Traverses Between Cognitive Consonance and Existential Crisis: Notes on Jiang Menglin’s Pragmatist Notion of Rensheng Guan and His Views on Suicide from 1919

The article explores Jiang Menglin’s philosophy of life and his notion of rensheng guan (“view on life”) in the period between his studies in the USA and the year of the May Fourth events in 1919. In the first part, the paper traces the origins of Jiang’s idea back to the then-prevalent version of pragmatism propagated by John Dewey and other pragmatist thinkers gathered at Columbia University, while in the subsequent parts it aims to illuminate the later developments of Jiang’s own version of pragmatism in the context of the May Fourth intellectual discourse. While the article aims at presenting a positive outline of Jiang’s philosophy, it also endeavours to expose its less explicit aspects through its apophatic (exposition by negation or denial) expositions in Jiang’s writings from the period. Finally, it focuses on Jiang’s contributions to the debate on suicide that developed after Lin Deyang’s suicide in November 1919.

1. Bodenhorn, Terry (2002). "Chen Lifu's Vitalism: A Guomindang Vision of Modernity Circa 1934." In: Terry Bodenhorn (ed.), Defining Modernity: Guomindang Rhetorics of a New China, 1920-1970. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 91-123. CrossRef

2. Chen, Duxiu 陳獨秀 (1919). "Zishalun: sixiang biandong yu qingnian zisha" 自殺論: 思想變動與青年自殺 [Theory of Suicide: Intellectual Change and Suicide in Youth]. Xin qingnian 新青年 7:2, 1-13.

3. Dessein, Bart (2020). "The Heritage of Taixu." Asian Studies 8:3, 251-77. CrossRef

4. Dewey, John (1909). Moral Principles in Education. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

5. Dewey, John (1910a). How We Think. Boston, New York: D. C. Heath & Co. Publishers. CrossRef

6. Dewey, John (1910b). The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and Other Essays on Contemporary Thought. New York: Henry Holt and Company. CrossRef

7. Dewey, John (1916a). Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan.

8. Dewey, John (1916b). Essays in Experimental Logic. Chicago: University of Chicago. CrossRef

9. Dewey, John (1973). John Dewey: Lectures in China, 1919-1920. Translated and edited by Robert W. Clopton and Tsuin-Chen Ou. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii. CrossRef

10. Durkheim, Émile (2002). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Edited by Georg Simpson, translated by John A. Spaulding and Georg Simpson. London and New York: Routledge & Keegan Paul. CrossRef

11. Furth, Charlotte (2002). "Intellectual Change: From the Reform Movement to the May Fourth Movement, 1895-1920." In: Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-Fan Lee (eds.), An Intellectual History of Modern China. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

12. Guo, Hua-qing 郭華清 (2000). "Jiayin shiqi Zhang Shizhao de zhexue sixiang - tiaohelun" 甲寅時期章士釗的哲學思想 - 調和論 [Zhang Shizhao's Philosophical Thought in the Period of Jiayin (The Tiger) - The Theory of Harmony]. Supplement to the Journal of Sun Yatsen University (Social Science Edition) 20:3, 150-62.

13. Huang, Chun-chieh (2019). The Debate and Confluence between Confucianism and Buddhism in East Asia. Göttingen: V&R Unipress. CrossRef

14. Huang, Chun-chieh (2020). "Between Humane Governance and Hegemony: A Study of East Asian Confucian Discourse on Guan Zhong and Related Questions." International Communication of Chinese Culture 7:4, 411-43. CrossRef

15. Hu, Shi 胡適 (1919). Shiyan zhuyi 實驗主義 [Pragmatism]. Nanjing: Xueshu jiangyan hui.

16. Hu, Shi 胡適 and Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1920). "Yi nian lai xuechao zhi huigu he xiwang: Women duiyu xuesheng de xiwang" 一年來學潮之回顧和希望：我們對於學生的希望 [A Look Back and Hopes One Year after Student Protests: Our Hopes for the Students]. Xin jiaoyu 新教育 2:5, 89-94.

17. Hu, Shih (1922). The Development of the Logical Method in Ancient China. Shanghai: The Oriental Book Company.

18. Jiang, Menglin [Monlin Chiang] (1918a). A Study in Chinese Principles of Education. Shanghai: Commercial Press, Ltd.

19. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1918b). "Ouzhan hou zhi jiaoyu" 歐戰後之教育 [Education after the European War]. Xin minde 新民德 3:2, 10-12.

20. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1918c). "Jiaoyu yu zhiye" 教育與職業 [Education and Vocation]. Dongfang zazhi 東方雜志 15:12, 149-50.

21. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1918d). "Jinhua shehui de renge jiaoyu" 進化社會的人格教育 [Society-evolving Character Education]. Jiaoyu zazhi 教育雜志 10:6, 79-82.

22. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1918e). "Geren zhi jiazhi yu jiaoyu zhi guanxi" 個人之價值與教育之關係 [The Relationship of the Value of the Individual to Education]. Jiaoyu zazhi 教育雜志 10:4, 59-62.

23. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919a). "Xin jiu yu tiaohe" 新舊與調和 [The New and the Old and Their Mediation]. Jiefang yu gaizao 解放與改造 1:5, 76-9.

24. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919b). "Duwei zhi lunlixue" 杜威之倫理學 [Dewey's Ethics]. Xin jiaoyu 新教育 1:3, 38-45.

25. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919c). "Xuesheng zizhi" 學生自治 [Students' Autonomy]. Xin jiaoyu 新教育 2:2, 19-22.

26. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919d). "Gexing zhuyi yu geren zhuyi" 個性主義與個人主義 [Individuality and Individualism]. Jiaoyu zazhi 教育雜志 11:2, 27-29.

27. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919e). "Gaibian rensheng de taidu" 改變人生的態度 [Changing the Attitude towards Life]. Xin jiaoyu 新教育 1:5, 1-4 [451-54].

28. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919f). "Tuoersitai rensheng guan" 托爾斯泰人生觀 [The Tolstoian View on Life]. Xin jiaoyu 新教育 2:1, 1-6.

29. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919g). "Xuechao hou qingnian xinli de taidu ji lidao fangfa" 學潮後青年心理的態度及利導方法 [Psychological Disposition of the Youth after Student Protests and the Optimal Method of Guidance]. Xin jiaoyu 新教育 2:2, 113-18.

30. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1919h). "Beida xuesheng Lin Deyang jun de zisha: jiaoyu shang shengsi guantou de da wenti" 北大學生林德揚君的自殺：教育上生死關頭的大問題 [Peking University Student Lin Deyang's Suicide: The Big Question of the Juncture between Life and Death in Education]. Xinchao 新潮 2:2, 349-50.

31. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (1927). "Geming shidai zhi qingnian" 革命時代之青年 [The Youth in the Age of Revolution]. Qingbai 青白 1:1, 8-9.

32. Jiang, Menglin 蔣夢麟 (2004). Jiang Menglin zizhuan: Xichao yu xinchao 蔣夢麟自傳：西潮與新潮 [Jiang Menglin's Autobiography: Tides from the West and New Tides]. Beijing: Tuanjie chubanshe.

33. "Jiangxueshe huanying Luosu zhi yanci" 將學社歡迎羅素之演詞 [Welcome Speech for Russell at the Chinese Lecture Society]. Jiaoyu gongbao 教育公報 7:12, 23-24.

34. Lau, D. C. trans. (1992). The Analects. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.

35. Lee, Ming-huei (2020). "The Problem of 'Inner Sageliness and Outer Kingliness' Revisited: On the Controversy Raised by Yu Shiying's Work Zhu Xi's Historical World." In: Jana S. Rošker (ed.), Modern and Contemporary Taiwanese Philosophy: Traditional Foundations and New Developments. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 22-38.

36. Li, Guannan (2012). "Cultural Policy and Culture under the Guomindang." In: Arif Dirlik, Guanna Li, and Hsiao-pei Yen (eds.), Sociology and Anthropology in Twentieth-century China: Between Universalism and Indigenism. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 109-37. CrossRef

37. Liu, Changlin 劉長林 (2008). "Lin Deyang zisha de yiyi" 林德揚自殺的意義 [The Meaning of Lin Deyang's Suicide]. Wuhan ligong daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban) 武漢理工大學學報 (社會科學版) 21:4, 574-78.

38. Lu, Kexia 魯克霞 (2008). "Minguo qianqi zisha wenti yanjiu zhi tanxi (1912-1930)" 民國前期自殺問題研究之探析 [An Analysis of the Discourse on Suicide in the Early Republican Period (1912-1930)]. MA thesis. Hangzhou: Suzhou University.

39. Luo, Jialun 羅家倫 [Zhixi 志希] (1919a). "Shi qingnian zisha haishi shehui sha qingnian" 是青年自殺還是社會殺青年 [A Suicide of a Young Person or the Society's Murder of Youth]. Xinchao 新潮 2:2, 346-48.

40. Luo, Jialun 羅家倫 [Zhixi 志希] (1919b). "'Chushi'?" 出世? [Withdrawing from the World]. Xinchao 新潮 1:4, 682-84.

41. Ma, Yong 馬勇 (1997). Jiang Menglin jiaoyu sixiang yanjiu 蔣夢麟教育思想研究 [A Study of Jiang Menglin's Educational Thought]. Shenyang: Liaoning jiaoyu chubanshe.

42. Nelson, Eric S. (2020). "Zhang Junmai's Early Political Philosophy and the Paradoxes of Chinese Modernity." Asian Studies 8:1, 183-208. CrossRef

43. Rošker, Jana S. (2021). "Chinese Philosophy of Life, Relational Ethics and the COVID-19 Pandemic." Asian Philosophy 31:1, 64-77. CrossRef

44. Vrhovski, Jan (2020). "From Mohism to the School of Names, from Pragmatism to Materialist Dialectics: Chinese Interpretations of Gongsun Longzi as a Text and Source of Chinese Logic, 1919-1937." International Communication of Chinese Culture 7:4, 511-38. CrossRef

45. Wang, Jessica Ching-Sze (2007). John Dewey in China: To Teach and to Learn. New York: State University of New York Press.

46. Wang, Lei (2019). John Dewey's Democratic Education and Its Influence on Pedagogy in China, 1917-1937. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. CrossRef

47. Wang, Song 王頌 (2018). "Cong Taixu dui Chen Duxiu 'Zisha lun' de piping guankui qi rensheng zhexue" 從太虛對陳獨秀《自殺論》批評管窺其人生哲學 [A Look on Taixu's Philosophy of Life from the Perspective of His Critique of Chen Duxiu's "Theory of Suicide"]. Beida foxue zazhi 北大佛學雜志 1, 212-26.

48. Zhang, Junmai 张君劢 et al. (1997). Kexue yu renshengguan 科學與人生觀 [Science and the View on Life]. Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe.

49. Zhang, Xueqian 張學謙 (2017). "Tuise de 'chongbai': wusi moqi zhishi qingnian jiazhi xingxiang de fenqi yu chonggou" 褪色的 '崇拜'：五四末期知識青年價值形象的分歧與重構 [Fading "Worship": The Divergences and Reconstructions of Images of Value in Intellectual Youth of the Late May Fourth Period]. Xiandai Zhongguo wenhua yu wenxue 現代中國文化與文學 23:4, 139-54.