Correspondence - Winston Fan to Sorokin
-
-
Correspondence - Winston Fan to Sorokin
-
c/o Alexander Hwong, 49 Peking Road, 3rd flr., Kowloon, Hongkong. June 22, 1952, Dear Sir,I have received your kind reply for one and a half month but did not write to you for my illness. I am a young man of twenty-seven years of age. In the last five years, I had been a Fabian Socialist and taken part in the revolution against the Nationalist and the Communist. I was born in a poor family and taught by my adopted father how to get knowledge as well as to be a man. My adopted father, I think, is one of the most learned man in modern China, but he never wished to be famous on a certain account. He always told me the method for studying the Chinese culture, the co-relations and fluctuations of Buddhisn, Taoism and Confucianism, and the possible evolution of world cultures. Since the conquest of the Reds, I left the mainland, but the grim realities always oppressed upon me, I have to study them and to find ways for them. When I began my research on the economic system or the Chinese Communists at the end of 1950, I had to realize it more deeply and wholly. How urgent and thirst I was for searching books and theories which would help me to understand the real essence of the Chinese and western Cultures. But I was quite disappointed for a long long time till I found your Dynamics in the local American Library. The happiest, I think, is that one can find a theory which can help him for solving his difficulties. Your method for study, and the theory of the three systems of culture I think, is very easy to be understood by the Chinese people, for they have been baptized for nearly three thousand years by the Idealistic and the Ideational Cultures. The development of modern Chinese history is the confliction of those three kind of cultures. I am not sure that I can fully understand every detail of your books, for I am not quite familiar with the fluctuations of the Western history, but I am very glad that it gives me so much inspirations to understand the Chinese Culture, above all, on the Chinese Communists. If it grants me I want to begin my study on the dynamics of the Chinese social and cultural development. I think the conclusion and advocation deriving from the dynamics of society and culture will be correct, sublime and practical. Here I present you the short introduction of your Dynamics, which I made in the local magazine:
-
-
Correspondence - Winston Fan to Soroki
-
World Cultures are going to Be United --A primary Introduction of Sorokin's Theory: 1, the study by a revolutionist, 2, the topics of the four volumes of the Dynamics. 3, Sorokin's method. 4, the three systems of Culture. 5, his basic view on the Western Culture and his efforts for it. 6, Sorokin’s theory and the study and reconstruction of Chinese Culture. The magazine, Freedom Front, is one of the organs of the Chinese third force. My idea about the Dynamics is that: 1, if we want to save China, to suggest a new theory and a new way for her, we must follow Sorokin’s way, to study the society and culture deeply and completely. 2. The Western Culture is going to the new Idealistic and Ideational boundary, and the Creative Altruism, I believe, will be the Mentality for it, for it is very natural to think of the Love, life-giving force after one had read the Dynamics. The new Mentality will make those three old kinds of cultures united as an integrated one. The modern selfish Sensate Culture Mentality is going to surrender to the Altruism. The conclusion is not come from one's fancy but from the evolution or the past. The idea, the three kinds of cultures, I think, is inspired from Socrates’ which is shown in Plato's dialogue. Love, life-giving force, I think, is based on the spirit of Crucifixion. 3, Almost all the modern Chinese scholars did not realize the meaning of an Integrated culture. Some of them discussed the difference between the Western and Chinese cultures only through philosophy, while others only on social fluctuations. They did not study the culture from an integrated point of view. There is one Chinese Classical philosopher in Honkong ( a Neo-Confucianist) still want to link the Chinese and Western Cultures through a traditional idea---"Chinese philosophy be the body and Western Philosophy (means the science) to be the function". One of the causes I think of the Modern Chinese tragedy is due to the that the scholars had never understood the division of those three kind of culture Mentality. What they did know is but a part, or a disintegrated culture. 4, It is very correct and convenient to study the Chinese Culture by means of the division of those three systems, above all, by using the functional-meaningful method. But I think the fluctuation of the modern Chinese history is opposite to the West. West is going to the boundary of Ideational sublime, but the Chinese Culture is going to practical sensate. Why Communism conquer China? The fundamental cause is that: Buddhism and Taoism, purely ascetic Ideational Mentality could not perform the practical activities; they escaped from the sensate world. At the same time, the Idealistic Mentality, the Neo-Confucianiate could not reconcile the "Heavenly Reason" with the "Human Desires". They always advocated that one should keep one's heavenly reason and wipe one's desires out; they could not integrate both reason and desires as their predecessors. So the philosophy of the Neo-Confucianists was very like the Sub-Cultural
-
-
Correspondence - Winston Fan to Soroki
-
Mentality. (Moreover, the reason, there is no feelings nor love in it, it is purely a form.) The long Iong, long time of the Chinese people’s self-modification was unnatural, unfree, hence, as soon as the meeting of the East and West, after the incessant blows by the Western Sensate Culture, the Chinese people are very easy to become those three patterns of Sensate Culture Mentality. The spirit of the Nationalists, most of them are the followers of the Neo-Confucianists, is sub-cultural too, so, the Three Principles of the People could not resist the aggression for Communism, the Active Sensate Culture Mentality based on public property. 5. , You and your students are going to lead the Western Culture from the Senate to a new Idealistic, but, I think you will not give up the true value of the Sensate, your idea is to make the Senate premises under the replacement and controlling of the new Idealistic, so the reconstruction of the Chinese culture should be based on a new idea. The modern Sensate Culture coming from the West should be integrated with those Idealistic and Ideational Mentality. The new pattern of Culture Mentality should be based on a new idea. The modern Sensate Culture coming from the West should be integrated with those Idealistic and Ideational Mentality. The new pattern of Culture Mentality should be in accord with the Ideational and Idealistic, the sublime boundary, meanwhile, it should be also be in harmony with the becoming and progressing Sensate. The old Ideational and Idealistic Mentality should be recorrected if they cannot be in harmony with the Sensate, for these is too much vacancy of sensate in Chinese Culture. What the Chinese philosophers did in the past, were to unite and to recognize both the Ideational and Idealistic Cultures, their aim was “both to attain the sublime and to perform the common activities, “but according to my opinion, their achievements were neither sublime nor common, for they could not unite those two different worlds into an integrated one. They were indulged in the depth “Heavenly Reason” and “Intuitive Knowledge”, but no feelings, no emotions in it. The future possible evolution of Chinese culture will be this: “Both to attain the sublime and to perform the practical affairs.” The practical affairs are referred to moral and sensate while the common activities are only referred to moral. This will be a new kind of Ideational Culture Mentality. The idea is gradually emerged in my mind. I believe that the meeting of the West and East as they both go for Ideational or Idealistic Integration will lead thaw world to a new peace.Hongkong meeting place of two camps or the world, but it is no thought here. Nearly all the noted scholars are forced to be silent either under the ideology remoulding of the Reds, or under the dictatorship of the Kuomintang. The duty, to study knowledge and to take revolution, falls upon the shoulder of the people in Hongkong. We are the seeds of knowledge and of revolution for new China. So we are very eager to research, to find truism. My friends and I are going to issue a manifesto all the noted named “New Sphere for the March of Academic Worker”. In the next step, we are trying to form a free society in order to being our collective study. What we are beginning to do are as follows:
-
-
Correspondence - Winston Fan to Soroki
-
1. To understand the West: to study its systems, its cultures, and its possible fluctuations. In this aspect, we will introduce the leading ideas in the West to our fellow countrymen. The first work is to introduce your theory. 2. To criticize the old Chinese Culture: value and wipe out its defects. 3. To understand the Communist, the Nationalist, the Soviet Union and the development of modern Chinese history. 4. To criticise the prevailing thought in modern China and to find a new revolutionary way for our Chinese people. This year, I will do with all my efforts to introduce your Creative Altruism if I can fully understand it. Now I am going to divide the Dynamics into several problems and shall introduce one after another. Please tell me which books represent your central idea and how can I introduce it. There is a broad discussion in the town on your theory after the introduction was issued. Most of them are young men. I have written to Black Co. for the condensation of your books, but no reply yet. My book "On the Economic System of the Chinese Communist will be published very soon, I would like to present you a copy in order to listen to your guide. I know you are very busy in research and affairs, so I humbly hope to correspond with one of your students if you kindly permit me. (I hope he will be a young man also). Please kindly correct my errors. With Best Wishes, Yours respectfully, Winston Fan
