Contemporary Confucianism

Abstract

There have been four waves in Contemporary New Confucianism, each lasting about twenty years. In the 1920s, Liang Shuming initiated the movement. In the 1940s, during the war, Feng Youlan and Xiong Shili formulated their philosophies. The 1960s saw Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan do their most important work, after they fled to Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively, and after they issued their famous “Manifesto on Chinese culture and the World” on New Year's Day in 1958; this manifesto was later seen as an important landmark for Contemporary Neo-Confucianism in the narrower sense. In the 1980s with the Third Generation, Contemporary Neo-Confucianism added an international dimension. This article presents an inquiry on spiritual Confucianism, focusing on Liang and Xiong, Feng, and Tang and Mou.