Thomas Fröhlich, Dr. phil. (1999), Habilitation (2003), both at the University of Hamburg, is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Hamburg. He has published a monograph, edited volumes, and many articles on modern Chinese philosophy and intellectual history, including Staatsdenken im China der Republikzeit (Campus, 2000).

"Fröhlich...situates Tang in a discursive environment that includes many prominent figures of Western intellectual history and also materials from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that were of direct impact. The book is written for and will be welcomed by everyone who takes an interest in China's recent history."-Barbara Hendrischke, University of Sydney, in Religious Studies Review, Vol.44 No.4, (2018)"Fröhlich’s study is quite simply the best book on Tang Junyi out there, and one of the most sophisticated and rewarding investigations into Chinese intellectual history in general."-Ady Van den Stock in Monumenta Serica, 67:1, 284-289."The author succeeds in giving us a profound and well-documented presentation of this great thinker of modernity. Simultaneously, he really engages in a philosophical conversation with Tang Junyi, making this work more than a descriptive sinological study; it becomes a valuable work in philosophy. It is a book whose extensive remarks and developments will require careful and lento readers--a book on intellectual history as it should be written."-Joseph Ciaudo in Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques, 72(4), 1215-1221.

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsChapter 1 Tang Junyi’s Intellectual EndeavorA Journey into a Broken WorldThe Vantage Point of Modern ConfucianismThe Watershed of 1949Chapter 2 Critical Issues in Research on Modern ConfucianismStereotypes and OmissionsCoherence and ComparisonChapter 3 Common Perspectives on Modern ConfucianismConservatismNeo-ConfucianismHumanismReligiosityDogmatismChapter 4 Exile, Modernity, and Cultural PatriotismThe Convergence between Exile and ModernityExile as Horror vacuiIntellectual Ethos and Messianic VisionNation and CultureCultural PatriotismDefending AuthenticityChapter 5 The Theological AccentuationTheological FoundationsThe Taxonomy of Knowledge and IntuitionLimits of Philosophical ExpositionThe Limit-Concepts of “Philosophical Faith”Chapter 6 The Moral VisionMoral IntuitionismStruggling with Self-CultivationTowards a Confucian EthosChapter 7 Shifting the Foundations of Confucian Political ThoughtThe Political and Its Demonic AspectsIntrospection in the Will for PowerThe Moral Dimension of the Political WillChapter 8 On StatehoodFailed Statehood in ChinaThe State and Individual Self-FulfillmentState and SocietyThe World Order of “Ecumenical States”Chapter 9 Anticipating Democracy“Confucian Democracy”: Dead Ends and AlternativesThe Weakness of Democracy in ChinaThe Civil-Theological Justification of DemocracyHumanistic Culture and DemocracyChapter 10 Civil Religion on a Confucian BasisCivil Religion for a Future ChinaPolitical Ideals and RealityChapter 11 Coming to Terms with HistoryModernity and AgencyHistory and NormativitySigns of ProgressDelimiting a “Philosophy of History”Chapter 12 In Lieu of a Conclusion: The Totalitarian ChallengeOn the Origins and Causes of TotalitarianismOvercoming Totalitarianism?Appendix: Biographical SurveyBibliographyIndex