The present issue of the journal Asian Studies is dedicated to Li Zehou, one of the greatest contemporary Chinese philosophers. It was compiled as a part of the celebration of his 90th birthday, ...which will take place on June 13 2020.
This article aims to compare two interpretations of the emergence of new religious and moral concepts and beliefs in the period between the Shang (1600‒1046 BC) and the Western Zhou (1046‒771 BC) ...dynasties. It critically compares the theories of Xu Fuguan (1903‒1982) and Li Zehou (1930‒2021) on the process of humanization of Chinese religion. By emphasizing religious concepts such as Heaven, the Mandate of Heaven, the Way of Heaven on the one hand, and moral concepts such as virtue, reverence, and rituality on the other, the author illuminates the differences in each author’s interpretation of the era in which Chinese culture moved away from religion and into the realm of humanism and ethics. This article reveals the reasons for these differences, which stem from the profound divergences in the basic methods of Li and Xu. While Li’s elaboration is based on philosophical approaches, Xu Fuguan’s understanding is based on philological and cultural analyses of the Chinese history of ideas. The author argues that these mutual differences between their interpretations demonstrate the importance of understanding different methodological approaches, which in turn allows for a deeper multi-layered understanding of the process of humanization of Chinese religion.
Li Zehou belongs to the most influential Chinese philosophers of our time. This paper will present a critical introduction of his theory regarding the consolidation of the specific Confucian system ...of kinship relations, which for him forms a crucial foundation of traditional Chinese social order. In Confucianism, the inter-familial relations form a basis of the social system, in which interpersonal relations are of utmost importance and which Li therefore denotes as “relationalism”. According to him, this kinship-based Confucian model originates in shamanistic rituality performed by Neolithic humans living in the land occupied by modern-day China. These Neolithic cultures were rather advanced and based their societies on small-scale semi-agricultural production, in which communities were mainly constructed through kinship relationships. Shamanistic ceremonies were enhancing and strengthening the awareness of such social unities. These early collective rites, especially those that include music and dance, had a powerful effect on early humans, creating intense feelings of respect, love and loyalty, and thus forming a basis for the Confucian social order based upon kinship relations, and the Confucian ethics, rooted in interpersonal humanness. Li’s theory of the shamanist origins of Confucian relationalism will be critically illuminated through the lens of current historical and anthropological scholarship on shamanist rituality and their function within the corresponding cultural orders.
This article seeks to shed new light on Li Zehou's thought by examining the long‐neglected dimension of the philosophy of language in his philosophical system. In addition, an effort is made to ...analyze how this dimension is generated by Li's creative combination of Marxism and Chinese philosophy. Insisting on the priority of life and practice to language, Li attacks the ‘linguistic turn’ so as to lead the focus of philosophy from language back to life. Li's treatment of language consistently seeks to keep pace with the development of his thinking, incorporating an evolutionary continuum from practice to life. One of the primary approaches adopted by Li in the construction of his philosophy is to deconstruct the language‐centered ontology that resulted from the ‘linguistic turn’ in the West. Notwithstanding this, his deconstruction still performs the same task as the philosophy of language typically does, that is, addressing philosophical problems through clarifying the nature of language. What is distinctive, however, is that he goes beyond this to expose the limitations of language.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
We propose Li Zehou’s idea of “Western Learning for Substance, Chinese Learning for Function” (Xi ti Zhong yong 西體中用) as an interpretative framework for two distinct theories: Sungmoon Kim’s ...political theory of public reason Confucianism and Yan Lianke’s literary theory of mythorealism. This paper aims to show that Xi ti Zhong yong can provide a unified explanatory framework for these two apparently distinct theories. Second, we show that Xi ti Zhong yong can be applied even more broadly to other phenomena occurring in contemporary discourses on China. In particular, we show that it provides new interpretative perspectives in political philosophy and literary theory.
Avtorja članka predlagata Li Zehouovo idejo o »zahodnem učenju kot substanci in kitajskem učenju kot funkciji« (Xi ti Zhong yong 西體中用) kot interpretativni okvir za dve različni teoriji: Sungmoon Kimovo politično teorijo konfucijanskega javnega razuma in Yan Liankejevo literarno teorijo mitorealizma. Namen članka je pokazati, da lahko Xi ti Zhong yong ponudi enoten razlagalni okvir za ti dve na videz različni teoriji. Avtor in avtorica pokažeta, da je Xi ti Zhong yong mogoče uporabiti v širšem smislu za druge pojave, ki se pojavljajo v sodobnih diskurzih o Kitajski. Predvsem pa izpostavljata, da ta ponuja nove perspektive za interpretacije politične filozofije ter literarne teorije.
We propose Li Zehou’s idea of “Western Learning for Substance, Chinese Learning for Function” (Xi ti Zhong yong 西體中用) as an interpretative framework for two distinct theories: Sungmoon Kim’s ...political theory of public reason Confucianism and Yan Lianke’s literary theory of mythorealism. This paper aims to show that Xi ti Zhong yong can provide a unified explanatory framework for these two apparently distinct theories. Second, we show that Xi ti Zhong yong can be applied even more broadly to other phenomena occurring in contemporary discourses on China. In particular, we show that it provides new interpretative perspectives in political philosophy and literary theory.
Humanization of Chinese Religion Kosec, Maja Maria
Azijske študije (Spletna izd.),
09/2023, Volume:
11, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Open access
This article aims to compare two interpretations of the emergence of new religious and moral concepts and beliefs in the period between the Shang (1600‒1046 BC) and the Western Zhou (1046‒771 BC) ...dynasties. It critically compares the theories of Xu Fuguan (1903‒1982) and Li Zehou (1930‒2021) on the process of humanization of Chinese religion. By emphasizing religious concepts such as Heaven, the Mandate of Heaven, the Way of Heaven on the one hand, and moral concepts such as virtue, reverence, and rituality on the other, the author illuminates the differences in each author’s interpretation of the era in which Chinese culture moved away from religion and into the realm of humanism and ethics. This article reveals the reasons for these differences, which stem from the profound divergences in the basic methods of Li and Xu. While Li’s elaboration is based on philosophical approaches, Xu Fuguan’s understanding is based on philological and cultural analyses of the Chinese history of ideas. The author argues that these mutual differences between their interpretations demonstrate the importance of understanding different methodological approaches, which in turn allows for a deeper multi-layered understanding of the process of humanization of Chinese religion.
Marxist anthropology, as a kind of philosophical anthropology and an integral part of Marxist philosophy, seeks to find an answer to the question of its primary concern—what is humanity or human ...nature? From the Marxist perspective, human beings are distinguished from animals by making and using tools, and the creation of tools is closely related to the birth of language and consciousness. In this context, Marxist anthropology tries to trace the origin of humankind through tracing that of tools, language and consciousness. Consequently, it is endowed with a dimension of the philosophy of language. In his article “The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man”, Engels proposed a hypothesis on the origins of humankind and human language, which constructed the framework of Marxist anthropology. This framework was subsequently adopted and developed by Li Zehou and Tran Duc Thao, renowned philosophers in contemporary China and Vietnam, in establishing their own philosophical systems. This article, through illuminating and comparing Engels, Li Zehou and Tran Duc Thao’s hypotheses on the origins of humankind and human language, aims to shed new light on Marxist anthropology through the lens of the philosophy of language. I believe that this exploration will profoundly inspire the Marxist philosophy of language, an emerging trend in the field of the philosophy of language.
For more than a century scholars both inside and outside of China have undertaken the project of modernizing Confucianism, but few have been as successful or influential as Li Zehou (b. 1930). Since ...the 1950s, Li's extensive efforts in this regard have in turn exerted a profound influence on Chinese modernization and resulted in his becoming one of China's most prominent social critics. To transform Confucianism into a contemporary resource for positive change in China and elsewhere, Li has reinterpreted major ideas and concepts of classical Confucianism, including a rereading of the entire Analects, replete with his own philosophical speculations derived from other Chinese and Western traditions (most notably, the ideas of Kant and Marx), and developed an aesthetical theory that has proved especially far-reaching.
Although the authors of this volume hail from East Asia, North America, and Europe and a wide variety of academic backgrounds and fields of study, they are unanimous in their appreciation of Li's contributions to not only an evolving Confucian philosophy, but also world philosophy. They view Li first and foremost as a sui generis thinker with broad global interests and not one who fits neatly into any one philosophical category, Chinese or Western. This is clearly reflected in the chapters included here, which are organized into three parts: Li Zehou and the Modernization of Confucianism, Li Zehou's Reconception of Confucian Philosophy, and Li Zehou's Aesthetical Theory and Confucianism. Together they form a coherent narrative that reveals how Li has, for more than half a century, creatively studied, absorbed, and reconceptualized the Confucian ideational tradition to integrate it with Western philosophical elements and develop his own philosophical insights and original theories. At the same time, he has transformed and modernized Confucianism for the purpose of both coalescing with and reconstructing a new world cultural order.
Marxist anthropology, as a kind of philosophical anthropology and an integral part of Marxist philosophy, seeks to find an answer to the question of its primary concern—what is humanity or human ...nature? From the Marxist perspective, human beings are distinguished from animals by making and using tools, and the creation of tools is closely related to the birth of language and consciousness. In this context, Marxist anthropology tries to trace the origin of humankind through tracing that of tools, language and consciousness. Consequently, it is endowed with a dimension of the philosophy of language. In his article “The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man”, Engels proposed a hypothesis on the origins of humankind and human language, which constructed the framework of Marxist anthropology. This framework was subsequently adopted and developed by Li Zehou and Tran Duc Thao, renowned philosophers in contemporary China and Vietnam, in establishing their own philosophical systems. This article, through illuminating and comparing Engels, Li Zehou and Tran Duc Thao’s hypotheses on the origins of humankind and human language, aims to shed new light on Marxist anthropology through the lens of the philosophy of language. I believe that this exploration will profoundly inspire the Marxist philosophy of language, an emerging trend in the field of the philosophy of language.
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