Li Zehou’s Ideas on Chinese Modernity Revisited: Possible Applications of Xi ti Zhong yong

Piotr Machajek; Martyna Świątczak-Borowy

doi:10.4312/as.2024.12.2.43-61

Authors

Piotr MACHAJEK SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland
Martyna ŚWIĄTCZAK-BOROWY University of Warsaw, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2024.12.2.43-61

Keywords:

Li Zehou, history of ideas, Chinese philosophy, Yan Lianke, mythorealism, Sungmoon Kim, Public Reason Confucianism

Abstract

We propose Li Zehou’s idea of “Western Learning for Substance, Chinese Learning for Function” (Xi ti Zhong yong 西體中用) as an interpretative framework for two distinct theories: Sungmoon Kim’s political theory of public reason Confucianism and Yan Lianke’s literary theory of mythorealism. This paper aims to show that Xi ti Zhong yong can provide a unified explanatory framework for these two apparently distinct theories. Second, we show that Xi ti Zhong yong can be applied even more broadly to other phenomena occurring in contemporary discourses on China. In particular, we show that it provides new interpretative perspectives in political philosophy and literary theory.

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