Kang Youwei (康有為)
1858-1927 · Modern East Asian Thought · Prominent
Kang Youwei ran two programmes at once. In public he was a gradualist: Confucius had been a reformer himself, the Old Text classics were Han forgeries, and China needed a constitutional monarchy with Confucianism as its state religion. In private he wrote the Datong Shu, which abolished states, races, ranks, property, family and marriage. He kept it back, holding that the three ages of history have to be passed through in order.
Signature
The position Youwei is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Allegiance
- strongly leans Global
- Government
- One World Order
Positions on the 13 axes the sources answer
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (94 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (25 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (15 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (94 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (44 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Truth
- leans Objective (85 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (80 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Illiberalism (19 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Ends (20 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Ignorance
- leans Bliss (75 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Allegiance
- strongly leans Global (100 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
7 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Youwei refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Pantheism / Process Theism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- One World Order
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Pleasure
What is the highest good? - End of Things
- Final Liberation
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Ethics Basis
- Utilitarian Calculation
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Karmic Causation
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- State Socialism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Death
- Reincarnation
What happens at death? - Primary Bond
- All Beings
What is your primary bond and loyalty?