A Comparison of Chinese and Western Philosophy and the Construction of Contemporary “Chinese Philosophy”

The comparison of Chinese and Western philosophy is a basic context of philosophical studies “in China” since the near-modern time, while the current morphology of constructing “Chinese philosophy” is an urgent task for Chinese philosophical circle. The systematic introduction of Western philosophy and the Chinese form of Marxism, as well as a hundred years of writing “history of Chinese philosophy”, are the historical experience worthy much emphasis and sorting. There are difficulties in further comparison, i.e., it is going far from the target of constructing the current form of Chinese philosophy by combining Chinese, Western and Marxist philosophy, and the so-called “legitimacy” of Chinese philosophy at the turn of the century. The censure comes either to the “Chinese nature” of writing “the history of Chinese philosophy”, or to the “philosophical nature” in Chinese philosophical tradition. An essential progress requires not only to break a double mistake of “Chinese non-philosophy” and “philosophy non-China” based on a true grasp of the quintessence of Western philosophical tradition, but also to realize the current development of Marxist philosophy based on a critical dialogue with the recent development of contemporary Western philosophy. It is necessary to have a re-vision of the true nature of ancient Chinese philosophical tradition with a modern way of discourse based on keeping a proper “distance” between “us” and our cultural tradition. It is also necessary to view the historical changes of Chinese social life and philosophical currents since the near-modern time with a future China as the reference. The said construction of contemporary morphology of “Chinese philosophy” may not be realized by “one person or one school” and, rather, by a wholly new ecology of academy, and a necessary development of the spirit of time in all spheres of culture and thought.