SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 226 June, 2012 To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism by ZHOU Youguang Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. 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Mair ZHOU Youguang, “To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism,” Sino-Platonic Papers, 226 (June 2012) Contents iii Foreword 1 To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism 14 Brief Bibliography of New Confucianism 17 Biographical Notes 19 Photos ii ZHOU Youguang, “To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism,” Sino-Platonic Papers, 226 (June 2012) Foreword By Victor H. Mair University of Pennsylvania I first met Zhou Youguang in 1981. I had gone to Beijing for two purposes: to meet with members of the Script Reform Committee (Wenzi Gaige Weiyuanhui) and to read Dunhuang manuscripts at the National Library and in the library of Peking University. In those days, China was a very different place from what it is now. There were countless bicycles and no private cars. The pace of life was much, much slower; there was a two-currency system (RMB and FEC [Foreign Exchange Certificates]); and fraternizing with Americans was sharply discouraged. I was a young assistant professor then, while Zhou Youguang was already an old and very distinguished scholar. I still remember very clearly being called to a meeting with Professor Zhou and about twenty other members of the Script Reform Committee, including Ni Haishu, Yin Binyong, and many other luminaries whom I had long admired from afar. These were the men who had transformed the Chinese writing system, and I was in awe of them. The meeting was held in a dark, quiet room, with light filtering in through a few windows that were placed high up on the back wall, particles of dust glinting in the rays of sunlight streaming in through the partially opened curtains. They sat me at the front of the room and asked me to make a presentation about my interest in Chinese language reform. After I did so, a discussion ensued in which the assembled group encouraged me to carry out my own efforts on behalf of Chinese language reform from abroad and explained their plans for the future in China. When the meeting was over, I remember Professor Zhou getting in an old car (my recollection is that it was gray in color) that belonged to the Script Reform Committee and being taken home. Thus began my long association with this grand old man who later became one of my closest friends. I see him at least once a year when I go to China, and he has stayed in my home in America. We have had many long conversations about all manner of things, so I can say that I probably know him as well as anyone except his own family members. iii ZHOU Youguang, “To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism,” Sino-Platonic Papers, 226 (June 2012) Up until about ten years ago, we seldom discussed anything except language issues. But then he started to take an increasingly intense interest in world affairs, and he was always grateful when I would bring him an almanac or other materials for studying global issues. I was especially intrigued by how he focused on quantitative, statistical aspects of social and political questions, and I could see the economist of yore coming back into play. I noticed an ever greater willingness on Professor Zhou’s part to be critical of things with which he disagreed. Zhou Youguang was never a revolutionary in the mold of the great writer Lu Xun, who was reported to have said on his deathbed, “Hànzì bù miè, Zhōngguó bì wáng (漢字不滅，中國 必亡 / “If Chinese characters are not eradicated, China will perish”). Professor Zhou’s interest in language reform was more practical and less transformative, and he was always cautious when making predictions about what will or should happen to the Chinese writing system. In general, he impressed me as being rather reflective and reserved, though, as I mentioned above, in recent years he has become more willing to speak out against matters in his country with which he disagrees. So I knew that something was afoot in his thinking, that he was becoming increasingly concerned about the future of China. Yet, on my last visit to his home, when he gave me the Chinese draft of the present article, I must confess that I was stunned. I thought that I knew Zhou Youguang very well, but I never expected him to espouse such an ardent Confucian position. This article constitutes a strong advocacy of Confucianism as a guiding ideology for the future of China. That a man like Professor Zhou, who has spent the last sixty-plus years in a communist country, who knew Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai personally, who was a proponent (indeed architect) of character simplification and romanization, and who is lionized in the People’s Republic of China, was espousing the positions put forward in this paper came as a complete surprise to me. I never imagined that he would adopt such a radical stance. Although others may view Professor Zhou’s essay as profoundly conservative in nature, I consider it to be radical — in the context of his entire life and with regard to his position in China as it has existed since 1949 and as it exists at the current moment. Of course, Professor Zhou’s argument for Confucianism is not one that naively urges traditional Confucian views, nor even neo-Confucian tenets. Rather, he propounds what may be viewed as a type of New Confucianism. To help readers understand what is meant by that, we iv ZHOU Youguang, “To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism,” Sino-Platonic Papers, 226 (June 2012) have included in this issue a bibliography of works relevant to the reemergence of Confucian doctrine in contemporary China. Finally, when Professor Zhou gave me the Chinese draft of this article (which he considers the most important thing he has written in the last decade), he emphasized that he wanted it to come out first in English. He has also given us permission to publish the Chinese version, which we shall do in a separate issue. v To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius 1 and Establish Modern Confucianism By ZHOU Youguang Beijing, China Translated by Rebecca Shuang Fu, University of Pennsylvania The Chinese cultural tradition accumulated and preserved the six classics during the dynastic periods of Xia (though unattested), Shang (1600–1046 BC), and Zhou (1046–256 BC): The Book of Odes, The Book of Documents, The Book of Changes, The Book of Rites, The Book of Music, and The Spring and Autumn Annals.