On Wu Mi's Cultural Thoughts And Practice Of Blending The West And The East

Wu Mi, as the outstanding representative of the Culture Review School, is the strongest opposition that the New Culture Movement has ever encountered. Wu has responded and refuted the "New Culture" blue print and its propositions such as "literature revolution" the Movement has put forward. In the meantime, he proposes his own culture-constructing viewpoint of "blending the west and the east", which he maintains consistently in his philosophy of culture, literature and education. This thought gradually develops into his unique culture idea.Probing into the dividing differences between Wu Mi and the New Culture School, we can easily find that they are caused by the two parties' different understandings of culture as well as cultural tradition. In Wu's perspective, culture is "the essence of all the ideas and discourses past and present". Depositing in thousands of years, it contains certain permanent ideology and intrinsic values, such as religion and morality etc. Therefore, culture should not be discarded, nor is it appropriate to assess its value in terms of "old" or "new." Wu's cultural thought of "blending the west and east" covers all the excellent cultural heritage of the mankind, namely, the Hellenism and Christianity in the west, and the Confucianism in the east. However, the New Culture School only views culture as the life style of a nationality. Understandably they regard culture more as social customs and habits, which, in Wu's eyes, are but the most trivial aspect of culture and often change with time.Meanwhile, in the comparison and contrast of the western and eastern culture, Wu sees the common humanistic spirit running through both sides, which he phrases as man's self-improvement. Morality is the core of Wu's cultural thoughts. However, in the same comparison and contrast, the New Culture School sees more differences than similarities. What they see is "Democracy" and "Science", which was non-existent in China. This difference has led both parties onto different roads. Wu has chosen to assimilate and blend the western and the eastern cultures, whereas the New Culture School has chosen to deny the "outdated" eastern culture and to import the "new" culture from the west. Another difference between Wu and the New Culture School lies in their attitudes towards Confucianism. In Wu's eyes, "Kindness" is the core concept of Confucianism, while according to the New Culture School;Confucianism is nothing but a doctrine that suffocates humanity. Due to the striking difference, they have developed an antagonism between inheriting and rejecting Confucianism.The culture thought of "blending the west and the east" has consistently run through Wu Mi's various academic activities. In literature, he suggests that creativity starts from imitation and assimilation; in education, he emphasizes the standard of elegance and versatility. By doing literature comparison, he has successfully exemplified the greatness of The Dream of the Red Chamber as the representative of Chinese traditional culture. More impressively, with his own life as the footnote, he has fully illustrated his cultural ideal and cultural missions.This dissertation develops own arguments regarding Wu's culture thought of "blending the west and the east" as the main thread. The first part discusses the differences between Wu and the New Culture School and expounds Wu's cultural thought of "blending the west and the east". The second part illustrates the realistic background and theoretical resources that have helped nurturing this thought. The third part deals with how Wu practices his cultural thought in the domain of literature and education. The fourth part unfolds Wu's hard life-long struggle to defend his cultural ideal.It is not difficult to discover that Wu Mi's cultural thought of "blending the west and the east" is both inclusive and plural. Even today it has its relevance. It is the ideal attitude towards different nationalities and cultural collisions, and it is also the prerequisite of maintaining a healthy existing circle in the world. Naturall...