On the morning of April 8, our school's “Feng Youlan lecture” was held in the lecture hall 249 of the administration building. Professor Chen Lai, President of the Institute of Sinology of Tsinghua University, was invited to give the first report entitled “Feng Youlan's early ethical concepts” for teachers and students of our university. Zhang Baoming, deputy secretary of the University Party committee, Sun Peixin, former Secretary of the University Party committee, Ma Runcheng, Secretary of the Party committee of our college, and some teachers and students listened to the meeting. The report was presided over by Ji Zhichuang, President of our college.

In the report, Chen Lai introduced Feng Youlan's main research results in his early period, and made a summary of Feng Youlan's early ethical concepts after focusing on the interpretation of Feng Youlan's important viewpoints in《the analysis of Mingjiao》and《the social ethics of China》, and in-depth analysis of Chen Yinque's Preface to Mr. Wang Guantang's Elegy. Taking Feng Youlan's “name and reality” and “loyalty to the monarch”in《the analysis of Mingjiao》as examples, he expounds the relationship between concept and moral practice, and evaluates Feng Youlan's “loyalty to the monarch” from the perspective of Feng Youlan. Referring to《the social ethics of China》, Chen Lai believes that Mr. Feng Youlan has further promoted his previous thinking in this article: “the idea of loyal officials and filial sons in ancient China is not to do their utmost to be loyal and filial to the individual, but to the emperor and father.” He said that Chen Yinque's understanding of China's cultural significance should be inspired by Feng Youlan's thought in Mr. Wang Guantang's word order, but this sequence is different from Feng Youlan's views on the specific performance of the concept.

Finally, Chen Lai concluded that Feng Youlan's early ethical analysis laid the foundation for the proposal of "abstract inheritance method". However, in theory and practice, this kind of analysis failed to completely solve the problems of modern inheritance of the concept of loyalty and filial piety and the modern value of the concept of loyalty and filial piety. It also failed to deal with how to transform the loyalty of the relationship between the monarch and the subjects into loyalty to the people of the country.

This lecture is both profound and easy to understand. Chen Lai's brilliant analysis of Feng Youlan's early ethical thoughts broadens the field of vision of modern ethical issues, and benefits teachers and students attending the meeting.

(Translator：Zhou Yan)