Xiaolin Zhang

By adopting Habermas’ communicative theory, this paper categorizes players’ actions into four elements. The strategic action involves players manipulating each other within the framework of a gameFootnote1; normative action is manifested in following the rules and the underlying ethos; dramaturgical action emerges through the players’ deliberate presentation of themselves to both participants and spectators; and communicative action reveals the purpose of a game as a way of being. The conceptualization of game actions leads to a qualitative redefinition of the perfect game, which enables a greater understanding of the game, its participants, and human excellence. As such, this paper’s significance lies in the proposal that the Habermasian perfect game is a potential solution to Suits’ puzzle about what type of games can be played in his Utopia.

The relationship between coping styles and subjective well-being has recently received considerable empirical and theoretical attention in the scientific literature. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship have primarily remained unclear. The present research aimed to determine whether emotion regulation mediated the relationship between coping styles and subjective well-being. Our hypothesis is based on the integration of theoretical models among 1,247 Chinese college students. The SWB questionnaire, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used to correlate SWB, emotion regulation strategies, and coping styles, respectively. The random forest method was applied to predict life satisfaction and estimate the average variable importance to life satisfaction. The results indicated that positive coping can indirectly influence life satisfaction via cognitive reappraisal and indirectly influence expression suppression via positive affect. Negative coping can indirectly influence negative affect via expression suppression. Besides, negative coping was positively associated with both expression suppression and negative affect. Cognitive reappraisal was found to be positively associated with positive affect. The findings indicated that coping style is essential for the SWB of college students. These findings provide insight into how coping styles impact SWB and have implications for developing and assessing emotion regulation-based interventions.

The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven is Matteo Ricci's apologetics written in Chinese. This work is a hermeneutic reading and understanding of Chinese intellectual tradition from Christian theological-philosophical point of view. Following the missionary strategy of "complementing Confucianism while rejecting Buddhism and Taoism", Ricci's taking in or rejecting of Chinese intellectual tradition can be reduced to two phrases: accommodating Confucianism while rejecting Buddhism and Taoism, accommodating ancient Confucianism while rejecting Neo-Confucianism. ;Ricci's taking in some and rejecting other parts of Chinese intellectual tradition, especially his rejection of Neo-Confucianism and Buddhism and Taoism, aroused joint counter action against Christianity from orthodox Confucianist scholars and Buddhist monks. Theoretically, the counter arguments revolve around the main ideas of the True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. And these counter arguments is a joint action from the special perspective of the three teachings in one to degend Chinese intellectual tradition. ;Ricci's attitude toward Chinese intellectual tradition was supported by his Chinese converts, though they maintained some reservation about Ricci's rejection of Neo-Confucianism. Yang Tingyun is the direct successor and expositor of Ricci's theological philosophy. Yang's apologetics accepted Ricci's approach, rejecting Buddhism and Taoism, but synthesizing Christianity with Confucianism. He developed a Confucian monotheism which had already come into shape in the True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. ;The cross-cultural reading and thinking accomplished in the True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, and the successful synthesis between Christianity and Confucianism it had made, contribute to the construction of Confucian monotheism by Chinese converts. In turns of its connection with Chinese intellectual tradition, the True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven itself involves Confucian monotheism. This, of course, is concerned with its central ideas and needs further explanation and argumentation