清末士人面對傳統政治與教化體系全面土崩瓦解的危機，在傳統求道思維方式的影響下，一些最優秀的讀書人乃致力於探索「宇宙人生暨政治社會最高道理」，以因應從人生到文化的各種問題。繼承中國學術思想特重天地萬物之生化本原的傳統，此種探索發展為一種高度重視人生、國族、文化以及宇宙根本生命力與價值之思想，簡稱為「生元思想」。他們深感挑戰及危機深重，所以傾向於剝盡民族文化的糟粕，只保留最精粹與根本的部分，並以其迎接進化、科學世界觀、物質化、元素、動態、自由、解放、民主、平等、博愛等各種西方思想，以回應現代性的挑戰；或曰回歸中華文化的根本以解放及恢復從個人到民族原有的生命力，重建核心價值，迎向現代文明，以徹底再造中國文化。現實政教社會體系的問題無比深重，解放生命力與再造中華的要求又極為迫切，此「生元思想」因而具有一種高度的反傳統與反既有秩序性質。他們批判乃至反對一切形式化、秩序化、分別化、理則化事物，使其思想帶有一種深刻的非啟蒙，乃至反現代化傾向。此思想既促發了近現代波濤洶湧的變法與革命現象，也同時使中國的現代化過程更為艱難。本文以康有為與譚嗣同為代表，企圖對這種思想做出初步的闡釋。

While facing the unprecedented crisis of China’s political and cultural system, late Qing Chinese literati, especially some leading intellectuals among them, began to devote themselves to the study of the highest cosmoanthropological and socio-political principles of the world so as to find “The Way” for China. The crisis and challenges were so deep, that their study, by inheriting Chinese tradition, developed into a kind of “philosophy of the source of life,” and paid utmost attention to the original life force and fundamental meaning of life, nation, culture, and universe. In doing so, they tended to abandon everything that was trivial or unnecessary and concentrated on the most fundamental part of Chinese culture, and used it to absorb the newly introduced Western world worldview─the evolutional, scientific, materialistic, elements-oriented, dynamic, liberal, emancipated, democratic, egalitarian, and philanthropistic new thought, so as to meet the challenge of modernity. This also meant that they tried to return to “the root” of traditional culture so as to emancipate and revive the vigor and strength of Chinese people and culture. The present article delineates the basic characteristics of this philosophy by focusing on two leading Chinese intellectuals: Kang Youwei, and Tan Sitong. Both of them, influenced by both Chinese and Western traditions, accentuated a “philosophical” but assertive account of “the ultimate substance” and believed that they could grasp the highest principles of the universe and cope with everything by understanding the ultimate substance, or the source of life. The real-world socio-political problems were so severe and their quest for emancipating people’s vitality so urgent, their philosophy of the source of life was progressive and came to have a highly anti-traditional and iconoclastic character. It criticized any formal, orderly, individualized, and rationalized form of existence, and created a deep non-Enlightenment and even anti-modernity tendency. It brought with it great reformist and revolutionary marvels, but also made the process of modernization somehow even more difficult.