Download pdf
Kang Youwei: The Trans-Historical Kongjiao Movement and Confucian Universalism
- 1 The Experimental High School Attached To Beijing Normal University
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
There are two overarching themes that run through Kang Youwei’s writings: the reform of laws as a means to save China, and the concept of “Datong Shijie (大同世界)”. In his response to the profound transformations taking place in the world, which he referred to as the “unprecedented changes of three thousand years,” Kang Youwei sought to adapt traditional Confucian teachings (jingxue) and other conventional ideologies. However, his ambitious endeavor to establish a Confucian national cult ultimately met with failure. The academic community has long held divergent views on Kang Youwei. While his early ideas and efforts to reform the legal system are generally viewed positively, his later ideas supporting monarchy are often dismissed. This paper analyzes Kang Youwei’s thought and the formation and inclination of the concept of Datong, as well as its interconnections with the Kongjiao movement. It can be concluded that the lack of historical precedent for establishing Kongjiao as a system in China and people’s apprehensions about the potential political implications of Kongjiao led to the failure of Kang Youwei’s reform movement. Moreover, Kang Youwei’s advocacy of Datong through the establishment of Kongjiao failed to resonate with the literati of that time. Undeniably, there is a possibility that Kongjiao could become a new locus of power outside imperial authority.
Keywords
Kongjiao movement, Confucian universalism, Kang Youwei
[1]. Wakeman, F. (1973). History and Will: Philosophical Perspectives of Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought (1st ed.). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2430711.
[2]. Chan, W. T. (1967). “Kang Yu-wei and the Confucian Doctrine of Humanness (Ren),” in Kang Youwei: A Biography and A Symposium, ed. Lo Jung Pang (Tuscon: The University of Arizona Press), 357.
[3]. Grieder, J. B. (1981). Intellectuals and the state in modern China: A narrative history. New York: Free Press.
[4]. Wakeman, F. (1978). A Modern China and a New World: K’ang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian, 1858—1927. By Kung-chuan Hsiao. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975. The Journal of Asian Studies, 37(2), 334-336. doi:10.2307/2054182.
[5]. Tu, W. (1989). Centrality and commonality: An essay on Confucian religiousness. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press.
[6]. Rodney, L. T. (1990). The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism. SUNY series in Religious Studies. State University of New York Press.
Cite this article
Cao,W. (2023). Kang Youwei: The Trans-Historical Kongjiao Movement and Confucian Universalism. Communications in Humanities Research,17,45-51.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).