Research On Chen Zhu's Theory Of Laoism

Chen Zhu received Chinese traditional culture influence since he was a child and he had strong and solid sinology foundation.Meanwhile,under the social background of western culture coming into China,Chen Zhu's academy was also with distinct western culture characteristics.Under the influence of "Democracy" and "Science",Chen Zhu attempted to interpret Lao Zi using science and democracy knowledge,which provided new method for studying Lao Zi.In his study on Lao Zi,Chen Zhu explained the philosophical connotations of Lao Zi from four aspects of cosmology,politics,life theory and education theory."Taoism",the most important concept in Lao Zi,has been the core issue in all-the-time Laoism research.Therefore,Chen Zhu introduced the cosmology concept in interpreting "Taoism" in Lao Zi.At the same time,Chen Zhu explained the connection between "being and not being" using molecular properties in physics;this is more than vivid but convincing.In argument of Lao Zi's politics,Chen Zhu not only applied traditional annotation and textual research method to comprehend the verses and compare conclusions of Taoism and Legalists but also illustrated the political assertion in Lao Zi by introduction of western thoughts of liberty and equality,which clarified some old misunderstanding and wrong interpretation for Lao Zi.Later,starting from Lao Zi's politics,Chen Zhu further explained the education theory in Lao Zi and provided proofs for his interpretation regarding Lao Zi's politics.In the end,Chen Zhu analyzed the life theory in Lao Zi,which echoes its cosmology.Chen Zhu's study on Laoism was with distinct characteristics.First,as a scholar with solid foundation of traditional culture,Chen Zhu paid great attentions to annotation and textual research and he attempted to clarify the source to make academic study perfectly justifiable.Secondary,he valued vertical and horizontal research and put forward approach of integration of vertical and horizontal analysis.Finally,he used western learning to define and explain the argumentation in Lao Zi in the environment of sharp impact of Chinese and foreign culture;meanwhile,he carried on assisting research by combining both ancient and modern,Chinese and foreign academy showing clear features of academic fusion.Although Chen Zhu's study on Laoism was quite creative back then,he didn't establish systematic research work,which shows great dependence on traditional culture.But now it seems that there are some limitations in Chen Zhu's study on Laoism due to era and personal reasons;thus it requires us to take it in dialectic manner.