On Chen Li-Fu's Thoughts Of Science And Technology

Chen Li-fu, born in Wuxing, Zhejiang province, was a famous politician during the period of the Republic of China. He was also a rare theorist, scholar and intellectual in senior Kuomintang, which was often neglected by the people from Chinese mainland. According to the incomplete statistics, he wrote more than five million words all his life, among which there were about 30 writings and Wei Sheng Lun, The Confucian Way, Ren Li Xue, Hong Yi Zhai's Collection and The Mirror of Success and Failure were considered as his master works. His writings, which had considerable influence home and aboard, were reprinted many times and translated into several languages, for example, English, Japanese, Korean and so on. Furthermore, there were over 200 academic papers about science, medicine and education well known in the world. Besides, the books he edited and translated almost reached more than seventy, in which Science and Culture in China written by Joseph Needham and translated by Chen Li-fu had the greatest impact. Because of his long-term political career high ranking, his uneven and rich experience and his special perspective, a rich and unique academic thought of himself was formed, which had great insights on understanding our traditional culture and the global situation. This paper focuses on Chen Li-fu's thoughts of science and technology and scientific education.With respect to Chen Li-fu's thought of science and technology, he set himself against considering western science criteria as our own and gave the serious criticisms to the perspective that Chinese People were lack of science, which he argued that was the expression of losing national confidence since modern times,. He believed that Chinese People not only had science and technology, but broad and profound, and used to have a great contribution to the human civilization, only'without a modern form'. Meanwhile, he argued that the rapid development of modern science and technology became an accomplice, helping the western developed countries advocate'hegemony'rather than 'benevolent'and then threaten the whole human peace. The rapid development of modern science and technology was the main cause of the westerners'vacuous sprits and lead to the prevalent hedonism and further the decay of social ethics. And the western countries had fallen into the quagmire of scientific and technological determinism. Considering the fact that western civilization brought the growing crisis to the whole human society, he concluded through long-term observations, serious thinking and in-depth studies that Chinese traditional culture was an effective prescription to save the world.Chen Li-fu had special insights in the field of medicine, for example, philosophy of medicine, medical culture and medical management and so on. During the debate between Chinese traditional and western medicine in the last thirties of twentieth century, Chen Li-fu, who was the Central Committee Secretary-General of Kuomintang at that time, began to joint Kuomintang officials to against the abolition of Chinese traditional medicine and continued supporting the Chinese traditional medicine from then. Since returning to Taiwan in 1960s, he successively served as the chairman of China Medical College in Taiwan, chairman of Chinese medicine Research and Development Foundation, chairman of Li-fu Medical Research Foundation, director of Chinese Medical Commission of Ancient Records Reorganization in Taiwan and chairman of Chinese-western United Medical Commission in Taiwan. Due to his long-term support and contribution to the Chinese traditional medicine in Taiwan, he deserved his reputation of'Savior of Chinese traditional medicine'. In his view, Chinese traditional medicine was an important part of Chinese culture and had an effective, systematic and scientific system. Meanwhile, he did a powerful argument about his view through the theoretical basis of Chinese medicine, physiological pathology, methods of diagnosis and treatment, the development of Chinese medicine and its managerial history and other aspects. He clearly pointed out that the reason why Chinese traditional medical pharmaceutical industry suffered a lot in modern times was that Chinese people lost their national confidence after lots of heavy blow and fell into the trap of cultural invasion by western countries. He believed that Chinese and western medicine, both of which were based on saving people's lives, certainly could have their parallel way and not necessary to the contrary. He also argued that Chinese traditional medicine, as a scientific system itself, had its own unique way of thinking and should not give way to the so-called western science criteria. He clearly pointed out that'with the improvement to exist'and'with the curative effect not to be opposed'and claimed many times that if we abolished Chinese traditional medicine; it would be a loss for both Chinese people and the whole human being. On the way to the future of Chinese traditional medicine pharmaceutical industry, he proposed clearly that'the modernization of Chinese traditional medicine'and'the integration of Chinese and western medicine'In the field of scientific education (generally speaking), Chen Li-fu served as the Ministry of Education for seven years in the eight-year Anti-Japanese War, during which he established the educational policy of'normal education even in the war time', getting through all kinds of pressures and difficulties in human, material and financial recourses. Also, he put forward some education principles, for example,'family education should be closely linked with school education','the average development in all areas','reach a universal education according to the original deadline'and so on. In addition, he proposed 'nine principles','seventeen key points'and other specific policies in the educational cause. Furthermore, he took charge of the most difficult high colleges moving inland and created the credit payment system, which benefited many students. In order to strengthen the international academic exchanges, he set up the scholarships at fourteen universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Michigan, Columbia and Calcutta University in India etc. to encourage western young people to do more research about China, which expanded the international influence of China. Advantages of modern science and technology could be made full use of in actual work of scientific education and science communication to promote the science popularization and illiteracy eradication, which greatly provided the manpower support and continued Chinese culture and education business. At the same time, his own farseeing thought of scientific education was formed, which stressed that scientific education greatly served for the war and establishing the new country, paid more attention to the systematization and institutionalization of scientific education, emphasized fostering senior intellectuals and their international communications, thought highly of using science and technology to serve the education business. Although Chen Li-fu's purpose of the scientific education was suspected of party education, we had to recognize that his hard work and tireless efforts when he was the Minister of Education were commendable. Therefore, we can't write off his farseeing thought of scientific education and his contribution to Chinese education business and the inheritance of Chinese civilization.Deeply rooted in Chinese traditional culture, Chen Li-fu's thought of science and technology which based on Wei Sheng Lun and Ren Li Xue etc. as philosophical foundation, focused on deeply analysing and criticizing western modern civilization of science and technology in the form of long term theory seminar of Chinese traditional medicine and medical practice, had a quite widespread influence, especially in Taiwan. Under the guidance of his thought of science and technology, Chen Li-fu did a lot of useful work fearlessly for Chinese traditional medicine in Taiwan and deserved his reputation of 'Savior of Chinese traditional medicine', from which we could see the significant social influence of his thought of science and technology.Research on Chen Li-fu's thought of science and technology is of great significance in theory and practice. On the one hand, Chen Li-fu not only had a comprehensive knowledge of both western and Chinese traditional culture, but also was a famous politician during the period of the Republic of China and an important theorist in senior Kuomintang, which made him one of the most important figures in the research of history of Republic of China. On the other hand, as a typical cultural conservative, Chen Li-fu's unique way of thinking and conclusions had special implications on many problems confronted with on the way of current rejuvenation of China. For example, he suggested again and again that we recover our national confidence lost since modern times, which was important for us to regain our own value judgment about modernization and internationalization of China today, also rethink and revaluate out internal history and cultural problems such as the Opium War and the May 4th Movement and so on. Meanwhile, the research on the significant figure like Chen Li-fu during the period of Public of China is both beneficial to strength the communications and mutual trusts between Kuomintang and the Communist Party and realize our unification earlier.