Politics and ethics

This dissertation examines the transformation of politics and ethics, as well as their interaction in modem China, through a case study of Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang, 1886-1969), one of the most important New Confucian thinkers, and known as the "Father of the Chinese Constitution." In this project, I examine how modem Chinese intellectuals such as Zhang Junmai endeavored to establish a new political community and a new ethical life, after the breaking of the traditional unity between politics and ethics in modem China. I argue that Zhang is a unique intellectual--not only the father of Chinese constitution, but also one the founders of modem Chinese political philosophy. My dissertation is the first to discover and examine the hidden "Carl Schmitt" element in Zhang Junmai's political thought, which was neither mentioned by Zhang Junmai himself during his lifetime, nor examined by previous scholarship. This dissertation is also the first to systematically explore Zhang's theoretical assimilation of his Western forerunners and contemporaries, such as Carl Schmitt and Harold Laski. This research challenges the common perception that the search for wealth and power was the main theme in twentieth-century China, by highlighting another main thread: the search for a new ethical life. By examining the change of morality and the invention of modem ethics, as well as Zhang Junmai's idea of constructing a " Gemeinschaft " (political and ethical community), this work responds to the core question posed by Heidegger and MacIntyre: whether and how ethics is possible in the modem age.

This dissertation examines how Zhang negotiates the tension between politics and law. I argue that Zhang does not understand democracy as a purely legal concept which can be completely understood by scientific approaches; rather, Zhang calls on a kind of inner politics, which emphasizes a change of people's political habits and consciousness. While insisting on making Chinese citizens the "political subjects" of a modem, democratized state, Zhang also emphasizes the establishment of an ethical community by transforming these political subjects into the moral subjects of democracy.