A Study On Tang Yijie's Philosophy

Tang Yijie(1927-2014),a well-known scholar in modern China,philosophical history researcher and an important leader in the revival of Chinese traditional culture,contributed greatly to the current transformation and development of Chinese philosophy and culture.The path of his philosophy research is not so smooth,he has experienced a difficult transition from a "philosophy researcher" to a true "philosophical question thinker".Tang not only has profound and unique research on Chinese philosophy,but also knew Western philosophy and Marxist philosophy well.As one of the earliest scholars in China that exchanged views with his Western counterparts since the reform and opening up,he is well aware of the necessity of combining cultural nationalism and cosmopolitanism.As a result,he devoted himself to the exchange of ideas on philosophy and culture between China and the Western.Tang had a good sense of philosophy and a strong spirit of reflection,hence he became an explorer in the period of ideological transformation,and a key figure in promoting the revitalization of traditional philosophy,and a leader of the revival of Chinese culture.Tang's contribution lay in his breakthrough in methodology when doing research in the history of philosophy.Holding the view that the history of philosophy is the history of cognition,he firmly believed that the study of Chinese philosophy should be done with the help of concepts and paradigms.Firstly,he established a whole system of concepts and paradigms,trying to demonstrate the evolution and logic of Chinese philosophy as a history of cognition.Then he applied this methodology in his book Guo Xiang and the Metaphysics of Wei and Jin Dynasties,which made clear the logic of the evolution of the metaphysics of Wei and Jin dynasties and promoted our understanding of Guo Xiang and the whole system of metaphysics of that time.The use of concepts and paradigms in research helped greatly the restoration of academic studies of traditional Chinese philosophy,and it was also a new approach in the research methodology of Chinese philosophy whose wide use of logic exhibited some differences from the illogical mode of thinking in traditional Chinese philosophy.What's more,Tang,inspired by the Western hermeneutics,restudied Guo Xiang's philosophy,using both the methodology of hermeneutics and the system of concepts and paradigms and trying to establish Chinese hermeneutics.To establish Chinese hermeneutics,Tang believed,three steps are to be taken: clarifying Chinese tradition of explaining and interpreting,generalizing the rules and principles of explaining and interpretating in China,and establishing Chinese own hermeneutics.At present,only the first step has been taken in Chinese academia and it is still controversial whether it is necessary to set up Chinese own hermeneutics.With the above-mentioned methodology,Tang began his study of the modernization of traditional Chinese philosophy by focusing on “the possibility of the third phase of development of Confucianism”.He adopted an approach of systematic construction and interpretation,studied the question of “the true,the good,and the beautiful” from the perspective of both epistemology and axiology,and put “tian” and “ren” at the core of the system of concepts and paradigms.Starting from there,he put forward three fundamental propositions of traditional Chinese philosophy,that is,man is an integral part of nature,knowledge and action are one,and emotion and environment are one.On this basis,he then put forward three theories: universal harmony,the spirit of inner transcending,and outer kingliness through inner sageliness.In this way,he completed the construction a new theoretical framework for traditional Chinese philosophy.This framework was not only free from the negative influence of Marxist dogmas while returning to the stance of traditional Chinese culture,but it also stressed the importance of the core spirit and the modern values of traditional Chinese philosophy.The only problem with this framework was that its research scope was too broad to go any further.When reflecting on the modernization of Chinese traditional culture,the focus of Tang's study shifted from traditional Chinese philosophy to Chinese philosophy of culture.On the question of how to deal with traditional Chinese culture,Tang kept a clear head in the cultural craze and maintained an impartial stance all through.He came up with the idea of cultural evolution as a result of joint forces,holding that in the course of transformation Chinese culture can only develop as a result of the joint forces of radicalism,liberalism and conservatism.In particular,he paid great attention to conservatism,which reflected his stance on traditional Chinese culture.In dealing with the relationship between Marxism and traditional Chinese culture,Tang took as a model the localization of Buddhism in China and proposed the theory of “bi-directional selection of culture” which means Marxism and traditional Chinese culture should be open to each other,interact with each other and learn from each other.Although this theory is faced with both theoretical and practical problems,Tang's stress of the “two further lectures” by Feng Qi and Zhang Shenfu can be seen as a reply to these problems.As to how to deal with the Western culture,Tang held the idea that “various cultures can co-exist”.Based on “the axial period” theory,Tang interpreted the idea of “harmony but not uniformity” from a cultural perspective and took it as a principle for the co-existence of various cultures.Besides,Tang also put forward a “minus” methodology for cross-cultural communication and many specific ways of dealing with various ideas.Tang's research on the philosophy of culture was characterized by a strong focus on reality and it stressed the importance of learning from traditional Chinese culture.All these well demonstrated his value orientation towards culture: open,tolerant,and absorbent.Tang took upon himself the responsibility of “preserving the old while creating the new” in philosophical studies in order to bridge the Western and Chinese philosophies and with the spirit of “never yield to difficulties when it is the right thing to do” he stood firm in his pursuit of academic freedom and independence and hence made great contribution to the transformation of Chinese philosophy and culture.