163
Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical 
Thinking—An Overview
WU Hongzhi*
Abstract
This article traces the developmental trajectory of informal logic and critical thinking in 
mainland China. It surveys the current developmental situation relating to their curricula, 
the establishment of teaching material, translations of leading works in these fields, aca-
demic writings, dissertations, research organizations and so on. Furthermore, the present 
article particularly aims to cast some light on the important shifts of research trends in 
informal logic and critical thinking, from those being introduced from outside to those 
moving in the opposite direction. Finally, it will also address the currently existing inad-
equacies and expectations for the future development of these fields of study in China. 
Keywords: informal logic, critical thinking, fallacies, arguments
Kitajske študije o neformalni logiki in kritičnem mišljenju – pregled
Izvleček
Članek sledi osrednji razvojni smernici neformalne logike in kritičnega mišljenja na ge-
ografskem območju celinske Kitajske. Članek tako preučuje trenutno stanje v razvoju z 
ozirom na učne načrte, ustvarjanje učnega gradiva, prevajanje vodilnih del na področju, 
objavljena znanstvena dela, disertacije, raziskovalne organizacije in tako naprej. Nadalje 
si prizadeva osvetliti najpomembnejše premike raziskovalnih trendov na področju nefor-
malne logike in kritičnega mišljenja, od tistih, ki prihajajo od zunaj, do tistih, ki se gibljejo 
v nasprotni smeri. Nazadnje članek obravnava tudi trenutno obstoječe pomanjkljivosti ter 
pričakovanja o prihodnjem razvoju teh študijskih področij na Kitajskem.
Ključne besede: neformalna logika, kritično mišljenje, zmote, argumenti
* WU Hongzhi, Professor, Yan’an University, Yan’an, China.
 Email address: yaydwhz@126.com
DOI: 10.4312/as.2022.10.2.163-186
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164 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
The Introduction of Informal Logic and Critical Thinking to China
The beginnings of the informal logic (IL) can be tracked back to the 1970s, when 
American and Canadian studies in informal logic developed as a result of cri-
tiques of baby logic. However, in the initial period of reinstatement of logical 
education, Chinese logicians still rarely had the opportunity to come in contact 
with Anglophone literature on IL. Instead, they derived their lessons about the 
notions of argument and fallacy from the parts on “logic and language” (including 
“fallacy”) contained in introductions to standard logic (a model representative of 
baby logic). Because theory of fallacy is in fact an addition to the theory of proof, 
its two main characteristics—that is the diversification of types of argument and 
contextualization of argument assessment—easily leads scholars towards IL. 
Therefore, such research on the theory of fallacy naturally turned into the be-
ginning of rise of IL in Chinese academia. In 1984, during his travels in China, 
John Nolt, a professor at the University of Tennessee, paid a brief visit to Nanjing 
Institute of Technology (Southeast University). When he was talking about “IL 
in China”, this was in fact equivalent to speaking about “IL is not in China”: al-
though the Chinese philosophers who engaged in a conversation with Nolt were 
“surprisingly well-informed about recent Western developments”, none of them 
“had yet heard of IL” (Nolt 1984, 45). Four years later, however, the situation in 
Chinese  academia had already changed. 
It is highly probable that the early use of the term “informal logic” in the Chinese 
literature can be traced back to the year 1988 (Ding and Wu 1988, 28). From this 
year onwards, for almost 20 years the theory of fallacy represented the heart of 
Chinese research on IL. In this period of time, more than one hundred research 
articles and popular essays were published in scientific periodicals. In addition to 
that, Chinese academia also saw the publication of four treatises on the theory of 
fallacy: Fallacy: The Pitfall of Thinking (Miuwu: siwei de xianjing 谬误：思维的
陷阱, written by Ding Huang 丁煌 and Wu Hongzhi 武宏志 (1990)); In Search 
for the Misty Regions: The Quintessence of the Science of Fallacies (Wuqu de xunmi: 
miuwuxue jinghua 雾区的寻觅：谬误学精华, by Huang Huaxin 黄华新 and 
Tang Jun 汤军 (1990)); On Fallacy (Miuwulun 谬误论, by Huang Huaxin, Ding 
Huang and Wu Hongzhi (1993)), and Studies on Fallacies (Miuwu yanjiu 谬误
研究, by Wu Hongzhi and Ma Yongxia 马永侠 (1996)). Between the years 1994 
and 2010, Huang Zhanji 黄展骥1 published almost 80 articles on the theory of 
1 Huang Zhanji carries on the scientific spirit of his teacher Yin Haiguang 殷海光. Since 1966 
he has devoted himself to the public teaching of logic and the theory of fallacy. The five volumes 
of the best-selling Hong Kong published “Snail Series” (Woniu congshu 蜗牛丛书) represents an 
anthological collection of several hundred of his lectures, a course of popular lectures issued in the 
form of a television series, newspaper columns and articles, as well as scientific articles and essays. 
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165Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
fallacy in various Chinese scientific journals. By combining Chinese traditional 
culture and everyday life, Huang carried out an analysis of fallacies of argumenta-
tion in natural languages and established a link between this kind of research and 
research on logical paradoxes. At the same time, he also enthusiastically assisted 
younger scholars, in particular doctoral students, in their research on the theory 
of fallacy. Around 2002, the majority of scholars of in the field of theory of fallacy 
shifted their attention to research on the fundamental theory of IL, because they 
discovered that in order to solve the problem of fallacies they had to rely on a 
complete foundational theory of logic of argument. 
The first specialized text that provided an introduction to IL as a new branch of 
logic emerged in 1990 (Wang Zuoli 1990). Soon afterwards, a special column 
“Lectures on Informal Logic” was established in the only specialized periodical on 
logic at the time, Logic and Language Learning (Luoji yu yuyan xuexi 逻辑与语言
学习). For this column, Ruan Song 阮松 of Nankai University published a series 
of five consecutive articles introducing the rise of IL, argument evaluation, implicit 
premises, informal fallacy and argumentation construction.2 Starting in 1991, Wu 
Hongzhi also published, either in cooperation with Ding Huang and Liu Chunjie 
刘春杰 or on his own, several articles on IL, in which he provided a more ex-
haustive and profound discussion of the main topics in the field. Ultimately, Liu 
Chunjie’s Studies in Argument Logic (Lunzheng luoji yanjiu 论证逻辑研究 (1999)) 
pushed research on IL forward towards its eventual rapid development. A decade 
later, Wu Hongzhi, Zhou Jianwu 周建武 and Tang Jian 唐坚 co-authored the 
monumental (more than 800,000 Chinese characters long) volume Introduction 
to Informal Logic (Feixingshi luoji daolun 非形式逻辑导论 (2009)), in which the 
authors provided a detailed and accurate description of the panorama of global 
studies of IL. Apart from being a clear representation of Chinese scholars’ deep un-
derstanding and holistic grasp of this new branch of logic, this book also played an 
important role in attracting the interest of young scholars to enter the field of IL. 
In the wake of the advances in research on the theory of fallacy and IL, the op-
portunities and means to learn from international experiences increased consid-
erably. Through such experiences, Chinese scholars discovered that, regardless of 
whether critical thinking (CT) and IL were closely interrelated in their historical 
origins and theoretical foundations, in the final instance both of them focused 
on the common educational ideal. In this respect, the possibility emerged that 
Among these works, his manner of distinguishing between “argument x” and “fallacy x”, or his anal-
ysis of linguistic fallacies, were not inferior to the theories advanced by the contemporary American 
and Canadian experts in the theory of fallacy.
2 Apart from that, Ruan Song also published three further articles on informal logic in other Chi-
nese periodicals (Ruan 1991; 1993; 1996).
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166 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
CL and IL represented a new way, path, and methodology conjoining logical 
education with pedagogics. In this way, quite expectedly, they became among the 
special points of interest of logical research and education science in 21st century. 
Although the term “critical thinking” appeared in China earlier than the term 
“informal logic”, in around 1985, its full and exact introduction and research did 
not arrive until the 21st century. In the academic circle of logic, several important 
events occurred that contributed to the promotion of research in IL and CT. 
Thus, in 2000, “Informal Logic and Critical Thinking” was included in the “10th 
Five-Year Research Plan and Subject Guide for the Academic Discipline of Log-
ic” published under the organization of the Ministry of Education and edited by 
Professor Cui Qingtian 崔清田. In December 2002, the Beijing Association of 
Logic held the “Scientific Symposium on Formal Logic and Informal logic and 
Critical Thinking”, which was the first specialized academic meeting devoted to 
CT and IL in the country. The first Chinese textbook on CT, entitled Critical 
Thinking (Pipanxing siwei 批判性思维 (Luo 2004)) was produced by a group of 
logicians at Nankai University. This textbook, which gave prominence to infor-
mal argumentation rather than formal (deductive) argumentation, endeavoured 
to link argumentation with effective communication. Huang Shunji 黄顺基 and 
Su Yue 苏越 organized and completed the work Logic and Knowledge Innovation 
(Luoji yu zhishi chuangxin 逻辑与知识创新 (2002)), with the project financed 
by the National Social Science Fund of China. In their work, CT and IL are re-
garded as instruments of knowledge innovation. Subsequently, at the “Advanced 
Scientific Forum on Logic and Knowledge Innovation” (April 2004), hosted by 
Renmin University of China and Nanjing University, the Logical and Theoretical 
Innovation project was set in motion, which aimed to publish a series of books 
including a textbook on critical thinking (pipanxing siwei 批判性思维). In the 
following year, the textbook Critical Thinking—With Argument Logic as an In-
strument (Pipanxing siwei – yi lunzheng luoji wei gongju 批判性思维——以论证
逻辑为工具, Wu Hongzhi and Liu Chunshu (eds., 2005)) was published as a re-
sult of joint efforts of several professors at Chinese universities. Soon afterwards, 
the textbook A Course in Critical Thinking (Pipanxing siwei jiaocheng 批判性思维
教程, Gu Zhenyi 谷振诣 and Liu Zhuanghu 刘壮虎 (2006)) was published as 
a part of the 10th Five-Year National Plan Textbooks for General Higher Educa-
tion. In addition to this, an academic exchange group for “Critical Thinking and 
Informal Logic” was established at the seventh general assembly of the Chinese 
Association of Logic (May 2004), which further strengthened the momentum 
of CT and IL in Chinese circles. At the same conference the “First Awards for 
Excellent Achievements of the Chinese Association of Logic” were given to a few 
research works on informal logic. In this way the teaching and research directions 
of IL and CT also gained an important confirmation within Chinese academic 
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167Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
circles. Finally, the State of Research in National Philosophy and Social Sciences of the 
10th Five-Year Plan and Developmental Trends of the 11th Five-Year Plan (Guo-
jia zhexue shehui kexue “shi wu” yanjiu zhuangkuang yu “shiyi wu” fazhan qushi 
国家哲学社会科学“十五”研究状况与“十一五”发展趋势) also provided 
an overview of research in logic in the framework of the 10th Five-Year Plan, as 
well as the new research trends as planned for the 11th Five-Year Plan, in which 
IL and CT together was “regarded as a young scientific branch, whose practical 
significance obtained a wide-ranged and ample attention”, “in the following five 
years, the main focal directions ought to include … critical thinking”, establishing 
“critical thinking and logic” as one of the main subjects of the developmental plan 
for the science of logic, and “research of the function and application of logic in 
critical thinking” (Quanguo zhexue shehui kexue guihua bangongshi 2006, 345). 
As things currently stand, the fact that IL and CT are the objects of intensive 
attention within national research plans has set the foundation for the rapid de-
velopment of both fields in the near future.
Although the systemic theories of IL and CT are foreign creations, China also 
has its own native resources. With argumentation as its core, ancient Chinese 
logic emphasized a non-deductive style of argument and the context of argu-
ment. Regarding textbooks, there also exists a tradition of expositions on argu-
ment and the principle of sufficient reason. The article “On the Logical Analysis 
of Texts and the Question of Logical Teaching” (Lun wenzhang de luoji fenxi yu 
luoji jiaoxue wenti 论文章的逻辑分析与逻辑教学问题),3 authored by the Logic 
Teaching and Research Section of Renmin University of China and published in 
the journal Teaching and Research (Jiaoxue yu yanjiu 教学与研究 (1958, No. 10)), 
voiced an appeal that teaching of logic should be connected to the “actual think-
ing practice” of humans, criticizing traditional logic for its use of artificial material 
to explain logical knowledge and the lack of logical analysis of levels of discourse. 
The article further indicated that in practice when using our knowledge of tra-
ditional formal logic we do not know where to start an analysis of narrative or 
expressive texts, while, as an alternative, it proposed a procedure for analysing the 
structure of thought, which would emphasize the formal diversity and richness of 
expression of inferences, judgments, concepts, and their relations. By observing 
grammar, rhetoric, and logic, as well as some forms of inference that exceed the 
analytical capacity of instruments of traditional logic, the article’s intention was 
to open up “a new lively way of practice of logical teaching” or “a new direction in 
logical teaching” (Logic Teaching and Research Section 1958, 14). Twenty years 
3 More than two decades after its first publication, and “on the request of readers”, the text was 
republished by the Information Centre for Social Science of Renmin University of China in its 
publication B3 Logic (Luoji B3 逻辑 B3, 4 Volumes, 1980).
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168 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
later, these ideas from 1958 were implemented and advanced in the work Logic 
of Speaking and Text Writing (Shuohua xie wenzhang de luoji 说话写文章的逻辑), 
which expressed doubt about interpreting logic as formal logic, while explicitly 
suggesting that logic of spoken and written language should include both logic 
of reasoning and argument, as well as logic of description and narration (Wang, 
Zhang and Zhang 1980, 6–7). The research on narrative argument and narrative 
rationality, conducted in the international research on argumentation from 1989 
onwards, confirmed the earlier views of Wang Fangming and others. Soon af-
terwards, certain treatises on discourse and textual logic (Wang and Zhao 1982; 
Sun Zupei 1986; Chen Zongming 1989) as well as the Logical Application from 
Multiple Perspectives book series (Luoji yingyong duo shijiao congshu 逻辑应用多视
角丛书, Su Yue (1990, 10 volumes)), were all permeated with the essential conno-
tations of IL. Unfortunately, such work did not explicitly relate to or integrate IL. 
Recently, arguing within the framework of argument logic, Zhou Jianwu’s book 
An Analysis of Argument Validity: A Guide to Logic and Critical Writing (Lunzheng 
youxiaoxing fenxi: luoji yu pipanxing xiezuo zhinan 论证有效性分析：逻辑与批
判性写作指南 (2016)) considered literary analysis from the practical perspective 
of critical thinking and writing, regarding critical writing as an extremely effective 
way of practicing logic and training one’s capacity to perform critical thinking. 
The Overall Situation of Research on IL and CT in China
Akin to the situation in the US and Canada, from the initial introduction of 
the elementary knowledge on symbolic logic into Chinese university textbooks 
questions like “what ought to be taught in the framework of university logic?” and 
“how does it have to be taught?” were always under consideration. At the turn of 
the century both IL and CT gained a foothold in mainland China, and “the third 
way” of reforms of logical teaching, that is a general curriculum consisting of CT 
as an objective and using IL as a means, was also promoted. The proposal to “po-
larize” logical teaching—educating experts in logic deals with deep learning and 
research of modern logic and the all-round education with intensively generalized 
education in CT—also followed suit (Zhou and Mao2003; Zhou 2014). Follow-
ing in the same line, a profusion of different curricula and textbooks of the IL and 
CT type also emerged. Apart from these developments, since 1997 logic has been 
listed as an exam subject for MBA entrance exams (drawing from the methods of 
American GRE, GMAT and LSAT). While the content of this kind of exam in 
logic has got even closer to IL and CT over the years, the university curriculum in 
logic has not adapted to this kind of training. This produced an external stimulus 
for the reformation of logical teaching.
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169Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
In his work Argument and Analysis—The Practical Use of Logic (Lunzheng yu fenxi 
– luoji de yingyong 论证与分析——逻辑的应用 (2000)), Gu Zhenyi linked to-
gether the knowledge of traditional logic with the practical training in argument 
analysis, providing the first systematic response to the new needs. Starting in 
2003, he also took the initiative by establishing a course on “Logic and Critical 
Thinking” at the China Youth University of Political Studies and Peking Univer-
sity. Based on the lecture notes for this course, together with Liu Zhuanghu he 
co-authored the textbook A Course in Critical Thinking (Pipanxing siwei jiaocheng 
批判性思维教程 (2006)). Almost at the same time, lecturers in logic at the Chi-
na University of Political Science and Law, East China Normal University, Yan’an 
University and other institutions also started organizing elite courses on CT, in 
particular general elective courses on the subject. In the past few years, Huazhong 
University of Science and Technology hired the Canadian scholar Dr. Dong Yu 
董毓 as a visiting lecturer, who started the first course on CT at the university, 
providing an impetus for the development of teaching CT within every academic 
discipline, which in turn brought about a very favourable demonstration effect at 
the national level. Shantou University, on the other hand, offered its integrative 
thinking program (creative thinking + critical thinking + systemic thinking) of 
“Comprehensive Training System for Thinking” to all of its students. Chinese 
education relating to IL and CT also has certain special characteristics. Due to 
the restrictions in specialized study programs at Chinese universities, according 
to which one is not allowed to alter the titles of courses already listed in individ-
ual programs, it is not so simple to completely replace the compulsory courses 
on logic with IL or CT. As a result of this, there emerged at Chinese universities 
numerous courses entitled “Logic and Critical Thinking”. Sometimes it is even 
the case that lecturers are only allowed to fill occasional gaps which appear in 
the course of carrying out the general course on logic with content related to 
IL or CT. As regards the establishment of textbooks, IL has been blended into 
the content relating to CT. Led by a certain notion of CT, in their book Critical 
Thinking (Pipanxing siwei 批判性思维 (2010; 2016)), Wu Hongzhi and Zhou 
Jianwu constructed a relatively complete system of argument logic. The book The 
Principles and Methods of Critical Thinking—Towards a New Cognition and Prac-
tice (Pipanxing siwei yuanli he fangfa – zouxiang xin de renzhi he shijian 批判性思
维原理和方法——走向新的认知和实践 (2010; 2017)), written by Dong Yu, 
provided a broader perspective on the transition from the consumer of knowl-
edge to the producer of knowledge, creating a fusion between analytical, clear, 
real, adequate, optimal, in-depth thinking and dialectical thinking, which is not 
anymore limited to the scope of logic and corresponds to a form of general curric-
ulum that oversteps the constraints of conventional logical curricula. Apart from 
such publications, recent years have also seen the publication of popular readers 
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170 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
on this topic (e.g. Xie (2017); Dong (2017)), while online courses on IL and CT 
have also been developing rapidly. One such textbook is Xiong Minghui’s 熊明辉 
A Course in Critical and Creative Thinking (Pi-chuang siwei jiaocheng 批创思维
教程 (2019)), which strives to bring forth courses in innovative entrepreneur-
ship education, and combines critical thinking and creative thinking. Aside from 
Xiong’s textbook we should also mention the university MOOC textbook by 
Wang Yanjun 王彦君 (2020). Subsequently, various textbooks or training man-
uals on CT for elementary or secondary schools also emerged one after another 
(e.g. Zhao Guoqing 2016; 2019; Wang Jing 2017; Xu Fei 2019). Various books 
were also published embodying the spirit of CT and containing the contents of 
CT, on, for example, university-level foreign languages (Wen Qiufang 2012; Li 
Yingxin 2017), pedagogy (Rong Yanhong), medicine (Wang Weili), secondary 
school physics (Wang Changjiang 2015; Wang Ming 2021), linguistics (Yu and 
Zhang 2017;), and history (Zhou Hong 2020). Also noteworthy are the general 
teaching of CT launched at Nanjing Zhonghua High School and the primary 
school affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Moreover, 
translations of important works on IL and CT have also been growing rapidly. 
Starting with the Chinese translation of John Chaffee’s Thinking Critically from 
1989, Chinese translations of similar works have only been continuing to emerge. 
In 1997, the Shanxi Education Press released the most extensive project of trans-
lated and edited works on CT, which still continues to be published, namely the 
“Philosophy for Children Book Series” (Ertong zhexue congshu 儿童哲学丛书), in 
which 14 books of Matthew Lipman, a renowned expert in CT and the founder 
of philosophy for children (a well-known mode of CT), have been published. 
In 2013, the Mechanical Industry Press in Beijing started publishing a series of 
books on CT, which currently includes 14 individual works, while Xuelin Pub-
lishing House and the Shanghai People’s Publishing House jointly published the 
Guanghua Self-Enlightenment—Critical Thinking Translation Series (Guanghua 
qidi – pipanxing  siwei yicong 光华启迪-批判性思维译丛; 5 Volumes). By and 
large, all well-established foreign textbooks on CT have been introduced to Chi-
na, among which several editions of the same textbooks have also been translated 
and published in Chinese, while some of them have even obtained different Chi-
nese translations. These include the following:
Neil Browne, and Stuart M. Keeley. Asking the Right Questions: A Guide 
to Critical Thinking (1994, 1st edition).
Brooke Noel Moore and Richard Parke. Critical Thinking (2009, 9th 
edition).
D. Alan Bensley. Critical Thinking in Psychology (1997, 1st edition).
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171Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
Gerald M. Nosich. Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical 
Thinking Across the Curriculum (2011, 4th edition).
Peter A. Facione, and Carol Ann Gittens. Think Critically (2016, 3rd 
edition).
Theodore Schick, and Lewis Vaughn. How to Think About Weird Things: 
Critical Thinking for a New Age (2010, 6th edition).
Gary R. Kirby, and Jeffery R. Goodpaster. Thinking: An Interdisciplinary 
Approach to Critical and Creative Thought (2007, 4th edition). 
Sharon Bailin, and Mark Battersby. Reason in the Balance: An Inquiry Ap-
proach to Critical Thinking (2016, 2nd edition).
Stephen D. Brookfield. Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Tech-
niques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions (2011, 1st edition). 
Most interest has been given to the representative works of two schools of CT. 
Thus, from the school of Pragma-dialectics (established by Frans H. van Eemer-
en, who regarded critical discussion as a method of CT), five works have been 
translated into Chinese:
Frans H. van Eemeren, and Rob Grootendorst. Argumentation, Com-
munication, and Fallacies: A Pragma-dialectical Perspective (1992, 1st 
edition).
Frans H. van Eemeren, and A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans. Argumen-
tation: Analysis and Evaluation (1996).
Frans H. van Eemeren, and Rob Grootendorst. A Systematic Theory of 
Argumentation: The Pragma-dialectical Approach (2003).
Frans H. van Eemeren, et al. Handbook of Argumentation Theory (2014). 
Eveline T. Feteris. Fundamentals of Legal Argumentation: A Survey of The-
ories on the Justif ication of JudicialDecisions (2017).
Apart from these, there are also works like Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking 
Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life and Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking 
Charge of Your Learning and Your Life by Richard W. Paul and Linda Elder which 
have been translated into Chinese more than once. In 2016, the Foreign Language 
Teaching and Research Press introduced the 21 volumes of The Thinker’s Guide 
by Linda Elder and Richard Paul. However, in Chinese translations of CT works 
there are two obvious problems: there exist major discrepancies between the man-
ner of translation of some key terms (such as “argumentation” or “dialectics”), and 
the nonprofessional manner of translating logical terminology in some volumes. 
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172 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
For expertise-related reasons, naturally there only exist a few Chinese translations 
of research works on IL, amounting to the following four: Douglas Walton’s Legal 
Argumentation and Evidence and Character Evidence: An Abductive Theory, James 
B. Freeman’s Argument Structure: Representation and Theory, and Stephen E. Toul-
min’s The Uses of Argument.
The most representative research work in the fields of IL and CT is a series of 
studies issued by the 21st Century New Logic Institute at Yan’an University (es-
tablished in 2008): apart from the above-mentioned Introduction to Informal Logic 
(2009), these also include the work Argument Schemes (Lunzheng xingshi 论证
型式, written by Wu Hongzhi (2013)) which investigated the pivotal concepts of 
IL with several problems related to the argument scheme. A comprehensive in-
depth discussion of elementary problems in CT was provided by the work Prelim-
inary Explorations into Critical Thinking (Pipanxing siwei chutan 批判性思维初
探 (Wu Hongzhi, Zhang Zhimin and Wu Xiaobei 2015)). The book series Logic 
of Science (Kexue luoji 科学逻辑) consists of works like Scientif ic Inference—Logic 
and Methodology of Scientif ic Thought (Kexue tuili – luoji yu kexue siwei fangfa 科
学推理——逻辑与科学思维方法 (Zhou Jianwu 2017; 2020)); Scientif ic Analy-
sis—Logic and the Scientif ic Method of Deduction (Kexue fenxi – luoji yu kexue yanyi 
fangfa 科学分析——逻辑与科学演绎方法 (Zhou Jianwu 2020a)), and Scien-
tif ic Argument—Logic and the Scientif ic Method of Evaluation (Kexue lunzheng – 
luoji yu kexue pingjia fangfa 科学论证——逻辑与科学评价方法 (Zhou Jianwu 
2020b)). Setting out from the concept of CT, these books combine an abundance 
of scientific cases, providing an analysis of logical inference and argument in the 
context of science. The book Studies in Critical Thinking (Pipanxing siwei yanjiu 
批判性思维研究 (Wu Xiaobei 2018)) delved into the problem of translation 
of the English term “critical thinking” itself, trying to sort out the notion of CT 
within the context of critical rationalism and analysing the possibility of comple-
menting Western-style CT with Chinese-style CT. Scholars from other scientific 
institutes also published a certain number of specialized treatises on CT. Thus, for 
instance, the book Informal Logic and Critical Thinking (Feixingshi luoji yu pipan-
xing siwei 非形式逻辑与批判性思维 (Wang Kexi 2007)) attempts to provide a 
clear explanation of the relationship between logic and CT from the theoretical 
perspective. The book Litigational Argumentation: A Logical Perspective of Litiga-
tion Games (Susong lunzheng: susong boyi de luoji fenxi 诉讼论证: 诉讼博弈的逻辑
分析 (Xiong Minghui 2010)) uses the framework of IL to implement two trans-
formations of research in legal inference: that is, the shift from legal argument to 
litigational argumentation, and the shift from various kinds of frameworks of lit-
igational argumentation to a game-theoretical framework. In so doing, the work 
integrated the assessment standards of logical, dialectical, and rhetorical argument. 
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173Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
The book Research on Tourmin’ s Idea of Argument Logic (Tuermin lunzheng luoji 
sixiang yanjiu 图尔敏论证逻辑思想研究 (Yang Ningfang 2012)) systematically 
discussed the “logical turn” represented by Toulmin’s “material logic” or “working 
logic”. On the other hand, the book Reason, Reasoning, and Reasonableness: On 
Stephen Toulmin’s Theory of Argumentation (Liyou, tuili yu helixing––Tuermin de 
lunzheng lilun 理由、推理与合理性——图尔敏的论证理论 (Song Xuguang 
2015)) exploits several new sources of material to expand and deepen Toulmin’s 
theory. The book The Main Progenitors of Informal Logic (Fei-xingshi luoji sixiang 
yuanyuan 非形式逻辑思想渊源 (Chen Wei 2017)) traces IL back to Aristotle’s 
topics and rhetoric, Toulmin’s material logic, Perelman’s new rhetoric, Hamblin’s 
theory of fallacy and similar. Taking Mencius and Socrates as models, the book 
How to Conduct Criticism—Mencius’ Fury and Socrates’ Grief (Ruhe jinxing pipan––
Mengzi de fennu yu Sugeladi de youshang 如何进行批判——孟子的愤怒与苏格
拉底的忧伤 (Gu Zhenyi 2017)) comares Chinese and Western styles of criticism 
and systems of logical argumentation. This work further tries to remodel and op-
timize certain elements from Chinese cultural tradition with the use of CT. The 
book Argument of Case Facts—A Research Approach of Critical Thinking (Anjian 
shishi lunzheng––yi zhong pipanxing siwei de yanjiu jinlu 案件事实论证——一种
批判性思维的研究进路 (Yu Hui 2018)) focuses on legal reasoning, in particular 
on the CT of case and fact arguments as its main topic. By focusing on questions 
such as the three stages of questioning (to question or doubt), presenting alter-
native options (plurality of opinions), and forming judgments as its elementary 
structure, the work studies the awareness and skills of setting critical questions, 
conceiving alternative options and forming judgments required by the subject in 
the process of passing case- or fact-related arguments. 
From 2007 onwards, the Chinese academic world experienced a rise of the num-
ber of doctoral dissertations on IL and CT, with research subjects including 
Walton’s theory of fallacy (Li Yongcheng 2007), Toulmin’s theory of argument 
(Yang Ningfang 2008), Johnson’s informal logic (Xie Yun 2009), Woods’ theo-
ry of fallacy (Chen Xinquan 2014; Shi Tianbiao 2015), Perelman’s techniques 
of argumentation (Cai Guangchao 2017), argument scheme (Yu Shiyang 2019; 
Liao Yanlin 2020), ancient Chinese argumentation (Yan Linqiong 2020), and 
legal argument (Xu Mengxing 2015; Li Yang 2016; Huang Xianqing 2016). The 
number of doctoral dissertations on IL is not lower than and even surpasses the 
number of dissertations written at the same time in American or Canadian uni-
versities. In the field of CT, the doctoral dissertations started to appear earlier, 
such as a dissertation entitled “A Study in Theory of Critical Thinking and Its 
Evaluation Techniques (Pipanxing siwei lilun jiqi ceping jishu yanjiu 批判性思
维理论及其测评技术研究” (Luo Qingxu 2002)). Afterwards, however, only a 
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174 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
few dissertations were published that researched topics such as fostering the CT 
skills of university students (Liu Yi 2010; Tian Dan, 2012; Huang Fang 2013), 
the relationship between CT and creative thinking (Zhu Rui 2017), designing 
courses on CT (Huang Cunliang 2019), and the use of CT in judicial practice 
(Yu Hui 2017).
Renowned Chinese research institutes for IL and CT include the Institute of 
Logic and Cognition at Sun Yat-sen University (1997) as the Social Sciences Re-
search Base of the Ministry of Education, Institute for Modern Logic and Appli-
cation of Logic of Nanjing University (2003), Centre for the Study of Language 
and Cognition at Zhejiang University (2005), 21st Century New Logic Institute 
at Yan’an University (2008), International Institute of Argumentation Studies 
at Jiangsu University (2016),4 Centre for Research in Innovative Education and 
Critical Thinking at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2017),5 
Institute of Reasoning, Argumentation and Communication at Southwestern 
University of Finance and Economics (2017), and so on. At the same time, IL 
and CT also started entering Chinese dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Thus, for 
instance, the Comprehensive Dictionary of Logic (Luojixue da cidian 逻辑学大词典 
(Peng Yilian and Ma Qinrong 2004) already included terminology from IL and 
CT. The new edition of Encyclopaedia of China—Philosophy (Zhongguo da baike 
quanshu – Zhexue 中国大百科全书-哲学), which is currently in the making, will 
also include a certain number of new entries from IL and CT. Furthermore, the 
first (1990), third (2000) and sixth (2015) Jin Yuelin Awards were all given to 
studies on IL and CT. At the same time, quite a lot of research projects on IL and 
CT were subsidized by the National Social Science Fund of China. More impor-
tantly, in the same period of time a considerable number of impressive scientific 
articles on IL and CT were published in significant domestic periodicals, while 
outstanding works on IL and CT were also often reprinted in the Logic (Luoji 
逻辑) full-text series published by the Information Centre for Social Science of 
Renmin University of China. The main annual conference on CT (which also in-
cludes teacher trainings) is “The National Discussion Forum on Critical Thinking 
and Innovative Education” (Quanguo pipanxing siwei he chuangxin jiaoyu yantaohui 
全国批判性思维和创新教育研讨会), which has already been held nine times 
and has an extremely wide influence. Although national conferences specialized 
exclusively on IL are still few in number, major conferences on logic, such as the 
General Assembly of Chinese Association of Logic, conferences of the Branch 
for Formal Logic, conferences on legal logic, legal method and legal rhetoric, and 
4 The institute was originally established in 2009. In 2016 the institute moved to Jiangsu University. 
5 This institution received a large subsidy from its alumnus Qu Xiangjun 屈向军, who has a profound 
understanding of the theory of CT. 
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175Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
so on, usually include special panels on IL and CT. The special committee for 
logical education, established in 2017 in the framework of Chinese Association of 
Logic, strives to advance a harmonious fusion between all-round education and 
logical thinking, actively promoting work related to education in CT in primary 
and secondary education. In cooperation with the Renmin University of Chi-
na Press, the committee also released the “Critical Thinking and Foundational 
Education Curricula Book Series” (Pipanxing siwei yu jichu jiaoyu kecheng jiaoxue 
congshu 批判性思维与基础教育课程教学丛书, edited by Lin Shengqiang and 
Zhong Haixia 2019). Currently, there exists very favourable momentum for the 
use of IL and CT in fields like legal logic and legal methodology, as a consequence 
of which both have had significant impacts on these fields.
A major event in Chinese advances in CT, which is worth remembering for the 
future, is that in 2021, the Shanghai Education Publishing House started issuing 
China’s first periodical specialized on CT, the Journal of Critical Thinking Educa-
tion (Pipanxing siwei jiaoyu yanjiu 批判性思维教育研究, issued annually). This 
will inevitably become the frontline publication for research on CT in China, the 
central platform for disseminating essential information, the main window for 
presenting cutting-edge achievements in the field, and one of the most significant 
nodes in the development of the field in China. 
Integrating into the International Academic Circles
In the last 10 years, the statistically significant standards of the development of 
Chinese research of IL and CT have undergone a gradual improvement from 
simple “introduction from the outside” to the concurrent undertaking of high-
end import and export of ideas. This process has been manifesting itself in the 
following six aspects:
1. Inviting world-class experts on IL and CT to China for academ-
ic exchanges. From 2009 onwards, foreign scholars like Ralph H. 
Johnson, J. Anthony Blair, Douglas Walton, Christopher W. Tin-
dale, Frans H. van Eemeren, James Freeman, John Woods, Hans V. 
Hansen, David Zarefsky, and Frank Zenker in the field of IL, and 
David Hitchcock, Mark Battersby and Peter Facione in the field of 
CT, have delivered a series of lectures or reports related to the gener-
al situation in the field at various conferences or Chinese institutes, 
such as the Research Institute for Logic and Cognition at Sun Yat-
sen University. 
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176 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
2. An increasing number of Chinese researchers and PhD students vis-
it major centres of research in the US, Canada and the Netherlands 
to engage in elementary and advanced studies or take part in coop-
erative research projects. At these leading institutions they are able 
to learn from the best scholars in the fields IL and CT, and advance 
in their studies in a straight line towards the very frontiers of these 
fields. 
3. Frequent appearances of Chinese researchers at international confer-
ences on IL and CT. The quadrennial international Conference of 
Argumentation organized by the International Society for the Study 
of Argumentation (ISSA), the annual meeting of the Canadian As-
sociation for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking (AILACT), as 
well as the biennial conference of Ontario Society for the Study of 
Argumentation (OSSA), are all often attended by Chinese scholars, 
who present their research reports and papers. Lastly, the 10th Con-
ference of the ISSA will be held between June 28 and July 1, 2022, 
at Jiangsu University (Zhenjiang, China).
4. From 2007 on, more than 40 articles on IL and CT written by Chi-
nese scholars have been published in international scientific jour-
nals and conference proceedings. Listed as the first authors (corre-
sponding authors), Chinese scholars who have published their ar-
ticles in the international journal Argumentation (indexed in SSCI 
and A&HCI) include: Liang Qingyin 梁庆寅 (2011), Xie Yun 谢耘 
(2015, 2019), Xiong Minghui (2019), Yan Linqiong 闫林琼 (2019), 
Wu Peng 吴鹏 (2019), Zhang Chuanrui 张传睿 (2019), Yu Shi-
yang 于诗洋 (2018, 2020), Niu Zezhen 钮则圳 (2020), Wang Jian-
feng 汪建峰 (2020), Ju Shier 鞠实儿 (2021), Liao Yanlin 廖彦霖 
(2021), and Wang Bin 王彬 (2021). Moreover, Chinese authors who 
have published their works in the journal Informal Logic (indexed in 
A&HCI) include Xie Yun (2017) and Yu Shiyang (2019), while Xie 
Yun (2019; 2022) has published in the online journals Argumentation 
and Argumentation and Advocacy.6 One of the signs of the interna-
tional recognition of Chinese research in IL and CT is also the ap-
pointment of Xiong Minghui and Xie Yun as board members of the 
international journals Argumentation and Informal Logic, respectively. 
Current Chinese research on IL is not only closely connected with 
6 Naturally, there also exist minor articles related to IL and CT that were published in the journal 
Argumentation under the names of Chinese institutions. These include articles coauthored by Liu 
Yameng 刘亚猛 (2004), Feng Jieyun 冯捷蕴 and others (2021). 
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177Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
international academic circles, but is also able to contribute origi-
nal views on the most pressing problems arising as part of the lat-
est advances in science. Thus, for instance, in the past few years the 
problem of conductive argument became one of the focal points of 
current scientific advances. Regarding this problem Jin Rongdong 
晋荣东 (2011), Xie Yun (2017)7 and Yu Shiyang (2019) published 
important articles, which both had a certain impact on the field of 
IL. In the field of CT, contributions by Chinese scholars to inter-
national scientific journals have mainly been made in the domain 
of education research. Examples include the two articles by Ren 
Xuezhu 任学柱 (corresponding author) published in Learning and 
Instruction (SCI) and Intelligence (SCI) in 2020.
5. Participation in writing international handbooks and manuals. Such 
scholars are, for example, Xiong Minghui and Xie Yun who took 
part in creation of the Handbook of Argumentation Theory (2014), and 
Dong Yu who participated in the compilation of The Palgrave Hand-
book of Critical Thinking in Higher Education (2015).
6. Pursuing frontier research, interviewing world-class scholars in 
the fields of CT and IL. Having served as a driving force for the 
“turn towards argumentation” in Chinese rhetoric, Wang Jianfeng 
(2018; 2019) conducted interviews with Christopher W. Tindale, 
Douglas Walton, J. Anthony Blair, Ralph H. Johnson and Frans H. 
van Eemeren,8 discussing the relationship between IL and rhetoric. 
Moreover, Liao Yanlin conducted interviews with Douglas Walton 
and Hans V. Hansen,9 in which he set out to provide a general nar-
rative on the most recent developments in IL and the theory of 
argumentation. 
Concluding Remarks 
As predicted more than 30 years ago by John Nolt, the teaching and research 
of IL has huge potential at Chinese universities––if more Chinese people were 
7 His paper “Conductive Argument as a Mode of Strategic Maneuvering” received the 2017 
AILACT award for an academic article. 
8 These interviews were published in Contemporary Rhetoric (Dangdai xiucixue 当代修辞学) (2018 
(1); 2019 (1)).
9 These interviews were published separately in Philosophical Trends (Zhexue dongtai 哲学动态) 
(2021 (1)) and Philosophical Analysis (Zhexue fenxi 哲学分析) (2021 (1)).
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178 WU Hongzhi: Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview
to participate in the field of IL, they would undoubtedly bring about new ideas 
which would offer enormous enrichment for our branch of science (Nolt 1984, 
45). The overview presented above shows that these predictions have actually 
come true. However, we must also remain clear-headed and recognize our own 
shortcomings (Chen Bo 2018, 679). Some authors simply “renamed” textbooks on 
traditional logic or introductory logic so that they appeared to be textbooks on IL 
and CT. Such textbooks, that made no real use of elementary concepts from IL 
and CT, revealed a poor grasp of the fundamental spirit of IL and CT. How to ap-
propriately treat the relationship between logic, especially formal logic, on the one 
hand, and IL and CT on the other, has become the crucial point of CT teaching. 
At the same time, monographs systematically researching IL and CT are still very 
few in number, while there is an even greater lack of treatises written in English 
or translations of Chinese works into foreign languages. We still look forward to 
works similar to those created by renowned scholars such as Trudy Govier, Ralph 
H. Johnson, Douglas Walton, and James B. Freeman. Apart from that, research on 
the Chinese tradition of argumentation or developmental history of Chinese logic 
which would derive from the perspective of IL is worth attempting. On the other 
hand, the strength and intensity of research in IL and CT is still insufficient, for 
China still has no academic organization specializing in research on IL and CT. 
Among young scholars who have finished their doctoral dissertations on IL and 
CT, there are quite a few who, after their promotion, stop working in these fields. 
Observing from a more holistic perspective, unlike in many other countries the 
Chinese educational authorities still have not responded to the initiative raised 
by the United Nations, namely to institute CT as the objective of education and 
to put cultivating student’s CT into the strategic plans for the development of 
national education and introduce it among the principal standards of education. 
We can only hope that, someday in the future, the requirements for CT will first 
be carried out within the K-12 education system. I firmly believe that, along with 
the drive to establish a law-based society in China, the research on IL and CT will 
also usher in a golden age of self-development. 
English translation by Jan Vrhovski.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant 
No.: 18ZDA034].
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179Asian Studies X (XXVI), 2 (2022), pp. 163–186
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