This comparative study of music education in Germany, the United States, and China revealed significant cross-cultural variations in core values, teaching methodologies, learning environments, musical philosophies, and performance practices. A common thread across all three countries was the recognition of music's importance in education, though its role and implementation differed markedly. German music education emphasized holistic development (Bildung), with a strong focus on music theory, formal analysis, and historical performance practices. The teacher-student relationship was collaborative, and assessment was holistic. In (...) contrast, the United States exhibited a diverse landscape of music education, prioritizing individual expression, creativity, and a variety of teaching methodologies. Assessment methods were pluralistic, reflecting the country's emphasis on individual growth. Chinese music education was deeply rooted in Confucian philosophy, emphasizing moral cultivation, social harmony, and technical proficiency. Rote learning and imitation were prevalent teaching methods, with a strong emphasis on traditional repertoire and performance. The teacher-student relationship was hierarchical, and assessment focused on standardized examinations. While all three countries utilized music technology to varying degrees, Germany demonstrated a balanced integration, the United States embraced it widely, and China adopted it primarily for supplementary learning. Notably, the role of performance differed significantly, with Germany emphasizing its centrality to musicianship, the USA focusing on its expressive potential, and China viewing it as a validation of achievement. (shrink)

Executive functions are of vital importance in the process of active cognition, which is thought to be associated with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. As a valid brain stimulation technology, high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation has been used to optimize cognitive function in healthy adults. Substantial evidence indicates that short-term or single anodal tDCS sessions over the left DLPFC will enhance the performance of executive functions. However, the changes in performance and cortical activation of executive functions after modulation by repeated anodal (...) HD-tDCS is as yet unexplored. This study aims to examine changes in three core components of executive functions produced by nine HD-tDCS sessions, and to use functional near-infrared spectroscopy to bilaterally record DLPFC neural activity. A total of 43 participants were divided randomly into two study groups to complete nine interventions. Our results demonstrate that the enhancement of cognitive flexibility in the anodal group was significantly better than that in the sham group. Additionally, a Stroop effect-related decrease in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in the DLPFC was observed in the anodal group but not the sham group. In conclusion, our study found that repeated anodal HD-tDCS sessions can significantly promote cognitive flexibility, one of the core components of executive function, and that alterations in DLPFC activation can enhance our understanding of the neuroplastic modifications modulated by HD-tDCS. (shrink)

China was the first to produce tea and consumed the largest quantities and its craftsmanship was the finest. During the development of Chinese history, Chinese Tea culture came into being. In ancient China, drinking tea is not only a very common phenomenon but also an elegant taste for men of letters and officials. Chinese tea culture is extensive and profound and it is necessary for foreigners to understand Chinese tea culture for the purpose of smooth and deepen the communication with (...) the Chinese people. (shrink)

With a profound cultural crystalization, China was one of the first countries to brew wine in the world. As a Cultural carrier, wine ever performed the functions of religion, literature, art, and entertainment. To have a deep understanding of Chinese extensive and profound culture, it is necessary to pore over Chinese ancient wine’s various functions.

本書從現代新儒家與杜威的共同關切中，提煉出「生命三境」即生存之境、生活之境、生命之境作為考察的綱要，深入探究民族生命的生存進化、民族國家的政治生活、生活睿智、生命教養、生命理想等關鍵問題。本書在研究現 代新儒學與杜威實用主義的互動關系中，提出「實用主義的儒化」命題。作者的問題意識高度自覺，條理清晰，邏輯性強，提出了很多有啟發、有價值的見解，具有重要的學術意義。 顧紅亮，男，1971年10月出生，浙江蕭山人。華東師范大學哲學系教授、博士生導師。1990年7月-1994年7月，就讀於杭州大學哲學系，獲哲學學士學位。1994年7月-1999年7月，就讀於華東師范大 學哲學系，獲哲學博士學位。1999年7月，任職於華東師范大學哲學系。曾在以色列巴伊蘭大學（2003-2004)、美國伊利諾伊大學（2007-2008)和哈佛大學（2010-2011）訪問研究。主要從事 中國哲學史尤其是中國近現代哲學和中西比較哲學文化研究。.

Reading Bertrand Russell’s Principles of Social Reconstruction, Liang Shuming began a process of interpreting Russell’s philosophy in a Confucian way. The first stage in this process was seeing Russell as a fellow Confucian. Its second stage was absorbing Russell’s theory of impulse, seeing this as sharing aspects of the Confucian doctrine of benevolence (ren). The third stage was reconstructing Russell’s theory of spirit as a Confucian theory of “reason” as impersonal feeling. Under Liang Shuming’s critical assimilation of Russell’s philosophy, Russell’s (...) theories of impulse and spirit came to constitute an intrinsic component of modern New Confucianism and was incorporated into the discourse of modern Chinese philosophy. To a certain extent, this shifts our view of Russell as merely a passing figure in the history of modern Chinese philosophy. (shrink)

This paper deals with good fuzzy preorders on fuzzy power structures. It is shown that a fuzzy preorder R on an algebra ${(X,\mathbb{F})}$ is compatible if and only if it is Hoare good, if and only if it is Smyth good.

High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation is a valid brain stimulation technology to optimize cognitive function. Recent evidence indicates that single anodal tDCS session enhances attention; however, the variation in attention produced by repeated anodal HD-tDCS over a longer period of time has not been explored. We examined the modulation of attention function in healthy young participants who received repeated HD-tDCS sustained for 4 weeks. The results showed a robust benefit of anodal HD-tDCS on executive control and psychomotor efficiency, but not (...) on orienting, alerting, or selective attention ; the benefit increased successively over 4 weeks; and the enhancement on executive control of each week was significant compared to baseline in the anodal group. In addition, the subjects’ performances on the test of executive control and psychomotor efficiency gradually restored to the initial level in the sham group, which appeared obviously from week 3, but the improvement of attention in the anodal group was persistent. We conclude that repeated anodal HD-tDCS provides a positive benefit on executive control and psychomotor efficiency and has obvious accumulative effect after 9 or more times intervention compared to sham HD-tDCS. Additionally, our findings might provide pivotal guidance for the formulation of a strategy for the use of repeated anodal HD-tDCS to modulate on attention function. (shrink)

Due to the arrival of positive psychology in the development of teaching, the construct of engagement has been thrived and got a notable function in the educational arena. Alternatively, numerous individual differences, containing ambiguity of tolerance, have been taken into consideration as a result of the key role they can play in the process of learning, and thus, on different facets of the learners’ engagement. Furthermore, resilience is recommended to be an alternate and effective way of engaging English as a (...) foreign language learners. Also, it is a significant feature of the human adaptation system in which students can efficaciously manage and tackle stressful involvements despite their troubles and disasters. Given the eminence of both ambiguity tolerance and resilience in educational settings and the fact that little attention has been given to these constructs in foreign language learning, the present review makes an effort to scrutinize the impact of ambiguity of tolerance and resilience on EFL learners’ engagement. Succinctly, the fundamental roles of ambiguity tolerance and resilience in learners’ engagement were confirmed, and consistent with the conclusions drawn from the present review, some suggestions are set forth concerning the implications of this paper. (shrink)

The present research explored how foreign language listening anxiety affected Chinese university students' English listening test performance and how proficiency and gender mediated the effects of FLLA on the latter. Two different populations from two universities in China answered the 20-item Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale as well as a demographic questionnaire and took an English listening test. Analyses of the collected data revealed the following major findings: Five latent factors underlay the FLLAS, when working alone, FLLA significantly negatively predicted (...) students' English listening test performance, and when working with proficiency and gender, English proficiency level, gender and FLLAS2 significantly predicted students' English listening test performance. These findings confirm the negative effects of FLLA on students' English listening test performance. They also indicate that English proficiency and gender mediate FLLA's effects on the latter, with English proficiency not only directly but also indirectly affecting the latter. (shrink)

At present, a series of economic structural changes created by the network economy have brought challenges to the entire economy and society. Traditional social commerce has also suffered severe tests under the background of network economy and global integration, and the rise and development of network commercial activities lack legal constraints. Based on the Big Data technology, in view of the characteristics of data mining services, this paper expands and changes the traditional model and proposes the Big Data alliance data (...) mining service process model. Moreover, this paper uses intelligent decision-making theory and knowledge reasoning methods to construct a fast-responding, service-reusable, and intelligent service model to realize the scalability of data mining services. In addition, this paper constructs system function modules according to the requirements of Internet commercial judicial data mining and verifies the performance of the system constructed in this paper through experimental analysis. The research results show that the system constructed in this paper has certain practical effects. (shrink)

We provide new findings that add to the growing body of empirical evidence that important epistemic intuitions converge across cultures. Specifically, we selected three recent studies conducted in the US that reported surprising effects of knowledge attribution among English speakers. We translated the vignettes used in those studies into Mandarin Chinese and Korean and then ran the studies with participants in Mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea. We found that, strikingly, all three of the effects first obtained in the US (...) also emerged in the East Asian cultures we studied. Our findings not only cohere with but also provide—at least moderate—support for the existence of extensive convergences of important epistemic intuitions across cultures. (shrink)

Pogge’s 2006 framework of global justice can be adapted for individual agents or collective unilateral donations in the same way Singer’s framework has been. I do so by amending Pogge’s institutional principles for international human rights NGOs and by adding two further principles to address challenges that arise when his framework is applied. This adapted framework enjoins donors to make principled philanthropic decisions that prioritize existing and near-term suffering, while also rectifying their part in causing this suffering. It makes Pogge’s (...) negative duty account easier to implement than his previous proposal, and provides well-off individuals with an alternative to Effective Altruism. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of chief executive officer ability on firms’ corporate social responsibility performance. We find that firms’ CSR performance increases with CEO ability. Specifically, firms with more able CEOs are associated with more socially responsible activities and fewer socially irresponsible activities, and are associated with more stakeholder CSR rather than third-party CSR. We further find that the positive relation between CEO ability and CSR is weakened for CEO who is also the chair of the board and for (...) CEO who is close to retirement; and is weakened when the CSR emphasis exerted by a firm’s external environment is high. Our results are robust after controlling for firm fixed effects and to the use of multiple measures of CSR performance and CEO ability. Overall, our evidence is consistent with our conjecture that more able CEOs have less career concerns so that these CEOs are more willing to undertake long-term investments in socially beneficial activities, leading to better CSR performance. (shrink)

An athlete has faith in her unathletic partner to run a marathon, a teacher has faith in her currently poor-performing students to improve in the future, and your friend has faith in you to succeed in the difficult project that you have been pursuing, even, and especially, when your chance of failing is non-trivial. This paper develops and defends a relational view of interpersonal faith by considering four interesting phenomena: first, in virtue of placing faith in someone, we stand in (...) solidarity with that person; second, interpersonal faith is called for during moments of difficulty, but it can seem inappropriate during moments of ease; third, one’s faith in others can feel unwelcomed, and can be rejected; and fourth, when interpersonal faith is frustrated, disappointment, rather than resentment, is warranted. I propose that when the faithor (e.g., your friend) places faith in the faithee (e.g., you) to φ, the faithor does something close to inviting the faithee to (re)commit to φ-ing. This invitation-like move, once properly taken up by the faithee, puts both sides of the faith in a new kind of normative relationship that is in the same broad family as a promissory relationship, albeit with a different normative profile. (shrink)

Research on ethical leadership in organizations has been largely based on Western philosophical traditions and has tended to focus on Western corporate experiences. Insights gained from such studies may however not be universally applicable in other cultural contexts. This paper examines the normative grounds for an alternative Confucian virtue-based ethics of leadership in China. As with Western corporations, organizational practices in China are profoundly shaped by their own cultural history and philosophical outlook. The ethical norms guiding both the practice and (...) theory of leadership in China are underpinned by indigenous Chinese wisdoms imbued in their own traditions and China’s collective psyche. Focusing on three fundamental aspects of Confucian virtue ethics: _ren_ (仁 benevolence), _yi_ (义 righteousness) and _li_(礼 ritual propriety), this paper proposes that an ideal Confucian leader regards self-cultivation as a first priority; status and material gain, whilst important, are not the foremost concern. S/he exemplifies the virtuous role model, exudes moral charisma and influences others by shaping an organization’s ethical culture through the process of ritualization. The paper concludes by claiming that amplifying the explicit discourse around Confucian virtue ethics will help contribute to the development of better ethical leadership in China. (shrink)

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning has been carried out in many countries with different types of online learning models being promoted and implemented. In the global pandemic continues, the education environment is forced to change from traditional classroom or blended teaching mode to online learning teaching model. With the outbreak of COVID-19, China was the first to announce that online courses are to be implemented in February 2020. In China, whether online learning can replace traditional offline teaching (...) has become a topic worth discussing. Therefore, this study investigates university students in China by questionnaires and discussions of this topic. The study is based on the Push–Pull Mooring model. Based on 854 valid responses collected from an online survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model. The results show that push effects, pull effects, and mooring effects all significantly influence users' switching intentions from offline to online learning platform. Finally, this study explores whether push–pull–mooring can be a reference for promoting and implementing online learning courses in Chinese colleges and universities in the future after the pandemic. (shrink)

This study examines the relation between a firm’s business strategy and its corporate social responsibility performance. Using a comprehensive measure of business strategy based on the Miles and Snow theoretical framework, we find that firms following an innovation-oriented strategy are associated with better CSR performance than those following an efficiency-oriented strategy. Specifically, compared with defenders, prospectors engage in more socially responsible activities, fewer socially irresponsible activities, and perform better in both stakeholder- and third-party-related CSR areas. Taken together, our results suggest (...) that business strategy is an important determinant of CSR performance. Prospectors take advantage of CSR, as their innovation-oriented strategy allows them not only to benefit more from CSR, but also to have more tolerance for the uncertainty, risk, and long time-horizon associated with CSR engagement. (shrink)

Leader behavior significantly influences employees’ safety performance. This study aimed to examine the effect of abusive supervision on the safety behaviors of subordinates. By drawing on the strength model of self-control, we predicted that abusive supervision would negatively affect safety behaviors through emotional exhaustion, and trait self-control and attentional bias toward safety would moderate the relationship between abusive supervision, emotional exhaustion, and safety behaviors. Our hypothesized model was supported by results from a sample of 159 workers at a chemical product (...) manufacturing enterprise in China. Emotional exhaustion mediated the link between abusive supervision and safety behaviors. Moreover, trait self-control moderated the relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion, and attentional bias toward safety moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and safety compliance. This study elucidates the effects of abusive supervision on safety behaviors through the resource depletion process. Likewise, the importance of trait self-control and attentional bias toward safety in mitigating the potentially harmful effects of abusive supervision in workplace safety is highlighted. Minimizing abusive supervision, providing self-control training, and implementing safety-specific implicit cognition intervention can effectively improve employees’ safety behaviors. (shrink)

Multi-modal metaphor is a new perspective in metaphor research developed in modern times. Beyond the metaphor research of language, it combines text, image, sound, and other modes and provides new insights and perspectives for metaphor research. Food advertisements often combine sound, images, and other forms to promote the products and increase consumers’ desire to buy, and they often contain metaphors of multiple modes. However, under the perspective of cross-cultural research, when the same food brand is advertised in different countries, the (...) multi-modal metaphors are varied to appeal to different audiences. This article compares food advertisements in China and in the U.S. from the perspective of multi-modal metaphors, and analyzes the varied applications arising from different cultural influences. The research may act as a reference for advertising strategies on cross-cultural occasions. (shrink)

This comparative study of the ethics of care and the Confucian concept of jen argue against two assumptions made by Chenyang Li in his own study of these two traditions. Against him, I argue that a "feminine" morality is not adequate to address human equality, and that care-orientated theories like jen and care seem incompatible with the feminist commitment to oppose the subjection of women.

In China, many private entrepreneurs have obtained political offices in the government. In this study, we argue that Chinese private entrepreneurs who are formally connected with government institutions, compared to other Chinese private entrepreneurs, tend to contribute more to philanthropic causes not only for instrumental concerns but also out of altruistic values. We submit this argument to an empirical test through a secondary data analysis of a representative sample of Chinese entrepreneurs collected by a coalition of government and industry groups. (...) The results of this analysis show that politically connected entrepreneurs are more likely to make major philanthropic donations and, at the same time, hold a stronger sense of the responsibility for doing so. The most important contribution of this research is that it reveals the ethical basis of the philanthropic activities of Chinese private entrepreneurs, especially those with political connections, that has been unappreciated by extant literature. (shrink)

Multimodal discourse analysis offers a novel lens for the study of legal discourse. Within the closing arguments of a trial, prosecution and defense attorneys utilize various multimodal resources to present evidence, articulate opinions, and adopt stances to achieve their communicative goals. This research focuses on the closing arguments in the criminal trial concerning the death of George Floyd to analyze the multimodal representation of the closing arguments delivered by both prosecution and defense attorneys. It employs the analytical framework of the (...) attitude system and paralinguistic typology proposed by Martin and colleagues, and uses the UAM Corpus Tool and Praat to qualitatively annotate and quantify the linguistic and paralinguistic information. The findings reveal that these attorneys employ different multimodal resources, including language and paralanguage, to convey their attitudes towards the case’s participants. This leads to the construction of competing narratives, shedding light on how justice is seen to be done. (shrink)

RESUMEN Los casos de "ver-como", presentados por Wittgenstein en la Segunda Parte de Philosophical Investigations, muestran que el concepto de "ver" se encuentra cercano al de "interpretar" y resiste su separación. El presente artículo propone un argumento para aclarar la noción de "interpretación" presente en estos casos, a partir de su comparación con los usos presentes en el Tractatus y en la Primera Parte de Philosophical Investigations. Se sostiene que dicha noción cumple el rol de determinar el sentido de lo (...) visualmente experimentado. Además, "ver" e "interpretar" mantienen un tipo de relación interna y "ver-como" puede considerarse como una "representación elástica". ABSTRACT The "seeing-as" cases, presented by Wittgenstein in the Second Part of Philosophical Investigations, show that the concept of 'seeing' is close to that of 'interpretation' and resists its separation. This article proposes an argument to clarify the notion of 'interpretation' present in these cases, from its comparison with the uses present in the Tractatus and in the First Part of Philosophical Investigations. It is argued that this notion fulfills the role of determining the sense of the visually experienced. In addition, 'to see' and 'to interpret' maintain a type of internal relationship and 'seeing-as' can be considered an "elastic representation". (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education worldwide. The disease first hit China and numerous Chinese cities then started to conduct online courses. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effect of the Shanghai students’ emotional intelligence, learning motivation, and self-efficacy on their academic achievement when they participated in online English classes during the latter phase of the pandemic in China. Furthermore, the research also examines whether the students’ emotional intelligence can influence their academic achievement through the (...) mediation effect of their learning motivation and self-efficacy. Social Cognitive Theory and the social cognitive Expectancy-Value Model were employed to build the research framework, and the method of structural equation modeling was utilized to conduct the model verification. Ten universities in Shanghai, China were selected for sampling. In total, 450 students were surveyed of which 404 questionnaires were valid. The results show that the students’ emotional intelligence did not directly affect their academic achievement. Nevertheless, the students’ emotional intelligence had a positive effect on their learning motivation and self-efficacy. In addition, mediation analysis showed that the relation between emotional intelligence and academic achievement was sequentially mediated by learning motivation and self-efficacy. (shrink)

Recent advances in mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) systems, featuring non-prep dry electrodes and wireless telemetry, have urged the needs of mobile brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for applications in our daily life. Since the brain may behave differently while people are actively situated in ecologically-valid environments versus highly-controlled laboratory environments, it remains unclear how well the current laboratory-oriented BCI demonstrations can be translated into operational BCIs for users with naturalistic movements. Understanding inherent links between natural human behaviors and brain activities is the key (...) to ensuring the applicability and stability of mobile BCIs. This study aims to assess the quality of steady-state visual-evoked potentials (SSVEPs), which is one of promising channels for functioning BCI systems, recorded using a mobile EEG system under challenging recording conditions, e.g., walking. To systemati-cally explore the effects of walking locomotion on the SSVEPs, this study instructed subjects to stand or walk on a treadmill running at speeds of 1, 2, and 3 mile (s) per hour (MPH) while con-currently perceiving visual flickers (11 and 12 Hz). Empirical results of this study showed that the SSVEP amplitude tended to deteriorate when subjects switched from standing to walking. Such SSVEP suppression could be attributed to the walking locomotion, leading to distinctly deteriorated SSVEP detectability from standing (84.87±13.55%) to walking (1 MPH: 83.03±13.24%, 2 MPH: 79.47±13.53%, and 3 MPH: 75.26±17.89%). These findings not only demonstrated the applicability and limitations of SSVEPs recorded from freely behaving humans in realistic environments, but also provide useful methods and techniques for boosting the translation of the BCI technology from laboratory demonstrations to practical applications. (shrink)

Corporate citizenship represents various organizational activities and status related to the organization's societal and stakeholder obligations. This study develops five different dimensions of corporate citizenship and examines the relationship between the five dimensions and purchase intention by including two key mediators. In the proposed model of this study, purchase intention is indirectly affected by economic, legal, ethical, general philanthropic, and strategic philanthropic citizenship via the mediation of corporate identification and brand trust. Empirical testing using a survey of 353 consumers from (...) various industries confirms most of our hypothesized effects. Last, managerial implications for corporate leaders and limitations of our findings are discussed in depth. (shrink)

Due to the important role that students' grit plays in the effectiveness of their success in the educational system in which they are engaged, the current study scrutinized whether some factors regarding teachers such as their stroke and rapport can affect the learners' grit in one hand and on the other hand whether these factors can predict the learners' grit or not. To this end, a group of 316 Chinese university English as a Foreign Language learners from more than 30 (...) cities from nine provinces of China were asked to fill out the three scales, namely, teacher stroke, student rapport, and students' grit questionnaires. The foremost findings of the study, gained through running regression, indicate that there are positive relations between these variables as they affect learners' grit and also both variables were the predictors of grit, while teacher stroke was a better predictor, uniquely clarifying 45.5% of the grit's variance and teacher-student rapport similarly showed to be a predictor of grit, distinctively clarifying 4.6% of its variance. Accordingly, based on these findings, it can be concluded that both of these factors, as instances of positive teacher interpersonal behaviors, develop learners' grit in language learning. In addition, this study can provide further implications and recommendations for language teaching team members in academic circumstances. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Toleration and Justice in the Laozi:Engaging with Tao Jiang's Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early ChinaAi Yuan (bio)IntroductionThis review article engages with Tao Jiang's ground-breaking monograph on the Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China with particular focus on the articulation of toleration and justice in the Laozi (otherwise called the Daodejing).1 Jiang discusses a naturalistic turn and the re-alignment of values in the Laozi, resulting in a (...) naturalization of justice (impartiality) by rejecting artificial humaneness and rigid hierarchical moral-political structures. In this Laozian just world, there is no room for human intervention and rigid top-down enforcement of values, thus leaving justice to naturalized Heaven or Dao as the ultimate source of the cosmos.Based on Jiang's interpretative context, I show that there is a twofold justification for the "paradoxical" and "elusive"2 value of political toleration.3 A negative expression of toleration focuses on non-interference with choices, and non-enforcement of values toward those whom one reasonably disagrees with and regards as morally wrong. Such an attitude of toleration results in practical advantages such as avoiding entrenchment in bloodshed, abandonment, and deprivation.A positive expression of toleration operating in the Laozian ideal world requires equal protection of people as capable knowers, including those to whom we object. Such protection includes their ways of expression and an unbiased recognition of them as equally capable knowers so that they are heard without bias and prejudice. Such a kind of toleration is revealed as a constituent component of justice since it enables equal contribution toward the shaping of society without discrimination. In other words, toleration is seen as naturalized justice in a Laozian world within which no one is "being wronged with the capacity as a knower"—a kind of epistemic justice articulated by Miranda Fricker (Fricker 2007).4 [End Page 466]This article discusses how Jiang's political reconstruction of Laozian philosophy contains the seeds for a discussion of toleration, a value associated with distributive justice and against epistemic injustice. First, it introduces Jiang's arguments on a naturalization of justice and impartiality as Heavenly attributes in the Laozi. Second, it articulates the value of tolerance in the Laozi. Finally, I compare Laozian toleration with Confucian toleration using youwei- wuwei metaethical criticism.Moral-Political Philosophy in the LaoziJiang's interpretative framework about the origins of distributive justice in the Laozi starts with a discussion of the cosmogonic-mystical worldviews that signal "a new understanding of the nature of the cosmos, as well as a broad reorientation in the Heaven-human relationship in the mid-Warring States period" (p. 192). Differing from the interests in the origins of human culture or civilization in the Ru and Mo traditions, Jiang agrees with Franklin Perkins and identifies a "cosmogonic turn" in the late fourth century b.c. that reveals a demotion of anthropomorphic Heaven. By paring Heaven with earth and accordingly decentering human beings in the intellectual discourse, the Laozi directs equal values to the ten thousand things, with humans as just one among them (Perkins 2016, quoted in Jiang 2021, p. 196).5 Laozi's philosophy thus stands out by rejecting Heaven as caring for human affairs while taking Dao as the ultimate origin of the cosmos, as claimed in chapter 5 of the received text: "Heaven and earth are not humane; they treat ten-thousand things in the world as straw dogs; the sage is not humane; he treats people as straw dogs" (p. 199).With Jiang's reading of a naturalistic heaven, we see a re-alignment between cosmos and the human since sage-rulers follow the Heaven-Dao. The Laozian Dao is "self-so-ing" (ziran 自然), "accommodating" (rong 容), and "impartial" (gong 公), and thus marks a sharp contrast to Confucian familial bias resulting in "actively intervening in human affairs on behalf of the (certain) humans by appointing them to carry out its mission" (p. 200). With the sage emulating the ultimate Dao, the Laozi replaces the Confucian anthropocentric Heaven, which focuses on partiality (qin 親) and humaneness (ren 仁).This Laozian understanding of the cosmos also grounds its philosophical departure from Mohism despite both having a political... (shrink)

Confucian traditions have ingrained gender stratifications in Chinese culture today. Yuan proposes re-reading early Confucian texts as a vision of Ren with Dao with the unity of heaven, earth, and humanity, in order to reclaim the egalitarian aspects and develop openness for gender equity with integration of feminist critical care ethics.

According to the author, the subordination of Chinese women continued under different models of sex equality in China in the twentieth century. In Reconceiving Women's Equality in China Lijun Yuan discusses and assesses four models of women’s equality. After exposing the common feature of their failure to reach the social ideal of women’s equality, the author proposes a more democratic conception of women’s equality that will allow ideals to continue changing as material circumstances change in different stages of social (...) development. (shrink)