I wrote this essay for three reasons. First, in proofreading The Reconstruction of the Humanistic Spirit, I felt that this great pile of articles contained only general discourses on the social and cultural problems of China and the Western world but did not mention my own philosophical position and religious faith. Although the pattern and style of the essays in this book might excuse this defect, I was afraid that some of my readers would find it difficult to grasp the (...) main themes of thought in the book. Therefore, I wanted to write an article to compensate a bit for this shortcoming. Second, for many years, in teaching courses on Chinese or Western philosophy, I have been used to following the general lecturing method of university professors who stress the objective introduction of philosophical doctrines to enrich students' knowledge. (shrink)

My discussion in previous chapters was limited to the origin of Chinese culture and its fundamental spirit exhibited in the process of historical development. In what follows, I am going to discuss the spirit of Chinese culture in specific areas such as philosophy of nature, theory of human nature, ideals of moral life, the world of daily living, the world of ideal personalities, and the spirit of art and religion. The center of discussion will be a comparison between Chinese and (...) Western philosophy and culture. Therefore, before discussing Chinese cosmologies, I am going to present the cosmologies in the West as a preparation for comparison. Nevertheless, the main task of this chapter is not a special treatise on the natural sciences and philosophies of China and the West. Instead, my focus is on the differences between ideas of nature, their values and fundamental spirit. I hope my readers understand this point first. (shrink)

We may have different ways of defining the nature of philosophy. One view would take philosophy to be a system of knowledge just like science; only it is a more comprehensive system that includes all science, or rather, it is a synthetic system of knowledge. Another view would take philosophy to be just a reflective and critical attitude. It purports to reflect on methods, postulates, axioms, and fundamental concepts that science relies on to build its knowledge in order to clarify (...) other scientific concepts and principles and to understand the limit of each science and of scientific knowledge itself so that they will not be wrongly applied to areas where they do not apply. Still another view would take philosophy to be that which helps us to understand the universe and human life, to have wisdom to penetrate into history, culture, and concrete affairs, and to give us direction for our actions. Of these three, the first view takes philosophy to be an activity for pursuing knowledge, the second view takes philosophy to be an activity for understanding our knowledge, and the third view takes philosophy to be an activity that starts with knowledge in order to achieve wisdom, which is above and beyond knowledge. All these views have their justifications. I would like to elaborate on them in the following. (shrink)

As the title suggests, in this part of the essay I am going to discuss in brief the religious spirit of Confucianism.

In our discussion on the development of political consciousness in the Chinese people in the past one hundred years, we will focus on the upward development made in the course of the reconstruction of the nation. If we simply study the historical facts, the past one hundred years are tragic. But if we study the spirit of the people during this period, we cannot but recognize that the Chinese people have never given up and that they have been constantly struggling (...) upward. In the history of their struggle the Chinese people have gone astray many times; otherwise, the country would not be what she is now. But from mistakes corrections are made, thus eliminating the possibility of repeating the same mistakes. This is what we call the instructional value of history. From this view, the Chinese people are presently undergoing a crisis in which they seem to have nothing to support and nothing to possess. But spiritually and ideologically, the Chinese people possess the most substantial "have," one that no other people or nation of the world has had. This most substantial "have" is the historical experience gained through the continuous upward struggle against failures in the reconstruction of their nation. This historical experience can be valuable only when it has become the self-consciousness of the people and their future generations. This self-consciousness is related mainly to the development of political consciousness in the Chinese people in the past hundred years. (shrink)

In one sense, all academic thoughts are human ideas, and all cultures are productions of man. Therefore, the spirit of all human cultures is always humanistic. To discuss any kind of academic thoughts is to discuss the ideas of man. Speaking in this way, however, we cannot reveal and illuminate the meaning of such terms as "humanistic thought" or "humanistic spirit" because of the lack of contradistinctions. We must then say that, in addition to humanistic thought or spirit, there are (...) also human thoughts or spirit which are nonhumanistic, super-humanistic, subhumanistic, and even antihumanistic. (shrink)

As early as January of 1957, at the Peking University Symposium on the Problems of the History of Chinese Philosophy, Chang Tai-nien was already attacking with his glittering words.

In ancient times in our country, Wang Ch'ung was an eminent materialist and a brilliant atheist, a progressive thinker who opposed the orthodox feudal thought. This has gone basically unquestioned. This year the February 21 issue of Kuang-ming jih-pao printed in its philosophy section an article by Comrade T'ung Mo-an, "Is Wang Ch'ung a Peasant Class Thinker?" The article is an evaluation completely denying this. T'ung believes that the purpose of Wang Ch'ung's works was "to uphold the rule of the (...) Han," "ardently and unconditionally to sing the praises of the Han ruler and court," "to make sacred the rule of the Han," "to get the populace to live quietly, forever in a servile position," and "to view inimically and to slander peasant uprisings." "Wang Ch'ung was an orthodox thinker of the landlord class," "a thinker produced in the interests of the rule of the landlord class who confirmed the feudal orthodoxy." Although I myself am not praising Wang Ch'ung as a peasant class thinker or denying that in Wang Ch'ung's thought there are negative elements, I am completely unable to agree with the basic viewpoint that the author puts forward. (shrink)

Having read the works of Wang Ch'ung [A.D. 27-c. 100], I realized that they need to be recapitulated. Here I shall evaluate Wang Ch'ung and his thought and present what I feel to be the real significance that Wang Ch'ung's thought still has today.

Philosophical aspects of belief and ancestor worship in Southern Vietnam.

'함양과 체찰-조선의 지성 퇴계 이황의 마음공부법'은 퇴계의 생애와 사상을 핵심적으로 요약한 뒤에 '자성록'을 뼈대로 퇴계의 가르침을 재구성하고 있다. 또한 ‘활인심방’과 ‘수신십훈’ 등 퇴계 이황의 행동적 가르침을 첨가해 그의 삶과 철학을 소개한다. ‘함양과 체찰’은 지폐속에 박제화된 퇴계를 생생하게 되살리고, 난해하게 인식되는 그의 이론을 현대인이 소화하기 쉽게 풀어 쓰고 있다. '함양과 체찰'을 통해 현대의 한국인들은 퇴계의 지혜를 부담 없이 접할 수 있을 뿐만아니라, ‘공부하는 인간, 퇴계’라는 측면에서 퇴계의 생애와 철학을 명료하게 재구성하고 있어서 학자로써의 퇴계와 인간 퇴계의 일면도 재미있게 엿볼 수 있다.

T'ang Chün-i's early work Ai-ching chih fu-yin (Gospel of love) has been much neglected by T'ang scholars. This essay argues that this text is not a caprice, and that it marks an important stage in T'ang's life and studies. Furthermore, in the history of Chinese philosophy, it is probably the first book ever written on the philosophy of love.