Recovering the Nature: Ma Yifu’s New Confucian Thought and Its Intellectual Background / Yu Yihong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yihong, Yu, author.

Series:

Modern Chinese Philosophy ; 28.

Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Modern Chinese Philosophy ; 28

Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Asian Studies.

History.

Intellectual History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : BRILL, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Numerous great Chinese thinkers attempted to realise a transcendent ontological foundation in order to live an ideal life informed by the Confucian way. To this end, they sought answers to how the unconditioned foundation could be realised through cognitive awareness that is circumscribed by the conditioned nature of human existence. Inspired by earlier Confucian and Buddhist thinkers, Ma Yifu attempted to offer more refined responses to these two questions. In addressing them, Ma and other modern thinkers also sought to justify the contemporary significance of the Confucian way in a modernising China. This book presents a rich landscape of these ideas. Many primary materials translated and analysed here are introduced in English for the first time.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 General Background

2 Ma’s Life, Writings and Related Studies

3 Intellectual Background: Ma Yifu, Neo-Confucianism and Sinitic Buddhism

4 Research Questions, Objectives and Methodologies of the Study

5 Chapter Outlines

6 Overview of Key Ideas in Ma’s Thought

1 The Genesis of Ma Yifu’s New Confucian Thought

1 Ma Yifu’s Early Life (193–1916)

2 Ma’s Absorption of Buddhism and Daoism (1917–1935)

3 The Formation of Ma’s Theory of the Six Arts (1936–1939)

2 Ma Yifu’s Confucian Ideal Evidenced in Records of Lectures at the Recovering the Nature Academy

1 An Overall Examination of the Records of Lectures

2 Right Practices and Ideal Governance

3 The Sage’s Mind and Virtue-Based Governance

Concluding Remarks

3 Ma’s Confucian Ideal and His Contemporaneous Thinkers

1 Ma’s Idealisation of Virtue-Based Governance in the Records of Lectures

2 Contemporaneous and Relevant Issues Viewed from Ma’s Perspective

4 Different New Confucian Alternatives: Ma Yifu and Xiong Shili

1 Xiong Shili on Reality

2 Xiong Shili on Confucianism and Socialist Modernisation

3 Ma Yifu, Mou Zongsan and Spiritual Confucianism

Conclusion: A Review of Ma Yifu’s New Confucian Thought

1 Ma Yifu, Neo-Confucianism and Sinitic Buddhism

2 Ma Yifu and Modern Chinese Thinkers

3 Ma Yifu and Today’s Confucian Trends in Mainland China

Appendix 1: A Brief Chronological Biography of Ma Yifu’s Intellectual Life

Appendix 2: Table of the Contents of Two Lectures

Appendix 3: Table (with Classifications) of the Lectures

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-76142-X

OCLC:

1587074790

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004761421 DOI