In the very beginning, philosophy was not the first choice for Cheng Zhimin; but now, any philosophy-related topics will turn this humble professor from Hainan University into a chatterbox, as if he is not talking about a discipline, but a close friend with whom he could have immersive in-depth conversation.
Working Hard for Academic Excellence
Cheng Zhimin’s fascination with philosophy dates back to the 1990s. After over 30 years of study, he has published more than 100 articles and 40 books now, including 10 monographs, 15 co-translations, and over 20 compilations.
“Hainan is a good place for study. The picturesque scenery, comfortable climate, and relaxing atmosphere are all incredibly suitable for philosophical mediation.” In the eyes of Cheng Zhimin, Hainan is no longer an isolated island where the great poet Su Shi “disappeared on a little boat and spent the rest of his life drifting along the rivers and seas”, but a new starting point for an “epic journey full of opportunities”.
After he joined Hainan University in 2017, Cheng Zhimin has dug increasingly deep into philosophy. However, he started to feel that “the more he knows, the less he knows”.
“I always hold a belief that academic research is a long journey which requires generations of hard work. However, China’s contemporary journey started merely over 100 years ago, with the famous ‘learn from the foreigners in order to gain command of them’ and the ‘sorting out the traditional civilizations’ campaigns as the starting point. There is still a long way for us to go to reach comprehensive prosperity.” Cheng said.
Pythagoras in the Pre-Socratic period invented the concept of "philosophy" at an early stage, but its meaning seemed quite different from today. It stands for a lifestyle featuring the pursuit of wisdom, rather than any “discipline” or “major” in today’s world. “In this regard, philosophy is the ancient Classics.” Cheng Zhimin points out that, Classics involves a wide scope of knowledge and is closely related to literature, historiography, and philosophy. In China, any knowledge domain relevant to ancient times can be called Classics, such as Chinese Classics Studies, Philology, Historiography, etc. To put it simply, philosophy and Classics complement each other.
Nurture the Soul for Education
In his articleColors of Soul, Cheng Zhimin mentions that “in ancient times, philosophers and poets were soul painters and nurturers”. Despite all the conflicts, philosophy and poetry are not life-or-death enemies. Instead, they are actually competing with each other for the role of nurturing people’s souls. In this sense, they’re more like allies.
Cheng believes that helping people get out of the increasingly severe survival crisis is a fundamental task for philosophers. Society transformation involves multiple aspects, but education always remains the top priority. In other words, we need to train people to think and act benevolently and wisely.
“In classical political philosophy, education always comes first.” Just as farmers cultivate their crops, human nature needs to be cultivated through education. The Chinese civilization has lasted for thousands of years, and the underlying reason is that its “poetic, historical, ritual, and musical” heritage has provided rich nourishment for contemporary education. Chinese people have not only mastered dialectics through the saying “try to see what is not right in those whom we love, and try to find what is good in those whom we hate”, but also learned history through the story “Confucius taught the truth originally handed down by the ancient Emperors Yao and Shun; and he adopted and perfected the system of moral laws established by the Emperors Wen and Wu”.
“Be a man of virtue before you become a man of deeds.” Cheng Zhimin believes that education is not just about teaching people how to succeed, but more importantly how to set lofty goals. With the goal of “learning for the rise of China”, everyone shall definitely overcome all the technical difficulties such as learning methods.
Seek Answers for Self-exploration
As his fascination with classical German philosophy gradually switched to ancient Greek philosophy, and his admiration for Immanuel Kant turned to Socrates, Cheng Zhimin has gone through a significant transition from “extensive reading” to “intensive reading”.
Without a solid knowledge base, some beginners may find learning philosophy quite daunting, just like planting a tree in a desert. They may feel all the efforts are in vain so soon quit reading. Cheng Zhimin says that “You have to trust yourselves and believe that every effort pays off”. Knowledge is like a giant tree and every cell has its own function. The root, though deeply buried under the ground, actually plays a vital role in the tree’s survival. Also, knowledge is like salt in the soup and air in the lungs. It’s intangible but not non-existent. The more knowledge you acquire, the more “water and soil” you’ll conserve.
Extensive reading helps us find our interests. Otherwise, we have to stumble in the dark. The purpose of reading is not to prove others’ (especially the ancients’) fault or wisdom; instead, we need to know how the world really works and how insignificant we are through reading. In doing so, we can raise our own questions for others to answer, thus to solve the current problems.
“Philosophy is the gymnastics of mind, a lifestyle, and a lifelong career, because learning itself is a lifelong process.” Cheng Zhimin points out that modern knowledge has become increasingly professionalized and segmented with giant barriers between disciplines. Against such a backdrop, philosophy as a comprehensive discipline can overcome this over-segmentation shortcoming. Closely related to multiple disciplines such as literature, historiography, politics, economics, and law, philosophy is developed from the basic knowledge in the fields of humanities and social sciences. Therefore, intensive reading of literature, historical, political, and legal works is actually studying philosophy in a broad sense. The word “philosophy” literally means “pursuit of wisdom”. As long as we’re studying something useful with the hope of acquiring wisdom during this process, we are all studying philosophy.
