AEI - BART deel 4

New Confucianism 當代新儒學

• Its symbolic origin is the 1958 manifesto:

  • Tang Junyi.

  • Mou Zongsan.

  • Xu Fuguan.

  • Zhang Junmai / Carsun Chang.

• The manifesto asks the West to understand China through Chinese values.

• It presents Chinese culture as continuous Confucian thinking.

• New Confucians also argue Confucianism must be open to modern science.

• They admit China focused too much on morality and neglected logic/mathematics.

• Politically, they support openness to modern democracy.

  • They claim Confucianism already contains democratic roots:

    • Mencius says government should benefit the people.

    • People may revolt against bad rulers.

    • Everyone has ren 仁 and can become wise.

  • They argue democracy did not develop in China because of social and academic conditions, not because Confucianism was inherently anti-democratic.

• oppose Marxism-Leninism.

• They contrast:

  • Western square penetration: logical, abstract, deductive.

  • Chinese round penetration: holistic, particular, contextual.

• Goal:

  • Mutual learning between China and the West.

  • Philosophical and political understanding.

  • Global harmony.

The First Generation New Confucians

Main figures:

• Feng Youlan.

• Liang Shuming.

  • China is between Western individualism and Indian denial of individuality.

  • Chinese tradition has a future.

  • Opposed May Fourth anti-traditionalism.

• Xiong Shili.

  • Philosophical knowledge comes through intuition.

  • Knowledge must express itself in practical life.

  • Emphasized the religious dimension of Confucianism.

• Zhang Junmai.

  • Developed political New Confucian theory.

  • Wanted harmony between East and West.

  • Supported combining Confucian virtue-rule with Western democracy.

• Qian Mu.

  • Defended traditional Chinese culture against New Culture critiques.

  • Argued Confucian dynasties often limited imperial power through institutions.

  • Confucian literati protected the people against absolute monarchy.

The Second Generation

• He Lin forms the transition to the second generation.

  • He studied in the US and translated Western philosophy.

  • He helped give New Confucians their name.

• Tang Junyi

  • Left China in 1949.

  • Established New Asia College in Hong Kong with Qian Mu.

  • New Asia College became a major New Confucian center.

  • sees the Confucian sphere as the highest because it unites human and Heaven.

• Xu Fuguan

  • Confucianism is inseparable from Chinese culture.

  • Confucius represents the whole historical-cultural tradition, not just one school.

  • Rejects forcing Confucianism into metaphysics.

  • Wrong to try and modernize confucianism.

  • Its ethics arise from daily life and aim to improve society.

  • Confucian ethics may help the West escape metaphysical/religious crisis.

  • Politically, virtue allows every citizen to become a political actor.

  • Supports combining Confucian political ideals with democracy.

• Mou Zongsan also belongs to this second generation.

Tang Junyi’s system has three directions and nine spheres:

• Objective direction:

  • Difference between individual things.

  • Classification by type/category.

  • Cause-and-effect relations.

• Subjective direction:

  • Reflection and sensory perception.

  • Reflection on reflection, including language, literature, arts, math, logic, philosophy.

  • Moral action and ethical choice.

• Transcendental direction:

  • Monotheistic religion, belief in one God.

  • Buddhist emptiness.

  • Confucian unity of Heaven and humanity.

The Third Generation

Third generation = pupils of Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, and Xu Fuguan.

• They mostly lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or the US.

• Main figure:

  • Du Weiming 杜維明

• Du Weiming’s “third era” of Confucianism:

  • First era: Confucius.

  • Second era: Song Neoconfucian revival.

  • Third era: modern/global Confucianism after confrontation with the West.

  • would be wrong to say confucianism is just political

    • He agrees with Radical Confucians:

      • The problem was not Confucianism itself.

      • The problem was state use of Confucianism.

Confucian humanism

• concept of Du Weiming

• Puts humans first.

• Does not oppose nature or Heaven/God.

• Supports unity of Heaven and humanity.

The Fourth Generation

• From the 1990s, a fourth generation is identified.

• Confucianism became more popular because of the economic rise of:

  • Japan.

  • Korea.

  • Taiwan.

  • Hong Kong.

  • Singapore.

• New Confucians used this to argue Max Weber was wrong that Confucianism blocks democracy/industrial progress.

• Confucianism also returned in mainland China.

• Difference:

  • PRC New Confucians often focus on Xunzi.

    • The PRC use of harmony under Hu Jintao has links to Xunzi’s disciplinary idea of social order.

  • Taiwanese New Confucians often focus on Mencius.

Confucian Constitutionalism

• China’s reform/opening after the late 1970s made it a major economic and political power.

• This encouraged renewed interest in Confucianism.

• Jiang Qing proposed Confucian constitutionalism as an alternative to:

  • CCP rule.

  • Western liberal democracy.

Jiang Qing Confucian constitutionalism system

Jiang Qing’s system is tricameral: he wants a king back

• House of Ru = Heaven, natural morality.

  • The House of Ru is selected by Confucian scholars.

• House of the Nation = Earth, history and culture.

  • The king selects members of the House of the Nation.

• House of the People = Man, popular will.

  • Only the House of the People is elected, and even then from restricted candidates.

A hereditary descendant of Confucius acts as symbolic king.

Conditions for implementation:

• Restore Confucianism fully.

• Train Confucian scholars.

• Integrate Confucianism into the constitution.

But this is based on the gongyangzhuan, so not the earliest. this has influence from outside influence

Critiques on Jiang Qing Confucian constitutionalism system

• Jiang relies on Gongyang zhuan, which is not the earliest Confucian doctrine and contains non-Confucian influence.

• His system may be influenced by Christianity, especially the transcendent Heaven and Academy.

• China is not purely Confucian; it is also Daoist, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, popular religious, and modern/pluralist.

• Imposing Confucianism today risks oppression.

• Past attempts to revive Confucianism politically failed.

• Liberal democracy does not necessarily destroy values people actually care about.

• Confucians are not morally superior by default.

• A descendant of Confucius is not automatically politically/morally pure.

Harmonious Society

• Since reform and opening, China described its rise as:

  • Peaceful rise 和平崛起

  • Peaceful development 和平發展

  • Harmonious society 和諧社會

  • to go to a Harmonious world 和諧世界

    • projects Chinese values globally.

• The “China model” presents China as an alternative development path for Africa/Latin America and other postcolonial societies.

  • This reverses the nineteenth-century hierarchy:

    • Instead of China being judged by Europe,

    • Europe/world is now judged through Chinese/Confucian categories.

Beijing Consensus

• Economic liberalization.

• Authoritarian political control.

• Alternative to the Western “Washington Consensus.”

Problem harmonious world

• Harmony often means conformity.

• In China, harmony can mean compliance with CCP-defined order.

• Internationally, this raises the question:

  • Does “harmony” mean respecting difference?

  • Or transforming others into sameness?

• Another issue:

  • “Harmony” is used for everything in China, so it risks meaning nothing.

• Even if East Asia still has Confucian political culture, that does not prove:

  • It should stay that way.

  • People want it that way.

  • Confucianism should be exported.

• Confucian values changed throughout history.

• Absorbing Western values would change Confucianism too.

• Many Chinese, especially younger people, are inspired more by liberal values than by Confucianism.

Hu Angang’s view

• Hu Angang’s view:

  • Harmonious world abolishes borders and gaps.

  • Civilizations merge into a shared destiny/community.

  • China leads the Global South against the Global North.

  • China must break Northern cultural hegemony.

What has been defrosted cannot be deep-frozen again

• Contemporary China’s rise forces Europe to rethink itself.

• Europe is no longer only the one defining the “Other”; Europe itself becomes the Other from China’s perspective.

• Once Confucianism has been revived, reinterpreted, and globalized, it cannot simply be frozen back into its old imperial form.

• The key lesson:

  • Do not only see others as we see them.

  • Try to see others as they see themselves.

• Mao’s quote to Nixon captures the syllabus’s final point:

  • Even revolutionary China could only change parts of China’s ancient civilization.

  • Deep civilizational continuities remain.