Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy

404 Pages·2018·4.781 MB·English

by  Roger T. Ames

Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy
CONFUCIAN CULTURES
Roger T. Ames and Peter D. Hershock, series editors
Confucianism: Its Roots and Global Significance
Ming-huei Lee, edited by David Jones
Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order
Edited by Roger T. Ames and Peter D. Hershock
Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy
Edited by Roger T. Ames and Jinhua Jia
Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy
EDITED BY ROGER T. AMES
and JINHUA JIA
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
East-West Center
Honolulu
© 2018 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures. Conference (2nd :
2015 : Honolulu, Hawaii), author. | Ames, Roger T., editor. | Jia, Jinhua, editor.
Title: Li Zehou and Confucian philosophy / edited by Roger T. Ames and Jinhua
Jia.
Other titles: Confucian cultures.
Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press : East-West Center,
[2018] | Series: Confucian cultures | Presentations from a conference of
the World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures, held in 2015 at
the University of Hawai‘i. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017059957 | ISBN 9780824872892 (cloth alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Li, Zehou—Congresses. | Neo-Confucianism—Congresses. |
Philosophy, Confucian—Congresses.
Classification: LCC B5234.L4874 W67 2015 | DDC 181/.112—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017059957
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper
and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of
the Council on Library Resources.
Composition by Wanda China
Calligraphy by Peimin Ni
For Katie Lynch, who, in appreciating her own life,
appreciated all of ours.

Contents
Series Editors’ Preface ix
Roger T. AMES and Peter D. HERSHOCK
Introduction 1
Roger T. AMES and Jinhua JIA
Response to Paul Gauguin’s Triple Question 18
LI Zehou
Part I Li Zehou and the Modernization of Confucianism 31
1 Li Zehou and New Confucianism: A Philosophy for
New Global Cultures 33
Jana S. ROŠKER
2 “Western Learning as Substance, Chinese Learning for
Application”: Li Zehou’s Thought on Tradition and Modernity 57
Karl-Heinz POHL
3 Modernizing Confucianism: Li Zehou’s Vision and
Inspiration for an Unfinished Project 74
Ming Dong GU
4 Determinism and the Problem of Individual Freedom in
Li Zehou’s Thought 94
Andrew LAMBERT
5 What Should the World Look Like? Li Zehou, Confucius,
Kant, and the World Observer 118
James GARRISON
Part II Li Zehou’s Reconception of Confucian Philosophy 135
6 Li Zehou’s Lunyu jindu (Reading the Analects Today) 137
Michael NYLAN
viii Contents
7 Li Zehou’s Reconception of Confucian Ethics of Emotion 155
Jinhua JIA
8 Li Zehou’s Doctrine of Emotion as Substance and
Confucian Philosophy 187
Byung-seok JUNG
9 Li Zehou and Pragmatism 208
Catherine LYNCH
10 Li Zehou’s View of Pragmatic Reason 225
WANG Keping
Part III Li Zehou’s Aesthetical Theory and Confucianism 253
11 Li Zehou’s Aesthetics: Moving On after Kant, Marx, and
Confucianism 255
LIU Zaifu
12 Li Zehou, Kant, and Darwin: The Theory of Sedimentation 278
Marthe CHANDLER
13 Li Zehou’s Aesthetics and the Confucian “Body” of
Chinese Cultural Sedimentation: An Inquiry into
Alternative Interpretations of Confucianism 313
Tsuyoshi ISHII
14 Modern Chinese Aesthetics and Its Traditional
Backgrounds: A Critical Comparison of Li Zehou’s
Sedimentation and Jung’s Archetypes 335
Téa SERNELJ
15 Li Zehou’s Aesthetics as a Form of Cognition 356
Rafal BANKA
Appendix: Li Zehou’s Life and Works 375
HUANG Chenxi
Contributors 379
Index 387
Series Editors’ Preface
Confucian traditions are often regarded in purely historical terms and closely
identified with a small set of texts that assumed canonical status more than two
thousand years ago. But Confucianism has always been commentarial in nature,
placing its textual and ritual traditions in critical and creative conversation with
contemporary voices and concerns. Among the commitments of the Confucian
Cultures series is to publish works that explore the relevance of Confucianism
in contemporary, intercultural conversations.
The present edited volume, Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy, presents
such a conversation, focused on the work of one of the most significant philoso-
phers of the last half century in China. In keeping with Confucian tradition, the
diverse perspectives from which the volume’s contributors engage Li’s work are
unified by a shared commitment to appreciating the relevance of that work for
the present generation. Attention is directed to Li’s own intercultural blending
of Confucian, Kantian, and pragmatic perspectives; his view of emotion as the
substance or infrastructure (qingbenti) of morality; and his distinctive concep-
tion of human subjectivity (zhutixing). Yet, as the end of the second decade of
the twenty-first century approaches, it is perhaps Li’s conviction that beauty is
the form or practice of freedom that most strikingly qualifies his work as con-
temporary. As a practice of adornment, acting freely is always in some measure
acting for the sake of others. This insight is as important in the realm of the
political as that of the personal, and it is one that is crucially relevant in a world
wherein our futures depend on the quality of our interdependence.
Peter D. Hershock and Roger T. Ames
Series Editors
ix