Of course, the second generation is different. We are more accustomed to it now, and later Chinese philosophy researchers will be accustomed to this approach, which is that their work is entirely focused on the history of philosophy.
So, at the beginning, the discipline of Chinese philosophy should include two aspects, one is the creation of ideas, and the other is the study of the history of philosophy. Although philosophy is the study of traditional thought and has become disconnected from social life, these two aspects of philosophy and the history of philosophy have not yet been separated within the college. A person who studies the history of philosophy is a philosopher himself, and only in this way can you see through the history of philosophy.
So, Russell also has a saying, which he also has in the history of philosophy, that is, to understand the philosophical history of a nation, you must first be a philosopher. Therefore, if you lose this aspect of philosophy, the history of philosophy will be ruined. But 49 years later, we have basically created a situation where Chinese philosophy is completely the history of philosophy, which means that the history of Chinese philosophy has become synonymous with Chinese philosophy, and that part of philosophy has been lost.
Of course, after the reform and opening up, the situation in the Chinese philosophical community has undergone significant changes, and this change is that ideas are no longer unified but diversified. Our current scholars can use different ideas to explain the history of traditional Chinese thought, with a relatively high degree of freedom. Scholars can choose their own interpretation principles and methods based on their interests.
However, because of such a long-standing habit, the Chinese people lack such a habit of thinking creation. Of course, for example, Ma Zhe would emphasize this aspect, but because it is disconnected from history, the creation of such ideas often flows into a game of concepts, a language, and some words, which is essentially contrary to the spirit of philosophy.
So, after more than 30 years of reform and opening up, although the situation in the Chinese philosophical community has undergone significant changes, the research methods of Chinese philosophy have not been freed from the stereotype of viewing philosophy as a mere history and knowledge of history. To borrow Feng Xiansheng's words, the study of Chinese philosophy is still in a state of only following through without continuing to explain.
So, ideas are still not something that arises from tradition itself, and there are still external inputs and introductions. On the one hand, there are various theoretical theories in China's intellectual and theoretical circles, but these theories are often borrowed from outside and have not been able to connect with the wisdom of national culture.
On the other hand, Chinese academic thought is still regarded as knowledge in the past. So, in the past, there was a saying that it was an antique in a museum, a display item, which is a term used by Western scholars. In this way, this traditional ideology cannot participate in the process of contemporary social and cultural creation, let alone serve as the source of this ideology.
So, our current thinking lacks originality and has a lot to do with it. So, a paradox arises that there is no Chinese philosophy in the Chinese philosophical community, or rather there exists a Chinese philosophical community without Chinese philosophy, which is a paradox. It's his ideas, not generated by China's own academic achievements. So, the research approach of Chinese philosophy needs to be changed, which is to break the abstract confrontation between philosophy and philosophical history, and gradually construct the contemporary theoretical form of Chinese philosophy.
In fact, before 1949, the older generation of philosophers, who created this set of philosophical theories, provided us with many useful resources for experimentation and thinking. Therefore, in every era of intellectual and academic development in history, there must be a reconstruction of a theoretical system. What we often focus on now is still knowledge, so I would say that we are basically influenced by Qianjia Sinology. Of course, Qianjia Sinology turned the academic knowledge of the Qing Dynasty into a set of textual research, and its ideology was not particularly prominent. It also had its own special historical background.
In fact, in history, one of the dominant aspects of academia in each generation has been the creation of ideas. He studied classics in order to focus on reality, such as the set of things discussed by Dong Zhongshu. In response to the questions raised by Emperor Wu of Han, such as "Heaven is appointed" and other metaphysical questions, to answer such a metaphysical question, although he talked about a set of "Gongyang Studies" to solve the problem, it is still a contemporary problem and a problem of the time.
When we talk about this set of things now, textual research is still the most important. Of course, textual research is important, but not everyone has to talk about it. We are currently working on a doctoral thesis, and for a master's thesis, only research materials are good. You need to have some ideas and say that this thing is not good. I think this needs to be changed. So, when I participated in my doctoral thesis defense, I emphasized on many occasions that what I value most is whether there are ideas in these papers. Of course, in terms of academic research, you need to have a basis and your ideas have a basis, and these two aspects need to be well combined. However, we are too weak in this area now, so we need to emphasize this aspect particularly.
So, I say that China needs its own contemporary ideas and philosophical theories, and I particularly emphasize that they belong to ourselves. This adjective means that we need our own ideas and philosophical theories, and cannot rely solely on them. Therefore, philosophy is essentially alive, a living thing.
When Kant talked about imagination, he talked about two imaginations, one called productive imagination and the other called regenerative imagination. I want to use this to illustrate, that is, the history of philosophy, to unleash the imagination of regeneration and bring back the past. Now we need to unleash our productive imagination, which is the production of ideas. The production of ideas requires it, and we should not treat it solely as knowledge. Our focus on tradition is to solve practical problems.
If China wants to build its own contemporary philosophical theoretical system in the future, it needs to enable traditional ideas to truly participate in our contemporary intellectual creation activities. Therefore, the study of the history of Chinese philosophy needs to change, and the research methods need to change. It is necessary to emphasize that we must base ourselves on the philosophical tradition and create our own theories based on our own ideological tradition. Therefore, every philosopher must form their own set of theories and cannot borrow from outside.
Of course, philosophy is a form of learning, and I emphasize that it is a personalized discipline. Personalization itself has different levels, that is to say, the United States has American philosophy, China has Chinese philosophy, and Chinese philosophy is not the same. There are also Confucius' philosophy and Laozi's philosophy. Therefore, each philosopher needs to form their own philosophical theory in order to form a group of philosophers and thus form a contemporary system of thought.
So, modern philosophers such as Mr. Feng Youlan, Mr. Liang Shuming, and Mr. Xiong Shili have made beneficial attempts in creating China's own philosophical theories through their theoretical creations. Unfortunately, this new philosophical tradition has not been able to continue after the 1950s.
When we study contemporary Chinese philosophy now, we need to emphasize that we must consciously continue the new tradition and create a philosophical theory that belongs to China itself. This is a very important task for us.
We are all old and our foundation is not good. You are young and promising now, with good conditions in all aspects, such as your proficiency in foreign languages and ancient Chinese literature since childhood. Your ideological perspective is better than ours. Our generation is a transition, and we hope to produce a new generation of thinkers and philosophers from among you young people.
Of course, we need to continue the tradition created by philosophy 49 years ago and carry on the new tradition, so that we can establish a new set of philosophical theories.
Firstly, let's talk about the life and writings of Mr. Liang Shuming.
Liang Shuming was born on October 18, 1893, on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, and passed away on June 23, 1988, at the age of 95.
Mr. Liang was born into a scholarly and aristocratic family. His ancestors were originally descendants of the royal family of the Yuan Dynasty, with the surname Ye Xiantie Mole. Later, he changed his surname to Liang because when the Yuan Dynasty fell, his ancestors had been living there for a long time in Ruyang, Henan. Ruyang was the former capital of the Wei state during the Warring States period, and therefore changed his surname to Liang.
So his 19th generation moved to Guilin, so Mr. Liang Shuming took Guilin as his ancestral home and said his hometown was Guilin, Guangxi. This is because his great grandfather, Liang Baoshu, was a jinshi in the 20th year of the Daoguang reign and later served as a county magistrate in two places. Therefore, he settled in Beijing with their family later. Mr. Liang was born in Beijing.
Mr. Liang's father, Liang Ji, had a great influence on him. This old gentleman has a very interesting phenomenon in him, on the one hand, he advocates Western learning in his thinking and pursues new ideas and knowledge; On the other hand, his moral character is completely traditional, probably related to the era at that time.
So, Mr. Liang welcomed Kang Youwei's radical reforms in his thinking, while also supporting the republic and opposing Yuan Shikai's claim to be emperor. Opposing Zhang Xun's restoration, he also ran some progressive newspapers and some friends ran the Jinghua Daily and Enlightenment Pictorial, advocating reform, promoting nationalism, disseminating scientific knowledge, and emphasizing the enlightenment of the people. All of these demonstrate that his ideas are very new.
He is quite complex, with traces of that era.
But in terms of being a person, or at the same time, in terms of personality, he is completely a Confucian.
He cultivates his personality according to the traditional Confucian moral requirements.
