The Reinvention of the Song–Ming Neo-Confucianism in 20th-Century China: Reflections on the Tang–Song Transition and the Birth of Modern Chinese Philosophy

This paper examines the reinvention of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism in twentieth-century China by modern Chinese philosophers, especially those who came to be called "New-Confucians.” By discussing how the rise of the Song-Ming lixue was reinterpreted by the New-Confucians as a Neo-Confucian movement, the paper re-examines a thesis central to the Tang-Song Transition theory--the dawn of a new (more systematic and metaphysical) learning since the mid-Tang--by listening to its modern echo. Although historians have touched on this topic as part of new historical trends, little research has been done on the New Confucian reinvention of Neo-Confucianism as a treatment of the Tang-Song Transition. Through a self-conscious theoretical reconstruction that combined traditional Chinese and Western philosophical ideas on cosmology, epistemology, and ethics, the New Confucians gradually developed their own frameworks of thought (e.g., Feng Youlan's New Theory of Principle [xin lixue], He Lin's New Theory of Mind [xin xinxue], Mou Zongsan's moral metaphysics) with reflections on key concepts such as logic, intuition, reason, morality, knowledge, natural law, and natural right. By periodizing traditional Chinese philosophy into ancient, medieval, and (early) modern eras (a common approach in Tang-Song Transition scholarship), the New Confucians also addressed related topics (i.e., the Chinese Renaissance) that are key to the Tang-Song Transition discussions. In other words, their reflections on the Tang-Song Transition inspired the New Confucians to create modern Chinese philosophy. The reinvention of Neo-Confucianism also led to the rise of New-Confucianism. Examining the theoretical dialogues between New-Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism sheds new light on the paradigm shift in thought from medieval to modern China.