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Chronology Entry

Year

1915

Text

Irving Babbitt acquired a dedicated disciple, Mei Guangdi at Harvard University. In addition to teaching Chinese at Harvard, Mei returned to China to lead a Chinese crusade based on Babbitt's concept of humanism, a movement closely linked with the attempt of the Chinese people to work out a political future during the transition from monarchy to democracy.
Mei Guangdi : "[Babbitt] regularly stayed away from the commencement exercises at the University, and when his duty as a father required his presence at his son's graduation, he laughingly announced: 'This is the first commencement I have attended in many years.' Babbitt was a solitary figure in a crowded metropolis of learning."
"Confucius was perhaps the teacher with whom Babbitt had the closest temperamental kinship."
Ong Chang Woei : Mei Guangdi, besides praising Babbitt as a 'teacher of men' following the Chinese tradition, claimed that if Babbitt had been born in China not later than the seventeenth century, he would merit the extraordinary honor of being elevated to membership in the most exclusive of Chinese national institutions, the Temple of Confucius : an honor conferred on only a limited number of great men throughout Chinese history who were believed to have truly transmitted the Confucian way.

Mentioned People (2)

Babbitt, Irving  (Dayton, Ohio 1865-1933 Cambridge, Mass.) : Professor of French Literature, Harvard University, Literaturkritiker, Philosoph

Mei, Guangdi  (Anhui 1890-1945) : Schriftsteller

Subjects

Philosophy : United States of America

Documents (3)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 1974 Hou, Chien. Irving Babbitt and Chinese thought. In : Tamkang review, vol. 5 (1974). Publication / Babb26
  • Source: Zhang, Qiyun. Beibite, dang dai yi ren shi. In : Mei Guangdi wen lu. (Hangzhou : Guo li Zhejiang da xue chu ban bu, 1948). [Babbitt, the single great teacher of the times]梅光迪文錄 (Babb29, Publication)
  • Cited by: Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich (AOI, Organisation)
2 1993 Aldridge, A. Owen. Irving Babbitt in and about China. In : Modern age ; vol. 35, no 4 (1933).
http://pao.chadwyck.co.uk/PDF/1347784467791.pdf.
Publication / Babb19
  • Cited by: Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich (AOI, Organisation)
3 2004 Ong, Chang Woei. Babbitt in China : 'Which West are you talking about ?' : Critical review : a unique model of conservatism in modern China. In : Humanitas ; vol. 17, no 1-2 (2004).
http://www.nhinet.org/babbitt2.htm.
Publication / Babb22
  • Source: Liang, Shiqiu. Guan yu Baibide xian sheng ji qi. In : Ren sheng ; no 148 (1957). [About Mr. Babbitt and his thought]. (Babb28, Publication)
  • Cited by: Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich (AOI, Organisation)