Abstract
This chapter covers the early twentieth century, when the Chinese criticized traditional moral education and used Western philosophies to replace Confucian doctrines or refresh traditional Chinese philosophy. It first discusses Chen Duxiu’s criticism of the Confucian teaching of rites and his introduction of Western ideologies in reconstructing the Chinese national character and solving social crises; it then examines Liang Shuming’s advocacy of renewing classic Confucian doctrines and using these as an attitude to life supervising modern knowledge and social system, as well as his perspective about world cultures; next it explores Cai Yuanpei’s integration of Kant’s concepts of the phenomenal world and the noumenal world with Chinese traditional philosophy, creating the theory of “the Unity of Five Types of Education”; last, it scrutinizes Tao Xingzi’s effort to transform Dewey’s philosophical frameworks into the life education theory to fit with Chinese national conditions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese sociopolitical and cultural reform movement sparked by student protests against the government’s feeble response to the Treaty of Versailles on 4 May 1919. It has been widely regarded as a part of the New Culture Movement of 1915–1921, which criticized traditional Confucian doctrine and upheld Western concepts such as democracy and science.
- 2.
Kang Youwei, once the leader in the Hundry Days’ Reform of 1898, had become much more conservative in ideology in the early Republican Era.
- 3.
New Confucianism is one of three philosophical trends (the other two are Marxism and the Liberal Westernization) of modern China developed in the early twentieth century; this was a reaction of some modern Confucian scholars against the philosophical trend of Westernization. These scholars firmly believed that Chinese traditional moral culture still possessed timeless values for people in China and the rest of the world. This modern philosophical trend has been translated as New Confucianism in English so as to differentiate it from the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties.
References
Alitto, G. (1986). The last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese dilemma of modernity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Ban, J. (2009). Adaptation and transcendence: Two dimensions in Cai Yuanpei’s moral education thought. Modern University Education, 6, 82–86.
Bergson, H. (1911). Creative evolution. London: Macmillan & Co.
Cai, Y. (1984). Collections of Cai Yuanpei (Vols. 1–7). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
Cai, Y. (2008). Chinese people’s cultivation. Beijing: China Workers Publishing House.
Chen, D. (1916). Constitution and Confucianism. New Youth, 2(3), 1–11.
Chen, D. (1984). Selections of Chen Duxiu’s articles. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company.
Chen, D. (1987). Chen Duxiu’s collections. Hefei: Anhui People’s Press.
Chen, S. (2002). Tao Xingzhi’s theory of moral education is in essence a life moral education. Morality and Civilization, 4, 63–65.
Chen, S. (2016). Initial exploration of Chen Duxiu’s new education. Education Exploration, 5, 1–5.
Chen, X. (2011). On Confucius and the teaching of rites: A review on new culture movement and the cultural revolution. Journal of Hunan University, 25(6), 104–108.
Dewey, J. (2013). Logic—The theory of inquiry. Worcestershire: Read Books Ltd.
Gao, L. (2016). Opposing Confucianism vs. respecting study of benevolence: Perspectives of Confucianism by Chen Duxiu and Liang Shuming. Academic Monthly, 48(4), 178–185.
Hu, J. (2009). Chen Duxiu’s perspectives of Confucianism. Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Social Sciences), 23(3), 37–44.
Hu, S. (1997). Record of speech of Hu Shi. Shijiazhuang: Hebei People’s Press.
Liang, S. (1950). Philosophy and culture east and west. Hong Kong: Pacific Book Company Limited.
Liang, S. (1984). Human heart and human nature. Shanghai: Academia Press.
Liang, S. (1987). The essence of Chinese culture. Hong Kong: SDX Joint Publishing Company.
Liu, C. (2002). Chen Duxiu’s reconstructing of national characteristics during the New Culture Movement (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Hefei: Anhui University.
Sun, X. (2015). Individualism and familism: Rethinking on the 100-year anniversary of new culture movement. Fudan Journal, 4, 62–69.
Tao, X. (1984). Collections of Tao Xingzhi. Changsha: Hunan Education Press.
Tao, X. (1991). Selections of Tao Xingzhi’s works on education. Beijing: People’s Education Press.
Xue, Y., & Liu, Z. (2007). Chen Duxiu’s perspectives on moral education and evolutionism. Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 37(1), 130–137.
Zhang, Q. (2008). The value sources of Tao Xingzhi’s educational thought. Jiangsu Social Sciences, 3, 233–236.
Zhang, S. (2002a). On Liang Shuming’s philosophy of education. Journal of Henan University (Educational Sciences), 18(3), 24–28.
Zhou, X. (2007). Cultural and social implications of Liang Shuming’s educational spirit. Journal of Inner Mongolia Normal University (Social Sciences), 20(6), 10–13.
Zisi. (1987). The golden mean. In X. Chu (Ed.), Annotations of the four books (pp. 21–58). Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
You, Z., Rud, A.G., Hu, Y. (2018). When East Met West: The Philosophy of Moral Education at a Historical Turning Point. In: The Philosophy of Chinese Moral Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56434-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56434-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56433-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56434-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)