在1923-1937年的大約15年間，張東蓀完成了其第一階段之哲學創作，主題是「多元認識論」或「知識多元說」與「架構論」。這是現代中國最早之哲學創作，較之學界所謂的「創體系時代」，整整超前了一個時代。用馮友蘭所謂「子學時代」與「經學時代」之視角來觀察，在「經學時代」終結之後，張東蓀以其「自成系統底哲學」開闢了一個以「直接表達」或「正面表達」為特徵的「新子學時代」，遠遠走在「創體系時代」其他哲學家之哲學創作的前列。

During the fifteen years from 1923 to 1937, Zhang, Dong-sun finished the first stage of his philosophical creation on the themes of “plural epistemology” and “the theory of structure,” which was the earliest creation of philosophy in modern China, a whole era ahead of the so-called “period of system creation.” From the perspectives of Fung Yu-lan’s “period of the philosophers” and “period of the classics,” after the “period of the classics” ended, Zhang, Dong-sun launched the “period of the new philosophers,” characterized by “direct expression” or “straight expression,” way ahead of the philosophical creation by the philosophers of the “period of system creation.”