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Concept
New Confucianism
Summary
New Confucianism () is an intellectual movement of Confucianism that began in the early 20th century in Republican China, and further developed in post-Mao era contemporary China. It primarily developed during the May Fourth Movement. It is deeply influenced by, but not identical with, the neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties.
It is a neo-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 – to be applied in a contemporary context in synthesis with Western philosophies such as rationalism and humanism. Its philosophies have emerged as a focal point of discussion between Confucian scholars in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States.
The first generation of new Confucians (1921–1949) came about as a response to the May Fourth movement and its iconoclastic stance against Confucianism. Confucianism was attacked as unscientific and contrary to the progress of a modern China. One notable figure during this time was Xiong Shili, who studied Buddhism in depth in his youth but later sought a reformation of the Confucian philosophical framework.
Borrowing from the school of Wang Yangming, Xiong developed a metaphysical system for the new Confucian movement and believed Chinese learning was superior to Western learning. Another figure, Feng Youlan, following the neo-Confucian school of Zhu Xi, sought a revival of Chinese philosophy as challenged and influenced by the questions and techniques of modern Western philosophy.
With the start of the communist regime in 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 like Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan, and Xu Fuguan; all three are students of Xiong Shili. Mou, in particular, was grounded in classic Chinese philosophical traditions and argued that Immanuel Kant was, in many ways, a Western Confucius.
Official source
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