A Study On Xie Wuliang's Thought On Ethics

Xie Wuliang is one of the pioneers of the discipline of History of Chinese Philosophy and that of Chinese Ethics. His research into and reinterpretation of traditional Chinese philosophy and ethics on the basis of fusing Chinese learning and Western learning, not only proved the legitimacy and subjectivity of Chinese philosophy, but also promoted the modernization and reinvigoration of it, and was conducive to the establishment of the discipline of Chinese Ethics and the remaking of national character and civil morals of China. This thesis attempts to understand the real Wuliang via close reading of his papers and monographs, to grasp the inner logic and the main features of his thoughts on philosophy and ethics. By looking through the social and personal backgrounds of Xie's life and works, it compares the similarities and differences between him and his contemporaries, so as to re-evaluate the achievements, weaknesses and values of Xie's thoughts.Chapter one is about the backgrounds of Xie's life and works. It is argued that the socio-bistorical context of Xie's time gave him the motivation to develop his thoughts on ethics. During the transitional period of Late Qing and the early years of the Republic of China (ROC), the ethic and moral system attached to the traditional social system was shattered when the latter dismantled. Under the impact of foreign culture, the Chinese learning began to transform and modernize itself. When the imperial examinations was replaced by the modern educational system, the study of classics was disintegrated and rearranged into uprising disciplines like philosophy, literary studies, historical studies, and ethics. This was the time when Xie's ideas began to take shape and mature. His personal backgrounds and aspiration motivated him to take part in this great transformation and play an important role in it. Xie always kept pace with the times by taking part in social movement, saving the nation through academic studies and educating the young people. He was well trained in classical studies, western learning and sinology by bis brief but important experience at Nan Yang Public School and a trip to Japan. He was a good student of two great east Zhejiang scholars Tang Shouqian and Cai Yuanpei, and a good self-educator as well. His profound knowledge in Chinese classics and Western learning laid a very good foundation for his studies on Chinese and Western ethics and the theory building of Chinese ethics.Chapter two is a summary on Xie's achievements in the building of theoretical system of Chinese ethics with some comments. During the transition period at the turn of the 20th century, many Chinese scholars just couldn't settle down to make theoretical studies on ethics, which makes Xie's works in the field outstanding and extremely important. He had made investigations into the definition, function, research object and research methodology of Chinese ethics and put forward two theoretical systems, one referred to as Two-Part-Eight-Section system in this thesis and the other as Three-in-One system. Each of them is characterized by different conceptual systems, macro-structures and guiding principles. The Two-Part-Eight-Section system uses the traditional Chinese terminology on ethics with new connotations. Such mode, i.e., interpreting Chinese philosophy with Chinese discourse is an expansion from the traditional paradigm of study on classics. It is based on the integration of Chinese learning and Western learning, which greatly enriched and expanded the traditional concept of ethics. The Three-in-One system, a symbol of the paradigm shift from classical study and idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming Dynasties, is made up of treatise on good and evil, on deontology and on virtue, a typical structure of the Western ethics. All these prove that Xie was trying to transplant the Western ethics to the research and interpretation of traditional Chinese ethics one the one hand, and to build a discipline of Chinese ethics with Chinese discourse at the core, but not without the modern concepts borrowed from the West. Both of the two systems make good use of some basic concepts from Western ethics and are embodiments of Xie's cultural stance.Chapter three summarizes the contributions made by Xie'in the modernization and creative transformation of traditional ethics. Different from the extreme liberalists and conservatists, Xie tried to find a new way to settle the arguments on the conflicts of Western or Chinese, traditional or modern cultures by putting together all these elements and without sacrificing the strength and beauty of domestic culture. This new eclectic approach, he believed, would open up a new prospect in Chinese scholarship. Xie also reminded the Chinese scholars to act with caution when investigating and innovating the traditional ethics in the transitional times. In other words, the cultural heritage should be cherished and exalted rather than thrown away with the bath water. When reconstructing the morals of the Chinese nation, the traditional virtues should not be replaced completely by the Western ones, nor should the latter be rejected completely. Xie carried out a renaissance of traditional learning with Confucian thoughts at the center and Buddhist, Taoist and Legalist school of thoughts all played their unique roles. He matched the Western concepts like ethic, duty with Chinese terms like li and fen. Xie also attached importance to Taoist ideas on self-cultivation and moral outlook on life, Legalist ideas on historical evolution and national ethics, and Buddhist thoughts on good, evil, discipline and retribution. All these efforts were made with an aim to reconstruct the national ethics of the Chinese. They are of academic significace and practical values as well.Chapter four is a discussion on Xie's efforts in the reconstruction of civil ethics of the Chinese people. Xie carried out the rebuilding of national character by making good use of both Chinese and Western resources. As for the personal virtue, he valued self-cultivation, both body and soul. And he argued that man should set goals for themselves and translate knowledge into action. As for family ethics, he stressed the importance of family stability and happiness to the whole society and state. He reinterpreted the relations between parents and children, between brothers and sisters, between husband and wife, and between host/hostess and servants. He assured the good and useful elements in traditional family and marital ethics and reminded Chinese people about the defects of Western social customs, so as to strike a balance between the traditional and the modern. As for social ethics, Xie valued public and professional ethics. He argued that the great harmonious society is the supreme state of social ethics, that social ethics begins from the relations to teacher and fellow classmates, and that unselfishness and love are the normal and proper practice in social interactions. He established the basic items of modern social ethics, such us observing etiquettes, obeying order, safeguarding justice, protecting public assets, showing charity, respecting the elderly, protecting the children, reciprocating, respecting other's life, property and reputation. He gave special attention to the virtue of women. To meet the new needs of modern society which has more professions than the traditional society that had only four occupations, namely, scholar, farmer, artisan and merchants, Xie advocated the professional equality and the ethics of choosing, changing and hoping a job, which gave his ideas a modern feature. As for the national ethics, Xie stressed on the importance of the sense of nationhood. To him, a nation is an organic whole made up by individuals and families. The state has to safeguard people's life and property and resist foreign aggressions. While the citizens should abide by the law, perform military services, pay taxes, and be educated. As for the ecological ethics, Xie inherited the ideas of previous Confucian and Taoist philosophers that man and nature are unified and that man has a duty to all things on earth.Chapter five discusses the historical contribution and modern values of Xie's thoughts on ethics. Comparative study is a major feature of Xie's way of thinking in ethics, which is closely related to his special academic backgrounds and sensitivity on the one hand, and to the evolution of academic studies in Late Qing and Early ROC period. By comparing the Chinese and Western philosophy and ethics, Xie found the similarities and differences between them. And most important of all, he discovered the uniqueness of Chinese ethics, which are family-centeredness, the doctrine of the mean, and unity of man and nature. The discovery of the generality embodies his universalism; and uniqueness, particularism and cultural conservatism. His works on those two aspects helped to resist the cultural and historical nihilism that plagued Chinese society at the time and clear the doubts on the legitimacy of Chinese philosophy and ethics both home and abroad. This chapter also confirms the epoch-making influence of Xie's works, such as History of Chinese Philosophy, and The Essence of Ethics, on the rewriting of history of Chinese philosophy later on and on the establishment of Chinese ethics as a new discipline. There are both paradigm shift and paradigm expansion in Xie's thoughts on ethics. However, Xie tried really hard to reach beyond the paradigms, which gave his thoughts a prominent eclectic feature. Xie's ethics is built on the basis of contrastive studies with clear practical aims and problem awareness. In the early stage of cultural contacts between different civilizations, or in the age of multi- and inter-disciplinary studies, such kind of eclecticism based on contrastive analysis may play a very unique role in academic studies. It is not only an important tool to build new systems of philosophy and ethics, but also a theoretical basis for the rewriting of history of philosophy and history of ethics. Analytical eclecticism does not intend to build a new paradigm that places itself over all other paradigms, but it inevitably will, which give rise to a paradox. Such paradox gave Xie's seminal works weakness, as well as strength. In a word, Xie's thought is a miniature of the transition from the traditional Chinese learning to the modern.