The Realm of Confucianism in Modern Times -- A Study of Zang Taixian's Confucian Thought

Author: Zhang Zhaojun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Most of the numerous scholarly works published today focus on ancient Confucianism and modern New Confucianism, while neglecting to give sufficient attention to Confucianism during the modern period, which holds practical significance in the modernization of traditional culture. Zhang Zhaojun's book, The Modern Realm of Confucianism—A Study of Zhang Taiyan's Confucian Thought, makes a valuable attempt in this regard. Zhang Taiyan was a renowned master of Chinese studies in the modern era, with vast and complex knowledge that was profound and difficult to understand, earning the title of the "last champion of classical studies." This book selects his Confucian thought as the subject to study modern Confucianism, which is highly representative. The Collection of East Asian Historical Studies is supported by the "Eastern Historical Studies Publishing Fund" and has been published by the Chinese Social Sciences Press and the Social Sciences Academic Press. Over the past decade, it has published over 60 monographs, covering the history of China and Eastern countries outside China, as well as the history of Sino-Western relations. Some books in the collection focus on in-depth social history studies, such as An Analysis of Marital Conflicts in the Mid-Qing Dynasty; others have pioneered new research fields, such as A Page from the History of the Jewish People in the East: Shanghai Jews in the Past Half Century, bringing a fresh breeze to East Asian historiography. This book is part of the Collection of East Asian Historical Studies. It neither adopts a simplistic negation of traditional Confucian thought nor clings to the values and guiding principles of traditional Confucianism. Instead, it seeks to critique, reform, and reconstruct a national culture centered on Confucianism through the reinterpretation of these issues, aiming to achieve the modernization of thought and culture. To some extent, this helps alleviate the tension between tradition and modernity. Taking a micro perspective to address a macro issue, the book presents fair and balanced viewpoints. The author places Zhang Taiyan's Confucian thought in the context of the modernization of traditional culture, examining it at the intersection of the history of Chinese Confucianism, the history of modern Confucianism, and Zhang Taiyan's thought. This combination of micro and macro perspectives helps in making objective and pragmatic evaluations. The author regards Zhang Taiyan's Confucian thought as a representative of the renewal of traditional culture in the modernization process, believing that it largely reflects the transition from traditional culture to new culture and, to some extent, alleviates the tension between tradition and modernity.
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The influence of Western learning on Confucianism in the modern era is inevitable. Many Confucian works of the time incorporated Western content. Zhang Taiyan was no exception. Zhang Taiyan's Confucian thought was formed on the basis of integrating Chinese and Western cultures. Tracing its origins in Western learning, it is roughly as follows.
Modern Western Natural Sciences
Zhang Taiyan's exposure to Western learning began with modern Western natural sciences. In his writings Notes from the Gao Lan Study and Notes on Exegesis, written around the First Sino-Japanese War, he already began to extensively cite Western works to interpret Chinese classics. The Western works he referenced were primarily translations published by the Imprimerie de la Mission de l'Inde, the Jiangnan Arsenal, and the Guangxue Association, such as Euclid's Elements by the Greek mathematician, John Herschel's Heaven by the British astronomer, Joseph Leidy's Elementary Geology by the British geologist, and Researches in Natural Philosophy compiled by the British missionary William Alexander Parsons Martin. These natural sciences broadened Zhang Taiyan's horizons and, to varying degrees, influenced his Confucian thought.
First, the theory of a spherical Earth. While the concept of a spherical Earth existed in ancient China, it became deeply ingrained as a belief under the influence of Western learning. Zhang Taiyan used the theory of a spherical Earth to interpret Confucianism. For example, when explaining the directions of the Eight Trigrams, he pointed out: "If we consider the entire globe, China is located in the eastern part of the eastern hemisphere, and the directions of the Eight Trigrams are determined based on what China observes." He then criticized the "" (pre-heavenly Eight Trigrams) for being inconsistent with astronomy and geography, stating: "The center of the world cannot be determined, nor can the center of the universe be fixed. The unfixable lies in the fact that the center of the universe is under the equator, while China is located in the northeast. Is it the equator that should be considered the center, or is it China? This remains undecided." Later, in The Book of Mozi, he made this point even more explicitly, stating that China was not at the center of the Earth and was not the only civilized nation. "For places like Europe and America, they are all part of China. Despite the differences in their yellow and white skin, they are all people with virtue, wisdom, and knowledge."
Second, the theory of the evolution of celestial bodies. The formation of Zhang Taiyan's early materialist cosmology was greatly influenced by Western theories of the evolution of celestial bodies. He absorbed the content on celestial evolution from works such as Heaven, Astronomy in Brief, Researches in Natural Philosophy, and Elementary Geology, and wrote essays like On Heaven and On Observing the Sky. In these essays, Zhang Taiyan argued from a materialist cosmological perspective, asserting that only "observing the sky" existed, with no mysterious heaven determining people's fate. This was a powerful critique of the heaven-based worldview that served feudal autocratic rule. In the early 20th century, when promoting democratic revolution, he more clearly denied the "theory of divine mandate" used to defend the monarchy: "The issue of democratic revolution lies not in whether there is a divine mandate, but in the ease or difficulty of human effort."
Additionally, modern Western natural science theories such as the theory of biological evolution, cell theory, and the theory of the constitution of matter also influenced Zhang Taiyan's Confucian thought to varying degrees.
Modern Philosophy and Social Sciences
Zhang Taiyan was a thinker in the modern era who consciously established a philosophical system. He conducted serious research and reflection on both Eastern and Western philosophies. His systematic absorption of Western philosophy primarily involved