Liu Shipei (1884–1919) received an outstanding classical education and obtained the juren degree in 1902. After failing the metropolitan exam in the following year, however, he went to Shanghai where he became involved in revolutionary activities and wrote a number of political, ethical, and historical treatises, including the Textbook on Ethics. In his Textbook, Liu sets out a more systematic presentation of an ethical theory than any we find in earlier centuries. His goal is a complete reworking of Confucian ethics, and his methods and conclusions merit comparison to the similar objectives of Liang Qichao in the more popularized On the New People of three years earlier. Like Liang’s “new ethics,” Liu’s ethical theory is shorn of much of the metaphysical apparatus that accompanied earlier neo-Confucian ethical teachings, and, like Liang, Liu is to some extent familiar with Western philosophical trends and concepts. Finally, like Liang, Liu finds “rights” (quanli) to be centrally important to his new ethics, as the following chapters from the Textbook make clear.
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