About the Legitimacy of “Chinese Philosophy”

The Chinese academic circle has been beset by the problem of the legitimacy of “Chinese philosophy” for more than a hundred years, and the the problem is hitherto put up time and again. The importance of this issue lies at that it is essentially related to any modern discourse concerning the cultural tradition in China. The difficulty comes out from that the word “philosophy” originating from the Western academy is in itself highly unstable, and that, especially, whether this loanword could be suited to the legitimate discourse of the traditional learning in China. Facing with the opposition of “China—philosophy” and “China—non-philosophy”, it is highly necessary to probe the basic area of this opposition, and the word “legitimacy” belongs to it. For a given stage, the absolute power of modernity not only forms a given liaison of “China—philosophy”, but also makes it inevitably enter in explaining modern discourse. In a basic context of “world history”, “philosophy” in its simple form means the stem of culture, the maternal body of thought, and the kernel of spirit. Although such an expression is yet to referring to substantial content and difference, it is because they specifically refer to the pivot of cultural tradition, so that they arouse high vigilance and long time suspicion. From this point, the so-called problem of legitimacy is the self uncertain by “China—philosophy”, which conforms to the “apprenticeship” of Chinese academy in general since the beginning of modern time. To solve this problem, it relies on the whole academics to get rid of its apprenticeship manner and acquire “self proposition” in a given stage, just as the final solution of this issue in basic areas must rely on the development of historical practice itself.