Introduction to Hu Shi
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Hu Shi (1891-1962)
Hu Shi's original name was Hu Hong (Ma Xin), Si Mi, with the courtesy name Xijiang. After taking the exam to study in the United States, he changed his name to Shi, with the courtesy name Shizhi. He was a native of Jixi, Anhui. Modern scholar, historian, writer, philosopher. Hu Shi was born outside Dadongmen, Shanghai on February 17, 1891, and was born in Jixi, Anhui. His father, Hu Chuan (also named Tiehua, nicknamed Blunt Fu), was a tribute student in the Qing Dynasty. He served as the general inspector of Songhu Lika and the magistrate of Zhili Prefecture in Taitung. His book "Two Chronicles of Taiwan" has been handed down to the world. Mother Feng Shundi.
On April 12, 1893, Hu Shi went to Taiwan with his mother to live with Mr. Tiehua. On February 7, 1895, he and his mother left Taiwan and returned to Jixi. Hu Shi started his education at the age of 5 and received 9 years of traditional education in his hometown private school in Jixi. He read Mr. Tiehua's "Studying Poems for People" and laid a certain foundation for traditional education. In 1904, he went to Shanghai to study at the new-style schools Meixi Academy and Chengzhong Academy. He initially came into contact with Western thought and culture, accepted new trends of thought such as "Tianyan Lun", and was greatly influenced by the thoughts of Liang Qichao and Yan Fu. And began to publish vernacular articles in "Jingye Xunbao". He was admitted to the China Public School in 1906 and passed the "Boxer Indemnity" international student examination in 1910. After going to the United States, he first entered the Agricultural College of Cornell University, and in the spring of 1912, he was transferred to the College of Liberal Arts. In February 1914, he received his bachelor's degree. In September 1915, he entered the graduate school of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, under the chairmanship of Dewey. Hu Shi studied under the philosopher John Dewey and accepted Dewey's pragmatism philosophy, which he kept in mind throughout his life. In 1917, he completed his doctoral thesis "The Evolution of Logical Methods in Ancient China".
During this period, Hu Shi enthusiastically discussed plans for literary improvement and tried to compose vernacular poetry. The correspondence with Chen Duxiu, the editor-in-chief of "New Youth", and the "A Preliminary Discussion on Literary Reform" published in January 1917, triggered a literary revolution with great momentum and far-reaching influence. In May 1917, Hu Shi passed the final examination for his doctorate at Columbia University. In July 1917, Hu Shi returned to China and became a professor at Peking University. He joined the editorial board of "New Youth" and wrote articles against feudalism, promoted individual freedom, democracy and science, and actively advocated "literary reform" and vernacular literature, becoming an important figure in the New Culture Movement at that time. figure. When Hu Shi was 13 years old, his mother made the decision and got engaged to Jiang Dongxiu, the daughter of Jiang Shixian in Jiangcun, Jingde County. Then, winter passed and spring came, and the two of them had not seen each other for 14 years. In December 1917, Hu Shi returned to his hometown to get married, and the lovers finally got married.
Hu Shi’s family. On the left is Hu Shi's eldest son Hu Zuwang, on the right is the second son Hu Sidu, and in the middle is Mrs. Hu Jiang Dongxiu
On May 1, 1919, at the invitation of the Chinese educational group, Dewey came to my country with his wife and daughter He gave lectures and stayed for two years and two months. Hu Shi accompanied him and served as Dewey's translator. He gave more than 100 lectures, including more than 20 lectures on educational issues alone. The length of time he has spent giving lectures in China and the wide range of content are rare among Western scholars. His speeches spread pragmatist philosophy and promoted American culture, social and political views, moral views and educational views, which had a great influence on our country's intellectual circles. During this period, Chinese scholars wrote and published many articles introducing and commenting on pragmatism. The influential "New Education" magazine at the time even published a special issue "Dewey" in its third issue in 1919. Hu Shi was the first representative figure to spread and publicize pragmatism. He not only systematically introduced pragmatist philosophy - pragmatist realism, empiricism, view of truth, methodology, but also summarized Dewey's methodology as "bold assumptions, careful verification", And it is specifically applied to the research of "Pu Xue" and "Red Xue".
During the "May 4th" period, Hu Shi successively wrote "Theory of Literary Concepts in History" and "Theory of Literary Revolution in Construction", advocating "Literature of the Chinese Language, Literature of the Chinese Language", and successively completed "Theory of the Literary Concept of History" and "Theory of the Literary Revolution of Construction". Works such as "Introduction to Grammar" and "History of Vernacular Literature" played a decisive role in replacing classical Chinese and becoming an important tool of thought and communication for modern Chinese people.
While advocating theory, Hu Shi also made some "attempts" in literary creation. Neither his novels nor his screenplays were successful. His unique collection of "Attempts", published in 1902, was the first collection of new vernacular poems in the history of literature, and was quite pioneering. Hu Shi was the first to write a one-act play "Lifetime Events" in vernacular, establishing a new form of modern drama. In the plot, the heroine left a note saying, "The child should make his own decisions about life-long matters" and ran away from home with her lover. This is influenced by Ibsen's "A Doll's House". His novel "A Question" launched the first genre of modern Chinese novels, "Problem Novels".
Literary creation was not his strong point. Another major contribution of Hu Shi during the New Culture Movement was the introduction of new ideas. His "Ibsenism" and "The Problem of Chastity" were both enlightening and enlightening works at that time. From the "Issues and Isms" debate with Li Dazhao and others, to the "Collection of Human Rights", to the hosting of the "Independent Review", Hu Shi always adhered to an independent attitude and critical spirit.
In March 1920, Hu Shi (second from right) took a group photo with Cai Yuanpei (second from left), Jiang Menglin (first from left), and Li Dazhao (first from right).
Hu Shi called the New Culture Movement "China's Renaissance" and asserted that it had four purposes: researching problems; importing academic theories; sorting out national heritage; and recreating civilization. According to his understanding, the so-called sorting out the national heritage is to use scientific methods to conduct a systematic study of the fragmented ancient knowledge of three thousand years. Therefore, Hu Shi attached great importance to academic methods and repeatedly wrote articles to introduce the "scientific methods" of Qing Confucianism and Western philosophy, so much so that he repeatedly claimed that his academic research was to prove and promote his "scientific methods."
Hu Shi was a knowledgeable scholar who made considerable achievements in many fields such as literature, philosophy, history, textual criticism, education, and ethics. He has two main fields of study, one is the history of Chinese philosophy and the other is the history of Chinese literature. They are all responsible for creating a new trend. In the "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy" (Volume 1) published in 1919, Hu Shi first adopted the system and methods of modern Western philosophy to study Chinese pre-Qin philosophy, placed Confucius and Confucianism under certain historical conditions, and used an "equal perspective." Comparative research with other scholars has dispelled the "exclusive" status and mystery of Confucianism, which has a groundbreaking influence. Although "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy" has only published the first volume, and "History of Vernacular Literature" has not published the second volume, both books are classic works that establish norms and lay the foundation for the discipline. Later generations can praise or criticize, but they cannot ignore its existence. The former's perspective on scholars and history, and the latter's dual-line literary concept are both "bold assumptions" that have a profound impact on the academic development of this century.
In 1920, Hu Shi took a group photo with Gao Yihan, Ma Junwu, Cai Yuanpei and Ding Huanyin
From 1920 to 1933, Hu Shi mainly used the historical evolution method to conduct research on Chinese classical chapter novels Research has shown that Hu Shih has written many works in the classic novels "A Dream of Red Mansions", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses", "Biographies of Flowers on the Sea", "Biography of Heroes of Sons and Daughters", "The Appearance of Officialdom", The research on twelve novels including "Lao Can's Travels" has been very successful, and he has written 600,000 words. The collection was published as "Critical Research on Chinese Chapter Novels".
From February 1923 to the end of 1924, a far-reaching "debate between science and metaphysics" took place in the field of Chinese thought and culture, also known as the "debate on outlook on life." The entire debate process can be roughly divided into three stages: (1) The origin and outbreak of the debate: from Zhang Junmai's "Outlook on Life" speech in February 1923, to Zhang's long article in the same year to counter Ding Wenjiang's refutation. (2) The unfolding and deepening of the debate: From May 1923, when Liang Qichao wrote "On the Scientific Debate on Metaphysics: "Wartime Public International Law"", to the same year when Wu Zhihui published "A New Faith's Worldview and Outlook on Life", during which the Scientologists and Metaphysics Figures from both sides of the school appeared one after another, and the debate intensified. (3) The turning point and outcome of the debate: From November 1923, when Chen Duxiu wrote the preface to the collection of polemic essays "Science and Outlook on Life" and Deng Zhongxia published "China's Current Thoughts" to the end of 1924, the "Science-Metaphysics" debate It developed into an ideological debate between the three major schools of science, metaphysics and historical materialism. Hu Shi was the backer of Ding Wenjiang, the "scientific school" at that time.
Hu Shi is the founder of the New Red School - the Textual Research School. It can be said that he was the first person to bring novels into the formal academic research, replacing the "Suoyin School" of old Red School represented by Cai Yuanpei. Hu Shi said in "Research on the Dream of Red Mansions": "I would like to advise those who love to read "Dream of Red Mansions": If we want to truly understand "Dream of Red Mansions", we must first break this far-fetched "Dream of Red Mansions" mysteries!" Hu Shi is the author of "Dream of Red Mansions". Zhi Yanzhai, the only one in the country, re-evaluates the discoverer and owner of the Story of Stones. And then a series of precious editions were discovered, such as the "Gengchen Edition", which laid an important foundation for modern redology research.
In the process of writing "History of Chinese Zen", Hu Shi came across records of the debate between Shenhui and Beizong. He felt that if he did not write about Shenhui, it would be difficult to write a good history of Zen. In 1926, Hu Shiyin discovered three volumes and one fragment in Paris and London, containing about 20,000 words of information about the monk Shenhui, namely "The Sayings of the Monk Shenhui" and "Bodhidharma Nanzong's Theory of Right and Wrong", and After discovering Shenhui's "Xianzong Ji" in London, he not only "wanted to rewrite the entire history of Zen Buddhism from scratch", but also emphasized that "this great monk Shenhui is actually the true founder of Zen and the original source of the Tan Sutra" author". Yinshun believes that this is his conclusion which is undesirable, but it still makes a contribution to the study of the history of Zen Buddhism. Hu Shi said: "For more than a thousand years, almost no one knew the status of the Shenhui in the history of Zen Buddhism. There is nothing more unfair in history than this."
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