PERSONAL STATEMENT

Many of my friends wonder why I would like to study abroad now that I have been studying Chinese philosophy, majoring in I Ching, the earliest philosophical writing in China. I tell them that advanced studies abroad will help me gain a more profound understanding of the Chinese philosophy in general and I Ching in particular. This is so because the inner logic of the Chinese philosophical thinking will become more apparent when it is cast under strong contrast with the Western philosophy.

I believe that one of the easiest ways to fathom the recondite differences between Chinese and Western philosophies is to look at how they diverged upon their respective inception, thus creating different paradigms of thinking in the formative days of the two civilizations. Once the earliest differences become clear, the later differences, including those of today, should start to make sense and become understandable. I therefore wish to undertake comparative studies on the sources of philosophy in China and the West.

As challenging as such comparative studies may be, I am determined not to be daunted as many scholars have before me. This is not just to prove that I am more dedicated to these studies than my predecessors, or that I will be more competent in abstruse research than others. I will carry out my studies as a matter of mission. To me, it is imperative that such studies be successfully concluded so that East and West can hope to reach a sophisticated understanding of each other. I think that, when I complete such studies, I can get a firm grip on the inner logic of the Chinese worldview that had its genesis in Ching.

I cherished a dream of becoming a philosopher when in middle school. At the age of 14, I published a term paper titled On the Harmony of the Universe in the campus newspaper, which astonished the faculty and my classmates with the depth of thinking in it. That convinced me that I had a talent for philosophy. I was, however, prevented from becoming a philosophy major at the university because China’s rigid educational system at the time prohibited students from switching their majors from science to humanities for the purpose of taking the National University Entrance Examination.

In order to pursue my earnest interest in philosophy, I chose philosophy as my minor when I entered into the East China Normal University based in Shanghai to major in psychology. Without compromising my performance in my major area of studies, I took all the university’s courses available in philosophy. I performed so well in these courses that I landed right on the very top of my class of nearly 50 students in terms of the philosophy-related academic record. To broaden my perspectives, I read a lot of important Oriental and Western classics in philosophy. My academic competence was such in philosophy that I got the highest total of scores in the country’s Graduate Admission Examinations in Philosophy, which won me a quick offer of acceptance into the Department of Philosophy at the Peking University.

Upon careful reflection, I decided to defer my enrolment for two years so that I could get some life experience in the real world. That, the way I saw it, was crucial to me if I was to stand on solid footing for an intellectual career. Instead of rushing to join China’s Harvard, as President Clinton called the Peking University, I opted instead to work as a junior corporate officer for the Xiamen Engineering Co. Ltd., starting from July 1994.

That turned out to be a smart decision. Serving in a variety of functions at the Xiamen company, I observed first-hand how the Oriental paradigms of thinking permeate in the daily life of the Chinese people. Those observations have since been a constant source of inspiration and enlightenment as I seek to crack the Tao of I Ching. Meanwhile, I took stock on many fronts of my intellectual development. I not only continued my study of Confucianism and Taoism that I had begun during my undergraduate years but also learned the Buddhist Philosophy from Master Monks of the Nanputuo Temple in Xiamen City. The articles I published during this period covered psychology and economics as well as philosophy.

The perspectives and insights I gained through years of reading and meditation provided me with a solid grounding for intellectual discourse after I resumed my student career in 1996. To contextualize my research in Chinese Philosophy, I attended a lot of lectures on Chinese History and Chinese Literature. Following the traditional path of learning at the Peking University under the seasoned guidance of world-famous scholars, I buried myself among ancient books and records for long hours, thriving on the intellectual challenges every step of the way.

My hard work and rich experience have paid off handsomely in the course of my graduate studies. In order to clarify the connection between I Ching and the Lixue doctrines of Song and Ming dynasties, I have written an article entitled On Wang Yangming’s Yixue, published in an academic journal Studies of Zhouyi (No.3,1998). As part of my research for my Master’s thesis, I have conducted an in-depth study of Chu His’s Yixue, from its germination to its maturity. My fruitful research has won me many accolades, including, for example, membership in the Chinese Xociety of Zhouyi, which groups together some of the country’s preeminent scholars.

Given my firm grip on both Chinese and Western philosophies, I think I am well placed t help integrate the Tao of Chinese Philosophy and the essence of Western Philosophy. For me to actually play such a role, though, I still have to clear away from my mind the many questions that have arisen in my past years of studies and research. If, as some would say, the ability to ask sophisticated questions is the ultimate hallmark of being an intellectual, I am proud to say that I have come up with a lot of questions that beg for answers.

In the interpretative history of I Ching, scholars have hitherto applied the traditional approach to interpret Ching through Chuan, namely, to analyze I Ching from within the four corners of the book itself. This approach could reveal the “inner logic” of the oriental thinking paradigm, characterized as it is by pictographs and analogous associations, because it correlates with the four-fold Tao of I Ching; judgments, images, changes and divinations. Such a paradigm defies easy comprehension by Western people, whose thinking in the alphabetical language is characterized by rationality and formal logic.

I wish to take an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to study the “inner logic” of I Ching, and approach that has not been successfully applied by any scholar yet. My objective is to elucidate the ancient Oriental wisdom by putting it under the glare of Western thinking paradigms so that people absorbed in the two different cultures can become comprehensible to each other. A new chapter may be launched in the world civilization if the intellectual paradigms of the West and the Orient can become not only understandable but also complementary to each other. With my expertise in traditional I Ching interpretation and the Western Philosophy, I should be able to reach my objective if only given to chance to apply my innovative research approach.

It is my long-time desire to continue my studies at a North American university that can provide me with the chance to exchange ideas with scholars versed in both Western and Oriental intellectual paradigms. Harvard, with its renowned faculty, unmatched facilities and libraries, especially the Harvard-Yenching Library, should be the best venue for me to conduct my graduate studies. I am sure that I can excel in your program the way I did at Harvard’s counterpart in China, the Peking University.