Strictly restore the sociological meaning of the idea of "group studies"

Yan Fu's "group studies" thought is not only a creative result of the fusion and mutual interpretation of Chinese and Western scholarship, but also a representative macro interpretation of the modern transformation of Chinese society. The construction of Yanfu 'Qunxue' is embedded in the social and cultural design of the modernity project of the late Qing Dynasty, which contains a wealth of realistic thinking and theoretical analysis, and has lasting academic value.

In the context of history and culture, we should find the possibility of generating "modern society"

Yan Fu's process of constructing his "group science" system points to a sociological issue, that is, "how is it possible to have a modern moral society" that "knows etiquette and obeys the law". The fundamental challenge facing the demand for "gregariousness" in the late Qing Dynasty was the way in which the "individual" was re-embedded in the modern political and social order after it was "liberated" from the old-style ethics. Yan Fu's academic efforts are aimed at exploring "the ideological path from the 'scattered groups' linked by blood to the broader 'community' or social field", that is, to open up the "group studies" tradition based on the past "Renxue" tradition. Therefore, the deep meaning of its "group studies" is to find the possibility of the formation of modern society in the context of Chinese history and culture. According to this overall vision, Yan Fu combined salvation and enlightenment, and reconstructed the modern "group of self" form in the ideological field around the specific aspects of the establishment of the people's hearts, social construction, and national construction, thus outlining the modern appearance of China's political society. It can be seen that Yan Fu's substantive discussion on "groups" not only involves the institutional form and social basis on which "groups" depend, but also reveals the complex connotations of "social" categories contained in "group studies" thought. In particular, while emphasizing the separation of rituals and laws, he either implicitly or explicitly shows the subjective appeal of the self in modern society.

Not only that, Yan Fu also takes the "theory of evolution" as the internal support of his "groupology" thinking, focusing on many topics such as self-cultivation (self-denial) and individual rights (enlightened self-management), "(public) righteousness" and "(private) interests", "self" (individuals) and "groups" (state-society), "etiquette" (rationality) and "rule of law" (jurisprudence), freedom and order, etc., the fundamental focus of which is based on the "social" evolution logic of "people's strength", "people's wisdom" and "people's morality". He strives to root modern values in the mental structure of individuals, and thus successfully cultivate the way of life in modern society.

On this basis, Yan Fu's "group studies" thought also touched on the new exploration of the relationship between heaven and man at a higher level. It can be said that how to recast the modern "time of heaven and man" just constitutes the basic direction for Yan Fu to practice the fusion and mutual interpretation of Western thought through "group studies". In his view, the modern relationship between heaven and man runs through the evolution of political society, and the pursuit of "group-self balance" is actually to achieve the benign interaction between the state, society and individuals, that is, the balanced evolution of system, people's feelings and human nature, and is reflected in the continuous generation logic of "self-family-community/society-country-world". All these point to the sociological essence of Yanfu's "group studies" thought.

It has left a rich intellectual legacy for Chinese sociology

From 1895 to the beginning of 1925, Mr. Zhang Hao called the "transformation era" of the transition of Chinese thought and culture from tradition to modernity. During this period, old morality rapidly disintegrated, traditional cosmology and values were seriously challenged, and corresponding cultural identities were questioned as never before. Therefore, how to construct a modern political society, how to revitalize the social moral order, how to recast the spiritual world of Chinese, and how to find cultural self-confidence have become the cultural mission of generations of Chinese scholars, and are also the main axis that runs through Yanfu's "group studies" thought. While responding to the dilemma of modernity in Chinese society, he also left a rich ideological legacy for Chinese sociology.

First, in the process of interpreting and reconstructing the theory of evolution, he pointed out that the internal root cause of the crisis of modernity in the late Qing Dynasty was the transformation and adaptation of culture. This is reflected in the tension between nature and man in the process of modern social change. Therefore, Yan Fu's creation of the "group learning" system is an academic attempt to integrate Chinese and Western ideas, and is committed to responding to the modern transformation of Chinese social culture through a new social ideological system.

Second, if the emergence of modern society means the birth of a new set of knowledge and value systems as the basis of its concepts, then Yan Fu's "group science" is the prototype of such a modern ideological system about the overall structure of Chinese society and its path of change. It aims to cultivate a "new people" with a public and "individualistic" orientation, providing an appropriate social space for "freedom". This will ensure the stability of the social order without leading to the domination of individual freedom by the social structure.

Third, the ideal society in Yan Fu's mind is a moral society that "knows etiquette and obeys the law" in the modern sense. His "group science" is precisely to explore the conditions for the emergence of this modern social spirit from the Chinese historical and cultural tradition, and thus to derive the "social field" that characterizes the "group" of Chinese society.

Fourth, Yan Fu's cultural conscious orientation of "group studies" is mainly reflected in his profound reflection on the process of Chinese modernity in his later years. On the basis of comparing and revaluing the resources of Chinese and Western thought, Yan Fu conceived a modern "picture of heaven and man" with universal significance of civilization as an era response of Chinese culture to the human condition.

Fifth, marked by the article "Yuan Qiang" published in 1895, Yan Fu for the first time translated "sociology" under the name of "group studies" to China, thus embarking on a cross-linguistic cultural translation journey. His academic efforts to construct "group studies" in the form of the fusion and mutual interpretation of Chinese and Western cultures are not only an important attempt to promote the modernization of Confucianism, but also a pioneering move of localization of modern Chinese social sciences. The difficulties yan fu encountered in his later years at the practical and ideological levels further prompted him to dive deep into the Chinese cultural tradition to find parts that were compatible with the modern Western ideological culture and value system.

In fact, Yan Fu spent his whole life pondering "how to build a moral society that embraces tradition and modernity." This ideal society must not only have the motivation to forge ahead and the spirit of adjustment, but also provide modern people with the experience of settling in and living in peace. Opening the prelude to Chinese modernity and opening a new exploration of "the unity of heaven and man" is the ultimate concern of Yan Fu's "group learning" thought. Unfortunately, although this move laid the intellectual foundation and ideological orientation of Chinese sociology, it has never been able to further demonstrate the uniqueness of its "group studies" thinking, nor has it explained what kind of cultural expectations and ideological confusion it has put forward for the development of Chinese sociology.

At present, although the scope of Yan Fu's research is relatively mature and clear in the field of history, especially in the field of intellectual history, the ideological world of Yan Fu has just begun from the perspective of sociology, and it still has considerable room for exploration and academic value. From the perspective of sociology, paying attention to the ideological and social processes of Yan Fu's construction of his "group science" system can further reveal the overall structure and internal stability of Yan Fu's ideological context, and can also better answer the dilemma and tension between Yan Fu's "group science" in the West and China, ideal and reality.

(This paper is the phased result of the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Science Research Youth Project "Yanfu 'Group Studies' Thought and Its Contemporary Value Research" (20XJC840003))

(Author Affilications:School of Politics and Public Administration, Southwest University of Political Science and Law; Institute of Sociology, Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences)

Edit: Zong Yue