On Kang Youwei's Confucian Classics

Kang Youwei was not only one of the famous politicians,one of the leaders in the Wuxu Reform Movement and a well-known economist in late Qing Dynasty,he but also was a great achiever in current cultures.His theory had an enormous impact on the modern history of China.He was very famous in the history of late Qing Dynasty.His profound cultural inheritance and the effects of the Western cultures made him do a lot of great things in Confucianism and economics and then he formed his own style.He opened the ethos of suspecting the old celebrities' opinions,which deeply affected Gu Jigang and so on who were defending the ancient history.The research of later generations focuses mainly on politics,along with cultures,economy,education and other fields.Some people think highly of him while others think badly of him.People care little about Kang's economics and Confucianism,so I want to write an article to do some systematic research on them and make a careful analysis of them.Kang was not such a Confucian scholar who only searched for detailed evidence but didn't care about politics.The changing times made him inherit traditional thoughts and concerned about the world all the times.At the same time,when he explained Confucian classics,he introduced some Western cultures,alluding to politics,which was the first time that people had done so in the history of study of Confucian classics in China.Kang followed classics such as?the Great Learning??Mencius??the Analects of Confucius??the Doctrine of the Mean??Li yun?and so on,considered"san shi" in?the Spring and Autumn Annals?as main lines and put them through his thought.He rebuilt the Confucian moral tradition,looking up to Confucius as the leader,respecting Dong Zhongshu as Gong yang,and criticizing the ancient classics of Liu xin and the Doctrine of neo-Confucianism of Song ming.What he did laid an important foundation for the beginning of the new Confucianism.Kang tried to find the resources about the evolution of China from the traditional classics and western cultures to indicate the direction of social development.In a manner of speaking,Kang played a vital part in the history of Confucian classics and Confucianism in China.Therefore,doing some research on Kang's thought of Confucianism is essential.The introduction is mainly about the meaning and the cause of choosing this topic.It indicates that the writer writes this article to introduce further details about Kang's lifetime,Kang's times and Kang's works,depending on some documents and the previous results,which briefly says that Kang's thought of Confucianism is quite different from the one in any other time.His thought is unique and what he stuck to is insisting on morality of Confucius to save the social building from falling.Kang introduced the western new concept and reinterpreted Confucianism,making him the first person to combine Confucianism and western cultures.In addition to the introduction,the article is made up of seven parts.The first part and the second part mainly say something about Kang's?the Spring and Autumn Annals?and theses two parts separately do some research on Kang's?the Spring and Autumn Cutting Dayi critical examination?and?the Spring and Autumn of Dongshi?.Firstly,the article researches the background of?the Spring and Autumn Annals?and?the Spring and Autumn of Dongshi?,then explains its contents deeply and finally sums up the characteristics of his thoughts.Thus,Kang's thought of?the Spring and Autumn Annals?is very clear to people,which shows that Kang can apply?the Spring and Autumn Annals?and also shows that Kang's thought has changed from following the ancient classics to establishing the current cultures.The third part explains Kang's?Hermeneutics of Jiebi?.At first,it says something about writing this book,and then explains the contents of this book,indicating that Kang used?Mencius?to compare it with politics,economy and education and so on.In this book,he compared China and the western countries all the time,frequently referring to evolution and innovation.At last,it shows that Kang took examples from the world's cultures,and shows his thought of using the ideas of "san shi" and "san tong"The fourth part explains Kang's?Annotation of the Analects?,which focuses on Kang's recovering Confucius's theory and his using the idea of "San shi" to reform the society.In his book,Kang also corrected the words and phrases in?the Analects?to show his own thoughts,which shows Kang absorbed western cultures and promoted current cultures to achieve the purpose of the reform.The fifth part explains Kang's?Rite Thought?.Kang was concerned about?Li yun??the Doctrine of the Mean?and?the Great Learning?.His concern about etiquettes can also be seen in other documents,such as?Teaching Comments??Wan mu cao tang?and so on.This part,firstly,explains Kang's books?Li yun??the Doctrine of the Mean?and?the Great Learning?,which presents that Kang's thought is the combination of old ideas and new ideas and how he expresses Da tong and well-off thought.This reflects his political thinking of ritual study and how rite thought is applied in the reform.The sixth and the seventh parts are the conclusion of the article.The two parts give a comprehensive elaboration of the source,features and the historical status of his Confucian classics.Kang's thought comes from family heritage,western current knowledge and the changes in China and other countries.Because of all of these reasons,the characteristics of his Confucian classics are various,consistent and have a broad field of vision.Hence,different people hold different opinions about Kang's thought.The writer hopes to show the characteristics of his thought comprehensively and clearly through above evidence and draw some inspiration from it,making more scholars know Kang's contributions to the current Confucianism.What's more,the writer also expects this article may give some help or inspiration to the future researchers who want to do some on research Kang.