The Dissemination Of John Stuart Mill’s Theory In Modern China

John Stuart Mill is a famous ideologist and utilitarian philosopher in the 19 th century.He was educated by his father James Mill and grew up in the environment of liberalism and utilitarianism.Later,he was deeply influenced by the thoughts of Romanticism and Saint-Simonianism,and the combination of various thoughts made Mill’s thoughts show the characteristics of "compromise and reconciliation".The culture of a certain period is the reflection of the politics and economy of that period.According to this view,the change of Mill’s thought during his lifetime reflects the great ideological change of the British society in the 19 th century.Various assumptions put forward in his theory are aimed at a series of problems in the British politics and economy in the 19 th century,and his theory provides some new ideas for solving these problems.Therefore,it had an important influence on the development of the whole European intellectual history.At the end of the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century,with the wave of Western Learning Spreading to the East,Mill and his theories were introduced to China.In terms of the communication process,Mill’s theory spread in a very wide time span,from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of the People’s Republic of China almost never stopped thinking and re-elaboration of his theory,his theory went through three stages of development in modern China.In the first stage,Yan Fu and Ma Junwu established a preliminary understanding of Mill’s freedom theory,logic thought and feminist theory.The second stage was from the early years of the Republic of China to the War of Resistance,during which not only continued to attach importance to Mill’s political theory and feminist thought,but also in the1930 s,scholars paid special attention to Mill’s economic thought.The third stage is after the end of the War of Resistance,the situation is relatively stable,and the study of Mill’s economic thought,personal experience,freedom theory also starts again.Along with the three stages of development,the disseminator of Mill’s theory experienced the transformation of students studying in Japan,the Local scholars and students studying in Japan jointly promote,University economics professor.Due to the imperfection of modern Chinese ideological and theoretical system,when it comes to the two issues of "Mill’s position in the classical political and economic school" and "Mill’s understanding of socialism" in the process of communication,scholars mostly follow the views of western scholars and fail to form their own understanding.Meanwhile,they are affected by translation techniques and traditional culture.The dissemination of Mill’s theory has always shown the characteristics of "applying Western learning to China and integrating Western learning with Chinese culture as the main body".In terms of the effect of communication,the theoretical value of Mill’s theory is greater than the practical value in modern China.The image of Mill in the eyes of scholars and the influence of Mill’s theory on scholars constitute two important dimensions of exploring the influence of Mill,and Chinese scholars’ understanding and acceptance of Mill’s theory are the main perspectives of analyzing these dimensions.The image of Mill in modern China can be divided into four dimensions: as a political thinker,as a feminist,as an economist,and as an uneducated scholar.According to Meng Hua’s point,image is a kind of language that speaks "self".Specifically in modern China,behind Mill’s multiple images are various social problems faced by modern China.The fundamental purpose of promoting Mill’s image is to solve social problems and meet social demands.From this view,the formation of the image of political thinkers is because Mill’s theory can provide reference for the construction of democratic system in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.Also,there are some scholars use Mill’s position in the western political circle to create publicity for their own views.The appearance of the image of the "great man of the feminist revolution" was to fight for the opportunity to enshrine women’s suffrage in the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China and the Constitution reenacted in 1923.The identity of "modern economic integrators" is inextricably linked to the need to turn around the chaotic and decayed economy of the 1930s;The publicity of the image of "uneducated scholar" is also a means to encourage the young students in the war to learn by themselves.Thus,it can be seen that Mill’s image has a pragmatic nature.However,this pragmatic tendency also leads scholars to ignore the connection between Mill’s works and fail to understand the influence of Western philosophical tradition on Mill’s thought,which affects the accuracy and integrity of scholars’ understanding of Mill’s theory and determines that it is difficult for Chinese people to have a comprehensive understanding and in-depth study of Mill and his works.The knowledge structure of modern Chinese scholars is mostly the product of the collision between China and the West,so the essence of the analysis of the influence of Mill’s theory is to analyze the factors in the thought system of scholars and Mill’s views,in order to see the scholars’ acceptance of Mill’s thought,the discussion of this issue can be divided into the influence on translators and the influence on readers.The process of translation is not only a process of understanding Mill’s theory but also a process of purposeful selection of Mill’s thought.Most translators unconsciously integrate their own thoughts with Mill’s theory in the process of translation,and take it as a guide for their future life and political pursuits,such as Yan Fu,Zhang Junmai and Ma Junwu.However,most readers accept the theory after the selection of translators,and only a few scholars such as Hu Shi have the conditions to read the original English version.However,Mill’s advocation of individual freedom and yearning for representative government still exerted a profound influence on the thought and practice of modern Chinese scholars through the translation.As a famous scholar in both the East and the West,it is inevitable to involve in the comparison of the influence of Mill’s theory in the East and the West.Through comparison,it is not difficult to find that Mill’s theory,which is regarded as a classic in the Western academic circle,has a mediocre response in China and has not become the mainstream of the ideological circle.The reason lies in the obvious difference between "Sinicized" Mill’s thought and Mill’s theory in the Western context.It is difficult for the Mill’s theory introduced under the influence of pragmatism to form a clear system.The influence of the First World War and the economic crisis in the 1930 s changed Chinese people’s evaluation of the West,and scholars made rational reflections on Chinese and Western culture.At the same time,the concept of freedom in the traditional culture is incompatible with the theory of individual freedom emphasized by Mill,which hinders the spread of Mill’s thought.Moreover,under the situation of internal and external troubles,the social appeal of national salvation is far greater than the pursuit of individual freedom,so scholars urgently need a complete ideological system to realize a comprehensive reform.Mill’s thought only provides an expectation of possibility rather than a complete ideological system that interprets and transforms the world,so it is difficult to become the mainstream of thought eventually.