The Research Of Chen Huan-chang's Thoughts On Confucianism

Chen Huan-chang was a Confucian thinker in the time of late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China,he was also a man with some new and old characters.As a member of the last group of scholars in late Qing Dynasty,Chen Huan-chang had the training exercises from Confucian Classics during his childhood time.Later on,he entered the Wanmu Thatched Hall in Guangzhou,and influenced by Kang Youwei's thoughts on Confucianism.Not only so,Chen Huan-chang also had the experience to study abroad.He described the Confucian Classics with a perspective of the western political economics,and written a book as well as his doctoral dissertation which named<THE ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES OF CONFUCIUS AND HIS SCHOOL>.As a result,he got a PhD degree from the Columbia University in the City of New York.Therefore,based on his Chinese and Western academic background,Chen Huanchang's thoughts on Confucianism combined with the inheritance of Confucian Classics and his own thinking of the transformation of Confucianism in a modern society.This dissertation will study from three aspects:The first one is to discuss the background of Chen Huan-chang's thoughts on Confucianism.Firstly,the background of the society,to talk about the universal ideas among scholars of the late Qing Dynasty on Confucianism;Secondly,the growth environment of Chen Huan-chang,to see how does a holy family brought a deeply mark to his thoughts;Thirdly,the process of Chen Huan-chang's schooling,Confucian Classics gave him a systemic cognition about the Confucianism,and the overseas experience made him to think about the "modernity" of Confucianism.The second one is to analyze the theoretical foundations of Chen Huan-chang's thoughts on Confucianism.Firstly,the "Shinto" content,includes Chen Huan-chang's thinking on "Yuan","Tian",and “Three Basic Rites”;Secondly,the "humanity" content,includes "Wang","Three Cardinal Guides" and "Ren Shu";The last one is to combs the theoretical practices of Chen Huan-chang's thoughts on Confucianism.Firstly,the political part,includes the establishment of "Confucian Association" and the movement to made Confucianism as a State Religion;Secondly,the social part,includes the establishment of Confucian University.In a word,this dissertation will combine the existing literature and research achievements,with an systematical visual angle,to analyze the contents of Chen Huanchang's thoughts on Confucianism,and hope to make some contributions to the research on Chen Huan-chang's thoughts and the Confucianism.