What is Neo-Confucianism and what is its ideological significance?

Neo-Confucianism was born in the 1920s and developed in the 1930s. After 1950s, it went to the whole world and became an internationally renowned cultural school or trend of thought. 192 1 year, Liang Shuming gave lectures in Shandong and published "Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy", which raised the banner of Neo-Confucianism. 1923, Xiong Shili gave a lecture on neo-intellectualism in Peking University, systematically expounding the theoretical viewpoints of Neo-Confucianism. Ten years later, the new theory of consciousness was published, which comprehensively showed the face of neo-Confucianism in theory and marked the formation of neo-Confucianism. The development of modern neo-Confucianism can be divided into two stages: the first stage is from 1920 to 1940, and the main representatives are Liang Shuming, Xiong Shili, He Lin, Feng Youlan and others; The second stage began in 1950s, with Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan and Xu as the main representatives, while Qian Mu and Zhang Junmai spanned two different periods. The representatives of Neo-Confucianism in these two stages are generally called the first generation of Neo-Confucianism and the second agency theory. At present, the main representatives of Neo-Confucianism, such as Liu, Cai Renhou, Zheng Zhongying, etc., are all the third agent scientists.

The so-called Neo-Confucianism is actually absorbing the essence of philosophers and western culture. After self-renewal, it has become Confucianism that is vital and can adapt to the new spirit of the cultural environment of the new era. Neo-Confucianism is also called "the third development of Confucianism", which means that Neo-Confucianism is a kind of Confucianism that "returns to its roots and creates new ideas". The so-called "returning to the original" means returning to the origin, fundamental orthodoxy and moral ontology of traditional Confucianism. As for "innovation", it means innovating traditional Confucian culture, innovating science and democracy, and changing the "outside Wang Zhidao" of traditional Confucianism. Modern neo-Confucianism takes "returning to the original and opening up the new" as the program to make up for the weakness of traditional Confucianism. To establish a new monarch is to introduce western science and democracy under the guidance of Confucian traditional ethics. In a word, the so-called neo-Confucianism in modern neo-Confucianism is to restore the traditional Confucianism's "sage inside and morality outside" and "continue the origin of national cultural life" and create a "new king outside" with academic unity and political unity, so as to adapt the evolution of Confucianism to the spiritual needs of the new cultural environment in the contemporary world.

Today, Neo-Confucianism has not only become a well-known term in academic circles in Hongkong, Taiwan Province Province and the United States, but also become a "hot spot" in academic research in China. Modern neo-Confucianism is the self-renewal and self-transformation of traditional Confucianism, which is different from traditional Confucianism by its new spirit and new characteristics of the times to adapt to the new cultural environment. Therefore, scholars at home and abroad call it "neo-Confucianism".