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“This book can be considered a milestone in modern Chinese and cultural studies. It is also the most ambitious attempt in developing a new kind of interdisciplinary studies—an attempt that bears a philosophic weight and cuts across the disciplines of Sinology, comparative literature, intellectual history, and translation studies. At the same time, it seeks to demonstrate a new theory of ‘Transcultural Lexicon’ which should appeal to all scholars interested in cultural theories.”
—Leo Ou-fan Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong
List of Figures x
Preface: Modern Chinese Counter-Enlightenment from a Transcultural Stance xi
Acknowledgments xvii
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Lu Xun and Counter-Enlightenment 1
Lu Xun and Qing (Affect): The Heart-Mind Has Its Reasons 1
Qing: Universal Co-living and Co-becoming 6
The Lifeview Movement 11
Counter-Enlightenment and Affectivism 12
The May Fourth: An Enlightenment Movement? 14
The Transcultural Lexicon as Methodology 18
Chapters of the Book 22
I Feel, Therefore I Am 23
1. The Science and Lifeview Debate: The Transcultural Lexicon 25
How Lebensanschauung Became Renshengguan (Lifeview) 26
Rudolf Eucken on Enlightenment Rationalism: The Division of Self and Non-self 27
Nishida Kitarō: Jō (Qing) as a Critique of Enlightenment Rationalism 29
Liang Qichao and Japan’s Revival of Eastern Ethics 34
Eucken and Zhang Junmai, The Problem of Life in China and in Europe 36
The Science and Lifeview Debate in China: Creation Is Action 41
2. The Aesthetic Education Movement: Affective Enlightenment 48
Aesthetic Education in Japan 49
Wang Guowei and Chinese Aesthetic Education 52
Cai Yuanpei and the Chinese Aesthetic Education Movement 55
The Journal Aesthetic Education 59
An Aesthetic Life: From Theory to Praxis 63
Resonances in Literature: Shen Congwen, Bing Xin, and Xu Zhimo 69
3. Zhang Dongsun’s Chuanghualun [Creative Evolution]: Heart-Mind versus Reason 73
Theory of Knowledge and Theory of Life 76
Critique of European Enlightenment 77
Instinct, Intuition, and Reason 80
The Ceaselessly Changing Self: La durée, élan vital, and Relational Ontology 82
Interview with Bergson in Paris on 26 May 1921 84
The Creation Society and Chuanghualun 87
Chuanghualun and the Lifeview School 91
Mao Zedong: My Heart-Mind Is the Universe 95
Xu Fuguan: “The Heart-Mind Culture” 97
Julia Kristeva and “The Chinese Logic” 100
4. Liang Shuming: Life Is an Unceasing Becoming 104
The Buddhist Concept of Karma (Change) and Evolution 106
Eastern and Western Cultures: Dewey and Russell 114
Life Is the Continuities of Events 120
The Three Directions in Life 122
Chinese Metaphysics: Intuition versus Reason 123
5. Affectivism: Intuition and Affective Flows 127
Zhu Qianzhi, “The Origin of Affectivism” 131
Affective Flows: Ontology of Immanence 133
Qing: To Be Affected and to Affect 136
Leibniz and the Book of Changes 138
Yuan Jiahua, Affectivist Philosophy 140
Homo sentimentalis versus Superman 145
Qing: Connecting the Heart-Mind and Matter 147
Zhu Qianzhi, The Universeview and Lifeview of an Affectivist 149
A Monistic Theory of Culture 150
Critiques of Psychology and the Dialectic Method 153
Immediate Responses to Affectivism: Zhang Jingsheng and An Ruoding 155
Latter-Day Affectivists: Sima Changfeng and Huang Jianzhong 158
Did Hu Shi Understand Dewey? 160
Life Is Both “To Be” and “Is” 164
Conclusion: Alice Searching for the Key to the Garden of Life—Affect or Reason? 166
Fang Dongmei on Science, Philosophy, and Art 168
Mind-Matter Dualism in the Modern Age 171
The Impact of Evolutionary Biology on Philosophy 174
A Critique of Psychology as a Science 175
Qing, Shengsheng, and Deleuze: “Creative Creativity” and “the Force to Love” 178
Life Philosophy: The May Fourth Period and After 181
Works Cited 191
Index 213