Institution Transformation And Human Transformation

Since the nineteen century, social transformation had been the main theme of Chinese history and the most important political matter in modern China. The so-called"social transformation"which means in language context of modern China a historical process that people consciously brook away from the shackle of feudalism and got into the state of hyper-feudalism. The Chinese modern era was a period in which dynasty govern crisis, feudal society crisis and nation crisis twisted and impacted each other. On the one hand, the feudal society crisis induced the nation crisis and dynasty govern crisis, so it was the major cause of social transformation. On the other hand, nation crisis stimulated and deepened feudal society crisis thereafter, it was the outer cause and stimulated factor of social transformation. Moreover, the main content of social transformation was transformation of human and institution innovation, the near aim of social transformation was save China from extinction, property and independence, realizing the great revitalization of Chinese nation, the ultimate aim of social transformation was realizing the ideal Great Harmony Society.Since the late nineteen century , Chinese society slumped into deep meaning and order crisis .Under this social and historical context , firstly took western bourgeois class excellent culture which represented by Russell ,Chinese excellent traditional culture which represented by Confucius and Marxism which represented by Lenin as theory source , then based on the considerable inheritance of theory of Chinese social transformation since the nineteen century ,Zhang Shenfu brought forward his unique social transformation idea. In his opinion, the social transformation of China should started from two ways at the same time , one is human transformation ,the other is institution transformation , only the two sides cooperate together ,oppose each other but also complement each other , Dialectical unity and reach organic harmony and balance can social transformation has possibility to succeed .Truth and reason are prerequisites of China and the philosophy foundation of social transformation of China. Compared with reason, truth seems held more basic meaning, it was the fundamental root which will cure various political problems of modern China. The meaning of so-called"truth"including following three fields: the first is pursue truth impersonally which equal to speaking truth; the second is make practice which equal to doing truth; the third is to relate theory with practice which equal to emphasize real learning. All in all, no matter speaking or acting, the principle of truth should be applied. So, Zhang shenfu recommended philosophy of"truth"and practiced it by advocating his two philosophy ideas of"grand objectivism"and"concrete relativism"."Grand objectivism"means start from object and then extend the scope of object then contain subject and finally reach the unification of object and subject."Concrete relativism"means that the truth is concrete and is dialectic unification of absoluteness and relative. Every judgment should be modified according to the change of time, place and condition. This idea accords with Marxism's materialistic dialectic.When embodied in the field of concrete policy, the principle of truth will appear as form of"Chinazation"and"specification". If want to be effective, all foreign social transformation theories must combine Chinese historical tradition and social reality, adopt Chinese national form and apply theories into the practice of social transformation of China .At the same time, to guide practice by theory and develop theory during the practice .Only in this way can Chinese social transformation go right way and has possibility to succeed. Reason is the spirit of time ,the need of society , the basement of all progresses and the fundamental power of social development . The basic reason why anti-rationalism became so overwhelming since the nineteen century was that the mistake of former concept of reason. Under the foundation of considerable inheritance of former concept of reason ,Zhang shenfu put forward his own theory of reason. He thought that reason is equal to sense, is giving explanation and according to sense. Reason own three specific characters: truth, dispartment and entireness. The truth means materialism and is the base of reason; dispartment means dialectics and is the origin of reason; entireness means whole and is the aptitude of reason. ,Zhang shenfu's theory of reason tried to realize unification of reason and unreason , reason and virtue .It based on practice , took analysis as research method , pursed synthesis as end and confirmed subjectivity and initiative of human and practice during the process of reason cognition so we can say Zhang shefu's theory of reason is one kind of dialectical rational theory .If embodied in academic and political field, the forms of truth and reason are science and democracy. Generally speaking, democracy is the contradictory of absolutism and science is the contradictory of obscurantism. The aim of social transformation of modern China is to transform public thoughts through science and transform political institution through democracy. While in fact science is not merely used for transforming public thoughts and the same is true for democracy. Science and democracy are both mental weapons for human transformation and institution transformation。Zhang shenfu's science thoughts bore obvious scientific aptitude, he believed that by exercising science and scientific methods, human can not only understand nature, society and human self, but also can transform nature, society and human self .He spared no effort to publicize scientology and proposed science sprit. However, he was not an absolute scientism supporter; he denied scientism and opposed technique adoration. He pursed the unification of humanity and science, truth and goodness and tried his best to transcend scientism. So we can conclude that Zhang shenfu was an introspective or surpassable scientism supporter. Zhang shenfu's apprehension to democracy is an omnidirectional, multi-angel, comprehensive apprehension .In his opinion, democracy is one of the grandest dreams of human being and it includes human's all-round development and liberty, society's all-round development and harmony. The meaning of democracy is not merely commonsense liberty and equality , sovereignty by people , democratic institution and so on, it has in fact become one principle ,spirit and dream on organizing social life of all human being.Enlightenment and revolution are two concrete methods of social transformation. On the matter of human transformation, Zhang shenfu advocated new enlightenment. He was a veteran of May 4th enlightenment and took active part in 1930's new enlightenment .He thought new enlightenment is the inevitable result of social and historical development and the reflection of world trend to the China . The new characters which distinguished new enlightenment embody the following fields: firstly, it sublate the May 4th enlightenment; secondly, as for tradition, it held attitude of considerable inheritance; thirdly, it was a movement in which reason combining sensibility ;fourthly, it was some kind of nationalism or patriotism ;fifthly, it was collectivistic. On the matter of institution transformation, Zhang shenfu advocated"one revolution theory". He believed that if people want to solve all problems of China once and for all, then all what they needed was just one revolution. The revolution was national revolution and this revolution was both political revolution and social revolution. The object of revolution is unreasonable social, political, economic institution and not human. The main force of revolution is ordinary people. The ultimate ideal Great Harmony Society will be realized through revolution.The ultimate aim of social transformation is to realize the ideal Great Harmony Society. Zhang shenfu successively brought forward two target modes of social transformation, one is communism Great Harmony, the other is Great Harmony. The difference between two modes is not the basic form, but the way and method to realize these two modes. Although Zhang shenfu failed to give concrete description of future Great Harmony Society, he outlined main characters of Great Harmony Society .Zhang shenfu's Great Harmony Society is determined to be an Utopia .he failed to find a way to realize Great Harmony Society, he opposed class struggle, violence revolution and proletariat dictatorship so it is so hard for him to turn the idea of Great Harmony Society from the Utopian to be scientific.One of the most important causes for frequent failures of social transformation movement in modern China is that two sides (human transformation and institution transformation) can not make harmonious balance and cooperate effectively, especially in such a historical context that nation crisis become more serious, theory of institution transformation always overpower theory of human transformation and leave it fewer space to grow. Zhang shenfu's theory of social transformation avoid this defect consciously ,although his theory seems not so influential upon modern Chinese history ,undoubtedly his penetrating judgment will still provide significant reference for current social transformation .