Feng Youlan

Dzieła

• 1934Historia filozofii chińskiej

  Dwa tomy (1931 i 1934) od Konfucjusza do Qing: przez dziesięciolecia standardowe ujęcie w Chinach, a w przekładzie także na Zachodzie.

Stanowisko

Feng Youlan’s History of Chinese Philosophy (1931–34) gave the field its modern shape and, translated by Derk Bodde, became the standard account in the West. His “New Learning of Principle” rebuilt Cheng–Zhu thought by logical analysis: principles (li) are real without existing in space and time. In A New Treatise on the Nature of Man he distinguished four spheres of life: natural, utilitarian, moral and transcendent, the last being oneness with the universe. After 1949 he repeatedly renounced his views and in 1973–74 joined the campaign to criticise Lin Biao and Confucius, for which he was much reproached. In old age he rewrote his history in seven volumes.

Życie i kontekst

Feng Youlan was born in 1895 in Tanghe (Henan). After studying philosophy at Peking University he took a doctorate at Columbia University, where Dewey was among his teachers. From 1928 he taught at Tsinghua University; during the war against Japan he worked out his own system at the exiled Southwest Associated University in Kunming. He stayed in the People’s Republic after 1949 and died in Beijing in 1990.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• A History of Chinese Philosophy (2 vols., 1931 and 1934)
• New Learning of Principle (Xin lixue, 1939)
• A New Treatise on the Nature of Man (Xin yuanren, 1943)
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (1948)