Urban Confucianism and Rural Taoism: A ‘Tangle of Contradictions’ in the Works of Lin Yutang

The article studies the perception of the philosophies of Confucius and Lao Tzu through the prism of the concepts of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ by one of the most Westernized writers of China in the 20th century – Lin Yutang. The study is based on the writer’s thesis ‘Confucianism is essentially an urban philosophy, while Taoism is essentially rural’. Lin Yutang notes differences in the teachings as follows. In the ‘vertical plane’: Confucianism strives to divide the world (an exclusive type of thinking) and parallelly asserts the special role of man (anthropocentrism), while Taoism promotes a holistic vision of the world (an inclusive type of thinking) and the idea of fusion of man and nature; in the ‘horizontal plane’ – at the level of the ‘interhuman’ – Confucianism is focused on the collective, while Taoism is oriented toward individualism. In relation to literature, according to Lin Yutang, it is precisely such a worldview that can serve as a principle in dividing it into ‘urban’ and ‘rural’, and not the presence in a literary work of artistic images or ‘city-village’ themes, linguistic means, etc. This paper also discusses a unique feature of Lin Yutang’s personality and works – the phenomenon of a ‘tangle of contradictions’, due to which it is impossible to say anything definite regarding the philosophical foundations of his worldview: is he a Confucian or a Taoist? For example, in modern Linxue (Lin Yutang studies) the opinion is widespread about Taoist ‘preferences’ of the writer. Perhaps not stating clearly his adherence to one of the two teachings the author wanted to express his point of view on the hermeneutic problems of interpreting the canons of ancient teachings, which are influenced not only by the worldview of the researchers but also by objective historical reality.