On Confucian Public Sphere: A Study of the Modern Transformation of Chinese Society from the Perspective of Intellectual History

Title

On Confucian Public Sphere: A Study of the Modern Transformation of Chinese Society from the Perspective of Intellectual History

Author

Guan-Tao JIN and Qing-Feng LIU

Page

175-205

DOI

Abstract

This essay aims at investigating the origins of the modern Chinese concept of “public” (gong) by a quantitative study, in which the occurrence frequencies and meanings of terms like gongli (universal principles), guomin (nationals), shehui (society) in important modern Chinese texts (about 60 million words) were quantitatively analyzed. This essay also seeks to answer the following question: did a public sphere similar to the West exist in China? We found that a special kind of public sphere constituted by representatives of the family (gentries) instead of individuals did exist in China’s modern transition. We see it as a product of Confucian political culture in response to the impact of the West and call it Confucian public sphere. We believe that it was a particular type of public sphere different to the Habermasian model. A thorough study of it is of great importance to our understanding of the modernization of Asian societies.

Keyword

Comparative Study of Political Intellectual History, Public Sphere, Confucian Political Thought, Modernization Theory

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