Chapter 68 "Comprehensive Westernization" and "Full Globalization"

At the beginning of 1935, ten professors including Sam Mengwu and He Bingsong published a "Declaration on China-based Cultural Construction", which aroused the attention of cultural figures in China, and started discussions on Chinese and Western cultures. In February, "Independent Review" published Wu Jingchao's article "Construction Issues and Eastern and Western Cultures". ②Wu divides his attitude towards Eastern and Western cultures into the eclectic school, the overall Westernization school, and the retro-style school.He called himself an eclectic, and focused on criticizing Chen Xujing who advocated "total Westernization"; he believed that Hu Shi, like Professor Shi, was also an eclectic.Soon, Mr. Chen Xujing also published "Answer to Mr. Wu Jingchao on Overall Westernization" in "Independent Review", also saying that Hu Shi was an eclectic school.However, he believes that Hu Shi's whole thought, "although it cannot be classified as a comprehensive westernization school, but a branch of the eclectic school", but if Hu Shi's proposition is considered to be the same as the ten professors who returned to "the middle school is for the body and Western learning". Like the manifesto, it is also "a bit wronged".Therefore, he "hopes that Mr. Hu will give us an answer." ③

In fact, Hu Shi had already made a point of view on this issue. In 1929, he wrote an article for the English-language "Christian Year-book" (Christian Year-book) entitled "The Cultural Conflict in China Today."In that article, he used two words with different meanings, one is Wholesale westernization, which can be translated as "Wholesale Westernization"; the other is Wholehearted modernization, which can be translated as "Full modernization" or "Full modernization". .Although the meanings of these two words are different, Hu Shi's attitude is clear: he opposes both the revivalists who "resist Western culture" and the disguised conservatism of "choose a compromise".But now, Wu Jingchao and Chen Xujing both said that he was an eclectic, and even said that he was an eclectic with the same tune as Professor Shi, so he was naturally a little unconvinced.Therefore, he immediately answered Chen and Wu, expressing his attitude towards this discussion on Eastern and Western cultures.He said:

I advocate total Westernization.But I also pointed out that culture has its own kind of "inertia", and the result of overall westernization will naturally have a tendency to compromise. ... People nowadays talk about "compromise" and "China's standard", which is empty talk.There is no other way to go at this time, but to try to accept the new civilization of this new world in its entirety.Accept it completely, and the "inertia" of the old culture will naturally make it an eclectic new culture based on China.If we self-proclaimed leaders also talk about compromises, the result will be nothing but resignation.The ancients said: "If you take the law from the top, you can only get the middle; if you take the law from the middle, the wind will go down." This is the most interesting truth.We might as well try our best to go to extremes, and the inertia of culture will naturally drag us towards compromise and harmony. ④

Although Hu Shi stated that he "completely agrees with Mr. Chen Xujing's theory of total westernization" and opposed the theory of eclecticism, his understanding actually tended to a theory of natural eclecticism in history. More than ten days later, Hu Shi published the article "A Trial Comment on the So-called "China-Based Cultural Construction", ⑤ what he said was the historical view of opposing compromises but acknowledging natural compromises.He sharply criticized Professor Ten's manifesto, pointing out that the so-called "China-based cultural construction" is just the latest version of the "Chinese learning for the body and Western learning for use" of the Westernization School Reform School in the late Qing Dynasty; One of the most fashionable expressions ofAlthough Professor Ten declared that he was "unconservative", in fact, "their conservative psychology is sheltered under the smokescreen of compromise and harmony."Hu Shi disapproved of the eclecticism in Professor Ten’s manifesto, on the one hand, because it could be used as a smokescreen for stubborn forces such as He Jian and Chen Jitang who advocate worshiping Confucius and reading scriptures; on the other hand, it is because the culture of every nation is extremely conservative. (that is, inertia), no matter how drastic the changes are, "the fundamental conservatism of the inherent culture must not be wiped out at all", and the "China standard" will not be shaken in any case.Therefore, he concludes:

The inertia of China's old culture is really terrible, and we just don't have to worry about the "China standard".Those of us who are willing to look forward should humbly accept this world culture of science and technology and the spiritual civilization behind it, let that world culture fully contact with our old culture freely, learn from each other freely, and use its vigor and vigor to destroy some of us. The inertia and stagnation of the old culture.There is no doubt that the crystallization product of great cultural changes in the future will of course be a Chinese-standard culture.If there are really priceless treasures in our old culture that can withstand the washing and impact of external forces, then that indelible part of our culture will naturally flourish in the future due to the washing of science and culture.

In short, at a time when we have only accepted a little bit of the world's culture, talking about "creation" is a big deal, and talking about compromise is enough to add a fashionable smokescreen to the stubborn forces. He opposed talking about compromises only in order to oppose the ultra-conservative diehards.What he himself clearly advocates is still the natural eclecticism of history, which is close to the eclecticism in essence, but contradicts "total westernization".Therefore, in this article, Hu Shi no longer used the slogan of "total westernization".

In June of this year, Hu Shi published an article in which he said that "total Westernization" was indeed a linguistic flaw, and he simply abandoned the term "total Westernization" and suggested "full globalization" instead.He said: We have to admit that strict "total westernization" in terms of quantity is not easy to establish.Culture is only the way of life of the people, and it cannot be free from the restrictions of the people's economic conditions and historical habits everywhere. This is the cultural inertia I mentioned before.Although you believe that "Western food is more hygienic", in fact, we must not expect everyone to eat Western food and use knives and forks instead.Moreover, Western culture does have a lot of historically inherited elements, which we are not only rationally unwilling to adopt, but in fact we will never adopt them in their entirety. ... These issues, if you say "total Westernization", are all controversial issues, and if you say "full globalization", they may not be a problem.

Since then, Hu Shi has openly compromised with eclecticism.Under the slogan of "Full Cosmopolitanization", he explicitly declared: "Wu Jingchao, Pan Guangdan, Zhang Foquan, Liang Shiqiu, Shen Changye...these gentlemen are of course our comrades, not our opponents"; even "we can welcome the ten professors after the 'General Answer' to be our comrades." Whether it is "total westernization" or "full globalization", it is inseparable from Hu Shi's views on Chinese and Western cultures, and it is a concrete reflection of his understanding of Chinese and Western cultures.There is no substantial difference between the two slogans.

How to evaluate Hu Shi's views on Chinese and Western cultures is a rather complicated academic issue, which can be written into a special book. We can only point out a few points here that are relevant to this article: First, as a bourgeois scholar, Hu Shi can observe and compare Eastern and Western cultures from the perspective of world culture, and understand the superiority and advancement of modern Western culture and the decay and backwardness of traditional Chinese culture. "Praise the modern civilization of the West", actively advocate the cultural revolution, and advocate the free importation of Western culture in order to get rid of the inertia and stagnation of our traditional culture.This obviously has the revolutionary significance and enterprising spirit of anti-patriarchal autocracy.

Second, Hu Shi is also a historian who can understand the complexity of cultural development, communication, and evolution and the characteristics of nationalities from a historical perspective.He adopts a critical attitude of "re-evaluating all values" to Chinese traditional culture, and advocates "sorting out the national heritage" and distinguishing the "national quintessence" from the "national dregs".He spared no effort to attack the decay of the old culture; and he also affirmed and praised Laozi and Confucius, Song Confucianism and Qing Confucianism, and vernacular traditional novels.Western culture can sometimes see its "historical conventional elements".This makes his understanding more realistic and scientific.

However, thirdly, Hu Shi was limited by the prejudice of the bourgeoisie, which constrained his world vision, so he only praised Western bourgeois culture, while rejecting the latest achievement of Western scientific thought-Marxism; it also constrained his history. Therefore, he denies the irreconcilable contradiction between patriarchal absolutism, imperialism and the Chinese people, and believes that the backwardness of Chinese culture is only due to the sins committed by the ancestors. It is impossible to understand that the people's revolution against imperialism and patriarchal autocracy is the fundamental way to solve China's cultural problems. Fourth, Hu Shi’s metaphysical way of thinking advocates “desperately going to extremes” on Chinese and Western cultural issues: praising Western culture makes everything good and over-beautifies it; criticizing Eastern culture makes everything bad, “everything is worse than people.”This is a concrete manifestation of the rightward development of formalism during the May Fourth era. The above-mentioned advantages and disadvantages, correctness and limitations of Hu Shi's views on Chinese and Western cultures basically determine the strengths and weaknesses of the two slogans of "total westernization" and "full globalization".The most notable of these is the tendency toward national nihilism.Hu Shi worshiped and even superstitiously believed in Western culture. In June 1928, he wrote "Please Look in the Mirror", seeing the gap between China and the United States, the gap between Chinese and Western cultures, and advocated that Chinese people should be aware, blame themselves, work hard, learn from the strengths of the West, and oppose " The inclination of "exaggerated maniac" is naturally good; but Hu Shi showed an extreme sense of national inferiority complex in the face of American civilization, and his words were too harsh. He said: "We must admit that we are inferior to others in everything, not only materially. Human beings are not only inferior to human beings mechanically, but also inferior to human beings in social morality." ⑦ Hu Shi's concept of national inferiority has been expressed many times, and the most typical one is the article "Introducing My Own Thoughts", in which he said : In the past, the Orientals also made utensils and made a little civilization of making use of their wealth.But the lazy descendants of the later generations muddled along, refused to use their hands and brains to fight against the material, and made up the lazy philosophy of "do not change the sky with others", so they were soon defeated by the material.When the weather is dry, you can only pray for rain; when the river is dry, you can only worship the Golden Dragon King; When the wind and waves are strong, we will only pray to Guanyin Bodhisattva or Tianhou.When the famine came, we had to flee to famine; when the plague came, we had to close our doors and wait for death; when we were sick, we had to ask God to make a wish.When the trees are cut down, we have to burn thatch; when the mountains are gone, we have to sigh at them.Such a stupid and lazy nation, unable to conquer the material, was completely crushed to death under the material environment, and became a non-progressive nation that looked like a human and nine times like a ghost. ⑧ Although the prayers for gods, superstition, fleeing from famine, plague, and destruction of mountains and forests criticized here are all facts; the backwardness of our national culture and the ignorance and numbness of the people are also facts; but Hu Shi did not analyze the complex social roots that caused this ignorance and backwardness However, we frivolously mocked our entire nation as "stupid and lazy" and "a non-progressive nation that looks one part like a human and nine parts like a ghost." This is too outrageous and will hurt the national self-esteem of the Chinese descendants. However, Hu Shi often used some harsh words, which seemed to completely negate the national culture. In fact, they were mostly angry words. In his heart, he wanted to advocate an attitude of self-reflection and self-reflection, and opposed the impetuous and ignorant "exaggeration" tendency of the Chinese people. Hu Shi was identified as a national nihilist.He once wrote a letter to Wu Zhihui, saying, "Mr., I deeply sympathize with the pessimism of the Eastern peoples. Five or six years ago, I also expressed my emotion that 'China will not perish, and the world is irrational'. This time, I circled the earth in a small circle,— —I have never watched the immature peoples in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea——I am more convinced that the rise and fall of a nation is not a matter of accident or luck; looking back at our nation, I can only bow my head and sigh!" What kind of national self-pity And nihilism! However, Hu Shi still had hope for the future of the nation. In fact, he did not fully agree with Wu Zhihui's pessimistic view and nihilism, so he said: However, I couldn't bear to have a little "good dream".I firmly believe that with a little effort, there will be a half-point effect, maybe five-tenth effect. "Eating hard work for nothing" is nothing; whether we can see or not see the harvest is nothing. ⑨ In Hu Shi's view, some immature nations in the world have superficial roots and often cannot afford to be persecuted by the environment, and often become the sacrifice of the environment; while a nation like ours "has always had a great history, as long as it has the determination to catch up quickly, it will eventually return." There is a chance of survival and self-reliance", "this is what makes us most optimistic about the future". ⑩ Such understanding and attitude are obviously not something that national nihilists can possess. ① See the Shanghai monthly "Cultural Construction" published on January 10, 1935.The "ten professors" listed are: Wang Xinming, He Bingsong, Wu Gan, Sun Hanbing, Huang Wenshan, Tao Xisheng, Zhang Yi, Chen Gaoyong, Fan Zhongyun, and Sa Mengwu. ② Contained in "Independent Review" No. 139, published on February 24, 1935. ③ See "Independent Review" No. 142, published on March 17, 1935. ④ See "Editor's Postscript" No. 142 of "Independent Review". ⑤ "Trial Comments on the So-called "China-Based Cultural Construction"", originally published in Tianjin "Ta Kung Pao Weekly Papers" on March 31, 1935, reprinted in "Independent Review" No. 145; later included in the first episode of "Recent Works on Hu Shi's Studies" , published by Shanghai Commercial Press in December 1935; the quotations in this section are based on the third edition of April 1937, pages 552-557. ⑥ Originally published in Tianjin "Ta Kung Pao? Weekly Papers" on June 30, 1935, and later included in the first episode of "Recent Works on Hu Shi's Studies".For the following quotations, see Shanghai Commercial Press, April 3, 1937, p. 561. ⑦ See "Three Collections of Hu Shi's Essays", Shanghai Yadong Library, June 1931, Edition 3, Volume 1, p. 47. ⑧Ibid., Volume 5, Pages 638-639. ⑨See "Selected Correspondence of Hu Shi", Beijing Zhonghua Book Company, May 1979 edition, Volume 1, pp. 468-470. (Third Edition Note) ⑩ "Reading Mr. Liang Shuming's "Eastern and Eastern Cultures and Their Philosophy", see "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", Shanghai Yadong Library, March 6, 1929, Volume 2, p. 84. (Third Edition Note)