The Intellectual Foundations Of Chinese Modernity

In the early twentieth century, China was on the brink of change. Different ideologies - those of radicalism, conservatism, liberalism, and social democracy - were much debated in political and intellectual circles. Whereas previous works have analyzed these trends in isolation, Edmund S. K. Fung shows how they related to one another and how intellectuals in China engaged according to their cultural and political persuasions. The author argues that it is this interrelatedness and interplay between different schools of thought that are central to the understanding of Chinese modernity, for many of the debates that began in the Republican era still resonate in China today. The book charts the development of these ideologies and explores the work and influence of the intellectuals who were associated with them. In its challenge to previous scholarship and the breadth of its approach, the book makes a major contribution to the study of Chinese political philosophy and intellectual history.

Shows how Chinese intellectuals engaged according to their different cultural and political persuasions in the early twentieth century.

"This book is the first attempt to present an integrated overview of the development of liberal, conservative, and socialist thought in the Republican era, which formed the intellectual foundations of Chinese modernity. The book explores ideas in relation to their cultural and political backgrounds. The author argues that the key to understanding the Chinese quest for modernity lies in an appreciation of the interrelatedness and interplay of different schools of thought. There is no one single vision of Chinese modernity. Instead, different visions contest, interact, and influence one another"--Provided by publisher.

This brief paperback introduction to the basic ideas that underlie traditional Chinese culture focuses on the "Golden Age" (600 B.C.-150 B.C.) of Chinese philosophy.

A wide-ranging and accessibly written guide to the key aspects of elite and popular culture in contemporary China.

This book explores the relationship between the Manchus and the Han Chinese throughout the Qing dynasty, examines the transmission of modern knowledge on the ground of China's reactions to the Western influence, and discusses how the supra-nationalist discourse of various religions succumbed to the homogenizing nature of modern China.

Democratic political theory often sees collective action as the basis for non-coercive social change, assuming that its terms and practices are always self-evident and accessible. But what if we find ourselves in situations where collective action is not immediately available, or even widely intelligible? This book examines one of the most intellectually substantive and influential Chinese thinkers of the early twentieth century, Zhang Shizhao (1881–1973), who insisted that it is individuals who must 'make the political' before social movements or self-aware political communities have materialized. Zhang draws from British liberalism, democratic theory, and late-Imperial Confucianism to formulate new roles for effective individual action on personal, social, and institutional registers. In the process, he offers a vision of community that turns not on spontaneous consent or convergence on a shared goal, but on ongoing acts of exemplariness that inaugurate new, unpredictable contexts for effective personal action.

This book is the only comprehensive book on modern China's intellectual history.