Analyzing the Second Renaissance in Ancient China Referred to by Hu Shi

What Hu Shih meant by the Second Renaissance in ancient China was the rise of science in the 11th~12th centuries.

In July 1960, at a conference on Sino-American academic cooperation at the University of Washington, in a public speech entitled "Chinese Tradition and the Future," Hu Shih attempted, for the last time, to systematically apply the concept of the Renaissance to Chinese history. In his public speech entitled "Chinese Tradition and the Future", he made the last attempt to apply the concept of Renaissance systematically to Chinese history. He distinguished three Renaissances in the history of China before May Fourth. The first was the renaissance of Chinese literature in the eighth and ninth centuries, when the vernacular began to appear in the poems and discourses of the Zen monks. The second renaissance was in philosophy. In this context, he refers mainly to the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Third Renaissance was the "Academic Renaissance" of the 17th and 18th centuries, when humanists began to use the "scientific method" for large-scale study of ancient and historical texts.

Reasoning, also known as Taoism. Rigaku is the most refined and complete theoretical system in ancient China, and its influence is profound and enormous. The rationale of Tianli is a moral theology, and it has become the legitimacy basis of Confucianism's divine and royal authority. The rationale's line of "internal saintliness" and its tendency to "respect righteousness and justice, not power and strategy" have developed the traditional Confucian concept of "justice before profit" into a one-sided concept of "justice before profit". It should be noted that the School of Science emphasized the importance of morality and righteousness. It should be noted that the emphasis of Rigaku on the building of an ideal personality through moral self-awareness has also strengthened the cultural character of the Chinese nation, which emphasizes on moral integrity and virtue, social responsibility and historical mission. Zhang Zai solemnly declared: "To establish a heart for heaven and earth, to establish a life for the people, to succeed the great learning of the past saints, and to open up peace for the world"; Gu Yanwu issued a generous cry of "the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of all men" at the time of the change of dynasties between the Ming and Qing Dynasties; Wen Tianxiang and the Donglin Party in the face of the foreign powers or corrupt political forces, the righteousness and integrity of the Chinese people are very strong. In front of foreign powers or corrupt political forces, the righteousness and uprightness, strong bones, all impregnated with the spiritual values and moral ideals of science.