HICCS 2025

This panel explores the intersection of culture, innovation, and religion in Chinese intellectual history.

Xiaoning Yang
Tsinghua University, Ph.D Student

题目：
论“综合创新”的文化观——以张岱年、成中英为例

摘要：
在中国近现代的思想文化流变中，张岱年先生主张文化“综合创新”，其哲学理论在于“唯物、理想、解析，综合于一”，立足中国本位博采众长创造新文化，体现了中国近现代思想史中的思想激荡，中、西、马的交汇与合一，力图在哲学思想上对处于文化转型期、面临内忧外患困境、社会变革风雷激荡的中国，开出一剂引领实践的思想良方。基于比较哲学的视角，成中英先生的本体诠释学，吸取了《易经》的精华，主张“和谐化的辩证法”，对于“中国哲学的重建”与“中国哲学的现代化与世界化”也提出了独到见解，“综合”就是体认不同的事物与观点以达到一个整体思考并表现出一个整体的秩序，“创造”则是有意识的提出整合不同事物的了解及不同观点的思维和认识，须将综合的创造与创造的综合融为一体，赋予中国哲学所包容的人生与人性之经验与体验以理性的语吉与理性的表达方式，方能为世界做出普遍性的贡献。两者的思想有相通之处，可来对比论证分析东西古今的“综合创新”的文化观之流变。

Peter Boros
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest & University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Ph.D Student, Fulbright Visiting Student Researcher

Title:
Taixu on Christianity. Corpus analysis of the master’s Collected Works

Abstract:
As one of the key Chinese Buddhist reformers of his time, Master Taixu’s 太虛 works have been analyzed through numerous angles. One topic, however, received less scholarly attention so far. This is his understanding of Christianity. A few analyses have been written in Chinese and English addressing the topic, notably the works of Darui Long, Yu-Shuang Yao and Richard Gombrich, as well as Xue Yu 學愚, Wang Ying 王鹰 and Zhang Jingde 張金德. However, these analyses mostly focus on one particular aspect of the master’s approach, such as his criticism of Christian theology, or Christianity’s practical features he incorporated into his own reforms. Xue Yu provides an excellent account of the evolution of the master’s views, however that account can also be augmented. Therefore, this paper and the author’s broader work sets out to fill this crucial gap in the literature and provide a comprehensive account of Master Taixu’s views and understanding of Christianity. This particular paper would present the results of the author’s recent research conducted jointly with a data scientist colleague, which set out to analyze the Collected Works of Master Taixu 太虛大師全書 in relation to Christianity, utilizing corpus analysis. In our analysis, we segmented the complete corpus into 5 million Chinese characters, and after reassembling them into words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters, we could launch inquiries into the mentions of Christianity within the corpus. The main results of the analysis are as follows. We located all texts, writings and speeches, where the master mentions Christianity. These number a surprisingly high amount, namely 264 individual texts out of the 1447 total, which is the largest amount compared to the mentions of other religions besides Buddhism within the corpus. The differences in his discussion of various religions also became apparent through the analysis of key words he used in relation to them. For Christianity, what stood out, was the prominent mentioning of philosophy, science and research, which was lacking in the discussions of other religions. Then, we also determined the dates when the texts on Christianity were produced and established a timeline demonstrating the results. This timeline clearly shows when Taixu focused more on Christianity, such as right after his yearlong European and North American journey. Finally, we also collected the spatial information regarding half of all texts in the corpus, including all text about Christianity, and thus could create a series of maps which present when and where Taixu wrote his articles and gave his speeches regarding Christianity compared to the entirety of his works. These maps, we also uploaded to a webpage to enable further research on the topic open access, which the author would present at the conference as well. Hence, the author strongly believes that the present paper could contribute to the scholarly discussion regarding Master Taixu’s views and the increased understanding of Buddhist–Christian dialogue in early 20th century China.

Hsiao-Hui Chang
Center for General Education at Chung Yuan Christian University, Assistant Professor

Title:
Exploring Lao She’s Christian Faith through His Literary Creation

Abstract:
In 1922, Lao She (1899-1966, originally named Shu Qingchun, and courtesy name Sheyu) was baptized as a Christian at the Gangwashi Church of Beijing. After embracing faith, he chose the courtesy name “Sheyu”(舍予), which not only splits his surname “Shu”(舒) into two parts but also embodies the spirit of self-sacrifice found in Jesus Christ. Subsequently, all his writings on Christianity were signed “Shu Sheyu.” It is noteworthy that Lao She placed greater emphasis on the establishment of the church in China than on the spiritual development of Christians. Scholars have described this type of believer as “social evangelicals,” characterized by a patriotism that outweighs their devotion to God. They believed in demonstrating the concrete contributions of religion to society through secular means. This perspective led to another value: prioritizing “this life” over “eternal life.” Lao She not only expressed this viewpoint in his writings on religion but also explored the balance between the two through various characters in his novels. This paper will first examine Lao She’s considerations regarding the balance between “nation” and “Lord” in his plans to build a Chinese church. It will then elaborate on his interpretations and applications of biblical texts, and finally analyze his multifaceted views on Christianity through his literary works.