Fang Keli

Fang Keli (; 28 June 1938 – 21 April 2020) was a Chinese New Confucian philosopher and a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He was best known for his work in New Confucianism and his theories which attempt to fusion Marxism and Chinese culture.

Early life Fang Keli was born in June 1938 in Xiangtan, Hunan, China. His father, Fang Zhuangyou, was a historian and professor at Wuhan University. His mother was a chief-leader of Women's Work, also at Wuhan University. Fang said that, “[he] was, naturally, influenced by [his] family’s tradition both intellectually and culturally. But growing up [Fang] was influenced more greatly by the historical period, the collective life in school and the education [he] got from the Communist Party and [his] teachers.”

As a student Fang earned high marks and was a leader in both the Young Pioneers and the Communist Youth League. One year prior to his enrollment at Renmin University, the Anti-Rightist campaign began and Fang was disciplined by the Communist Youth League for undisclosed reasons. He cites this as an “important turning point in [his] life.” In 1986, Fang, then working at Nankai University in Tianjin, helped to found an academic group of over 50 researchers which studied Contemporary New Confucianism, or Contemporary New Ru Learning (Dangdai xin ruxue). This undertaking would span a decade's time, making it the most costly and extensive humanities project ever sponsored by China's Ministry of Education.

From 1994 to 2000 Fang served as President of the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2006.

Philosophy The 1986 research team would lead Fang to conclude that, as of the May 4th Movement, New Ru Learning, Marxism and Western liberalism were most prominent schools of thought in the nation. This equivocation of New Ru Learning and Marxism pushed the former to an elevated status in the public eye, despite Fang's protests. Contrary to the public clamor for New Ru Learning, Fang saw ruxue as a fundamentally feudal ideology—though he still believed there was historical and cultural value to be derived from it. He explained that all ideologies, their predecessors and their successors function within the context of one another. In this way all ideas retain a level of relevance.

Selected works History of Chinese Philosophy: the Theory of Knowing and Doing, People's Publishing Press, 1982, 1986, 1997 Modern Neo-Confucianism and Chinese Modernization, Tianjing People's Press, 1997 Critical Inheritance and Comprehensive Innovation, in Traditional Culture and Modernization, March 1995