Chinese Literature and Thought Today最新文献

{"title":"Beyond the National Allegory: Affect, Ecosickness, and the Posthuman Condition in Han Song’s <i>Subway</i>","authors":"Fan Ni","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2205823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2205823","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractIn the global pandemic era, it becomes more worthwhile than ever for us to consider humanity as a community whose destiny is shared regardless of planetary inequality. Science fiction provides a good vehicle to speculate on the future, especially in the thought experiments regarding high technologization, setbacks of globalization, and ecological crises. This paper explores Han Song’s Subway (Ditie) to understand what challenges high modernization—especially technologization and global capitalism—poses to human and nonhuman existence. The collection of short stories overarches its temporal setting from the Anthropocene to a post-Anthropocene era, where the planet is destroyed by an apocalypse. This article approaches Han Song’s representation of cybernetic (post)human existence, a situation generated when human embodied experience is subjugated under technological manipulation. Drawing on concepts from new materialist ecocriticism such as ecosickness, it argues that Han Song’s subway stories represent the dual crises of the posthuman era—both affective and ecological. These stories express deep concern about the potential apocalyptic impact of techno-utopianism, exploitative expansion of global capitalism, and historical teleology. AcknowledgmentAn earlier version of this paper has been published under the title “Envisioning Posthuman Existence in Han Song’s Subway (2010)” with Limina, A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, in 2020.Notes1 Nathaniel, “Han Song,” 4.2 Wu, “A Very Brief History of Chinese Science Fiction,” 51.3 Han, “The Last Subway,” Pathlight.4 Excerpts of “Subway Alarm” has been translated by Rachel Faith.5 Li, “On Han Song’s Fiction,” 114–15.6 Song, “Representations of the Invisible,” 550.7 Han, Subway, 203–94.8 Li, “Eerie Parables and Prophecies,” 28–32.9 “Obsession with China” is a concept C. T. Hsia coins to critique modern Chinese literature in that the writers share “a moral burden” to identify all these issues represented as solely Chinese problems. With this concept, C. T. Hsia wants to call for an awareness of the shared human conditions that Chinese literature needs to tackle. See Hsai, “Obsession with China,” 533–54.10 Song, “Seeing the Void in Everything,” 153–58.11 Ihab Hassan, “Prometheus as Performer: Toward a Posthumanist Culture?,” The Georgia Review 31, no. 4 (1977): 830–50.12 Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” 1–42.13 Braidotti, The Posthuman, 46, 51.14 Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future, 15.15 Braidotti, The Posthuman, 57.16 Hayles, How We Become Posthuman, 5.17 Clough, “Introduction,” 2.18 Despite the Anthropocentric color in the word “nature” and “environment,” I have to use the concepts when these words covey the meanings straightforwardly.19 Houser, Ecosickness, 11.20 Alaimo, Bodily Natures.21 Houser, Ecosickness, 7–11.22 Houser, “Affective Turn,” 16.23 Wildea and Jia, “China’s Subway Building Binge.”24 “The deepest agony of China, the giant fissure in her heart, her struggle against absurdity, ","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why Li Zehou Wanted to Unify Confucius, Marx, and Kant","authors":"Hanmin Zhu, Jeffrey Keller","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206308","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractIn the academic world, Li Zehou has been given the labels of “New Marxist,” “New Kantian,” and “New Confucian,” which shows the diversity and timeliness of his thought. Li Zehou’s system of thought incorporates the three aspects of traditional Chinese thought, Western thought, and Marxism, and the three actually have mutually explanatory and mutually supplementary relations. In his later years, he completed his “anthropo-historical ontology,” and explicitly said that this system was mainly based on Confucius and absorbed and digested Kant and Marx in a manner very similar to the way in which Song Confucianism was mainly based on Confucius while absorbing and digesting Buddhism and Daoism. Therefore, in his later years, Li Zehou called the system of thought he constructed the “new way of inner sageliness and outer kingliness,” and understood it as a modern development of the fourth period of Confucianism, thereby expressing his own academic positioning. Notes1 Fang Keli, “‘Mahun, zhongti, xiyong’: Zhongguo wenhua fazhan de xianshi daolu” (“‘Marxism as the Soul, Chinese Learning as the Body, and Western Learning as the Application’: The Real Path of Development of Chinese Culture”), Beijing daxue xuebao (Journal of Peking University), no. 4 (2010): 18.2 Li Zehou, “Ruxue, Kangde, Makesi sanheyi” (“The Unification of Confucianism, Kant, and Marx”), Shehui kexue bao (Social Sciences Weekly [Shanghai]) (December 19, 2016): 8.3 Xu Jingxing, Gu Weiming, “Jinian Kangde, Heige’er xueshu taolunhui zai Beijing zhaokai” (“Academic Seminar in Memory of Kant and Hegel Held in Beijing”), Zhexue yanjiu (Philosophical Research), no. 10 (1981): 79.4 Xue Fuxing, “Xin kangdezhuyi: Li Zehou zhutixing Shijian zhexue yaosu fenxi” (“New Kantism: An Analysis of the Elements of Li Zehou’s Philosophy of Subjective Practice”), Zhexue dongtai (Philosophical Trends), no. 6 (2002): 34.5 Li, “Ruxue, Kangde, Makesi sanheyi”: 8.6 Li Zehou, “Yu Chen Ming de duitan” (“A Conversation with Chen Ming”), Shiji xinmeng (New Dream of the Century) (Hefei: Anhui wenyi chubanshe, 1998), 331.7 Li Zehou, “Shuo ruxue siqi” (“On the Four Periods of Confucianism”), Jimao wushuo (Five Essays from the Jimao Year) (Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 1999), 19.8 Ibid., 30.9 Li Zehou, Liu Xuyi, Gai Zhongguo zhexue dengchange le (It Is Time for Chinese Philosophy to Make an Appearance) (Shanghai: Shanghai yiwen chubanshe, 2011); Li Zehou, Liu Xuyi, Zhongguo zhexue ruhe dengchang (How Chinese Philosophy Can Make an Appearance) (Shanghai: Shanghai yiwen chubanshe, 2012).10 Li Zehou, Youwu daoli: shili guiren (From Shamanism to Rites: Interpreting Rites as Humaneness) (Beijing: shenghuo, dushu, xinzhi sanlian shudian, 2015), 238.11 Li, “Shuo ruxue siqi,” 31.12 Li, Youwu daoli, 142.13 Li, “Shuo ruxue siqi,” 21.14 Ibid., 29.15 Li Zehou, “Shuo wushi chuantong” (“On the Tradition of Shamanism and History”), Jimao wushuo, 33.16 Li Zehou, Renleixue lishi bentilun (The Anthropo-Historical Ontology) (Q","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Translating Taiwan and Riding the Iron Horse of Fate in Nature: An Interview with Darryl Sterk","authors":"Nicholas Y. H. Wong","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2205822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2205822","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractOn October 7, 2022, Darryl Sterk, a prolific Chinese-English literary translator, paid a virtual visit to my translation course at the University of Hong Kong. Students came ready to discuss Sterk’s translations of Wu Ming-yi’s The Stolen Bicycle (Danche shiqie ji, 2017), Sakinu Ahronglong’s Hunter School (Shanzhu feishu Sakenu, 2020), and Kevin Chen’s Ghost Town (Gui difang, 2022). I curated these three texts to consider the relationship between translation and minority issues in Taiwan from environmental, indigenous, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender angles. But my students had their own questions, which they later transcribed and edited, along with Sterk’s responses. The result is an eclectic mix of topics that deal with the technical aspects of Chinese-English translation, such as code-switching, machine translation, translation of Chinese topolects (fangyan), relay translation, romanization, and translator’s notes, as well as the cultural, historical, and even environmental aspects of Chinese-English translation. AcknowledgmentI thank my students for being so engaged throughout this interview process. They are Au Woon Yue (Denise), Cheng Suet Ching (Lacus), Cheuk Tsz Ching (Elena), Cheung Ho Yin (Ivan), Choy Kwan Ki (Mathias), Leung Yan Ki (Otilie), Tam Yan Chi (Tom), Wong Hon Lam (Charlotte), Jodie Wong, and Xiang Haiyin (Allie).Notes1 Darryl Sterk, “Compromises in Translating Wu Ming-Yi’s Uncompromising Localism,” Ex-position, no. 41 (June 2019): 151–52.2 Darryl Sterk, “An Ecotranslation Manifesto: On the Translation of Bionyms in Nativist and Nature Writing from Taiwan,” Chinese Environmental Humanities: Practices of Environing at the Margins, ed. Chia-ju Chang (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 134.Additional informationNotes on contributorsNicholas Y. H. WongDarryl Sterk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Translation at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He teaches Chinese-English translation, contrastive analysis, and composition. He has translated works of fiction by Taiwanese writers such as Egoyan Zheng, Lay Chih-Ying, Sakinu Ahronglong, and Horace Ho. Notable translations include Wu Ming-Yi’s The Man with the Compound Eyes, which inspired Darryl to try to turn himself into a naturalist, and The Stolen Bicycle, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. His latest translations are Lee Wei-Jing’s The Mermaid’s Tale and Kevin Chen’s Ghost Town. As a scholar, he studies translation between Mandarin Chinese and the Taiwan indigenous language Seediq, and has written a monograph entitled Indigenous Cultural Translation: A Thick Description of Seediq Bale, on the process of translation that made the epic film Seediq Bale possible.Nicholas Y. H. Wong is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong. He teaches Chinese-English translation and has translated fiction and essays by Huang Chong-kai, Li Tuo, Zhang Chengzhi, Chan Yeong Siew, and A Leng. In addition to the ","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance","authors":"Alexa Alice Joubin","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206320","url":null,"abstract":"\"Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance.\" Chinese Literature and Thought Today, 54(1-2), pp. 151–152","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Liberalizing Li Zehou’s <i>Guanxi</i>","authors":"Andrew Lambert","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206318","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractOne element of Li Zehou’s legacy is a defense of guanxi or relational attachment, particularly as this social and ethical formation confronts the challenges of Western liberal individualism. This article reviews Li’s account of guanxi, which includes the traditional Confucian account of the five relationships (wulun), and examines Li’s use of guanxi ethics in his critique of justice as a Western ethical ideal. I consider problems facing Li’s claims that guanxi are central to the good life, and draw on other ideas from Li’s work to offer a modified notion of an ethics of guanxi relationality, one more compatible with those elements of the Western liberal tradition that Li values. Notes1 Li Zehou, “Response to Michael Sandel.”2 Lambert, “The Problem of Individual Freedom in Li Zehou”; Lambert, “The Good Life of Guanxi”; Lambert, “From Ethics to Aesthetics.”3 For an overview of this topic, see Li, Classical Chinese Thought, 311–15.4 For anthropological studies of guanxi in modern China, two useful works are Kipnis, Producing Guanxi, and Yang, Gifts, Favors, and Banquets.5 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel,” 1080.6 This is scope for questioning both Li’s account of early Chinese society—such as the role of shamans in the formation of social practices and norms—and whether the features of that society are causally responsible for the subjectivity of later generations in China. For example, Li follows Chen Mengjia’s 陈梦家 account of kings as shamans in early China. See Chen, “Myths and Magic of the Shang Dynasty.” That account has been questioned by scholars. In the present study, however, the historical accuracy of Li’s claims are less important than their implications for understanding ethics and the good life.7 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel,” 1093.8 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel,” 1095.9 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel,” 1093.10 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel,” 1080.11 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel,” 1083, 1090, and passim.12 Li, “Response to Michael Sandel.”13 Wang, High Culture Fever, 94.14 See, e.g., Li, Four Essays, 182; Li, Outline of a Philosophy, 65–67.15 On the importance of personal projects to individualist ethics, see Williams, “Persons, Character, and Morality.”16 Mill, On Liberty, 55.17 See Lambert, “Good Life of Guanxi” for a fuller account.18 Nylan, “Politics of Pleasure,” 84.19 Li, Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 3.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAndrew LambertAndrew Lambert is an Associate Professor of philosophy at City University of New York, College of Staten Island. His research focuses primarily on ethics and Chinese thought. His translation of Li Zehou’s book A History of Classical Chinese Thought (Zhongguo gudai sixiang shilun 中国古代思想史论) was published by Routledge in 2019. He has also published several articles on the work of Li Zehou.","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fruit Bats","authors":"Nan Xiang, Jeffrey Keller","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206303","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractIn early 2020, when COVID-19 was ravaging China, there were suggestions that bats might have transmitted the virus to humans. In western Guangdong Province, people were contemplating the eradication of the thousands of wild bats that inhabited Pineapple Sinkhole Cave on Yusun Mountain in S County. In an effort to save the bats and the local ecosystem, a team consisting of a life sciences professor, a young Chinese literature instructor, and a fruit farmer embarked on an adventure into Sinkhole Cave. Along the way, they discovered many significant contributions that bats make to agriculture, ecology, and culture. At the end of the story, the government ultimately decided to move forward with the extermination of the bats, but the team found the bats had already mysteriously vanished from the cave. AcknowledgmentsOriginally published in Beijing Literature (Beijing wenxue), no. 8 (2020), and reprinted in Short Stories Monthly (Xiaoshuo yuebao) no. 9, Selected Chinese Literature (Zhonghua wenxue xuankan) no. 9, Yangtze Literature and Art: Good Novels (Changjiang wenyi: hao xiaoshuo) no. 10, and New China Digest (Xinhua wenzhai) no. 20. Included in the 2020 Classics of Contemporary Chinese Literature (Zhongguo dangdai wenxue jingdian bidu) short story volume edited by Wu Yiqin.Notes1 An explanation of the poem and list of the herbs can be found here: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/149301780.Additional informationNotes on contributorsNan XiangNan Xiang, the pen name of Xiang Nanxiang, is a professor at the Shenzhen University School of Humanities. He has published over one hundred works in more than ten genres including novels, essays, and criticism. His works include Southern Love (Nanfang de ai), Anecdotes from College (Daxue yishi), Affairs of the Past: The Republican Legacy (Qianchen: minguo yishi), The Woman’s Sunflower (Nüren de kuihua), Revolt and Flight (Panni yu feixiang), New Theories on Contemporary Works of Literature (Dangdai wenxue chuangzuo xinlun), The Green Train (Lüpi che), and Ransack (Chaojia). His novels have been nominated for the short story category of the Lu Xun Prize in Literature, and have been awarded more than twenty prizes, including the Shanghai Literature Prize, Beijing Literature Prize, and Lu Xun Literature and Arts Prize.Jeffrey KellerJeffrey Keller has worked as a professional translator since 2006, after graduating from the University of Chicago with a master’s degree in Chinese literature. He has translated works in fields of memoir, biography, academic papers, art, and other non-fiction writing. He currently resides in northern Virginia with his two sons.","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction: “Proper Measure”—In Memoriam of Li Zehou","authors":"Wen Xing","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206304","url":null,"abstract":"In Li Zehou’s philosophy, “proper measure” is the “first category.” It reflects the process and level of “sedimentation,” which defines the former, a particular type of mathematic shu in Chinese Mathematical Philosophy. Through the lens of “sedimentation,” we explore a new perspective to examine Li’s theories, such as his creative combination of Marxism, Kantianism, and Confucianism, his three “constructivist assumptions,” “Subjectality,” “emotion as substance,” and various forms of humanism. It is argued that the concept of “proper measure” can only be properly defined and interpreted in the context of the Chinese mathematical philosophy and is the underlying thread in Li’s theories and unique perspectives.","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136329350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A New Understanding of the Human Self: Li Zehou’s “Subjectality”","authors":"Jana S. Rošker","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206313","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractLi Zehou’s concept of subjectality (zhutixing) is a central component of his philosophical system. In explaining this concept, Li has expanded the concept of the human Self in post-revolutionary modernity. This article explores the foundations of this concept, its significance in contemporary Chinese theory, and shows that it represents a call for a new kind of humanism. Using a multidimensional comparative approach, it will illustrate how Li’s concept of subjectality has the potential to fill the currently prevailing “value vacuum” and transform postmodern alienation into a truly fulfilling “human condition” that can be actively realized and practiced in a free society of autonomous individuals. Notes1 Li and Cauvel, Four Essays, 94.2 Cauvel, “The Transformative Power,” 156.3 Chandler, “Li Zehou,” 278.4 Li, Renleixue, 173.5 See, for example, Li, “Subjectivity,” 174; Li, “Guanyu,” 14.6 Bruya, “Li Zehou’s,” 138.7 However, Li Zehou’s theory cannot be solely reduced to a simple drawing from the ideas of Marx and Kant. Instead, he uses Marx as a starting point to reexamine issues originally proposed by Kant, with the goal of resolving problems stemming from Kant’s theoretical approach. In doing so, Li aims to overcome Kant’s idealist limitations and restore Kantian rationality within a materialist and historical framework. Through this process of incorporating both Marx and Kant, Li seeks to improve and “reinvent” the traditional concept of practice within historical materialism.8 For example, Wang, “Li Zehou,” 21.9 Li, “Kangde,” 5.10 Lin, “Search,” 979.11 孔门由“礼”归“仁”, 以“仁”为体, 这是一条由人而神, 由“人道”现“天道”, 从“人心”建“天心”的路。从而, 是人为天地立“心”, 而非天地为人立“心”。 Li, Renleixue, 180.12 Gu, “Subjectivity,” 210.13 Lin, 982.14 个体主体性表现在近现代西方思潮和当代中国的人道主义呐喊中, 它们大都只是对各种异化的抗议和反抗, 并无真正坚实的理论成果。Li, Renleixue, 125.15 Wang, “Li Zehou,” 95.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJana S. RoškerProfessor Jana S. Rošker studied Sinology and received her PhD from the Vienna University. She is the first Slovenian Sinologist, co-founder and long-time head of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). In total, she spent over ten years in China and Taiwan at various universities and research institutes. To date, she has published twenty-six books and over one hundred and fifty articles and book chapters. Her major work on Li Zehou includes Following His Own Path: Li Zehou and Contemporary Chinese Philosophy and Becoming Human—Li Zehou’s Ethics. She is editor in chief of the journal Asian Studies, vice president of the International Society for Chinese Philosophy (ISCP), and founder, first president, and honorary member of the European Association of Chinese Philosophy (EACP). She has been honored with several prestigious academic prizes and awards at the national and international levels.","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Confucian Roots of Li Zehou’s Aesthetic Thought of “Emotion Itself”","authors":"Jianhua Xiao, Jeffrey Keller","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206310","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract“Emotion itself” is the core concept of Li Zehou’s aesthetics. This concept appeared roughly around the late 1980s, and Li gave a systematic account of it in the 1990s. Li Zehou’s theory of “emotion itself” was related to his understanding of Confucianism, and particularly his uncovering the “emotional” connotations in original Confucianism. Li Zehou came up with “emotion itself” for several reasons. First, he was dissatisfied with modern New Confucianism as represented by Mou Zongsan and others. Second, it was a criticism of attempts by cultural Christians to introduce Christianity to resolve the so-called transcendental deficiency of Chinese culture. Third, it arose out of a need to complete the human natures of Chinese people in the molding of aesthetic emotions to give their souls comfort and belonging. While explaining these reasons, Li Zehou introduced Confucian perspectives and constructed his aesthetics of “emotion itself” while releasing the emotional dimensions of Confucianism. Both in terms of completing Li Zehou’s own theoretical system and answering the question of the nature of aesthetics, Li Zehou’s contemporary presentation of the aesthetics of “emotion itself” had great significance and enlightenment regarding how contemporary Chinese cultural creation can link up with tradition. AcknowledgmentThe original article was published in Zhongguo wenxue yanjiu 中国文学研究 (Research of Chinese Literature), no. 2 (2020).Notes1 Li Zehou 李泽厚, Lunyu jindu 论语今读 (A Modern Reading of the “Analects”) (Hefei: Anhui wenyi chubanshe, 1998), 3.2 Li Zehou, Zou wo ziji de lu: duitan ji 走我自己的路: 对谈集 (Taking My Own Road: Collected Conversations) (Beijing: Zhongguo mangwen chubanshe, 2004), 373.3 Li Zehou, Li Zehou jinnian dawen lu 李泽厚近年答问录 (Recent Q&As with Li Zehou) (Tianjin: Tianjin shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 2006), 54.4 Li Zehou, Zhongguo gudai sixiangshi lun 中国古代思想史论 (On the History of Early Chinese Thought) (Tianjin: Tianjin shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 2003), 32.5 Li Zehou, Li Zehou zhexue wencun shangbian: pipan zhexue de pipan 李泽厚哲学文存上编: 批判哲学的批判 (Li Zehou’s Philosophical Writings, Volume One: A Critique of Critical Philosophy) (Hefei: Anhui wenyi chubanshe, 1999), 433. Emphasis is in the original.6 Li Zehou, Meixue sanshu 美学三书 (Three Books on Aesthetics) (Hefei: Anhui wenyi chubanshe, 1999), 595.7 Ibid., 516.8 Ibid.9 Ibid., 546.10 Ibid., 593.11 Ibid., 544.12 Ibid., 545.13 Li, On the History of Early Chinese Thought, 292–93.14 Li, Three Books on Aesthetics, 259.15 Ibid., 429.16 Li Zehou, Shiji xinmeng 世纪新梦 (New Dream of the Century) (Hefei: Anhui wenyi chubanshe, 1998), 27.17 Ibid., 27.18 Ibid.19 Ibid., 30.20 Ibid., 31.21 Li Zehou, et al., Fusheng lunxue—Li Zehou, Chen Ming 2001 nian duitan lu 浮生论学——李泽厚、陈明 2001 年对谈录 (On a Floating Life of Learning—Conversations between Li Zehou and Chen Ming in 2001) (Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 2002), 188.22 Li Zehou, Shiyong lixing yu yuegan wenhua 实用理性与乐感文化 (Practical Rationality and the Culture of Optimism) ","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Li Zehou’s “Super-Mundane” Approach: On the Philosophical Style of <i>What Is Morality?</i>","authors":"Paul J. D’Ambrosio","doi":"10.1080/27683524.2023.2206314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/27683524.2023.2206314","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractLi Zehou is one of the most influential contemporary Chinese thinkers, both in China and abroad. Never easy to pin down, Li’s interests range from aesthetics and shamanism, to ontology and ethics. Some of his writings are centered on specific topics, such as Immanuel Kant’s philosophy or the Analects, while others look at broader issues, including the history of Chinese thought and Marxism in China. This short essay focuses on Li’s least well-known book, What Is Morality?—a collection of dialogues between Li and scholars from around China. We will explore how these conversations, like much of Li’s work, express his “super-mundane” approach to philosophical reflection in terms of both his methodology as well as his actual theories. Here “super-mundane” means both “supermundane” or that which transcends the mundane, as well as the “super mundane” or extremely mundane. The virtues of this “super-mundane” approach are numerous, especially when contrasted to today’s mainstream Western academic philosophical research. Notes1 Personal Communication: I had this conversation with Deng Delong several times in 2014 and 2015.2 Li Zehou, What Is Morality?, 11.3 Ibid., 16.4 Ibid., 17.5 Ibid., 27.6 Ibid., 32.7 Ibid., 47.8 Li Zehou, A Response, 1082.9 Li Zehou, What Is Morality?, 44.10 Ibid., 251.Additional informationNotes on contributorsPaul J. D’AmbrosioPaul J. D’Ambrosio is a fellow of the Institute of Modern Chinese Thought and Culture, associate professor of Chinese philosophy and Dean of the Center for Intercultural Research, all at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. Additionally, he is founder of the “Collaborative Learning” lecture and seminar series. Works by D’Ambrosio include Zhen jia zhi jian 真假之间 (Between Genuineness and Pretense, Kong Xuetang Press, 2020), You and Your Profile (Columbia University Press, 2021) and Genuine Pretending (Columbia University Press, 2017), both with Hans-Georg Moeller, and Encountering China (Harvard University Press, 2018) with Michael Sandel. His new co-edited volume Beyond Comparisons is scheduled to appear in 2023 on SUNY press. Additionally, he has authored around a hundred articles, chapters, and reviews, and is translator of over a dozen books on Chinese philosophy.","PeriodicalId":29655,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Literature and Thought Today","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135717571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}