Mou Zongsan was born in 199 in Moujiatuan, Qixia County, Shandong Province, and his ancestral home is Gongan County, Hubei Province. In 1928, he was admitted to Peking University Preparatory College, and two years later he was promoted to the Department of Philosophy. China, a modern thinker and philosopher, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hong Kong. After graduating from philosophy department of Peking University, he taught logic and western culture in various colleges and universities. In 196, he was hired to give a lecture on China's philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. In 1968, he was transferred from the University of Hong Kong to the head of the Philosophy Department of New Asia College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. After retiring from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1974, he continued to teach at various universities in Taiwan Province until his death in 1995, at the age of 86.
Mou Zongsan's academic research scope includes logic, Kant's philosophy, Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties and Buddhism.
First, the person
Mou Zongsan said that the era he lived in was "uprooted and empty", and he himself was a "lonely and steep" person. He said that his articles were "placed in different places, the enlightened since the enlightenment, and the fans were fascinated by themselves." He has a famous saying, "Teenagers should be smart, middle-aged should have skill, and old age should have realm."
Mou Zongsan has deep feelings for his apprentice Xiong Shili, and Xiong Shili once commented on himself: "People call me lonely and cold, but I think people are not so lonely and cold that they can't live in harmony with the world".
Xiong Shili once said to Mou Zongsan, don't think you know it, but it's far from it. It's easier said than done.
Mou Zongsan spoke highly of Xiong Shili: "In today's world, only one person can directly connect with the great life since the Yellow Emperor and Yao Shun."
Mou Zongsan strongly disapproves of Feng Youlan's History of China Philosophy. "So I can see that all his knowledge has become a tool for gossiping and has no soul." At the same time, he also criticized Hu Shi, then president of Peking University.
Although Liang Shuming was unhappy for several times, Mou Zongsan made this comment: "After all, Mr. Liang is a gentleman who has kept his manners and is different from the common people".
second, philosophy
Mou Zongsan believes that to do a good job in philosophy, we must do the following:
first, forget the reality and fame and fortune, and act like a man, which is called "courage"
second, we are not limited to all rules, and Mou Zongsan is called "escape" and "wisdom"
third, everything.
There are two ways to work hard from philosophy, which is Plato's from the object direction and Kant's from the subject. When the subject of practice, that is, the "moral heart", is established, it really reaches the realm of "red wheel under the sea". In Engel's realm, intelligence, will and emotion have all been completed, and Mou Zongsan called it "dialectical comprehensive system".
this system must be integrated and can't be slightly wrong. Otherwise, it may lead to "shallow rationalism" and "rational materialism", and it is more likely to lead to madness like Nietzsche.
3. Religion
The result of the evolution of ancient Greek tradition is "material-based", Christianity is "divine-based", and human-based is empty. "If people are extremely upright, then God and things can get their place. If people are extremely upright, then God and things can't get their place." And "establishing human pole" is China's Confucianism.
For China's Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, Mou Zongsan made a thorough analysis: "If you look at the industry, you will know Mo Ruo Buddha, and if you look at things, you will know Mo Ruo Tao, but you will do your best to open up the source of value and establish the subject of value."
Regarding Buddhism and the times, Mou Zongsan believes that "Buddhism has no causal relationship with the viciousness of the times", "The decline and decline of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties did not fall again because of Buddhism, and the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was not due to Buddhism. I did not blame Buddhism for the decline of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, that is, I did not say that there was such a causal relationship. I only said that the number of buddhas can't cure this depravity. The reason why it can't teach and cure is not because the Buddhist is incapable, but because his mind direction is not here, because the essence of Buddhism has nothing to do with this aspect. ""Therefore, it is neither responsible for chaos nor for cure. Chaos can not be attributed to it, nor can governance be attributed to it. This is the so-called irrelevant. "
IV. Learning
As for the "learning of life", Mou Zongsan believes that "it is difficult to get in touch with the learning of life when reading western philosophy. The splendor of western philosophy is not in the field of life, but in the field of logic, knowledge and the way of thinking about concepts. So they have no good philosophy of life. " Westerners have religious beliefs, but they can't learn about life on the basis of their religious beliefs. They have the philosophy of' knowledge center', but not the life knowledge of' life center'. "
Mou Zongsan deeply feels that "the knowledge of life" is declining at this stage. "Since the Revolution of 1911, few people have paid attention to this kind of knowledge. The low awareness of moral values and the low awareness of history and culture are nothing more than this time. " "Since then, he has returned to Confucianism and reopened the knowledge of life. Inheriting Confucius and Mencius, following the late Ming Dynasty, the distortion since the Qing Dynasty can be obtained and unblocked. The Chinese nation should finally do its best to overcome hardships and stand in the world. "
In the article Water Margin, when it comes to likui jy moving his mother, Mou Zongsan said, "likui jy won't move, not likui jy; It's not likui jy who can move and move up. " The more you think about it, the more reasonable it is. Just like Baoyu and Daiyu, if Daiyu really marries Baoyu, "Is Daiyu still called Daiyu?" This is a natural tragedy, which was cast at the beginning. " . "Although the characters in Water Margin can't live our social life, when they arrive in Liangshan, they also become a Liangshan society." Speaking of the realm, in Mou Zongsan's view, "A Dream of Red Mansions is a Hinayana, Jin Ping Mei is a Mahayana, and Water Margin is a Zen." The author said that he was lucky to take the road of Confucius. "If anyone returns to the realm of the Water Margin, he will regard me as hopeless."
As for ancient politics and scholarship, Mou Zongsan often said: "There is only governance, but no governance; Only bureaucracy, but no politics ","politics is worse than adulterers, and academics are worse than celebrities ".
Regarding the learning in the West and China, Mou Zongsan believes that the learning in the West is based on "nature" and grasps nature with "reason"; China's learning starts with "life" and nourishes life with "virtue".
Mou Zongsan also criticized university education, but the university he mentioned was in Taiwan Province after 1949.
China has said since ancient times that "the way of university lies in clear morality". I would like to ask whether there is a "clear virtue" in today's university education. Today's school education is knowledge-centered, but there is no knowledge of "Ming De". The knowledge of "clearly showing virtue" is the real knowledge of "life".
V. History
The history of human beings is often open and closed, high at one time and low at another. In the article "On what exists is reasonable", the author takes China's history before Qin Dynasty as an example in the process of explaining that the historical judgment can only be drawn from the spiritual entity. From Xia Shang Dynasty to Zhou Dynasty, it was an upward development, with the formation of Zhou Wen, the formation of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the formation of Zhou Tianzi's unified cultural system. However, after the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the unity of Zhou Wen was gradually broken, the well-field system was gradually abolished, the nobles declined, and the scholars gradually prospered. From the Warring States to Qin, it actually declined (spirit). Qin Shihuang's treachery and cruelty and the lack of kindness of Legalists are all black in heart, and there is only one political skill to reward and punish the unexpected. All personality, humanity, morality, benevolence and righteousness are in occlusion. (For details, see Mou Zongsan's Philosophy of History)
As for China's learning tradition, Mou Zongsan thought it was destroyed by the Qing Dynasty, and he said with great sadness, "The real life learning is in China. But this tradition of learning has long been cut off. " So, when did this tradition end? Mou Zongsan asked himself and answered: "When was it cut off? It is cut off from Ming Wu. " , "the life and wisdom of Confucianism, since the self-evident death, has disappeared. In the 3 years of the Qing Dynasty, Confucianism was just a tradition of laws and regulations and customs. "Today's bad habits are the legacy of the bad twists and turns of the Qing Dynasty." When the West was "just plain sailing and moving towards modernization", China "was distorted by Qing Dynasty, but could not continue, so it did not develop in parallel with the West". It is usually said that China is 3 years behind, but it is actually not backward, but distorted for 3 years. Since the Republic of China, this distorted legacy is still spreading. "The 3 years of the Qing Dynasty is a great misfortune for the Chinese nation to develop into modern times. National life and cultural life have been devastated and tortuous together." Since the Ming Dynasty, people have measured knowledge for three hundred years. "In fact, it doesn't matter how high or low it is, only how many", and there are many people who talk all over the world.
"China culture has a special atmosphere, that is, it focuses on the responsibilities and obligations between people." This kind of responsibility and obligation between people comes from "the education of rites and music", from which Confucius points out benevolence and righteousness, while Mencius uses "benevolence and righteousness inside" to express goodness, and during the Song and Ming Dynasties, he obtained the theory of "mind and nature". Mou Zongsan called Wang Yangming's "mind learning" "to conscience".
There is a great difference between Mou Zongsan and Xiong Shili in their understanding of "learning knowledge by observing things". "Knowledge lies in things" first came from Book of Rites? University. Confucian scholars have always been divided on how to explain this sentence. Zhu Xi explained that acquiring knowledge depends on studying things. "If you want to know what I know, you should be poor in the immediate things." Lu Jiuyuan once thought that Zhu Xi's method of "grasping knowledge by studying things" was too "fragmented". Wang Yangming understood it as realizing conscience by overcoming selfish desires. He said in "University Question": "Those who' know' the clouds are not what the later Confucianism called to enrich their knowledge, which will make my conscience deaf." Wang Yangming once left a hidden disease in his body for life because Gezhu failed to vomit blood. The different interpretations of this sentence reflect the great differences between Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism and Wang Yangming's Mind. Xiong Shili realized the respective problems in Neo-Confucianism and Mind Studies in Song and Ming Dynasties, and found the tension between morality based on "conscience" and science based on "cognition", and advocated combining Wang Yangming's interpretation of "knowledge" with Zhu Xi's interpretation of "personality". Mou Zongsan thinks it is difficult to connect the two. Conscience must be realized, and conscience must be followed.
VI. Confucianism
Mou Zongsan is a representative of the new Confucian school. He believes that although there is no science and religion in China's Confucian scholarship, "the highest and perfect religious consciousness, spirit and realm are already contained in Confucian scholarship."
"Confucianism is not scientific, democratic and religious, but it is not anti-scientific, anti-democratic or anti-religious." Mou Zongsan agrees with this statement very much.
As for Confucius' humor, Mou Zongsan said: "Confucius has a heavy feeling without revealing its heaviness, has its sorrow without revealing its sorrow, and bears all the blame and satire without revealing its resentment. This is humor." Liu Jingting, a famous storyteller at the end of the Ming Dynasty, often used Confucius. He described it like this: "The sea turns into a mulberry field, and the mulberry field turns into the sea. My Old Master Q just orders the six classics with his eyes dim." Later, the humor of the Confucian gradually lost.
As for ancient Confucianism, Mou Zongsan believes that "in the form of absolute monarchy, the Confucian ideal is compromised, and it is a last resort, and it is based on the music of the family and the world."
mou zongsan believes that only Confucianism can develop "the knowledge of life" and "the benevolent is integrated with all things in the world".
the Confucian doctrine is to be so full and full that it can be regarded as a virtue. It is not personal salvation. Once everything is saved, everything is saved. Personal perfection, national perfection, and towering praise for education are linked together. This is inevitably involved in the benevolence of Confucian saints.
Mou Zongsan spared no effort in advocating Confucianism. At the end of the article "Religious Trends in China", he said: "I finally believe that China culture will restore its life and Confucianism will be revived."