Feng Youlan
Encyclopedia
Feng Youlan or Fung Yu-Lan was a Chinese philosopher who was important for reintroducing the study of Chinese philosophy
.
, Nanyang
, Henan
, China
, to a middle-class family. He studied philosophy at China Public School in Shanghai, between 1912-1915, a preparatory school for college, then at Beijing University between 1915 and 1918, where he was able to study Western philosophy and logic
as well as Chinese philosophy
.
Upon his graduation in 1918, he travelled to the United States
in 1919, where he studied at Columbia University
on a Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship. There he met, among many philosophers who were to influence his thought and career, John Dewey
, the pragmatist, who became his teacher. Feng gained his Ph.D.
from Columbia in 1923. His Ph.D. thesis was titled "A Comparative Study of Life Ideals".
He went on to teach at a number of Chinese universities (including Guangdong, later renamed Jinan University, Yanjing, and Tsinghua
in Beijing
). From 1934 to 1938 (and again from 1946 to 1949) he was Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua. It was while at Tsinghua that Feng published what was to be his best-known and most influential work, his History of Chinese Philosophy (1934, in two volumes). In it he presented and examined the history of Chinese philosophy from a viewpoint which was very much influenced by the Western philosophical fashions prevalent at the time, which resulted in what Peter J. King of Oxford describes as a distinctly positivist
tinge to most of the philosophers he described. Nevertheless, the book became the standard work in its field, and had a huge effect in reigniting an interest in Chinese thought.
In 1939, Feng brought out his Xin Lixue (New Rational Philosophy, or Neo-Lixue). Lixue was a philosophical position of a small group of twelfth-century neo-Confucianists
(including Cheng Hao
, Cheng Yi, and Zhu Xi
); Feng's book took certain metaphysical notions from their thought and from taoism
(such as li
and tao
), analysed and developed them in ways that owed much to the Western philosophical tradition, and produced a rationalistic neo-Confucian metaphysics. He also developed, in the same way, an account of the nature of morality and of the structure of human moral development.
broke out, the students and staff of Beijing's Tsinghua and Peking Universities, together with Tianjin's Nankai
University, fled their campuses. They went first to Hengshan
, where they set up the Changsha Temporary University, and then to Kunming
, where they set up Southwest Associated University.
When, in 1946 the three Universities returned to Beijing, Feng instead went to the U.S. again, this time to take up a post as visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania
He spent the year 1948-1949 as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii. He served as President of Tsinghua University from December 1948 to May 1949 (it was known as National Tsinghua University until January 1949).
While he was at Pennsylvania, news from China made it clear that the communists
were on their way to seizing power. Feng's friends tried to persuade him to stay, but he was determined to return; his political views were broadly socialist
, and he thus felt optimistic about China's future under its new government.
Once back home, Feng began to study Marxist-Leninist thought, but he soon found that the political situation fell short of his hopes; by the mid-1950s his philosophical approach was being attacked by the authorities. He was forced to repudiate much of his earlier work, and to rewrite the rest – including his History – in order to fit in with the ideas of the Cultural revolution
.
Despite all this, Feng refused to leave China, and after enduring much hardship he finally saw a relaxation of censorship, and was able to write with a certain degree of freedom. He died on 26 November 1990 in Beijing
.
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy is philosophy written in the Chinese tradition of thought. The majority of traditional Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States era, during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and...
.
Early life, education, & career
Feng Youlan was born on 4 December 1895 in Tanghe CountyTanghe County
Tanghe County, administered by Nanyang, Henan, People's Republic of China. Its ancient name was Tángzhōu .This county consists of 20 townships and 503 administrative villages, with the population being approximately 1,280,000 and total area being 2,512 km². The local economy is mainly based on...
, Nanyang
Nanyang, Henan
Nanyang is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Henan province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest administrative area in Henan, Nanyang borders Xinyang to the southeast, Zhumadian to the east, Pingdingshan to the northeast, Luoyang to the north, Sanmenxia to the...
, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, to a middle-class family. He studied philosophy at China Public School in Shanghai, between 1912-1915, a preparatory school for college, then at Beijing University between 1915 and 1918, where he was able to study Western philosophy and logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
as well as Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy is philosophy written in the Chinese tradition of thought. The majority of traditional Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States era, during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and...
.
Upon his graduation in 1918, he travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1919, where he studied at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
on a Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship. There he met, among many philosophers who were to influence his thought and career, John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
, the pragmatist, who became his teacher. Feng gained his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from Columbia in 1923. His Ph.D. thesis was titled "A Comparative Study of Life Ideals".
He went on to teach at a number of Chinese universities (including Guangdong, later renamed Jinan University, Yanjing, and Tsinghua
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
). From 1934 to 1938 (and again from 1946 to 1949) he was Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua. It was while at Tsinghua that Feng published what was to be his best-known and most influential work, his History of Chinese Philosophy (1934, in two volumes). In it he presented and examined the history of Chinese philosophy from a viewpoint which was very much influenced by the Western philosophical fashions prevalent at the time, which resulted in what Peter J. King of Oxford describes as a distinctly positivist
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
tinge to most of the philosophers he described. Nevertheless, the book became the standard work in its field, and had a huge effect in reigniting an interest in Chinese thought.
In 1939, Feng brought out his Xin Lixue (New Rational Philosophy, or Neo-Lixue). Lixue was a philosophical position of a small group of twelfth-century neo-Confucianists
Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism is an ethical and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, that was primarily developed during the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, but which can be traced back to Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty....
(including Cheng Hao
Cheng Hao
Chéng Hào , styled Bochun , was a neo-Confucian philosopher from Luoyang, China. In his youth, he and his younger brother Cheng Yi were students of Zhou Dunyi, one of the architects of Neo-Confucian cosmology.-Life:...
, Cheng Yi, and Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi
Zhū Xī or Chu Hsi was a Song Dynasty Confucian scholar who became the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China...
); Feng's book took certain metaphysical notions from their thought and from taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
(such as li
Li (Neo-Confucianism)
Li （理）is a concept found in Neo-Confucian Chinese philosophy.It refers to the underlying reason and order of nature as reflected in its organic forms....
and tao
Tao
Dao or Tao is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'...
), analysed and developed them in ways that owed much to the Western philosophical tradition, and produced a rationalistic neo-Confucian metaphysics. He also developed, in the same way, an account of the nature of morality and of the structure of human moral development.
War and upheaval
When the Second Sino-Japanese WarSecond Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
broke out, the students and staff of Beijing's Tsinghua and Peking Universities, together with Tianjin's Nankai
Nankai University
Nankai University , commonly known as Nankai, is a public research university based in Tianjin on mainland China. Founded in 1919 by educators Zhang Boling and Yan Fansun , Nankai University is a member of the Nankai serial schools. It is the alma mater of former Chinese Premier and key historical...
University, fled their campuses. They went first to Hengshan
Hengshan
Hengshan may refer to the following locations in mainland China or Taiwan:* Mount Heng * Mount Heng * Hengshan , located in Hsinchu County, Taiwan* Hengshan County, Hunan , of Hengyang, Hunan...
, where they set up the Changsha Temporary University, and then to Kunming
Kunming
' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...
, where they set up Southwest Associated University.
When, in 1946 the three Universities returned to Beijing, Feng instead went to the U.S. again, this time to take up a post as visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
He spent the year 1948-1949 as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii. He served as President of Tsinghua University from December 1948 to May 1949 (it was known as National Tsinghua University until January 1949).
While he was at Pennsylvania, news from China made it clear that the communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
were on their way to seizing power. Feng's friends tried to persuade him to stay, but he was determined to return; his political views were broadly socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, and he thus felt optimistic about China's future under its new government.
Once back home, Feng began to study Marxist-Leninist thought, but he soon found that the political situation fell short of his hopes; by the mid-1950s his philosophical approach was being attacked by the authorities. He was forced to repudiate much of his earlier work, and to rewrite the rest – including his History – in order to fit in with the ideas of the Cultural revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Despite all this, Feng refused to leave China, and after enduring much hardship he finally saw a relaxation of censorship, and was able to write with a certain degree of freedom. He died on 26 November 1990 in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
Monographs & collections of essays
- 1934: A History of Chinese Philosophy
- 1983: translated by Derk Bodde (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) ISBN 0-691-02021-3
- 1948: A Short History of Chinese PhilosophyA Short History of Chinese PhilosophyA Short History of Chinese Philosophy is a book by Feng Youlan written in 1948. It is a short version of his classic 1934 book A History of Chinese Philosophy.-References:*...
(Collier-Macmillan) — reprinted 1997: Free Press ISBN 0-684-83634-3
- 1939: Xin Li-xue (New Rational Philosophy) (Changsha: Commercial Press)
- 1997A New Treatise on the Methodology of Metaphysics (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press) ISBN 7-119-01947-3
- Selected Philosophical Writings of Fung Yu-lan (Beijing: Foreign Language Press) ISBN 7-119-01063-8
- Xin yuan ren (A New Treeatise on the Nature of Man (Chongqing: Commercial Press)
- 1946: Xin zhi yan (A New Understanding of Words) ((Shanghai: Commercial Press)
- 1947: The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy transl. E.R. Hughes (London: Kegan Paul)
- 1970: (Greenwood Press) ISBN 0-8371-2816-1
- 1961: Xin yuan dao (A New Treatise on the Nature of Tao) (Xiang gang: Zhong-guo zhe-xue jan jiu hui)
As translator
- 1991: A Taoist Classic: Chuang-Tzu (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press) ISBN 7-119-00104-3
Secondary
- 2004: Peter J. King One Hundred Philosophers (Hove: Apple) ISBN 1-84092-462-4
- 2001: Francis Soo “Contemporary Chinese Philosophy”, in Brian Carr & Indira Mahalingam
[edd] Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy (London: Routledge) ISBN 0-415-24038-7
External links
- 'Philosophy of Contemporary China' — on-line text provided by The Radical Academy
- http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/dphi/2956/index.html (Chinese) Short bio at Tsinghua University site (Feng is the second entry on the page).