History Of Chinese Philosophy Research Articles

퇴계 감정이해방식과 적용에 관한 연구 - 퇴계 리발기수 개념의 창조적 변용과 확장 -

Toegye is a thorough theorist on the basis of Neo-Confucianism, but he can be seen as a representative thinker who brought the philosophical characteristics mainly appearing in the history of Chinese philosophy, the cosmological characteristics centered on the concept of selfishness, to the theory of human nature and emotions, the realm of human nature and emotion. Toegye deepened this further, and made an unprecedented argument in the history of intellectuals, namely, Gobong and the four main emotions, regarding the understanding of the emotions called the four main emotions expressed in the pure nature and the emotions called the seven emotions expressed in the nature that was enshrined in the spirit and revealed through learning ten diagrams to become a saint ｢聖學十圖｣ and the Four Seven Debate that emotions must also be rational in the theory of nature, which is the core of Neo-Confucianism.
 In this paper, along with a conceptual analysis of Toegye's way of understanding emotions, we try to make creative transformation and expansion by applying it to the main concepts shown in the a Variorum of the Four Books(四書集註), which can be said to be the representative scriptures of Confucianism. There are often questionable passages among the contents that are generally introduced while reading librarians, but there are times when I wonder if it is not possible to present different judgments and thoughts due to the professional authority and weight. In fact, to mention it by leaps and bounds, violence against knowledge power is also implied in its source.
 However, Toegye's method of understanding emotions is of great significance in that it analyzes and corrects the method of understanding our daily thinking structure, rather than simply dealing with it as a subject of the Four-Seven Debate argument. Therefore, in this paper, by examining some of the major concepts of the librarian with Toegye's way of understanding emotions, that is, with Toegye's logical structure of thought, we can transform our thinking structure in dealing with things and situations into a thinking structure toward the truth, a true philosophy (Philo + Sophia) to try to convert to thinking.

СУЧАСНА УКРАЇНСЬКА ФІЛОСОФСЬКА СИНОЛОГІЯ В НАЦІОНАЛЬНІЙ АКАДЕМІЇ НАУК УКРАЇНИ: КЛАСИЧНІ ТА ІННОВАЦІЙНІ ШЛЯХИ ДО ВИТОКІВ

B a c k g r o u n d . According to the genre characteristics, the article is a form of publicizing analytical conclusions from the experience of research in the field of the philosophical Chinese studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine from 1991 to the present day. The material for understanding was supplied from the environment of scientific professional activity of prominent figures of Ukrainian philosophical Sinology from the H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the NAS of Ukraine and the A. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS of Ukraine. The scientific achievements of academic Sinologists, who are leading researchers of Chinese philosophical education, science and culture from the archaic to modern times, are highlighted. They are, namely: V. Kiktenko, V. Pyrohiv, V. Hamianin, S. Kapranov, Y. Hobova and A. Usyk. M e t h o d s . The article uses an analytical approach based on the study of historical and philosophical sources. The methodological basis of the research is the main methods of historical and philosophical science: problem-categorical analysis, socio-cultural analysis and biographical analysis. At the same time, the methods of situational and contextual analysis of scientific texts are applied. R e s u l t s . Four conditional thematic vectors of the progress of academic philosophical Sinology in modern Ukraine are classified, namely the study of: 1. the history of ancient Chinese philosophy, especially Confucianism; 2. the history of Chinese philosophy in the 19th – early 21st centuries; 3) the history of Ukrainian Sinology in the 18th – early 21st centuries; 4. the history of modern foreign Sinology. The director of the A. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS of Ukraine and the head of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists V. Kiktenko very effectively studies all these vectors, especially the last three of them. His colleagues at the institute V. Pyrohiv, V. Hamianin and Y. Hobova mainly research the first of these vectors, and primarily the history of Confucianism. Employees of the H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the NAS of Ukraine S. Kapranov and A. Usyk are also focused scientific attention on the history of Confucianism, in particular, the second of them studies social ethics and anthropology of Confucius. C o n c l u s i o n s . As a result it was established that modern domestic philosophical academic Sinology is a qualitatively new and innovative direction of Oriental studies in independent Ukraine. This discipline was formed as a result of the two-century progress of Ukrainian Chinese studies from the era of Hetmanshina until now. V. Kiktenko and his colleagues have made a significant and already internationally recognized contribution to the study of both the classical philosophical schools of Ancient China and their ideological heirs, in particular, the leaders of the PRC and the CCP from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping during these thirty years. V. Kiktenko also laid the foundations for the study both of the history of Ukrainian Chinese studies and of modern foreign, primarily Western European and North American, Sinology.

ЛІНГВІСТИЧНА ПРОБЛЕМАТИКА У ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯХ КИТАЙСЬКОЇ ФІЛОСОФІЇ

B a c k g r o u n d . The article is devoted to the analysis of the key directions of the study of the possible influence of the specifics of Chinese language culture on the content and nature of intellectual discourse, which is recognized as philosophical. Logic and ontology are the key areas of analysis of the possible influence of linguistic determinants on the intellectual discourse of China. Three main topics that attract the attention of researchers are the structure of judgment, the semantics of lexical units, and the specificity of the pragmatics of the Chinese language. M e t h o d s . The author applied general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and description of the works of researchers of Chinese philosophy, which justify and argue the fruitfulness of studying the peculiarities of Chinese language to explain the reasons of the fundamental difference between the problems actualized in the history of Chinese philosophy and those that formed the basis of the development of the history of philosophy in the Western world. R e s u l t s . It is generally accepted that for the worldview of representatives of Chinese culture, the world is a structural whole, consisting of elements that continuously interact in the dynamics of changes and transformations, we find a reflection of this feature in the semantics of the corresponding symbolic system. Polysemy in the Chinese language mostly reveals a complex and multi-layered "web" of associative and correlative connections between meanings, which in fact cannot be argued outside the context of the relevant cultural tradition indicating common features or similarities of the signified. The doubt about the typicality of understanding the denotations as fixed and atomized for the Chinese language culture is reasonable, even in those cases when it comes to the designation of empirically accessible objectivity. The main specific features of polysemy in the Chinese language are the complete heterogeneity of what is signified, and the lack of transparent grounds for identifying the genus-species subordination of the scope of general concepts. This can also serve as an explanation for the fact that we do not find a completely obvious and nondisputable analogue of the problem of universals of the Western model in the history of Chinese philosophy. C o n c l u s i o n s . Based on the peculiarities of the Chinese language culture, we can recognize as a reasonable a statement that the seemingly natural understanding of the essence – the subject, as something that remains the same (at least for a certain time), but it undergoes some changes through its manifestations – a predicate (properties and actions). It is not as necessary and axiomatic for Chinese thinkers as, for example, for ancient Greek philosophers. In addition, we can recognize the fact that the verb "to exist" does not fulfill the role of a necessary copula in judgments in the Chinese language, as a probable reason for the lack of fundamental problematization of the concept of "being" in the Chinese history of philosophy. In general, the context of the use of a certain word-sign in the Chinese language plays a determining role. The actualization of one or another meaning in an expression is formed not only by its integration into a certain text, but also by its purpose in accordance with the specific practice of application. Therefore, this can serve as an explanation for the absence of an original and axiomatic interpretation of truth as absolute, that is, unchanging and non-relative in the history of Chinese philosophy.

History of Chinese Philosophy Through its Key Terms ed. by Yueqing Wang, Qinggang Bao, and Guoxing Guan

Reviewed by: History of Chinese Philosophy Through its Key Terms ed. by Yueqing Wang, Qinggang Bao, and Guoxing Guan Alice Simionato (bio) History of Chinese Philosophy Through its Key Terms. Edited by Yueqing Wang, Qinggang Bao, and Guoxing Guan and translated by Shuchen Xiang. Singapore: Springer, 2020. Pp. xii + 439. Paperback 64,99€, isbn 978-981-15-2574-2. Recent anglophone scholarship on Chinese philosophy provides students and scholars with a great variety of introductory materials, especially when it comes to encyclopedias and manuals on the history of Chinese philosophical traditions. It is therefore increasingly difficult for scholars to produce innovative studies on the subject that can provide a significant and original contribution to the field, especially when addressing both specialists and enthusiasts. In this context, The History of Chinese Philosophy Through its Key Terms by Nanjing University’s Wang Yueqing 王月清, Bao Qinggang 暴庆刚, and Guan Guoxing 管国兴 certainly represents a valuable and innovative contribution. Instead of presenting the history of Chinese thought by sectioning it in terms of thinkers or schools of thought, as it is traditionally done in encyclopedic works, the book considers the historical and conceptual evolution of specific key terms which characterize the evolution of those philosophical traditions which form the broad and diversified framework of Chinese philosophy. The book is composed of thirty-seven chapters (varying from 8 to 18 pages in length), each of which is devoted to a detailed discussion of a specific key term in both its historical and conceptual evolution. The great majority of chapters discuss the evolution of terms within the broad historical framework ranging from classical thought to the end of the Qing dynasty. The book presents a detailed discussion of a great variety of Chinese philosophical concepts, ranging from the most well-known core notions, such as dao 道 (“Way”, first chapter), xin 心 (“heart-mind”, chapter five), and cheng 诚(“sincerity”, chapter eight), to other fundamental yet less discussed concepts such as xingershang xingerxia 形而上形而下 (“above physical form and below physical form”, chapter twenty), liyu 理 欲 (“principle and desire”, chapter twenty-nine), and xiaoyao 逍遙 (“unfettered and effortless”, chapter thirty-five), among others. The evolution of each concept is presented by discussing how different philosophers from different traditions and historical periods have rendered its meaning. This approach is particularly effective with regards to discussions of terms which are often considered as monolithic in significance such [End Page 1] as li 理 (“coherence”, chapter thirteen) or qi 氣 (“vital energy”, chapter fourteen), among others. Importantly, the different meanings of each key term are explained both across different thinkers and within the same philosophical system (for example, Confucius’ multifaceted notion of tian 天 as both “almighty commander” and ziran 自然, “self-so”, p. 38). This type of categorization allows the reader to appreciate the articulate development of the most central notions of Chinese philosophy in relation to different contexts throughout the centuries. By means of nuanced and differentiated analysis, in turn, philosophical traditions emerge as developing in conversation among each other, rather than in isolation. As a consequence, the central concerns which characterize the history of Chinese thought are highlighted systematically, together with their conceptual and argumentative specificities. While the remarkable density of each chapter makes this book a valuable source for scholars working in the field of Chinese philosophy, the authors also aim at addressing the broad audience (p. vii). The scope of the book has informed the authors’ methodology: while the genealogical account of the terms considered provides a picture of their “historical lines of evolution”, they explain, thematic comparisons are also employed in order to “highlight the unique contents of these philosophies” (p. vii). In addition, the authors occasionally provide “insightful comparisons with Western philosophy”, which are meant to “bring forth the original and multidimensional meanings of these terms” (p. vii). So while the genealogical and the comparative accounts can serve as aiding tools for researchers at all stages, the explanatory connections with Western philosophy are aimed at broadening the narrative of Chinese philosophical discourse in order to aid non-experts (or scholars of Western philosophy) in appreciating Chinese thought “in its own natural habitat” (p. vii). This methodology, however, is not employed without issues, as it might be inevitable for works with such a broad and ambitious...

Intuitive Learning in Moral Awareness. Cognitive-Affective Processes in Mencius’ Innatist Theory

Mencius, referred to as second sage in Chinese philosophy history, grounds his theory about original goodness of human nature on psychological components by bringing in something new down ancient ages. Including the principles of virtuous action associated with Confucius to his doctrine, but by composing them along psychosocial development, he theorizes utterly out of the ordinary that makes all the difference to the school. In his argument stated a positive opinion, he explains the method of forming individuals’ moral awareness by means of inseparable integrity of feelings and thoughts, saying human being are born innately good. According to Mencius, heart-mind correlation is the motivational complement of inner incentives. Knowledge and virtue, which are extensions of inborn goodness, comprehended intuitively; then affective motives respond to circumstance, what is learned transmits to cognitive process and eventually behavior emerges. Comparing during the years of Warring State period he lived, in western geography Aristotle, who is one of the pioneers of Greek philosophy, argues deductive and inductive methods in mental activity. On the other hand, Mencius uses analogical reasoning throughout his self-titled work. This essay is an attempt to assert that most postulates of developmental theories, which have been considered an integral part of modern psychology, begin with Mencius in early era. Secondly, this study also aims to discuss the main paradigm of Mencius across emotivist-rationalist opposition, which keeps emotion above thought as well as reason above emotion.

A Study of the History of Chinese Philosophy in Independent Ukraine: The Sinological Experience of Kyiv Universities in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries (Part 2)

A Study of the History of Chinese Philosophy in Independent Ukraine: The Sinological Experience of Kyiv Universities in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries (Part 2)

On the Limitations of Lao Sze Kwang’s “Trichotomy of the Self” in His Interpretation of Kierkegaard

Abstract In 1959, Lao Sze-Kwang (1927 – 2012), a well-known Chinese Kantian philosopher and author of the New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy, published On Existentialist Philosophy introducing existential philosophers to Chinese readers. This paper argues that Lao misinterpreted Kierkegaard’s ultimate philosophical quest of “how to become a Christian” as a question of ‘virtue completion,’ because he failed to recognize and acknowledge Kierkegaard’s distinction between aesthetic, moral and religious passion. By describing and clarifying Lao’s misinterpretation, the paper then argues that Lao’s trichotomy of the self fails to give due credit to the independence of religiousness from morality and aesthetics in Kierkegaard’s thought.

Ternary Taiji Models of the Traditional Chinese Self: Centered on Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist Cultures

Traditional Chinese culture is commonly viewed as a trinity of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Originally emerging from the Book of Changes, the concept of Taiji has a profound interactive influence with Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought in the history of Chinese philosophy. Because the construction of self-models is often closely related to thinking modes, as a root metaphor in the Chinese culture, the diagram of Taiji that best fits Chinese yin–yang thinking can be used as a prototype to explain the self-structure, the process of self-cultivation, and the realm of person making in the context of Chinese culture. This article reviews the Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist Taiji model of the self and the theory of self-cultivation realms based on these self-models and examines the similarities and differences among them. The ternary Taiji models of the self can complement one another and contribute to a more comprehensive, profound, and accurate understanding of the pluralistic connotations of the traditional Chinese self.

The Minorities of Chinese Philosophy: Ideology and Identity in the Academic Discipline of “Ethnic Minority Philosophy”

The academic discipline of “ethnic minority philosophy,” which emerged at the beginning of the 1980s in the People’s Republic of China, has thus far remained virtually unstudied in Western-language scholarship. The aim of this article is to place the genesis and development of this little-known discipline against the wider background of modern Chinese scholarly and political discourses on the interrelated issues of national, ethnic, cultural, philosophical, and religious identity. In doing so, this article analyzes what I call the “hierarchical inclusion” of minority traditions into the history of Chinese philosophy, the perceived proximity between ethnic minority philosophies and “primitive religion,” and the role of the problematic concept of “culture” in the reinvention of minoritarian traditions of thought as philosophy.

Motisták és konfuciánusok vitatémiái az ókori Kínában I.

A kínai filozófiatörténetben közismert ténynek számít, hogy az i. e. V–IV. században a konfuciánusok és a motisták szemben álltak egymással. A két irányzat képviselőinek disputáiról összesen háromtípusú forrás tudósít: 1. A külső források, amelyek a két irányzat vitáiról külső szemlélőként tudósítanak. 2. A konfuciánus források, amelyek leginkább a motizmussal szembeni konfuciánus kritikákat tartalmazzák. 3. A motista források, amelyek hasonlóképpen elsősorban a konfuciánus nézetek motista kritikáit részletezik. Jelen tanulmányban az első és a második kategóriák vizsgálatára kerül sor.

Confucian Humanism and the Importance of Female Education

The problem of the relation between the female gender and Confucian humanism is far more complex than it seems to be on the first glance. Especially if we consider the many misogynistic phenomena we can encounter in the course of Chinese history, such as foot-binding or the concubinage, we might be inclined to think that female philosophy was impossible in traditional China. This paper aims to challenge the standard views on this problem. It aims to shed some light on the fact that in this context we have to differentiate between classical teachings that were relatively egalitarian in nature, and later ideologies that more or less openly promoted the inferior position of women in society. The paper will analyse the work of the female Han dynasty scholar Ban Zhao (45–117 CE), who was the first well-known female thinker in the history of Chinese philosophy. Through this analysis, the author also aims to expose the contradiction between dominant conventions on the one hand, and latent, often hidden criticism of gender relations in female writings of traditional China on the other. In this way, the paper aims to promote a more culturally sensitive approach to the historical and conceptual study of gender discourses in China by connecting textual analyses with actual and comprehensive knowledge of the historical and social contexts in which they were placed.

A Study of the History of Chinese Philosophy in Independent Ukraine: The Sinological Experience of Kyiv Universities in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

A Study of the History of Chinese Philosophy in Independent Ukraine: The Sinological Experience of Kyiv Universities in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

Movement and Ming (Names): A Response to “Incongruent Names: A Theme in the History of Chinese Philosophy”

Movement and Ming (Names): A Response to “Incongruent Names: A Theme in the History of Chinese Philosophy”

On the Intellectual Approach and Development in FENG Qi's Research of the History of Chinese Philosophy

On the Intellectual Approach and Development in FENG Qi's Research of the History of Chinese Philosophy

A “Yin”-“Yang” complementarity strategy for design and fabrication of dual-responsive bimorph actuators

Multi-responsive soft actuators that can convert environmental energies to mechanical works are promising for robotics. However, it currently lacks universal and effective concepts to develop dual-responsive bimorph actuators. In this paper, the concept of “Yin”-“Yang” complementarity, a classical theory in the history of Chinese philosophy, has been adopted for designing dual-responsive actuators. The complement of “Yin” and “Yang” means the bilayers can be inter-constraint as well as being complementary in a dual-responsive actuation. As a proof-of-concept, a composite layer of nano-size graphite (Nano-G) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has been combined with graphene oxide (GO), forming a bilayer structure. In response to moisture, GO is positive, meaning “Yang”, whereas Nano-G@PVDF is negative, meaning “Yin”. On the contrary, under light irradiation, GO is negative; whereas the photothermal Nano-G@PVDF layer is positive. We demonstrated a bi-directional walking robot and a smart claw array for controllable moisture/light manipulation. The “Yin”-“Yang” complementarity strategy provides a universal concept for developing multi-responsive bimorph actuators.

경전(經典)의 탄생(誕生) －호적(胡適)의 『선진명학사(先秦名學史)』와 『중국철학사대강(中國哲學史大綱)』 상권(卷上)

경전(經典)의 탄생(誕生) －호적(胡適)의 『선진명학사(先秦名學史)』와 『중국철학사대강(中國哲學史大綱)』 상권(卷上)

Incongruent Names: A Theme in the History of Chinese Philosophy

This essay is meant to shed light on a discourse that spans centuries and includes different voices. To be aware of such trans-textual resonances can add a level of historical understanding to the reading of philosophical texts. Specifically, we intend to demonstrate how the notion of the ineffable Dao 道, prominently expressed in the Daodejing 道德經, informs a long discourse on incongruent names (ming 名) in distinction to a mainstream paradigm that demands congruity between names and what they designate. Thereby, we trace the development of the idea of the ineffable Dao quite differently from modern mystical interpretations. We show how, in an early Chinese context, it first gives rise to a sociopolitical critique of the incongruity underlying socially constructed names in the Zhuangzi 莊子, then to a discourse on the incongruity between moral virtues and names in Xuanxue 玄學 philosophy, and eventually to Sengzhao’s 僧肇 claim that a perceived congruence of names with things does not entail actual congruence between names and reality.

Feng Youlan’s Research into the History of Philosophy and Philosophical Creation

With regard to the study of the general history of Chinese philosophy and the creation of a philosophical system, Feng Youlan (Fung Yu-lan) has still not been surpassed in the circle of contemporary Chinese philosophy. His text A History of Chinese Philosophy (in two volumes) has particular value not only because of its description of the history of Chinese philosophy, but also because of its historical linking of antiquity and modernity, and of China and the West, a feat realized through philosophy. His philosophical system, set forth in the Six Books of Zhenyuan 貞元六書 (six philosophical monographs) and widely known as the New Learning of Principle system, has ontologically established the primacy of Principle, and, culturally, has instantiated the process of modernization, all of which retains its significance even today. Feng’s thought on realms in his philosophy of life is centered around understanding-based self-enlightenment and has opened a new perspective for reflective thought about, and understanding of, Chinese philosophy. However, it falls short in its failure to acknowledge that “understanding-based self-enlightenment should also be a dynamic process of practice.” Feng showed his academic orientation, distinguished by syncretizing the Learning of Principle and the Learning of Mind, by integrating philosophical creation into the research on the history of philosophy in his late years; however, this syncretism can be pushed further with regard to the issue of unity between subject and object—continuity between the investigation of things before complete understanding and complete enlightenment of the mind after the complete understanding of things. Feng thinks in A Short History of Chinese Philosophy that the most significant contribution that Chinese philosophy has made to the world is in its philosophy of life, and, subsequent to this assertion, one can point out that Chinese philosophy can also make contributions in terms of methodology. In Chinese philosophy, benevolence has an ontological meaning, and is the ontological basis for man and all the other beings to exist in the oneness, as well as the ontological basis for man and the world to be united. Chinese philosophy contains valuable insights in overcoming the opposition between subject and object, establishing a new view of subjects, a new view of objects, and, consequently, creating a new type of subject-object relationship and realizing a second enlightenment of the world.

중국철학사의 근현대 서술에 대한 성찰과 제언

중국철학사의 근현대 서술에 대한 성찰과 제언

2 The Current Situation of Chinese Philosophy: Problems and Tasks

Abstract The cause of Chinese philosophy has made significant progress since it began to reform three decades ago. However, Chinese philosophy also faces many problems. Shaken by current market economic forces, it now confronts a huge challenge in taking on its mission of raising questions, both theoretical and practical, and responding to them using the methods of philosophy. This article analyzes developments and problems in the three sub-disciplines of philosophy: Marxist philosophy, the history of Chinese philosophy and foreign philosophies. Using this framework, it will purposefully address the great historical responsibility facing Chinese philosophers.