The renowned foreign philosophers' China lectures during the May Fourth era and China's “taking Russia as the teacher”

Abstract

From 1919 to 1924, John Dewey and four other internationally renowned philosophers (Bertrand Russell, Paul Monroe, Hans Driesch and Rabindranath Tagore) came to China to give lectures. As a whole this constituted a magnificent cultural achievement for post war European Western studies in East Asia. The well-known Western philosophers' lectures not only transmitted information about the changing tide of modern Western thought, but more importantly, they comprised an enthusiastic and passionate response by the lecturers to the desire among Chinese intellectual circles to master this new knowledge. Therefore their lectures in reality went past the level of pure academic exchange, forming mutual interconnections with the latter. The renowned philosophers’ lectures helped sophisticate thought at the time, and also promoted the differentiation and evolution of Chinese intellectual circles, which eventually made their own mark with the Chinese belief in Marxism and “taking Russia as a teacher.” After delving into this, it will not be difficult to understand why waves arising in Chinese intellectual circles surrounded their lectures, triggering sensational debates such as those concerning socialism and “the debate on science and metaphysics.” Regardless of whether this was a conscious factor on their part or not, the lectures of the renowned philosophers expanded the nation's horizons, and in effect participated in the new cultural movement, constituting an organic part of the latter.

Keywords:

• renowned philosophical lectures
• Chinese intellectual circles
• the New Cultural Movement
• John Dewey
• Bertrand Russell

Notes

¹Zhao Yuanren, Cong jiaxiang dao meiguo: Zhao Yuanren zaonian huiyi [From Home to America: Zhao Yuanren's Recollection of His Early Years] (Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 1997), 156.

²For further details refer to Zheng Shiqu, “Ouzhan qianhou guoren de xiandaixing fanxing” [Chinese Reflections on Modernity Around the Time of World War I], Lishi yanjiu [Historical Research], no. 1 (2008).

⁴Jiang Menglin, Xichao [Western Tide] (Shenyang: Liaoning jiaoyu chubanshe, 1997), 114.

³Cited in Feng Chongyi, Luosu yu zhongguo [Russell and China] (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1993), 201.

⁵See Zheng Shiqu, “Wusi hou guanyu ‘xin wenhua yundong’ de taolun” [Post May Fourth Discussions on the “New Cultural Movement”], Beijing shifan daxue xuebao [Journal of Beijing Normal University], no. 4 (2010).

⁶Yuan Gang et al., eds., Duwei zaihua jiangyan ji [The Collection of Dewey's Lectures in China] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2004), 5, 17.

⁷Chen Duxiu, Chen Duxiu wenzhang xuanbian [Selected Essays of Chen Duxiu], vol. 1 (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1984), 430.

⁸Chen, Chen Duxiu wenzhang xuanbian, 438.

¹⁰Chen, Chen Duxiu wenzhang xuanbian, vol. 1, 512.

⁹Qu Qiubai, Qu Qiubai wenji [Collected Works of Qu Qiubai], Political Theory Section, vol. 1 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1987), 51, 55.

¹²Ibid., vol. 2, 119–20.

¹¹Ibid., 516.

¹³Ibid.

¹⁴Maruyama Masao, Riben de sixiang [Japanese Thought], trans. Ou Jianying and Liu Yuebing (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2009), 96.

¹⁵Li Dazhao, Li Dazhao wenji [Collected Works of Li Dazhao], vol. 2 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1984), 43.

¹⁶All citations in this paragraph from Li, Li Dazhao wenji, vol. 2, 67–68.

¹⁷Li Dazhao, “Shehui zhuyi yu shehui yundong” [Socialism and Social Movements], in Li Dazhao wenji, vol. 2, 378–80, 382.

¹⁸Chen Duxiu, Duxiu wencun [Collected Works of Chen Duxiu] (Hefei: Anhui renmin chubanshe, 1987), 273, 276–77.

¹⁹Liang Shuming, “Dongxi wenhua ji qi zhexue” [Eastern and Western Cultures and their Philosophies], in Liang shuming quanji [Complete Works of Liang Shuming], vol. 1 (Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 2005), 514.

²⁰Chen, Duxiu wencun, 277.

²¹Chen Duxiu, “Zhi Luosu xiansheng” [To Mr. Russell], in Chen Duxiu wenzhang xuanbian, vol. 2, 52.

²²Chen Duxiu, “Da Feng Jupo xiansheng de xin” [A Response to Mr. Feng Jupo's Letter], in Chen Duxiu wenzhang xuanbian, vol. 2, 83–84.

²³Yuan, Duwei zaihua jiangyan ji, 22, 60, 127.

²⁴Yuan Gang et al., eds., “Bu'ershiweike yu shijie zhengzhi” [Bolsheviks and World Politics], in Luosu zaihua jiangyan ji [Russell's Lectures in China] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2004), 13.

²⁵Zhang Songnian, trans., “Minzhu yu geming” [Democracy and Revolution], Xin qingnian [New Youth] 8, no. 2 (Oct 1, 1920).

²⁶Li Dazhao, “Shumin de shengli” [The Victory of the Common Folk], in Li Dazhao wenji, vol. 1, 594.

²⁷Li Dazhao, “Bolshevism de shengli” [The Victory of Bolshevism], in Li Dazhao wenji, vol. 1, 598–99.

²⁸Bertrand Russell, “Impressions of Bolshevik Russia”, The Nation (London), 27 (July 10, 17, 24 and 31 and Aug 7, 1920), 460–62, 493–94, 520–21, 547–48, 576–77, reprinted as part 1, chapters 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 (revised), The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1920).

³³Sun Jiaxiang, Ai Gang, and Ren Bingqiang, “Zai Shanghai qituanti huanyinghui shang de daci” [Words in response to the Seven Group Welcoming Reception], Chenbao, October 16, 1920.

²⁹“Shehui jiegou xue” [The Study of the Structure of Society], in Luosu zaihua jiangyan ji, 290.

³⁰Chen Qiwei, trans., “Luosu zizhuan” [The Autobiography of Russell], vol. 2 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2003), 124.

³¹Liang Jingchun, “Yu Luosu tongchuan zhi yifeng shu” [A letter on Being with Russell in the Same Boat], Chenbao [Morning Post], Oct 26, 1920.

³²Jin Yufu, “Jingwushi riji” [Diary of Jingwu Room], vol. 6 (Shenyang: Liaoshen shushe, 1993), 216.

³⁴Yuan, Luosu zaihua jiangyan ji, 303–4. Original text in Richard A. Rempel and Beryl Haslam, The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, vol. 15, Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919–1922 (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 264–65.

³⁵Ibid.

³⁷Chen, Chen Duxiu wenzhang xuanbian, vol. 2, 135–36. Original Text in Rempel and Haslam, The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, vol. 15, 264–65.

³⁶Cai Hesen “Cai Hesen gei Mao Zedong” [Cai Hesen Writes to Mao Zedong], in Cai Hesen wenji [Collected Works of Cai Hesen] (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1980), 72.

³⁸Ibid.

³⁹Qu, Qu Qiubai wenji, Political Theory Section, vol. 1, 52.

⁴⁰Zhang Dongsun, “Houyan” [Afterword], Shishi xinbao [China Times], July 31, 1921.

⁴¹Hu Shi, Hu Shi quanji [Collected Works of Hu Shi], vol. 29 (Hefei: Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 2003), 355–56.

⁴²Hu, Hu Shi quanji, vol. 29, 361.

⁴³Mao Zedong, “Lun renmin minzhu zhuanzheng” [On the People's Democratic Dictatorship], in Mao Zedong xuanji [Selected Works of Mao Zedong], vol. 4 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1991), 1471.