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Learning to Be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China's Hundred Days' Reform

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Learning to Be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China's Hundred Days' Reform University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-2-2021 Learning to be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China's Hundred Days' Reform Lucien Mathot Monson University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Asian Studies Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Scholar Commons Citation Monson, Lucien Mathot, "Learning to be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China's Hundred Days' Reform" (2021). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8830 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Learning to be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, and the Philosophers of China’s Hundred Days’ Reform by Lucien Mathot Monson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Wei Zhang, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Roger Ames, Ph.D. Joshua Rayman, Ph.D. Lee Braver, Ph.D. Date of Approval March 11, 2021 Keywords: Tan Sitong, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Confucianism, Women, Foucault Copyright © 2021, Lucien Mathot Monson Acknowledgments It is difficult to adequately acknowledge all the people that participated in the making of this dissertation. The contributions are as unique to each person as they are numerous, and they each in their own way constitute a condition for its possibility. I cannot, therefore, thank all those who deserve it, and I wish to express my gratitude to those whom in my failings as a human will have failed to mention here. If I were to start by returning to the beginning, I would have to thank my mother and my father, who through their persistent support have both allowed and encouraged me to continue on a career which many people would have seen as self-indulgent folly. Their support, importantly, lead me to tutelage of Clive Thirkill. It was he who taught me as a struggling middle school student the history of ideas. He inspired me with Homer’s classics, fascinated me with the quiet, almost rhythmic equanimity with which Aristotle seemed to untangle life’s most perplexing questions, shocked me with the biting logic of Hume’s skepticism, and seduced me with the beguiling dance of Nietzsche’s rhetoric. Because of him I decided at an early age that I wanted to become a philosopher. Most importantly, it was he who taught me how to write at a time when I thought such a thing was beyond my abilities. More recent contributions are, of course, nonetheless equally important. I thank the Philosophy Department of the University of South Florida, and its remarkable array of creative thinkers equally dedicated to their students as they are to breaking the boundaries of philosophical inquiry. It is respectable enough that they include non-western thought among their courses, and that they were open to a student unsure of where to place himself in the various schools of philosophical thought. Zhang Wei was of course instrumental. I thank her for her patience as I first tried painstakingly to read through the Analects in the original Chinese, and for indulging me when I, perhaps audaciously, proposed to take on the modernization of Chinese thought as a dissertation topic. Lee Braver, although our interactions were less frequent, continually inspired me nonetheless with his example. Through careful analysis that is both sensitive and ruthlessly systematic, he brought together thinkers that were typically thought to have little in common. I have tried to emulate him in an imperfect way in the present project. Joshua Rayman likely does not remember, but he was one of the first people I met at the department when I came to visit. I am as entranced by his quick wit, articulate speech, and logical acuity today as I was at this first meeting. His ability to articulate my thoughts better than I am able to myself is a constant source admiration and encouragement. Last but not least, it is with sadness that I recall my interactions with Martin Schönfeld, as they were among my first experiences as a new TA. His good humor and intrepid spirit inspired countless graduate students beside myself to take steps into unexplored territory. His passing was a great blow to me and to the field of comparative philosophy. It is to his memory that I must dedicate this dissertation. Friends, as Tan Sitong notes, are indispensable to any process of self-realization. And there have been many that I should thank. I will limit myself to but a few who worked particularly close with me in the offices of USF. Namely, Zachary Purdue, Simon Dutton, Daniel Collette, Laura McAllister, among many others. They along with several others have continued to inspire me with their ingenuity and industriousness. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at the University of Hamburg, with whom I was lucky enough to share my learning experience at Fudan University in Shanghai. These and the other friends I made through the generosity of the Confucius Institutes Joint PhD Fellowship program enriched my understanding of the great tradition of Chinese history and thought. Without them, this dissertation would not have been able to grow into the project it became. I would also like to thank the philosophy department at Fudan University. I am very grateful to Zhang Rulun for taking me in and patiently listening to me struggle to discuss Chinese philosophy in my imperfect Chinese. His guidance and encouragement were indispensable to this project. I am also grateful to the other graduate students like Cheng Di and Kong Weixin. Their help with understanding modern Chinese thought from the perspective of Chinese academia helped contextualize my own perspectives and unseen limits. Thank you also to Zhang Xinxin, who with incomparable patience and selfless magnanimity helped me read through Liang Qichao’s text until late in the evenings. His assistance to me while adjusting to life in China was fundamental to my positive experience there. I will always remember his friendship fondly. Las but not least, I would like to thank the support of Roger Ames. His research has set him apart as an important bridge between China and the West. He has inspired so many students into contributing to comparative thought including myself. More than a scholar, his kindness and generosity of spirit set him apart a great person. His willingness to join my committee and read through my chapters in their initial and imperfect phases places me forever in his debt. Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Introduction: Philosophical Modernity in China and the Hundred Days’ Reform ..........................1 Chapter One: Philosophizing in Translation – A Preparatory Note on Methodology .....................8 1. The Hundred Days’ Reform and the Problem of Translating Modern Philosophy .......18 2. Reconstituting the Temporal and Contingent Elements of Western Modernity ............23 Chapter Two: The Appropriation of Ren in Classical Confucianism ............................................32 1. Ren in the Pre-Confucian Context: The Ideal of the Male Aristocrat............................35 2. Confucius’ Appropriation of Ren in the Analects ..........................................................42 3. The Elaboration of Ren in the Mencius and the Great Learning ...................................52 Chapter Three: Tan Sitong, Ren, and the Critique of Cultural Systems ........................................61 1. Research on the Exposition of Ren and the Study of Influences....................................65 2. The Philosophical Problem: The Breakdown of the Tianxiaguan .................................72 3. Ren, Tong, and Ether ......................................................................................................77 4. Ren and the Cultural System ..........................................................................................87 5. Conclusion: Tan’s Philosophy of Ren and Modernity ...................................................98 Chapter Four: Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao on Ren, Progress, and the State ........................102 1. Realizing the Datong: Kang Youwei on Ren and Historical Progress ........................107 2. Liang Qichao: Yi 義, Self-cultivation, and the “New Citizen” ....................................117 3. Conclusion: Two Theories for Modern Self-cultivation ..............................................127 Chapter Five: The Forgotten Sex – Ren and the Women Question .............................................129 1. Ren, Gender, and Correlative Sexism ..........................................................................131 2. Gender Equality in the Philosophy of the Hundred Days’ Reformers .........................140 3. Conclusion: Ren, Reason, Gender, and Modernity ......................................................153 Chapter Six: Ways on Life’s Stage – The Reformers and Foucault on the Condition of Modernity ...............................................................................................................................161 1. Foucault on Modernity .................................................................................................165
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