History of Chinese Thought

Author: Ge Zhaoguang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-01
Features: Preface: The Writing of Intellectual History
The Preface, originally placed separately at the beginning of Volume I and Volume II as "The Writing of Intellectual History" and "Continuation of the Writing of Intellectual History," was intended to explain the research perspective, selection of materials, and writing approach. For the reprinted edition, they are combined into one volume under the title "Preface: The Writing of Intellectual History." The title "Writing Style" does not imply that only one writing strategy is discussed here. Behind different writing styles of intellectual history are always different concepts, approaches, and methods. Changes in writing style often signify changes in the concepts, approaches, and methods of intellectual history research. This discussion addresses major theoretical and methodological issues in the study of Chinese intellectual and philosophical history, such as how intellectual history should address the world of elite and classic thought versus the general knowledge, thought, and belief world; how knowledge history and intellectual history should mutually illuminate each other; what the ultimate basis or fundamental assumptions of ancient Chinese thought are; how intellectual history should break away from traditional, didactic textbook-style chapter structures to trace the true threads and spirit of intellectual history; whether intellectual history should describe the so-called "thoughtless" era and see the unseen; how traditional knowledge and thought, as historical memory, can become new intellectual resources through reinterpretation and thus create continuity in intellectual history; and how archaeological discoveries and cultural artifacts should be approached and utilized in intellectual history research. Finally, the Preface also discusses how to understand and limit the significance and boundaries of postmodern historical theory as it gradually enters China.
Volume I: The Knowledge, Thought, and Belief World of China Before the 7th Century
This volume adopts a personal perspective and understanding to historically research and describe the knowledge, thought, and belief of ancient China up to the 7th century. It not only concerns the development of elite and classic thought in ancient China but also analyzes the knowledge sources and ultimate foundations that shaped these ideas. It not only describes the profound intellectual currents of ancient China before the 7th century but also portrays the general knowledge, thought, and belief history that nurtured these ideas. This volume shifts away from the human-centered chapter structure of traditional textbook-style intellectual history, drawing on rich ancient literature and referencing modern Chinese and foreign research to clarify and narrate the knowledge, thought, and belief world of the Chinese people from ancient times to the 7th century and its continuous history. The aim is to understand and explain how the intellectual tradition of modern China has gradually been constructed from antiquity to the present.
Volume II: The Knowledge, Thought, and Belief World of China from the 7th to the 19th Century
This volume primarily discusses the process of the ultimate establishment and gradual disintegration of China's intellectual world from the 7th to the 19th century. In fact, the so-called ancient Chinese knowledge, thought, and belief tradition that modern Chinese often speak of and experience is not the ancient Chinese thought established during the Qin and Han dynasties but rather a new tradition gradually constructed over a long period in the Tang and Song dynasties. After the social upheaval in the 8th century, the once unified and mediocre knowledge, thought, and belief world underwent a reevaluation of its approach and rediscovered historical resources. Centered around the reconstruction of state authority and intellectual order, people drew on old learning to generate new insights, proposing various questions and ultimately seeking renewal within tradition. By the Song dynasty, a new knowledge, thought, and belief world emerged, represented by "Neo-Confucianism" and "Heart-Mind Learning." After a brief historical separation between the "orthodoxy of culture" and the "orthodoxy of politics"—that is, cultural power and political discourse power—around the 13th century, China established a new national political ideology. Due to the institutionalization and secularization of this concept, a unified ethical identity of ancient Chinese thought emerged during that era. However, after the Yuan and Ming dynasties, as China in the 16th century gradually shifted from the "center of the world" under the tributary system to an era of "all nations," this knowledge, thought, and belief world began to develop deep fissures. Although the Ming and Qing dynasties temporarily papered over these fissures on the surface, temporarily restoring a unified intellectual identity in public and political discourse, the split between the public and private spheres of this tradition ultimately began to disintegrate under the pressure and allure of advanced Western technology. Especially after China's defeat by Japan in 1895, driven by a sense of indignation and humiliation, China began to pursue prosperity in the Western style, embarking on an irreversible path of Westernization. This triggered the intellectual turmoil of modern China.