Background
Li, Shizen was born in 1892 in Lilin County, Hunan Province, China.
Marxist Nietzschean Bergsonian
Li, Shizen was born in 1892 in Lilin County, Hunan Province, China.
Studied in Japan, and later travelled to France and Germany (from 1928 to 1930).
Professor, Jinan University, Daxia University, Shanghai: Zhongshan University, Guangzhou. Editor of Min Duo and other important reviews.
Li was an ambitious and restless intellectual drawn to new ideas and to the comparative study of Oriental and Western systems of thought. Although unsystematic in his own writing, he was a gifted and energetic expositor whose critical assessments of Nietzsche, Bergson, and many other leading figures of the day helped to acquaint Chinese opinion with new European intellectual currents. He also wrote about Chinese thinkers, both historical and contemporary. His first enthusiasm, for Nietzsche and Bergson, issued in an exposition and defence of Nietzsche’s philosophy. Li was mainly concerned with questions in the philosophy of life and culture. His method was comparative, with broad surveys of Eastern and European figures and systems leading to a concluding statement of his own favoured stance. His Philosophy of Life (1926) preferred Oriental to Western philosophies of life and showed the influence of Confucian thought. His trip to France and Germany in 1928 to immerse himself in European intellectual culture led to a radical conversion to Marxist dialectical materialism. In Principles of Philosophy (1933). Li followed his standard procedure of considering all modern systems of philosophy before declaring dialectical materialism the best. Li’s early work, discussing Nietzsche, Bergson and other modern European figures for a Chinese intellectual audience, was his most important.