Abstract: Confronting 20th century’s currents of criticizing Confucianism and worshiping Confucius, Zhang Shenfu held that these two currents of thoughts should be reevaluated - the dross of Confucianism and the essence of Confucius' thoughts need to be distinguished from each other. According to Zhang Shenfu, the dross of Confucianism should be overthrown, while the essence of Confucius' thoughts should be adopted. However,in order to to improve the development of Chinese culture, only adopting and promoting the traditional thoughts is far from enough. To solve current issues, Confucianism needs to be analyzed from the perspective of philosophy, which is expected to promote the development of Chinese culture. In other words, not only the essence of Confucius’ thoughts should be adopted, but it also needs to be studied in innovative ways. In conclusion, overthrowing the dross of Confucianism and adopting the essence of Confucius' thoughts are Zhang Shenfu’s complete view of Confucianism.

Key words: Zhang Shenfu, dross of Confucianism, Confucius, view of Confucianism