Chang Chih-tung Thought, With The Late Qing Cultural Conservatism

Both cultural conservationist from the east and the west claimed to search for constructive ideology resources from their traditions. The cultural conservatism in western countries is mainly about the discussion on the traditional morality caused by the theories on human alienation in the process of modernization, whereas that in China should deal with the conflicts between the traditional Confucian culture and the modern western culture. So "Westernized Chinese style" became the central tenet of this ideological trend.With profound history,the traditional Chinese culture has a strong sense of humanism. The cultural conservatism had began since the western powers invaded China with their battle ship and cannons as well as their culture and it was deepened and strengthened by the ever increasing national crisis. The failure of the 1894 War and the westernization movement began the disequilibrium in the balance between the oriental and occidental culture. The traditional scholars could not find powerful ideological resources from the traditional Confucian culture to cope with the eastward spread of western culture and the vicissitude of times, while Confucianism could not continue developing itself according to its ethical politics. At this moment, Zhang Zhi-dong who tried to retain their dignity of Confucian orthodoxy brought about the idea of "Westernized Chinese style", which emphasized that we should base on our national culture and absorb alimentation and distillate of occidental culture. He wanted to maintain the traditional social order by the universal values in Confucianism. He played a fundamental role in the formation of cultural conservatism in China and became the representative personage of the upsurge of cultural conservatism in the late Qing dynasty.As an official and scholar, he showed a typical Confucian characteristic in his work and tried to find some explanation in Confucian for his principle of being official. At the same time, as an advocate of Confucianism, he also joined the trend of the eastward spread of western culture and acquired much western ideas, thus formed his own style of combining the oriental and occidental culture. He advocated the ancient classics and resisted the modern script classical learning which was regarded as its criterion and core by scholars like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao etc. However, his consistent style and the reinterpretation of the Confucianism provided ideological motivation for acquiring of western ideas. The traditional practical thought entails the inherent logic of safeguarding the Confucian orthodoxy. Zhang's acquiring of western ideas was confined by some moral requirements of the Confucianism in the period of social transformation. So he can only put forward the concept of Westernized Chinese style"to adjust the Confucianism to cope with the crisis face by traditional culture. The concept advocates absorption of western civilization on the basis of ensuring the dominant position of the traditional culture in order to realize the political idea of "protect the country, protect the nation and protect Confucianism", which is a close integration of Confucianism and the political system.After the systematic interpretation of the concept of "Westernized Chinese style" by Zhang during the Wu Xu period (1895-1898), the concept shifted its emphasis from the absorption of western knowledge to the safeguarding of the feudal system, and it gradually gained the recognition of the court of the Qing dynasty and became the official sense. It also became the core idea of the late Qing dynasty cultural conservatism and Zhang thus held a fundamental position in this stream of thought. Cultural conservationists attach importance to the moral order of the society as well as the social and political stability, and the tradition of moral legalization in Confucianism justified their safeguarding of the thought of "Rule of Rite". Thus Zhang put the thought into political practice and made the thought as the guiding thought in the transformation of legal system, the westernization movement, the reform of imperial examination system and the constitutionalism etc in the late Qing dynasty, which had a profound influence on the development of the society in China in the late Qing dynasty. The ups and downs and Zhang also illustrated the tension and inertia of the traditional Confucianism in the process of modernization of China.The social reform needs not only the guidance of advanced thoughts but also the balance of the normal culture. However, Zhang as well as other cultural conservationists in China haven't gained understanding and recognition of the society as their counterpart in western countries has. As the founder of the trend of cultural conservatism in late Qing dynasty, Zhang neglected the epoch nature of national culture during his advocating of cultural nationality. He tried maintaining the social order and gradually achieving the modernization of China, but he could not find reliable ideological resources in traditional Confucianism to adapt to the modernization of China. He hasn't found the correct way to modernization for China. He also faced a lot of troubles and things always went contrary to his wishes. The social and historical environment in China was much more complicated than that in western countries, because China was lack of the ideological resources like civil society, values of humanism etc that western counties have. The Confucianism does include any element of modernization in. If we want to get out of the predicament to develop our country, we need to resort to innovation. After all, the essence of conservatism does not lie in whether we conserve or not but what to conserve. We can regard the cultural conservatism as a kind of psychological tendency, so we need to find a reasonable tension between tradition and modernity for a bright future for the cultural conservatism in China.