Political Imagination in Literature during the Republic of China Period

Author: Wei Chaoyong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Political philosophy is an interdisciplinary field. Its topics range from morality, religion, customs, to the community, nation, state, and their economic distribution methods, as well as gender, friendship, marriage, family, upbringing, education, and even literary and artistic expressions. Therefore, political philosophy possesses the characteristic of being unconstrained by the rigid divisions of modern academic disciplines. At its core, political philosophy is a concentrated expression of self-awareness and self-reflection within a political consensus. As Chinese scholars at the dawn of the twenty-first century begin to cultivate a new cultural consciousness, this will inevitably manifest as a questioning of political philosophy. This series, "Political Philosophy Library," aims to provide a starting point for political philosophy research in China with a pragmatic academic approach, promoting the gradual maturation of Chinese political philosophy. Today, political philosophy is a rather ambiguous concept, and its position within contemporary university departments is not without its awkwardness. For example, should political philosophy belong to the philosophy department or the political science department? Should it be housed in the law school or the liberal arts college? Regarding this, we can only answer that political philosophy cannot be confined to a single discipline and is even more difficult to reduce to a mere specialization, as, by its very nature, political philosophy is an interdisciplinary field. In summary, the fundamental tasks for Chinese scholars studying political philosophy are twofold: first, to critically examine the origins of Western political philosophy, and second, to thoroughly explore the tradition of Chinese political philosophy. It is necessary to clarify that while both editors of this library have recently focused on the political philosophy of the Strauss school, we are by no means advocating for the simplification of Western political philosophy research into merely following the Straussian approach. Whether it concerns the Strauss school, liberalism, communitarianism, republicanism, or postmodernism, we advocate for in-depth analysis and critique from a Chinese perspective. Similarly, while we emphasize the importance of studying classical thought and traditions, we never advocate for simply rejecting modernity in favor of the classical. As for contemporary Western political philosophy, we believe that what may be more noteworthy is that major schools in recent years have actually sought harmony or complementarity between modern and classical thought in various ways.