Chapter 18 to learn

The first and second volumes of Feng Youlan's "History of Chinese Philosophy" were written in 1931 and 1934 respectively. It is the first complete history of Chinese philosophy in the modern sense written by the Chinese themselves. It was translated into English by American D. Bodde .Bu De said in the article "Feng Youlan and the West" that this book has always been a common textbook for studying Chinese philosophy in universities all over the world.Before the publication of this book, there was only the first volume of Hu Shi's "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy" on the history of Chinese philosophy in China.The response of the academic community is to pay attention to and appreciate the differences between the History of Chinese Philosophy and the Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy.The response from top figures in academia was swift and enthusiastic.The first volume of the book had just been published, and Tsinghua University listed it as "Tsinghua University Series".Entering this series of books has to go through a very strict review, and the reviewers are all leading figures in the academic circle at that time.The main reviewers of Feng Youlan's book are Chen Yinke and Jin Yuelin.

When Feng Youlan visited the United States in 1946, he wrote a "Little History of Chinese Philosophy" in English, which was later translated into Chinese by Tu Youguang and published as the title. In the 1960s, Feng Youlan tried to rewrite the history of Chinese philosophy with the standpoint, viewpoint and method of Marxism. The title of the book was also called "A New History of Chinese Philosophy", and the first two volumes were published.These two volumes inevitably bear the strong characteristics of that era, but they were completely abandoned by Feng Youlan later.

In his later years, Mr. Feng Youlan reconstructed his own philosophical system.As an old man over 80, his memory is still clear.According to the memories of his last doctoral student, after Mr. Feng became visually impaired, he relied on his memory to instruct his students to assist him in compiling the book. He used his memory to ask his assistant to look up a certain part somewhere, and then the assistant read it to him. It's up to him to decide.Generally, the information he is looking for is not much different from the sources of the books he mentioned.Regarding this, he himself said: "I seem to be 'ruminating' now, chewing what I have eaten again, but I can't add much material. Therefore, the next few volumes are not big, and each volume is written briefly, and I have finished what I want to say. That’s enough, unlike some that get more revisions.”

In the 1980s, Feng Youlan was finally able to cut off the shackles of fame and fortune, give full play to his views on Chinese philosophy, and write his own "New History of Chinese Philosophy".In her later years, Feng Youlan insisted on writing "New Edition" with a breath of true energy, which was completely supported by a kind of belief: "Don't rely on others, only write about myself". After the age of 90, although Feng Youlan still started working at 9 o'clock every day, due to his limited mobility and time-consuming living, he insisted on not drinking water in the morning to avoid going to the toilet.In the last one or two years, under the escort of Zong Pu and his wife, Mr. Feng traveled between his home and the hospital more frequently. At the beginning of 1990, Feng Youlan was lying on the hospital bed, looking kindly at her daughter in front of the bed, and confided in a low voice: "Zhuangzi said, life is an appendage and hangs warts, and death is a wart ulcer; Death is okay; Zhang Hengqu said again, life, I will go along with it, no, I would rather. I have not finished my work now, so I still need to be treated. When I finish writing, I don’t need to be treated if I get sick again.” Mr. Feng What is expressed here is probably the life realm of "knowing the way of life and death" that he has advocated many times in his previous writings. In July 1990, the last volume of Mr. Feng's "A New History of Chinese Philosophy" was finalized. In November of the same year, a few days before his 95th birthday, he quietly left this world forever.