Theories of Reason in China and the West: From the Point of View of the Enlightenment

Abstract

A conception of enlightenment that is new in both origin and prototype yet rooted in Chinese tradition can be found in the works of Liang Shuming and Zhu Qianzhi, his follower in the historical field. Kant maintained that enlightenment implied that the power of reason would give man the courage to use his mind. Similarly, Zhu Qianzhi used enlightenment to define reason, putting the focus of enlightenment on religion. In doing so, on the one hand, he neglected the richness, complexity and inner evolution of the Western concept of reason; on the other hand, like Hegel, he dismissed the subtle but significant differences between Chinese and Western concepts of reason. In terms of thought, intuition, emotion, desire, practice, skill and the movements of nature, reason in the Western tradition inevitably tends toward the good. The word later used to translate “reason” into Chinese had already appeared in Confucian and Buddhist classics. Reason in Song and Ming Confucianism is an all- embracing absolute; its function involves intuition, thought and emotion, all directed toward the good. Liang Shuming accepted the differentiation between reason and understanding of Western philosophy, but proposed that understanding was the function and reason the essence of the heart-mind. Overall, this represents only the heart-mind approach. The non- religious character, didactic tendency and emphasis on intuition in the Confucian view of reason can all be found in the Confucian theory of emotion. Being essentially a response to good and evil, emotion may share some common ground with classical Western philosophy.