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New Confucianism (Chinese:新儒家;pinyin:Xīn Rújiā;lit. 'New Confucianism') is anintellectual movement ofConfucianism that began in the early 20th century inRepublican China, and further developed in post-Mao eracontemporary China. It primarily developed during theMay Fourth Movement.[1] It is deeply influenced by, but not identical to, theneo-Confucianism of theSong andMing dynasties.[2]
It is aneo-conservative movement of various Chinese traditions and has been regarded as containing religious overtones; it advocates for certain Confucianist elements of society – such as social, ecological, and political harmony[1] – to be applied in a contemporary context in synthesis with Western philosophies such asrationalism andhumanism.[2] Its philosophies have emerged as a focal point of discussion between Confucian scholars inmainland China,Taiwan,Hong Kong, and theUnited States.
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The first generation of new Confucians (1921–1949) came about as a response to theMay Fourth movement and its iconoclastic stance againstConfucianism. Confucianism was attacked as unscientific and contrary to the progress of a modern China. One notable figure during this time wasXiong Shili, who studied Buddhism in depth in his youth but later sought a reformation of the Confucian philosophical framework.[citation needed]
Borrowing from the school ofWang Yangming, Xiong developed ametaphysical system for the new Confucian movement and believed Chinese learning was superior toWestern learning. Another figure,Feng Youlan, following the neo-Confucian school ofZhu Xi, sought a revival of Chinese philosophy as challenged and influenced by the questions and techniques of modern Western philosophy.[citation needed]
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, many of the leading intellectuals left the mainland to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States. Notable figures of this second-generation (1950–1979) include individuals likeTang Junyi,Mou Zongsan, andXu Fuguan; all three are students ofXiong Shili. Mou, in particular, was grounded in classic Chinese philosophical traditions and argued thatImmanuel Kant was, in many ways, a Western Confucius. These three worked with theQian Mu to foundNew Asia College in Hong Kong. One of New Asia's most prominent graduates wasYu Yingshi. Together withZhang Junmai, in 1958 they issued theNew Confucian Manifesto consolidating their beliefs and drawing attention to their philosophical movement.[citation needed]
In the early 21st century, the most prominent representatives of the new Confucian movement outside of China have been the students ofMou Zongsan. One of the most prominent,Tu Wei-ming, promoted the idea that Confucianism saw three epochs: the classical pre-Han Confucianism,Song-Ming neo-Confucianism, and new Confucianism. This third generation has been instrumental in grounding Confucianism in non-Asian contexts, such asBoston Confucianism and Western scholars such asWm. Theodore de Bary.[3]
Following the period ofreform and opening-up underDeng Xiaoping after 1978, Confucian thought experienced a revival in mainland China. An emerging current of "Mainland New Confucians", led initially byJiang Qing, sharply demarcated themselves from the "Overseas New Confucianism" developed by Mou and others. Unlike the reformist views of Overseas New Confucian intellectuals, Mainland New Confucians viewed Confucianism as a national religion supported by doctrinal, political, and spiritual systems.[4]: 175 According to Jiang, Confucian thought can be divided into two currents, "Mind Confucianism" and "Political Confucianism".[5]
Confucianism, he posits, has for over a millennium been confined to Mind Confucianism at the expense of Political Confucianism, leaving the true thought of Confucius "mutilated". Jiang argues for the restoration ofpolitical legitimacy as a core focus of Confucian thought, for renewed attention to Confucian constitutional structures, and for the establishment of Confucianism as an officialstate religion.[6]
Other Mainland New Confucians debated a moreliberal political attitude to Confucianism.Chen Ming, an academic at the Institute for World Religions in Beijing, took a leading role.[7] Chen wrote that Confucianism faced the task of providing solutions to three major problems of contemporary Chinese society: political reconstruction, cultural identity, and religious faith.[8] While agreeing with Jiang's rejection of the metaphysical emphasis of "Overseas New Confucianism", Chen argues that Confucianism is best seen as acivil religion on American lines, compatible with democracy, and that political life can express a religious aspect without a formal state religion.[9]
Chen distanced himself from several rivals: Mou Zongsan's Confucianism as the "perfect teaching" seemed too informed by emotion; Jiang Qing's notion that China should be a Confucian state that unified the political and religious was too simplistic;Kang Xiaoguang's program to transform Confucianism into a state religion was "hardly applicable".[9][10]
Factors influencing the Confucian revival since the early 1990s include the tendency of Chinese intellectuals to oppose the iconoclasm of the May Fourth legacy, an increase in "national learning", and an increasingly anti-Western national mood.[4]: 175
Whereas the English rendering of the movement is generallynew Confucianism, there is a variety of translations in the Chinese. Many Taiwan-based writers will tend to use the termcontemporary new Confucianism (simplified Chinese:当代新儒家;traditional Chinese:當代新儒家;pinyin:dāng dài xīn rú jiā orsimplified Chinese:当代新儒学;traditional Chinese:當代新儒學;pinyin:dāng dài xīn rú xué) to emphasize the movement's continuity with theSong-Mingneo-Confucianism.[2]
Many within Mainland China prefer the termmodern new Confucianism (simplified Chinese:现代新儒家;traditional Chinese:現代新儒家;pinyin:xiàn dài xīn rú jiā orsimplified Chinese:现代新儒学;traditional Chinese:現代新儒學;pinyin:xiàn dài xīn rú xué) with an emphasis on the period of modernization afterMay Fourth.[2]
New Confucianism is a school of Chinese philosophy influenced byConfucianism. After the events of theMay Fourth Movement in 1919, in which Confucianism was blamed for China’s weakness and decline in the face of Western aggression, a major Chinese philosopher of the time,Xiong Shili (1885–1968), established and re-constructed Confucianism as a response.[11]
New Confucianism is a political, ethical, and social philosophy using metaphysical ideas from both Western and Eastern philosophy. It is categorized into three generations, starting withXiong Shili andFeng Youlan as the first generation philosophers who set the basis. The second generation consists of Xiong's students,Mou Zongsan,Tang Junyi, andXu Fuguan. The third generation is not determined via figures unlike previous generations, but new Confucianism from 1980. Xiong and his follower's attempts to reconstruct Confucianism gave new Confucianism its Chinese name, xīn rú jiā.
Xiong Shili (1885–1968) is widely regarded as the thinker who laid down the basis for the revival of Confucianism as new Confucianism in the twentieth century.[11] Much of the basis of new Confucianism comes from Xiong's New Doctrine. Proficient in Buddhist classics,[11] Xiong argued that classics of Eastern Philosophy must be integrated in contemporary Chinese philosophy for more solidity.[11] Xiong recognized Buddhism's dark view of human nature, but also recognized that there are brighter sides to human nature. For this reason, he rejected the Buddhist learning of "daily decrease" which dictated that the practice to suppress one's dark nature was necessary.[11]
He arrived at such conclusion after his examination of Classic Confucianism. While Confucianism also examines the negative aspect of human nature, thus the necessity to habituate oneself with ritual, the purpose of the practice of ritual and attainment ofren is not focused on restricting the darker aspects of human nature but developing the "fundamental goodness", i.e., theduan of human beings thatMencius writes of.
In order to incorporate Buddhism with Confucianism as a part of his contemporary Chinese philosophy encompassing various Eastern philosophies, Xiong proposed a correction of Buddhist learning of daily decrease. Xiong understood the basis behind "daily decrease" to be Buddhism's metaphysical belief of the "unbridgeable split between an absolute unchanging reality (Dharma-nature or fa-xing), and a constantly changing and conditional phenomenal world (Dharma-characters or fa-xing) (Xiong, 1994, pp. 69–77, 84–5, 111–12).[11]
Jiyuan Yu, in his examination of Xiong, describes this as the "Separation theory". Meanwhile, Xiong's theory behind correcting the "daily decrease" rested heavily upon what Yu describes as the "Sameness Thesis".[11] Xiong, in his New Doctrine, calls this Dharma-natureti and Dharma-charactersyong. Xiong argues that unlike how Buddhism perceives these two worlds, these two worlds are a unity. Xiong's reasoning is shown in his 1985 version of New Doctrine:
If they are separable, function will differ from original reality and exist independently, and in that way function will have its own original reality. We should not seek for some entity outside function and name it original reality. Furthermore, if original reality exists independent of function, it is a useless reality. In that case, if it is not a dead thing, it must be a dispensable thing. Thinking back and forth, I believe that original reality and function are not separable. (Xiong, 1985, p. 434)
His view on this unity can be seen in his earlier works such as New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness. In New Treatise, he argues that the Reality is equal to the Mind. This Mind does not refer to one's individual mind but the universal presence in which there is a universality of mind amongst all beings, thus being the reality. Xiong incorporates the Confucian and Buddhist concept of self-mastery of one's desires, by arguing that failing to control one's desires and individual mind, one will be "a heap of dead matter". Xiong's view is that one should perceive objects of the world internally, since what is external is ultimately also internal and that they are one as both Mind and Reality.
Mou Zongsan is considered to be one of the more influential second generation philosophers. Mou's general philosophy on metaphysics stays in line with Xiong's. He embellishes upon Xiong's theories on Mind and Reality to apply it to a more socio-political aspect. Mou claims universality exists in all philosophical truth. Which suggests that political and social theories of the world can be connected in essence. Mou argues in his lectures that particularity exists because of the different systems that are established in different cultures.
These different systems, after a series of philosophical reasoning and interpretation, arrive at a same philosophical truth. He believes that our physical limitations, i.e., our physical being, create these different systems and different cultures. Being that our mind, i.e., form, is still manifested and exists within this physical world, we should not let these limitations prevent us from practicing philosophical reasoning.
Mou's political philosophy is more clearly showed as he discusses the historical necessity that follows the particularity of human beings. Different nations and different systems' existence can be explained mainly because of this historical necessity. Mou asserts that historical necessity exists neither because oflogical necessity or metaphysical necessity but because of what he calls a development of the spirit, what he labels as dialectical necessity.
He claims that history should be perceived and interpreted as something that has both historical necessity i.e., also dialectical necessity, and moral necessity. For there are two types of judgment: moral and historical. Mou states, that Greek or Chinese, these basic necessities behind history and fundamental human character are the same, and therefore universality in philosophical truth exists even behind politics and history.
The term itself was first used as early as 1963, in two articles in theHong Kong journalRensheng. It did not come into common use until the late 1970s. New Confucianism is often associated with the essay, "A Manifesto on Chinese Culture to the World," which was published in 1958 byTang Junyi,Mou Zongsan,Xu Fuguan andZhang Junmai. This work is often referred to as the "New Confucian Manifesto", although that phrase never occurs in it.[3]
The Manifesto presents a vision of Chinese culture as having a fundamental unity throughout history, of which Confucianism is the highest expression. The particular interpretation of Confucianism given by the Manifesto is deeply influenced by neo-Confucianism, and in particular the version of neo-Confucianism most associated withLu Xiangshan andWang Yangming, as opposed to that associated withZhu Xi. The Manifesto argues that while China must learn from the West modern science and democracy, the West must learn from China, and the Confucian tradition in particular, "a more all-encompassing wisdom."[3]
The concept of aharmonious society (simplified Chinese:和谐社会;traditional Chinese:和諧社會;pinyin:héxié shèhuì) dates back to the time of Confucius. As a result, the philosophy has been characterized as deriving from new Confucianism.[12][13][14][15][16][17] In modern times, it developed into a key feature of formerCommunist Party general secretaryHu Jintao's signature ideology of theScientific Development Concept, developed in the mid-2000s, re-introduced by theHu–Wen Administration during the 2005National People's Congress.
The philosophy is recognized as a response to the increasing social injustice and inequality emerging in mainland Chinese society as a result of unchecked economic growth, which has led to social conflict. The governing philosophy was therefore shifted around economic growth to overall societal balance and harmony.[18] Along with amoderately prosperous society, it was set to be one of the national goals for the rulingcommunist party.
The promotion of "Harmonious Society" demonstrated that Hu Jintao's ruling philosophy had departed from that of his predecessors.[19] Near the end of his tenure in 2011, Hu appeared to extend the ideology to an international dimension, with a focus on the international peace and cooperation, which is said to lead to a "harmonious world". The administration of Hu's successor,Xi Jinping, has used the philosophy more sparingly.
Some scholars, notablyYan Xuetong andDaniel A. Bell, advocate the restoration of meritocratic Confucian institutions such as thecensorate in China and elsewhere as part of a new Confucian political program. Others (e.g.,Jana S. Rošker) emphasize that Confucianism is by no means a monolithic or static scope of traditional thought, but rather implies different currents that can be used quite arbitrarily and selectively by modern ideologies, which are marked by their function of legitimizing the state power. Considering the historical development of the concept of harmony we need to ask ourselves to what extent are the philosophical traditions based on historic assumptions, and to what extent are they merely a product of the ideological and political demands of the current period.
