Chen Huanzhang and his role in studying the history of Chinese economic thought in the West at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

The article explores the experience of introducing traditional Chinese economic ideas to Western scholars, using the example of Chen Huanzhang’s book “The Economic Principles of Confucius and his School” (1911). Chen Huanzhang was the first Chinese scholar who acted as an intellectual mediator in disseminating knowledge about Chinese economic thought in the West against the background of predominant efforts at bringing the achievements of Western economics to China. Chen Huanzhang spoke from the standpoint of Confucianism, and a unique combination of classical Chinese and American economic education enabled him to integrate deep knowledge of Chinese tradition with mastering the basics of Western methodology. Using little-known primary sources, the article analyzes the specifics of structure and economic terminology of Chen Huanzhang’s work, with priority attention paid to his interpretation of relations between production and consumption based on ancient Chinese classics. It was demonstrated that Chen Huanzhang strived to produce a modernized interpretation of consumption aimed at regulating human desires that was compatible with demands of economic development and the inheritance of traditional moral standards. Evaluation of the impact of the book on Western academic circles is based on the study of reviews published in the early 1910s (the author of one of them being J. M. Keynes). The final section of the article identifies the reasons for the evident growth of interest in the work of Chen Huanzhang in China, where he was forgotten for a long time.