Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Washington University, 1974. / Typescript (photocopy). Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1979. 21 cm. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 564-591).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 474-501). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Xianggang ke ji da xue, 2006. / Adviser: Hao Chang. Includes bibliographical references (p. 474-501)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 66).

Chang Chün-mai, known in the West as Carsun Chang, played a prominent role on the political stage of wartime China. As educator, philosopher, and politician, he vainly attempted to alter the course of China's political and cultural development. Although commonly referred to as a liberal-democrat, this study shows Chang to be more of a traditionally-minded conservative. Masked by the heavy use of a liberal-democratic vocabulary, Chang maintained a firm commitment to principles that owed much more to conservative Chinese tradition than to Western liberalism. The fact that Chang Chün-mai did rely so heavily on liberal-democratic arguments and came to be known by some as the Father of the Constitution tends to cloud his real intent. It is argued here that his efforts to bring a Western-style constitution to China can better be understood by recognizing two major points: first, Chang, as well as many others, used the constitutional issue in an attempt to force Chiang Kai-shek to share political power; and, secondly, the constitutional issue provided Chang with the conceptual and institutional vehicle for rebuilding the socio-political relationships between the various elements of Chinese society which had existed before the Republic. Within the latter goal, Chang also souqht to create a position of influence and prestige for the class of intellectuals of which he was a part. This study explores one dimension of Chinese conservatism. It shows Chang Chün-mai as a neo-traditionalist whose behaviour was guided and limited by his image of the Chinese cultural tradition--limitations which significantly contributed to his failure. Examining Chang's actions in wartime China sheds more light on the reasons for the failure of the so-called "third force" elements that stood between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. Chang held himself aloof from the great mass of his fellow countrymen, he championed a political position which failed to offer a clear alternative to the authoritarian government of Chiang Kai-shek, and his philosophical and conservative viewpoint prevented him from carrying his political opposition to a point which seriously challenged Chiang Kai-shek. Although this study does conclude that Chang's idealized image of the Confucian gentleman (chün-tzu) acted as a handicap in the political milieu of wartime China, it confines that conclusion to a given time and place, and under particular circumstances. It emphatically does not purport to discount the viability or appropriateness of traditional Chinese values in the modern world, or with some form of democratic system. Far from exhaustive, this study is, at best, partial. It is meant to explore a dimension of the Chinese effort to reconcile themselves and their culture with a changing environment. Source materials are limited and not without inconsistencies. A major drawback is that much of the Chinese-language material concerning Chang Chün-mai is lauditory in nature and biased in his favor. If time permitted, a more thorough study of the personal accounts of other actors involved would no doubt yield a more balanced picture. Further, the circumstances under which much of the wartime materials were written required a good deal of circumspection on the part of the writers, and therefore, requires a good deal of "reading between the lines" by the modern reader. I have tried to keep my conclusions reasonable without imparting my own ideas to a difficult translation. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Cette thèse de doctorat se propose d’étudier la formulation de discours à propos des «cultures/civilisations» occidentale et chinoise en Chine entre 1919 et 1931, en prenant les textes de Zhang Junmai comme point focal. La problématique centrale de ce travail est de mettre en lumière ce que j’ai appelé la «sinodicée» de Zhang Junmai, c’est-à-dire sa théorie justificatrice de la culture chinoise, théorie entendue à la fois dans son articulation conceptuelle et dans sa présentation discursive. Grâce à une étude détaillée des écrits de Zhang Junmai, ce travail offre une perspective nouvelle sur les trajectoires et les usages des expressions «culture chinoise» et «culture occidentale» dans le contexte de la Chine moderne. À travers une critique de précédents travaux peu sensibles aux problématiques soulevées par l’histoire sémantique et conceptuelle, est proposée une remise en question des principales grilles conceptuelles utilisées dans l’étude de l’histoire intellectuelle et politique de la Chine des années vingt. Face à la thèse de «la renonciation au politique» en vogue dans les travaux sur cette période, je montre au contraire que les débats autour de la notion de «culture» sous-tendent une refonte du répertoire conceptuel pour penser le monde et le politique. Chemin faisant, je montre que la sinodicée de Zhang Junmai n’est en rien un projet de type identitaire : la défense de la culture chinoise, et plus particulièrement du néoconfucianisme chez Zhang n’étant pas une valorisation d’un passé sacralisé, mais la revendication d’une indépendance chinoise et d’une capacité du peuple chinois à s’autodéterminer à travers la reconstruction du politique en Chine. / This doctoral dissertation investigates the formation of discourses concerning Western and Chinese “cultures/civilizations” in China from 1919 to 1931 through a study of Zhang Junmai’s texts. The key issue of this work is to cast light upon what I have called Zhang Junmai’s “sinodicy”, that is his defence theory of “Chinese culture”, considered from both its conceptual articulation and its discursive expression. Throughout a careful reading of Zhang Junmai’s discourses, this dissertation offers new perspectives unto the uses and trajectories of expressions such as “chinese culture” and “western culture” in Modern China. It raises questions concerning the frameworks used by previous studies that often belittled the issues of semantic and conceptual history. Against the advocacy of a “renunciation to politics” common in works concerning the intellectual and political history of China in the twenties, I show that the debates around the notion of “culture” implied the foundation of a new conceptual repertoire to think the world and Chinese polity. I also argue that Zhang Junmai’s sinodicy was not the affirmation of a culturalist discourse build on an identity issue. His defence of Chinese culture, and of Neoconfucianism, cannot be understood as a valorisation of a sacralised past, but should be regarded as the advocacy of a Chinese intellectual independence, and the promotion of Chinese people’s abilities to self-determination. The cultural issue goes along with the problem of rebuilding a political order in China.

The Debate on Science and the Philosophy of life, which took place on the pages of several important journals in China during the year 1923, is an important witness to the evolution of the Chinese way of thinking. At this period, the Chinese society critically reflected upon its traditional culture and on the influences from the western civilization. Therefore many significant Chinese scientists, philosophers and journalists took part in this debate. This text's aims are the following: to create a concise report about the debate, its context, process and the evolution of its perception in the later periods in China or elsewhere and also to present in more detail three the topics that are significant for the whole debate. These topics can be used to investigate the variety of views among the debate's participants. The three topics covered are: (1) the concept of metaphysics, (2) free will and causality with regards to morality, and (3) education. The investigation of these topics allows us also to critically reflect upon the usual perception of the debate as a whole. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)