Chinese High-I.Q. Group Discussion 1: Fengzhi Wu (邬冯值), Craft Xia, and Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on China and Its Culture

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2022/07/08

Abstract

Fengzhi Wu (邬冯值) is the Founder & President of God’s Power Society & The Chosen One High IQ Society and the author of the Mystery Intelligence Test. Craft Xia is the Founder of CHIN. Tianxi Yu (余天曦) is a Member of God’s Power Society. They discuss: China; Chinese civilization; the historical context of education in Chinese society; the foundational Chinese philosophies; modern Chinese civilization; and the high-I.Q. community changed over time in China.

Keywords: Buddhism, CHIN, China, Chinese, Confucianism, Confucius, Craft Xia, culture, Fengzhi Wu, Flynn effect, God’s Power Society, Legalism, Ming Dynasties, Mohism, Mystery Intelligence Test, Shenghan, Tianxi Yu, Taoism, The Core Socialist Values, Wang Fuzhi, Yellow River Valley, Zen.

Chinese High-I.Q. Group Discussion 1: Fengzhi Wu (邬冯值), Craft Xia, and Tianxi Yu (余天曦) on China and Its Culture

*Please see the references, footnotes, and citations, after the interview, respectively.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Let’s start on the purpose of this group discussion, the idea is a Chinese high-I.Q. community discussion because, as far as I can tell, the voices coming out in the high-I.Q. communities tend to emphasize North American and Western European with an emphasis on particular cultural outputs. Chinese culture has a long legacy of invention, art, etc. Its modern rise will continue to ripple in a multipolar world, so rounding out the perspective in this globalized context makes sense to me. Hence, the idea of getting some wider range of individuals. China has the largest footprint in most ways, clearly, amongst East Asian nation-states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. So, here we are, with three members of the high-I.Q. communities coming out of China, Fengzhi Wu, Craft Xia, and Tianxi Yu, what does China mean to you?

Fengzhi Wu (邬冯值)[1]*: I grew up in China and have always been proud to be Chinese, as well as admire the people, history, and culture of this country. I am optimistic about the future of my country and future generations.

Craft Xia[2]*: China is my motherland and the country where I have a sense of belonging. At the same time, it also plays a guiding role in my ideological and cultural concepts.

Tianxi Yu (余天曦)[3],[4]*: China to me is my homeland, the place where I was born. Of course, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are also part of China.

Jacobsen: The Yellow River Valley appears to be the origin of Chinese civilization, which means a beginning around 5,000 B.C.E. Although, formal written records and dynasties began much later, e.g., the Xia dynasty (2070–1600 B.C.), then the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 B.C.), and so on. What seem like the attributes of Chinese culture leading to this extensive history and consistent civilizational existence? Most civilizations do not last this long.

Wu: I believe that one of the reasons Chinese culture has survived for over five millennia is through inheritance, which includes blood inheritance, value inheritance, and philosophical inheritance. Blood inheritance means that the Chinese valued family ties and blood relations, which extended to relationships with friends, the community, and eventually the country. Traditional Chinese values and philosophy are highly respected by people in China. Chinese culture holds a wealth of spiritual values that have not changed over time and can still benefit people today. There is harmony, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, honesty, loyalty, and filial piety. Even though we are now heavily influenced by globalization and modernization, the Chinese continue to value traditional culture and keep preserving it, while also attempting to assemble traditional culture and new culture in “harmony.”

Xia: East Asia, the birthplace of the Chinese nation, has an excellent agricultural environment, a geographical space with great development potential, and is relatively closed without losing access to foreign exchanges, which are the objective conditions for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

Egypt and the two river basins, which are almost open environments, are close to the African continent, the birthplace of human beings. Groups of humans continue to pass by them, and other civilizations developed along the Mediterranean can easily attack them.

The geographical environment of ancient India, located in South Asia, is also relatively closed, but a small Khyber Pass, which opens to the west, has allowed the continuous influx of external conquerors to conquer India again and again.

The geographical environment gave the early Chinese civilization sufficient time to develop. The cultural core brewed on this basis allowed us not to be wiped out and eroded by foreign nations (foreign cultures) when science and technology and force were weak. The continuous development of Chinese civilization for five thousand years is the result of the joint cooperation of objective geographical factors and subjective cultural factors.

Yu: China’s unique geography is an important reason why its civilization was not invaded by other civilizations. Other ancient civilizations were built on relatively homogeneous water systems and plains, and geographically lacked natural barriers to protect their cultures, which fractured once foreign cultures invaded.

Jacobsen: What has been the historical context of education in Chinese society? Its importance and emphasis with the society.

Wu: The traditional education context in China is to provide equitable and high-quality education. Chinese students are well-known for having extensive theoretical knowledge. In recent years, the government and society have worked hard to ensure that students develop holistically in cognition, body, emotion, and morality. As a result, people with a Chinese educational background now not only have solid theoretical knowledge but also innovative thinking and practical ability, which help to achieve themselves and even create values for our country and society. As far as I know, Chinese education has always followed the principle of teaching students based on their aptitude. It is encouraging that nowadays more and more parents and teachers are trying to build learning on students’ strengths and interests.

Xia: Social education in China can be divided into three stages.

The first stage: the difficult exploration stage (1949-1980)

As early as in the base area period, the Communist Party of China paid more attention to social education. After the founding of new China, the government began to carry out literacy and literacy education and cultural education for workers, farmers and other groups, which not only effectively improved the cultural quality of the masses, but also gave an unprecedented collective life and collective concept to China’s grass-roots society, which has been in the family or clan standard for a long time and lacks “collective consciousness”. Social education is gradually showing the characteristics of openness and socialization.

The second stage: wave rising stage (1980-2000)

As China shifted from a planned economy to a market economy, social education in China developed rapidly in the 1990s, and local education departments also issued policies one after another.

Stage III: stable development stage (since 2000)

From the background of modern Chinese society and history of “being a new people” and “arousing the people”, China’s social education has established a new pattern of diversified education development. The theme of education highlights the popularization and inclusiveness, the education service platform is stronger, the policies and basic organizations of social education have been established, and everything is prosperous.

Yu: Imperial examination system. The fastest way to complete the screening of the state apparatus.

Jacobsen: What are considered – within Chinese culture – the foundational Chinese philosophies?

Wu: In ancient China, the main philosophies were Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, and Buddhism, particularly Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which continued to influence the Chinese even throughout the East Asian region. The book of Changes and Lao Zhuang are central to the Chinese people’s worldview, and Confucius and Mencius’s theories represent the ethical social outlook of the Chinese. Buddhists, on the other hand, promote the idealism of common causes and help each other with Confucianism and Taoism.

Xia: The thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism basically run through the development of the whole history of Chinese philosophy, and they are in a state of one after another. After Buddhism was introduced into China in the Han Dynasty, after the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the development of Sinicization in the two Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties formed a tripartite confrontation with Confucianism and Taoism, and even prevailed over Confucianism and Taoism for a time. At the end of the development of Buddhism, Zen has the greatest influence and the most successful localization in China. In a sense, Zen is the result of the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. At the same time, Zen is also the source of Taoism in song and Ming Dynasties. In the song and Ming Dynasties, in addition to the struggle between Neo Confucianism and psychology in the main line, there was also the criticism of “Qi based theory” materialism on Taoism. Finally, Wang Fuzhi summarized the ideological achievements of his predecessors, reaching the peak of ancient Chinese philosophy.

Yu: Confucianism.

Jacobsen: What values guide modern Chinese civilization?

Wu: I believe the most important values guiding modern Chinese are known as The Core Socialist Values, which include national values, social values, and individual values. National values include “prosperity”, “democracy”, “civilization” and “harmony”; Social values include “freedom”, “equality”, “justice” and the “rule of law”; And personal values include “patriotism”, “dedication”, “honesty” and “friendship”.

Xia: Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, professionalism, integrity, and friendliness. Its specific content mainly includes the guiding ideology of Marxism and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Yu: “Socialist core values,” lol.

Jacobsen: How has the high-I.Q. community changed over time in China?

Wu: Since the invention of intelligence tests about 100 years ago, human IQ test results have been steadily increasing; this phenomenon is called the Flynn effect. For example, a person with an average IQ today might be considered a genius in 1919. As far as I know, the high IQ community in China has remained virtually unchanged over time. It could be because intelligence tests have only recently become popular among Chinese people, the time is too short to get many people to participate in the tests, resulting in insufficient statistical data. By the way, it’s ironic that children in China are only sent to the hospital for an “intelligence test” if their parents suspect them of having “ADHD.”

Xia: The earliest is the hundreds of people in Mensa China and some online communities in China more than a decade ago. Then after the establishment of Shenghan club, China’s intellectual community began to grow rapidly, including club organizations such as GFIS, which gradually appeared in the public eye and interacted with variety TV programs.

Yu: It was Mensa China and Shenghan that started this organization, and then GFIS emerged to formalize the Chinese high IQ community. My next step is to have some high IQ societies to lead the high IQ community in China, can be accepted by the country and become more elite, not just an “interest group”.

Footnotes

[1] Fengzhi Wu (邬冯值) is the Founder & President of the God’s Power Society & The Chosen One High IQ Society, the Author of the Mystery Intelligence Test, and a Member of Nano Society,  EsoterIQ Society, 6G High IQ Society, GIGA Society (formerly Giga Society 190, and earlier United Giga Society), The Core IQ Society, The POINT Society, NOUS High IQ Society, Sidis Society, and Relic Society (遗迹).

[2] Craft Xia is the Founder is the Founder of CHIN.

[3] Tianxi Yu (余天曦) is a Member of God’s Power, CatholIQ, Chinese Genius Directory, EsoterIQ Society, Nano Society, and World Genius Directory, and GIGA Society (formerly Giga Society 190, and earlier United Giga Society).

[2] Individual Publication Date: July 8, 2022: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/chinese-1; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2022: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.

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