The lecture of “The Characteristics and Spirits of the Pre-Qin Philosophers” was successfully held

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By Li Tingting. November 15th, 2014.

At 6:00 pm, on Nov 13th, 2014, a lecture themed on “The Characteristics and Spirits of the Pre-Qin Philosophers” was given by Xu Keqian, Professor of Nanjing Normal University to the Law School teachers and students in the meeting room on the third floor of the administration building. Professor Xu has been teaching and researching Chinese philosophy and traditional culture for many years, especially being good at the knowledge about the characteristics and spirits of the Pre-Qin philosophers. Because of a good command of English, Professor Xu can write and teach in English. Furthermore, he has published nearly fifty articles in Chinese or in English, such as “Chinese Traditional Thoughts and Culture”, “Comparison between Chuang tzu and Thoreau”, some of which have been reprinted for many times by publications. The lecture was hosted by Zhou Yan, CCP Deputy Secretary of SHUFE Law.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Xu gave us a gross introduction about the backgrounds which promoted the academic development at that time. According to Professor Xu, the following aspects were included. First, the productivity is increasing rapidly and the social interests are needed to be adjusted again. Second, the royal family gets more and more weak leading to the scrambling for power among governors. Third, the need to resolve social and cultural crisis is required. Last but not least, free talking environment is also in favor of the academic development in that tumultuous society. In the second part, Professor Xu mainly talked about the thoughts and works of some representative philosophers. Lao tze, who wrote one of the world classics named “The Tao Teh King” whose publications are only after “The Bible”, is the representative of The Taoist Professor Xu highly praised Lao tze for his thought of complying with nature and doing nothing to get something, and he said it was especially of great importance in modern society. Confucius is the representative of The Confucian, being regarded as “Saint” in Chinese traditional culture. Confucius’s quotations are collected by his disciples to compile “The Analects of Confucius”. In the opinion of Professor Xu, Confucius pays much attention on social reality and prefers to solve problems from the perspective of existing surroundings. What’s more, Professor Xu told us that the portrait of Confucius was carved on East Gable Relief of the Supreme Court of the United States, Moses and Sauron are the others, which fully suggests the important role Confucius plays on the development of global thoughts.

During the following part, Professor Xu gave us a brief introduction about the main problems Pre-Qin philosophers focused on at that time, national governance, daily life and the development of economy and culture education were included, which are closely linked to both the country’s stability and the residents’ daily life. When talking about the relations among “Human Nature, Ethics and Moral”, Professor Xu thought that human nature was not only “the Existing Nature”, but also “the Supposed Nature”. The Supposed Nature is always missed in Chinese traditional culture. In addition, Professor Xu pointed that “Tao” in China was different from “Truth” in foreign countries. People constructed Tao which was not existed before, while Truth was just founded by some people. But if Tao and Truth can be in a complementary relation, the development of culture will get more steps forward. Then Professor Xu sang a song of praise to Pre-Qin philosophers for their valuable academic characteristics and spirits. For one thing, they observed the objectivity of moral and they learned to be honest. For another, they never fawned on and echoed dignitaries as their agents as well as never catered to the secular. What’s more important is that they appealed to people for question and innovation bravely. They also encouraged people to have the courage to criticize and be active in debate. Professor Xu called on students to inherit and carry on the academic spirits in order to make better contribution to our nation and society.

After Professor Xu’s interpretation about the characteristics and spirits of the Pre-Qin philosophers, some students raised questions about this aspect. Professor Xu gave them detailed and satisfying answers. The lecture ended up with warm applause.

Published：2014-11-18 Hit：451