In this paper, we will investigate the re-emergence of Confucianism in contemporary China as a complex intersection of political, cultural, educational and popular perspectives. This resurgence is neither a kind of Chinese Neoclassicism nor a nostalgic backwardness, instead it is the emblem of the new China’s identity. Confucius and Confucianism, violently despised as the remains of feudalism since the May Fourth Movement and during Maoism, are nowadays a fertile source for the fulfilment of “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” (zhongguo tese shehui zhuyi 中国特色社会主义) on both the educational and political levels. We carry out the investigation in three steps: 1. The political rehabilitation of Confucianism as part of the “Chinese dream” (zhongguo meng 中国梦); 2. The common social perception of Confucianism and tradition as a shared and unavoidable background; 3. The definition of two possible Confucianisms (namely New Confucianism and Political Confucianism) and their possible influences on Chinese society and moral education. Our conclusions will deal with Chinese cultural soft power, and the shaping of a new Confucian identity based on both modernity and tradition.

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This book is not merely a history of Mao’s thought, as it presents a philosophical inquest on its development. It is also a philosophical reflection on the state of contemporary Chinese society and culture employing Mao’s philosophical keys. What Allinson provides is a completely new narrative of the so-called Great Helmsman’s intellectual profile and all of 20th Chinese culture. This is the right book at the right moment for understanding China’s incredible growth and deep contradictions, but also the new Chinese diplomatic impatience towards unequal treatment on the international stage. Mao’s most unacceptable and dramatic decisions find a new coherency that, in this case, contradicts the thesis of the “banality of evil”. Allinson shows an excellent capacity to freely reflect with the thinker without lessening the tragic consequences of his political decisions. As the author states: “Mao represents a unique mixture between Plato’s philosopher king and Plato’s tyrant of the Republic” (p. 100).

This paper provides an investigation into Jesuits’ use of secular dialectical strategies during the early part of their evangelization mission in China. In order to prove the relevance of rhetoric stratagems – i. e. scientific verification, logic and universalism of norms – in their attack against Buddhism, this article examines a neglected text, Posthumous Disputes (Bianxue yidu 辯學遺牘). While the Posthumous Disputes (PD) was improperly attributed to Ricci, it is a prime example of Ricci’s accommodation method. Documenting the first real confrontation between a Buddhist and a Christian in China, this text provides an extraordinary window into the first dispute between Europe and China. The secular method of accommodation modelled by Ricci to convert Chinese literati was grounded in the universality of reason that he inherited from Aristotle and Aquinas and the fascination with Western science and techniques. The author uses the universality of reason to both reject Buddhism and Daoism as irrational, unscientific, and non-universal and to present the Christian faith as the most rational doctrine.

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