Background
Zhang, Binglin was born in 1868 in Yuhang, Zhejiang Province, Taiyan.
Zhang, Binglin was born in 1868 in Yuhang, Zhejiang Province, Taiyan.
Studied the Chinese classics in Yuhang and the classics, philology and history with Yu Yue in Hangzhou.
1896-1898, staff member, Current Affairs Journal. 1898, staff member of Zhang Zhidong. 1902-1903, teacher of sinological studies.
Patriotic Society school, Shanghai. 1906-1908, Editor, the Tongmenghui journal Xlinbao. 1906-1908. Leader, Restoration Society revolutionary party and other political groups.
Posts under Sun Zhongshan and Yuan Shikai. Editor, the journal Huaguo. Head, Zhangshi guoxue jiang yansuo private school.
Suzhou; Editor, magazine Zhiyan.
Zhang Binglin Zhang Binglin, who was also known as Zhang, was a major political figure acting to overthrow the Qing dynasty and an outstanding commentator on the Confucian classics and other ancient Chinese philosophy. He also developed his own philosophical system. His early political collaboration with Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei in the late 1890s ended over his rejection of Kang’s devotion to maintaining the monarchy. In 1900 Zhang cut off his queue to display his unwillingness to cooperate with monarchists seeking reform within the framework of the Qing dynasty. Several times he was forced to seek safety in Taiwan and Japan, where he instigated the formation of anti-Manchu patriotic organizations imbued with a sense of Chinese history and a devotion to anti-Qing revolution. Upon his return to Shanghai in 1902 Zhang joined Cai Yuanbei and others in radical educational projects, which also provided a focus for secret revolutionary work. In this period he taught sinological studies at the Patriotic Society school. His anti-Qing articles in the newspaper Subao led to imprisonment in Shanghai, after which he returned to Japan to edit the journal Minbao for Sun Zhongshan's revolutionary party Tongmenghui. Zhang’s growing discontent with Sun led to an unsuccessful attempt to remove Sun as head of the Tongmenghui. In 1910 Zhang was elected head of a rival revolutionary party, the Guangfuhui, or Restoration Society. After the 1911 revolution Zhang resigned from the Tongmenghui and formed parties and groupings challenging the Tongmenghui and its successor, the Guomindang, in the unstable politics of early Republican China. Zhang served China’s first Presidents. Sun Zhongshan and Yuan Shikai, but conflict with Yuan led to his house arrest from 1913 until Yuan’s death in 1916. Zhang lectured abroad to overseas Chinese. Upon his return unsuccessful missions for Sun’s Guangzhou government led to Zhang’s retirement from political life in 1918. Zhang’s great strength as a scholar grew out of his training with Yu Yue in philology and textual criticism. Zhuangzi's views and daoist suspicion of civilization and the state led to early opposition to Confucianism, but he later became a leading commentator on the Confucian classics, supporting the traditional old text school of interpretation against Kang Youwei’s advocacy of new text interpretation. He was especially devoted to Zuo's Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. His interest in Buddhist writings led to influential studies comparing the daoist writings of Laozi and Zhuangzi with the Buddhist text Jushe Weitun. Buddhist, daoist and Western idealism influenced his mature systematic philosophy. He held that a single underchanging hidden principle underlies all perception and that subjective perceptions require no objective world to explain them. His analysis of perception, influenced by Kant, combined categories derived from rational thought and empirical representations. Although Zhang wrote several superb works in philology and linguistics, the most important for philosophical study is his Discussions of Chinese Classics, showing how linguistic knowledge is crucial to understanding classical texts. He used Indian, Western and ancient Chinese logic to develop a sophisticated theory of names. He was also interested in ancient Chinese legal and ethical codes as central to Chinese culture, with a special concern for rites of mourning. Zhang wrote traditional prose and poetry of great distinction. He strenuously opposed the vernacular movement begun by Hu Shi. but by the end of his life this movement had displaced Zhang's own style from the centre of literary life.