Editor's Note

Abstract

The most significant article in this issue is the one in criticism of Chang Tai-nien's reflections on some characteristics of classical Chinese philosophy. The four younger Marxist philosophy workers in Commuist China, Hsiao Chieh-fu, Chu Po-kung, T'ang I-chieh, and Lu Yü-san, have sharply denounced Chang's interpretation of Chinese philosophy, which attempts to present some universal elements in Chinese classical thinking. The rejection is made in the name of orthodox Marxism-Leninism, and what is rejected is called anti-Marxist revisionism. This radical attitude ominously points to the Red Guard Movement in the sixties. But, curiously and ironically, what Chang has emphasized in classical Chinese philosophy regarding the Taoist dialectics of reversal (fan-yan) has gradually reversed the Red Guard Movement from successful power concentration to unsuccessful power diffusion. In a sense Chang has achieved a kind of vindication.