.Google Scholar

93 Youlan, Feng (1958), Pipan wode chouxiang jichengfa (Self-criticism of my ‘abstract inheritance’), Zhexue yanjiu, 5. Reprinted in Feng, Sansongtang quanji, v.14, pp. 954964.Google Scholar

94 Youlan, Feng (1959), Xinlixue de yuanxing (The truth about my system of new philosophy), Zhexue yanjiu, 1: 3849.Google Scholar

95 Youlan, Feng (1959), Zhiyi he qingjiao (Questions and consultations), Zhexue yanjiu, 3: 813.Google Scholar

96 Feng, Guan (1959), Da fengyoulan xiansheng (A response to Mr. Feng Youlan), Xinjianshe, 5: 5058.Google Scholar

97 In his ‘The problem of class viewpoint versus historicism in Chinese historiography’, Dirlik also argues that if the political movements had not pushed the Chinese intellectuals to completely identify Chinese history with Marxist theory at the cost of historicism, they might have moved closer to that goal.

98 Clifford Edmunds (1987), The politics of historiography: Jian Bozan's Historicism, in Goldman et al. (eds), China's Intellectuals and the State, pp. 65–106

99 Li, Huaiyin (2010), Between tradition and revolution: Fan Wenlan and the origins of the Marxist historiography in modern China, Modern China, 36 (3): pp. 269301.Google Scholar

100 Dirlik suggests modification of Marxism into a critical theory like any other modern social sciences theory. See his The triumph of the modern, pp. 91–95.

101 Cartier, Roger (1982), Intellectual history or social history? The French trajectories, in LaCapra, Dominick (ed.), Modern European Intellectual History: Reappraisals and New Perspectives (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press), p. 17.Google Scholar

102 Chartier, Intellectual history or social history?, p. 36.

103 Aram Veeser, H. (1989), Introduction, in idem (ed.), The New Historicism (New York: Taylor and Francis), p. xi.Google Scholar

104 Liu, Alan (1989), The power of formalism: the New Historicism, in ELH, 56 (4): p. 734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

105 Liu, The power of formalism, p. 757.

106 Kurtz, The Discovery of Chinese Logic, pp. 357–360.