Research Project

Suche


The Conception of Fate among Modern Chinese Intellectuals: Using the Example of Records about Prognostication in the Dairies of their Contemporaries

Li Fan

The Conception of Fate among Modern Chinese Intellectuals: Using the Example of Records about Prognostication in the Dairies of their Contemporaries

Using the records about prognostication in documents like “Yan Fu’s Diary”, “Wu Yu’s Diary” and “Wu Mi’s Diary” as my starting point, I aim to investigate the conception of fate among the two generations of Chinese intellectuals in the period between the end of the Qing-Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. These intellectuals represent the so-called anti-feudal leaders or students who used to study abroad or were still studying abroad at that time. With their western background, they inwardly identified with the West, but, in their daily lives and practices, they displayed exactly the opposite attitude, especially at certain moments in their lives, when they needed to gain support from prognostic methods. In this case, the Chinese conception of fate down the ages had a strong effect. In other words, their thoughts and life practices were segmented. The traditional conception of fate has become a convention running through their life practices, whereas the approach to western thoughts has become a subconscious attempt. From the point of view of the conjuncture between Chinese and Western thoughts about fate and strategies of coping with fate respectively, this area is very fruitful for academic consideration. Therefore, I wish to make this subject the key point of my research project. I hope, after the circumstantial analysis and the research, to present some conclusions regarding my contribution to the head research project of the IKGF.

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