In Memory of Four Masters with Deep Gratitude:A Story about How Tang Junyi,Mou Zongsan,Xu Fuguan and Yin Haiguang Mentored Me

Tang Junyi,Mou Zongsan,Xu Fuguan and Yin Haiguang were my masters,though they treated me more as a friend than as a pupil.They each represent an important aspect of the philosophical achievement in twentieth-century China.Tang,Mou and Xu belong to the Contemporary New Confucian School,while Yin is claimed by the liberalist camp.An encyclopedic thinker,Tang Junyi had a high respect for the ancients,yet his central concern was with morality.In order to resolve this problem he turned to both Eastern and Western intellectual traditions.He believed that for one to live a moral life his daily practice is as important as his contemplation.A great teacher with a gentle personality and a broad mind,Tang never felt tired of helping his students.Tang took it as his vocation to revive the traditional Chinese spirit and he set for the future generations a good example in nurturing his own life with spiritual resources.Mou Zongsan had received a complete training in Western philosophy.He is widely regarded as the most original Chinese philosopher with the highest achievement in the twentieth century.He was among the first who attempted to make Xinxingzhixue(Confucian moral psychology) accessible to the modern mind.To do this he developed a conceptual system compatible with Western ideas.Although informed by Western philosophy,Mou's thinking centers around the modernization of Confucian spirit,that is,how to develop from the sageliness within a new kingliness without. Mou was a proud person with high expectations of himself.Yet to his students,he was extremely caring and protective.Apart from the joy he took in being with his students,his life seemed solitary and monotonous.In the classroom Mou was the most passionate among the teachers.Systematic,methodical and highly instructive,his teaching proved most helpful for the young students.This is the reason why beside being a philosopher he had many disciples.His pace of living was graceful and gentle,which I can never imitate.I first took more interest in literature than in philosophy.It was Mou who set me on the right track.My deepest gratitude goes to my Master Mou Zongsan.I've always looked at him as my role model.What is characteristic of Xu Fuguan's work is the combination of his apologetic writings for Chinese culture and his political writings from the anti-authoritarian stance.He took profound interests in Chinese literature and art,which is rare among philosophers.Basically a self-taught scholar,Xu was extremely diligent in reading and writing.With a strong sense of mission,Xu took the responsibility of a public intellectual.That Xu never taught me how to do academic work does not change the fact that I learned a great deal from him as an intellectual.Yin Haiguang was an important representative of the free thinkers in Taiwan.With his huge influence on the liberalist camp,Yin enlightened a large number of fighters for democracy.He did not take liberalism as a mere subject for academic research,rather he looked at it as something like religion,something,in order for it to bear fruit,one need to put into practice.His is a philosophy saturated with Western ideas.Over my entire career I have kept feeling the influence through the four above mentioned thinkers from these two traditions.I am deeply indebted to these four Masters of mine,for my intellectual life is thoroughly infused with their spirits.