Yang Ch'ang-chi (c. 1870-1 7 January 1920), Western-trained scholar who taught ethics at the First Provincial Normal School in Changsha (1912-17) and at Peking University (1918-19). He is best remembered as the teacher of Mao Tse-tung and the father of Mao's first wife. Precise information about the life of Yang Ch'ang-chi is scanty. A native of Changsha, Hunan, Yang spent the period 1902-1 1 studying abroad in Japan, England, and Germany. After several years in Japan, he went to England with his elder brother (or nephew, according to some authorities), Yang Shoü-jen. When Yang Shou-jen committed suicide by drowning himself in England in May 1911, Chang Shih-chao (q.v.), who was then studying at Edinburgh, came to assist Yang Ch'ang-chi in making burial arrangements. Chang, also a native of Changsha, had been a close associate of Yang Shou-jen in anti-Manchu activities in China. During his European sojourn, Yang Ch'ang-chi also studied in Germany and came to regard himself as a neo-Kantian idealist.
After his return to China, Yang Ch'ang-chi taught ethics at the First Provincial Normal School at Changsha from 1912 to 1918. There he gave his students some exposure to Western ethical theory as well as solid grounding in the writings of principal Chinese philosophers of the Ming and Ch'ing periods. Although vigorous in criticizing certain aspects of Confucianism and in rejecting many conventional Chinese behavior patterns, Yang did place emphasis on many traditional Chinese virtues, notably selfdiscipline, patriotism, and resistance to alien rule. One of Yang's favorite students in ethics at the First Normal School was Mao Tse-tung, who studied there for five years before 1918. Yang was appointed to the faculty of Peking University in 1918 and taught there until his death two years later. When Mao made his first trip to Peking in September 1918, Yang provided him with an introduction to the university librarian, Li Ta-chao (q.v.). On Mao's second trip to Peking at the beginning of 1920, he and Yang met for the last time. On that trip Mao renewed his acquaintance with Yang's daughter, Yang K'ai-hui, whom he later married. It is as Mao Tse-tung's teacher and as the father of Mao's first wife that Yang Ch'ang-chi is best remembered in the West. Although biographical data are elusive, some information regarding Yang's thought and writings is available. One starting point is his Exposition and Critique of Western Ethical Theories (1923). In this book, in the course of explaining and criticizing selected Western schools of thought, Yang expounded his own views at some length and in systematic fashion. He began with a discussion of asceticism, which he criticized on the grounds that desire and reason cannot be regarded simply as opposites. Desire may be a source of evil or good. Moreover, pleasure and desire are incentives to action. Without them, men would cease to act and therefore cease to exist. Moral conduct consists in disciplining desire by reason in order to attain a goal. At the same time, one may regard desire and pleasure only as facts of experience and not as moral principles, for desire and pleasure are fluctuating and unstable. The basis of society is not self-interest but altruism, which assures the unity of the race. For all these reasons, Yang rejected both the "quantitative" hedonism of Jeremy Bentham and the "qualitative" hedonism of John Stuart Mill. The principle of the greatest good of the greatest number, he maintained, though it appears universal, is in fact merely a multiplication of egoism. In any case, the whole idea of a calculus of pleasure is meaningless, for one cannot add pleasures and pains and get zero as a result as one can add positive and negative numbers.
Yang believed that evolutionary hedonism, as exemplified by Herbert Spencer and Leslie Stephen, has the advantage of explaining the development of ethics; all other ethical systems are static. But this system also presents difficulties, for the process of evolution cannot take itself as its goal. There are actions, said Yang, which are harmful according to the laws of biological life but which have the greatest moral value. Examples are the sacrifice of one's life for right or for humanity. Moreover, the struggle for survival of the fittest is incompatible with such ethical concerns as kindness to the weak. Spencer's "moral" society also can be criticized on many counts, for the principle of happiness and the principle of the progression of life are contradictory.
A better ideal is that of self-realization. Aristotle was a partisan of it, as were Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. F. H. Bradley and especially T. H. Green developed theories based on this principle. According to them, the goal of action is to perfect oneself and society through both pleasure and pain. But this theory too has its weaknesses. Green's idealistic philosophy, though it affirms man's existence, cannot explain it by the laws of nature. This philosophy does, however, have the merit of steering a middle course between hedonism and asceticism. Yang Ch'ang-chi believed that a satisfactory moral philosophy could be achieved by combining Green's ideal of self-realization with a greater emphasis on man's responsibility to society. Man, he said, can influence the development of the world, and by developing the world he develops himself These aims of individual self-realization and responsibility to society were the two main themes in all of Yang Ch'ang-chi's life and thought. The first aim seems contradictory to traditional Confucian philosophy. Like many intellectuals of his generation, however, Yang sought to buttress ideas which were derived largely from Western thought with references to Chinese authorities. He compiled a small volume of extracts from the Lun-yü {Analects) which he used to teach individualism to his students. Nevertheless, Yang was vigorous in his rejection of certain patterns of behavior which characterized Chinese society. He wrote a number of articles which gave evidence of his impatience with traditional Chinese ways in three important areas: economic activity, religion, and family relationships. The problems of the individual's livelihood and its relation to social patterns were the subject of a two-part article which appeared in the Hsin Ch'ing-nien [new youth] in 1916. Here Yang emphasized the contrast between the Chinese family system, which gives to everyone a certain security and hence does not -encourage people to work hard, and the English system, under which each son must create a separate establishment for his family and rely on his own efforts to do so. He held that British inheritance laws, which incited younger sons to seek their fortune beyond the seas, were an important factor in the success of the British colonial effort. Self-reliance, honesty, economy, and industry are desirable not only because they will help the individual to get ahead but also because they will assure the welfare of society. Independent-spirited individuals make possible an independent country. The Chinese, said Yang, must learn not to put the welfare of their families before that of their country. Fathers should make provision for their old age rather than becoming burdens to their sons. One's role as a citizen should be considered when choosing a profession—being an opium dealer might benefit one's family, but it harms the nation. Yang averred that business rather than the army is the basis of a nation's strength.
Yang Ch'ang-chi set forth his radical views on the Chinese family system in an article which appeared in the Chia-yin tsa-chih [tiger magazine] of Chang Shih-chao in 1915. He praised the Western family system because of the autonomous character of the husband-wife relationship and because of the free choice of partners and the equal rights enjoyed by women. He denounced arranged marriages on both individual and social grounds. Under the Chinese system, he pointed out, marriages are arranged for mentally and physically weak persons who should not perpetuate these weaknesses. People should marry late, after the husband is able to support a family, and should take into account the mental endowments, character, appearance, and bodily condition of their potential partners. Yang also opposed concubinage as immoral and destructive of basic family relationships. Returning to the idea of the independent household, he pointed out that rural life and ancestor worship made it difficult for Chinese to marry late and live in a separate establishment. That pattern is easier for people in the West, where city life predominates. He summed up the situation by saying: "An agricultural country easily gives rise to danism; an industrial and commercial country easily demolishes danism." Yang's views on religion were less radical than his opinions on marriage and the family. He believed that the disputes about whether or not Confucianism is a religion were merely linguistic quibbles. Confucianism is not a religion in the narrow sense; its founder is not regarded as a supernatural being; there are no places of worship for the population at large; and Confucius never spoke of a future life but only of the problems of this life. However, Confucianism may be considered a religion in a broad sense of the word, for Confucius has been held in reverence by Chinese for more than 2,000 years. Although Yang admired the Confucian way, he was unalterably opposed to the establishment of Confucianism as a state religion. As for Christianity, he said : "I cannot approve of those who wish to save China by Christianity, but I consider superfluous the efforts of those who attempt to fight against Christianity with Confucianism." Such were the beliefs that Yang Ch'ang-chi imparted to his students at Changsha and Peking. His personality and example appear to have made a profound impression on all who came in contact with him. Mao Tse-tung deemed Yang his most influential teacher, saying that "he tried to imbue his students with the desire to become just, moral, virtuous men, useful in society."
