Marxist philosophy, Western philosophy and Chinese tradi-tional philosophy are three independent and yet interrelated philo-sophical trends in the 20th century Chinese academic and cultural world. I refer to this as the "Great Triangle". Dealing properly with this interrelationship is of great importance for the development of Chinese culture and the modernization of China.

Chinese philosophy has its own characteristics as an impor-tant part of Chinese culture. It has been believed generally that Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are three major schools of Chinese philosophy. Among these Confucianism is the main one as it played a leading role for more than two thousand years from the Han dynasty to the revolution of 1911. Taoism and Buddhism pros-pered only at one time and their role and influence never surpassed those of Confucianism. As a foreign culture and religion origi-nating from India, Buddhism could not have taken root and exerted social influence in the Chinese cultural world unless Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism had been assimilated and fused with one another. So traditional Chinese philosophy is always summed up as the two schools of Confucianism and Taoism, while the former is seen as the principal representative of, and even as synonymous with, Chinese traditional philosophy.

With Confucianism as its main body, traditional Chinese philosophy depends upon and serves the clan system centered on honoring the emperor, esteeming the ancestors and caring for one’s parents -- which is in perfect harmony with the closed natural eco-nomic system of which agriculture is the main part. Confucianism may be regarded as the ideal manifestation or epitome of this kind of social structure and economic base. Li Chiao at the core of Confucianism focuses on defending hierarchy and yet restricting the privileges and mediating the contradictions through such ideas as Jen (human kindness) and Hsiao (filial piety). Traditional Con-fucian philosophy is thus a kind of ethics and philosophy of life, having played active as well as positive roles in Chinese social and cultural development. It became the tool for justifying the feudal autocratic monarchy and hindered the growth of science and pro-ductive forces in China.

Western science and culture spread gradually in China after the Opium War (1840) and forcefully challenged traditional Con-fucianism. Early in 20th century, with the Revolution of 1911 and the May 4th New Culture Movement, traditional Confucianism was attacked intensely by a large number of progressive intellectuals and radical thinkers. During the twenties and thirties of this cen-tury, more and more Chinese intellectuals introduced and popu-larized Western philosophy in China, among which pragmatism was especially influential. But early in 20th century the greatest impact on Chinese society was the introduction and spread of Marxism. From the 1920’s on the "Great Triangle" appeared in the Chinese philosophical arena, in which the traditional Confucianist philosophy was defeated and Marxist philosophy emerged as the winner. The victory of Marxism is due to the fact that the Chinese communists combined Marxism tactically with Chinese social and revolutionary practice; they made of Marxism an ideological weapon against feudalism and imperialism, leading thereby to the founding of New China. It is unparalleled in history that Marxism as a school of thought was equipped with a revolutionary party to carry out a difficult social transformation and make remarkable achievements.

Everything develops in zigzag fashion, and Marxism is no exception. On the one hand, Marxism became the spiritual main-stay or guiding principle of all action and played the dominant role in the New China; on the other hand, Marxism was confronted with a series of new problems, among which how to build China into a modern socialist country was the most important. China formulated a sovietized line of modernization in the early 1950s, but later tried to probe a road different from that of the Soviets. The "Three Red Flags" of the "General Line", the "Great Leap Forward" and the "People’s Commune" were its incarnations, but this road could not avoid the disadvantages of the Soviet mode and ran to the extremes of left deviationism. As a result, the class struggle was overem-phasized as the universal guiding principle, which brought about the "Ten Years’ Disaster". In the mid-seventies the Chinese eco-nomy teetered on the edge of collapse, but at the critical moment the communist party worked out a new modernization line of socialist constructions. The Sino-Western iron curtain broke down after China opened its doors, which meant that Chinese awoke again after paying a bitter price.

Since the 1980s, Western culture and philosophy have been disseminated in China along with the introduction of advanced scientific technology; the momentum exceeds that of the first wave of the 1920s. The "enthusiasm for the West" emerges rapidly espe-cially among the Chinese youth. In fact, China wants to learn much about science and culture in order to find anything that promotes prosperity and power, while Western culture and philosophy stimulate this Chinese desire for transformation. Due to the growth of the socialist commodity economy and the introduction of the me-chanism of competition, egalitarian distribution is collapsing, and all want to bring to full play their subjective activity and free will. Contemporary Western philosophy, although once proclaimed as a theoretical forbidden zone, caters to these needs and became a notable stream of Chinese social thought during the mid-eighties.

At that time another wave of the "enthusiasm for culture" followed the "enthusiasm for the West". In this the scholars of Chinese history, philosophy and culture played an active role. Their comparative studies of Sino-Western culture and philosophy put Chinese traditional culture into the context of world culture so as to revaluate it. Thus, "enthusiasm for culture" is closely related to "enthusiasm for comparison". The reconsideration of traditional culture and philosophy as a need of Chinese modernization aims at setting up the cultural ideas and surroundings appropriate to the socialist commodity economy, because economic reform requires changes in cultural ideas. Chinese socialist modernization would not come true without changes in traditional culture.

The "enthusiasm for culture" is echoed also by, and merged with, the Neo-Confucianism popular abroad. This emphasizes that Confucian thoughts are meaningful and valuable not only for Chinese culture but even for world culture, and that the future of Chinese society is to absorb and transform Western culture based upon the main body of Confucianist thought. Neo-Confucianists are largely overseas Chinese scholars who study Confucianism and traditional Chinese culture and reflect on both the experiences and the lessons of the recent one hundred years in order to seek a sui-table way for Chinese modernization. Hence, it strikes a responsive chord in those Chinese scholars interested in the fate of Chinese modernization. Dormant Chinese traditional philosophy began to revive in this convergence of "enthusiasm for culture" and Neo-Confucianism, so that the "Great Triangle" of Chinese philoso-phical academia now emerges in these historical conditions.

Undoubtedly, the three parts of the "Great Triangle" should not be put on a par with each other. Marxism is the guiding prin-ciple and plays a leading role in contemporary Chinese society. During recent decade, because the Communist Party has broken with the rigid manner of studying Marxism and changed many orthodox ideas including those about Western culture and philo-sophy previously taken for granted, China has been taking great steps forward in modernization.

Originating from the West theoretically and academically, Marxist philosophy is close to other Western philosophies. Cont-emporary Western philosophy to a large extent meets the needs of Western social, economic and political developments. Its world-views, epistemology (theories of knowledge), social and historical views and ethics are theoretical explanations of the science, te-chnology and human relations of contemporary capitalist society. It is fundamentally opposed to Marxist philosophy, e.g., each school of Western philosophy in varying degrees overstates the active role of the spirit and of consciousness, exaggerates the func-tions and meanings of irrationality, and overemphasizes indivi-duality and the freedom of the individual will. Marxist philosophy is not a closed system, but a continuously developing philosophy along with the development of social practices. It is now con-fronted with some overall problems which are urgently to be dealt with, to which contemporary Western philosophy provides some illuminating remarks and valuable materials. So the introduction of Western culture and the communications of Sino-Western philoso-phies could be helpful to the development of Marxist philosophy.

It is particularly to be noted that political, economic and cul-tural communication increase rapidly among different countries, regions and nations. The cross-reference and cross-fertilization of different types of economies and cultures, which are the currents of the times, encourage the pluralistic development of this world. Marxism must face these currents. As far as philosophy is con-cerned, dialogue and communication among different schools and the absorption of other materials and viewpoints are inevitable. Contemporary Western Marxism is linked in varying degrees to different schools of Western philosophy. The task of Chinese philosophy is not sedulously to ape Western Marxists and philo-sophers, but to change simplistic and one-sided viewpoints.

Generally speaking, contemporary Western philosophers deal with two kinds of problems, one is about sciences and know-ledge, another about man; both problems are dealt with also by Marxists. Chinese academic philosophical circles have recently discussed such related problems as subject-object relations, and those of truth, humanity and alienation. To understand Western philosophers, viewpoints on these problems it is important to answer the questions of real life. Contemporary Western philo-sophers do not adhere rigidly to universal principles, but make use of modern scientific achievements (although sometimes distortedly) when they inquire into the problems of knowledge or of humanity. This gives rise to some illuminating reflections. For instance, they analyze epistemological problems in relation to conscious acti-vities and mental processes; they analyze the perceptual and ra-tional elements as well as the irrational ones in the knowledge process; they relate knowledge to language, logic and natural science, and the problem of man is dealt with at the levels of language, culture, religion, science, etc. These analyses provide excellent materials for our studies.

As Marxist philosophy is a foreign culture to Chinese so-ciety, although it has universal truths it must be combined with Chinese social practices, traditional culture and philosophy. Our current aim is economic growth and the increase of productive forces. For this we need not only political and administrative means, but also economic and cultural ones. The development of the commodity economy calls particularly for breaking away from our customary monotonous mode of thinking and equipping our minds with advanced scientific and cultural knowledge, proper thought modes and lofty moral sentiments, so as to bring every-one’s initiative and creativity into full play. This is inseparable from such elements as the national mentality and the mode of thinking embodied in traditional Chinese culture. This tradition has permeated the minds of the Chinese people at both the conscious and the unconscious levels. Marxism would have played no role if it had not been combined with traditional Chinese culture and philosophy.

This combination is rather complex. What is of the essence has been mixed with the dross in Chinese traditional culture, so that sometimes strongly feudal thoughts are integrated into Marxism while really essential aspects are criticized as dross. Both devia-tions impair Marxism as well as Chinese culture. For a proper wedding of Marxism and Chinese culture it is necessary to analyze and study traditional Chinese culture scientifically and objectively form the standpoint of Marxism, which process is itself a work of combination. Indeed, Marxism has taken root in China during recent decades and to some extend has become a component part of traditional Chinese thought. The crux of the matter is that the combination is not static or fixed, but moving and developing.

China is now at an historical turning point, at which the overwhelming central task is to modernize economically, though ideological and cultural modernization should not be neglected. To be sure, Chinese traditional culture is a mixture of the promising and the obsolete, from which comes some resistance to Chinese modernization. To a certain extent, the combination of Marxism and Chinese traditional culture means the transformation of the latter.

As component parts of two kinds of cultures, Western and Chinese philosophies have their advantages and disadvantages; but inevitably they also contradict each other. On the one hand, the introduction of Western philosophy strongly challenges Chinese traditional philosophy; on the other hand, the revival of Chinese traditional philosophy provides an antidote to the "enthusiasm for the West". To Chinese people who have accepted Marxism after having long been inspired by traditional culture, and especially to Chinese youth, Western philosophy is a stimulant. But as it is impossible to substitute Western culture for Chinese traditional culture it is important and significant to study Chinese and Western philosophies comparatively, to analyze their similarities and dif-ferences and to inquire into the logic of their occurrences and development in order to learn from each other’s strong points and to create a new type of philosophy. We must face the fact of the "Great Triangle" in Chinese philosophy under the condition of the communication of Sino-Western cultures and philosophies if we are to reform our current philosophical system while persisting in and developing Marxist philosophy.