University of Hawai'i Manoa Kahualike UH Press Book Previews Fall 7-31-2018 Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy Roger T. Ames Jinhua Jia Follow this and additional works at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/uhpbr Part of the Asian History Commons, and the History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons Recommended Citation Ames, Roger T. and Jia, Jinhua, "Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy" (2018). UH Press Book Previews. 6. https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/uhpbr/6 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in UH Press Book Previews by an authorized administrator of Kahualike. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy CONFUCIAN CULTURES Roger T. Ames and Peter D. Hershock, series editors Confucianism: Its Roots and Global Significance Ming-huei Lee, edited by David Jones Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order Edited by Roger T. Ames and Peter D. Hershock Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy Edited by Roger T. Ames and Jinhua Jia Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy EDITED BY ROGER T. AMES and JINHUA JIA University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu East-West Center Honolulu © 2018 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 23 22 21 20 19 18 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures. Conference (2nd : 2015 : Honolulu, Hawaii), author. | Ames, Roger T., editor. | Jia, Jinhua, editor. Title: Li Zehou and Confucian philosophy / edited by Roger T. Ames and Jinhua Jia. Other titles: Confucian cultures. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press : East-West Center, [2018] | Series: Confucian cultures | Presentations from a conference of the World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures, held in 2015 at the University of Hawai‘i. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017059957 | ISBN 9780824872892 (cloth alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Li, Zehou—Congresses. | Neo-Confucianism—Congresses. | Philosophy, Confucian—Congresses. Classification: LCC B5234.L4874 W67 2015 | DDC 181/.112—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017059957 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Composition by Wanda China Calligraphy by Peimin Ni For Katie Lynch, who, in appreciating her own life, appreciated all of ours. Contents Series Editors’ Preface ix Roger T. AMES and Peter D. HERSHOCK Introduction 1 Roger T. AMES and Jinhua JIA Response to Paul Gauguin’s Triple Question 18 LI Zehou Part I Li Zehou and the Modernization of Confucianism 31 1 Li Zehou and New Confucianism: A Philosophy for New Global Cultures 33 Jana S. ROŠKER 2 “Western Learning as Substance, Chinese Learning for Application”: Li Zehou’s Thought on Tradition and Modernity 57 Karl-Heinz POHL 3 Modernizing Confucianism: Li Zehou’s Vision and Inspiration for an Unfinished Project 74 Ming Dong GU 4 Determinism and the Problem of Individual Freedom in Li Zehou’s Thought 94 Andrew LAMBERT 5 What Should the World Look Like? Li Zehou, Confucius, Kant, and the World Observer 118 James GARRISON Part II Li Zehou’s Reconception of Confucian Philosophy 135 6 Li Zehou’s Lunyu jindu (Reading the Analects Today) 137 Michael NYLAN viii Contents 7 Li Zehou’s Reconception of Confucian Ethics of Emotion 155 Jinhua JIA 8 Li Zehou’s Doctrine of Emotion as Substance and Confucian Philosophy 187 Byung-seok JUNG 9 Li Zehou and Pragmatism 208 Catherine LYNCH 10 Li Zehou’s View of Pragmatic Reason 225 WANG Keping Part III Li Zehou’s Aesthetical Theory and Confucianism 253 11 Li Zehou’s Aesthetics: Moving On after Kant, Marx, and Confucianism 255 LIU Zaifu 12 Li Zehou, Kant, and Darwin: The Theory of Sedimentation 278 Marthe CHANDLER 13 Li Zehou’s Aesthetics and the Confucian “Body” of Chinese Cultural Sedimentation: An Inquiry into Alternative Interpretations of Confucianism 313 Tsuyoshi ISHII 14 Modern Chinese Aesthetics and Its Traditional Backgrounds: A Critical Comparison of Li Zehou’s Sedimentation and Jung’s Archetypes 335 Téa SERNELJ 15 Li Zehou’s Aesthetics as a Form of Cognition 356 Rafal BANKA Appendix: Li Zehou’s Life and Works 375 HUANG Chenxi Contributors 379 Index 387 Series Editors’ Preface Confucian traditions are often regarded in purely historical terms and closely identified with a small set of texts that assumed canonical status more than two thousand years ago. But Confucianism has always been commentarial in nature, placing its textual and ritual traditions in critical and creative conversation with contemporary voices and concerns. Among the commitments of the Confucian Cultures series is to publish works that explore the relevance of Confucianism in contemporary, intercultural conversations. The present edited volume, Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy, presents such a conversation, focused on the work of one of the most significant philoso- phers of the last half century in China. In keeping with Confucian tradition, the diverse perspectives from which the volume’s contributors engage Li’s work are unified by a shared commitment to appreciating the relevance of that work for the present generation. Attention is directed to Li’s own intercultural blending of Confucian, Kantian, and pragmatic perspectives; his view of emotion as the substance or infrastructure (qingbenti) of morality; and his distinctive concep- tion of human subjectivity (zhutixing). Yet, as the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century approaches, it is perhaps Li’s conviction that beauty is the form or practice of freedom that most strikingly qualifies his work as con- temporary. As a practice of adornment, acting freely is always in some measure acting for the sake of others. This insight is as important in the realm of the political as that of the personal, and it is one that is crucially relevant in a world wherein our futures depend on the quality of our interdependence. Peter D. Hershock and Roger T. Ames Series Editors ix Introduction Roger T. AMES and Jinhua JIA The idea for this volume grew out of presentations made at two conferences of the World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures, both held at the University of Hawai‘i. The inaugural conference, held in 2014 and themed “Confucian Values and a Changing World Cultural Order,” addressed these questions: What is the contemporary form of “Confucian” cul- ture? What are its historical failings and limitations, and what does it have to offer for a newly emerging world cultural order? And how must Confucian cul- ture be reformed in our generation if it is to become an international resource for positive change? One of the conference’s panels was dedicated to the work of the distinguished contemporary philosopher Li Zehou, and its presenters discussed these questions in relation to the philosopher’s work.1 With its second conference, held in 2015, the World Consortium initi- ated a continuing series of conferences on prominent thinkers who have made significant contributions to Confucian philosophy. With the theme “Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy,” the 2015 conference focused solely on Li Zehou’s contributions. Twenty scholars attended the conference, including Li himself. With his fluent English and irrepressible philosophical acumen, Li was an active participant, offering five informal interventions. Later, he agreed to compile his remarks in the form of a dialogue entitled “Response to Paul Gauguin’s Triple Question.” Fifteen essays selected from the conference form the three interre- lated sections of this volume, with five chapters in each section. An appendix contains a brief introduction to Li’s life and works. This monograph is properly entitled Li Zehou AND Confucian Philoso- phy rather than Li Zehou AS a Confucian Philosopher because Confucianism has been an important influence on Li’s thinking and because his oeuvre can certainly be resourced for the continuing evolution of Confucian philosophy in our time. But we want to advance the assertion that Li Zehou is a sui generis 1 2 Introduction philosopher with broad global interests and thus, by definition, should not be tailored to fit any existing category, Chinese or Western. To explore the works of Li Zehou as a world philosopher (“with Chinese characteristics,” perhaps), we first need some historical and philosophical background to set our interpre- tive context. Mainstream professional philosophy in the world of the twentieth century and the beginnings of the twenty-first has been Anglo-European philosophy. This observation has been as true in Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Delhi, Nairobi, and Boston as it has been in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. That is, the indigenous philosophies of East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and indeed America have been largely marginalized within their own cultural sites by the dominance of the Anglo-European analytic and continental traditions as heirs to the early mod- ern philosophical narratives of British Empiricism and Continental Rational- ism. It is within this historical framework that—in seeking to understand the original contributions of Li Zehou as one of the great philosophical minds of our time—we must bring into focus important distinctions among what we might call “Chinese philosophy,” “Chinese thought,” “philosophy in China,” and “world philosophy,” respectively. In some academic quarters the distinction between “philosophy in China” and the history of “Chinese thought” has been registered by using the foreign term coined in late nineteenth-century Japan by Nishi Amane—“philosophy” (Ch. zhexue 哲學, J. tetsugaku)—to refer to Western philosophy as it has been taught in China, and the vernacular term “thought” (sixiang 思想) to refer to the history of Chinese “philosophy” as the exegetical explication of the Chinese canons of philosophy that continues to be integral to the curricula of depart- ments of both philosophy and literature in China.