Confucius advocates that one can know the new by reviewing the old. This saying could be reversed as follows: In order to know the new one needs to review the old. According to this logic proper, we need to read and reflect on the old classics while making a relevant judgment of the reality so long as we want to attain an insight into the human condition and the human world as well.

This book is intended to reconsider the ethosof Chinese culture against the status quo ot China and the world today, and with aparticular reference to the human conditionin the context of globalization and itschallenges. It features an engaging and in-depth discussion about such notions asheaven-and-human oneness, harmonizationwithout being patternized, and happiness inphilosophies and religions, among others. Allthis is applied not merely to the development otcultural ideals, social norms, human relationsand even world outlooks, but also to theformation of thinking strategies, personalcultivation, aesthetic contemplation, andspiritual nourishment, etc.

Preface

Section One Cultural Ideals

A Rediscovery of Heaven-Human Oneness

The Three-fold Significance

  Tiandi and Its Naturalistic Aspects

  Tiandao and Its Moralistic Expectations

  Tianxia and Its Cosmopolitan Ideal

The Two-dimensional Orientation

  Ziran Renhua, or the Humanization of Nature

  Ren Ziranhua, or the Naturalization of Humanity

A Pragmatic Alternative

A Multicultural Strategy:

Harmonization Without Being Patternized

The Meeting of East and West as a Good-natured

Hypothesis

Harmony and Uniformity in Perspective

The Need of a New Philosophos Poiesis

Happiness from Philosophical Perspectives

Good Fortune and Misfortune

Happiness as Contentment

The Great and the Small

Perfect Happiness

Three Types of Joy

The Delighted Pursuit of Love

Paradise and Sudden Enlightenment

Rule by Virtue in Chinese Society Today

The Interaction Between the Two Paradigms

The Traditional Sense of Rule by Virtue

Rule by Virtue and Problems with Moral Education

Turn from Guest into Host

Transplanting an Orange Tree in Less Favorable Soil

Moral Education Hooked in the Air

A New Cultural Ideal and Pursuit

The Cultural Ideal and the Pagoda Allegory

The Transcultural Pursuit and the Transformed Overman

A Second Reflection and a Three-fold Process

Strategy

Section Two Thinking Strategies

The Philosophized Dao in Multi-dimensions

The Dao of the Universe

The Dao of Dialectics

The Dao of Human Life

The Dao of Heaven and Man

The Dao of Personal Cultivation

The Dao of Governance

The Dao of War

The Dao of Peace

The Poetic Wisdom on Human Existence

Frame of Reference: The Dao of Man, Heaven and the Sage

Pursuit of Sageliness: Practical and Sagely Wisdom

Path to Freedom: Attitudes Toward Life and Death

A Symbolic Way of Thinking Through Fables

The Peng and Happy Excursion to the Infinite

The Butterfly and Self-emancipation

Section Three Aesthetic Pursuits

Appreciating Nature in View of Practical

Aesthetics

Three Levels of Aesthetic Experience

Aesthetic Effects of Heaven-and-Human Oneness

Interactions Between Western and Chinese

Aesthetics

Fragmentary Elaboration of Western Aesthetics

Systematic Construction of Aesthetics as a Discipline

Theoretical Incorporation through East-West

Communication

Cross-disciplinary and Comprehensive Practice

of Art Education

Transcultural Pondering in View of Cultural Origins

Appendix

Key References

Index