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In this most timely monograph, Jana S. Rošker is visionary in anticipating the role Confucianism might serve as a world resource in reshaping a newly emerging cultural order for our own time and place. She brings the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the philosophical contributions of the second generation of Modern Confucians into clearer focus, and documents the inspiration their discourses have given contemporary scholars engaged in the revival of Confucianism as integral to the task of formulating a new Chinese post-Weberian modernization. It is this alternative model of modernization with its Confucian values grounded in a robust and nuanced conception of moral person that might give our world an antidote to the ideology of liberal individualism. —Roger T. Ames, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Jana S. Rošker

Jana S. Rošker is Professor and Head of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She received her Ph.D. from University of Vienna and carried out her post-doctoral research at the Center for Chinese Studies in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2013, she obtained the national prize for extraordinary scientific achievement, granted by the Slovene National Research Agency (ARRS). She is chief editor of the journal Asian Studies, which has been published by her department since 1998. She is also the founder and current president of the European Association of Chinese Philosophy (EACP).

It is a contested question: How did modern Chinese Confucians think about the relations between Confucian tradition and modern culture? This book thematizes the modernization project of the second generation of modern New Confucianism from a philosophical perspective. As sinologist, Jana S. Rošker shows her familiarity with the related literature, both in Chinese and Western languages. As philosopher, she demonstrates her excellent competence in philosophical analysis and interpretation. This book is a rare and desired combination of substantive scholarship and rigorous philosophical analysis. With it she has made an essential contribution to the study of modern Confucianism. —Ming-huei Lee, Academia Sinica, Taipei

The Rebirth of the Moral Self

ACADEMIC MONOGRAPH ON CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

Jana S. Rošker

The Rebirth of the Moral Self The Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses

The Confucian revival which manifests itself in the Modern Confucian current, belongs to the most important streams of thought in contemporary Chinese philosophy. The Rebirth of the Moral Self introduces this stream of thought by focusing on the second generation Modern Confucians— Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, Xu Fuguan and Fang Dongmei. These scholars argue that traditional Confucianism, as a specifically Chinese social, political, and moral system of thought can, if adapted to the modern era, serve as the foundation for an ethically meaningful modern life.

COVER IMAGE

Box with “Fragrant Grass” Design, Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), late 13th century, carved black, red, and yellow lacquer, 1 5/8 x 3 7/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org.

The Rebirth of the Moral Self

The Rebirth of the Moral Self The Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses

Jana S. Rošker

The Chinese University Press

University of Ljubljana

The Rebirth of the Moral Self: The Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses By Jana S. Rošker © The Chinese University of Hong Kong 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. ISBN: 978-962-996-688-1 Published for Slovenia by: University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts Aškerčeva 2 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia Published for the rest of the world by: The Chinese University Press The Chinese University of Hong Kong Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong Fax: +852 2603 7355 E-mail: cup@cuhk.edu.hk Website: www.chineseupress.com Printed in Hong Kong

Dedicated to my parents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

China’s Confrontation with the West and Processes of Modernization: From the Liberalization of the Subject to a Free Market

2.1

The Confucian Revival and the Multiple Images of Modernity

2.2 Modernity with Chinese Characteristics

9 14

2.3

Daring Reforms, Ambitious Renewals and Passionately 18 Naïve Movements

2.4

Gradual Westernization: The Case of Taiwan

Modern Confucianism

3.1

The “Three Generations”

3.2 The Rehabilitation of Tradition and the Challenges of Modernization 32 3.3

Theoretical and Conceptual Platforms

viii Contents 3.4 Critique

3.5

The Problem of “Asian Values”

The “Second Generation”

4.1

The Teachers: A Short Introduction of the First Generation

4.2

The New Moral Metaphysics: Mou Zongsan

4.3

Fang Dongmei and the Philosophy of Creative Creativity

4.4

Xu Fuguan: A Philosopher of Culture, Philology and Politics

4.5

The Voice from Hong Kong: Tang Junyi

Science and Democracy

5.1

The Old Holism in a New Disguise

5.2

People as the Foundation of the State and Man as a Basis of Science 103

5.3

The Heavenly Mandate and the Analysis of the Basis of Integration 110

5.4

Two Truths, Two Subjects

The Midwives of Modern Cultures: Reason, Subjectivity and their Philosophical Connotations

101

116

6.1 Some Fundamental Distinctions: The Problem of Immanent Transcendence 131 6.2

Transcendental Subject and Empirical Self: The Problem of the Individual and their Subjectivity 137

6.3

From the Self-Negation of the Subject to the Modern Form of the Confucian Moral Self 150

6.4

Reason and Intuition

162

6.5

The Unemployed God

178

Contents ix 7.

The Modern Confucian Legacy and the New Confucian Ideologies in the People’s Republic of China: The Case of Harmony

7.1

Confucianism in the People’s Republic of China— A Brief Historical Overview 194

7.2

A Harmony of Peace and Order

196

7.3

Classical Harmony

198

7.4

Modern Confucian Harmony as Balance and Equilibrium

202

8. Conclusion–Modern Confucianism between Past and Future 211

Appendix 1: A Chronology of China’s History of Dynasties and Republics

219

Appendix 2: A Chronology of the Developmental Phases of Confucianism 223 Notes

225

Bibliography

259

Index

287

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Taiwanese Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, the National Slovene Research Agency (ARRS) and Chun-chieh Huang, Chair Professor and Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Taiwan University, for their generous support during the research on this book. I owe a profound debt of gratitude to Prof. Lee Ming-huei for his many valuable suggestions and advice on the manuscript. I am likewise very grateful to the many specialists, colleagues and friends whose contributions were essential to the completion of this study, including Roger T. Ames, Karyn Lai, Bart Dessein, Geir Sigurðsson, Raoul David Findeisen, Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik, Kwon Jong Yoo, Paul D’Ambrosio and John H. Berthrong. The present volume also owes much to Erik Holmes Schneider, who took the time to proofread it and who helped me to iron out many errors, both technical and grammatical. He also provided very helpful feedback on the contents of the manuscript. A special thanks also goes to my colleagues and friends in the Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Art, at the University of Ljubljana, whose insights, expertise and understanding proved to be of great assistance in my work. And last but not least, I would like to thank my family, Téa, Janko and Nils for their love and patience. Jana S. Rošker

1. Introduction

The present study provides a systematic and coherent examination of the contents, axiological innovations and social significance of Modern Confucianism introducing to a wider academic audience in the West its most important contributions to contemporary global theory. In international sinology, this line of thought is translated with various names, ranging from Neo-Confucianism or Contemporary or Modern Neo-Confucianism, to New Confucianism and Modern or Contemporary Confucianism. The first series, which includes the term Neo-Confucianism, is impractical because it is often confused with Neo-Confucianism, a term which in Western sinology denotes the reformed Confucian philosophies of the Song and Ming periods (li xue or xingli xue). I therefore generally prefer the term Modern Confucianism, given that we are dealing with philosophical discourses that belong to Chinese modernity. A similar confusion can be found in Chinese discourses, which generally denote this line of thought with one of the following expressions: Xin ruxue, Xiandai xin ruxue, Xiandai ruxue, Dangdai xin ruxue etc.1 In the case of Chinese, I find the expression Xiandai xin ruxue to be the most appropriate, the reason being that in China, as opposed to European sinological discourses, the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties has never been associated with the concept of new Confucianism (Xin ruxue) and therefore the character which denotes â€œnewâ€? in this phrase is not problematic.

2 The Rebirth of the Moral Self

The current is defined as the search for a synthesis between Western and traditional East Asian thought, in order to elaborate a system of ideas and values capable of resolving the social and political problems of the modern, globalized world. The philosophers belonging to this stream of thought, have namely attempted to reconcile “Western” and “traditional Chinese” values, in order to create a theoretical model of modernization that would not be confused or equated with “Westernization”. In this study, I mainly analyze the most important works written by the leading theoreticians of the so called second generation of new Modern Confucians, who were most active in the second half of the twentieth century. The most influential philosophers belonging to this generation were Mou Zongsan, Xu Fuguan, Tang Junyi and Fang Dongmei. The present study focuses on the interpolation of their thought into the methodological and theoretical framework of contemporary theories of modernization. While most of the philosophers of the second generation of Modern Confucianism were active in the first two thirds of the twentieth century and primarily lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong, this current also began to emerge in the P. R. China (People’s Republic of China) during the last two decades of the century. It is generally agreed that Modern Confucianism offered theoreticians in mainland China certain basic elements for the formulation of new ideologies, which combine neo-liberal elements in the economic sphere with authoritarian elements in the political one. As the present study clearly shows, the Modern Confucians generally followed the more egalitarian and democratic Mencian current of Confucian thought, while in their efforts to construct a “harmonic society”, the ideologists of the P. R. China mostly rely on the more autocratic and legalistic interpretations of the original Confucian teachings, first formulated by Xunzi. The same holds true for the leading contemporary populist Confucian scholars, as for instance, for Jiang Qing (2003) who developed the well-known political theory which is based upon the notion of Constitutional or Political Confucianism (zhengzhi ruxue). This distinction is of the utmost importance, and indicates the sort of differentiations that must be made in order acquire a proper understanding of Modern Confucianism and its theories, while refuting the idea that it represents some monolithic theoretical formation. On the contrary, it includes a wide range of theoretical

Introductionâ€‚â€‚3

discourses based on a tradition that is already very complex and heterogeneous. In order to provide a broader picture of the current, the present study not only examines the main Modern Confucian philosophical approaches, ideas and methods, but also explores the political, social and ideological backgrounds of the so-called Confucian revival and its connections with the ideological foundations of East Asian modernity. Thus, after the introduction in which I tried to sketch the global significance and the intercultural framework of the subject matter, the book opens (Chapter 2) with the general characterization of modernity, revealing the historical and political conditions in which the Chinese modernization process was embedded. It proceeds with a general introduction of the Modern Confucian movement (Chapter 3), focusing on their central concerns and intellectual approaches and, at the same time, drawing attention to some problematic issues they might imply. John Makeham (2003, 33) points out that while the works of the Modern Confucian theorists certainly have important implications in the area of cultural philosophy (wenhua zhexue), it is quite evident that their primary focus is on a number of underlying metaphysical issues. Despite the ambivalence of some writers, most of the Modern Confucian scholarship during the 1990s focused on the identity of the movement as a philosophical school (Makeham 2003, 33). Hence, after determining this sociological and cultural framework of Chinese modernization discourses in which the second generation of the Modern Confucian theoreticians, who represent the main subject matter of the present study, were living and working, the book focuses upon the introduction of the main philosophical contributions of this intellectual current. This part begins (Chapter 5) with a debate on their respective political philosophies and then (Chapter 6) proceeds to investigations in the deeper levels of their theories, introducing the main innovations in their ontological, metaphysical, and epistemological studies. In the conclusion, the book offers a short summary of the most important research results and delineates some possible future prospects of Modern Confucianism. For European researchers, the effort to understand non-European cultures is inevitably linked to the issue of differences in language, tradition, history and socialization processes. A fundamental premise of

4 The Rebirth of the Moral Self

the present study is that Western epistemology represents only one of many different models of human comprehension. The proposed research thus follows the main methodological principles of intercultural research, taking into account the incommensurability of diversely (culturally) conditioned paradigms, or theoretical frameworks deriving from diversely formed discourses of different cultural and linguistic environments. The methods applied seek to synthesize general perspectives, knowledge, skills, interconnections and epistemologies, in order to facilitate the study of a topic which, while intrinsically coherent, cannot be adequately understood from a single perspective. Within the broader scope of intercultural humanities, the book is thus structured in an interdisciplinary fashion, and comprises methods and forms of investigation pertaining to the following research areas: •

Socio-cultural perspective: different patterns of modernization;

•

Epistemology: the cultural and linguistic conditionality of comprehension;

•

Chinese intellectual history: the political and ideal background of Modern Confucianism;

•

Comparative philosophy (the impact of German Idealism upon modern Confucian philosophers, their elaboration of traditional paradigms and the creation of syntheses between Chinese and Western philosophies);

•

Conceptual analysis (the elaboration and cultural renewal of crucial modernization concepts—especially subject and reason—in Asian philosophies);

•

Axiology: the creation of new “Asian Values” and the contribution of Modern Confucian ethics to the new values of the contemporary world;

•

Ideology studies: the impact of Modern Confucianism on new theoretical streams in East Asia and the theoretical background of the new prevailing ideology in the P. R. China, which is based upon the concept of harmony.

Introduction 5

Regarding the general methodological framework of the present book, it is important to bear in mind that the understanding of so-called “foreign cultures” is inextricably interwoven with the issue of the diversity of languages, traditions, histories and socialization processes. The interpretation of the various aspects and elements of “non-European” cultures are likewise influenced by the geographic, political and economic positions of both the interpreter and the element being interpreted. Intercultural research always includes translation issues, but this is clearly not limited to merely rendering one language into another, but also involves the “translation” or transposition of different discourses. This form of translation involves interpretations of individual textual and speech structures, categories, concepts and values that differ depending on their socio-cultural contexts. For this reason, we often encounter a discrepancy between the etymological and the functional understanding of a given expression. In some cases, the same expression may even be understood completely differently, depending on the general social context of the two different societies in which it appears. The proper methodology for studying Chinese philosophy— which is still interpreted based primarily on premises deriving from the traditional Western social sciences and humanities—is found not only in the recognition of a “different theoretical model”, but in the relativization of the values systems2 and perception structures. In order for this relativization to take place, we need to gain insights into the conceptual structures and connections among the concrete historical, economic, political and cultural (philosophical) systems that underlie Chinese social reality. The awareness of these underlying fundamentals—which also inevitably influence the basic theoretical approaches, methods and conceptual framework—constitute a platform which permits an understanding of Chinese philosophy at its most profound levels. Intercultural research in the field of Chinese philosophy should approach the Chinese cultural and linguistic area through its own language and texts. This approach is of key importance, for it is the only way (at least within the frame created by the very essence of Western methodologies) to overcome an absolute dichotomy between the active subject and passive object in cultural research. In the Chinese language, the use of primary sources provides insights into

Jana S. Rošker

The Rebirth of the Moral Self

ACADEMIC MONOGRAPH ON CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

Jana S. Rošker

The Rebirth of the Moral Self The Second Generation of Modern Confucians and their Modernization Discourses

COVER IMAGE

Box with “Fragrant Grass” Design, Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), late 13th century, carved black, red, and yellow lacquer, 1 5/8 x 3 7/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org.