Confucianism Books

Book SynopsisIn Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers, Yonghua Liu presents a detailed study of how a southeastern Chinese community experienced and responded to the process whereby Confucian rituals - previously thought unfit for practice by commoners - were adopted in the Chinese countryside and became an integral part of village culture, from the mid fourteenth to mid twentieth centuries. The book examines the important but understudied ritual specialists, masters of rites (lisheng), and their ritual handbooks while showing their crucial role in the ritual life of Chinese villagers. This discussion of lisheng and their rituals deepens our understanding of the ritual aspect of popular Confucianism and sheds new light on social and cultural transformations in late imperial China.Trade Review“This thoughtful book is rich in detail (some fascinating, such as how a god became an ancestor), draws on secondary studies in English, Chinese, and Japanese, and is written in impeccable English.” Conrad Schirokauer, Columbia University, Choice March 2014 Vol. 51 No. 07 "Yonghua Liu 劉永華 of Xiamen University 厦門大學 has produced an outstanding study of Confucian ritual practices and socio-cultural change in rural Fujian 福建 province. Written with the objectivity of a historian and the sensitivity of an ethnographer, Liu builds on the existing scholarship on socio-religious space[...]to reveal an accommodating relationship between state and religion in late imperial China. [...] Liu should be congratulated for publishing this excellent analysis of popular religious practices in Southeast China. The rich ethnographical data and the conceptual insights should appeal to religious specialists, historians, and anthropologists of China." Joseph Tse-Hei Lee (李榭熙), Pace University, Chinet.cz April 2014 “…the book can boast such merits as clarity, painstaking elaboration of details, use of new materials and up-to-date secondary research produced by Western, Chinese and Japanese scholars to support all the arguments.” Ekaterina Zawidovskaya, Monumenta Serica 62 (2014) "Based on his careful reading of around 30 genealogies held either in the ancestral halls or private hands of Sibao residents, and ritual texts compiled by Confucian ritual specialists (lisheng), as well as account books, family division contracts and local archival materials, Yonghua Liu has successfully produced an outstanding study of cultural mediation and the mediators. […] it is an important addition to the rich literature of the Huanan school because of the author’s acuteness as a historian and his mastery of the details. […] the book contributes greatly to our understanding of how the cultural and social fabrics were woven and were constantly changing in a rural setting in late imperial China." Koh Khee Heong, National University of Singapore, Asian Studies Review, 2015, Vol. 39, No. 3, 521–540 "Using a rich array of local archival materials, oral histories and participant observation, Yonghua Liu carefully analyses the historical impact and significance of a topdown movement to incorporate rituals into the daily lives of villagers that began in the late fourteenth century. [...] Yonghua Liu has given historians a fascinating glimpse of the interplay of the social, economic and cultural forces that supported the ritualization of Chinese illage life in southeast China." Evelyn S. Rawski, University of Pittsburgh, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2014, Vol. 77, No. 2, 420-422Table of ContentsPart One: Introduction Chapter 1: Confucian Rituals in Late Imperial Chinese State and Society Commoners, Confucian Rituals, and Neo-Confucianism The Appropriation of Confucian Rituals A Social History of Rituals in Sibao Principal Themes Sources Chapter 2: History at the Periphery: Tingzhou and Sibao Tingzhou: Banditry, Ethnicity, and the State Sibao: Making a Center out of a Periphery Part Two: Lisheng as Cultural Mediations Chapter 3: Who Are Lisheng? Lisheng: An Overview Lisheng and Sibao Society Chapter 4: Lisheng and Their Rituals Lisheng and Sibao Rituals Manuals of Sacrificial Texts Part Three: Lineage, Ritual, and Corporate Estates Chapter 5: The Creation of a Lineage Society Lineage Building Ancestors, Genealogy, and Lineage Building Chapter 6: Rites, Land, and Lineages Ancestral Rites Land, Lineage, and Local Elite The Limits of Lineage Building Part Four: A Strange Community Compact? Chapter 7: Community Compacts, Village Rituals, and Local Society Community Compacts in Late Imperial Sibao Villages and Descent Groups around Shangbao The Making of a Community Compact Shangbao Compact and Local Society Part Five: The Worship of Gods Chapter 8: Gods, Ancestors and Demons Zougong: A God Becoming an Ancestor The Transformation of She and Li Chapter 9: Temples, Markets, and Village Identity Temple Building and Village Identity Temples and Commerce Chapter 10: Locating Rituals in Time and Space The Genealogy of a Grand Narrative Cultural Hybridization as a Historical Process Appendices 1. Jinshi (Metropolitan Graduates) in Late Imperial Tingzhou 2. Lisheng and the Rituals Performed by Them in Tingzhou 3. Fifty Sibao Jiwenben (I): Basic Facts 4. Fifty Sibao Jiwenben (II): Breakdown of Contents 5. Five Prohibitions of the Shangbao Compact 6. Villages and Surnames in Sibao 7. Temples and Gods in the Sibao Basin 8. Gods and Texts Dedicated to Them in Three Sibao Jiwenben Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThrough a detailed analysis of epistolary writing, A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections brings to life the Buddhist discourse of a network of lay disciples who debated the value of Chan versus Pure Land, sudden versus gradual enlightenment, adherence to Buddhist precepts, and animal welfare. By highlighting the differences between their mentor, the monk Zhuhong 袾宏 (1535-1615), and his nemesis, the Yangming Confucian Zhou Rudeng 周汝登 (1547-1629), this work confronts long-held scholarly views of Confucian dominance to conclude that many classically educated, elite men found Buddhist practices a far more attractive option. Their intellectual debates, self-cultivation practices, and interpersonal relations helped shape the contours of late sixteenth-century Buddhist culture.Trade Review'Jennifer Eichman’s rich and insightful book sheds significant new light on the ethical and religious aspirations, self-understandings, and practices of elite men in late-Ming China. This is a vital book for understanding the interactions between Buddhism and Confucianism, and indeed, what Buddhism and Confucianism meant in practice. (...) Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this book is the fluidity with which sociological theory, historical and cultural investigation, literary analysis, and doctrinal and more anthropological studies of religion all blend together seamlessly.' Stephen C. Angle, Wesleyan University 'Eichman purposely limits her study to the relatively narrow Wanli period (1573–1620), giving the work a depth that would otherwise not be possible. This allows her to examine the development, over about half a century, of a religious network strung together by personal relationships.(...) This level of detail assists us—both author and reader—to avoid one of the pitfalls of the study of Pure Land Buddhism, which is the presumption of the normative status of later Japanese developments, such as exclusive adherence.(...) Eichman’s study makes important contributions for several different interested audiences, more than can be discussed adequately in this brief review. Two of these are historians of Chinese religions, and scholars of religious studies.(...) Given the important contributions made by this work, it will continue to provide resources for later studies, as well as standing as an exemplary instance of how such studies should be conducted. Richard K. Payne, Reading Religion (http://readingreligion.org/books/late-sixteenth-century-chinese-buddhist-fellowship) 'In short, this is a rich study with fruitful and instructive findings. Its calls for a more interactive and fluid model of late Ming Buddhist-Confucian relations and for further exploration of Buddhist epistolary collections should be heeded.' Yiqun Zhou, Stanford University, Journal of Chinese Religions, 45:2, (2017) 'This book makes a valuable contribution to the study of late imperial Chinese Buddhism by examining a network of monks and lay practitioners connected by relationships rather than geography. Drawing primarily on epistolary sources, it seeks to ground late Ming intellectual, social, and religious history in a particular group of elite men concerned about how they might best cultivate their heart-mind. Eichman uses “mind cultivation” as a bridge concept in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Buddhist and Confucian discourse (...) Eichman presents her arguments carefully and meticulously, and she provides ample footnotes for specialists in late imperial Chinese Buddhism. (...) The structure of her book allows for individual chapters to be easily incorporated into graduate or advanced undergraduate courses as one discusses general topics such as religious identity, ethics, and meditation, or more specific issues such as killing and eating animals, releasing-life societies, encounter dialogues, or Pure Land recitation.Finally, Eichman allows for and acknowledges ambiguity in her sources, which results in a nuanced and complex rendering of religious thought and practice.' Beverley Foulks McGuire, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Journal of the American Oriental Society 137.4 (2017)

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Book SynopsisAlthough the development of a “popular” brand of Confucianism in China is today a massive phenomenon, research on the topic remains scarce. Based on fieldwork carried out by a team of scholars in different parts of the country, the ambition of The Varieties of Confucian Experience is to contribute to the limited body of ethnographic accounts that aim to document and understand the diversity of phenomena encapsulated under the label “Confucian revival” in the first two decades of the 21st century.Trade Review"As a significant contribution to the anthropological study of Confucianism, this volume informs the reader about the degree to which Confucianism matters in contemporary Chinese society." -Yang Chen, El Colegio de México, in Review of Religion and Chinese Society 6 (2019) 297-317Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Illustrations Contributors Introduction  Sébastien Billioud 1 The Birth of a New Religion: The Development of The Confucian Congregation in Southeast China  Chen Na, Fan Lizhu and Chen Jinguo 2 Making a Virtue of Piety: Dizigui and the Discursive Practice of Jingkong’s Network  Ji Zhe 汲喆 3 Popular Groups Promoting “The Religion of Confucius” in the Chinese Southwest and Their Activities since the Nineteenth Century (1840–2013): An Observation Centered on Yunnan’s Eryuan County and Environs  Wang Chien-Chuan 王見川 4 Belief and Faith: The Situation and Development of Confucianism in Yunnan Province  Chung Yun-ying 5 Civil Spirituality and Confucian Piety Today: The Activities of Confucian Temples in Qufu, Taipei, and Changchun  Nakajima Takahiro 6 The Revival of Traditional Culture and Religious Experience in Modern Urban Life: The Example of the Changchun Confucius Temple  Ishii Tsuyoshi 7 Contemporary Confucius Temples Life in Mainland China: Report from the Field  Anna Sun 8 Rites Bridging the Ancient and Modern: The Revival of Offerings at Urban Ancestral Temples  Chen Bisheng 9 An Adventure Called “Sishu”: The Tensions and Vagaries of a “Holistic” Educational Experience (zhengti jiaoyu) in Today’s Rural China  Guillaume Dutournier and Wang Yuchen 10 Confucian Revival and the Media: The CCTV “Lecture Room” Program  Fabrice Dulery Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEdited by Michael Hunter and Martin Kern and featuring contributions by preeminent scholars of early China, Confucius and the Analects Revisited: New Perspectives on Composition, Dating, and Authorship critically examines the long-standing debates surrounding the history of the Analects, for two millennia considered the most authoritative source of the teachings of Confucius (551–479 BCE). Unlike most previous scholarship, it does not take the traditional view of the Analects’ origins as given. Instead, it explores the validity and the implications of recent revisionist critiques from historical, philosophical, and literary perspectives, and further draws on recently discovered ancient manuscripts and new technological advances in the Digital Humanities. As such, it opens up new ways for productive engagement with the text. Contributors: Mark Csikszentmihalyi, Paul van Els, Robert Eno, Joachim Gentz, Paul R. Goldin, Michael Hunter, Martin Kern, Esther Klein, John Makeham, Matthias L. Richter.Table of ContentsContents List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Introduction  Michael Hunter and Martin Kern 1 A Critical Overview of Some Contemporary Chinese Perspectives on the Composition and Date of Lunyu  John Makeham 2 The Lunyuas an Accretion Text  Robert Eno 3 The Lunyuas Western Han Text  Michael Hunter 4 Confucius and His Disciples in the Lunyu: The Basis for the Traditional View  Paul R. Goldin 5 The Lunyu, a Homeless Dog in Intellectual History: On the Dating of Discourses on Confucius’s Success and Failure  Joachim Gentz 6 Confucius’s Sayings Entombed: On Two Han Dynasty Bamboo LunyuManuscripts  Paul van Els 7 Manuscript Formats and Textual Structure in Early China  Matthias L. Richter 8 Interlocutor Collections, the Lunyu, and Proto-Lunyu Texts  Mark Csikszentmihalyi 9 Sima Qian’s Kongzi and the Western Han Lunyu  Esther Klein 10 Kongzi as Author in the Han  Martin Kern Index >

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Book SynopsisFrom the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy. It also serves as the basis for an on-line Coursera course.Trade Review"The book is a fertile source of reliable information on many aspects of religious history." -Barbara Hendrischke, University of Sydney, in Religious Studies Review, Volume 45, Number 2, June 2019 'The book covers essentially all the main aspects of Chinese religiosity in a nutshell and it constitutes an invaluable guide for extant academic research on Chinese thought.' - R.Tatu, (Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, South Africa), Pharos Journal of Theology, 102 (2021). 'By preparing an invaluable synthetic overview that presents many of the field’s most important intellectual breakthroughs, Paradigm Shifts can help scholars take stock of where we stand as well as consider new directions for future research.' - Paul R. Katz, Academia Sinica, Taipei, T’oung Pao 105 (2019) 649-652. 'Quoi qu’il en soit, Paradigm Shifts est un livre brillant, utile et provocant, qui contribue à insérer l’étude des religions – et de la religion – chinoises dans une approche globale du fait religieux en régime de modernité et post-modernité.' - Benoît Vermander, Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 188 (2019), 353-356.

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Book SynopsisScience and Confucian Statecraft in East Asia explores science and technology as practiced in the governments of premodern China and Korea. Contrary to the stereotypical image of East Asian bureaucracy as a generally negative force having hindered free enquiries and scientific progress, this volume offers a more nuanced picture of how science and technology was deployed in the service of state governance in East Asia. Presenting richly documented cases of the major state-sponsored sciences, astronomy, medicine, gunpowder production, and hydraulics, this book illustrates how rulers’ and scholar-officials’ concern for efficient and legitimate governance shaped production, circulation, and application of natural knowledge and useful techniques. Contributors include: Francesca Bray, Christopher Cullen, Asaf Goldschmidt, Cho-ying Li, Jongtae Lim, Peter Lorge, Joong-Yang Moon, Kwon soo Park, Dongwon Shin, Pierre-Étienne WillTable of ContentsContents Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors  1 Introduction: Science and Confucian Statecraft in East Asia   Francesca Bray Part 1: Making State Sciences Work  2 Confucian Statecraft and the Production of Saltpeter and Sulfur in Song Dynasty China   Peter Lorge  3 Song Government and Medicine – the Case of the Imperial Pharmacy   Asaf Goldschmidt  4 Forensic Science and the Late Imperial Chinese State   Pierre-Étienne Will  5 Calendar Publishing and Local Science in Chosŏn Korea   Park Kwon Soo Part 2: State, Science, and Legitimacy  6 “As a Sage-king Reemerges, All Water Returns to Its Proper Path”: Xia Yuanji’s Water Management and the Legitimisation of the Yongle Reign   Cho-ying Li  7 Measuring the Rainfall in an East Asian State Bureaucracy: the Use of Rain-Measuring Utensils in Late Eighteenth-Century Korea   Lim Jongtae林宗台  8 Measures against Epidemics in Late Eighteenth-Century Korea: Reformation or Restoration?   Shin Dongwon  9 Delivering Whose Seasons? Non-state Knowledge of the Heavens in Early Imperial China, and Its Official Appropriation   Christopher Cullen  10 From Local Calendar (hyangnyŏk) to Eastern Calendar (tongnyŏk): the Aspiration for an Independent Calendar of the Kingdom in Late Chosŏn Korea   Moon Joong-Yang Index

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Book SynopsisThe fifteen studies presented inConfucian Academies in East Asia offer insight into the history and legacy of these unique institutions of knowledge and education. The contributions analyze origins, spread and development of Confucian academies across China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan from multiple perspectives. This edited volume is one of the first attempts to understand Confucian academies as a complex transnational, intellectual, and cultural phenomena that played an essential role in various areas of East Asian education, philosophy, religious practice, local economy, print industry, and even archery. The broad chronological range of essays allows it to demonstrate the role of Confucian academies as highly adaptable and active agents of cultural and intellectual change since the eighth century until today. An indispensable handbook for studies of Confucian culture and institutions since the eighth century until the present. Contributors are: Chien Iching, Chung Soon-woo, Deng Hongbo, Martin Gehlmann, Vladimír Glomb, Lan Jun, Lee Byoung-Hoon, Eun-Jeung Lee, Thomas H.C. Lee, Margaret Dorothea Mehl, Steven B. Miles, Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Nguyễn Tuấn-Cường, Linda Walton and Minamizawa Yoshihiko.

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Book SynopsisWAN Zhaoyuan analyses how Chinese intellectuals conceived of the relationship between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ through in-depth examination of the writings of Kang Youwei, a prominent political reformer and radical Confucian thinker, often referred to by his disciples as the ‘Martin Luther of Confucianism’. Confronted with the rise of scientism and challenged by the Conflict Thesis during his life among adversarial Chinese New Culture intellectuals, Kang maintains a holistic yet evolving conception of a compatible and complementary relationship between scientific knowledge and ‘true religion’ exemplified by his Confucian religion (kongjiao). This close analysis of Kang’s ideas contributes to a richer understanding of the history of science and religion in China and in a more global context.Table of ContentsForeword Notes and Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction  1 Definition of Terms  2 Science and Religion  3 ‘Studies of Half Kang’  4 Implications  5 Chapter Organization 1 A New Sage  1 Religious Leanings   1.1 Classical and Folk Beliefs   1.2 Buddhist Inspiration   1.3 Knowledge of Christianity  2 Scientific Pursuits   2.1 The Window of Geography   2.2 Book Purchase at Shanghai   2.3 Gleaning from Translations  3 Enlightenment   3.1 Universal Laws   3.2 Unity of Shangdi (God) 2 The Confucian Luther  1 A Memorial to the Throne   1.1 Countering Christian Threats  2 An Unconventional Teacher   2.1 Western Sciences   2.2 Chinese Origins   2.3 Cosmic Evolution  3 Recasting Confucianism   3.1 Restoring the Religion of Confucius   3.2 Reform and a Confucian Church  4 Knowledge Is One   4.1 A Three-Tiered System   4.2 Harmonizing the Three Religions   4.3 A Monistic Philosophy 3 The Great Unity  1 Confucian Reinterpretation Completed   1.1 Confucius as a Divine Teacher   1.2 Scientific Notions Appropriated   1.3 In the Future World of Datong  2 Liang’s ‘Change of Heart’   2.1 Confucianism Not a Religion   2.2 Buddhism a Better Choice  3 Observations during World Travels   3.1 Reflections on Religions   3.2 Shendao and Rendao   3.3 On Material Reconstruction 4 A State Religion  1 A ‘Titular Monarchical Republic’  2 The Confucian Movement   2.1 Chen’s Presentation   2.2 The Confucian Religion Association   2.3 The State Religion Campaign  3 In the Name of Science   3.1 Religion and Superstition   3.2 Scientism versus Religion   3.3 Looking for Substitutes 5 A Celestial Wanderer  1 Science versus Metaphysics  2 A Lecture Tour to the North   2.1 The Confucian Way   2.2 The Power of Science  3 Celestial Peregrination   3.1 Lectures on the Heavens   3.2 A Treatise on God  4 The Fate of Kang’s Skull Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis innovative volume demonstrates how and to what ends the writings of Xiong Shili, Ma Yifu, Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan adopted and repurposed conceptual models derived from the Buddhist text Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith. It shows which of the philosophical positions defended by these New Confucian philosophers were developed and sustained through engagement with the critical challenges advanced by scholars who attacked the Treatise. It also examines the extent to which twentieth-century New Confucians were aware of their intellectual debt to the Treatise and explains how they reconciled this awareness with their Confucian identity.Trade Review"The idea that Buddhism played a key role in the development of New Confucianism has long prevailed in academia, but it is not until recent years that such an idea has been critically studied through a series of monographs, mainly published by Brill. This book is one of the excellent works concerning such an important topic... This edited book does a great job of investigating the complex subject of the relationships between the Treatise on Awakening Mahayana Faith and New Confucianism. Drawing a clearer conclusion on this complicated topic will therefore become possible in the future, based on the finding of this excellent book." -King Pong Chiu, Philosophy East & West, Vol. 72, No. 3, July 2022.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Introduction: The Awakening of Faith and New Confucian Philosophy  John Makeham 1 Setting the Scene: The Different Perspectives of Yang Wenhui and Ouyang Jingwu on the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith as an Authoritative Statement of Mahāyāna Doctrine  John Jorgensen 2 Debates over the Buddhist Orthodoxy of the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith in the 1920s: The Monk Taixu versus the Layman Wang Enyang  John Jorgensen 3 The Role of the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith in the Development of Xiong Shili’s Ti-Yong Metaphysics  Sang Yu 桑雨 4 Xiong Shili and the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith as Revealed in Record to Destroy Confusion and Make My Tenets Explicit  John Makeham 5 Xiong Shili’s Ti-Yong Metaphysics and the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith’s “One Mind, Two Gateways” Paradigm  John Makeham 6 The “Three Greats,” “Three Changes” and “Six Arts” – Lessons Drawn from the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith in Ma Yifu’s New Confucian Thought  Liu Leheng 劉樂恒 7 Being, Seeing, and Believing: Ontological, Epistemological, and Soteriological Commitments in Tang Junyi’s Reading of the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith  Ady Van den Stock 8 “Authentic Feeling” and the “Two Gateways” and “Three Greats”: Tang Junyi and the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith  Liu Leheng 劉樂恒 9 The Supreme Penultimate: The Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith According to Mou Zongsan  Jason T. Clower 10 The Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith and Philosophy of Subjectivity in Modern East Asia: An Investigation Centered on the Debate between the China Institute of Inner Learning and the New Confucians  Lin Chen-kuo 林鎮國

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Book SynopsisThis book attempts a comparative study between Zhu Xi (1130-1200), a Neo-Confucian master of the Song dynasty in China, and Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), a scholastic and mystic in the medieval West. With a focus on the theme of human intellect as presented in the works of the two thinkers, this study also explores the massive hermeneutical framework in which that concept is unfolded in Zhu Xi and in Eckhart. Thus, the complexity of each thinker's understanding of the human intellect is demonstrated in its own context, and the common themes between them are discussed in their own terms. Based on a systematic study of the original texts, the comparison between Zhu Xi and Meister Eckhart goes much deeper than a general dialogue between East and West. The comparative model of this book, based strictly on textual study, aims to develop an in-depth communication between a scholastic Confucian mind and his equally sophisticated counterpart in Christendom, in the hope that the intellectual brilliance and spiritual splendour of one thinker will be illuminated by the light of the other. Probably only when one encounters a like-minded counterpart brought up in a totally different tradition will such a mutual illumination become meaningful.

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Book SynopsisIn mainstream assessments of Confucianism’s modern genealogy there is a Sinocentric bias which is, in part, the result of a general neglect of modern Japanese Confucianism by political and moral philosophers and intellectual historians during the post-war era. This collection of essays joins a small group of other studies bringing modern Japanese Confucianism to international scholarly notice, largely covering the time period between the Bakumatsu era of the mid-19th century and the 21st century. The essays in this volume can be read for the insight they provide into the intellectual and ideological proclivities of reformers, educators and philosophers explicitly reconstructing Confucian thought, or more tacitly influenced by it, during critical phases in Japan’s modernization, imperialist expansionism and post-1945 reconstitution as a liberal democratic polity. They can be read as introductions to the ideas of modern Japanese Confucian thinkers and reformers whose work is little known outside Japan—and sometimes barely remembered inside Japan. They can also be read as a needful corrective to the above-mentioned Sinocentric bias in the 20th century intellectual history of Confucianism. For those Confucian scholars currently exploring how Confucianism is, or can be made compatible with democracy, at least some of the studies in this volume serve as a warning. They enjoin readers to consider how Confucianism was also rendered compatible with the authoritarian ultranationalism and militarism that captured Japan’s political system in the 1930s, and brought war to the Asia-Pacific region.Trade Review"[...] Handbook of Confucianism in Modern Japan unquestionably stands as the newest must-read for those seriously interested in more than the old clichés about Confucianism being at best irrelevant for and at worst, antithetical to Japanese modernity. The essays presented, erudite and innovative, collectively advance a decidedly new wave in scholarship on Japanese Confucianism. Hopefully the multiple voices raised in Handbook will continue to contribute to well balanced discussions regarding the multifaceted legacies of Confucianism in modern Japan and beyond." - John A. Tucker, International Journal of Asian Studies, June 2022Table of ContentsContributors Preface - Shaun O’Dwyer Introduction - Shaun O’Dwyer 1 Reinterpreting Matsumiya Kanzan: On the Interval between State Shint. and the Idea of the Three Religions - Song Qi (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 2 The Confucian Classics in the Political Thought of Sakuma Sh.zan - Han Shuting (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 3 The Confucian Traits Featuring in the Meiroku Zasshi - Lee Yu-Ting 4 The Invention of "Chinese Philosophy": How Did the Classics Take Root in Japan’s First Modern University? - Mizuno Hirota (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 5 Inoue Tetsujiro and Modern Yangming Learning in Japan - Yamamura Sho (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 6 Kokumin Dotoku for Women: Shimoda Utako in the Taisho Era - Masako N Racel 7 Modern Contextual Turns from "The Kingly Way" to "The Imperial Way" - Chang Kun-chiang (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 8 The Discourse on Imperial Way Confucian Thought: The Link between Daito Bunka Gakuin and Chos.n Gyunghakwon - Kang Haesoo (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 9 The Image of the Kingly Way during the War: Focusing on Takada Shinji’s Imperial Way Discourse - Park Junhyun (Translated by Ruth and John McCreery) 10 Watsuji Tetsuro’s Confucian Bonds: From Totalitarianism to New Confucianism - Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth 11 Thinking about Confucianism and Modernity in the Early Postwar Period: Watsuji Tetsuro’s The History of Ethical Thought in Japan - Alexandra Mustatea 12 Yasuoka Masahiro and the Survival of Confucianism in Postwar Japan, 1945–1983 - Eddy Dufourmont 13 Universalizing "Kingly Way" Confucianism: A Japanese Legacy and Chinese Future? - Jiang Dongxian and Shaun O’Dwyer Bibliography Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisThe Confucian revival which manifests itself in the Modern Confucian current, belongs to the most important streams of thought in contemporary Chinese philosophy. This book introduces this stream of thought by focusing on the second generation Modern Confucians—Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi, Xu Fuguan and Fang Dongmei. They argue thattraditional Confucianism, as a specifically Chinese social, political, and moral system of thought can, if adapted to the modern era, serve as the foundation for an ethicallymeaningful modern life.

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Book SynopsisConfucianism, Chinese History and Society is a collection of essays authored by world renowned scholars on Chinese studies, including Professor Ho Peng Yoke (Needham Research Institute), Professor Leo Ou-fan Lee (Harvard University), Professor Philip Y S Leung (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Professor Liu Ts'un-Yan (Australian National University), Professor Tu Wei-Ming (Harvard University), Professor Wang Gungwu (National University of Singapore) and Professor Yue Daiyun (Peking University). The volume covers many important themes and topics in Chinese Studies, including the Confucian perspective on human rights, Nationalism and Confucianism, Confucianism and the development of Science in China, crisis and innovation in contemporary Chinese cultures, plurality of cultures in the context of globalization, and comparative study of the city cultures in modern China. These essays were originally delivered at the Professor Wu Teh Yao Memorial Lectures. Wu Teh Yao (1917-1994) was an educator, political scientist, specialist in Confucianism and original drafter of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Table of ContentsA Confucian Perspective on Human Rights (Tu Wei-Ming); Nationalism and Confucianism (Wang Gungwu); Did Confucianism Hinder the Development of Science in China? (Ho Peng Yoke); East meets West: The Impact on China and her Response (Liu Ts'un-Yan); Across Translingual Landscape: Crisis and Innovation in Contemporary Chinese Cultures (Leo Ou-fan Lee); Zheng He: Navigator, Discoverer and Diplomat (Chin Ling-Yeong); Plurality of Cultures in the Context of Globalization and a New Perspective of Comparative Literature (Yue Daiyun); The Scientific Merit of Educational Studies (Cho-Yee To); In the Beginning: Searching for Childhood in Chinese History and Philosophy (Hsiung Ping-Chen); The Walls and Waters: A Comparative Study of the City Cultures in Modern China - Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (Philip Y S Leung).

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Book SynopsisConfucianism is the guiding creed for a quarter of mankind, yet hardly anyone has explained it in plain terms — until now. Written in a style both intelligible and enjoyable for the global audience, The Great Equal Society distils the core ideas of the major Confucian classics and shows how their timeless wisdom can be applied to the modern world. It also introduces pragmatic suggestions emanating from Confucius and his followers for ensuring good governance, building a humane economy and educating moral leaders.The book's core message of inner morality, first expounded by Confucius millennia ago, will resonate on both sides of the Pacific, and its sweeping survey of the hot topics today — dysfunctional government, crony capitalism, and the erosion of ethics in both Wall Street and Main Street, among others — will breathe new life to Confucian teachings while providing much-needed answers to our urgent social problems.The Great Equal Society is written by Young-oak Kim, a Korean thinker whom Wikipedia describes as “the nation's leading philosopher dealing with public issues and explaining Oriental philosophy to the public,” and Jung-kyu Kim, a talented trilingual writer who has published works in English, Japanese and Korean.Table of ContentsDefinition of the Great Equal Society; Retrenchment of Social Values in Both East and West; Restoring Inner Morality in the Age of Scientific Materialism; Proposals for Better Government; Whether Democracy is for China; Addressing Corruption and Crony Capitalism; Dehumanizing Forces of Market Competition; Proposals for Building a Humane Economy; Reining in the Competition for Higher Educational Credentials; Confucian Theory of Lifelong Self-Cultivation; Key Features of the New "China Model"; Diplomacy for a Great Nation; How China Can Save the Earth; Illustration of the Great Equal Society in the Modern Context.

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Book SynopsisWhat Is Confucian Philosophy?.- Why Should We Study Confucian Philosophy?.- The Research Methods of Confucian Philosophy.- A Brief Account of Confucian Changes for 2,500 Years (I).- A Brief Account of Confucian Changes for 2,500 Years (II).- The Crucial Issues of Confucian Philosophy.

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