春雨直播app

When can we say that “Chinese philosophy” first came into existence? Many readers may assume that it has been present since the age of Confucius. However, this conclusion is not always self-evident. The word “哲学” (tetsugaku in Japanese, zhéxué in Chinese), which means “philosophy” in both Japan and China, did not exist in the premodern intellectual landscapes of East Asia. Rather, it was deliberately coined during Japan’s Meiji period as a neologism to translate the Western term “philosophy,” which was previously unfamiliar to the Japanese.
 
Since the late seventeenth century, when Philippe Couplet authored Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (Confucius: Chinese Philosopher), European discourse has habitually referred to Chinese thought—primarily Confucianism—as “Chinese Philosophy.” During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, exemplified by thinkers such as Hegel, critical perspectives emerged in Europe; they regarded “Chinese philosophy” as a form of religious philosophy lacking the spirit of critique. Nonetheless, there was little objection to labeling Confucius’s thought as a “philosophy.”
 
However, in East Asia, the situation differed markedly. Prior to the modern period, Confucianism was the most orthodox among the various scholarly traditions and was studied by the broadest segment of learners. Indeed, the term “学問” (gakumon/xuéwén, “learning” or “scholarship”) typically denoted Confucian learning. This Confucian-centered intellectual network, albeit with regional variations, extended widely across Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam. In Japan, this body of knowledge was known as “漢学” (kangaku; studies of Kan/China).
 
Japan, uniquely among East Asian societies, embarked on a path of Western-style modernization while retaining this traditional intellectual framework at its core. It was in this context that Japanese intellectuals first encountered the concept of “philosophy” and the Western academic system encompassing it, and they were compelled to assimilate these within a relatively short span of time. Tokyo University (東京大学; called the University of Tokyo only after WWII), founded in 1877, was established above all to modernize Japan along Western scientific and technological lines. In its early years, English-speaking British and American professors taught law, Western philosophy, and the natural sciences, whereas German professors taught medicine to Japanese students.
 
Curiously, the newly founded Tokyo University also continued, albeit on a very limited schedule, to teach Chinese classics (漢学 kangaku) in a manner reminiscent of the premodern era. Yet the Chinese classical scholars (漢学者 kangaku-sha) soon confronted a difficult dilemma: how should the study of Chinese classics position itself in Japan and at the university, which now considered Western scholarship and science the norm?
 
Some kangaku scholars refused to change their traditional approaches, whereas others sought new paradigms. Others from outside the old intellectual kangaku community demanded drastic and transformative reforms. Through these struggles, a field increasingly referred to as “支那哲学” (shina tetsugaku—“Chinese Philosophy”) took shape within Japanese academia. Tokyo University—later renamed the Imperial University of Tokyo—served as the central venue for these efforts since, for better or worse, this institution played a pivotal role in shaping modern Japanese academia. Moreover, the emergence of Chinese philosophy studies in modern Japan also influenced the development of similar studies in modern China, for the notion of interpreting the Chinese classics as “philosophy” had not existed in premodern East Asia. Modern Japanese scholarship was not necessarily shaped within a nationalistic framework; instead, it was received and exerted influence through intellectual exchanges extending across East Asia and the Western world.
 
This volume explores how traditional scholarship behaved when confronted with a sweeping transformation of its historical context. I hope this work encourages further reflection and research on East Asian modernity.
 

(Written by: MIZUNO Hirota / December 25, 2024)