Editor’s AbstractIn this essay (adapted from a lecture), Huang Yushun rejects what he calls the trend toward “New Confucian Religion” (xin rujiao), emphasizing the ways that Confucianism as a secular, lived philosophy must develop in the modern world. Echoing Li Minghui's claim that Confucianism and liberalism are compatible, Huang advocates “Confucian liberalism” (rujia ziyouzhuyi) and criticizes many themes central to earlier essays in this volume.

Confucianism can be analyzed at three levels of ideas: life as existence (Sein) itself; the Confucian metaphysics about metaphysical beings; and the Confucian doctrines about tangible existences. In the eyes of Confucians, life itself is displayed as the feeling of benevolence in the first place. To reconstruct Confucianism is to return to life and perceive it as a fundamental source. That means to historically return to the original Confucianism during and even before the Axial Period, in essence it is to (...) simultaneously return to our immediate life itself, and then on this basis to reconstruct both Confucian metaphysics and Confucian doctrines about tangible existences. (shrink)