Deconstruction and Reconstruction: The Evolution of Modern Chinese Historiography and Confucian Thought

Author: Sheng Banghe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-09-01
Features: Eastern Scholars Series. In a sense, the 20th century of China was a century of cultural construction. The transformation from an agrarian China to an industrial China, and the evolution from a traditional China to a modern China, along with the progress of social history, compelled China to prioritize cultural construction. This book aims to explain how modern Chinese culture is connected with, interacts with, and responds to major discourses of social change, updating and reinventing itself. In the book, the author not only discusses Confucianism but also turns his attention to the transformation of modern historiography, interpreting the mechanisms of mutual linkage and inspiration between Chinese historiography and Confucianism in cultural construction. This logical framework of the book discusses the complete disintegration of the "old history" and the comprehensive creation of the "new history," the fading of the "old Confucianism" like candle smoke and dust, and the search for the place of the "new Confucianism," as well as describing the winding path of the "suggestions," "deconstruction," "reconstruction," and "synthesis" in the cultural construction of modern China. The author focuses on discussing the academic schools, developments, and cultural construction theories of modern China, exploring the significance implied in the call for "nation" amidst the wave of "globalization," and answering how to create the "modernity adaptation" of "tradition." This book is both a reiteration of the theme of "cultural renewal" from the author's previously published works "Core and Periphery" and "East Asia: The Spiritual Journey Toward Modernity," and also a new interpretation of the author's research on the history of modern Chinese academic thought and historiography, compiling the fruits of his reflections. Those who are concerned with the direction of modern Chinese academia, cultural changes, and the prospects of modernization should read this book.