In this chapter, we present an overview of the history and development of Chinese psychology. When compared with the so-called Western psychology that has dominated global practice of the discipline, Chinese psychology exhibits subtle differences attributable to factors unique to China’s cultural context. Examination of the similarities as well as the differences between Western and Chinese psychology provides useful insight and furthers the development of a more universal, global psychology.
Chinese psychology has been influenced at a fundamental level by China’s philosophical heritage, which differs dramatically from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic roots of Western psychology. The deepest philosophical influences on Chinese psychology come from the three “isms”: Confucianism, Taoism, and communism. We begin this chapter with a discussion of the first two “isms,” providing an overview of the basic underlying principles of Confucianism and Taoism as well as their relevance to Chinese psychology. Both Confucianism and Taoism took inspiration from the I Ching, which is one of the world’s oldest and most important philosophical texts. We include a brief discussion of the I Ching in the section on the philosophical roots of Chinese psychology including psychologist C. G. Jung’s proposal of interesting differences between Western and Chinese views of the concept of causality evident in the I Ching.
Chinese psychology has also been influenced by encounters with the West. Some of the earliest Western influence on Chinese psychology came from Jesuit missionaries who traveled to China in the 16th and 17th centuries. We continue this chapter with a brief overview of some of these Jesuit scholars who have particular relevance for Chinese psychology, including, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Julius Alenis (1582–1649), and Franciscus Sambiasi (1582–1649).
The Chinese medical model has also affected the development of Chinese psychology, particularly in the areas of abnormal and counseling psychology. We briefly describe some of the concepts from traditional Chinese medicine of relevance to psychology including Chi as well as yin and yang.
Western scientific psychology was first introduced to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at which time it blended with China’s philosophical belief systems and the Chinese medical model yielding a unique indigenous psychology. We briefly discuss important events during the early era of Chinese scientific psychology (between 1900 and 1949), including the contributions of Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940), landmark developments in the infrastructure supporting scientific practice, and the growing influence of American psychology.
In 1949, China became a communist nation known as the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This pivotal event in Chinese social and political history had a profound effect on Chinese psychology. We provide an overview of the impact of this third “ism,” communism, both philosophically through the influence of dialectical materialism and Marxist principles as well as structurally through dramatic upheavals within Chinese academic circles.
In the years between 1966 and 1976, China experienced a period known as the Cultural Revolution. Chinese psychology suffered severe setbacks during the Cultural Revolution as a consequence of Communist Party leader Mao Zedong’s (1893–1976) radically repressive policies and attitudes toward educated academic scientists and intellectuals.
Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, China has adopted a policy of economic reform embracing a market economy and opening China to cultural, economic, and technological exchanges with the West. Economic reform has been a two-edged sword in that it has led to rapid growth and improvements in quality of life while at the same time creating inflation, high levels of unemployment, and increased levels of stress. We conclude this chapter with an overview of current challenges and opportunities in Chinese psychology.
When you finish reading this chapter, you will be prepared to:
- Identify the three “isms” that have influenced Chinese culture and hence Chinese psychology
- Discuss the individual philosophical contributions of Kung Fu-Zi, Meng Tzu, and Xun Zi that are of relevance to Chinese psychology
- Describe the basic underlying principles of Taoism and discuss Taoism’s effect on the development of Chinese psychology
- Discuss C. G. Jung’s theory regarding Chinese and Western differences in their relative conceptualizations of “change” and the implications for the practice of psychology
- Discuss the contributions of Jesuit missionaries to Chinese psychology
- Discuss China’s system of civil service examinations and its relevance to psychology
- Discuss the influence of the Chinese Medical Model on the development of Chinese psychology, particularly on the areas of abnormal and counseling psychology
- Describe the contributions of Cai Yuanpei to Chinese psychology
- Discuss the impact of the formation of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese psychology
- Discuss the impact of China’s Cultural Revolution on Chinese psychology
- Describe the general effects of Chinese economic reform upon Chinese psychology
- Compare and contrast so-called Western versus Chinese psychology
While humanity’s search for greater self-knowledge has been a universal endeavor, the approach undertaken and the answers obtained have been greatly shaped by individual cultural contexts. Psychology, as a global science, has played a pivotal role in this universal endeavor by helping to pick apart the relative importance of cultural and environmental influences versus genetic or innate physiological characteristics: What role in human behavior is played by nature versus nurture? Ironically, psychology is itself subject to two forms of influence: the “nature” of scientific psychological practice and the “nurture” of the individual cultural context within which such scientific practice is undertaken.
Cultural influence is evident in the unique flavor of American psychology as compared with the European psychology from which it sprung. Cultural influence is also evident in the development of psychology in Russia. Western psychology has dominated the discipline globally, providing a theoretical basis and an infrastructural design; however, psychology does not have a single, unified global character but can instead be described as a collection of indigenous psychologies. Yet while psychology as practiced in America, Great Britain, Germany, or Russia might exhibit variations, there is at the base a common philosophical and scientific heritage that is loosely classified as Western.
In this chapter, we examine the development of psychological science in China, which, while at times readily accepting of ideas imported from the West, is built upon a philosophical and scientific base that is very different from the “Socratic,” Judeo-Christian-Islamic roots of Western psychology. China is one of the oldest civilizations on the planet and Chinese psychology has, in one sense or another, been practiced throughout China’s history. According to Bond (1996, p. xviii) there is great value to be found in understanding the differences as well as the similarities between Western psychology and Chinese psychology, in that:
Chinese culture has the necessary age, coherence, and difference from Western traditions to provide a litmus test to the presumptions of universality that tend to characterize psychology done in the mainstream. If a construct or process is universal, then Chinese human beings should give evidence of its validity.
As we have described in earlier chapters, the history of Western psychology has grown from the early philosophical seeds planted by Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and influenced by Islamic and Judeo-Christian religious systems. The influence of the Renaissance on the development of scientific methodology and practice further shaped the emergence of scientific psychology in 19th-century Europe, and in earlier chapters we discussed the contributions of individuals such as Galileo, Newton, Bacon, and Descartes. The result of these various influences is a Western psychology that is crafted on a natural science model and characteristically experimental, reductionistic, physiologically rooted, and idiographic in its orientation.
Chinese psychology has arisen from an equally old but radically different philosophical lineage, the influence of which remains to this day. In contrast to Western psychology and as a result of its culturo-philosophical inheritance, Chinese psychology is crafted more along the lines of a human science model and is characteristically more philosophical, humanistic, and nomothetic (i.e., focused on identifying principles that apply to all members of the collective or culture). The strongest forces in Chinese culture leading to these differences between Chinese and Western psychology are the three “isms”: Confucianism, Taoism, and, more recently, communism.
As discussed in Chapter 4, Philosophical Foundations of Psychology, Confucianism is not a religion in the classic or Western sense of an organized belief system, centered upon the existence of a deity, and structured around institutions such as the church. Confucianism can instead be described as a system of social and/or ethical philosophy that is built on an even more ancient foundation of Chinese polytheistic and animistic religious beliefs. Sociologist Robert Bellah referred to Confucianism as a “civil religion,” meaning a religious identity and common moral understanding at the foundation of a society’s central institutions (Berling, 1982). Confucianism has also been called a “diffused religion,” the institutions of which are not a separate church but those of society and family and whose specialists are not priests, but rather the respected figures present in everyday life such as parents, teachers, and government officials (Berling, 1982).
Confucianism was founded in the Zhou dynasty by K’ung Fu-zi, or Master K’ung, whose name was later latinized as Confucius (551–479 B.C.). Confucius lived during a time of social and political unrest in which Chinese citizens were questioning their ancient belief systems and seeking answers as to what forms the base of a stable, unified, and enduring social order. Two dominant and competing Chinese philosophical factions of the time, the Realists and the Legalists, believed that strict law and statecraft were the answer (Berling, 1982). Confucius, however, believed the answer lay in Zhou religion and its rituals, or li. He radically reinterpreted the li of Zhou religion as embodying cultural patterns of civilized behavior developed through generations of human wisdom, and forming the ethical basis of Chinese society (Berling, 1982). This ethical basis for moral and civilized behavior was centered on human relationships and structured around defined roles and patterns of mutual obligation. To behave in a civilized and morally/ethically sound manner required each individual to understand and conform to his/her proper defined role and to fulfill one’s pre-defined obligations. The cultivation of individual moral maturity, and hence societal perfection, required deep self-knowledge as well as broad education and reflection on one’s actions. Confucius referred to the state of individual moral perfection as Jun-zi, or nobility, which any person can achieve through personal reflection, discipline, and education.
Confucius shared his philosophical vision through his disciples who compiled the Confucian Analects after his death. The Analects became one of the four great books taught and memorized by generations of Chinese people for more than a millennium. Some key principles of Confucian philosophy relevant to Chinese psychology are Confucius’ belief in a common human nature, and his conviction that personal development and mental change can be achieved through education. This process was poetically described by Confucius in the Classic of Rituals (cited in Berling, 1982, p. 1):
Only when things are investigated is knowledge extended; only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere; only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified; only when minds are rectified are the characters of persons cultivated; only when character is cultivated are our families regulated; only when families are regulated are states well governed; only when states are well governed is there peace in the world.
A key difference between the Western Judeo-Christian and Islamic moral and ethical belief systems and Confucianism is the latter’s lack of emphasis on an afterlife. Unlike the Western religious emphasis on moral and ethical rectitude as a means of earning a heavenly afterlife, Confucianism views the goal of moral and ethical behavior in everyday life as the creation of a utopian existence on earth.
While Confucius had many disciples, his vision did not gain broad acceptance in Chinese culture until the Han dynasty when Emperor Wu (ruled 140–87 B.C.) accepted Confucianism as state ideology and promoted Confucian values as a means of maintaining law and order. Influential philosophers who built upon Confucianism included Meng Tzu, latinized as Mencius (370–290 B.C.) and Xun Zi, latinized as Xuncius (298–238 B.C.). Meng Tzu, who studied with the grandson of Confucius, was called “The Second Sage” in acknowledgment of his importance as secondary to that of only Confucius himself. His system of thought was based on the concepts of jen, or “humaneness,” “humanity,” “benevolence,” and i, or “righteousness.” Meng Tzu believed that the level of “humaneness” or “benevolence” owed to a person was influenced by the relationship shared with that person. This relationship was defined both by your relative positions as well as the obligations owed. Meng Tzu believed that all humans were innately good or benevolent but that most people fail to act in a benevolent manner due to environmental factors and a failure to cultivate one’s virtue.
Ironically, while Meng Tzu advocated a doctrine of human benevolence, he was himself viewed at different times in Chinese history as a dangerous philosopher and his books have often been banned. The danger in Meng Tzu’s philosophy was his early development of a form of social contract known as the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, which potentially placed rulers in a tenuous position. Meng Tzu, like Confucius, believed rulers were divinely appointed to guarantee peace and order; however, unlike Confucius, Meng Tzu also believed that if a ruler failed to bring peace and order then the people had a divine right to revolt.
Xun Zi (298–238 B.C.) argued a generation later that human nature was not innately benevolent but was instead negative. Xun Zi claimed that it is human nature to strive for wealth and to exhibit a hedonistic need for sensual satisfaction (Jing & Fu, 2001). Human nature, if allowed to flourish uncontrolled, will cultivate conflict and violence. Contradicting Meng Tzu while remaining in alignment with Confucian ideas, Xun Zi stressed the need for education and strict adherence to social norms as the prerequisites for social harmony and order (Jing & Fu, 2001).
Confucianism remained at the very heart of Chinese culture until as recently as the late 1890s. Confucianism suffered brief public disfavor during the Communist Revolution and the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the late 1940s. Despite changes in public espousal, Confucianism is so central to Chinese cultural identity that its teachings remain and retain their influence on all aspects of Chinese daily life. Confucianism’s impact on the development of Chinese psychology, however, was more implicit than explicit until as recently as the 1970s. In other words, while the influence of Confucianism on the larger Chinese culture had an impact upon the nature and character of Chinese psychology throughout its history, Confucianism was not explicitly explored in terms of its direct implications for and relevance to psychology until the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Another pillar of Chinese philosophy is Taoism. Taoism is radically different from Confucianism but the two philosophical branches are not contradictory and it is therefore not impossible for something to be both Confucianist and Taoist simultaneously (see Chapter 4 for further discussion of Taoism). Confucianism, while it is a philosophical belief system, is concerned with mundane day-to-day existence; Taoism takes a more mystical and transcendent vision and is inherently naturalistic in focus. The central concept of Taoism is that behind all material things and behind all change or action in the world lies one fundamental and universal principle: the Tao or the Way. Existence, as we normally perceive it, exhibits a bewildering kaleidoscope of multiplicity and contradiction whereas the Tao exhibits unity. To live life according to the Tao permits one to transcend contradiction and multiplicity and return to a state of unity with the universe. Regarding human activity, to live according to the Tao requires living passively, calmly, and by means of nonaction (wu wei). The two accredited authors of the earliest known writings on the concept of Tao are Lao Tzu (298–212 B.C.) and Chuang Tzu (369–286 B.C.).
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the most important books in the world. Its origin dates back to antiquity, and its early history is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Both Confucianism and Taoism have common roots in the teachings of the I Ching. The I Ching is predominantly known as a Book of Oracle, meaning it was used as a tool for making predictions about future events and to guide decision making; however, in addition to its use as an oracle, the book’s greater significance lies in its use as a Book of Wisdom imparting philosophical as well as moral/ethical guidance. Lao Tzu’s writings take obvious inspiration from the I Ching and the version of the I Ching that has come down to us today was edited and annotated by Confucius himself.
The underlying concept of the I Ching is the idea of change. The story goes that Confucius, standing by a river, once said, “Everything flows on and on like this river, without pause, day and night” (Wilhelm & Baynes, 1950, p. lv). This poetically expresses the idea of change as conceptualized in the I Ching. Once the meaning of change is understood, our attention is no longer distracted by transitory individual material things, and we can perceive instead the immutable, eternal law at work in all change; this law is the Tao. C. G. Jung (1950), in the preface to a modern translation of the I Ching, proposed that at the heart of the I Ching lies the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western thinking, namely, their differing understanding of the nature of causality.
As described by Jung (1950), Western philosophy and science is fundamentally based upon the principle of causality. This basic understanding of causality has been shaken by recent developments in postmodernist thinking and dynamic systems or chaos theory, which have revealed that the cause-and-effect relationships previously deemed to be natural laws may merely be statistical truths and therefore subject to exceptions. Western science was built in and for the laboratory with its ability to control and restrict chance. In reality, every process is partially or totally subject to randomness to the degree that a course of events that absolutely conforms to a “natural law” is almost an exception.
According to Jung (1950), the Chinese mind is at work in the I Ching and appears to be almost exclusively occupied with the chance aspects of events. The I Ching presents a radically different view of cause and effect. Instead of a linear chain of causal processes, what is important is the configuration formed by chance events at the moment of observation. In seeking to understand an event, the Western mind looks for the proximate causal Event A which led to the occurrence of Event B. The Chinese mind looks at the complete context of Event B and examines the interrelationships between all the components existing within that context. As a result, Chinese logical processes are focused upon the importance of relationships and placement or role within a context. Jung’s hypothesis, although it has not been subjected to experimental validation, does represent an interesting and thought-provoking content analysis of one of China’s oldest existing philosophical texts.
Certain characteristics present in modern Chinese psychology are directly attributable to the influence of ancient Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, Meng Tzu, and Lao Tzu, and those characteristics include: the Chinese understanding of human nature, of the nature of the mind; the relationship and relative importance of nature and nurture; and particularly the role of education in shaping the human mind (Jing & Fu, 2001).
In 1275, China experienced its first historically recorded encounter with Westerners when Marco Polo (1254–1324) arrived in Beijing with his father and uncle. Upon his return to Venice 17 years later, Polo authored his Description of the World (published in 1477), capturing the imagination of Europeans and arousing interest in China. Actual direct interchange between the two cultures, however, remained virtually nonexistent for almost 250 years until Jesuit missionaries traveled to China in the 16th and 17th centuries exposing the Chinese to Western science and technology. One such missionary, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), was responsible for translating the Four Books, including the Analects of Confucius, and introducing these works to the West. Other Jesuit scholars who traveled to China during this period included the German astronomer Adam Schall von Bell (1591–1666) and Belgian scholar Ferdinand Verbiest, who became a close friend and advisor of the Chinese emperor Kangxi. The Jesuits introduced the Chinese to Euclidean geometry, the world map, the telescope, the clock, and the gun. This last contribution was particularly ironic given that it was the Chinese who were responsible for first introducing gunpowder to the West.
The Jesuits also brought to China some of its earliest exposure to psychology, including a 1596 treatise Matteo Ricci wrote on memory, in which he introduced the idea that memory is a function localized to the brain, including specifying different parts of the brain as the location for certain kinds of memory (Jing & Fu, 2001). Chinese physician Li Shizhen, in an earlier work titled Encyclopedia of Chinese Herbal Medicine (1590), first introduced to China the idea that the brain is also related to one’s temperament (Jing & Fu, 2001). Another work by Matteo Ricci, Mnemonic Arts, is of particular importance to psychology and had a significant impact on China’s early utilization of psychological testing.
As mentioned previously, one of the hallmarks of Confucianism is its emphasis on education, leading to the later development of China’s system of civil service examinations, which were a requirement to hold any political office in the years between A.D. 606 and 1908. One requirement of these examinations was the ability to memorize a vast number of Chinese classical texts including the Four Books. Ricci had a phenomenal memory and had developed a mnemonic system for memorization borrowing from various mnemonic methods known in the West since Greek times. Ricci published his treatise on mnemonic arts with the hope of impressing the Chinese nobles with his ability to contribute to Chinese culture (Jing & Fu, 2001).
In the early 1600s, another Jesuit, Julius Alenis (1582–1649), introduced the Chinese to the ideas of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. In his works, A General Account of Western Studies and Introduction to Human Nature, Alenis shared the Christian concepts of soul and body, and Western ideas concerning the five senses, human faculties, memory and dreams, awareness, ageing, and death (Jing & Fu, 2001). A contemporary of Alenis, Fran-ciscus Sambiasi (1582–1649) wrote a two-volume work in 1624 titled Study of the Soul, in which he discussed the works of Aristotle and St. Augustine. These two Jesuit scholars in particular were responsible for bringing to China knowledge of psychology as it was understood in the West at that time.
After the death of Emperor Kangxi and the dissolution of the Jesuit order in China in 1773, open cultural exchanges between China and the West effectively came to an end. China suffered a period of internal political, economic, and social decay; the nation stagnated and its social structure was torn apart by internal rebellions and civil unrest. Meanwhile, Europe was reaping the benefits of the Industrial Revolution and had developed unprecedented power along with an irresistible urge toward expansion and colonialization. The combined result of these forces was China’s increasing suspicion of and hostility toward outsiders.
In addition to its roots in Chinese philosophy, Chinese psychology was also influenced by the Chinese medical model, particularly in its understanding of psychopathology. Traditional Chinese medicine has at its foundation the concepts of yin and yang and of chi, both of which were first explicated by Han philosophers in the I Ching.
The concepts of yin and yang are related to Taoist philosophy and they represent dual-istic and complementary elements or forces in nature. Together, yin and yang constitute chi. Early Chinese philosophers theorized a great primal beginning for all that exists, t’ai chi, and later philosophers speculated upon its nature. T’ai chi was represented by a circle divided into complementary components of light and dark, representing yin and yang:
In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), physical and psychological well-being was dependent upon maintaining a balance between yin and yang elements of chi. Consequently, the focus of TCM and of Chinese psychological practice was upon restoring and maintaining equilibrium of forces. Practices such as acupuncture, which dates back over 3,000 years, and organ therapy, are intended to aid in this balancing of chi. Another concept of TCM of relevance to psychology is its view of the mind–body relationship. In TCM and Chinese philosophy the mind dominates; however, mental processes are nurtured by the body.
The first reference to mental illness in classical Chinese medicine appeared in the Huangti Nei-ching (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, written from the third to the fifth centuries B.C.). In this text the term tien k’uang was used to describe symptoms of disturbed affect and behavior (Cheung, 1986). The etiology of mental illness followed the same principles as physical illness in the Chinese medical system and was rooted in the body. The lack of direct reference to psychodynamic causes of mental health and illness may have led to later allegations that the Chinese somatize emotional problems (Kleinman, 1977; Tseng, 1975). The lack of differentiation between physical and mental illness contributed to Chinese psychology’s lack of development of the areas of counseling and abnormal psychology. Instead, psychopathology is treated within the general Chinese medical system.
While Psychology in China lacks a central specialized archive, much of which was lost during the wars and social transformations of the first half of the 20th century, and the 1966 to 1976 cultural revolution, the Institute of Psychology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is considered the undisputed center of Chinese psychology. The institute has influenced research trends in China since its establishment in 1951, it edits two leading psychology journals, and it preserves over 100,000 books on psychology and related topics. Another rich source of Chinese psychology history is the Chinese collection in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, which contains 1,035,164 books and over 16,000 periodicals that date back to 1869 (Gao, 2014).
Although writings exist in China describing an interest in human psychology that dates back over 2,000 years, it appears that the first introduction of modern scientific psychology came not from within China but from beyond the Great Wall. Following the contributions of the Jesuits in bringing the work of Western philosophers to the attention of Chinese scholars, the first acknowledged introduction of Western scientific psychology to China occurred in 1899, the year in which Joseph Haven’s Mental Philosophy was translated by Yan Yongjin into Chinese. Yan subsequently taught the subject of psychology in church schools in China as part of a general moral education program (Blowers, 1996). One problem encountered by Yan in the translation of Haven’s book was the difficulty involved in finding appropriate equivalent Chinese terms that would not distort the original meaning of the English text. Interestingly, the term psychology had no existing Chinese equivalent so Yan chose three Chinese characters not previously conjoined, xinlingxue, which in combination translates back into English literally as “pneumatology,” or the study of spirit (Blowers, 1996). Later, the Chinese term xinlixue, literally “knowledge of the heart,” was adopted as the accepted term for the discipline (Blowers, 1996).
Early in the 20th century, a group of Chinese scholars left their home country to study in the West and, upon their return to China, they brought with them Western scientific psychology. Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940) was one of these foreign-educated Chinese scholars and he later became one of the most influential figures in Chinese psychology. Born in Shaoxing, in Zhejiang Province, Cai’s family led a comfortable life supported by his father’s income as manager of a local bank. Cai received a traditional Chinese education and, after successfully completing civil service examinations, went on to earn the Chinese equivalent of a doctorate at the age of 22. Soon thereafter, he took a position at the Hanlin Academy where most of his time was spent compiling, translating, and interpreting classic Chinese texts.
Following the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, in which China was abruptly faced with its vulnerability to the threat of Western science and technology, Cai turned his focus toward translating European texts, seeking to understand the reasons behind Western successes and their technological supremacy. He then taught at various government and private schools, attempting to disseminate some of the Western knowledge gleaned from his studies. By 1901, Chinese educators were acknowledging the value in Cai’s efforts, and when the Chinese Educational Association was established that year, Cai Yuanpei was elected president.
In 1907, Cai traveled to Germany, enrolling at Leipzig University where he studied experimental psychology. He briefly returned to China to serve as Minister of Education in 1911 but resigned the post in 1912 in protest against the autocratic rule of Yuan Shikai. After a few years, during which Cai continued his studies in Germany and in France, he returned to China in 1916 where he went on to become one of the leading liberal educators of early 20th-century China. Cai was the first Minister of Education as well as Chancellor of Beijing University, where he founded the first Chinese psychology laboratory in 1917, and was the founder and first president of the Academia Sinica, China’s most renowned national research institute.
Cai severely criticized the existing Chinese system of education, advocating radical educational reforms. His call for action spurred an educational renaissance in China. The reforms advocated and implemented by Cai Yuanpei led to a period of increased openness to the West and decreased dogmatic adherence to rigid traditional ways of thinking. In many ways, Cai was ahead of his time in presaging the current trend toward globalization:
We must follow the general rule of freedom of thought and freedom of expression, and not allow any one branch of philosophy or any one tenet of religion to confine our minds, but always aim at a lofty universal point of view which is valid without regard to space or time. For such an education I can think of no other name than education for a world view.
(Cai, cited in Zhang, 2000, p. 2)
Cai’s establishment of China’s first psychology laboratory was one of three important events occurring around the 1920s that were of significance to Chinese psychology. Cai also was responsible for establishing the Institute of Psychology in 1929.
Another significant event in the history of Chinese psychology was the establishment of China’s first department of psychology at Nanjing Higher Normal College in 1920. This was soon followed in 1921 by the establishment of the Chinese Psychological Society (CPS), which began publishing the Chinese academic journal Psychology (Xinl i), one year later.
Several influential figures in Chinese psychology emerged during this period including: Chen D. Q., who in 1918 published the first Chinese psychology text, Principles of Psychology; Kuo Zing Yang (1898–1970), a strict behaviorist who conducted research on instinct and heredity in animals; Ai Wei (1890–1970), who specialized in educational and experimental psychology; Lu Zhiwei (1894–1970), a memory researcher; and Chen Li (1902–), a key researcher in industrial psychology.
By the late 1920s, ten psychology departments had been established at Chinese colleges and universities; however, disrupting events during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945 and World War II forced China to close several psychology departments and institutes, leading to the dissolution of the CPS. Despite these setbacks, a few Chinese psychologists continued to teach and conduct research, keeping the embers of a Chinese psychology flickering.
In the beginning, Chinese psychology was heavily influenced by Western—most particularly American—psychology. The needs of the Chinese people were very practical and applied in nature and American psychology’s pragmatic and applied elements were particularly suited to meet those needs. Confucianism’s strong focus on the power and value of education as a force for behavioral and social change, coupled with the guiding influence and educational interests of Cai Yuanpei and other early leaders in Chinese psychology, led to a heavy emphasis in the areas of educational and developmental psychology. John Dewey’s work was highly regarded in China and Dewey himself lectured in Beijing in 1919 and 1920. In the 1930s, John Watson’s work in behaviorism became very influential. By the late 1940s, psychology in China was almost entirely “American” in nature and was heavily focused on structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism.
In 1949, China emerged as a communist nation with the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). With a stable system of government in place, an infrastructure supporting academic and scientific endeavors was developed and by 1950 the Chinese Psychological Society resumed operation after a 13-year hiatus.
In general, the 1950s represented a growth spurt in Chinese psychology. In 1956, Chinese psychology benefited from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ establishment of the Institute of Psychology, which became one of the largest psychological research institutes in China. Three influential psychology journals started publication: Acta Psychologica Sinica, Psychological Information, and Psychological Translations. China also held its First National Psychology Conference in 1955. Coupled with the stability that allowed for growth and institutional development, the Chinese communist government also brought with it strong political and ideological ties to the Soviet Union. For Chinese psychology, this meant an increasing interest in Soviet psychology and the work of Russian psychologists such as Pavlov, Bekhterev, and Kornilov. For a time, Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflexes was the main theoretical focus in Chinese psychology. Western schools of psychology lost favor in China during this era.
The period between 1950 and the 1970s was characterized by a trend in Chinese psychology that was in many ways similar to the development of Soviet psychology of that same era. Political ideology co-opted the developmental path of most scientific endeavors, including psychology, and the main goal of Chinese psychology became that of developing theory guided by Marxist dialectical materialism that was ideologically compatible with socialism. One particular theme emerging in Chinese psychology as a consequence of this Marxist influence was the idea that mental activity is a reflection of social reality. In other words, social and cultural factors shape the mind of an individual instead of the combined minds of individuals shaping society and culture; for example, if collectivism governs social interactions then the individual will think collectively and thus give priority to the needs of the group over those of the individual.
Chinese psychology retained its applied focus and a great deal of research during the period between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s responded to national needs related to China’s social, economic, and cultural development. Administratively speaking, there were no independent psychology departments in universities and, instead, psychology departments were subsumed under either philosophy or education departments or teachers’ colleges.
During the 1960s, the influence of Soviet psychology fostered a shift in focus toward physiological psychology with much of the research focused in the areas of perception, memory, and the cognitive development of children. Some applied research conducted during this period included a study on a comprehensive therapy for neurasthenia, research on color light signals for the railway system, and the development of lighting standards for the school system. In addition, three important Chinese psychology texts were published in the 1960s: Zhu Zi-Xian’s Child Psychology (1962); Cao’s General Psychology (1963); and Pan’s Educational Psychology (1964). Toward the end of the 1960s, a growing number of Chinese students were majoring in psychology and programs in psychology were opening in several colleges and universities. Unfortunately, social and political forces led to an abrupt halt in the further development of Chinese psychology.
The period between 1966 and 1976 in Chinese history is referred to as the Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese communist government under the leadership of Mao Zedong (1893–1976) enforced radically repressive policies in an attempt to eradicate social stratification based on class or economic standing, thereby creating a communist utopia in which everyone shared everything equally and no one owned anything. Anything that was viewed as potentially contributing to the development of social strata or hierarchies was discouraged, including family emotional ties, economic forces, and even education. Psychology was condemned as elitist “bourgeois science” and psychologists along with other scholars and professionals were banished to the countryside for “re-education.” The goal of such re-education efforts was to induce conformity to Maoist thought and the psychological and social elimination of individualistic thought and action. Psychological research was replaced by speculative philosophy and authoritative politically based decrees.
The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 with the death of Mao Zedong and by 1978 China, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, had adopted more of an open-door policy of cultural, economic, and technological exchanges with the West, thus breaching the ideological wall that had separated China from many parts of the world since 1949.
In the latter third of the 20th century, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping abandoned communist economic principles in favor of a market economy when he proclaimed, “To get rich is glorious.” China’s move toward a market economy has brought prosperity and economic freedom to many Chinese; however, it has also resulted in periods of inflation, unemployment, and increased levels of stress. Prior to economic reform many Chinese citizens depended upon the so-called “Iron Rice Bowl” of noncompetitive, state-owned enterprises that had guaranteed lifelong employment.
Beginning in 1976, Chinese psychology entered another period of rapid growth. Psychology departments and research laboratories were once again opened in institutes of higher learning across the country. Thousands of undergraduates enrolled in psychology programs. In 1978, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) worked with colleges and universities in China to establish 30 master’s and 12 doctoral programs in psychology. By 1999, more than 50 psychology departments had been created in China.
In 1980, Chinese psychology formally joined the international psychological community when the Chinese Psychological Society (CPS) joined the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPS), ushering in a new era of free and open intercultural exchange. The former president of CPS, Jing Qicheng, served on the executive committee of IUPS (1984–1992) and later as that organization’s vice president (1992–1996).
Chinese psychology is attempting to respond to both the opportunities and pressures of adopting an open and global market economy. In return, China’s cultural attitude toward psychology has changed dramatically; in fact, a recent Chinese government report listed psychology as one of half a dozen disciplines deserving priority government funding over the next few decades (Clay, 2002a).
At the 1998 International Congress symposium “Psychology as a Profession in China,” Zhang Houcan, a professor of psychology at Beijing Normal University, gave an overview of recent developments in Chinese psychology (Martin, 1998). Although independent psychology practices are still rare, a rising number of medical centers are offering psychotherapy services and schools and universities are setting up counseling centers for students. In the field of industrial psychology, a long-standing area of interest in Chinese psychology, Chinese companies are relying on the expertise of psychologists in testing employee competence and in setting human-resource policies. Psychologists are also well-respected for their work in helping people adapt to new jobs—essential when economic reform has resulted in tremendous numbers of people leaving government-sponsored posts for work in the private sector. In addition, China’s booming interest in information technology has sparked a growing interest in psychological research on the human use of information technology. In China’s overcrowded urban settings, Chinese psychologists are also contributing in the areas of traffic management, crime control, and market research.
The growing number of school counseling centers is in response to China’s identification in the 1980s of the extreme pressure put on children to succeed academically (Martin, 1998). As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Confucian ideology placed a high level of importance on education, encouraging parents to push their children to excel in school. This drive to excel academically was further enhanced by the generation of parents born during the Cultural Revolution who saw firsthand the opportunities lost when education was suppressed and devalued. At the same time, China has a limited but growing number of colleges and universities and competition for placement in secondary education institutions is intense (Martin, 1998). Responding to the psychological problems resulting from this intense pressure to achieve academically has opened up a variety of new roles and opportunities for psychologists. Their expertise is being utilized to improve teaching methods, to revise and streamline curricula, to improve understanding of individual personality development and moral development, and to prevent mental health problems.
Another growing problem in China that requires the attention of psychology is the extremely high rates of depression and suicide. China has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, particularly among women; the current Chinese suicide rate is an estimated 30.3 per 100,000 compared with 10.7 per 100,000 in the rest of the world (Clay, 2002a). In a study released in the British medical journal Lancet in November 2002, researchers in China partially blame the high number of deaths in these suicide attempts to the ready availability of lethal pesticides and rodent poisons in rural areas and the absence of mental health services in much of the country (Rosenthal, 2002). In previous papers, one of the study’s coauthors, Dr. Michael Phillips, a psychiatrist at the Huilongguan Hospital in Beijing, estimated that 287,000 Chinese commit suicide each year, making it the fifth-largest cause of death in the country (Rosenthal, 2002). In November of 2002, Phillips and his colleagues officially opened the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center, financed by the Beijing city government, to respond to this crisis. This national health care crisis is partially attributable to the stress associated with the displacement and change encountered in China’s rapidly developing society.
China is also culturally becoming more accepting of individual counseling, particularly in urban and commercial areas (Martin, 1998). Telephone hotlines and counseling centers are growing in popularity but many are established independently and most of the counselors are medical doctors, educators, and teachers; thus, the quality of service provided by these centers is questionable and they do not adhere to any set standards. The Chinese Psychological Society and the Chinese Association of Mental Health have called for these workers to be certified in psychological counseling.
Health psychology is another critical area requiring further development within Chinese psychology, particularly in response to China’s rising HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2002, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimated that a million Chinese are already infected (Clay, 2002a). They further estimated that by 2010, ten million Chinese would be infected (Bodeen, 2002). “Stopping the epidemic of AIDS in China has mainly been a governmental issue,” says Yongming Chen, president of the Chinese Psychological Society. “However, Chinese psychologists have started to pay attention to this problem” (Chen, cited in Clay, 2002a). One of the key roles played by psychologists in addressing this problem will be in devising effective education campaigns to hopefully limit the spread of the disease. Psychological expertise will also be invaluable in helping individuals already infected to cope with the stresses and issues related to the disease.
Addressing the aggressive agenda of Chinese psychology will require a far greater number of well-trained psychologists than are currently available in China. In addition, China has lost a number of potential practitioners to the West.
Another key goal of the Chinese psychological community is to define educational standards in psychology. This lack of standards is partly a consequence of academia’s rising and falling status within China’s political and social system throughout the 20th century, particularly during the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, and later as a consequence of the Cultural Revolution. Even the most well-respected members of China’s psychological community often lack advanced degrees (Clay, 2002a). The Chinese Psychological Society has set a priority of strengthening training of psychologists in order to develop a labor pool in psychology that is adequate to meet China’s needs.
To accomplish this goal, almost every university offers at least a few psychology classes and a growing number of Chinese educational institutions now have psychology departments and/or research laboratories. Many of the students trained in these programs will be exposed to a blend of both Western and Chinese traditions. Explains Jin Pang Leung, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Hong Kong:
There are two camps of people here…. One camp just treats psychology as the study of universal human phenomena and doesn’t worry about whether the subjects of study are Westerners or Chinese. The other camp believes that psychology is only meaningful as far as the cultural context is known to us.
(Leung, cited in Clay, 2002a)
In this chapter, we presented an overview of the history and development of Chinese psychology. Chinese psychology exhibits some differences from Western psychology attributable to factors unique to China’s cultural context, and examining these differences can provide useful insight into psychology as a global enterprise and not just as a collection of indigenous psychologies.
We discussed the role of the three “isms,” Confucianism, Taoism, and communism, in the development of Chinese psychology. We presented an overview of the basic underlying principles of Confucianism and Taoism as well as their relevance to Chinese psychology and their relationship to one of the world’s oldest and most important philosophical texts, the I Ching. We presented a brief discussion of the I Ching, including C. G. Jung’s proposal of differences between Western and Chinese views of the concept of causality evident in this influential Chinese text.
We also explored early Western influences on Chinese psychology stemming from Jesuit missionaries who traveled to China in the 16th and 17th centuries, including Matteo Ricci, Julius Alenis, and Franciscus Sambiasi. In addition to external influences from the West, Chinese psychology also reflects the internal influence of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and we presented an overview of some of the key principles of TCM including chi as well as yin and yang.
Western scientific psychology was first introduced to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time the Western academic infrastructural model and Western psychological theories combined with China’s philosophical belief systems and the Chinese medical model, yielding a unique indigenous psychology. We briefly discussed important events in Chinese psychology occurring during this introductory phase of Chinese scientific psychology, including the contributions of Cai Yuanpei, landmark developments in the infrastructure supporting the practice of psychology, as well as the growing influence of American psychology.
We then provided an overview of the philosophical and structural impact on Chinese psychology of China’s third “ism,” communism, between the years 1949 and 1966. During this period, Chinese psychology was increasingly influenced by Marxist principles and dialectical materialism impacted theory and practice. The work of Soviet psychologists also rose in prominence in China while American psychology waned.
We then briefly discussed the impact of China’s Cultural Revolution during which Chinese psychology suffered the fallout of radically repressive policies and attitudes toward educated academic scientists and intellectuals. Following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, Chinese economic reform has reopened China to exchanges with the West. We presented an overview of the impact of economic reform and concluded this chapter with a brief discussion of current challenges and opportunities in Chinese psychology, including a growing interest in psychotherapy and counseling services, developments in industrial psychology responding to China’s changing economy, and the need to address China’s HIV/AIDS crisis and its extremely high national suicide rate.
The need to develop new undergraduate and graduate programs in psychology, to define educational standards, and to develop a certification process for counseling psychologists is critical if Chinese psychology is to serve adequately the needs of China’s growing population.
Discussion Questions
- How is the relationship between the Chinese medical model and Chinese clinical psychology different from or similar to the relationship between the Western medical model and Western clinical psychology?
- In what ways could the practice of Western clinical psychology benefit from incorporation of the Chinese medical model? In what ways could Chinese clinical psychology benefit from incorporation of approaches from the Western medical model?
- What role did Jesuit missionaries play in the history of psychology in China?
- What role did Cai Yuanpei have in the Chinese education system? What effect did he have on the development of Chinese psychology?
- Why was American psychology, and the work of such individuals as John Dewey and John Watson, particularly suited to the needs of Chinese psychology prior to the 1940s?
- How is the history of psychology in China different from the history of psychology in Russia? How are they similar?
- What were the effects of the rise of Chinese communism and the Cultural Revolution upon the development of psychology in China?
- What effect has economic reform had on the development of psychology in China?