| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
So-called Modern Neo-Confuciansts are the 20th-century Chinese thinkers who believed Confucianism even after the iconoclastic May Fourth Movement, while learning from western thoughts and philosophies. Chinese intellectuals both in and out of the mainland have immense interests in them especilly since the 1980s. But studies on them are still minimal in Japan. Thererfore, the first step of this research was to collect related materials as many as possible and analyze them. The second step was to pick out the Modern Neo-Confucinists who asserted the affinity of Confucinism with modern western political thoughts such as Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan and compare them with Japanese thinkers who also believed in it such as Yokoi Shonan, Sakatani Roro and Nakae Chomin.
The tentative conclusions of this research is as follows. First, the importance of Modern Neo-Confucinists is undeniable, although they are somtimes severely criticized by other Chinese intellectuals. They had many interesting ideas and their influence is strong. Second, some Modern Neo-Confuciansts and the above-mentioned Japanese thinkers have striking similarity in some aspects. (For instance, they even quote exactly the same passage of Confucian classics to prove their similar point.) But, in another sense, they are almost opposite. The former emphasized the aftinity of Confucinaism with modernity in order to defend Confunianism, while the latter asserted it to justify modernization. Third, Confucianism is really multifaceted. It is not a mere ideology for conservatism and despotism as is often believed.
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