Between Tradition and Modernity: Modern Confucianism as a Form of East Asian Social Knowledge
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2017.5.2.43-62Keywords:
Confucianism, Modern Confucianism, cultural heritage, East Asian modernization, social knowledgeAbstract
In the last decades of the 20th century, the revival of traditional Confucianism assumed increasing importance and relevance. The revitalization of its complex philosophical heritage thus became part of the most important theoretical currents in contemporary East Asian societies. Due to its potentially stabilizing social function and compatibility with capitalism, Confucianism is often seen as the Asian equivalent of Max Weber’s “protestant ethic”. In modern sinology, this view is known as the “post-Confucian hypothesis”. The appearance of the “vacuum of values” in modern China and its problematization and connection to the transformation of the structure, role, and function of social knowledge provide a good example of the consequences of explosive social transformation. This also raises the question of whether the Confucian modernization model is indeed capable of generating a non-individualistic version of modernity. Proceeding from this hypothesis, the present paper aims to show that the purported relation between modernity and individualism, which international modernization theories have always viewed as “inevitable” or “intrinsic”, is, in fact, little more than an outcome of Western historical paradigms.
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–––. 2000. Renwen jingshenzhi chongjian 人文精神之重建 (Reestablishing the Spirit of Humanities). Taipei: Xuesheng shuju.
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Tu, Weiming. 2000. “Implications of the Rise of ‘Confucian’ East Asia.” Daedalus 129 (1): 195–219.
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Xu, Fuguan 徐復觀. 1960. “Bu si bu xiangde shidai 不思不想的時代 (A Time without Reasoning).” Huaqiao ribao April 12.
–––. 2005. Zhongguo renxing lun shi 中國人性論史 (The History of Human Nature). Beijing: Huadong shifan daxue chuban she.
Yu, Anthony C. 2000. “Which Values? Whose Perspective?” The Journal of Religion 80 (2): 299–304.
Ames, Roger T. 2001. “New Confucianism: A Native Response to Western Philosophy.” In Chinese Political Culture 1989–2000, edited by Hua Shiping, 70– 99. London and New York: M.E. Sharp, East Gate Books.
de Bary, William Theodore. 1998. Asian Values and Human Rights: A Confucian Communitarian Perspective. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press.
Bendix, Reinhard. 1967. “Tradition and Modernity Reconsidered.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 9 (3): 292–346.
Chan, Sin yee. 2002. “Tang Junyi: Moral Idealism and Chinese Culture.” In Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, edited by Cheng Chung-Ying in Nicholas Bunnin, 235–346. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Chang, Carsun. 1954. “Reason and Intuition in Chinese Philosophy.” Philosophy East and West 4 (2): 99–112.
Chen, Lai. 2009. Tradition and Modernity – A Humanist View. Translated by Edmund Ryden. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
––– 陳來. 2014. Renxue bentilun 仁學本體論 (The Ontology of Ren). Beijing: Sanlian shudian.
–––. 2014a. “Renxue bentilun 仁學本體論 (The Ontology of Ren).” Wen shi zhe 4: 41–63.
–––. 2015. “Practical Wisdom in Confucian Philosophy.” Journal of Philosophical Research; Supplement, 69–80.
Chen, Lai, and Xin Yan. 2007. “‘After-sage’ Life Pursuits: The Ethical Meaning of Feng Youlan’s Xin Shixun.” Frontiers of Philosophy in China 2 (3), June: 363–78.
Fang, Dongmei 方東美. 1936. Kexue, zhexue yu rensheng 科學,哲學與人生 (Science, Philosophy and Human Life). Beijing: Shangwu yinshu guan.
–––. 2007. Zhexue sanhui 哲學三慧 (Three Types of Philosophical Wisdom). Taibei: Sanmin shuju.
Feng, Qi 馮契. 1983. Zhongguo gudai zhexuede luoji fazhan 中國古代哲學的邏 輯發展 (The Logical Development of Ancient Chinese Philosophy), 3 Volumes. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chuban she.
Fetzer, Joel S., and Christoper J. Soper. 2007. “The Effect of Confucian Values on Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Taiwan.” Taiwan Journal of Democracy 3 (1): 143–54.
Gussfield, Joseph R. 1967. “Tradition and Modernity: Misplaced Polarities in the Study of Social Change.” American Journal of Sociology 72 (4): 351–62.
Han, Qiang 韓強, and Zhao Guanghui 趙光輝. 1994. Wenhua yishi yu daode lixing – Gang Tai xin rujia Tang Junyi yu Mou Zongsande wenhua zhexue 文化意識 與道德理性 – 港台新儒家唐君毅與牟宗三的文化哲學 (Cultural Awareness and the Moral Self – the Cultural Philosophy of Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan from Hong Kong and Taiwan). Shenyang: Liaoning renmin chuban she.
He, Lin 賀麟. 1938. Zhixin heyi – xin lun 知行合一新論 (A New Discussion on the Combination of Knowledge and Practice). Beijing: Beijing daxue chuban she.
Hirschman, Charles, and Jennifer Edwards. 2007. “Social Change in Southeast Asia.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 9, edited by George Ritzer, 4374–80. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Kahn, Hermann. 1979. World Economic Development: 1979 and Beyond. Boulder: Westview Press.
Lee, Hong-jung. 2003. “Development, Crisis and Asian Values.” East Asian Review 15 (2): 27–42.
Lee, Ming-Huei 李明輝. 2001. Dangdai ruxuede ziwo zhuanhua 當代儒學的自 我轉化 (The Transformation of Contemporary Confucianism). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chuban she.
Lehrer, Keith. 1987. “Personal and Social Knowledge.” Synthese 73 (1): 87–107.
Li, Jinquan 李錦全, ed. 1996. Xiandai xin rujia xua’an 現代新儒家學案 (Modern Neo-Confucianism). Vol. 3. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chuban she, 543–58.
Li, Xiangjun, and Yan Xi. 2006. “A Reconstruction of Contemporary Confucianism as a Form of Knowledge.” Frontiers of Philosophy in China 1 (4): 561–71.
Liang, Shuming 梁漱溟. 1924. Liang Shumin sanshi qian wenlu 梁漱溟三十前文 錄 (Liang Shuming’s Early Works). Shanghai: Dongfang Wenku.
Makeham, John, ed. 2003. New Confucianism. A Critical Examination. New York: Palgrave Maximilians.
Moody, Peter R. Jr. 1996. “Asian Values.” Journal of International Affairs 50 (1): 166–92.
Mou, Zongsan 牟宗三. 1971. Zhide zhijue yu Zhongguo zhexue 智的直覺與中國 哲學 (The Intellectual Intuition and Chinese Philosophy). Taipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshu guan.
–––. 1995. “Zhengdao yu zhidao, di san zhang 政道與治道, 第三章 (The Way of Politics and the Way of Order).” In Xiandai xin ruxue xue’an, Vol. 3, edited by Fang Keli 方克立 and Li Jinquan 李錦全, 544–53. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chuban she.
Ni, Peimin. 2002. “Practical Humanism of Xu Fuguan.” In Contemporary Chinese Philosophy, edited by Cheng Chung-Ying and Nicholas Bunnin, 281–304. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Rošker, Jana S. 2008. Searching for the Way: Theories of Knowledge in pre-Modern and Modern China. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
–––. 2009. “Modern Confucian Synthesis of Qualitative and Quantitative Knowledge: Xiong Shili.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 36 (3): 376–90.
–––. 2015. “The Confucian Revival and ‘Different Models of Modernity’.” In Contemporary East Asia and the Confucian Revival, edited by Jana S. Rošker and Nataša Visočnik, XIII-XXIV. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
–––. 2016. The Rebirth of the Moral Self: the Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
Tang, Junyi 唐君毅. 1985. Daode ziwozhi jianli 道德自我之建立 (The Establishment of the Moral Self). Taipei: Xuesheng shuju.
–––. 2000. Renwen jingshenzhi chongjian 人文精神之重建 (Reestablishing the Spirit of Humanities). Taipei: Xuesheng shuju.
Thompson, Mark R. 2001. “Whatever Happened to ‘Asian Values’?” Journal of Democracy 12 (4): 154–65.
Tu, Weiming. 2000. “Implications of the Rise of ‘Confucian’ East Asia.” Daedalus 129 (1): 195–219.
–––. 2014. “Confucianism.” In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Accessed March 13, 2014. http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/132104/Confucianism /25455/The-historical-context#ref1008344.
Vogel, Ezra F. 1979. Japan as Number One. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Xiong, Shili 熊十力. 1992.
Xiong Shili lunzhu ji zhi yi 熊十力論著集之一 (Collected Works of Xiong Shili, Part 1 /Xin weishi lun/). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
Xu, Fuguan 徐復觀. 1960. “Bu si bu xiangde shidai 不思不想的時代 (A Time without Reasoning).” Huaqiao ribao April 12.
–––. 2005. Zhongguo renxing lun shi 中國人性論史 (The History of Human Nature). Beijing: Huadong shifan daxue chuban she.
Yu, Anthony C. 2000. “Which Values? Whose Perspective?” The Journal of Religion 80 (2): 299–304.
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Published
30.06.2017
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ROŠKER, J. S. (2017). Between Tradition and Modernity: Modern Confucianism as a Form of East Asian Social Knowledge. Asian Studies, 5(2), 43–62. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2017.5.2.43-62
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