The Translation of Ethics: The problem of Wang Guowei

Wang Guowei's translations of utilitarian ethics and education theory reveal clearly the role that he played at Education World and as a Chinese intellectual. His participation in the public discourse fit into the plans of Luo Zhenyu both at the journal and later at the Ministry of Education of the late Qing government. Those theories of ethics and education Wang and Luo introduced became the main axis of Chinese ethical thought throughout the twentieth century; they defined the terms in which the subject related to society or the state. This essay points out that, during his exploration of the limits of Western and classical Chinese ethics, Wang’s own philosophical writings at the time analyzed the limitations of dualism in the ethical discourse both in the West and in Chinese classical philosophy. Wang demonstrated a critique of utilitarianism and life-ism (生生主義) that was popular at the time. As well as a critique, he also developed an aesthetic and ethical view: no-life-ism (無生主義).