A Summary of Xiong Shili's Research on Philosophy Conducted in China

Abstract

In China during the 1930s and 1940s, Xiong Shili was active in the field of philosophy. His "New Theory on Singular Intuition" won him a reputation that brought widespread attention from academic circles. While Xiong's system of philosophy came into being and matured, studies of and commentaries about his ideas continued. In the 1950s, however, the study of modern Chinese philosophy was almost nonexistent, and so it was for Xiong's philosophy. Although Xiong wrote more than a million characters in several works published over fifteen years after Liberation, he was completely ignored. Basically no one studied his work. Not only was his philosophy shunned, his name was never even mentioned. To compound this, he retired from the university, lived like a hermit, and no longer had contact with academic circles, until finally no one knew of his existence. Recently, with the deepening and expansion of study in the field of modern Chinese philosophy and a strengthening of exchanges with foreign cultures, scholars in China have begun paying attention to Xiong Shili's philosophy. The study of Xiong's philosophy has progressed from obscurity to active interest, and there are now brighter prospects than ever before.