The Rebirth of a Nihilist

In 1920, Zhu Qian-zhi 朱謙之, a student at Peking University, advocated the adoption of a position of nihilism and anarchism. Zhu's devotion to the study of traditional learning, in particular the teachings of Buddhism and Taoism, was influential in the formation of his position which insisted on a revolution of the cosmos. This metaphysical aspect of Zhu's thought was so pronounced that it caused Chen Du-xiu 陳獨秀 and other Marxists of the time to criticize him harshly. This controversy can be more properly regarded as harbinger of a conflict between science and philosophy, rather than as a conflict between anarchism and Bolshevism. However, at the time when Liang Shu-ming 梁漱溟 published Eastern and Western cultures and their philosophies 東西文化及其哲學, Zhu abandoned the position of nihilism and instead began to advocate a position of "emotionalism" 唯情哲學. With this position, Zhu emphasized the "current of true emotion" ; a focus that Zhu developed under the influence of Liang's Confucianism and vitalism. In other words, Zhu's position of "emotionalism" was a blend of the late-Ming Neo-Confucian teaching that "the humane man forms one body with all things under Heaven-and-earth" 萬物一體之仁, together with Bergson's "e'lan vital". In sum, this position was antithetical to the main trend of the New Culture Movement, which promoted a position of scientific inquiry, wholesale westernization, and the adoption of Marxism. Zhu's position was developed, however, in reaction to the new current of European thought which arose in connection with the reconsideration of modern science in the early twentieth century