Philosopher and author Feng Youlan was born on this date in 1895. Feng is perhaps best known for his much assigned tome A History of Chinese Philosophy, first published in 1934. Despite its flaws, the book still appears on reading lists in Chinese philosophy classes around the world. (I’ve never assigned it myself, but I admit that when I’m teaching philosophy and preparing lectures, a copy is never far away from my desk.) Feng himself revised his work many times in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to stay ahead of the political curve during the 1950s and 1960s. Later in life, he resumed his academic career and died in Beijing in 1990.
Like Hu Shi, Feng Youlan studied philosophy under John Dewey at Columbia on a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship. Upon his return to China, Feng took a number of teaching positions and was dean of the wartime Southwest Asscoiated University based in Kunming. He was actually teaching in the US on a visiting professorship as the CCP consolidated their control over China in 1948-1949, and chose to return to China rather than stay abroad.
Feng not only produced the first systematic overview of Chinese philosophy, but was a philosopher in his own right, most notably in the 1939 work Xin Lixue (New Rational Philosophy).