Beijing-based Renmin University of
China enrolled the first 58 students into its new School of
Guoxue on October 16, established to reintroduce the comprehensive
study of Chinese philosophy, culture and other areas of
learning.
Since plans to open it were announced in the first
half of the year there has been much debate on how useful it would
be to focus on these studies, according to an October 22 Xinhua
News Agency report.
The term Guoxue emerged in the early 1900's, though
academics disagree on its precise definition. The linguist Cao
Bohan (1897-1959) said it served as an opposite to "Western
learning," used in the late Qing Dynasty for natural and social
sciences from Western countries.
Amid an influx of Western cultural influence in the
early 20th century, many in China who had had an almost religious
respect for tradition were forced to reconsider what they had been
taught in the past.
Unable to find a balance between the traditional
and modern, some intellectuals pinned their hopes on all-out
Westernization to find a place for China in the modern world and
Guoxue was almost lost.
Nowadays, people usually use Guoxue as a general
term for traditional Chinese culture and learning. In a broad
sense, it includes philosophy, literature, art, medicine,
mathematics; more narrowly, it refers to national cultural
heritage.
Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University, said
both the May 4th Movement (1919) and "cultural revolution"
(1966-76) dealt severe blows to Guoxue.
"Guoxue became another name for ignorance and
backwardness; it bore full responsibility for all humiliations and
disasters suffered by China in modern times," Ji said.
Tu Wei-ming, director of the Harvard-Yenching
Institute in the US, said it was terrible to regard Guoxue as
"good-for-nothing" since without a good knowledge of history, a
person cannot fully understand his or her own culture and
situation.
Ji said the School of Guoxue has been founded to
promote cultural heritage and people's confidence in traditional
culture.
Sun Jiazhou, the school's vice dean, said that
computer data processing and analysis and mathematical modeling
will be employed to carry out comparative and interdisciplinary
studies in Chinese and Western culture.
(China.org.cn by Shao Da, October 31, 2005)