Thinking Through Confucian Modernity Modern Chinese Philosophy Edited by John Makeham, Australian National University VOLUME 5 Thinking Through Confucian Modernity A Study of Mou Zongsan’s Moral Metaphysics By Sébastien Billioud LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Billioud, Sébastien. Thinking through Confucian modernity : a study of Mou Zongsan’s moral metaphysics / by Sébastien Billioud. p. cm. — (Modern Chinese philosophy ; v. 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-21553-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Mou, Zongsan. 2. Metaphysics. 3. Ethics—China. 4. Philosophy, Chinese—20th century. 5. Neo-Confucianism. 6. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804. I. Title. II. Title: Study of Mou Zongsan’s moral metaphysics. III. Series. B5234.M674B55 2011 181’.11—dc23 2011030952 ISSN 1875-9386 ISBN 978 90 04 21553 5 Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. 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CONTENTS Acknowledgments ....................................................................... ix Abbreviations .............................................................................. xi Introduction ................................................................................ 1 Mou Zongsan’s Intellectual Itinerary: A Few Elements ........ 4 Mou Zongsan and Kant ......................................................... 9 Mou Zongsan’s Buddhist “Toolkit”: “Common Space of Evaluation” and Integration of Teachings ........................ 15 Contribution and Limitations of the Current Work ............. 20 Chapter One. Setting the Ground for a True Autonomy of the Moral Subject ......................................................................... 25 Preliminary Remarks on the Moral Subject in Mou Zongsan’s Philosophy ......................................................... 26 Subjectivity and the Variety of Confucian Traditions .......... 34 1. The Zhu Xi–Cheng Yi School ..................................... 36 2. The Lu Xiangshan–Wang Yangming School .............. 38 3. The Zhang Zai–Cheng Hao–Hu Hong–Liu Zongzhou School ............................................................................. 41 4. Concluding Remarks About Mou Zongsan’s Interpretation of Confucian Orthodoxy. ...................... 43 Autonomy of the Will in Kantian Philosophy: Mou Zongsan’s Critique ..................................................... 45 1. Mou Zongsan’s Fundamental Critique of Kant’s Approach (Metaphysics of Morals Versus Moral Metaphysics) ................................................................... 49 2. Mou Zongsan’s Rejection of Kantian Transcendentalism in the Field of Practical Philosophy ...................................................................... 50 3. Further Discussion on the Meaning of the Postulate of Practical Reason ............................................................ 54 The Affirmation of an Autonomous Moral Subject in Confucianism ...................................................................... 60 vi contents Chapter Two. Appropriating a Pivotal Concept: Intellectual Intuition .................................................................................. 69 Intellectual Intuition as the Emblematic Concept of a Revisited Chinese Tradition ............................................... 70 Ordinary Knowledge and Moral Knowledge: An Ancient Question in Chinese Thought ............................................ 76 Importance of the Concept of Intellectual Intuition in the History of Western Philosophy and Mou Zongsan’s “Deliberate Silence” on the Matter ................................... 81 Intellectual Intuition as a Principle of “Ontological Creative Actualization” ..................................................................... 89 Chapter Three. Intellectual Intuition and Thing-in-Itself: Preserving the Possibility of a “Transcendent Metaphysics” ... 93 The Meaning of the Concept of Thing-in-Itself in the Philosophy of Mou Zongsan .............................................. 96 1. Mou Zongsan’s Analysis of the Kantian Thing-in-Itself ................................................................ 96 2. The Sense of Value Ascribed by Mou Zongsan to Thing-in-Itself ................................................................ 99 3. The Different Dimensions of the Concept of Thing-in-Itself ................................................................ 102 The Problematic Transcendental Object X .......................... 109 1. Transcendental Object X and Speculative Knowledge: How Mou Zongsan Accepts the Heideggerian Interpretation of Kant’s Thought ................................. 111 2. Clarification of Kant’s Position Regarding Object X, Which Can in No Way Be Grasped Through Intellectual Intuition ...................................................... 113 3. The Divergent Understandings of Transcendental Object X by Mou Zongsan and Heidegger Reveals Fundamental Differences in Their Philosophies ........... 118 Chapter Four. Rethinking Fundamental Ontology .................. 123 Presentation of the Reference to Heidegger in Mou Zongsan’s Reflection on Fundamental Ontology .............. 124 Ontology, Transcendental Imagination, and Practical Reason: A Critique of Heidegger ...................................... 130 Fundamental Ontology as a “Detached Ontology” .............. 139 Fundamental Ontology from a Confucian Perspective ......... 144 “Is Ontology Fundamental?” ................................................. 155 contents vii Chapter Five. Moral Emotions and “Inter-Affectation” .......... 161 Criticizing Kant ...................................................................... 161 Reaffirming the Value of Emotions in “Orthodox Confucianism” and Criticizing Zhu Xi ............................. 168 Rearticulating the Autonomy and the Unity of the Moral Subject ................................................................................. 176 From Moral Feeling to “Inter-Affectation” and “Inter-Subjectivity” ............................................................. 183 Mou Zongsan’s Thought on Inter-Affectation and Contemporary Philosophical Discussions: A Few Preliminary Reflections ....................................................... 188 Chapter Six. Self-Cultivation ..................................................... 195 Mou Zongsan’s Understanding of Self-Cultivation Traditions: A Presentation ................................................. 197 1. Two Main Types of Gongfu ........................................... 198 2. Purity of a Fully Formed Moral Mind ......................... 201 3. Mou Zongsan’s Central Gongfu: Retrospective Verification (Nijue Tizheng) ............................................. 205 An Attempt to Describe the Self-Cultivation Process ........... 207 1. The Heart/Mind is Naturally Active ........................... 207 2. Retrospective Verification and Self-Consciousness ...... 210 3. Dynamism of the Heart/Mind and the Issue of Integration of Experience .............................................. 212 4. Nijue, Integration Process, Heaviness of Sensibility ...... 215 The Problem of Rupture in Moral Life: Sudden Awakening and Sudden/Gradual Paradigm in Mou Zongsan’s Thought ............................................................. 218 1. Introducing Some Notions: Awareness (Wu) and Sudden Awakening (Dunwu) .......................................... 218 2. The Problem with Sagehood/Sainthood ...................... 228 Concluding Remarks .............................................................. 231 Epilogue ...................................................................................... 233 Works Cited ................................................................................ 239 Index ........................................................................................... 249 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of friends and colleagues read earlier versions of this work, either in part or in its entirety. I thank Stephen Angle, Jean François Billeter, Éric Goupil de Bouillé, Jason Clower, Fabian Heubel, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Frédéric Keck, and Peng Guoxiang for their insightful comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to John Makeham for his encouragement and invitation to submit my manuscript to his Modern Chinese Philosophy series and to Joël Thoraval, from whom I learned so much. Over the years, many colleagues helped me find my way through the arcane thought of Mou Zongsan or encouraged me. I owe a debt to Anne Cheng, Cheng Chung-Ying, Stéphane Feuillas, Romain Graziani, Huang Kuan-Min, François Jullien, Lee Ming-Huei, Kai Marchal, Thierry Meynard, Song Gang, Roel Sterckx, and Léon Van- dermeersch. During my stay in 2002–2003 as a visiting scholar in the Chinese Philosophy Department of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, I benefited a great deal from long discussions