Abstract: Evolutionism is essential to modern values. Since the Enlightenment, it has become the greatest ideological myth with the great victory of modernity. As a distinctive thinker against the trend of the time, ZHANG Tai-yang unfolded his critique against modernity, especially social progressivism and progressivism in his doctrine of "double evolution". Drawing up Buddhism and Zhuangzi, his dialectics of "good and evil, misery and happiness evolving together" attacks the doctrine of development and teleology of Hegel's dialectics, and deconstructs the linear development in evolutionism. During the enlightenment in the late Qing Dynasty, this doctrine had great significance in reflecting modernity and breaking the confusion of modernity. Reflecting upon evolutionism and progressivism with the dialectical wisdom of Buddhism and Daoism, ZHANG conducted a dialogue between the tradition of Buddhism and Daoism on the one hand and Western modernity on the other. He attacks monism with pluralism, optimism of progressivism with pessimism of Buddhism, Hegel's doctrine of development with Zhuangzi's relativism, and the linear progressivism with the dialectics of moving forward and back, revealing the two faces of evolution and the dialectics of good and evil, moving ahead and retreat and breaking the ideological myth of progressivism. It represents the dimension of criticizing modernity with tradition besides the mainstream of enlightenment in China.

Key words: evolutionism, progressivism, ZHANG Tai-yan, enlightenment, Buddhism, Zhuangzi