Carsun Chang

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisChang.

Carsun Chang
Trương gia sâm
Carsun Chang as pictured inThe Most Recent Biographies of Chinese Dignitaries
Born	(1887-01-18)18 January 1887 Jiading,Jiangsu,Qing dynasty
Died	23 February 1969(1969-02-23)(aged 82) San Francisco,California,U.S.
Alma mater	Waseda University
Political party	China Democratic League China Democratic Socialist Party

Carsun Chang(Chinese:Trương gia sâm;pinyin:Zhāng Jiāsēn;1887–1969), also known asChang Chun-mai(Chinese:Trương quân mại;pinyin:Zhang Junmai) orCarson Chang,was a prominent Chinese philosopher, public intellectual and political figure. Carsun Chang was asocial democraticpolitician.

Biography

A pioneering theorist of human rights in the Chinese context, Chang established his own small "Third Force" democratic party during the Nationalist era.

Chang supported German-stylesocial democracywhile opposingcapitalism,communism,andguild socialism.He supportedsocializationof major industries such as railroads and mines to be run by a combination of government officials, technicians, and consumers.,and the development of amixed economyin China, like that advocated by theSocial Democratic Party of GermanyunderPhilipp Scheidemann.

Equipped with the traditional Confucian degree ofxiucaior "accomplished scholar", Chang went on to study atWaseda Universityin Japan where he came under the influence ofLiang Qichao's theory of constitutional monarchy. In 1918 he accompanied Liang's tour of post-war Europe, later going to Germany to study philosophy for a short time atBerlin University.While in Germany he came under the influence of the teachings ofRudolf Eucken(1846–1926) andHenri Bergson(1859–1941). WithHans Driesch,who was formerly Eucken's student, Chang travelled throughout China in the early 1920s, serving as Driesch's Chinese translator as he lectured on Eucken's philosophical vision. In 1922, Chang led a committee which drafted an outline for a constitution with a federal system of government.In 1923 Chang gave a lecture atTsinghua University,the title was "outlook on life ( nhân sinh quan )". Soon after, his speech was published on Tsinghua weekly ( thanh hoa tuần san ), this led to polemics over science and metaphysics (also known as the "worldview controversy" ). He wrote extensively on what now forms part of modern neo-Confucianism.

WithZhang Dongsun,he organized a National Socialist Party (not connected with the Nazis in Germany). In 1933 he andHuang Yanpeiorganized theChina Democratic League,a Third Force party with strong commitments to liberal doctrines ofseparation of powers,freedom of expressionandhuman rights.The political scientist Qian Duansheng criticized Chang as "neither an organizer himself nor a man able to pick capable men to organize for him."John F. Melby,an American diplomat who knew Chang during the war, felt that Chang was as "unrealistic" as his brother,Chang Kia-ngau,was hard headed. As a scholar, Melby conceded, Chang was "highly intelligent and well educated," but as a politician he was "utopian" and "ineffectual." After the war against Japan, Chang became the chairman of theChina Democratic Socialist Party.

Opposed to the Chinese communists, but also dissatisfied withChiang Kai-shek's noncompliance with the constitution, Carsun Chang went to the United States after 1949. The Democratic Socialist Party moved to Taiwan afterwards and continued resisting the implementation of a one-party dictatorship and oppression by theKuomintangthough its very survival in Taiwan was due to its tacit cooperation with the Kuomintang. Carsun Chang reappeared in 1962 calling for the unity of the party, but returned to the United States before his death in 1969.

Family

Carsun Chang was the older brother of the prominent banker and politicianChang Kia-ngau(Zhang Jia'ao). His sister,Zhang Youyi,was an educator, banker, and the first wife of poetXu Zhimo.

See also

• Chinese philosophy

Works

• Chang, Carsun.The Third Force in China.New York: Bookman Associates, 1952.
• Chang, Carsun.The Development of Neo-Confucian Thought.2 vols. New York: Bookman Associates, 1957-1962. (Vol. 2)
• Chang, Carsun.Wang Yang-ming: Idealist philosopher of sixteenth-century China.Jamaica, NY: St. John's University Press, 1962.
• Chang, Carsun, and Rudolf Eucken.Das Lebensproblem in China und in Europa.Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1922.
• Chang, Carsun, and Kalidas Nag.China and Gandhian India.Calcutta: The Book Company, 1956.
• Chang, Carsun et al. (1958).A Manifesto on the Reappraisal of Chinese Culture; Our Joint Understanding of the Sinological Study Relating to World Cultural Outlook.
• Chang, Carsun.Guoxian yi(1921). InXian Zheng zhi dao(Beijing: Qinghua daxue chubanshe, 2006a).
• Chang, Carsun.Minzu fu xing de xueshu jichu(1935). Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2006b.
• Chang, Carsun.Mingri zhi Zhongguo wenhua(1936). Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2006c.
• Chang, Carsun.Li guo zhi dao(1938). InXian Zheng zhi dao(Beijing: Qinghua daxue chubanshe, 2006d).
• Chang, Carsun.Yili xue shi gian g gangyao(1955). Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2006.
• Chang, Carsun.Bijiao Zhong Ri Yangming xue.Taipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshu guan, 1955.
• Chang, Carsun.Bianzheng weiwu zhuyi bolun.Hong Kong: Youlian chubanshe, 1958.
• Chang, Carsun.Zhongguo zhuanzhi junzhu zhengzhi pingyi.Taipei: Hongwen guan chubanshe, 1986.
• Chang, Carsun.Rujia zhexue zhi fu xing.Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2006.
• Chang, Carsun, and Wenxi Cheng.Zhong Xi Yin zhexue wenji.2 vols. Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1970.
• Chang, Carsun, and Huayuan Xue.Yijiusijiu nian yihou Zhang Junmai yanlun ji.Taipei: Daoxiang chubanshe, 1989.

Secondary sources

• Jeans Jr., Roger B. (1997).Democracy and Socialism in Republican China: The Politics of Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang), 1906–1941.Lanham (Maryland) and Oxford (UK): Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN9780847687077.
• Fung, Edmund S. K. (2000).In Search of Chinese Democracy: Civil Opposition in Nationalist China, 1929-1949.Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0521771242.
• Nelson, Eric S. (2017).Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought.London: Bloomsbury, pp. 43-76.ISBN9781350002555.
• Nelson, Eric S. (2020)."Zhang Junmai's Early Political Philosophy and the Paradoxes of Chinese Modernity".Asian Studies.8:183–208.doi:10.4312/as.2020.8.1.183-208.S2CID214271980.
• Xinzhong Yao, ed. (2003).RoutledgeCurzon Encyclopedia of Confucianism.London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, Vol. 2, pp. 799–800.

External links

• "Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang, 1877-1969)",Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.