Mr Mou Tsung-san was born in Qixia, Shandong province. In 1928, Mr Mou was admitted to the National Peking University. Two years later, he entered the Department of Philosophy and studied under, befriended and influenced by a number of professors including Xiong Shi-li.
Mr Mou taught logics and western culture at universities including Huaxi University and Zhejiang University. In the 1930s, he was the editor-in-chief of magazines on Chinese history and culture. In 1949, Mr Mou moved to Taiwan and taught at the Taipei Teachers College and Tunghai University. In 1954, he became a member of an academic review committee under the Ministry of Education and in 1960, he took up a post at the University of Hong Kong, teaching Chinese philosophy. In 1968, he joined New Asia College at CUHK as chairman of its Department of Philosophy. He retired in 1974, but took up teaching duties at the New Asia Research Institute. In his later years, he taught in Taiwan again and was awarded the National Cultural Medal by the Executive Yuan.
Mr Mou was considered a master of contemporary Neo-Confucianism. He was equally conversant in Chinese and Western philosophical thoughts and had sought exegesis of one in the terms of the other. Mr Mou was particularly interested in the works of Kant and had written extensively on Kant and his philosophy. On April 12, 1995, Mr Mou passed away in Taipei, at the age of 87. In 2003, his complete work was published in 33 volumes.
