Abstract

Although it focuses on a single individual, this dissertation is more than an intellectual biography. The dissertation's main purpose is in fact a study of the birth, formation, and development of contemporary Neo-Confucianism, with particular focus on its theoretical founder, Xiong Shili, and his moral metaphysics. To avoid the trap of determinism, the dissertation deals with both the general and the specific. In a general sense, it follows the main thread of the jiuwang mission, which has molded the crisis mentality of the Chinese intellectual since the Opium War, in order to view the contemporary Neo-Confucian movement from a broad, historical perspective. The dissertation also analyzes the details, including the cultural heritage of Xiong Shili's birthplace in Huangzhou, his family background, his education, his teachers and friends, and his careers as an iconoclastic revolutionary and a pro-Confucian professor. All of these elements are of significant importance in the study of Xiong Shili's thought. ;After providing a critical survey of the major abnegated jiuwang projects presented by mainstream Chinese intellectuals, the dissertation focuses it efforts on the analysis and criticism of a long-time ignored but significant jiuwang project presented by the out-of-the-mainstream intellectuals. That is, the contemporary Neo-Confucian project, which consists of two organic parts: the construction of a moral metaphysical system, and the promotion of that system. The dissertation also tries to determine how the contemporary Neo-Confucianists could be extremely successful at the first task and less successful at the second. ;Their lack of success partly resulted from the fact that their jiangxue was first interrupted by the Japanese invasion, 1937-1945, and then, after 1949, suffocated by the CCP dictatorship. Aside from external interference, the failure of their jiangxue could also be ascribed to their inabilities and their personal shortcomings. Hence, Xiong Shili is not herein treated as a Confucian sage who completely exemplified Confucian virtues. Instead, he is treated as what he is: a talented philosopher with many personal weaknesses