Yan Fu's Thoughts On "Reviewing < Laozi>"

Around the year of 1900,Yan Fu had published several Chinese translation of some traditional western works successively,such as The Spirit of the Laws,The Study of Sociology,On Liberty and A System of Logic,through these works he expressed his understanding of western modern thought and understanding.In 1903,Yan Fu made his comment for Tao Te Ching of Lao Tze,different from other scholars' annotation and understanding of this masterpiece,Yan Fu stood at the intersection of the ancient and the modern Chinese culture between western cultural.He introduced the western modern ideas into traditional Chinese culture.He interpreted the thought of Lao Tze with western ideas,which add new meanings to Lao Tze's thoughts.His efforts made a unique value and significance of the study of Lao Tze and modern in history.Yan Fu believed in the theory of Evolution,which made him oppose radical revolution and support gradual reform;he accepted freedom and democracy,so it is no wander that he put the constitutional monarchy as the right way to the reality.This article attempts to discover Yan Fu's thought of modern times from The Book on Lao Tze,especially his elucidation of the logic and commentary of freedom and democracy,in order to reflect Yan Fu's important contribution of China's modern cultural transformation.This article divided into five parts: the first part is the introduction of this article,it will state explain the background and values,train of thought and methods,also resource of Yan Fu's thoughts.The second part,mainly states the time background and individual factors of Yan Fu's book on Lao Tze,and explores general starting points and purposes of Yan Fu's comments of Tao Te Ching;The third part,steps into the core part,that is,how Yan Fu expressed his understanding of the Tao of Lao Tze through Chinese and western culture and to achieve the unity of positivism and metaphysics;The fourth part,we are going to discuss that Yan Fu's conclusion of "Tao" as the ultimate cause of the universe,how he unified the method of positivism and metaphysics to explain the development of the society changes and the development of the society is a gradual process;The fifthpart is Yan Fu's political philosophy.According to the law of social evolution,Yan Fu put forward the ideas of constitutional monarchy,advocating freedom and democracy.But in his later years he advocated strongmen politics.Facing with the crisis of the Chinese nation,Yan Fu tried to solve the problems of China's survival and the transformation of its culture.Through the interpretation of the Chinese classics,he brought forward theories to save the country,which had provided a powerful intellectual support and theoretical preparation for political reform and cultural transformation in China.His thought was significant during the great cultural transformation of the modern China.