requestId:68499ab14c8927.41271459.
What is the saying “doing Chinese philosophy”?
——Commentary on “Being Chinese Philosophy” by Chen Shaoming
Author: Chen Bisheng
Source: “Philosophy Research” No. 8, 2017
Time: Confucius was in the 2568th year of Dingyou, August 23rd, Renshen
Jesus October 12, 2017
“Being Chinese Philosophy” seems to be a dictator, but it is actually a way, and it is also a way to discuss philosophy. “Philosophy” in the meaning of science is introduced from the West; “Philosophy” was added before “China” and often became a discussion on “Chinese Philosophical History”. Orientalization and historicization are the two basic orientations of the “Chinese Philosophy”. These two orientations are the foundation established by the Chinese Philosophy, and are also the necessary strength for the research and development of the “Chinese Philosophy”. However, excessive orientalization and excessive historicization are not difficult to become a trap for Chinese philosophy research. The former applies the concept of Eastern philosophicalism in the dimension of “Chinese and Western”, and then ignores the characteristics of Chinese civilization itself; the latter focuses too much on historicity in the dimension of “ancient and modern”, and ignores the creation of contemporary Chinese philosophy. The method of “doing Chinese philosophy” proposed by Mr. Chen Shaoming is precisely to try the battle against excessive orientalization and excessive historicity. In the article “Talking Method: Inspiration from Oriental Philosophy”, Teacher Chen mentioned:
The conflict between setting value orientation or ideology is not discussed, and reflection on Chinese philosophy can lead to or allow Chinese philosophy to abandon Chinese philosophy, or try to abandon Western learning. This is because it is widely present in the past Chinese philosophy research, perhaps it is very “philosophical” rather than “China”, or perhaps it is “China” and lacks “philosophical”. The former refers to excessive use of the conceptual framework of Eastern philosophy to make a sufficient and appropriate statement of Chinese classical thinking, while the latter refers to revisiting traditional annotations or literary research on Chinese classics. My opinion is that overly European-based Chinese philosophy should give up and discuss its own academic value. However, if the latter is regarded as the Kangzhuang Road to develop Chinese philosophy from the beginning, it can be the southern and northern ones. (Chen Shaoming, 2008a)
It is very “philosophical” but not “China”, which is overly oriental; it is often overly historic. In the preface to Mr. Chen Shaoming’s new book “Making Chinese Philosophy”, he emphasized the meaning of the way of “Making Chinese Philosophy”:
One is to distinguish it from the historical philosophical theory that only describes and does not write, and one is to seek to “do” its Chinese characteristics. “Chinese Philosophy” has two meanings: classical philosophy and contemporary philosophy. The former includes classical civilization and ideological experience, the latter is a concept of time, and the former is also included in the latter. (Chen Shaoming, 2015, page 6)
In other words, “doing Chinese philosophy” is not only a discussion on philosophical history, but also emphasizes the “philosophical creation” of Chinese philosophy researchers. “Doing” means “creation”. Through this creative action of thinking, we not only fight against the non-“philosophical” direction brought by the emphasis on “China” and also fight against the non-“China” direction brought by the emphasis on “Philosophy”. The former leads to no philosophical creation as long as the philosophical history is studied, while the latter leads to a strong philosophy and lacks Chinese concerns. The basic point of “being Chinese philosophy” lies in the experience of physical activities, moral career, and thinking and consciousness experienced by the researcher themselves. For the creation of philosophy, this experience is both “self-real” and is also common to ancient and modern times, Chinese and Western countries.
1. From philosophical history to philosophical creation
The study method of “doing Chinese philosophy” is based on the existing framework and connotation basis of the Chinese philosophy. We hope that in addition to the sorting of philosophical history, we can explore the common concepts, destinies, and even schools, thinking and methods in Chinese philosophy, so that they can directly face the real life world and provide loans for contemporary Chinese thinking.
The name of “philosophy” in China was not called “philosophy”. The modern academic meaning of “Chinese Philosophy” was formed by Song Weitong’s walking, hesitating for half a minute, putting down his suitcase, and looking at it in the ancient and modern transformation of Chinese academics. (See Sang Bing) Since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Chinese have had great doubts about their civilization. From Yu Yue and Sun Ho, to Kang Youhuo and Zhang Taiyan, we have clearly realized that as the focus of traditional learning, according to the academic structure of the Qing Dynasty, the industry has been difficult to continue and collapse, and the basic format of traditional learning must also cause reactionary changes. After the Xinhai period, Hu Yi’s generation went to the middle of the Chinese academic dance, which completely turned the problems of China and the West into problems of ancient and modern times. After “China” became “modern”, all discussions on Chinese academics invisibly became a research on “modern” academics.
In this landscape of the changes of ancient and modern times, the discussion of Chinese civilization in the past has become a historical study. Therefore, literature, history, philosophy and common discussions in humanities use the “study” of the East to clean up China’s “history”. This kind of thinking is exactly the idea of ”cleaning up the country” represented by Hu Yang. Moreover, the philosophical history and literary history of Hu Yang are all based on theThis kind of thinking is based on the foundation. As Mr. Chen Shaoming believed, “When describing the history of Chinese philosophy with the conceptual framework of Western learning is actually a product with a tangible comparison.” (Chen Shaoming, 2015, page 57) Because the Oriental “Philosophy” is a reference subject, it is standardized to find the content of “Chinese Philosophy” in comparison, and finally establish a complete set of historical events of “Chinese Philosophy” and become the system of Chinese Philosophy.
If this kind of “clean up the country” thinking was a new academic subject that was transformed in the late Chinese modern academic era, it was a choice that was not denied by the establishment of a new academic subject, then the vitality of this subject was more dependent on facing the requests of the times and moving forward through constant self-reflection. After entering the 21st century, Chinese academics began to show some new faces to a certain level, and the most important thing about its protecting the webmaster‘s most important concept is the understanding of the “ancient and modern” problem. Specifically, we no longer regard China as the “modern” in time meaning, but instead shift our perspective to “China and the West”, hoping to explore China’s inherent thinking value from the perspective of comparing Chinese and Western civilizations. Teacher Chen Shaoming said in “Chinese Philosophy History Research and Creation of Chinese Philosophy”: “Chinese Philosophy History Research and Chinese Philosophy History Research and Chinese Philosophy History Research and Chinese PhilosophyIntegrityThe promotion of creation is not very important. Its deep roots are rooted in a century’s academic history or thinking history.” (Ibid., page 70) This is in the beginning of the thinking movement, which is generally a reflection on the 20th century’s academic process, and its basic content can be said to rescue “study” from “history”. For more than ten years, whether it is a discussion of “Chinese philosophy complies with the legal principles”, or the historical community’s attention to the problems of the people in the border areas, or the various researches of the academic community on the “what is China” problem, the motors behind it have more or less raised the problem of “studying” in China.
The creation form of Chinese philosophical history proposed by Mr. Chen Shaoming can be summarized as “comparison from philosophy to research on philosophical history.” On the one hand, this form explains the origin of the “History of Chinese Philosophy”, and on the other hand, it predicts the true “Chinese Philosophy” creation.
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