Shu-Hsien Liu

Understanding Confucian Philosophy: Classical and Sung-Ming

Preface Classical Confucian Philosophy The Background for the Emergence of Confucian Philosophy Confucius Mencius The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean The Book of Changes The Transformation of Confucianism since Han Dynasty Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian Philosophy The Characteristics and Contemporary Significance of Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian Philosophy On Chu Hsis Search for Equilibrium and Harmony Chu Hsis Understanding of the Mind, the Nature and Feelings The Problem of Orthodoxy in Neo-Confucian Philosophy The Sources and the Proper Understanding of the Philosophy of Wang Yang-ming The Last Neo-Confucian Philosopher: Huang Tsung-hsi Epilogue Selected Bibliography Index

The contemporary development of a Neo‐Confucian epistemology

Until recently epistemology in the Western sense was never a central issue in Chinese philosophy. Contemporary Chinese neo‐Confucian philosophers, however, realize that in order to reconstruct some of the important traditional philosophical insights and make them meaningful in the present time, certain methodological and epistemological considerations are indispensable. The present paper undertakes to examine some of these efforts. Since most neo‐Confucian philosophers today have been influenced by Hsiung Shih‐li, in one way or another, his epistemological theory is presented first. Then the further development of a neo‐Confucian epistemological system in Mou Tsung‐sans thought is discussed. Hsiung Shih‐li has made an important distinction between what he calls the hsing‐ehih and the liang‐chih. The former may be translated as the original wisdom and is what we rely upon to grasp ontological reality; the latter may be translated as the measuring wisdom and includes both our commonsensical and scientific ...

A Reinterpretation and Reconstruction of Confucian Philosophy

This article further develops my understanding of Confucianism as a spiritual tradition. The spirit of Confucian philosophy remains the same as Confucius and Mencius in the ancient era, and Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty, who developed liyi-fenshu (one principle/many manifestations) into a comprehensive anthropo-cosmic philosophy. The idea is inherited by Contemporary Neo-Confucian scholars, reinterpreted to cope with the current emphasis on plurality, the aspect of fenshu (difference), but maintained liyi (unity) as a regulative principle, sometimes radical reconstruction is needed to respond to contemporary issues such as the conflict between universalism and particularism.