First, "benevolence and courtesy"-the basic thinking mode of classical Confucianism.
Since Liang Qichao put forward the time division of China's academic history in his book "The General Trend of China's Academic Thought Change" at the end of 19, people have divided the history of Confucianism in China in different stages, which can be said that different people have different opinions. In my opinion, the 2500-odd years since the advent of Confucianism can be roughly divided into six theoretical forms in six development stages: pre-Qin Confucianism, Confucian classics in Han and Tang Dynasties, Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, practical learning in Qing Dynasty, modern Confucianism and contemporary neo-Confucianism. However, from the qualitative difference of its basic thought mode, it can be summarized into three theoretical forms in three stages of development: first, "traditional ancient Confucianism", that is, the whole ancient Confucianism from Confucius' benevolence to practical learning in Qing Dynasty, which can be summarized as "benevolence-oriented, etiquette-oriented" classical Confucianism; The second is "dealing with modern neo-Confucianism", that is, from the neo-Confucianism represented by Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong in modern times to the neo-Confucianism represented by Xiong Shili and Mou Zongsan in modern times and the neo-Confucianism represented by Feng Youlan, which can be summarized as the improved Confucianism of "Chinese style and western use"; The third is "post-modern neo-Confucianism in transition", which is currently taking shape. It seeks the innovation and orientation of Confucianism from the background of economic globalization, social democratization and cultural diversification. Judging from the relationship between body and use, it can be summarized as "democracy and benevolent government as the body, science and technology and legal system as the use"
In the development and evolution of traditional Confucianism, many schools with different purposes have emerged. For example, in the pre-Qin period, there was a saying that Confucianism was divided into eight schools, and there were differences among Han and Tang Confucian Classics, Modern Confucian Classics and Song and Ming Confucian Classics. But as far as its basic way of thinking is concerned, the whole ancient Confucianism can be summarized as "benevolence and courtesy" This theory of "Benevolence and Rite" was laid by Confucius, and it was constantly improved by Confucianism in past dynasties.
Confucius was born in troubled times in the Spring and Autumn Period. With the foresight of a thinker, on the one hand, he inherited and absorbed the concept of destiny in Yin and Zhou Dynasties, on the other hand, he creatively understood the destiny from the perspective of personnel, put forward the humanistic philosophical proposition of "benevolence for others" and "caring for people" for the first time, and established a set of "benevolence" theory with moral benevolence as the ontology and the meaning and value of life as the ultimate concern.
Benevolence and propriety are the most important philosophical categories in Confucius' theory of benevolence. "Benevolence" in Confucius' theory of benevolence is an ontological moral category and an ideal spiritual realm and moral behavior. It "originates from the inside and acts on the outside", which is a moral consciousness formed by self-cultivation, rather than an institutional rule imposed on itself by the outside world. The "ceremony" in Confucius' theory of benevolence is mainly presented as a category of institutional ethics. As recorded in the Book of Rites, "courtesy" is not only a interpersonal criterion of "making friends and refusing doubts", but also a rational criterion of "distinguishing differences and distinguishing right from wrong". It stipulates the hierarchical order of people of different classes and categories in society (such as monarch and minister, father and son, husband and wife, friends, teachers and students), and becomes an ethical norm and harmonious system for people in various social activities.
In Confucius' theory of benevolence, "benevolence" and "courtesy" are not equally important, but the relationship between purpose and body. Although Confucius attached importance to the function of "ceremony", he deeply felt the importance of maintaining moral benevolence and the truth of "ceremony is benevolence-oriented" from the political reality of "ceremony collapses and music is bad, and there is no way in the world" at that time. So, he wrote, "People are heartless, what about the ceremony?" People are heartless, so what are you happy about? "Sigh. When he answered Lu Aigong's question about politics, he clearly clarified the relationship between benevolence, righteousness and propriety, and pointed out: "A politician should be people-oriented, cultivate one's morality by Tao, and be benevolence-oriented. Benevolent people, relatives are big; Righteousness is appropriate, and respecting the virtuous is great. Pro (extreme) killing, respect of sages, etc. It was also born by ceremony. " (The Book of Rites the Doctrine of the Mean) It can be seen that in Confucius' ideological logic, the center of politics lies in people, and the basis of governing the Tao lies in establishing moral benevolence, which originates from family ties and is suitable for respecting sages, while the norms of etiquette are based on moral benevolence. When Confucius answered Yan Yuan's question about benevolence, he pointed out: "Self-denial is benevolence. A day of self-denial and self-denial, the world will return to benevolence. I am benevolent, others are benevolent! " (The Analects of Confucius, Yan Yuan) "Paying attention to propriety" is based on self-denial and self-cultivation, and "self-denial" is based on propriety. The unity of introspection and external norms is benevolence, and the establishment of benevolence depends on people's own moral consciousness. These important thoughts laid the basic thinking mode of classical Confucianism. In this model, "benevolence" is a kind of moral consciousness derived from human feelings and realized through acquired cultivation. It is the internal basis leading to the establishment of interpersonal order-etiquette, and "etiquette" is an ethical norm and system to improve the externality of internal moral feelings. In other words, benevolence is the foundation and the body; Ceremony is the purpose, not the purpose.
Therefore, we summarize the Confucianism founded by Confucius as the study of benevolence and propriety. Mencius, following Confucius, further put forward some ethical propositions, such as "everyone can't bear others' heart", "benevolence, courtesy and wisdom are rooted in the heart", "father and son are related, the monarch and the minister are righteous, the couple are different, the old and the young are orderly, and friends are trustworthy", and then put forward "be lenient with others" (that is, the way of benevolent government). From the basic thinking mode, Mencius and Confucius are both. Slightly different, Confucius regards benevolence as the highest moral category, while propriety as the external ethical norm, and wisdom as the auxiliary ability to be benevolent. However, Mencius regarded benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom as internal moral feelings, and gave a judgment on the moral value of goodness, instead of regarding propriety as a pure external norm. This shows that Mencius has the direction to further guide Confucius' benevolence to establish an internal moral subject. Xunzi, who followed closely, critically summarized the advantages and disadvantages of pre-Qin philosophers' theories [3], and enriched and developed pre-Qin Confucianism from a theoretical perspective different from Mencius. On the one hand, he inherited the basic spirit of Confucius and Mencius' theory of benevolence, regarded "the benevolent loves others" and "the benevolent respects people" (Xun Chen Zi Dao) as the foundation of kingly way, advocated that "the gentleman should be benevolent first" (Outline), and emphasized the importance of moral "benevolence" for self-cultivation, governing the country and governing the people. On the other hand, he emphasized the important role of etiquette and justice in maintaining the harmony of interpersonal relationships and maintaining the social hierarchy, and regarded "respecting law and ceremony" as the king's primary task. In Xunzi's view, propriety and justice are very necessary institutional norms formulated by rulers in order to control people's desires, curb riots caused by the overflow of people's desires and transform human nature. This is different from Confucius' thought of "being kind to oneself" and Mencius' thought of "having a heart and a policy of being unbearable to others" His ideological focus is not on the cultivation of internal morality and benevolence, but on the perfection of external ethical system, thus opening up an idea of advocating etiquette in the history of Confucianism, so it can be called the "etiquette study" of pre-Qin Confucianism. However, this kind of "etiquette study" is essentially a kind of "benevolence and etiquette" study.
Second, Confucian Classics, Neo-Confucianism and Practical Learning-Three Transformations of Classical Confucianism
Since Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, the traditional classic Confucianism has undergone three transformations.
The first time was in the Han and Tang dynasties, when Confucianism in the pre-Qin period was transformed into Confucian classics in the Han and Tang dynasties. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the legalist thought of "teaching by law and taking officials as teachers" and the Taoist thought of "ruling by doing nothing and waiting for no one" successively occupied the dominant position in the ideological circle, and Confucianism once declined. However, after Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he adopted the suggestions of Dong Zhongshu, Gong and others, implemented the ideological control policy of "restraining a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", and implemented the policy of respecting Confucianism in the education system and official selection system, thus reviving Confucianism, forming an atmosphere of "emphasizing classics", and explaining the "righteousness" of saints with Confucian classics, so Confucianism was transformed into Confucian classics. The period of Confucian classics generally began in the Western Han Dynasty and ended in the Tang Dynasty, so the Han and Tang Dynasties were called Confucian classics. The characteristics of Confucian Classics in Han and Tang Dynasties are as follows: first, Confucianism is politicized and institutionalized, and its moral, ethical and political ideals are partially transformed into a realistic ruling system (from Confucian Classics to etiquette system); The second is to respect Confucius and take the classics as the law. Due to the advocacy and reverence of Confucian masters such as Dong Zhongshu, Confucius began to be deified, and ancient books in the pre-Qin period, such as Poetry, Book of Changes, Book of Rites and Spring and Autumn Annals, were also canonized and dogmatized, especially Spring and Autumn Annals, which was regarded as a great law to reform the system, govern the country, judge cases and change customs. Therefore, at that time, Confucius was called "Wang Su" and the Spring and Autumn Period was called "Legislation for the Han Dynasty". Third, the content of Confucianism presents the characteristics of "miscellaneous but impure, all-encompassing". It not only inherited the learning of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, but also absorbed and integrated the ideas of "Yin-Yang and Five Elements" in pre-Qin, Taoism and Legalism, forming a very complicated system of Confucian classics, and even overflowing into an arbitrary "divination", which led to the decline of Confucian classics. Among the Confucian figures in this period, Dong Zhongshu, Liu Xiang and He Xiu belong to the Confucian School, Liu Xin, Yang Xiong and Wang Chong belong to the Confucian School, and Zheng Xuan, Wang Su and Wang Tong belong to the Comprehensive Confucian School. Among them, Dong Zhongshu is the most representative thinker. Dong Zhongshu's thought of Confucian Classics was born out of Confucius' thinking mode of "benevolence is the foundation, courtesy is the use", which combined the theories of Yin and Yang "worshipping Yang and restraining Yin", Five Elements "interacting with each other" and Huang's "combining punishment with morality", and thus was constructed with the thinking logic of "harmony between man and nature", "three cardinal guides and five permanents" and "five permanents".
The second transformation was Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and the study of Confucian classics in Han and Tang Dynasties was transformed into Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. Since Wei and Jin Dynasties, Confucian classics gradually declined and Buddhism flourished, which posed a serious challenge to traditional Confucianism. Therefore, Wang Tong, a Confucian scholar in Sui Dynasty, put forward the theory that "three religions can be unified" [4], while Han Yu, a Confucian scholar in Tang Dynasty, initiated the theory of "unification of Taoism", and Li Ao, in order to meet the challenge and revitalize Confucianism, created the theory of "renaturation", thus becoming the pioneer of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. Neo-Confucianism began in the Tang Dynasty and ended in the early Qing Dynasty. Thousands of years later, it constituted the golden age of the development of ancient Confucianism. Judging from the development track of his theory, it can be said that it is a Neo-Confucianism with Han Yu, Li Ao, Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi as its ancestors, Zhu and Lu Jiuyuan as its teachers, Wang Yangming as its ancestor and temples as its successor.
Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties was divided into many factions, among which the most important was the school of human nature represented by Cheng Yi and Zhu and the school of mind represented by Lu Jiuyuan and He. Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism adheres to the basic concept of "nature is reason", and integrates Confucius and Mencius' way with the categories of destiny, heaven and Tai Chi. On the other hand, Lu Wang's theory of mind and nature adheres to the fundamental idea of "mind is reason", and based on Mencius' theory of mind and nature, establishes a set of mind and nature system with "mind" (moral benevolence) or "conscience" as the noumenon and "inventing the original mind" or "inducing conscience" as the method. However, although there are great differences between Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, the basic thinking mode is the same. In other words, their ontological category is essentially "moral benevolence", and their basic thought patterns are all based on self-cultivation, governing the country and leveling the world, taking the road of "being sage inside and being king outside", which is actually a replica of Confucius and Mencius' thought pattern of "benevolence-oriented and courtesy-oriented" in the Song and Ming Dynasties. But both Neo-Confucianism and psychology have their theoretical defects. The biggest problem is that its all-encompassing "justice" (or nature, mind or conscience) is essentially a transcendental and absolute moral ontology, which confuses the boundaries between subject and object, nature and humanity, truth and goodness, knowledge and value in theory, while its ideological mode of "self-cultivation" and "inner sage and outer king" overemphasizes personal moral cultivation and ignores social practice. This kind of moral metaphysics with "transcendental holiness" as the highest goal has a high realm, but at best it can only become the spiritual realm of a few "people with brilliant morality" and is unattractive to most members of society. Therefore, when social contradictions intensify and there is a "sudden collapse" type of social change, unrealistic moral and spiritual research will decline. Thus, the third transformation of classical Confucianism took place, that is, the transformation from Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties to practical learning in Qing Dynasty. It started in the late Ming Dynasty and ended in the late Qing Dynasty, lasting about 260 years. Practical learning in Qing Dynasty is not only in the process of reflecting on the disadvantages of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties and the whole feudal autocratic system, but also in response to the new situation of "Western learning spreading to the east". Its basic characteristics are: rethinking and criticizing Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties to transform Confucianism, digesting and absorbing new western learning to supplement traditional Confucianism, and emphasizing practical application to save social crisis and national crisis.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a group of thinkers with a sense of historical mission and critical spirit, such as Huang Zongxi, Gu, Wang Fuzhi, Yan Yuan and Tang Zhen, profoundly summed up the experience and lessons of managing the rise and fall of chaos in previous dynasties, and directed their theoretical criticism at the autocratic monarchy system that lasted for more than 2,000 years (for example, Huang Zongxi put forward that "kings are the bane of the world" and Tang Zhen put forward that "emperors are thieves"), and they reformed it with arrogance. They also severely criticized the superficial style of study of Confucianism's theory of mind and nature in Song and Ming Dynasties, and advocated the pragmatic style of study of "applying the world" and "applying the world", thus liberating Confucianism from the shackles of moral metaphysics of "discussing life" and making it a practical study suitable for the Ming Dynasty and concerned about world affairs. Furthermore, since the seventh year of Wanli (1579), with many western missionaries and businessmen coming to China to preach and do business, there has been a trend of "western learning spreading to the east", which has greatly influenced the traditional Confucian intellectuals and bureaucrats and greatly contributed to the study style of practical learning. During the Ganjia period, Ganjia, a member of the East Zhejiang Confucian Classics Historiography School, made textual research on the leaders of Anhui School, such as Quan, Zhang Xuecheng and Dai Zhen, who inherited the Confucian humanistic spirit of "practical learning" in the early Qing Dynasty. In particular, Dai Zhen put forward the proposition that "reason depends on desire" in response to Song Mingru's theory of "keeping reason and extinguishing desire", which revealed the essence of rulers using Neo-Confucianism to stifle human nature and "killing people by reason", thus clearly revealing the affirmation and recognition of practical scholars on the right to life, which is a very important theoretical progress in the history of Confucianism in China.
After the Opium War, the imperialist powers opened the door to China by force, and the Qing Empire declined and was on the verge of collapse. Under the impact of the times when domestic troubles and foreign invasion alternate and the social and national crisis intensifies, Confucian intellectuals with a deep sense of anxiety set off a new wave of practical learning to review social ills and call for social change. At that time, Gong Zizhen loudly called for "changing the law" and "changing the ancient times" and put forward the requirement of reforming "the law of one ancestor"; Wei Yuan put forward the slogan of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners". What followed was "Westernization Confucianism" in Tongzhi and Guangxu periods, which clearly put forward the ideological proposition that "middle school is the body and western learning is the use" or "old learning is the body and new learning is the use". His so-called "middle school" or "old school" mainly refers to China's traditional academic culture with Confucianism as the main body, namely "ethics and religion", "Four Books and Five Classics", historical events in China, political books and maps, and so on. His so-called "western learning" or "new learning" refers to western science and technology, political system and history, that is, "western politics, western art and history". They think that "middle school" is an "internal learning" that controls the body and mind, and western learning is an "external learning" that "deals with the world", so it is necessary to use both inside and outside to remedy the current disadvantages. [5]
The slogan "Chinese style and western style" put forward by Westernization Confucianism reflects the subjective efforts of China traditional Confucianism to make up for the defects of traditional theory by absorbing new knowledge and learning from the west under the strong impact of western learning, and then save the social crisis. This indicates that Confucianism, which has experienced more than two thousand years, has begun to try to break through the old thinking mode and find a new way of reform. However, their so-called "western learning" is not really "learning" from the West, but mainly "skills" from the West. They still haven't jumped out of the traditional Confucianism in their basic way of thinking, so they haven't realized the fundamental transformation from classical Confucianism to modern Confucianism. However, the proposal of this slogan, as well as the debate of "Chinese style and western use" for more than 100 years, is thought-provoking for people to explore the road of Confucian transformation and even China's modernization. Thirdly, from the reform of benevolence to modern neo-Confucianism-the improvement and innovation of Confucianism.
The Reform Movement of 1898 (1898) was a turning point in the history of China and Confucianism in China. Although this reform movement ended in failure, it had a far-reaching impact. It made China truly embark on the road of modernization. Neo-Confucianism, founded by reformist Confucianism represented by Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong, has a rudiment of Neo-Confucianism, although it is somewhat neither fish nor fowl, and indicates the development direction of Neo-Confucianism after a hundred years.
Although the Confucianists in Daoxian, Tongguang and Guang Guang periods called for "learning from foreigners" and "applying the world", they only made a fuss about the concrete achievements, that is, the so-called "outer king" of traditional Confucianism, and did not transform traditional Confucianism from the metaphysical ontology. Therefore, the westernization school's theory of "Chinese style and western use" was really understood and chewed. By the middle of Guangxu, the trend of reform and political reform was on the rise, and Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong tried to transform the old Confucian style into a new style and new use, so as to establish a new school of thought of "neither China nor the West". Theoretically, they tried to break through the thinking mode of "benevolence, courtesy and wisdom" of the classical Confucianism, and respected and promoted the benevolent spirit of the classical Confucianism, trying to integrate the western freedom, equality, fraternity and scientific spirit into their new learning system without "assimilation". What they do is still the improvement and reform of Confucianism, which we can call "reform and benevolence". The characteristics of Kang Youwei's "Reform and Benevolence" are as follows: First, under the guidance of the Confucian concept of "change", he integrated the western social evolution theory into the theory of "Ram III" of the Confucian Confucian Confucian School, and put forward the ideal of social reform of "total change". He advocated comprehensive reform, not only to change things, politics and laws, but also to "change the way." He believes that both heaven and man are "fickle and can last for a long time", and all countries in the world are "stronger than reform and die of conservatism", "all can change, and all can die without change; All things become stronger, and small things become dead "("Six Records of the Emperor "). Secondly, on the philosophical ontology, he integrated the knowledge of modern western natural science and philosophy into the traditional Confucian categories of Yuan, Qi and Ren, and into the Tao of combining soul and flesh, which actually established an ontology similar to western dualism. In his view, Yuan is the "root" of all things in heaven and earth, the "qi" of "creating heaven and earth", that is, the "benevolence" of "the integration of all things". He also specially endowed the ontological "benevolence" with dual attributes, pointing out: "Human heart, benevolence, electricity and ether are unbearable." ..... I can't bear the heart of others, and I am kind; I can't bear the politics of others, and benevolent politics is also: although there are differences between internal and external uses, it is the Tao. "("Meng ") also said:" Things and I are one, and there is no boundary between them; Heaven and man are one, and there is no distinction between inside and outside. Things are themselves, they are things, the sky is people, and people are days. " (The Doctrine of the Mean Note). Obviously, Kang Youwei's ontology is a mixed philosophy that combines matter and spirit, human nature (morality, personnel, politics) and heaven (material structure, function and natural law). Thirdly, in political theory, Kang Youwei integrated the western ideas of equality, fraternity, democracy and rule of law into the Confucian "benevolence" and promoted it to Confucian humanism with western democratic color. He said: "All benevolent policies are out of the heart of being unable to bear others", "The goodness of human nature, the civilization of human nature, the evolution of human nature, and even great harmony are all born from this". He explained Confucius' statement quoted in The Doctrine of the Mean: "Pushing yourself and others is the foundation of Confucius' education; Being the same as the people, being independent and equal is the foundation of Confucius' rule. " In this way, Kang Youwei shaped Confucius into the embodiment of modern democratic spirit, and the "benevolence" of Confucianism also became modern humanism. Although Kang Youwei's theory contains many theoretical contradictions and far-fetched, it reflects the efforts of modern China reformers with profound Confucian cultural traditions to integrate ancient and modern China and the West, providing new ideas and theories for China's reform, and it is also the self-reform and theoretical response of traditional Confucianism in the face of the growing challenge of western learning. Tan sitong is also the main advocate of reform and benevolence. His book "Benevolence" interprets history with new knowledge, comments on old learning, and attempts to integrate and contain eastern and western cultures represented by Confucianism, Christianity and Buddhism with the words "benevolence" and "learning", in an attempt to establish a new "benevolence" ideological system that integrates ancient and modern Chinese and western cultures. As Liang Qichao said, "What is benevolence for? We will save all sentient beings in the world by understanding the sages in the world. Teacher Nanhai said,' Seeking benevolence is the aim, blending with great harmony, saving China, killing yourself to become a human being, and ruining your family.' "Benevolence" means playing the book in this language. And martyrs are people who practice this language. "("Introduction to Benevolence ") This points out that Tan's" Benevolence "takes it as his duty to understand the fundamental teachings of hundred schools of thought in the world. Although it has the name of "benevolence", its purpose and content are far from the traditional "benevolence". In this regard, Tan Sitong himself is very clear. He wrote in the definition of benevolence:
Benevolence takes communication as the first meaning; Ether, electricity and heart point out the tools of communication.
Benevolence is the source of all things in the world, so it is idealistic, so it is just knowledge.
Anyone who is benevolent should be familiar with Hua Yan and the books of Believers and Xiangzong in Buddhist books. Yu Xishu should be familiar with the New Testament and books on arithmetic, geography and sociology. China's books are widely read, including Yi, Chunqiu Zhuan, The Analects of Confucius, The Book of Rites, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Mozi and Historical Records, as well as books by Tao Yuanming, Zhou Maoshu, Zhang Hengqu, Lu, Wang Yangming, Wang Chuanshan and Huang Lizhou.
Gezhi is not refined, but you must understand astronomy, geography, wholeness and mind. The coverage of group learning and teaching is correct.
It can be seen that Tan Sitong's so-called "benevolence" is the origin of the world and the ontological "being" that connects all matter and spirit. The so-called "learning" refers to all knowledge and learning in ancient and modern China and abroad, and it is a "group learning and group teaching" in all knowledge fields including natural science and humanities and social sciences. This kind of "benevolence" seems to be a combination of Chinese and western, neither fish nor fowl, but it is actually used, that is, immediately. The value of Tan's Benevolence lies not in whether its ideological system is rigorous, but in the author's reform spirit and dedication to break through all traps and criticize the old ideas of the old system, in the author's open spirit of absorbing western learning and western politics, and in the author's keen vision and theoretical courage to promote China's modernization.
In a word, Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong's "Reform and Benevolence" established a set of "new learning" which is completely different from traditional Confucianism, but with the aim of "seeking benevolence" and the aim of comprehensively absorbing the learning of ancient and modern China and the West. Just as Martin Luther in16th century took religious reform as his own responsibility, they undertook the mission of Confucian reform at the end of19th century. Although they did not establish a new Confucian system that could save China and correctly guide China's modernization and modernization, they provided ideological materials worth learning for the fundamental transformation of traditional Confucianism and the theoretical creation of modern new Confucianism.
The 20th century was a turning point for China. Under the turbulent historical background, various ideological trends have entered the ideological and political stage in China, and in the process of collision, confrontation, criticism, infiltration, communication and even integration, three ideological trends have gradually formed, namely, Westernization based on western freedom, democracy and human rights, Socialism guided by Marxism-Leninism-* * * productism (the mainstream ideological trend in contemporary China) and China. During this period, the striking and unique cultural phenomenon in China is:
Throughout the 20th century, there has always been a debate about "the study of ancient and modern Chinese and Western cultures" in China's ideological and cultural field. In this ideological debate, there are some viewpoints, such as "Chinese style is used to the west", "Western style is used to the west", "Chinese style is used to the west", "new style is used to the new", "style and use are different" and "total westernization". Modern Neo-Confucianism came into being and developed in the social changes and ideological ups and downs in modern China. From Xiong Shili and Zhang Junmai, to Mou Zongsan and Tang Junyi, and then to Qian Mu and Feng Youlan, there are almost no similarities in theoretical content and logical structure, but their ideological direction, ideas and methods for building a theoretical system have, to a certain extent, inherited and carried forward the thoughts and style of study of modern reform and benevolence, especially Kang Youwei. The so-called "modern neo-Confucianism" is a school of thought established by a group of intellectuals who hold the position of traditional cultural departmentalism and have a sense of modern pragmatism, trying to rebuild Confucian moral metaphysics by absorbing and integrating western civilization, so as to resist the attack of total westernization and total anti-traditional ideological trend and seek the ideal road of China's modernization. From the background of ideological development, modern neo-Confucianism is mainly a "cultural response" to the overall anti-traditional trend of thought (in essence, the overall westernization trend of thought) and the socialist productive trend of thought since the May 4th New Culture Movement. This trend of thought began in the "debate between science and metaphysics" in the 1920s, based on Xiong Shili (1883- 1968) and Zhang Junmai (1886- 1969), and was systematized in Mou Zongsan (.
In the 1920s, the ideological debate on "science and outlook on life" (so-called "the debate between science and metaphysics"), with Hu Shi and Ding Wenjiang as one side and Zhang Junmai as the other side, was a dispute between western learning and middle school with modern characteristics, and it was also a dispute between China scientism and Confucian humanism. In this debate, the so-called "scientists" or "total westerners" maintain the scientific spirit, what they want to "overthrow" is the "Kongjiadian" which represents China's tradition for thousands of years, and what they clamor for is the modernization of China, while the so-called "metaphysics" or "modern neo-Confucianism" maintains the traditional "moral principles, habits or beliefs" of China. [6] Zhang Junmai later wrote when reviewing this debate: "In terms of philosophical and moral standards, Confucianism can be modernized. Nothing in Confucianism is inconsistent with the so-called human dignity or rights in modern society. " [7] This is enough to highlight the "coping" characteristics of modern neo-Confucianism. However, the fundamental remedy for modern neo-Confucianism to meet the challenges of western learning, new learning and China's modernization lies in the transformation or improvement of traditional classical Confucianism that can adapt to modernization. They have made a lot of theoretical innovations in this field, among which Xiong Shili, Mou Zongsan and Feng Youlan are the most effective. There are many disciples such as Xiong and Mou, forming a university school-Taigang Neo-Confucianism, and its theoretical system is relatively mature, while Feng Youlan is basically alone. Although he had disciples, he did not form a military faction. Although he had a theory, he did not achieve precision and integrity. However, they have made great contributions to reforming the "Tao style" of Confucianism, explaining the theoretical system of Confucianism and constructing the metaphysics of new Confucianism. Xiong Shili's Neo-Confucianism is mainly reflected in his works such as New Consciousness Theory, Practical Learning Theory, Ming Xin Pian and Gan He. His greatest contribution to modern Neo-Confucianism is that he established a very precise moral metaphysics system based on the theory of mind and nature of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, especially Wang Lu's mind and nature thinking method based on "conscience" or "virtue". He said in the article "A Ten-Li Answer to Mou Zongsan":
Conscience is the "sexual wisdom" in the new theory (referring to the new theory of consciousness). Therefore, it is said in the classics that "knowledge lies in things", so it can be seen that "conscience" embodies everything, circulating without worship. "New Theory" says that ontology is true, but it talks about the "virtue" of ontology ... Yue: "If it is true, it must be said. Virtue has two meanings: virtue and virtue. Silence, life, change, vitality, purity and wisdom are all virtues.
In Xiong Shili's view, this "ontological truth" is not a useless body, but a "ready-to-use" and "exclusive" body.