Speech at Benjemin I. Schwartz's Memorial

By Tu Weiming

Citation: "Speech at Benjemin I. Schwartz's Memorial," February 3, 2000.

February 3, 2000

As a student of Ben Schwartz for the last thirty-seven years, I have been constantly inspired and enriched by Ben as an exemplary teacher. Today, in our digitized world, where the computer seems indispensable, Ben Schwartz' world of ideas communicated in long hand seems remote. With all due respect to our intellectual forefathers, we now inhabit a different world in which the rules of the game are constantly reformulated. Our memory is short; even the lapse of a few years feels longer than a generation in the olden days. Yet, as computers' radically different way of communicating and storing information reinforces the form of experience and knowledge that Ben's legacy considers problematical: the printed word more efficacious than face-to-face communication, data more important than narrative, and individually-centered judgment and problem solving more valued than the wisdom of elders. Ben has instructed us that narratives, elders, face-to-face communication and contextualized ways of knowing (embodied knowing) are essential characteristics of viable, non-consumer oriented human communities such as home, synagogue, school, and voluntary associations.

Through masterly constructed narratives of Mao's rise in the Chinese Communist movement, the Sinicization of Marxism in contemporary China, and Modern China's quest for wealth and power, Ben offered truly exceptional insights into Confucian China and its modern transformation. Intent on probing the fruitful ambiguity of one of the most dramatic events in human history, Ben resisted the temptation of tying up loose ends prematurely, rejected neatly systematized explanatory schemes, and focused his brilliant interpretation on the nuanced "between." What Ben's narratives symbolize is the unfolding of a humanist vision, a vision informed by the Biblical sense of tragedy, reality, and hope.

As an intellectual history, Ben clearly demonstrated, through the art of listening, that datum is not information, information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom. Ben's dedication to face-to-face communication taught me that "listening is cultivated and cultivating. Listening is directing attention to what is heard, gathering meaning, interpreting and deciding action. Deep listening is a practice which explores the qualities of the listening effect. Listening is active. What is heard is changed by listening and changes the listener." As a great audient, Ben brought a comparative perspective into his lifelong work on Neo-Confucian humanism centered around Zhu Xi and the world of though in ancient China. If we listen attentively to Ben's stories, Chinese thinkers are in constant dialogue with Moses, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Mamonides, Spinoza, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer, and Martin Buber. Almost single-handedly, Ben transformed the local knowledge he loved and cared about into a globally significant discourse.

Ben embodies the values of a Confucian worthy. His Chinese name, Shi Hua Ci (History, Chinese, Compassion) says it well. He was a compassionate historian who made the voice of China audible to the English-speaking community. We are forever grateful.