Systematic Research in Fundamental Categories of Chinese Philosophy

目前的联合研究项目包括对中国思想基本概念从古代(先秦)到当代的历时研究。例如，“公共”一词在古代只是指社区，但到了战国末期，它已与道德正义的思想联系在一起。同样，从宋代开始，它就与天命伦理规范或自然法的概念联系在一起。后来，在近代，这个词又与西方的社会平等思想联系在一起。历时研究选择了两千多个基本概念，将其分为以下七类：“宇宙与自然”、“人与道德”、“社会与政府”、“宗教与民风”、“学术与知识”、“文化与艺术”、“科学与技术”。在项目的第二年，这些概念进一步按重要性顺序进行了排列，并相应地分为四个阶段。项目参与者编写了关于前两个阶段项目的手稿草稿，并在三次全体会议上进行了讨论。因此，决定不可能在第一阶段的原稿页数限制内将第一阶段的文章扩展到现代和当代时期(15页400字的手稿纸)。因此，我们得出的结论是，如果暂时搁置编纂中国思想史词典的原定目标，首先出版前两个阶段的完成手稿，作为核心概念的说明书，这一项目的价值将显著增加。因此，我们建议将上述七个类别重组为三个区块，并将首两个阶段的文章页数增加一倍。我们预计在两到三年内出版这本书的第一卷。

The present joint research project consists of a diachronic study of the evolution of the basic concepts of Chinese thought, from ancient (pre-qin) times to the contemporary period. For example, the word "public"(ko, oyake) referred in ancient times simply to the community, but by the late Warring States period it had become associated with ideas of moral justice. Again, from the Song dynasty it became tied in with the concept of Heaven-ordained ethical norms or natural law. Then, in the modern period, the same word acquired associations with Western ideas of social equality.Over two thousand basic concepts have been selected for such diachronic study, divided into the following seven categories : "the universe and Nature, " "man and morality, " "society and government, " "religion and folkways, " "learning and knowledge, " "culture and art, " and "science and technology. "In the second year of the project, these concepts were further arranged in order of importance, and classified accordingly into four stages. The project participants produced draft manuscripts treating the items in the first two stages, which were discussed at three plenary meetings. As a result, it was determined that it would not be possible to extend the articles of stage 1 into the modern and contemporary periods within the original page limit for this stage (15 pages of 400-character manuscript paper). We have thus concluded that the value of this project will be significantly increased if the original objective of compiling a dictionary of the history of Chinese thought is put aside temporarily, and the completed manuscripts for the first two stages are published first as an explanatory manual of core concepts. We therefore propose to reorganize the above-mentioned seven categories into three blocks, and double the page limit for the articles in the first two stages. We expect to publish this initial volume within two to three years.