Special Issue Article
1. Initial Exploration of the Relationship Change between New-Confucianism of “The Democratic Review” and Liberalists of “Free China”: Taking Hsu Fu-Kuan and Yin Hai-guang as the Focuses
Jui-Chiang Su Ph.D., Department of History, National Chengchi University; Teacher, National Changhua Senior High School; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology
2. Party Education VS Public Education: Education Discusses in the Free China
Zhuo-En He Professor, Institute of Chinese Modern History, Huazhong Normal University
3. War That Belongs to a Liberal
Chih-Hsiang Wang Associate Professor of General Education Center of Nan Kai University of Technology
4. Ultimate Concern, Reflection of Civilization and Idea of “Man” of Yin Haiguang
Zhong-Jiang Wang Professor, Department of Philosophy, Peking University
5. Bo Yang’s Discourse of Jiang Gang Culture, 1960-1968
Sheng-Ping Chen Doctoral candidate, Department of History, National Taiwan University
6. Lin Yu-Sheng’s “Creative Transformation” and the Critique and Transfusion of May Fourth Liberalism
Ming-Hai Jian Post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
Special Issue Article
Initial Exploration of the Relationship Change between New-Confucianism of “The Democratic Review” and Liberalists of “Free China”:
Taking Hsu Fu-Kuan and Yin Hai-guang as the Focuses
Jui-Chiang Su
Ph.D., Department of History, National Chengchi University; Teacher, National Changhua Senior High School; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology
“The Democratic Review” and “Free China’s” background of beginning publication was similar, their goals of democracy and anti-communism were the same, and the personal friendship among the main members in their early years was good, but why did the relation deteriorate later? The thesis analyzed the change of mutual relationship from the dimensions of internal differences of philosophic and cultural standpoints, external change of political situation, and personal conflict. Among them, the visual angle of external change of political situation was the dimension that previous researchers’ did little analysis.
The thesis believed that the original philosophic and cultural standpoints of “The Democratic Review” and “Free China” already had contradiction. However, in the beginning of 1949 when they began publication, Chinese Communist Regime was the two periodicals’ common “major contradiction,” and the differences of philosophic and cultural standpoints were only “minor contradiction.” Yet after mid 1950s, in Taiwan the thread from Chinese Communist Regime obviously lessened, and the “minor contradiction” of philosophic and cultural standpoints originally existed between “The Demoratic Review” and “Free China” thus leaped to be the “major contradiction,” and therefore, both parties’ relationship gradually deteriorated. Moreover, owing to personal conflict among the members of two periodicals, the intense controversy of democracy and tradition exploded finally in late 1950s, resulting in both parties’ formal breakup.
Keywords: The Democratic Review, Free China, Hsu Fu-Kuan, Yin Hai-Guang
Party Education VS Public Education: Education Discusses in the Free China
Zhuo-En He
Professor, Institute of Chinese Modern History, Huazhong Normal University
Education independence from politics is the basic direction of the social transformation in modern China, but with the rise of the revolutionary wave, education is increasingly controlled by some political parties. After the implementation of the ROC Constitution in 1948, which should have paved the way for the freedom of education, the political situation appeared serious standoff between the mainland China and Taiwan as a result of the civil war, and the party- controlled education get more obvious. But in Taiwan area, liberal intellectuals had been fighting for public spaces of cultural and educational and criticizing the party-controlled education until the transformation of Taiwan’s political and the initial implementation of culture and education public space. In 1950s, the Nationalist Party re-established its party-monopolized education in Taiwan. Liberal intellectuals, through their semimonthly Free China, launched an overall and illuminating attack on the content and organization of the party-monopolized education, and raised some important points about of public space in culture and education. Although there were some limitations on views of the Free China, and the semimonthly failed to avert the education policy of the Nationalist Party, the struggle that had started, which drew its strength from sheer personality, had paved the way for future development that finally led to the independence of education in Taiwan dozens of years later.
Keywords: Party Education, the Free China, Liberal intellectuals, Public space
War That Belongs to a Liberal
Chih-Hsiang Wang
Associate Professor of General Education Center of Nan Kai University of Technology
Confined by ideological framework, liberal thinkers focus on individual liberties rather than wars. Such theoretical position induced liberal thinkers to view human war affairs as negative and thus give less attention to the deep influence of war-making upon modern states. This paper supposed that Mr. Lei Chen, a liberal fighter, had taken similar position toward war affairs before the “peaceful” ending of Korean War. Right after this big event of Cold War, Mr. Lei Chen changes his face to be a cold-minded Militarist with international and geo-politics in mind. Such strategic transformation effectively undermined the legitimacy of authoritative government in Taiwan, but Mr. Lei Chen has been a liberal in the core. However, such theoretical insistence, regarding to the review of history, may not be so helpful to the widening of public sphere.
Keywords: War, Liberalism, Lei Chen
Ultimate Concern, Reflection of Civilization and Idea of “Man” of Yin Haiguang
Zhong-Jiang Wang
Professor, Department of Philosophy, Peking University
Yin Haiguang’s investigation and pursuit of the idea of “Man” reflects not merely a limited historical or parochial academic interest, but indeed addresses an ultimate concern of humanity which transcends any spatio-temporal limitations. In criticizing “modern man” for its faceless and non-self-identical figure, Yin Haiguang brings the conditions, purposes and noble values of humanity to light. His work has extraordinary significance for the highest aims of humanity and civilization.
Keywords: Ultimate Concern, Reflection of Civilization, Idea of “Man”
Bo Yang’s Discourse of Jiang Gang Culture, 1960-1968
Sheng-Ping Chen
Doctoral candidate, Department of History, National Taiwan University
At first, Bo yang thinks the Chinese traditional culture rooted in Taiwan in the 1960s, which not only triggered various social problems, but hindered economic developments and modernization as well. In addition, he categorizes the Taiwanese cultural elites into two opposite groups: one, the conventional, Confucian and moralized elites; the other, the modernized, Westernized intellectuals. These two groups respectively correspond to two positions: the former one in favor of Cultural conservatism; the latter one for complete Westernization. In Bo yang’s perspective, the advocates of these two claims do not meet the society’s need, because the former one resist every necessary reforms, while the latter one only try to carry out the trivial Westernization without transforming the essence of the Chinese culture. Moreover, Bo yang finds that many harmful factors intrinsic in the Chinese traditions instead facilitated the prevalence of Marxism in China, which finally led to the CCP’s overwhelming victory in 1949. Still, the Chinese culture lacks the fundamental factors of Marxism, for instance, the materialistic dialectics, the political philosophy of “constant struggle,” and that is why Bo yang calls Marxism “the vat of brimstone”, opposite to “the vat of soy sauce”(jiang gang) which crystallizes the Chinese traditional culture. Finally, in his arguments about the cultural discourse of jiang gang, Bo yang focuses on the causes not only from the ideology (Confucianism), but also from the social structure (bureaucrat-ruling society). As a mainstream ideology, Confucianism has this social structure more stable, justifies despotism, and becomes the prerequisite that it is erroneous to adhere to justice and defy the authority.
Keywords: Bo yang, jiang-gang, modernization, Marxism, Confucianism, bureaucrat
Lin Yu-Sheng’s “Creative Transformation”
and the Critique and Transfusion of
May Fourth Liberalism
Ming-Hai Jian
Post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
Lin Yu-sheng’s “creative transformation” is a very important idea for modern China and Taiwan, and was highly significant for both the development of a critique of May Fourth liberalism and its transmission. The “creative transformation” stressed the importance of methodology and culture. We must understand the meaning of “creative transformation”, and its impact on Hu Shih, Yin Hai-Kuang, and other May Fourth intellectuals.
Keywords: Lin Yu-sheng, Creative Transformation, May Fourth, Yin Hai-Kuang, Hu Shih, Liberalism
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