余英時曾在1991年時發表了〈錢穆與新儒家〉一文，對其業師錢穆與當代新儒家的學術交涉與思想異同作了深刻的分疏。同時文中也對當代中國這一特殊思想學派新儒家的思想特色，從思想史的角度提出評判。而余英時與當代新儒家的學術、思想工作，都是中國在從傳統到現代這一轉型過程中，知識分子重要的努力方向，故本文透過余英時與第二代（唐君毅、牟宗三與徐復觀）與第三代（杜維明與劉述先）新儒家思想的交涉，藉以反思當代中國如何回應西方挑戰的「傳統與現代化」課題。

Yu Ying-shih once published the article ＂Qian Mu and New-Confucianism＂ in 1991. Made a deep distinction between his teacher Qian Mu's academic Interaction and the differences with contemporary New-Confucianism. At the same time, the article also judges the intellectual feature of this special school of thought in contemporary China, New-Confucianism, from the perspective of intellectual history. The academic and intellectual work of Yu Ying-shih and contemporary New-Confucianism is an important direction for China's intellectuals in this transformation process. Therefore, this article uses Yu Ying-shih's interaction with the second and third generations of New-Confucianism as reflection of how contemporary China responds to the challenge of the West on the topic of "tradition and modernization."