A Study Of TANG Junyi's Concept Of Moral Subject

From the perspective of the traditional Chinese philosophy,the subject of life,the origin of human life,as well as the manifestations of being kind-hearted,moral acts,as well as the development of cultural system and objective cause in pursuing ideal,have their origin.In particular,according to the Chinese traditional Confucianism,the origin is living within oneself,instead of from the outside.In the ancient society,this has always been relied upon by the Chinese Confucians and the Chinese people for setting down and getting on with one's pursuit.Confucius stated benevolence(ren),Mencius stated conscience(liang-zhi),Zhu ji mentioned nature is principle(xing-ji-li),Lu Xiangshan mentioned mind is principle(xin-ji-li),Wang Yangming stated innate moral knowledge(zhi-liang-zhi)and so on,are largely the real life experience of the ancient Confucians expressed as the results of the discourse in terms of concepts and languages.This is different from pure speculation or mystery.Due to changes in time,different historical and cultural backgrounds,as well as the different objects being targeted,plus the unique experience of the practitioners,the content,expression and reasoning are different,manifested through various interpretations,teaching methodologies,and the creation of different ideas.That said,with varying languages,varying ways of expression,and the varying ways of reasoning,the core value remains unchanged.In the transformation to the modern world,at the time when the situation and cultural background have been uniquely different from the past,the core value to which the Chinese culture has attached would become a concern and question for the contemporary Confucians.In what form,conceptual language,and the kind of reasoning would and should the traditional Chinese subject of life and its relating core value,be interpreted on solid traditional foundation and be creative to meet the needs of the new era,must be answered by the contemporary Confucians.Mr.Tang Junyi,being an important scholar of the contemporary Neo-Confucianism,has made a robust response to this problem based on his experience of life,his profound,in-depth and embracing knowledge and appreciation of the ancient and the modern Chinese and Western cultures,his open-mindedness,his excellent reasoning ability,as well as his strenuous efforts throughout the course of his life.Tang Junyi's new interpretation of the traditional Chinese academic knowledge and the innovation on the Chinese and Western ideological and cultural theories are closely related to the development of the concept of moral subject,which,according to the research finding,is based on the true experience of life.Tang Junyi's concept of moral subject can be first found in his early master piece,"Practical Experience of Life".The concept,"moral self" or "noumenon of heart"was presented in the form of intuitive perspicacity.In this book,Tang Junyi found that behind the different state of mind in real life,whether positive or negative,there was a hidden positive meaning.He thus,experienced the virtue in life,of which the value was to be realized by one's life.The process made life become meaningful and become the foundation of the value of all academic culture and objective cause,which could reinstate life and human culture.In the "Establishment of Moral Self",Tang Junyi started to elucidate the concept of "noumenon of heart" in terms of moral philosophy.Tang Junyi pointed out that the root for the moral behavior of the people was the "moral self ' or "spiritual self'.Then,Tang Junyi,by stating that one could not bear to see the sufferings of others,introduced the existence of the moral mind.He further inferred that one could not bear the world of illusion and destruction,and established the existence of "noumenon of heart",which was the foundation of "moral self' and "spiritual reality".With this,the existence of the reality and the world could be ensured,and the importance of all objective cultural causes could be affirmed.The "moral self' could only build up one's moral quality despite that it also recognized the objective cultural causes.In order to gain the confidence of the modern world which was deeply affected by the Western culture,Tang Junyi established the concept of "moral reason" in the book,"Cultural Awareness and Moral Reason".He adopted the Western discourse to explain why different cultural activities were originated from "moral reason",so as to establish the theoretical basis that "moral reason" overarched cultural activities.Thereafter,Tang Junyi revisited the system of Chinese philosophy.Tang Junyi explained that his work was written based on benevolence(ren),righteousness(yi),propriety(li)and wisdom(zhi).By approaching philosophy through history,he rationalized the historical development of Chinese thoughts,as well as integrated the various streams of philosophy,such that they could be appropriately placed.Tang Junyi further found that not only did the various philosophical systems and theories could be integrated,even the world's major cultural systems and philosophies could be connected through human's spiritual activities,hence shared the same origin of life.After revisiting the origin,Tang Junyi then created his new system of thoughts,and came the creation of the nine horizons.Based on the nine horizons described,he presented the discourse in that all the ancient and modern ideas,academic,cultural,ethical behavior,religion,were outcome or aspiration of "existence of life" and"spiritual realm".The philosophical system of the nine horizons embraced all philosophies,and placed each of the philosophical ideas at an appropriate position,demonstrating their respective values.Tang Junyi finally pointed to the basics,that the objectives of all philosophical activities and all the valuable cultures were for education,and for raising and opening up the spiritual life of human kind.This ideal realization was deeply rooted in the "natural disposition"(xing-qing),hence was the foundation of life,which motivated the cultural and academic development.This dissertation comprises an introduction and five chapters.The first chapter discusses the source of Tang Junyi's thought on moral subject and the first concepts of moral subject,i.e."noumenon of heart","moral self',and "spiritual reality".The second chapter discusses the reason why "moral reason" of creative subject embraces various cultural activities,the difficulties of moral practice in reality and ways of transcendence.The third chapter discusses the basis of and the creation of the concept of moral subject as well as the conclusion,by first discussing how Tang Junyi approached philosophy through history in rationalizing the historical development of Chinese thoughts and the outcome.It reveals that whether the Chinese philosophy itself,or the world's major ideas,philosophies and cultures,can be connected through the human mind activities.The "existence of life" and spiritual realm" then build the philosophical framework of the nine horizons,and through the growth of life(spiritual activities),all cultures found their roots.Finally,it narrows down to the state that all philosophies and cultures points to education,and the realization of ideal was deeply rooted in the "natural disposition"(xing-qing).The fourth chapter summarizes the modern value of Tang Junyi's moral subject concept,by first pointing out his conceptual innovation which facilitates modern Chinese to understand Chinese philosophy,and second,by describing his commitment to inheriting the mind of the Song and Ming Confucian scholars for building a new principles of nei-sheng-wai-wang.Finally,his contribution to the integration of valuable culture with the education of natural disposition(xing-qing)is discussed.The fifth chapter compares the similarities and differences of the reasoning and the thoughts on moral subject between Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan.While the comparison shows the differences of the thoughts between the two Neo-Confucianism scholars,it also reveals how they responded differently to the problems of the era.Their respective contribution and the strength in their philosophy are then demonstrated clearly.The conclusion sums up the contribution of Tang Junyi's moral subject concept,its value and significance to modern Chinese people,and the aspiration and insight on the accomplishment of ideal through cultural education.