Thinking Through Confucian Modernity

Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) was one of the major Chinese philosophers of the twentieth century, whose entire intellectual enterprise consisted of rethinking the relevance in the modern age of Chinese thought in general and Confucianism in particular. Although his seminal work is now a reference point everywhere in the Chinese world, research on the topic in English remains scarce. This book explores a pivotal dimension of Mou’s philosophy—that is, his project of reconstructing a moral metaphysics based largely on a dialogue between reinterpreted Chinese thought and Kantism. It provides the reader with direct access to Mou Zongsan’s thought by introducing translated excerpts of his work and thoroughly explores a number of his most paradigmatic concepts.