From Guanzhong To Save The World: Liu Guangfen's (劉光蕡, 1843-1903) Holistic Proposal
von Na Song
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2024-01-29
Erschienen:2025-11-18
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Li Wenjie
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Chang Woei Ong
Zum Verlinken/Zitieren:
http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-11637
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Name:博论正文20251113.pdf
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Zusammenfassung
Englisch
This dissertation explores the approach employed by late Qing intellectuals to civilize and awaken the people in order to resolve the national crisis via the lens of a prominent Guanzhong Daoxue scholar's proposal: Liu Guangfen. Similar to his contemporaries, Liu’s proposal was grounded in his belief in Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things being one entity. Simultaneously, Liu’s proposition was shaped by the Guanzhong Neo-Confucian tradition of the Qing dynasty. This regional tradition was characterized by its emphasis on the unity of Daoxue moral essence and practical application. What is more, after 1895, Liu embraced Western knowledge and promoted many modern projects; thereby, his proposal will shed some light on how Guanzhong Daoxue scholars navigated the challenges of the modern world. This research concentrates on a thorough exploration of the underlying assumptions that underpin the transformations in Liu's and Guanzhong's intellectual enterprise. It illustrates how Liu aimed to deliver a holistic explanation of the changing world, encompassing oneself, the heavenly realm, the cosmic order, and the political and ethical order of the human world. He formulated one holistic theoretical framework that revolved around inborn good nature性善, uniting the cosmos, oneself, politics, and ethics into a whole. In Liu’s reasoning, the ultimate coherent cosmos entails the ideal unity of the Way, governance, Confucius's learning, and education. How is the integration of the Way, governance, Confucius’s learning, and education achieved? Liu developed his own interpretations, including Confucius's learning as the successor of the kingly governance, the learning of timely practice, and the adoption of local self-governance as the approach of kingly governance. Most importantly, Liu proposed the best and only approach to achieve the ideal unity was a village school system. Therefore, Liu designed one village school system, which employs the Three Elders system and the ancient educational system, while adopting some elements from modern educational system. The principles of this system is “officials and rulers as teachers” 官師合一 and “the integration of governance and jiao” 政教合一. While the system is the panacea Liu prescribed for all problems at his times and in history, he regarded the primary purpose of this system as transforming people and refining local custom because transforming people by awakening them would lead to the unity of Heaven and mankind. Besides, he put into practice of this school system to some extent in his seclusive years. Through Liu Guangfen’s holistic proposal and practical implementation, this dissertation unveils a prevailing approach in late Qing, which resorted to establishing schools and transforming the custom as the means to solve national crisis. This approach was advocated not just by Guanzhong Neo-Confucian scholars, but also by Neo-Confucian scholars of other regions, like Hunan Scholars, as well as intellectuals and political leaders, who had been profoundly affected by Neo-Confucianism. At the same time, this dissertation exhibits the distinction between the ideal of Guanzhong scholars and scholars of other regions regarding the methods towards refining the custom. Namely, Guanzhong scholars relied on a local self-governance system, which would bring in the grassroot level teachers and basically everyone to refine the custom. Along this way, it demonstrates that that there was a broad spectrum of perspectives on the custom and methods of awakening the people in the late Qing intellectual enterprise.
Keywords: Neo-Confucianism; Guanxue; Liu Guangfen; Holism; Late Qing Period
