Tang Chun-i

His work has mainly been influential in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States. In 2009, a .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}2-metre (6+1⁄2 ft) bronze statue was erected in the New Asia College campus to celebrate his centenary.

Tang was among the most prominent advocates of Neo-Confucianism in the 20th Century (not to be confused with New Confucianism, which Tang was also part of). One major difference between Tang and the original Neo-Confucianists is that Tang framed his work through contrasts with Western philosophy. For example, Tang's concept of the heart-mind, a single entity responsible for cognition, emotion, and will, is an originally Neo-Confucian idea. Tang argued that the heart-mind is the key to all human understanding in his 1977 book Life, Existence, and the Horizons of the Heart-Mind.

Tang attempted to systematize the moral idealism in his final book Life, Existence, and the Horizons of the Heart-Mind in 1977. He argues that the human heart-mind, the source of cognition, emotion, and will, is key to understanding the world, and that in integrating of reason and emotion, the heart-mind can respond correctly in a given situation.

Tang is most associated with New Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. In his study of Contemporary New Ru Learning, Fang Keli identified Tang as part of the second generation of New Confucians, along with Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan. In 1958 Tang, Mou, Xu, and Zhang Zhunmai co-authored A Manifesto on Chinese Culture Respectfully Announced to the People of the World. The manifesto was an effort to revive Confucianism likely directed at Chinese people who favored adopting Western values.

Tang went into exile in Hong Kong in 1949, after the declaration of the People's Republic of China, living there for the rest of his life. There he helped found the New Asia College, which was integrated into the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963. He served as the founding chairman and the first Chair Professor of the Department of Philosophy of CUHK. Tang's time in Hong Kong was marked by his mission to salvage traditional Chinese culture in a time when China was ruled by an anti-traditionalist government. He established New Asia College, which to Tang symbolized his ambitious plan to save Chinese culture. Tang was particularly fixated on the fact that New Asia College was established exactly 2500 years after the birth of Confucius, often claiming that the timing was not merely coincidental, but significant as it marked a new era in Chinese history. In the 1970s, he became one of the members of the school board of New Asia Middle School.

Tang, the son of a wealthy scholar, was the first born of six children in Sichuan, China. Tang was briefly a student of Liang Shuming before transferring to National Central University. In 1927, Tang became a follower of Xiong Shili after attending a series of lectures. He graduated from National Central University in 1933, soon after becoming a lecturer there. In 1940, Tang met his colleague and lifelong friend Mou Zongsan. In 1943 he married Tse Ting Kwong, an educational psychology graduate. 1944 he joined the National Central University Philosophy Department as a full-time professor, and later he even became head of the department. Only five years later, in 1949, Tang left Mainland China to live in Hong Kong, as part of an exodus of Chinese intellectuals to the British colony.

Tang Chun-I or Tang Junyi (Chinese: 唐君毅, 17 January 1909 – 2 February 1978) was a Chinese philosopher, who was one of the leading exponents of New Confucianism. He was influenced by Plato and Hegel, as well as by earlier Confucian thought.