The Confucian Source of the Early Socialist Literary Imagination: On CAI Yuan-pei and New Year's Dream

  • ZHU Jun
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Online published: 2018-03-27

Abstract

From the late 19th century to early 20th century, Chinese intellectuals initiated the construction of a modern nation-state. CAI Yuan-pei and his utopian novel New Year's Dream were the important beginning of the dialogue between modern Confucianism and socialism. The national imagination of Confucian intellectuals has undergone a profound transformation, particularly in the combination of utopian socialism and Confucian utopia of "great harmony", and the communication between the concept of revolution in the West and that in the learning of gongyang. Through the deep dialogue between Chinese and Western ideas of utopia, Chinese intellectuals shaped a kind of oriental aesthetics of humanism, which showed the power of constructing human subjectivity and utopian ideals. It contained the unique contribution of Confucianism and Chinese intellectuals to socialism.

Cite this article

ZHU Jun . The Confucian Source of the Early Socialist Literary Imagination: On CAI Yuan-pei and New Year's Dream[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2018 , 50(2) : 129 -136 . DOI: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2018.02.016

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