Tang Yijie Photo: IC

"When a nation is on the eve of its renaissance, she must look back to her history and culture, and absorb power from the latter." Demonstrating great concern for his country, this quote originated with the famous Chinese philosopher and sinologist Tang Yijie. Recently passing away on Tuesday, Tang's funeral is scheduled to be held today at the Babaoshan Funeral Parlor in Beijing.

Born in 1927 in Tianjin, Tang came from a learned family, his father Tang Yongtong, a philosopher and sinologist even more prestigious than his son. Widely accredited for his academic achievements in metaphysics, Confucianism and Chinese and Western comparative philosophy, Tang was one of the leading figures of modern Chinese philosophy and a senior professor at Peking University's department of philosophy.

"When Tang gave a speech on the history of enlightenment in China during the exhibition Art of Enlightenment three years ago at the National Museum of China (NMC), he looked really hale and hearty, I didn't expect him to pass away so early," said Chen Lüsheng, vice director of the NMC.

"The most commendable thing about Tang was his open mind. He looked at Chinese culture from a global perspective, and we can see the serious attention he paid towards Western culture," said Wang Bo, director of Peking University's philosophy department.

Collecting the Confucian canon

While Confucianism is one of the most important philosophical systems in Chinese history, it lacks a comprehensive series of books that equals the scope of the Dao Zang and Fo Zang, two collections that include the core historical texts and commentaries about the parallel schools of Taoism and Buddhism respectively.

In order to rectify this situation, in 2003 the then 76-year-old Tang initiated the Ru Zang project, an attempt to establish the world's most authoritative work on Confucianism by collecting all Confucian texts and related research in a single series of books in a systematic and comprehensive manner. As the chief director of the project, Tang was very careful and exacting in his research.

This vast project is divided into two parts. The first part collects the majority of core works in an estimated series of 339 volumes totaling more than 230 million characters, and is scheduled to be completed by 2017. The first 100 volumes of this core edition were published by the Peking University Publishing House in June, with the character count sitting at 60 million.

The second part of the project is the overall edition of collected Confucian texts, which is expected to include over 3,000 historic documents and materials. With a character count of approximately 1 billion, this second part is expected to be completed by 2025. Altogether, the project is expected to exceed the scale of the Siku Quanshu, or the Complete Library in Four Sections, the largest and most comprehensive collection of ancient Chinese works compiled during the Qianlong period (1735-96).

This year on May 4, when President Xi Jinping visited Peking University, Xi met with Tang to discuss the project's progress. He later praised Tang for his contributions to the continuation and innovation of traditional Chinese culture.

A bridge between East and West

Although praised by the country's top leader and acclaimed as a master of sinology by many, Tang never thought of himself in that way. "I'm no master. We don't actually have anyone that can be called a master now, since we never came up with a book so influential that it can compare with The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (by Max Weber), which has influenced the Western world for a hundred years," Tang wrote in his Biography of Tang Yijie, first published in 2011.

Aiming to establish a philosophy suited for Chinese society today, in his later years Tang concerned himself with concepts such as the peaceful coexistence of different civilizations and the relationship between Confucianism and modern entrepreneurship. This came mainly after his period of "30 diverted years," a 30-year period from 1950-80 that he later came to feel was a waste of time.

"The (research) papers (at that time) had little academic value, they reflected the huge influence of ultra-leftist thought on academic circles," Tang said in 2011.

After breaking the shackles of ideology in the early 1980s, Tang began to approach the study of Chinese philosophy from a broader scope. His focus shifted from comparing the philosophies of China and the West to trying to discover how the essence of traditional Chinese philosophy could be used to serve the modern development of the country.

"The comparison of Chinese and Western philosophies is not something every philosopher can handle, it requires deep and very long-term research on both sides. Only someone who can truly be called a master can do this work," Chen told the Global Times.

For over the past 30 years, Tang has had an influential role on not just China but the world. In 1984, Tang, together with other philosophers including Feng Youlan (1895-1990) and Zhang Dainian (1909-2004), established the International Academy of Chinese Culture. Mainly engaged in publishing and organizing international academic forums, the academy is seen as a major contributor to the "cultural fever" that broke out during the 1980s.

During the 1990s when Samuel Huntington pushed forward his concept of the "Clash of Civilizations," Tang countered with a quotation from the Analects of Confucius, "The gentlemen seeks harmony not conformity," i.e. the idea that people can work together and get along without necessarily having to agree with one another. Entering the 21st century, one of his major focuses was to establish a philosophy drawn from Confucianism that would work hand in hand with modern entrepreneurship in China, a theory that in his words could rival the influence The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism had in the West.

"While the whole of society is becoming increasingly affluent, the values upheld by most people are becoming very diverse and even chaotic. This underscores the urgent need to establish our own philosophical system," said Chen.

"We may not have masters of philosophy such as those during the 19th century and early 20th century, but Tang managed to leave a very precious legacy for philosophers today. His dedication to the spirit of the Humanities and his independent research."

Source: globaltimes.cn

Url: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/881356.shtml