My late father, Wu Mi, had carefully kept three letters written to him by his esteemed and beloved teacher Irving Babbitt. Later I was able to read, in the archives at Harvard University, three letters written by my father to Professor Babbitt. The exchange of correspondence shows Babbitt’s care for his Chinese student. It also demonstrates his support of the Critical Review, which was published and written by his Chinese former students and other Chinese admirers, as well as his concern for the fate of the traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism. This was shortly after the emergence of the “New Culture Movement.” The latter’s raucous calls of “Down with Confucius” and the attendant discord aroused the concern of Babbitt and other Western scholars.
Before the letters are presented, a brief introduction of Babbitt and his work may be useful.1 In China there is a revival of interest in Babbitt, but certain prevailing views of him—such as the account in Imperfect Understanding by Wen Yuanning, translated by Lin Yutang—are unreliable and short on fairness…