On the morning of September 19th, Professor ZHANG Shuguang spoke on “GU Zhun’s Thoughts, Spirit, and Comments”. In this session, Professor ZHANG Shuguang introduced GU Zhun’s theories and economic research, such as the market adjustment theory, price theory, and other establishment of his in political science and political philosophy. Professor ZHANG thought GU Zhun was not only an outstanding economist, but also a great thinker in the later half of the 20th century. GU Zhun was persecuted twice as a rightist, but his perseverance endured. Professor ZHANG also emphasised that GU Zhun should be considered as a man, instead of an immortal.

On the afternoon of September 19th, Professor SHENG Hong spoke on “Democracy and the Crowd”. He firstly analysed the nature of democracy and the crowd from the perspective of institutional economics. He thought democracy was the practical application of the spirit of contract in public areas, which was efficient; however, the crowd was easily manipulated by the group sentiments, which would result in inefficiency. Besides, the political power from the crowd was unlikely to be stable and sustainable. Professor SHENG Hong quoted Hannah Arendt and her comparison between the French revolution and the American one. He also analysed the specific forms of democracy and the crowd.

On the evening, Professor HE Weifang from Peking University joined the participants for tea. They also discussed the refugee crisis in Europe and the construction of the rule of law.

On September 20th, Professor LEI Yi spoke on “The Lapse of Institutions and the Fall of the Qing Dynasty”. He illustrated the connections between several historic events, such as the Opium War, the Yihetuan Movement, and the Xinhai Revolution. He thought, from the rise of local powers to the incapability in terms of diplomacy, and the corruption of the high level officials of the government, the Qing Dynasty was not able to conduct efficient reforms before it was too late.