Studies of the Chinese neologisms zōngjiào 宗教 and zhéxué 哲學 have been pursued along etymological and historical lines, focusing on works of particular intellectuals that employed these terms. I argue that these methods are limited in their explanatory power to indicate how these words become dominant terms representing new academic disciplines in 20th century China. There is a need to demonstrate how the these terms invoked new interests shaping East Asian intellectuals’ identities in differing 19th and 20th century cultural contexts. A dialectical cultural transformation is involved, as well as institutionalization processes reflecting the values associated with these neologisms. These Chinese words become dominant terms precisely because there was a new set of experiences which older terms could not articulate. Zōngjiào and zhéxué, therefore, not only emerged from external cultural sources, but also represented a new mentality among Chinese intellectuals involved in modern transformations of post-traditional Chinese cultures.

摘要：现今关于“宗教”及“哲学”这两个新词的研究，皆沿着词源学及其历史演变而进行。过去某些知识分子曾在其作品中使用这两个词汇，故研究焦点均集中于这些作品上。但是，这些研究并不足以解释为何这两个新词能够在二十世纪的中国成为主要词汇，足以代表新的学术科目。我们需要论证解释这两个新词如何引起关注，在十九及二十世纪中重塑从不同文化环境中的东亚知识分子身份。这涉及辩证文化转化与制度化过程，以及为确立这些新词的价值所进行的词汇合法化。这些新词能够成为重要词汇，皆因其所代表的人生意义，旧有词汇无法表达。因此，“宗教”及“哲学”并不单纯来自外地，其亦反映出中国知识分子的新思想，蕴含后传统中国文化的现代化转变。

Abstract
 1. Searching for Identities within Periods of Cultural Transformation
 2. Confusing Histories: Accounting for the Emergence of Chinese Neologisms
 3. Paradoxes and Ironies: Cultural Impositions or Creative Syntheses?
 4. Reasserting the Significance of the Transformative Dimension of Culture as Manifested in the Development of Neologisms
 NOTES
 References
 <中文摘要>

• Lauren F. Pfister(Hong Kong Baptist University) | 费乐仁