Background
Zhang Dainian was born in 1909 in Hebei Province, China.
张岱年
historian of Chinese philosophy
Zhang Dainian was born in 1909 in Hebei Province, China.
Beijing Normal University.
Professor. Qinghua University. Professor, University of Beijing. President, Society for the Study of the History of Chinese Philosophy.
As a widely respected philosopher in China’s leading department of philosophy. Zhang Dainian took part in debates in the 1950s concerning the value of continuing the study of traditional Chinese philosophy under Communist rule. At a time of intellectual reorganization under tight ideological control inspired by the Soviet figure A. A. Zhdanov, he argued that ancient Chinese thought could be studied by Marxist methods because, contrary to received opinion, it had many features in common with Western thought. In particular, he sought to legitimate such study by tracing a progressive materialist pattern in Chinese philosophy. Rather than rejecting the whole Chinese intellectual and moral past, he argued that scientific and democratic views of past philosophers could be retained. He also argued that traditional moral ideas could be accepted, at least those which, although retained throughout class-divided history, had their origin in primitive classless society. His general programme and his detailed analysis of such ancient figures as Mozi and Xunzi contained distortions and confusions in response to the extreme pressures of the times, but his work also displayed subtle and persuasive argument. Zhang’s cautious defence of traditional thought within a Marxist perspective helped to allow Marxist and nonMarxist colleagues alike to continue work on traditional thought after the crucial exchanges of the 1957 Symposium on Chinese Philosophy.