Abstract

My formal study of philosophy began in 1915 when I entered the Philosophy Department of Beijing University. Not only was the content of what we studied at the time composed entirely of Chinese feudal philosophy; it was furthermore still presented in the form of the various traditional topics such as, "study of the Classics," "Song dynasty studies," etc. The professor who lectured on the history of Chinese philosophy began with the legendary Three Emperors and Five Kings, and in one year of lecturing reached only as far as the Duke of Zhou [founder of the Zhou dynasty, some 500 years before Confucius]. We asked him: if your lecture method continues like this, when will you finish? He replied that there was no such thing as finishing or not finishing, that if he wanted to finish the course he could do so in a single sentence, and that if he did not want to finish it he could go on lecturing forever