In the Mengzi there is a hypothetical situation relating how the ancient sage-king Shun 舜 would respond if his father had committed murder. This has recently become a source of debate among Chinese philosophers. Here we will apply arguments made by Johannes de silentio (Kierkegaard's pseudonym) about the “teleological suspension of the ethical” related to the action of the biblical Abraham, and link them up to alternative interpretations of the actions of Shun. This challenges the current and traditional interpretations of (...) his actions, suggesting how this new approach can overcome ethical quandaries related to the Mengzian account of Shun's behavior. (shrink)

After introducing the unusual situations that shaped the lives of Zhang Zai and Paul Tillich, we present details from two major writings of these seminal figures: Zhang's Western Inscription and Tillich's sermon, “The Depth of Existence.” In this process we present new English renderings of selected passages of Zhang's influential essay, and illustrate how Tillich's essay manifests onto-hermeneutic claims related to change and transformation that have not always been highlighted in his work. As a consequence, we reveal how both men's (...) writings provoke some unusual metaethical and ethical reflections, while also sharing important values and standards revealed through this comparative study. (shrink)

In this review of Fan Ruiping’s book, I am concerned first of all about how representative his account of Confucianism/Ruism is in relationship to the multiform traditions associated with that teaching through more than two thousand years of its existence. Fan emphasizes pre-imperial forms of Confucian traditions, but neglects many alternatives from later sources. Secondly, his account of “familism” lends itself to questions related to the problem of revenge that is associated with traditional Confucianism. This raises further ethical doubts about (...) the effectiveness of his reconstructed Confucianism within contemporary Chinese society. Finally, his “familism” appears to focus on extended family structures, but whether this is suitable and relevant for the structures of modern family transformations in mainland China is questioned. (shrink)

In the Mengzi there is a hypothetical situation relating how the ancient sage-king Shun would respond if his father had committed murder. This has recently become a source of debate among Chinese philosophers. Here we will apply arguments made by Johannes de silentio about the “teleological suspension of the ethical” related to the action of the biblical Abraham, and link them up to alternative interpretations of the actions of Shun. This challenges the current and traditional interpretations of his actions, suggesting (...) how this new approach can overcome ethical quandaries related to the Mengzian account of Shun’s behavior. (shrink)

Based on publications addressing post-secularity in international contexts, this article identifies four basic interpretive positions manifest within our post-secular age: resistant post-secular secularists, strategic post-secular secularists, engaged post-secular intellectuals, and engaged post-secular religious intellectuals. Subsequently, an article addressing governance and religious studies in mainland China published by Zhuo Xinping in 2010 is assessed, indicating how Zhuo serves as an engaged post-secular intellectual position, charging Chinese Marxist officials to adopt a strategic post-secular secularist position. Finally, it is shown how in a (...) major volume on philosophical studies in China published in 2008 by Li Jingyuan a strategic post-secularist position is manifest. (shrink)

This book is a collection of articles on different aspects of university education in China since the late nineteenth century, addressing how far the ideal of modern university education, which has gradually been developed in the West since the age of European Enlightenment, was adopted or transformed by Chinese universities.

This chapter contains section titled: Principles New Principle Learning Feng's Histories of Chinese Philosophy and New Principle Learning Problems of a Modern Confucian Rationalist.

In light of developments in Chung-ying Cheng’s onto-hermeneutic philosophy during the years after his dialogue with Hans-Georg Gadamer took place in Heidelberg in May 2000, I explore several new issues related to Cheng’s understanding of Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy. First of all, I argue that Cheng has not addressed the vital concept of the “inner word” in Gadamer’s Truth and Method, and point toward some of its fecund hermeneutic significance, especially with regard to its characterization of Sprache/Language and its dynamics within (...) human understanding. Secondly, I underscore the fact that Cheng have not understood the profound impact of Christian philosophical writings in Gadamer’s work, particularly in his claim that Christian ontology offers an alternative to ancient Greek ontologies that are “categorically significant.” Finally, I describe and analyze the development of a new theistic understanding of reality within Cheng’s post-dialogue publications, suggesting ways of critically advancing his claims in the light of Gadamer’s account of the “inner word” and the Christian ontological claims grounded in the logos-theology as presented in the prologue to the Gospel of John. (shrink)

This volume is devoted to studying the emergence and flourishing of new humanistically informed developments in philosophical hermeneutics within contemporary Chinese philosophy. By means of some articles published previously in the Journal of Chinese Philosophy in the 1970s and 1980s, questions about the nature of philosophical understanding and the diversity of hermeneutic options in Chinese indigenous teachings – including Ruist (“Confucian”), Daoist, and Chinese Buddhist realms of exploration – are reintroduced. Following these seminal essays, a number of new pieces written (...) by philosophers and sinologists active in evaluating basic orientations toward philosophical understanding in China are presented. Some offer new insights into the confluence of Gadamerian and Ruist approaches to philosophy, while others employ more critical methods to indicate why serious hermeneutic inquiries into these indigenous traditions and their most representative texts reveal significant challenges for the informed reader. The focus of this volume centers on issues arising in early Ruist and Daoist texts – the Analects and the Zhuangzi – and then moves to examine hermeneutic claims asserted in the synthetic philosophical efforts of Zhu Xi (1130-1200). A sequel dealing with modern and contemporary themes in Chinese hermeneutics will appear in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy. (shrink)

After introducing some scholarship on the value of Mao Qiling's (1623–1713) works, we present an account of canonization processes in order to understand the hermeneutic context of Mao's battle with the Cheng-Zhu orthodoxy. His work is an attempt to decanonizing Zhu Xi's Four Books, preferring instead an alternative relying on the Old Texts of the Taixue《太學》/Daxue《大學》 and Zhongyong 《中庸》. Mao argues against Zhu Xi's textual changes and interpretations on a number of bases, producing a hermeneutics of suspicion against the Cheng-Zhu (...) orthodoxy. Instead, Mao offers an alternative account of the sagely way, following precedents of Wang Yangming. (shrink)

A critical summary and reflective assessment of the Chinese account of the dialogue that occurred between Hans-Georg Gadamer and Chung-ying Cheng in Heidelberg in May 2000 is presented for the first time in English within this article. It ends with an account of the ontological nature of Sprache/language as both philosophers deal with this key term in Gadamerian philosophic hermeneutics.

This book presents a number of contemporary philosophical issues from a wide range of Chinese philosophical texts, figures, and sub-traditions that are usually not addressed in English studies of Chinese philosophical traditions.

The subject of this issue is Zhao Fusan (b. 1926), a Shanghaiborn Christian pastor and intellectual who has lived in exile since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. As a scholar of world religions and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhao in the mid-1980s authored a sympathetic Marxian interpretation of the role of religion (translated in this issue) that has had a lasting impact in the PRC. In exile, Zhao's major projects (sampled in this issue) have (...) included Chinese editions of important works on early Christianity and the intellectual and cultural history of Europe. (shrink)

After introducing the unusual situations that shaped the lives of Zhang Zai and Paul Tillich, we present details from two major writings of these seminal figures: Zhang’s Western Inscription and Tillich’s sermon, “The Depth of Existence.” In this process we present new English renderings of selected passages of Zhang’s influential essay, and illustrate how Tillich’s essay manifests onto-hermeneutic claims related to change and transformation that have not always been highlighted in his work. As a consequence, we reveal how both men’s (...) writings provoke some unusual metaethical and ethical reflections, while also sharing important values and standards revealed through this comparative study. (shrink)