The most outstanding historian of philosophy and philosopher of modern China, known as the Master of the Three Pine Hall. He reconstructed Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism using the analytical methods of Western logical positivism, creating the "New Rational Learning" system. During the flames of the War of Resistance, he wrote the "Six Books of Zhenyuan" to rebuild national cultural confidence. His most celebrated contribution is the "Four Realms of Life" theory—distilling spiritual awakening into four ascending stages: the Natural, the Utilitarian, the Moral, and the Heaven-Earth—providing a highly original theoretical framework for the modernization of Chinese philosophy.
Feng Youlan, courtesy name Zhisheng, a native of Tanghe in Henan. In 1915 he entered the Philosophy program at Beijing University, influenced by Hu Shi and Liang Shuming. In 1919 he went to study in America, entering the graduate program at Columbia University and studying under the pragmatist philosopher Dewey, receiving his PhD with "A Comparative Study of Life Ideals." He returned to China and taught successively at Zhongzhou University, Guangdong University, and Yenching University. From 1928 he taught in the Philosophy Department of Tsinghua University, later serving as dean of the College of Arts. During the war, he followed Tsinghua south to serve as dean of the College of Arts at the National Southwestern Associated University. Amidst the flames of war and the peril of the nation, he wrote the "Six Books of Zhenyuan"—New Learning of Principle, New Discussion, New World-Instruction, New Original Person, New Original Dao, and New Knowledge-Words—using "Zhenxia Qiyuan" (from truth below, new origin arises) to express hope for national revival. These six books established his position as a major representative of modern New Confucianism. After 1949 he remained on the mainland, teaching at Beijing University and devoting himself to reinterpreting the history of Chinese philosophy through Marxist lenses. His two-volume History of Chinese Philosophy and seven-volume New Compilation of the History of Chinese Philosophy remain classics in the field. His lifelong scholarship aimed, as he put it, to "elucidate the old state to assist the new mandate," integrating Chinese and Western philosophical traditions.
Feng Youlan uses logical analytical method to demonstrate four metaphysical logical concepts—"principle, qi, Supreme Ultimate, Non-Ultimate." Principle is the formal specification of why things are as they are; qi is the concrete realization of things; the Supreme Ultimate is the totality of all principles; the Non-Ultimate is the undifferentiated state before principle and qi divide. New Learning of Principle does not commit these concepts to actual existence but treats them as logical postulates for explaining the world, thereby transforming traditional Neo-Confucianism into a logic-analytical metaphysics. In life philosophy, he proposes the famous "Four Realms of Life": the Natural Realm (acting on instinct without awareness), the Utilitarian Realm (acting for self-benefit), the Moral Realm (acting for the social whole), and the Heaven-and-Earth Realm (consciously flowing with the cosmic great transformation, establishing the heart for heaven and earth)—four levels of progressive ascent, with the Heaven-and-Earth Realm as the ultimate destination of spiritual development. His learning aims at the ideal of "reaching the highest illumination while following the way of the Mean," seeking to bridge the most abstract philosophical speculation and the most everyday life practice.
"Elucidate the old state to assist the new mandate. Reach the highest illumination while following the way of the Mean. One must experience the beauty of the cosmos in the Heaven-and-Earth Realm. — New Original Person (Xin Yuan Ren)"
How does Feng Youlan's placement of the ultimate awakening in the "Heaven-Earth Realm"—merging into the cosmic flow and serving the transformation of Heaven and Earth—offer a profound handshake with modern Western ecological philosophy and the consciousness of universal oneness?
Feng Youlan constructs his metaphysical system through logical concepts; Hegel unfolds the self-movement of Spirit through dialectic. Both are committed to presenting the totality of philosophy through rigorous rational systems.
Can systematic rational philosophy genuinely capture the totality of existence? Do the grand philosophical systems of Feng Youlan and Hegel represent the peak of philosophy or its greatest temptation?
Feng Youlan takes the Heaven-and-Earth Realm as the highest level of human awakening; Kant takes the moral law as the ultimate destination of practical reason. Their settings of life's highest realm present different paths: unity of heaven and humans versus rational autonomy.
Is the highest human aspiration unity with the cosmos or rational moral autonomy? Do the different highest realms of Feng Youlan and Kant represent complementary visions or fundamental incompatibility?
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