A Study Of Songyuren's "Rreturning To The Ancients Namely Reform" Political Philosophy

Song Yuren was an outstanding thinker and political thinker in modern Chinese history and played a crucial role in the wave of political reform in the late 19 th century.He was ever sent to the West in a short period of time,compared with the feudal system of China's corruption and backwardness,the unprecedented social prosperity scene of the western countries gave him a great shock.As a result,he thoroughly analyzed the political and cultural connotations of China and the West,integrated the achievements of Western civilization with China's political system,and creatively put forward the way of Chinese political improvement guided by "Returning to the ancients namely reform".The study of Song Yuren in the current academic circles is mostly focused on the field of reforms,however,for the political theories,especially the political ideas were short of in-depth study.Therefore,from the perspective of exploring its political ideology,this paper uses a combination of literature research,historical analysis and philosophical speculation,comparative analysis,and other research methods to construct the logical system of Song-type politics thought on the basis of fundamental reflections on its political improvement theories and methods.The birth of Song Yuren's political thought is closely related to the times pattern of domestic strife and foreign agression and personal learning experiences.In the late Qing Dynasty of“nothing changed for thousands of years,” the sense of crisis of extinction and extermination led him to clearly recognize that only the “adopting the method of the West ” would save the country and strengthen itself.However,influenced by Chinese studies,he could not completely abandon the old tradition nor completely accept the infusion of Western studies.Therefore,under the concept of “menstruction governing”,he sought the source of the improved theory from the study of the Confucian classics.Through the reflection on the relationship between the junior high school and the western learning,the “reform” did not consist in overthrowing everything so that it should establish a new one,but “making a fresh start”.In other words,he believed that the "adopting the method of the West" was not entirely Westernized,but differentiates and distinguishes to the western cultures,and "if cherishing them,we can get them,if looking down upon,we will lose them " and "renovation of the ancient times" to "reform".It is precisely based on this understanding that he insists on the principle of gradual and orderly method to perform the bottom-up political reform.In his conception,the lectures were based on the principle of “opening people's wisdom”,building schools to “educate talents,” and managing bureaucrats to reshape administrative effectiveness as a necessary condition for the implementation of a parliamentary system of government..However,in his blueprint for the establishment of the Chinese House,he used "ritual" as the basis for establishing government,used "teaching power" to replace "civil rights," and ignored the core idea that the Western government lay in freedom and equality,which made his improvement claim.There is quite an "eclectic" meaning,but it has not yet departed from the category of "Chinese-style Westernization".In short,Song Yuren's political thought,as the historical product of a special era,has the characteristics of transition,complexity,and contradiction.He tried to find a balance between tradition and reform,but made his political thoughts have new and old shadows at the same time,advanced and conservative.Objectively speaking,the formation process of Song Yuren's political thought precisely reflects the difficult exploration process of the late Qing intellectuals from the traditional to the modern transitional period.By analyzing his political thoughts,we have an in-depth understanding of Song Yuren's and its greatness and it also has important theoretical and academic significance.