This essay is included in Volume 33 of The Collected Works of Eric Vogelin (Edited by Ellis Sandoz The Drama of Humanity and Other Miscellaneous Papers,1939 - 1985,1990, pp. 384 - 394). According to the editor's note, the essay presents a transcript of a speech delivered by Voegelin at a seminar held in Tutzing, Germany, in 1981. Voegelin begins by reflecting on contemporary realities to investigate the meditative origin of the philosophical knowledge of order. After identifying and addressing the disordered phenomena in contemporary society, Voegelin sought to return and revive the Platonic-Aristotelian meditative tradition of ancient Greece. However, unlike Leo Strauss who strictly separated revelation from reason, Voegelin maintained that reason contains elements of revelation and vice versa. The divine-human tension within this framework manifests as a movement of moving and being moved. Different types of questing of truth fundamentally condition subsequent cultural patterns, from which Voegelin extracted the key and common concepts as materials for reflection and critique. Ultimately, this essay represents a crucial point in the development of Voegelin's later thought. Concepts such as "It-reality", "complex" and "reflective distance" introduced here directly enriched the theoretical framework of Volume 5 of Order and History, titled In Search of Order.

The Republic's paradoxical definition of justice — minding one's own business — comes mainly from Socrates' examination of the arts. The definition applies well to artisans who specialize in single trades, but poorly to warriors who meddle in everyone's affairs. Are the warriors then unjust? Rather than conclude that they are, the paper maintains that justice is conditioned by class and that the justice practiced by warriors (self-sacrificing and homogenizing) differs from the justice practiced by workers (self-serving and differentiating). But because the formal definition never changes, despite the awkwardness of fit, the paper further suggests that something is askew with justice, with its demand for right order, and that the transcendence of justice is a goal which the dialogue secretly endorses. The paper thus supports those scholars who contend that the Republic falls short in its efforts to prove the goodness of justice or who see in the Republic a warning against the perfection of justice.

Zhuangzi shall not be simplified as "Escape Politics" toward "Cancel Politics". It shall criticize the political "Patterns of Counterforce" of Confucian engagement in power and struggle, diverting to the "Co-becoming Patterns" of "Transformative Politics". Compare to the Confucian " Moral Politics" can be called "Co-becoming Politics". Confucian "Moral Politics" is confined to the struggling patterns of political opposition of "False Dichotomy", even consistently intensifying the drama of "Good and Evil." The "Internally Introspected" cultivation of the fasting of the mind are more likely to divert the extremes of "Dualism" to the "Two-Way" state that "a ‘this' is not a 'that,' and every 'that' is also a this" so as to break the boundary of opponent and life and death of "Position Politics" to generate "Co-becoming politics "Who knows how white attracts, Yet always keeps himself within black's shade" and "We should attempt to that our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others". This co-becoming neither cancels the intensity of difference nor approach the pure harmony of identicalness; however, it would make the opposite stances locate the remaining space to coemerge within the two-exist and facilitate the third possible proposal within the two-way exchange in attempt to produce the timing for transformation beyond political struggles. Therefore, we might be able totemporarily call it as the art proposals of "Co-becoming politics" or "Transformative Politics" the Zhuangzi brings up, far from Confucian "Moral Politics." becoming Politics.

Max Weber occupies a central position in Eric Voegelin's scholarship. Weber is not only a representative of the positivist science that Voegelin sought to critique but also a pioneer, companion, and partner in overcoming the crisis of that very science. Through his engagement with Weber, Voegelin developed a profound reflection on European positivist approaches in the humanities and social sciences, focusing on issues such as the loss of meaning in scientific inquiry, the disappearance of transcendence, and the immanence of reality. In Voegelin's view, Weber is both a diagnostician of the crisis of European modernity and a forerunner in the quest for a new order. Voegelin introduces the concepts of "transcendental representation" and "soteriological truth" into the science of order, thereby restoring its source of meaning. This represents both a continuation and a completion of the Weberian conception of science. Clarifying Voegelin's study of Weber helps scholars grasp the intellectual intention in Voegelin'sscience of order, rethink the prevailing "value-free" stance in the humanities, and respond to the modern condition of meaninglessness and the relativization of truth. It also provides an insightful understanding of the complexity of modern human existence.

"Freedom" has always been a subject of concern in Western civilization. Since Isaiah Berlin proposed two concepts of freedom, Western society has increasingly emphasized the preservation of pluralistic values through Liberalism. However, Conservatism argues that excessive emphasis on freedom may elevate it above other values. Therefore, Conservatism emphasizes the effectiveness of values determined by historical tradition. In contrast to Western political philosophy, the Zhuangzi contemplates the issue of pluralistic values from the perspective of the relationship between Heaven and humanity. the Zhuangxi believes that the way of heaven is in constant flux, and humanity lacks fixedness. Consequently, society cannot be managed by rigid systems; instead, institutions must be continually evaluated to ensure they align with human needs. This paper will provide a mode of thinking transcends the liberal and conservative paradigms within pluralism, thereby avoiding conflicts at both ends of the spectrum and paving the way for a third path within the framework of pluralism.

The Confucian-Buddhist relationship is an important topic in the study of Neo-Confucianism, with its core focus being the influence of Buddhism on the construction of Neo-Confucianism. There are two mainstream perspectives on this issue: one views Neo-Confucianism as "Confucianism in form, Buddhism in substance" (阳儒阴释), while the other sees Neo-Confucianism as a product of Confucian-Buddhist fusion. The former fails to distinguish Neo-Confucianism from the real "Confucianism in form, Buddhism in substance" style Confucianism, while the latter treats the value judgments of certain historical scholars as historical facts. In analytical terms, the influence of Buddhism on Neo-Confucianism can be understood on two levels: on the formal level, the systematic and speculative nature of Neo-Confucianism, compared to early Confucianism, was formed through dialogue and competition with Buddhism; on the content level, Neo-Confucian scholars, in their engagement with Buddhist and Daoist ideas, expanded the scope of early Confucianism's issues, while also recognizing the fundamental differences between Confucianism and Buddhism. As a result, they rigorously distinguished between the two, using early Confucian thought to respond to and critique Buddhism. For Neo-Confucian scholars, the Confucian-Buddhist distinction was not only an expression of their Confucian values but also a method of pursuing truth. The historical experience of Neo-Confucianism's construction suggests that, in order to further develop Confucian thought, one must systematically study Western culture while also maintaining an awareness of the differences between Eastern and Western thought.

The "void-quietness" held by Lv Dalin when he first saw the Cheng brothers not only has psychological significance for calming thoughts, but is a kind of self-cultivation in the unactivated state which aiming at maintaining his "original mind". It is consistent with Zhang Zai's "calming the nature" and "emptying the mind". And they are all considered to be the spiritual teachings of the Holy tradition. "Emptying the mind" requires all thoughts and attachments are removed by which my mind returns to its original state which is connected with the "great void" and "spirit" is maintained in my mind, so that I can deal with things in the way of "benevolence and justice". The cosmological foundation of this self-cultivation is the "qi" which takes "void" as its original state, "spirit" as its nature and "benevolence and justice" as its function. As a kind of self-cultivation, "Changing the temperament" includes "observing etiquette" "learning" and "self-control" and comes down to "collecting justice" which makes the "spirit" its ultimate goal. Although they takes the opposite path, "Changing the temperament" shares the same cosmological foundation with "emptying the mind". Hence, they complement each other and together make up Zhang Zai's self-cultivation theory.

There are multiple ways to explore the path of a thought, and inquiring into its theoretical identity or ideal subject is indeed a convenient method. Wang Yangming's early academic journey underwent several transformations, and it was not until his enlightenment at Longchang that his thinking took a turning point. From the literature related to his enlightenment at Longchang, it is evident that "gentleman" (junzi) is the most central term, with almost all the documented records from the same year of his enlightenment (1508) revolving around this main theme. Wang Yangming elaborated on the structure of the "Way of Heaven-Earth-Human" (sancai zhidao) upon which the gentleman" relies, pointing out that the intermediate dimension of "the relationship between heaven and man" is the true field of human existence, and the "virtue of the gentleman" is precisely focused on this. This was also the fundamental reason why Yangming was able to overcome the life-and-death predicament at Longchang. Although the dimension of "heaven" is emphasized, it does not require people to seek meaning in distant and mysterious places away from daily life. The way of heaven is not far from human emotions; the trinity of heaven, earth, and humans constitutes the connotation of "ritual" (li), which affirms the everyday order in Confucianism. Observing the relationship between the above and the below also forms the most core meaning of gentleman." The elucidations surrounding "gentleman" demonstrate Yangming's return to Confucianism and overall establish the structure of his thought.

This paper conducts a specialized examination of the issue of "surplus" in Yi Yu. Previous interpretations of "surplus" (yu) have often been associated with the problem of "substance and function" (Ti-yong). However, by analyzing three apparent oppositional pairs in the text - universality and particularity, center and periphery, necessity and contingency - this study argues that Fang Yizhi does not treat "surplus"as an ontological origin or a foundational concept. Such an interpretation would lead "surplus" to negate itself, resulting in a void and generating problems such as the exclusion of particularity by universality, the oppression of the periphery by the center, and the usurpation of contingency by necessity. This paper aims to demonstrate that through his speculative engagement with "surplus," Fang Yizhi fundamentally exposes the limitations of the Ti-yong framework. "Surplus" is not a concept that positively denotes a specific entity; rather, it fundamentally reveals the inadequacy of conceptual speculation itself.

 This essay is included in Volume 12 of The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin (Edited by Ellis Sandoz, Published Essays,1966-1985,1990,pp.265-291). As the title suggests, in this article, Voegelin attempts to examine the classical studies,pointing out that classical scholarship not only occupies a precarious position within the 20th-century western academic institutions, but also—due to the prevailing “climate of opinion”over the past two centuries—has almost no longer a discipline concerned with human nature. Now it is hiding under the historical cover to seek cracks, support and a way out. It is worth noting that Voegelin lists a large number of significant differences between the classical and modern times in the article, providing a criterion and a signpost for the classical studies to return to the intellectual thought in the sense of ancient Greece.

In the cosmological order, the emperor is the primary agent shouldering the world. Governance derives from a single origin, and political governance and education are not dissociated. In the process of transforming from the cosmological order to the mind-nature order, Chinese civilization subtly shifted the primary agent shouldering the world to the sage Confucius. Governance then stems from two sources,and political governance and education began to separate. Confucius integrated the rule of emperors and kings with the sage's rule. The historical deeds of the Five Emperors and Three Kings were reshaped through the Six Classics compiled by Confucius, and the doctrinal norms of these classics also shaped the political and educational civilization of subsequent generations. Therefore, the sacred tradition concluded with Confucius after passing through the Five Emperors and Three Kings, while the governance tradition inherited Confucius'teachings and unfolded from him. The historical practice of the Six Classics gave shape to the history of Confucian classics. In this process, the Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty were the most complex due to the changes during the Zhou-Qin and Qin-Han periods. It not only bears the traces of spiritual breakthrough as a result ofConfucius'founding efforts but also "returns" to the cosmological order out of reverence for the holistic order. Thus, it forms a sense of civilization order that seems incomplete yet is thorough from top to bottom(“in-between”)— that is, embedding respect for hierarchy in kinship,integrating public interests into private concerns, and incorporating classics into history. It can also be called an “artistic civilization”that is“extremely sublime yet adheres to the mean”,and its paradigmatic cases lie in the theses such as“Whether the Son of Heaven is a Rank”and“Whether the Sage Has a Father”.

Zheng Xuan's“Six Heavens Theory”is grounded in the Huntian(Celestial Sphere) cosmology, where formless primordial qi(元气)envelops the tangible earth and interacts with it to generate life. Both the earth and all things are differentiated manifestations of the Supreme Heaven(昊天), unified within the holistic Dao of Heaven. In this framework, the“Five Celestial Emperors”(五天帝)(Heaven manifested on earth)emerge as localized expressions of the Supreme Heaven(Heaven in the cosmos),products of the dynamic interplay between heaven and earth. They manifest“temporally”within specific spatiotemporal domains and“contextually”through diverse human perspectives. Kong Yingda's classical interpretation—"Heaven as substance(体),Emperor as virtue(德)”— elucidates the relationship between the singular Heaven and the Five Emperors as one of substance and function. The Five Emperors are distinguished by their particularity and functional efficacy, contrasting with the Supreme Heaven's formless, quiescent nature. While the Supreme Heaven does not directly generate or govern, the Five Emperors— imbued with personhood,will, and sovereignty— act as direct creators and administrators of all beings. Zheng Xuan's system further distinguishes four dimensions of Heaven:ontological Heaven(本体之天),primordial-qi Heaven(元气之天), celestial-phenomena Heaven(星象之天),and virtuous-function Heaven(德用之天). These dimensions, though distinct,form an integrated whole, reflecting the Dao of Heaven through the interplay of substancefunction(体用)and manifestation-concealment(显隐). The metaphysical-physical dimensions of Heaven can be divided into ontological Heaven and primordial-qi Heaven,which share a substance-function relationship. Between ontological Heaven(Taiyi) and virtuous-function Heaven(the Five Emperors), there exists both a substance-function and a manifestation-concealment relationship. Similarly, primordial-qi Heaven and celestial-phenomena Heaven(symbolized by the North Star) also exhibit a substance-function relationship,while ontological Heaven(Taiyi)and celestial-phenomena Heaven(North Star) are linked through manifestation-concealment. Additionally, primordial-qi Heaven and virtuous-function Heaven(the qi of the Five Phases)share a substancefunction relationship. Further distinctions reveal that within celestial-phenomena Heaven, the North Star(symbolizing the Supreme Heaven)and the Five Emperor Star Thrones(symbolizing the Five Emperors) are bound by a hierarchical relationship(统属). Likewise, within virtuous-function Heaven, the Five Emperors and the Five Phases'qi(五行之气)they govern also exhibit a hierarchical relationship. Moreover,the Five Emperors and their symbolic Five Emperor Star Thrones share a manifestation-concealment dynamic. Together, these six symbols —— Taiyi(太一), primordial qi,North Star, Five Emperor Star Thrones, Five Emperors, and Five Phases’qi—interact through ten relational pairs, forming the substance-function and manifestation-concealment structure central to Zheng Xuan's Six Heavens Theory.

Tianzeang(Heavenly King),Wang(King),and Tianzi(Son of Heaven) are common designations used to refer to the Son of Heaven of the Zhou dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Each title has its own significance in terms of the writing style of this historical text. He Xiu(129- 182),drawing upon the Commentary of Gongyang, provided distinctive ideological and theoretical elaborations on Wang(King). He elaborated on “the rites of the contemporary king”and put forward the idea of “rectifying the king by taking Heaven as the standard," which greatly compensated for the deficiency of the Commentary of Gongyang in being somewhat lacking in its focus on“governance and rectification," and strengthened the universality and practicality of this ritual system. He defined the hierarchical relationship between Heaven and manas“Heaven— Son of Heaven— all under Heaven,"within the framework of “the Son of Heaven as a singular title.”He placed the Son of Heaven at the pinnacle of the hierarchical order, endowing this title with political authority on a realistic level, while also imposing “heavenly” limitations on its power. He interpretedthe idea of “regarding Lu as King,”“taking Duke Yin of Lu as the King whoinitially received the mandate.”He envisioned an ideal “new King” with extensive moral virtuosity, to transform the unsatisfactory“old King”in reality, thus reconciling the mandate of Heaven with the political orthodoxy of theHan dynasty. Moreover, through his theory of historical evolution known as the“Three Generations, he formulated laws for subsequent generations.

Heidegger clearly defined his concept of time as “four-dimensional time”,and Marx's concept of time can also be understood from four dimensions, that is, history,reality and future,as well as the unity between the dimensions achieved through social mainly understands history, present and future from the perspective of the individual's practice. From the comparison of the four dimensions, it can be seen that Heidegger authentical“experience”,while Marx understands history, reality(present)and future from the perspective of concrete social production practice. On the whole, Heidegger interprets from the perspective of“alienation”,and Marx not only criticizes from the perspective of“alienation”, but more importantly, he also goes deep into the analysis of the specific contradictions of society, and reveals the specific path to achieve the emancipation of man.

New China is a unified modern state established as a multi-ethnic nation. It inherited the political framework of multi-ethnic unity from the Chinese tradition,employed class-based narratives to resolve the theoretical and practical dilemmas arising from the introduction of the modern Western concept of the nation-state, and embedded the issue of ethnicity within the broader question of China's construction and development. In the process of constructing the modern nation-state system, Chinese Marxism developed a framework that not only unifies the multi-ethnic composition within China's territory but also integrates class and religious narratives with ethnic narratives, thereby preventing other ideological discourses from becoming alternative narratives that could threaten the stability of the regime. Following the reform andopening-up, China once again confronted the rapidly evolving international political landscape, where ideological differences and geopolitical tensions compelled the nation to seek a new narrative of historical periodization. The emergence of the Marxist narratives of the “Chinese national community” and the “community of shared future for mankind”has achieved the unification of Marxism in both national and state narratives, providing an epochal framework that serves as a reference for the global dissemination of modern Chinese ideology,particularly through the program of the “community of shared future for mankind”.

The dissemination of Western philosophy in China since modern times has been inseparable from its engagement with indigenous Chinese thought. In the process of Sino-Western interaction, Zhu Xi's philosophy served as a local resource for understanding and integrating Western ideas. Wang Guowei engaged with rationality through Zhu Xi's concept of“Li”,emphasizing its subjectivity and attempting to restore the original meaning of “Li”within the discourse system of Chinese philosophy,excluding its ontological significance and ethical value. He Lin connected Zhu Xi's concept of“Tai Chi”(Li)with the absolute idea, advancing research on Zhu Xi's philosophy and the dissemination of Hegelian philosophy in China through Sino-Western interpretation, and paving the way for the core concept of a idealist system— the logically meaningful mind. Feng Youlan engaged with form and universals through Zhu Xi's concept of“Li”,using this “old bottle” of“Li"to hold the“new wine”of NeoRealism's universals, thereby constructing his philosophical system of“NeoConfucianism”. All three scholars used Zhu Xi's concept of “Li"as a local resource to engage with different aspects of Western philosophy, which not only promoted and expanded modern research on Zhu Xi's philosophy but also facilitated the widespread dissemination and acceptance of Western philosophy in modern Chinese intellectual circles through comparative studies with Zhu Xi's philosophy, thus advancing the transformation of Chinese philosophy from traditional to modern to some extent.

As Voegelin's concept of “the Era of the World”has been paid more and more attention in contemporary China, the theme of civilization theory based on the comparison of Chinese and Western philosophy has once again entered the view of Chinese academic circles after the strong impact of Western culture on modern China.Professor Chen Yun's book The Historical Philosophy of Civilization Theory was created under this background. By wedging pluralism into the concept of civilization theory,Chen Yun's book reformed the narrative mode of history philosophy of civilization theory of Western monism,and laid the foundation for Chinese traditional culture to base itself on the world philosophical stage in the form of civilization theory. In order to highlight the advantages of Chinese traditional philosophy of history compared with Western philosophy of history from the perspective of pluralistic civilization theory, the paper comprehensively combs the theoretical defects of Western single linear view of history and the distinctive characteristics of Chinese traditional view of history. Chen 331 determined that the traditional Chinese“The World(天下)”and“Tian Dao(天道)” could accommodate or even dissolve the Western monotheistic religion, and the Confucian Way of benevolence(仁道)could also accommodate or even dissolve the Western way of freedom, with the content of benevolence and the middle Way,and the Confucian sage became the truth guarantor of civilization theory. Undoubtedly, such a Confucian narrative mode of civilization theory also has its problems that can be discussed, but through the in-depth and detailed comparison of Chinese and Western philosophy, to establish the position of Chinese traditional philosophy on the world philosophical stage, Chen Yun's efforts are valuable.

Since 1970s, Antonio S. Cua has been an important representative in the study of Chinese philosophy in the United States, and he paid special attention to the study of Xunzi. Cua's research on Xunzi's theory of human nature is unique and can be used for reference by domestic academic circles. Firstly, Cua's investigation of Xunzi's theory of human nature adopts the method of conceptual analysis, trying to clarify the self-argumentation logic of Xunzi's view of human nature by clarifying the concepts used in the arguments supporting Xunzi's view; Secondly, Cua called people's native feelings and desires“man's basic motivational structure”,and believed that it constituted the main argument of Xunzi's theory of bad nature; Thirdly, Cua believes that there are two opposite explanations for the relationship between morality and human nature, namely,externalism and internalism, with Xunzi's theory of human nature as the former andMencius'theory of human nature as the latter.

Professor Zhang Wanlin's book, Practitioner, theorist and rectifier:A Study on the Evolution of the Religious Comnotation of Pre-Qin Confucianism takes the perspective of the “Tian-Human”relationship, based on the“Tian-Human”two-way interaction mode of“Religious dynamics”,an investigation of the flow of Pre-Qin Confucianism was launched. And it shows the whole picture of the development and change in the way of positioning the roles of the Pre-Qin Confucianists in the history of thought, that is, Confucius and his disciples are“Practitioner”, the Post-Seventy Disciples,Zisi and Mencius are “Theorist”,and Xunzi are “Rectifier”. This article aims to analyze the preposition of the book and make a statement of the specific context,highlighting the author's unique understanding of Pre-Qin Confucianism and the theoretical significance provided for the Confucian research. At the same time, at the end, this article will question and reflect on the author's position on “Heaven”as an external entity.