From “Return to Kang Youwei” to “Back to Mou Zongsan”: A Study on the Political Confucianism of Mainland New Confucianism = From “Return to Kang Youwei” to “Back to Mou Zongsan”: A Study on the Political Confucianism of Mainland New Confucianism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

二十一世紀以來，當代中國哲學界出現了一股解構啓蒙、否定現代價値的思潮，以蔣慶、陳明爲主角的“大陸新儒家”卽是這方面的代表。蔣慶認爲，民主、自由等現代性價値是劣質的普世價値，中國的王道政治則爲優質的普世價値，故提出了一套他所認定的儒家王道政治的構想。“大陸新儒家”最近幾年的口號是“回到康有爲”，陳明認爲，必須超越革命敍事和啓蒙規劃，回到康有爲國家建構與國族建構的問題、思路和立場上來，現代國家建構與國族建構優先於任何現代性價値，必須放在價値排序的首位。較之於當代“大陸新儒家”，“當代新儒家”則更能接受科學、民主等現代價値，牟宗三所提出的“良知坎陷說”，是基於其對中西文化的深刻理解所作的順暢中國文化生命的工作，絶非“大陸新儒家”所批評的一味接受西方的價値、無視中國的傳統文化。因此，與其“回到康有爲”，罔顧現代性價値，則莫若“回到牟宗三”來理解和消化他的成果。

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Since the beginning of the new millennium, in Chinese philosophy circles, there has been a trend towards deconstructing the enlightenment legacy and denying the legitimacy of modern universal values. This trend is associated in particular with Jiang Qing and Chen Ming, two prominent representatives of so-called Mainland New Confucianism. Jiang Qing criticizes such values of modernity as democracy and freedom for being negative universal values. He maintains that the superior universal value is political rule according to the ancient notion of the Kingly Way, based on which he proposes a set of formulations. In more recent years, Chen Ming’s slogan has been the call to return to Kang Youwei. Chen insists that it is necessary to transcend the narrative of revolution and the vision of the enlightenment, to return to Kang Youwei’s concept of national and state construction. In Chen’s opinion, the construction of the modern state and nation takes precedence over any values and should be ranked first; modern universal values such as fairness, justice, freedom, democracy, and constitutionalism are of secondary importance, or even trivial. On the other hand, contemporary Neo-Confucianism scholars such as Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, and Xu Fuguan are much more willing to accept modern values like science and democracy. They try to harmonize Chinese culture and modern values to get them to advance each other by drawing on the resources of Chinese traditional culture. In this respect, Mou Zongsan proposes what he calls the “self-negation of innate moral consciousness,” in order to sustain Chinese culture. This does not mean that he upholds Western values blindly and ignores traditional Chinese culture, as Mainland New Confucian critics accuse him. Therefore, it is better to re-understand, digest, and absorb the achievements obtained by Contemporary Neo-Confucians such as Mou Zongsan, rather than to return to Kang Youwei blindly and ignore modern universal values.
[Article in Chinese]