The Historical Dynamics of Chinese Thought and the Thesis of Early Enlightenment: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Xiao Jiefu

Abstract

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the formation of academic philosophy depended much on the engagement and research of scholars like Xiao Jiefu 萧 萐父 (1924–2008). Xiao Jiefu was gifted with great literary talent and in his youth received a comprehensive education in Chinese traditional literature and thought. During the years of the Chinese–Japanese War, he enrolled in philosophy classes at Wuhan University, relocated to Leshan (乐山) in Sichuan province, and received training in Western philosophy. He graduated with a thesis on Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals in 1947. Later, as a teacher at the university level, he was assigned to reform the study of Chinese philosophy and established the Research Institute of Chinese Philosophy at Wuhan University. His scholarship and academic efforts led to Wuhan University becoming one of the leading institutes on philosophy, and his methodology and research had in general a great impact on the study of Chinese philosophy in China. Western philosophy (especially Marxist philosophy and German Idealism) shaped Xiao Jiefu’s approaches to Chinese philosophy. His interests, however, did not lie in proving the validity of Marxism or developing Marxist thought. Rather, he was interested in using Marxism as a methodological approach to explore the intellectual resources of the Chinese tradition and to stress the importance of philosophical thinking and reflection for the social development of contemporary society. Xiao’s philosophy broke new ground in two aspects: First, his systematic approach to dialectical conceptions contributed substantially to the study of Daoism and Buddhism, as well as to the Yi jing 易经 (Book of Changes). Dialectical relations are inherent in many dyadic figures of Chinese thought. This is so in natural philosophy (Yin and Yang, Qian and Kun, heaven and earth, etc.) as well as in epistemological and ethical conceptions, for instance, knowledge and action or the “self” (ji 己; wo 我) as subject of thinking with its relations to “things” (wu 物) as objects or conditions of action and thought. Since dialectics brings forth conceptual opposites, contrasts, differences, and contradictions, they exercise an intrinsic force on speculative thinking. In this way they push forward intellectual transmission and transformation, while simultaneously reflecting on and interfering with the social and historical contexts present. Second, Xiao Jiefu became well known as a historian of Chinese philosophy and praised for his contributions to the methodology of intellectual history. In the early