New Dao, Issue 2

Author: Chen Ming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: "Yuan Dao" was founded in 1994 and edited by Chen Ming. Starting from the eighth issue, due to technical reasons, it was renamed "Xin Yuan Dao." "Xin Yuan Dao" focuses on cultural construction based on traditional resources. This is not only because we believe the wisdom of ancient sages and sages still holds great enlightenment today, but also because we believe the achievements of contemporary culture are essentially the embodiment and validation of national will and creativity, which are the core of what we understand as tradition. "Xin Yuan Dao" holds that tradition, as a set of discourse, has a dual relationship of "expression/shaping" with the life of the nation. As expression, it reflects the nation's will, needs, and understanding of the world; as shaping, it is the nation's self-awareness of its own conscious grasp, adjustment, and construction. The crisis of contemporary Chinese culture fundamentally stems from the fact that we lack a discourse system capable of undertaking this "expression/shaping" function. The responsibility of "Xin Yuan Dao" is to rebuild such a discourse system from the intrinsic connection between culture and the nation. Under such goals and processes, the distinction between East/West and left/right only has a relative significance. As the saying goes, "If one first establishes the great, the small cannot snatch it away." Since culture is the embodiment of the life of a nation, as the core of Chinese culture, Confucianism must necessarily have some intrinsic connection between its theoretical form in the contemporary era and the life form of our nation in the contemporary era. Therefore, for those who call themselves Confucians, the first question they should ask is how to choose and create the "unspecified existence" to achieve a healthy and smooth actual form, to obtain the essential characteristics that are rightfully theirs? If modernity and globalization, as the historical characteristics of our context, are undeniable, then accepting modernity, integrating into globalization, while maintaining our subjectivity intact, should be the only path we have no choice but to think about. "Xin Yuan Dao" regularly features the following columns: "Special Topics and Comments," "Exploration of Thought," "Research on the History of Scholarship," "Graduate Forum," "Cross-Commentary Collection," "Interviews," "Cultural Commentary," "Book Reviews," "Essays and Miscellaneous," "New Publications of Old Articles," etc.