A Spiritual Evolutionism: Lü Cheng, Aesthetic Revolution, and the Rise of a Buddhism-Inflected Social Ontology in Modern China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4727558Keywords:
evolutionism, Buddhist soteriology, aesthetics, May Fourth New Culture Movement, anti-realism, social philosophy, YogācāraAbstract
This study examines the early career of the renowned Buddhologist Lü Cheng as an aspiring revolutionary. My findings reveal that Lü’s rhetoric of “aesthetic revolution” both catapulted him into the center of the New Culture Movement and popularized a Buddhist idealism—Yogācāra (consciousness-only school)—among thinkers who sought alternatives social theories.
Lü aimed to refute social Darwinism and scientific materialism, which portray humans as mechanized individuals bereft of moral agency. He theorized an anti-realist social ontology, i.e., a social oneness grounded in intersubjective resonances, from which subjective interiority and objective exteriority arise.
Lü turned to Buddhism to further his revolution. Buddhist soteriology supplied powerful tools for theorizing the social: The doctrine of no-self refuted philosophical solipsism and curtailed individualism; dependent-origination refashioned social evolution as collective spiritual progress. Lü’s spiritual-evolutionism-cum-social-ontology broadens the field of Buddhist philosophy that has a long-standing blind spot on social philosophies developed in the Global South.
References
Ansell-Pearson, K. 2015. ‘Beyond Obligation? Jean-Marie Guyau on Life and Ethics.’ Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 77: 207¬225.
An, Y. 1997. ‘Liang Shuming and Henri Bergson on Intuition: Cultural Context and the Evolution of Terms.’ Philosophy East and West, 47 (3): 337–362.
Aviv, E. 2008. Differentiating the Pearl from the Fisheye: Ouyang Jingwu (1871-1943) and the Revival of Scholastic Buddhism. PhD Dissertation. Harvard University.
Aviv, E. 2014. ‘Ouyang Jingwu: From Yogācāra Scholasticism to Soteriology.’ In John Makeham (ed.), Transforming Consciousness: Yogācāra Thoughts in Modern China, pp. 285–317. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baker, K. 2012. Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on French Political Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Barnard, G. W. 2011. Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Behrent, M. C. 2008.1. ‘Le débat Guyau-Durkheim sur la théorie sociologique de la religion: une nouvelle querelle des universaux?’ Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 53 (142): 9–26.
Behrent, M. C. 2008.2. ‘The Mystical Body of Society: Religion and Association in Nineteenth-Century French Political Thought.’ Journal of the History of Ideas, 69 (2): 219–243.
Benjamin, W. 1996 [1921]. ‘The Task of the Translator.’ In M. Bullock and M. W. Jennings (eds.), Walter Benjamin Selected Writings Volume 1, 1913–1926, pp. 253–263. Cambridge: Belknap Press.
Bergère, M. 1989. The Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie 1911–1937. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bru, S., Somigli, L., and van den Bossche, B., (eds.) 2017. Futurism: A Microhistory. Cambridge: Legenda.
Canales, J. 2015. The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Chang, K. 2017. ‘“Ceaseless Generation”: Republican China’s Rediscovery and Expansion of Domestic Vitalism.’ Asia Major, 30 (2): 101–131.
Cheng, G. 程恭讓 2000. Ouyang Jingwu foxue sixiang yuanjiu 歐陽竟無佛學思想研. Taibei: Xinwenfeng Chubanshe.
Ciaudo, J. 2013. ‘Introduction à la métaphysique bergsonienne en Chine. Échos philosophiques et moralization de’ intuition.’ Noesis, 21: 293–328.
Ciaudo, J. 2016. ‘Bergson’s ‘intuition’ in China and its Confucian Fate (1915–1923): Some Remarks on Zhijue in Modern Chinese Philosophy.’ Problemos, 2016: 35–50.
Deleuze, G. 1988. Bergsonism. Translated by H. Tomlinson and B. Habberjam. New York: Zone Books.
Donzelot, J. 1984. L’invention du social: essai sur le déclin des passions politiques. Paris: Fayard.
Duiker, W. J. 1977. Ts’ai Yüan-P’ei: Educator of Modern China. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Furth, C. 2002. ‘Intellectual Change: From the Reform Movement to the May Fourth Movement, 1895–1920.’ In M. Goldman and L. O. Lee (eds.), An Intellectual History of Modern China, pp. 13–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gildow, D. 2018. ‘Reforming Buddhism to Save China: Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940), Religion, and “Protecting the Nation through Buddhist Teachings” (1900).’ Asia Major, 31 (2): 107–148.
Goossaert, V. and Palmer, A. D. 2011. The religious question in modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gvili, G. 2015. In Search of the National Soul: Writing Life in Chinese Literature 1918-1937. PhD Dissertation. Columbia University.
Hijikata, T. 2001. ‘On the Aesthetics of Abe Jirō.’ In M. Marra (ed.), A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics, pp. 197–203. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Hammerstrom, E. 2015. The Science of Chinese Buddhism: Early Twentieth-Century Engagements. NYC: Columbia University Press.
Hammerstrom, E. 2010. ‘The Expression “The Myriad Dharmas are Only Consciousness” in Early 20th Century Chinese Buddhism.’ Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal, 23:71–92.
Harding, F. J. W. 1973. Jean-Marie Guyau, 1854–1888, Aesthetician and Sociologist: A Study of His Aesthetic Theory and Critical Practice. Genève: Droz.
Husserl, E. 1970. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Translated by D. Carr. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Kiely, J. 2014. The Compelling Ideal: Thought Reform and the Prison in China, 1901–1956. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kristeller, P. O. 1951. ‘The Modern System of the Arts: A Study in the History of Aesthetics.’ Journal of the History of Ideas, 12: 496–527.
Lai, H. 1993. Les études sur Henri Bergson en Chine, 1913–1941. Thèse de Doctorat. Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Lagerwey, J. 2010. China—a Religious State. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Lambourne, L. 1996. The Aesthetic Movement. London: Phaidon.
Lawlor, L. and Leonard, V. M. 2016. ‘Henri Bergson.’ In E. N. Zalta (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2016 Edition) [online]. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/bergson (Accessed: December 2018).
Lin, C. 1997. ‘Metaphysics, Suffering, and Liberation: The Debate Between Two Buddhisms.’ In J. Hubbard and P. Swanson (eds.), Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm Over Critical Buddhism, pp. 298–313. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Lin, C. 2014. ‘Lü Cheng’s Uncompromising Quest for Genuine Buddhism.’ In J. Makeham (ed.), Transforming Consciousness: Yogācāra Thoughts in Modern China, pp. 346–352. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lin, C. 2018. ‘Qixinlun yu xiandai Dongya zhutixing zhexue—yi Neixueyuan yu Xinrujia de zhenglun wei zhongxin de kaocha’ 《起信論》與現代東亞主體性哲學—以內學院與新儒家的爭論為中心的考察. Hanyu foxue pinglun, 6: 3–24.
Makeham, J. (ed.) 2014. Transforming Consciousness: Yogācāra Thoughts in Modern China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mcdermott, J. 2015. ‘The Village Quartet.’ In J. Lagerwey and P. Marsone (eds.), Modern Chinese Religion I: Song-Liao-Jin-Yuan (960–1368 AD), pp. 169–228. Leiden: Brill.
Moore, C. (ed.) 1967. The Chinese Mind. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Murthy, V. 2011. The Political Philosophy of Zhang Taiyan: The Resistance of Consciousness. Leiden: Brill.
Murthy, V. 2019. ‘Toward a New Universality: Mizoguchi Yūzō and Postwar Japanese Intellectual History.’ China and Asia, 1 (2): 274–281.
Nedostup, R. 2009. Superstitious Regimes: Religion and the Politics of Chinese Modernity. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center.
Ōishi, M. 大石昌史 2005. ‘Abe Jirō to kanjō inyū bigaku’ 阿部次郎と感情移入美学. Tetsugaku, 113 (3): 93–130.
Owen, A. 2004. The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Shino, Y. 志野好伸 2009. ‘Testugaku no kyōkai kakutei: Kindai Chūgoku ni okeru Berukuson juyō no ichi rei’ 哲学の境界画定—近代中国におけるベルクソン受 容の一例. Chūgoku testugaku kenkyū, 24:146–162.
Stueber, K. 2018. ‘Empathy.’ In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2018 Edition) [online]. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2018/entries/empathy (Accessed: December 2018).
Tillemans, T. 2017. ‘Dharmakīrti.’ In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2017 Edition) [online]. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/dharmakiirti/ (Accessed: December 2018).
Wang, F. 王汎森 2001. Zhongguo jindai sixiang yu xueshu de xipu 中國近代思想與學術系譜. Shijiazhuang Shi: Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe.
Wang, H. 2018. China’s Twentieth Century. London; New York: Oxford University Press.
Westbrook, R. B. 1991. John Dewey and American Democracy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Wu, X. 吳先伍 2005. Xiandaixing de zhuiqiu yu piping—Bogesen yu zhongguo jindai zhexue现代性的追求于批评—柏格森与中国近代哲学. Hefei: Anhui renmin chubanshe.
Yao, B. 姚彬彬 2014. ‘1921–1922 nian Zhang Taiyan, Lü Cheng, Li Jinxi lunxue shujian kaoshi’ 1921–1922年章太炎, 呂澂, 黎錦熙論學書簡考釋. Foxue yanjiu, 23: 326–339.
Yang, N. 2019. Wusi de ling yimian: ‘shehui’ guannian de xingcheng yu xinxing zuzhi de dansheng 五四的另一面: ‘社會’觀念的行程與新興組織的誕生. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe.
Ying, L. 2018. Shadows of Karma: Buddhism, Literature, and the modern Chinese Revolution. PhD dissertation. Harvard University.
Yü, Y. 1994. ‘The Radicalization of China in the Twentieth Century China.’ In Tu Weiming (ed.), China in Transformation, pp. 125–150, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Zhang, Z. 張志強 2012. Zhu Lu, Kong Fo, xiandai sixiang 朱陸孔佛現代思. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Jessica Xiaomin Zu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
