What makes an intellectual?

Many Chinese scholars believe that the term "intellectual" is a translation of the Western term. Prof. Yeh Chi-Ching of the Department of Sociology at National Taiwan University has discussed this in some detail. According to Yeh, the concept of "intellectual" comes from the West. There are two European concepts of intellectuals, one is intelligentsia and the other is intellectual, which belongs to Eastern and Western Europe and has different historical meanings. intelligentsia comes from Russia and was proposed by the writer Boborykin in 1860, specifically referring to the period between the 1830s and 1840s. It was coined in 1860 by the writer Boborykin to refer to a small circle of people who introduced German philosophy to Russia in the 1830s and 1840s. At that time, Tsarist Russia was quite backward, and the foreign students brought back the ideas and lifestyles of Western European societies and were dissatisfied with the situation in Russia at that time. They were either full of utopian ideals and rhetoric and imitated the lifestyles of the upper classes in Western Europe, or embarked on practical social reforms, and they later gave rise to different ideological groups, such as Populism, Marxism, Liberalism, and Neo-Kantianism, and so on. Other scholars believe that the word intelligentsia originated in Poland, where it was used by Karol Libelt in 1844. At that time there was a culturally homogeneous social class in Poland, whose psychological characteristics, way of life, social status, and value system were all unique. This class, the land-owning urban aristocracy, as distinct from the rising middle class, set up its own educational system in order to maintain its distinctive way of life. In this system, students learn about all aspects of life, emphasizing a strong sense of leadership and social responsibility. The people nurtured in this environment valued their education and took pride in it. This aristocratic spirit was later inherited by the Polish educated people, who were critical of society and took responsibility for the country's affairs. When Poland was partitioned by the Great Powers, this group of people became the main force for the salvation of the country and the revolt against the rulers. Thus, in the historical meaning of the word intelligentsia, the intelligentsia was a group of fairly educated people with a critical attitude towards the status quo and a spirit of revolt, who formed a distinct class in society. This class and its traditional identity have gradually disintegrated and disappeared after the October Revolution. In the Soviet era, as well as in the socialist countries where proletarian revolutions took place under the influence of the October Revolution, intellectuals were defined as professionals engaged in intellectual work, and no longer referred to a special class of people with a strong social consciousness and a critical attitude. The origin of the term "intellectual" in Western Europe is different from that of Eastern Europe; Intellectual comes from France and originated from the Dreyfus case in 1898. Zola wrote a public letter to the president on January 13, 1898 under the title "I accuse! Zola wrote an open letter to the president on January 13, 1898, titled "I Charge!", calling for a retrial of the Dreyfus frame-up. The next day, the letter was published in the newspaper Aurora, and the editor-in-chief, Clemenceau, described it as "Manifeste des intellectuels" (Manifesto of the Intellectuels). Since then, the mention of intellectuels has been understood to mean writers, professors, and journalists who advocated or sympathized with the vindication of Dreyfus, and who were politically radical in their criticism of current politics and the current situation. Thus, intellectuels in French refers to a group of scientifically or academically distinguished writers, professors, and artists who criticized politics and became the center of social consciousness at the time. This tradition originated with a group of educated people after the French Revolution. They rebelled against the established social standards and practices of the time, and talked about and advocated empirical philosophy, which had a strong revolutionary flavor. Most of these people were not in academia, but spent many years in cafes, talking in the spirit of Messianic Bohemians, who took the world into their own hands. In this tradition, intellectual does not have a social class connotation, but rather focuses on the mindset of the individual and the role he or she plays in society. Because of the difference in the historical meanings of the two words, in modern English intellectual is usually used to refer to "intellectuals" in general, while intelligentsia is used to refer to "the intellectual class" in particular. In ancient China, a concept similar to the modern Western concept of "intellectual" was "shi" or "shidafu". The "scholar" occupies a central position in the traditional Chinese social structure, and is the "head of the four peoples": the scholar, the farmer, the worker, and the merchant. Xunzi's saying that "Confucianism is beautiful to the government in this dynasty, and beautiful to the public in the lower position" illustrates the political and socio-cultural functions of the "scholar". In Chinese history, since the Qin and Han Dynasties, in the relatively stable period, the maintenance of political and cultural order was entrusted to the "scholars"; in the relatively dark or chaotic period, the "scholars" were often tasked with political or social criticism. Through the Han Dynasty's rural election and the Sui and Tang Dynasty's imperial examination system, the "scholar" could enter the bureaucratic group through the examination, that is, the so-called "learning and excellence", and the whole bureaucratic system was largely manipulated by the "scholar". The entire bureaucratic system was largely manipulated by the "scholar". Through social organizations such as clans, schools, township covenants and guilds, the "scholar" became the leading class of civil society. Therefore, in the general social mentality, "scholars" were people who "studied and understood reason"; their moral and intellectual training (mainly in Confucian classics) made them the only qualified candidates to govern the country and lead the society. Yu pointed out that Chinese intellectuals come from a very different cultural source from the West. Starting with Confucius, intellectuals have taken upon themselves the role of "Tao", which is unique to China. The three pre-Qin schools of thought - Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism - although they each spoke their own way, they were no exception in speaking on behalf of the Tao. Modern Western intellectuals are basically "secular" figures who are detached from the religions of the Middle Ages. Although they have more or less a religious background, they do not criticize society on the basis of religious beliefs or theological theories. Instead, they often relied on their personal "reason" or "intellectual conscience". On the other hand, the "way" of the Middle Ages in the West was anchored in Christianity. This was the "Way" revealed by God; its agents were the Church's monks and theologians - spiritual authorities alongside secular political authorities. Therefore, the modern Western intellectuals have refused to take on this religious tradition because they no longer follow the principle of "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's," and they want to be in charge of Caesar's things. The ancient Chinese intellectuals were directly inspired by the traditions of the Three Dynasties. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a time when "rites and music were in ruins"; rites and music no longer came from the Son of Heaven, but from the vassals, and Confucius denounced them as "the world without a way". Since the ruling class could not take on the "Way", the burden of the "Way" fell on the "scholar" who really understood the "meaning of rites". "In this sense, Confucius was able to make a point. In this sense, Confucius can be said to be the first intellectual in Chinese history. Before Confucius, the "scholars" were only a fixed class in the ancient aristocratic society, but after Confucius, the situation of the scholars began to change. Confucius first redefined the term "scholar". He said, "The scholar who aspires to the Way and is ashamed of his bad clothes and bad food is not enough to be discussed with." （He also said, "If a scholar is not a scholar, it is not enough for him to be a scholar." (ibid. "Xianwen") This new "Shi" is the prototype of what we call intellectuals. The "Tao" of the ancient times had a religious component ("Tao of Heaven"), but this tradition, in the hands of Confucius, did not go in the direction of the "Tao of Heaven", but turned into the "Tao of Humanity". This tradition, in the hands of Confucius, did not go in the direction of the "Way of Heaven" but shifted to the field of the "Way of Man". After Confucius, a hundred schools of thought competed for the reconstruction of the political and social order as the final destination, although they held different "ways". Therefore, the historical character of Chinese intellectuals was defined by the cultural tradition they inherited: in terms of minding Caesar's business, they were close to the intellectuals of the modern West; but in terms of representing the "Way", they were close to the monks and theologians of the Middle Ages in the West. Intellectuals in the modern sense of the word in China emerged after the Opium War, under the influence of Western civilization, along with the abolition of the imperial examinations and the rise of the New Learning, and in the process of China's transformation from a feudal society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, they were born out of the feudal scholars and masters. They either spread new ideas and knowledge, engaged in modern academic research, founded modern enterprises, or devoted themselves to modernization. Yan Fu, Liang Qichao, Zhang Jian, Zhan Tianyou and others can be considered representatives of the first generation of Chinese intellectuals. Today, when we use the word "intellectuals", its meaning has long been far beyond the ancient Chinese "Shi", and Western usage is not exactly the same, usually refers to a certain degree of specialized education, professional knowledge, engaged in professional and technical work and the corresponding title. With the corresponding title of the brain workers. According to Marx's concept of material history, intellectuals are the products of a certain stage of social and historical development. Engels pointed out: "When the productivity of human labor is still so low that it can provide only a small surplus in addition to the necessary means of subsistence, the increase of the productive forces, the expansion of exchanges, the development of the state and the law, and the creation of the arts and sciences are possible only through a greater division of labor, which is based on the fact that the masses of people who are engaged in purely manual labor are the same as those engaged in the management of labor, the management of commerce, and the management of state affairs, and later on, in the management of the state affairs, as well as in the management of the intellectuals. and in charge of the affairs of state, and later on the privileged few who practiced the arts and sciences, on the basis of a greater division of labor." This means that intellectuals are the product of the social division of labor, i.e., the separation of mental and physical labor. Thus, the basic characteristic of intellectuals is that they are "brain workers". Intellectuals contemporary sociologist T. Parsons (Parsons) from the structural functionalism, reveals the cultural roots of intellectuals. According to Parsons, the emergence of intellectuals depends on two conditions: the emergence of the written word and a "philosophical breakthrough". The so-called philosophical breakthrough refers to the conceptualization of man's mastery of the natural environment and the cosmic world on which he depends for his existence, i.e., his awareness of the relationship between his own self and the world. Man is not just a biological being; in addition to his biological needs, he also has psychological needs, i.e., the pursuit of the meaning of life, the pursuit of ultimate value, and the pursuit of contact with the cosmic world. In a word, he has a need to know "why". In order to satisfy this need, experts in cultural affairs, or intellectuals in a sense, have emerged. The primary function of the intellectual is to ponder and answer these questions. This is why the origin of intellectuals is almost always that of clerics, prophets and philosophers. Therefore, the function of intellectuals is mainly cultural, and they are engaged in cultural activities related to values, concepts, symbols, and so on, to establish a cultural system of meaning for the society. In the early stages of social development, words were symbols that could be grasped by very few people, and were therefore "sacred" in nature. In a society where words are worshipped by the general public, intellectuals can become a class, an identity group. From this point of view, intellectuals should be "experts in cultural affairs", not just general "intellectual laborers", or intellectuals are among the "intellectual laborers" who are concerned with and engaged in the creation, interpretation and dissemination of culture. Or rather, intellectuals are the part of the "brain workers" who are concerned with and engaged in creating, interpreting and disseminating cultural values. Since the function of intellectuals is to interpret the external world, they are naturally inclined to be skeptical and critical, and their ideas and opinions will always be distant from the status quo of society. No real society is perfect, so the intellectual is always dissatisfied with the status quo of society, always criticizes the society in which he lives, and always tries to reform or improve the society according to reason and his own ideal. This is perhaps the most typical image of intellectuals in ancient and modern times. Because of this image, they are romantically identified with the conscience of society. Marx and Engels can be regarded as the typical representatives, who founded the doctrine of scientific socialism, revealed the objective law of the occurrence, development and eventual demise of capitalist society, and called upon the proletariat to act as the gravedigger of capitalism and sound the death knell of the old system. Marx and Engels are honored as the "revolutionary mentors of the proletariat," but they did not come from the proletariat, and their real social component is the intellectuals. In this respect, the intellectual is the self-critical force of society and the voice of the masses. Since the intellectual always criticizes the society in which he lives, he always has an inherent tension with the political authority. On the one hand, the intellectual has to keep a distance from the political authority in order to maintain his special status as a critic; on the other hand, the political authority does not like the intellectuals, fearing that his authority will be questioned and criticized. In this respect, intellectuals again have a tendency to alienate themselves from political authority. Because intellectuals only possess knowledge but not the means of production, they do not occupy an independent position in the system of social relations of production, they are not an independent class, and in certain societies, at certain periods of history, they are not even fully integrated with any other social class or stratum. Mao Zedong once compared the intellectuals of semi-colonial and semi-feudal China to the wool, arguing that they were attached to five skins: the imperialists, the feudal class, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie; the democratic revolution removed the first three skins, and the socialist revolution removed the last two skins, so that "if the skins do not survive, the wool will not be attached to the hairs," and as a result, they can only be The result can only be attached to the proletariat. Karl Mannheim, the founder of the sociology of knowledge, believed that one of the basic characteristics of intellectuals was free-floating. From this point of view, intellectuals themselves are not a separate social class or stratum, nor are they fully integrated with other social classes or strata, but are a relatively free-floating group in society. Broadly speaking, in the modern Western context, intellectuals have three basic characteristics: first, they are specially trained, have specialized knowledge, and know how to use symbols to explain the universe and life; second, they use knowledge as a means of livelihood and mental labor as a profession, forming a "free-floating" group that is not sufficiently integrated with other classes in the society, is not dependent on existing institutions, and is "free-floating "Third, they have a strong sense of social responsibility, adopt a critical attitude towards current affairs and are often dissatisfied with the status quo. As for the third characteristic, Michael Confino of Israel synthesized various opinions and summarized them into the following five points: 1) a deep concern for all issues of public **** interest - including social, economic, cultural, and political issues - and 2) a deep concern for the interests of the public. -(ii) This class is often conscious of a sense of guilt, and therefore considers the affairs of the country and the solution of the various problems mentioned above to be their personal responsibility; (iii) They tend to regard all political and social problems as moral problems; (iv) Whether in thought or in life, this class feels that it is their duty to find a final and logical answer to all problems; ⑤ They are convinced that the present state of society is unreasonable and should be changed. The five points synthesized by Conferneur are generally in line with the tradition of Chinese intellectuals, especially in the sense of responsibility and concern for world affairs. From Zeng Sen's "benevolence as one's own duty" to Fan Zhongyan's "taking the world as one's own duty", they all show that Chinese intellectuals have a deep sense of responsibility for moral, political and social issues. When it comes to caring about world affairs, there is even the next line of a couplet by Gu Xiancheng, a member of the Donglin Party at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which reads, "I care about family affairs, national affairs, and affairs of the whole world, and I care about everything." Until after the founding of New China, this traditional spirit of "concern" still pulsates in the lives of Chinese intellectuals. Deng Tuo wrote a miscellaneous essay on "concern for everything" in Yanshan Night Talks. In a poem titled "Singing about Taihu Lake", he wrote: "Lecturing in the East Forest and following Turtle Mountain, I am concerned about everything between heaven and earth. Don't say that the scholars have empty arguments, the head throws the blood spots." This is a clear proof that the tradition of Chinese intellectuals continues. Intellectuals who represent the "conscience of society" exist in both Western and Chinese societies. But from a historical point of view, this tradition in the West is a modern phenomenon. Generally speaking, it was formed no earlier than the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The "philosopher" of the Western European Enlightenment probably represents the prototype of the Western intellectual; the Russian intellegentsia can only be traced back to the 18th century. In contrast to the West, the tradition of Chinese intellectuals has a long history, at least from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, a history of more than 2,000 years, and can be said to be almost uninterrupted. Since ancient times, there has always existed a small group of people who basically dealt with words, commonly known as "scholars" or "scholars", and they had a set of traditions under the cultivation of Confucianism. According to Qian Mu, the early "scholars" went from practicing etiquette to criticizing the aristocrats of the time for all their impoliteness, and Confucius was a typical representative. The Hundred Schools of Thought can be said to be the first and most obvious manifestation of the intellectual dissatisfaction of the "scholars" with the society and the aristocracy. After the establishment of the imperial examination system, the Chinese "scholars" appeared to be very weak under the lure of the institutionalized promotion channels and the high pressure of the political system in which the monarch's power was supreme. Under this circumstance, the character of "scholar" was guided by humanistic spirit, based on personal moral achievement in an endogenous manner, and emphasized on personal cultivation, in order to achieve universal moral and ethical norms, which could then be deduced to the political facilities, but not on the theme of knowledge achievement. Therefore, the ancient Chinese "scholars" could never forget politics in their spiritual pursuits, even Laozi and Zhuangzi had great interest in politics in their writings and lectures. Generally speaking, there are two basic differences between the ancient Chinese "scholars" and the modern Western intellectuals: first, the Chinese "scholars" did not pursue knowledge as the Western intellectuals did; instead, they took Confucianism as the core, paid attention to ethics and morality, and pursued the internalized moral power to discipline themselves and shape their personalities. First, Chinese "scholars" do not pursue knowledge as Western intellectuals do, but focus on ethics and morality with Confucianism as the core, and seek to internalize the moral power to discipline themselves and shape their own personalities, and to "cultivate one's moral character, align one's family, rule the country, and pacify the world" through the way of the "Sage within and the King without," "To be the teacher of the king" and to educate the world with Confucianism. Secondly, the modern intellectuals in the West are the products of capitalism, they take "civil society" as their living environment, they can rely on their own knowledge and skills in the civil base, engaged in freelance work, independent livelihood, relatively free to roam in this environment, and the existing dominant system and the ruling class does not have much intrinsic necessary connection; In ancient China, the "scholars" were systematically attached to and served the existing system, they were both the products of the existing system and created and maintained the existing system, and they only had the value of existence as a member of the ruling class or a reserve army, and "to learn is to be excellent is to be an official". It is the typical characterization of this dependence. Although the Chinese "scholars" also emphasized the "great perseverance" and "taking the world as one's own", it was only when they were in good times that they showed the positive and enterprising spirit of Confucianism, and once they were in adversity, they turned to Laozhuang and retired to the fields. However, it is only when in good times that the positive and enterprising spirit of Confucianism is manifested. According to the basic characteristics of intellectuals, typical intellectuals can include philosophers, scientists, writers, artists, musicians and so on. Here, intellectuals are not usually understood as brain workers, but refers to the part of the brain workers who care about human cultural values and have a sense of social responsibility, which is roughly equivalent to "thinkers". If an outstanding scientist spends his whole life to invent the atomic bomb, which adds an important content to human culture, but he does not explore the possible consequences of the atomic bomb in the process of invention, then such a scientist is a creator, but not a typical intellectual. As a result of the division of labor in society, people's social functions have become increasingly refined, so that the relationship between people and society tends to be centered on purely occupational relationships, and the development of science and technology has brought about the specialization of occupations. What we have are learned experts who can bring a more convenient way of life and a more abundant material life to the community at large, but their knowledge of society may be shallow and their understanding of life may be pure; they are concerned with putting their talents to use in their profession and tend to neglect the cultural content they have created. Therefore, a scientist or a scholar is not necessarily an intellectual unless he is concerned with big issues concerning society and even the whole of mankind (such as war, poverty, sustainable development, etc.); a novelist or a movie director is not necessarily an intellectual unless he writes and directs something that is not purely for the sake of sensory entertainment, but explicitly or implicitly touches on broader and deeper social issues. Related to this, intellectual has a special meaning which is considered as the basic definition, that is, an intellectual is a critic and spokesman who cares about the society and the times in which he personally lives. However, in real life, such typical intellectuals are after all only a very small minority, and what we usually call an intellectual does not refer to this idealized image of intellectuals. In modern Chinese, intellectuals are usually interpreted as "brain workers with certain cultural and scientific knowledge. Such as scientific and technological workers, literary and artistic workers, teachers, doctors and so on". According to the entry "Intellectuals" in the Concise Philosophical Dictionary edited by Rosenthal and Eugene, intellectuals are "a social class composed of brain workers." "Engineers, technicians and representatives of other technicians, doctors, lawyers, art workers, teachers, scientists and most clerks belong to this social class." In concrete operation, our country has long classified as intellectuals those who have a secondary school education or higher and are engaged in mental labor. In the practical work on intellectuals, various departments use different concepts, with the Ministry of Organization calling them "scientific and technological cadres" and the Ministry of Personnel calling them "talents". The definition of the concept by each department is also often based on its own scope of work; for example, the United Front Work Department defines the target of its intellectuals work as representative and influential intellectuals outside the Party. It should be made clear that not everyone who has received a certain amount of education, has specialized knowledge and engages in intellectual work is an intellectual. For example, in China, national civil servants do not belong to the category of intellectuals. National civil servants are usually referred to as party and government cadres. As a result of the intellectualization and professionalization of cadres implemented since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the People's Republic of China, a considerable number of people in this group now have college degrees or higher, with master's degrees and doctorates in the minority. If we look only at their educational background and the level of specialized knowledge they possess, there is no doubt that there is no difference between them and intellectuals, and many of them were originally intellectuals. However, the intellectuals we are talking about have an important feature, namely, they are engaged in professional and technical work, that is to say, the work of intellectuals is centered on the creation, elaboration, dissemination or application of knowledge. Although national civil servants also utilize various kinds of professional knowledge in their work, they are mainly engaged in the management of society, which is fundamentally different from intellectuals in terms of the content and nature of their work. On the other hand, intellectuals in our country are mainly a special social class defined as an object of policy. In this regard, national civil servants are policy makers and implementers, and naturally they themselves cannot be the objects of policy. At present, our country has classified civil servants and professional and technical personnel in the personnel management of cadres and organizations. Therefore, as far as the present situation in China is concerned, all cadres of the party and government organs who are included in the sequence of civil servants or managed with reference to civil servants, no matter how high their academic qualifications are or how much specialized knowledge is involved in their work, are not included in the scope of intellectuals. During the Cultural Revolution, intellectuals were regarded as a kind of symbol of the bottom of the world, and the state launched the campaign of "intellectuals going to the countryside", which was also called "intellectual youths". Character traits of intellectuals: integrity, pragmatism, tolerance, humility, intelligence, wisdom; rich in compassion, know how to repay; rich sense of responsibility, loyal to the cause; rich in love, will accept the love of others, but also love others; full of emotional color, can be temperamentally minded to treat everything around them; no lack of rationality, to be able to treat the world with a mentality of understanding; self-knowledge, can be viewed with a humble attitude to their own achievements. The The pedantry and stubbornness of intellectuals is sometimes a serious mistake, at the same time, intellectuals tend to follow the rules, no guts, not aggressive, and even too democratic, do not want to influence others also stubborn not to be influenced, they do not have discipline and do not want to use discipline to restrain others. These distinctive characteristics are the reason why intellectuals have not succeeded, and perhaps if these weaknesses could be overcome, intellectuals would have a greater impact on society. The proposition that "intellectuals are part of the working class" is a political proposition. In fact, the working class and the intellectuals are spoken of from different perspectives.