Zhang Taiyan and the Modern Transformation of Chinese Chivalrous Spirit

Abstract

Zhang Taiyan is the most detailed and systematic scholar who explained the chivalrous spirit in modern Chinese history. Under the background of the revolution in late Qing dynasty, he formed a unique concept of "Silent Chivalrous men". During the period of Min Bao (People's News), Zhang Taiyan led and promoted the practice of chivalry and the modern transformation of chivalrous spirit, and used revolutionary morality and revolutionary psychology to regulate the behavior of Chivalrous men. At the academic level, Zhang Taiyan has successively integrated the great independence spirit, "bodhisattva-carya" and "Confucian scholar practice" into chivalry to elaborate and praise the value of chivalrous spirit, and then affirmed the rationality of Chivalrous men in the process of national construction. It is determined that Chivalrous men "can be in the Haolai or the MingTang", which opens up space for the survival of Chivalrous men after the establishment of the Republic of China, and eventually, he completed his modern transformation of chivalrous spirit.