ABSTRACT
It is generally believed that transformation in the 20th century brought about radical changes to the Confucian doctrine or Confucianism. Although modern Confucian philosophy is a philosophical response to the modern dilemma with which Confucianism is faced and even plays a very important role in the domain of discourse of modern philosophy, it cannot change its embarrassing situation at the social and cultural level of modern China. Stepping into the 21st century, we cannot deny such a fact that the 20th century is a history in which Confucian culture as a whole has experienced disintegration and dissociation, and it has become faded and fallen in the pre-modern world. It should be pointed out that what is to be discussed in the following part of this chapter is based on the situation of the Chinese mainland and does not include Taiwan and Hong Kong, with which the author is not familiar. In the 20th century in which the pre-modern social system has changed, why does Confucianism remain a hot topic which is always mentioned? In modern Chinese society, is it possible that Confucianism exists beyond philosophy? This is the focus of this chapter. For lack of chapter, this article mainly involves statements on history and phenomena.
