There have been significant changes in our thinking in our later years, but we have done very little to address these changes at present. In fact, this is a very important issue that can be studied in the later years of Xiong Shili's thought. If allowed, it would be very interesting to do so. For example, now I want to talk about the development of traditional philosophy, the development of modern Confucian philosophy, and then Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan are not very good. Their problems are not of concern to people in mainland China, and it is still okay to directly follow them before liberation because they did not enter this era. If they were to directly follow their later years, Xiong Shili's later years would be great.
I hope that even undergraduate and graduate students can have this courage. In addition to the construction of the ideological system during the Republic of China and the new Confucianism in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the changes in these traditional Chinese ideas after the founding of the country, we may have new gains.
This is my brief introduction to Xiong Shili. My focus is to divide it into four paragraphs and then categorize his books into three types.
Everyone, look at its Yogacara system. The red ones are the works of its Yogacara system, the green ones are the works of its Waiwang system, and the blue ones are miscellaneous books. We won't talk about miscellaneous books.
It mainly consists of two parts, which are the eyes that inject thoughts into his life. If you like to read his biography, you will see many people writing about Xiong Shili's many anecdotes and interesting stories. You may think he is a bit silly, a bit tender, and a bit strange. In fact, this person is quite scheming, not at all what you think. Xiong Shili is a very scheming person. If he is stupid, he will pretend to be stupid.
Below, I will introduce Xiong Shili's four thoughts on his writings. Let's give him a compositional analysis. I understand Xiong Shili. If you can't read his first book all the way to the last book, I can do it. If you can't do it, you students don't need it. So, I will summarize Xiong Shili's thoughts and divide them into three perspectives.
If you study Xiong Shili and are only interested in the pure philosophical aspect, then look at its two parts, one called the theory of environment and the other called the theory of quantity.
Environmental theory is roughly equivalent to the ontological existence we are discussing today. All works related to Xiong Shili's Yogacara system can be placed under this category. The ontology of ontology that we are discussing in philosophy now has a lot of discussion. So, there is also a part called the theory of quantity, which I will talk about in the first part of today's class. It is equivalent to the epistemology we are talking about now, and he has not written a systematic work.
Since he wrote about Yogacara in the 23rd year, he has been striving to say, 'My book consists of two parts, one is the theory of environment and the other is the theory of quantity, but it was not written out until his death.'. His student Mou Zongsan proudly said, 'I have done what my teacher Xiong Shili couldn't do in my lifetime.'. So, Mou Zongsan said, I haven't lived in vain in this life. In 500 years, Zongsan will say it's me. But does Xiong Shili have any similar ideas about the theory of quantity? There are still some, one of which is visible, such as the "Commentary on the Great Compendium of Yin Ming". He used an introduction to a work on Buddhist Yin Ming studies to discuss his own theory of quantity, but this is not pure knowledge, mainly logic.
So, where is the substantive content?
In his other works, the first part of this lesson taught me about extracting the essence of his theory of quantity from all of his works, and why he couldn't write the kind of quantity theory he imagined, because the quantity theory he imagined was a modern philosophical understanding, completely different from the traditional philosophy of quantity theory. The subject was a philosophy of practice, and he couldn't possibly write it, or rather, he felt that what he wrote was not quite like it.
This is purely philosophical content. Xiong Shili discusses this topic. If you want to study philosophy, just look at this.
But Xiong Shili, I estimate he had it in the 1940s. He expanded his own knowledge into the "study of inner saints and outer kings", rather than discussing pure philosophy. Yogacara is a new Yogacara system that includes the aspect of environmental theory and quantitative theory. Therefore, the study of foreign kings was published in 1945 and the "Essentials of Reading Classics" was written in 1944.. He extended his academic life from pure philosophy to the path of inner sage and outer king. What is there that is not philosophy? He wants to talk about economics, politics, culture, education, science, and democracy. From the perspective of Yogacara, what is the reason for this?
I am now wondering why Xiong Shili did not become a pure philosopher and instead pursued a return to the Confucian philosophy of the inner sage and outer king. It can also be said that this is a result of the return to Confucianism, or it can be said that it is a result of this era. Because in 1944, why did he take the initiative to write this "Essentials of Reading the Classics"? One reason was the War of Resistance Against Japan. Since the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, did Xiong Shili seriously study the new Yogacara theory, and did he not have the opportunity to study the new philosophical system? He wanted to promote national quintessence and tradition. In that era, speaking pure philosophy was more distant from this era, anti Confucianism and anti Confucianism, which was even more out of sync with this era.
So, he wrote 'Essentials of Reading Classics', and I think it was due to his personal reasons as well as this era. Until today, our era may not have left room for pure philosophers to develop.
Xiong Shili is like this, after liberation, how many people can sit down? For example, if I am 30 years old, if I can live to be 80 years old and do nothing else for 50 years, I will do philosophy, be very diligent, and not be a fool. How can I write something? Why are there so many people? It's rare in the past few decades or over a hundred years, because the factors of this era have had a significant impact.
We are always surrounded by external things and rarely return to our own hearts to discuss pure philosophical issues. In his later years, Xiong Shili's academic passion further diverged. It was not only a pure philosophical new Yogacara system, but also not the study of Confucianism's inner sage and outer king. He wrote works on the original Confucianism and later on, such as Qian Kun Yan. So, what does such a work contain?
Including the inner sage and outer king, as well as the academic tradition, is academic history. He not only needs to be a philosopher, nor necessarily a Confucian, but also an academic thinker of the entire traditional Chinese academia. He is constantly expanding and magnifying.
This is the composition of the main content of Xiong Shili's academic thought. If you look at it, you can see that he is a constantly self amplifying source. From the beginning, he only cared about Yogacara and environmental theory, and thought about doing quantitative theory. In the end, he completely abandoned quantitative theory and went on to study the inner sage and outer king, and then continued to do research on the entire traditional Chinese academic field.
We sometimes feel regretful today, and I also feel regretful. If Xiong Shili didn't do the rest and continued to work on his new system of consciousness, he might have created a better and greater philosophical system that could rival Kant and Goethe.
Mr. Zhang Dainian once said that Xiong Shili's philosophy is vast and profound, comparable to Heidegger, but we still have some doubts in our hearts. Why? Because since his middle age, it has basically been an academic expansion, and it is not unwilling to be a pure philosopher. So, my main lesson for everyone is about the new Yogacara system, which is the first part. We will talk about philosophical thought, but we will not cover the inner, inner, and outer realms of the Way, let alone academic history.
So, the New Yogacara system, he has written many works, the most important of which are probably seven, from the Introduction to Yogacara in 2023 to the Introduction to Yogacara in 1926, the Yogacara in 1927, the classical Chinese text of the Introduction to New Yogacara in 1932, the language text in 1944, the censored version in 1953, and the "Theory of Style and Use" and "Chapter on Mingxin" in 1958. This is a continuous improvement of his works.
He wrote the same book seven times, which is called striving for excellence. A philosophical system is not that easy. This is the topic we discussed in class, and I told him about it. However, when summarizing these seven works, what is the relatively fixed structure in the end?
Just six pieces, Mingzong, Yogacara, Transformation, Function, Creation, Mingxin.
Mingzong proclaimed the purpose of his philosophy, while Yogacara talked about how he emerged from the old Yogacara school, transforming, functioning, forming things, and understanding the mind as his new system. The main content of my following three lectures is divided into these six parts. So, if you look at him and that old Yogacara school, what 'Cheng Yogacara Theory' talks about is completely different from it.
The Treatise on Yogacara starts from Yogacara and discusses the realization and practice of the entire construction of consciousness, which is a system of Buddhist philosophy. That is to say, from breaking down the principle of 'I enforce the law' to 'recognizing all laws as knowledge', and then discussing how to cultivate and transform knowledge into wisdom.
Xiong Shili's new Yogacara is completely different from it. Starting from the transformation, it is a set of metaphysics and a traditional philosophy. So, the reason for the transformation is the previous emphasis on Yogacara, so the first part is about Yogacara, and the second part is about Yogacara being the most important. The third part is to introduce the new epistemology of the system itself.
Let me give you a brief introduction to the application of Xiong Shili's ideas and our research on Xiong Shili's thoughts.
Buddhist philosophy, Confucian philosophy, Western philosophy. You see Xiong Shili, you don't understand Buddhism, Buddhism can also be said. But basically, you are just a student, just like when you come with me to learn Xiong Shili's philosophical ideas, you can only be a student if you don't even read the New Consciousness Theory from me. Sometimes when you say I want to give some opinions, it's also an unfounded statement. If you haven't read the New Yogacara and come to discuss with me, then you can only listen to what I say.
So, I hope that if you study modern and contemporary Chinese philosophy, you will have some understanding of traditional philosophy, especially Yogacara. Xiong Shili's Yogacara has put in decades of effort, including Mahayana Buddhism and primitive Buddhism. If you don't understand these things, you won't be able to explain Xiong Shili. In Confucian philosophy, it was actually deeply influenced by the Song and Ming Daoism, from King Lu Cheng Zhu to Wang Fuzhi. He claimed that it was the authentic Confucianism and the authentic Yi studies, but in fact, Confucius and Yi studies were traced back by him.
