Feng Youlan

Feng Youlan was a Chinese philosopher and historian of philosophy who studied at Columbia University and taught for decades at Tsinghua and Peking universities. His History of Chinese Philosophy presented the Chinese tradition systematically in terms that could be compared with Western philosophy, and it remains a standard reference. In his own philosophy, the 'new rational philosophy', he reworked Cheng–Zhu Neo-Confucianism with tools drawn from Western logic, and he is counted among the founders of modern New Confucianism.

Key ideas

• Chinese philosophy can be presented as a systematic history of arguments and schools comparable to Western philosophy.
• His New Rational Philosophy reconstructs the Neo-Confucian concepts of principle (li) and material force (qi) with the help of logical analysis.
• Human life can be understood through ascending spheres or levels of understanding, culminating in a 'heaven-and-earth' sphere.

Major works

• A History of Chinese Philosophy (Zhongguo zhexue shi, 1931–1934)
• New Rational Philosophy (Xin lixue, 1939)
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (1948)

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