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This book is a breakthrough in illuminating humanism. For the first time it is presented in an intercultural perspective. It introduces Chinese, Indian, African, Islamic, and Western traditions into the intercultural discussion about basic issues of understanding the human world. By this means it recognizes different disciplinary perspectives: history, philosophy as well as religious, literary and gender studies. Special emphasis is put on the controversial relationship between humanism and religion. This complex network of argumentations is an answer to the challenge of cultural orientation at the age of globalization. Humanism is brought to life as a synthesis of transcultural values and a mutual and critical recognition of cultural differences

The teaching of the Tao permeates all attempts to reach reality in Chinese philosophy, culture, worldview, and everyday life. It would be expected that the understanding of this teaching would be particularly close to the traditional practices that have their origin close to the insights regarding the Way. The wide popularity of Tai chi /taijiquan/ today does not make its practice more authentic or truthful. Instead, it seems to be yet another reason for the "elusive and intangible"2 Tao to remain hidden and hard to grasp (Lao Dza 1990, 21). We will attempt to briefly summarize twelve conceptual incongruities that are the reason for the popular Tai chi to lose its roots.

Abstract
Foucault's understanding of the history and contemporary significance of ascetic practices or exercises of cultivation (ascesis) differs significantly from attempts which consider the renewal of asceticism in spiritual or even religious terms. This paper tries to show that he thought about related problems from the perspective of aesthetic cultivation. The first part will discuss his analysis of sexuality within the broader context of his theory-formation and elaborate on the theoretical structure of his concept of self-cultivation. In the second part I will situate the idea of creative ascesis in a broader historical context. The third part will provide a preliminary perspective on the transcultural significance of relating Foucault and contemporary Chinese philosophy.

Chenyang Li's new book,The Philosophy of Confucian Harmony, has been heralded as the first book-length exposition of the concept of harmony in the approximately 3,000 year old Confucian tradition. It provides a systematic analysis of Confucian harmony and defence of its relevance for contemporary moral and political thought. In this philosophical discussion of Li's book, I expound its central claims, contextualize them relative to other work in English-speaking Confucian thought, and critically reflect on them, particularly in light of a conception of harmony that is salient in the sub-Saharan African tradition. Hence, this article aims to continue the nascent dialogue between indigenous Chinese and African philosophical traditions that has only just begun.

Any treatment of such a basic topic as the role of law in China, old or new, becomes meaningful only if it is related to a discussion of the philosophy of law in our own tradition. In order to make an evaluation that brings the Chinese situation into relief, one has to compare, contrast, or relate the role of law at the different stages of China's development with its role in the Western tradition. Since the basic philosophical assumptions, on which all definition and discussion of law are based, are themselves controversial in our own tradition, this is a very hazardous undertaking; but it is crucial to any understanding of China, past and present.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- List of contributors -- Preface -- Part I: Theoretical concepts and China's roles -- 1. Role theory and the study of Chinese foreign policy -- International roles -- International roles and identities -- The process of self-identification -- The historical self in the process of self-identification -- Domestic contestation and international role taking -- Altercasting as international role taking and international social structure making -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 2. Historical narrative, remembrance, and the ordering of the world: a historical assessment of China's international relations -- Introduction -- Cultural identification and "All-under-Heaven" -- Engaging "All-under-Heaven" -- All-under-Heaven" challenged: cultural self-identification exchanged for political self-identification -- Reintroducing "All-under-Heaven": political self-identification exchanged for cultural self-identification? -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 3. China's historical self and its international role -- China's international role: the dynamics of historical self-identification -- China's historical self and role taking: case studies -- Conclusion and outlook -- Notes -- References -- 4. The identity and international role of China: relational grand strategy -- Two sources of role conception -- Identity-based grand strategy style -- Relationship-based grand strategy style -- Core national interests that weren't -- The volatile Taiwan issue -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 5. Philosophy, identity, and role theory with "Chinese characteristics" -- Role theory "with Chinese characteristics" -- China's roles in East Asia: three case studies -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Part II: China's International Roles: the global context.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the main aspects of approaches to the periodization of the formation and development of Chinese piano culture. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific methods of philosophy, culturology, history, and musicology. The methodological basis of the study was a set of methods: historical and dialectical – to analyze the dynamics of cultural and historical processes of development of Chinese musical art; culturological - to understand the dynamics of general cultural processes in the piano art of China; chronological, which makes it possible to understand the relationship of events in their sequence; theoretical generalization – to summarize the study; systemy – to systematize the typological features of approaches to the periodization of piano culture. The scientific novelty lies in the analysis of the peculiarities of approaches to the periodization of piano culture, and the definition of the main factors influencing the distinction from the standpoint of socio-historical, stylistic, and educational factors. Conclusions. Approaches to the periodization of China's piano culture tend to be systematized according to several factors. It is about organizing the results of contamination of foreign and domestic political aspects that affect the formation of cultural components of the era, namely social conditions, development of tools, education, and upbringing, as well as the nature of performance and concert activities.
Key words: piano culture, periodization, Chinese musical culture

A persistent feature in Jesuit reports about the late Ming and early Qing was the notion that an enduring peace and concord pervaded the Chinese political system. Although the Jesuits did not invent this association, which was rooted in Greco-Roman historiography, the Jesuit encyclopaedist Antonio Possevino (1533–1611) was the first to link the 'perpetual peace' (perpetua pax) and 'supreme concord' (summa concordia) of the Chinese state to the Confucian intellectual tradition. As the Jesuits' missionary strategy developed under the tutelage of Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), 'public peace' (pax publica) and 'the calm of the Republic' (Republica quies) came to be perceived as the ultimate purpose of the Confucian precepts and one of the hinges on which the aims of Christianity, Confucianism and natural law can be reconciled. The supreme expression of the link between Confucianism and peace can be found in the Confucius Sinarum philosophus (1687), which presented for the first time an accessible translation of three of the four Confucian classics. Yet while retaining the view that pre-Qin Confucianism espoused peace as a central political aim, the Confucius Sinarum philosophus challenged the view that contemporary China could be regarded as a utopic actualization of Confucian peace. This paper will discuss this shift as an attempt to coopt the Chinese political experience as an argument against the pragmatic political philosophy known as 'reason of state', which was perceived by Jesuit thinkers as atheistic and immoral.

AbstractThe mainstream studies of the East Asian tributary system have been exhibiting a stance that tends to stress the importance of Confucianism in forming and sustaining the tributary system throughout its long history. However, there are still several questions (especially those of a theoretical nature) that historians have yet to answer: How could Confucianism have contributed to the formation and sustenance of this tributary system? Why could this Confucian-based tributary system be recognized and employed in relations with non-Confucian frontier tribes? Why could this system have worked with both the nomadic tribes on the northern frontier and the South-East Asian countries that were neither Confucian nor nomadic? Drawing on the results of ritual studies in anthropology, Chinese historiography and Chinese philosophy, this author seeks a broader methodology that can be used to conceptualize the tributary ritual and its constitutive power structure, which forms the foundation of the central part of the East Asian world order. This paper is a theoretical attempt to find a non-Sinocentric way to interpret the formally Sinocentric tribute system in premodern East Asia.

While the twentieth-century Confucian thinker Mou Zongsan (1909–1995) has left behind one of the most thought-provoking and intensively studied bodies of philosophical writings in modern Chinese intellectual history, his own life and its relation to his philosophy (or "learning"), a theme at the centre of his Autobiography at Fifty from the mid-1950s, has so far remained largely unexamined. After some introductory remarks on the context and outlook of the Autobiography, my paper turns to the close relation between Mou's conception of life and his approach to the "cultural life" of China as a nation. In doing so, I examine the notion of a distinctly Chinese (more precisely, Confucian) "learning of life" in his writing and explore the motif of "life in itself" running through the ­Autobiography. I argue that this motif is crucial for gaining a better understanding of Mou's relation to his teacher Xiong Shili (1885–1968), his own father, the social conditions of his childhood in rural Shandong, as well as his overall approach to subjectivity as a space for articulating socio-political concerns.

AbstractInspired by the dichotomous understanding of nationhood contributed by Brubaker (1992), this paper explores how Chinese nationhood is constituted by particular symbols in middle school historiography since the 1950s. In response to the analysis on the high school textbooks done by Baranovitch (2000), this study finds that the narratives in the middle school history textbooks have a similar transition from equating China to Han to defining China as a multi‐ethnic nation. However, the analysis also demonstrates that the transition of the middle school history textbooks is not as complete and absolute as that of their high school counterparts. A textbook may follow different principles in nationhood configuration simultaneously. In the textbook narratives before the change, the jus sanguinis logic was dominant over the jus soli logic; in those in the textbooks after the change, Chinese nationhood was constituted by the jus soli principle and the jus sanguinis principle complementarily. This study questions the perception that a nation only consistently follows one philosophy in the symbolic consolidation of nationhood, and casts doubt on the understanding that jus sanguinis or jus soli logic is deeply rooted in the historical development of a nation and cannot change.

This volume presents colonial and postcolonial discourses, opinions, and experiences in the field of architectural heritage conservation and the use of site-specific practices based on representative case studies presented by art historians, architects, anthropologists, and conservationists from Germany, Nepal, India, China, and Japan. With more than 180 illustrations and a collection of terminologies in German, English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Nevari and Nepali, classical Chinese and standard Mandarin, and Japanese, these cross-cultural investigations document the processual re-configuration of the notion of authenticity. They also show that approaches to authenticity can be specified with key analytical categories from transcultural studies: appropriation, transformation, and, in some cases, refusal

"As general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and president of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping has delivered many speeches on a broad range of issues. He has offered his thoughts, views and judgments, and answered a series of important theoretical and practical questions about the Party and the country in these changing times. His speeches embody the philosophy of the new central leadership. To respond to rising international interest and to enhance the rest of the world's understanding of the Chinese government's philosophy and its domestic and foreign policies, the State Council Information Office, the Party Literature Research Office of the CPC Central Committee and the China International Publishing Group have worked together to produce this book. The book is a compilation of Xi Jinping's major works from November 15, 2012 to June 13, 2014. It includes, speeches, talks, interviews, instructions, and correspondence for a total of 70 pieces. It also contains 45 pictures of Xi Jinping at work and in daily life with focus on the period since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012"--Publisherʹs note