Introduction: five trends in confucian studies

partial to other Neo-Confucian luminaries such as Lu Xiangshan, He Wufeng, Liu 
Zongzhou and Wang Yangming. It is actually refreshing to read Qian Mu’s positive 
appreciation of Zhu Xi’s philosophy.
12
Therefore we can have multiple accounts of 
who does or does not count as a New Confucian. For the purposes of this exercise we 
will stay with those who embrace, at least, the role of philosopher. 
historians, they sometimes cheerfully and learnedly comment on and take part in philosophical 
debates while never abandoning their role as a historian. 
12
Feng Youlan also tended to follow Zhu Xi in the elaboration of his own philosophical 
writings in the 1930s and 40s. 

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GLOBALIZING CONFUCIANISM
 
71
 
 
Journal of East-West Thought 
What is also noteworthy about the New Confucians is their cosmopolitan stance 
in terms of global philosophy. Most of them either studied in Europe and North 
America or studied Western philosophy with great care in China. A good example is 
Mou Zongsan, often considered the outstanding original speculative philosopher of 
the second generation of New Confucians. While Mou did not study outside of China, 
he was a profound student of Western philosophy and was the translator of a 
significant selection of Kant’s corpus into Chinese, along with strong interests in 
Whitehead, Russell, Heidegger and Husserl. Mou also rework the history of Song and 
Ming Neo-Confucianism and in the last phase of his intellectual journey he engaged 
most seriously with Chinese Buddhism, especially with Tiantai thought. 
It is clear that the revival of Confucianism today in many ways resembles the 
Song era. While there is a sustained interest in reviving Confucian philosophy, the 
philosophers have been joined, as the 20
th
Century passed into the 21
st
Century, by 
social theorists and ethical reformers. This makes a great deal of sense given the 
previous history of Confucianism. The 
Rudao
has never been exclusively about 
philosophical matters. The heart and soul of the tradition has always been, as were so 
many of the founding classical schools of thought in the Warring States period, about 
guiding the conduct of life. Philosophy per se has a role to play but is never merely 
academic or technical in nature. In one of the most concise discussions of the 
emerging genealogy of New Confucianism, Liu Shuxian (2003b) provides an 
influential account of this debate. It is always about how to live life, and for a 
Confucian, living life is always about both personal edification that is always in 
service to the family, community, state, environment and world.
13
However, in order 
to focus the range of globalization, here we will primarily concentrate on the 
philosophical side of the revival. 
If the flow of information about Confucianism was from China to Europe on the 
early modern period the reverse was true for the 20
th
Century. It was during this 
tumultuous century that Chinese Confucian intellectuals came to terms with the influx 
of Western philosophy, science, technology and social theories. It was the century of 
Chinese semi-colonialism and also of China’s greatest modern revolutions. After the 
death of Mao the Confucian tradition began its comeback in Mainland China as well 
as in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore and the rest of what Tu Weiming has called 
cultural China. It was here that the fruits of the first and second generation of the New 
Confucians began to have a major impact. 
13
Makeham (2008) has a discussion not only of the philosophers most closely identified with 
the rise of New Confucianism but also the other voices that have emerged in contemporary 
Chinese academic discourse. Liu Shuxian (2003b) provides a similar account, but from the 
perspective of one of the most recognized of the third generation of New Confucian 
philosophers and intellectual historians. 

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