Confucian Concord

A Confucian scholar, Kang Youwei, living in the late Qing period imagined a future utopian society called datong which eliminated all social distinctions. To illustrate it, he borrowed and developed the theory of the Three Ages, which first appeared in the Confucian classic Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, as well as in the theory of human nature in the Han dynasty. However, one of his students, Chen Huanzhang, made a new explanation of the “Liyun” chapter that greatly differed from his teacher. According to him, datong was a society committed to “preserving social relations”. The different understandings of datong reveals two different patterns of social relations in Confucianism. Besides the traditional wulun pattern, Kang Youwei offered another possible pattern. Although it proved to be a failure in practice, as a theory that discovered many hidden traditions in Confucianism, Kang Youwei’s datong theory is worthy of attention.

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Cheng Yu’s Response to the Moral Crisis and the Modern Fate of Confucian China

Yao

2023

Religions

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Cheng Yu is a significant yet underexplored figure in modern Chinese history. His ideas on Confucianism were closely linked to three pivotal moments of crisis in modern Chinese history: The First Sino-Japanese War, the May Fourth Movement, and the Second Sino-Japanese War. The First Sino-Japanese War led to the Qing government’s Hundred Days Reform, initiated by Kang Youwei in 1898. When the Reform failed, Cheng, the secretary of Timothy Richard, assisted Kang in his escape and became Kang’s disciple. In 1906, he traveled to Japan to investigate the development of industries, manufacturing, and hospitals, but his primary interest lay in Japan’s educational model. Cheng believed that China’s education lacked moral advancement compared to Japan’s, and he deemed it necessary to promote practical learning and moral education. Following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, he vigorously advocated moral instruction and hoped the government would establish Confucianism as the state religion. He believed it was the only way the government could preserve the country’s culture and save China from imminent destruction. Cheng’s ideas of Confucianism were emblematic of his era. In 1938, he attempted to reform Confucianism and promote Confucian moral education in the school system by cultivating the Chinese people’s cultural confidence and national identity. Cheng’s solution to China’s moral crisis was a response to the challenging question of the modern fate of Confucian China.

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Confucian Concord

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Creating a Constitutional Absolute Monarchy: Li Jiaju, Dashou, and Late Qing Interpretations of the Japanese Parliament

Creating a Constitutional Absolute Monarchy: Li Jiaju, Dashou, and Late Qing Interpretations of the Japanese Parliament

“Eliminating Social Distinctions” or “Preserving Social Relations”: Two Explanations of Datong in Modern China

Cheng Yu’s Response to the Moral Crisis and the Modern Fate of Confucian China

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