Why Li Zehou Wanted to Unify Confucius, Marx, and Kant

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) (Qingdao: Qingdao chubanshe, 2016).17 Li, “Shuo ruxue siqi,” 30.18 Li Zehou, “Youguan ‘renleixue lishi bentilun’” (“On the ‘Anthropo-Historical Ontology’”), Renleixue lishi bentilun, appendix, 649.19 Li, Youwu daoli, 238.20 Li, Renleixue lishi bentilun, 13.Additional informationNotes on contributorsHanmin Zhu Zhu Hanmin was born in 1954 and is from Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, China. As an outstanding professor at Hunan University and Dean of the Yuelu Academy School of Sinology, he serves as a doctorate advisor in history and philosophy and is vice chair of the Hunan University Academic Committee. He also serves as vice chair of the International Confucian Association and vice chair of the Chinese Confucian Academy and has written more than twenty works, including A Study of the Reasoning of the Academic Thought of Neo-Daoism and Neo-Confucianism (Xuanxue yu lixue de xueshu sixiang lilu yanjiu 玄学与理学的学术思想理路研究).