Confucian Ideas Research Articles

Peculiarity of the Concept of Liberation in Vietnamese Buddhism

One of the most important concepts of Buddhism is the idea of liberation, on the basis of which Buddhist ethical thought was built. Vietnamese monks defined the concept of liberation in their works and strove to put it into practice during a long historical time. Along with taking the "Noble Eightfold Path" of Mahayana Buddhism as the basis, the unique feature of the idea of liberation of Vietnamese Buddhism is that it is simultaneously influenced by both Chinese Buddhism and the ideas of Confucianism and Taoism. The authors analyze the concept of liberation in Vietnamese Buddhism by three main ideas: liberation as a revelation of the Buddha in self-awareness; liberation as self-reflection; release, requiring a positive incarnation in life. Peculiarity of the liberation concept in Vietnamese Buddhism is the spirit of "unconcern" (absence of the fear before samsara), unconditional (independence from writings, dogmas, words), embodiments (harmony with life, making people free from sufferings caused by war and acts of nature), "turn inside" (looking into the heart in searches of liberation) and "a direction outside" (liberation of the people, the country). The Vietnamese Zen-Buddhism asserts, that the way of liberation is an experience of acceptance by each person of absolute truth in the consciousness. The purpose of liberation is the nirvana surpassing all dualistic contradictions. Liberation is the returning to Buddha in the heart. Paying attention to a social origin of suffering, heart of the monk really released only then when people and the country do not suffer any more, do not live in misery. The unique features of the Vietnamese Buddhism in many respects define by synthesizing of three religions values: an idea on renunciation - from Taoism, spiritual practice - from Mahayana Buddhism and spirit of an embodiment through sociopolitical activity - from Confucianism. Whereupon Mahayana Zen-Buddhism keeps the forming role.

판소리계 소설의 군자 ․ 보살형 인물을 통한 조선후기 소설 독자의 가치관 고찰

흔히 우리나라 대다수의 고소설이 가진 주제를 ‘권선징악’이라 말한다. 본 연구는 이러한 ‘권선징악’적 주제의 연원에 유 · 불사상이 핵심적으로 자리매김하고 있음을 밝히고자 한다. 판소리계 소설은 조선 후기 전 계층의 사랑을 받은 국민 예술인 판소리의 내용을 소설화한 작품 계열이다. 당대 독자들에게 널리 읽히려면 심미적, 이념적으로 당대 독자들의 가치관과 맞아떨어져야 했을 것이다. 따라서 조선시대에 향유된 그 어떤 소설보다도 당대 독자들의 요구와 기대에 밀접하였을 것이다. 판소리계 소설에서 형상화된 인물과 주제의식은 결국 조선후기 한국인들의 가치관의 지표를 보여준다고 할 수 있다.BR 본 연구는 한국사회에 유입되어 오래 전부터 가치관 형성에 심대한 영향을 끼친 유학과 불교의 인간관과 세계관을 살펴 그 공통점을 정리하여 본 연구의 이론적 배경을 마련하고, 이를 바탕으로 판소리계 소설의 인물의 형상화 측면에서 유 · 불사상과의 관련성을 분석하고자 한다. 그리고 이러한 유 · 불사상이 작품의 주제형성에 어떻게 기여하는지 종합해보고자 한다.BR인간을 바라보는 유학과 불교의 공통점은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 인간의 본성을 긍정적으로 인식한다. 둘째, 악행의 원인은 인간의 생래적, 감각적 욕구로 인한 것이라고 본다. 셋째, 이는 노력을 통해 회복이 가능하다고 본다. 유학에서의 이상적 인간상은 군자이며, 불교에서의 이상적 인간상은 보살이다. 이들은 자신의 감각적인 부분을 잘 조절하고, 끊임없는 수양을 통해 이를 잘 제거해 나가는 존재이다. 이 과정을 통해 ‘보편적인 나’의 모습과 ‘개별적인 나’의 모습을 최대한 일치시키려 노력한다.BR 판소리계 소설에서 본성을 잘 보존하여 군자의 풍모를 보여주는 인물은 흥부, 춘향, 청이다. 반면 본성 회복에 실패한 인물은 변학도와 퇴별가에 등장하는 용왕, 별주부, 토끼이다. 상에 집착하지 않는 무아를 실현한 인물은 흥부와 심청이며 상에 집착하는 인물은 놀부와 변학도, 퇴별가에 등장하는 인물들이다. 바람직한 인물들은 군자와 보살의 조건에 일치하였으며 작품의 세세한 부분에서 그러한 면모를 유감없이 드러내었다. 반면 그렇지 못한 인물들 역시 칠정에 치우쳐 본성을 회복하지 못하거나 상에 집착하는 모습을 보여주어 바람직한 인물들을 부각시켜 줌으로써 작품의 주제형성에 기여하였다.BR 지금까지 판소리계 소설 개별 작품에 대한 유교적, 불교적 주제 도출 연구는 숱하게 있어왔지만, 유 · 불사상 간의 공통점에 입각하여 판소리계 소설 갈래 전체와 이의 관련성을 규명하려는 시도는 거의 있지 않았다. 판소리계 소설은 서민층이 창조하고 주도적으로 향유하였다는 인상이 강하여 기존의 유학과의 관련성은 이후 양반계층의 취향이 반영된 것이라 본 의견이 지배적이었다. 그러나 작품 속 인물들의 정치(精緻)한 작품 분석을 통해 양반층 뿐 아니라 서민층까지도 마음 속 깊숙이 유 · 불사상의 가치관을 긍정하며 이에 호응하고 있다는 사실을 도출할 수 있다. 본 연구는 우리 민족이 광범위하게 향유한 문화 자산인 판소리계 소설의 기저에 유 · 불사상이 광범위하게 자리했다는 점을 규명하였다는 점에서 의의가 있다고 본다.

Confucian Entrepreneurship: Towards a Genealogy of a Conceptual Tool

AbstractThe concept of the ‘Confucian Entrepreneur’ is now used by many scholars to understand entrepreneurship in China and other East Asian countries. This paper traces the development of this concept from its roots in the writings of nineteenth‐century Western authors to its use in modern management journals. We show that while this conceptual tool has been adapted over time, the claims associated with it have remained largely similar. Use of the term Confucian entrepreneur implies belief that Confucian ideas induce Chinese entrepreneurs to behave differently than their Western counterparts, a claim for which the empirical foundations are weak. We do not go so far as to say that those who research Chinese entrepreneurship should discard the concept of the Confucian entrepreneur simply because of its historical origins in colonialism. However, we do call on researchers to reflect on the historical origins of their conceptual tools. By historicising our theories of entrepreneurship, this paper should encourage greater scholarly reflexivity and thus the development of entrepreneurship and management theory with greater predictive power.

Political Equality, Confucian Meritocracy, and Citizenly Participation: A Reflection

This article presents a comparative study of Confucian meritocratic ideas, alongside modern democratic theories pertaining to political equality. It argues that the main premises that are often deployed to justify the incompatibility between Confucian meritocracy and political equality from the perspective of a democratic procedural view of political equality and social equality are not self-evidently true. In doing so, this article philosophically illustrates the value of a Confucian meritocratic view of political equality; such a meritocratic view is founded upon the early Confucian ideas of junzi 君子, ren 仁 and the “extension of love.”

조선 초기 문묘제례(文廟祭禮)의 일무(佾舞) 복식 연구

Munmyo is a Shrine for Confucius and great Confucianist, and it is a shrine to honor of their achievements and study. Ilmu of Munmyojere is a kind of ritual dance and it contains Confucian decorums and music. Ilmu, ritual dance which had stemed from ‘The six great dance of ancient[육대대무]’ of Zhou Dynasty and it was introduced in Korea with ‘Daesungaak[대성아악]’ of the Song Dynasty on the King Yejong of Goryeo Dynasty in 1116. The core significance and concept of this ritual is audiovisually expressed as through the ‘Ak[악(樂)] the integrated concept of music, singing and dancing. Music and songs which it played during the ritual procedures are auditory expressions and Ilmu is a visual representation. Through these audiovisual expressions, Confucian scholar tried to enlighten people and unify society with Confucian ideas and philosophies. According to the results of research of the Ilmu costume at the early Joseon Dynasty, it was quite different from that of Ilmu, which is currently performed. Originally, Ilmu costume of Munmyojere Consists of black colored Jojusam[조주삼], Baekjujungdan[백주중단], Baekjugo[백주고], Geumdonghyeokdae[금동혁대], Baekpomal[벡포말], Opiri[오피리]. The differences of Munmu and Mumu costume are only seen in the official cap and props. I hope that this research will contribute to the development of Munmyojere, and also more related research will continue in the future.

Harmony as an Ethical and Political Idea

Although the idea of harmony is one of the basic Confucian ideas, two of its key classic authors, Mengzi and Xunzi, emphasised either the ethical-personal or socio-political aspects, respectively, and this contrast was only maintained and deepened in later Chinese history. The socio-political considerations of harmony often considers an ideal state of community to be static, with social and ethical states being preserved, rather than dynamic. On the other hand, personal and spiritual harmony was valued by artists and autonomous thinkers, which often found themselves in conflict with the state. However, an open conflict between these two lines of thought very seldom if at all appeared in traditional China, and thus the differences often remained implicit. A self-cultivated individual without external social support was condemned to social isolation and personal defeat. Even among contemporary Chinese Marxist politicians and theorists, the idea of a “harmonious society” follows Xunzi’s rather legalist emphasis, even if (in Marx view) the term “social harmony” stands for some surface phenomena of seemingly harmonious societal interrelationship, covering up the brutal reality of social and economic contradictions. I argue that not only in China, but also elsewhere, a better balance is needed between the personal and the social ideas of harmony. However, manifesting harmony can become something worthwhile only if it becomes a part of a broader project, namely that of active solidarity based on the reciprocal and universal cultivation of personal dignity and virtuous humaneness.

Logic of the confucianist discourse and philosophy of Imanuel Kant in the modern context

The paper suggests an analysis of the Confucian discourse and its logic through the prism of the M. McLuhan’s conception of the visual and audio-tactile cultures. Parallels between the Confucian ethics and that of I. Kant are led. There is asserted that the Confucian and Kantian ethics developed in different outlook context and on different cultural grounds, the latter doesn’t prevent them to pull together their positions in modern culture. In classical Confucianism we have the case of magical thinking, that exceeded from the so-called organismic outlook, according to which the Universe is something like a gigantic organism, every person, animal or other living creature is some sort of organ of this organism. Every organ has its proper place and function, the same concerns humans who, being parts of the Universe organism, have also their proper place and duties or, how it was called in China, their proper Tao. When everyone follows one’s tao anything in the Sublunar world goes in piece and harmony. All problems of social and natural character are caused by that some people got away from their tao, from their duties. Humans can become the humans only in society where some hierarchies and duties are supposed and members of the society are obliged to follow them. That means it is necessary to follow duty in order to be human. The philosophy of Kant, unlike that of Confucius, developed in quite another context, the context of rational culture of the visual type of perception. The result the Kant’s philosophy came in the sphere of ethics are similar to those of Confucianism. Both Kant and Confucianism affirm variants of the ethics of duty. But negating cosmological metaphysics, Kant deduces the latter from the reason itself, the famous categorical imperative prescribe to behave in accordance with norms that could become foundation of common legislacy. From here the problem of transition from the reason to outer reality arises. The problem, from attempts to solve that as a matter of fact, all later the so-called German classical philosophy developed. However, the answers given in its frame turned out to be not legitimite in the frame of the visual culture. In this context the ideas of Confucianism may be an alternative foundation to the ethics of duty.

ВСТАВНЫЕ КОНСТРУКЦИИ КАК ОТРАЖЕНИЕ ОЦЕНКИ ИНФОРМАЦИИ В РУССКОЙ И КИТАЙСКОЙ ПУБЛИЦИСТИКЕ

The article presents the results of comparative analysis of the parentheses usage as a way to convey expressiveness and emotional evaluation in Russian and Chinese journalistic texts in linguocultural and cognitive aspects. The study was conducted based on the material of the bilingual journal Russia and China , providing all texts in two languages; the material was taken from the issues of 2009–2016. The attention is focused on considering the degree of manifestation of subjective beginnings, which can be seen in the usage of emotionally-expressive parentheses in original and translated texts, in the communication of information in texts of different genres, and also in identifying the reasons for the transfer of different units of information by means of parentheses. The analysis of texts of various journalistic genres revealed the following: firstly, the constructions in question are mainly used in texts that allow the manifestation of the subjective beginning (essays, interviews and analytical articles); secondly, based on the analysis of the usage context of emotionally expressive parentheses, we determined the specificity of their usage in relation to the features of the media in both countries and the ethno-psychological characteristics of the writers. The analysis showed a more frequent usage of emotionally expressive parentheses in Russian texts compared to Chinese. This fact reflects the different positions of authors and translators in connection with the different traditions of journalism and features of the national mentality: due to the democratization of Russian society, parentheses in Russian texts are common means to openly express evaluation of the facts, while Chinese texts are characterized by the reserved language behavior of the translator / author when conveying information in accordance with the strict control of the PRC government over the media and the strong influence of the Confucian idea of the ‘golden mean’.

The Introduction of Minbenzhuyi and the Return of Its Traditional Chinese Meaning

The concepts of Minben , Minbensixiang , and Minbenzhuyi are rather popular in current Chinese discourse. However, “Minben” was hardly found in Chinese ancient literature as a noun. Around the year of 1916, “Minbenzhuyi” became widely accepted in Japanese intellectual circles, interpreted as one of the Japanese versions of democracy. In 1917, “Minbenzhuyi” was transferred to China as a loanword by Li Dazhao and developed into one of the Chinese definitions of democracy. Nevertheless, Chen Duxiu questioned the meaning of the term in 1919. It was not until 1922 did Liang Qichao bring Minbenzhuyi back into Chinese context and conduct a systematic analysis, which had a lasting impact on Chinese intellectual community. In the following 20 years, Minbenzhuyi was largely accepted in two different senses: 1) interpreted as Chinese definition of democracy; 2) specifically refers to the Confucian idea of “Minshiminting and Minguijunqing (;, ) Gradually, it became evident that Minbenzhuyi in China had grown distant from the meaning of democracy and returned to its traditional Confucian values.

Missing Links in The China Model

Missing Links in The China Model Chenyang Li (bio) Daniel A. Bell's recent book The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy makes a significant contribution to political theory, political philosophy, and China studies. The book has already drawn a variety of responses (e.g., see Bai 2016, He et al. 2016, Nathan 2015, and Horesh 2016), some of which I believe are due to utter misreadings and misunderstandings. It is therefore important for us to spell out explicitly what kind of work we are dealing with here before we dive into other substantive issues. We should not take this book as an apologetics for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) even though it offers both positive and negative assessments of the Chinese communist regime, as any fair-minded work should. There is a tendency among scholars to avoid discussing certain topics in order not to be perceived as politically motivated to help governments with a less than commendable reputation. For example, when the Chinese government was [End Page 568] using harmony as a leading motif for policies, while some people would say anything in praise of harmony in order to please the government, there were also many who chose to turn their back on topics related to harmony in order to avoid being perceived as dancing to the music of the government. So the bandwagon goes both ways. This is unfortunate because scholarship should retain its own integrity and should not be influenced by politics. Professional ethics requires academics to say what a thing is as it is, regardless of what the government says or wishes us to say or not to say. In our case here, if we shy away from speaking positively of Chinese political meritocracy just to avoid being perceived as sleeping in the same bed as the Chinese government, which after all has a questionable reputation to say the least, we fail our professional responsibilities as serious academics. In the case of the CCP and China, I think the fact that the CCP survived the catastrophic Cultural Revolution and the devastating backlash of the June 4th incident in 1989 demands that serious scholars find out what the CCP did right more than what it did wrong. I am not saying that scholars should speak positively of political meritocracy even if they do not believe in it. However, if one studies political meritocracy and believes in its positive value, he or she should speak up, regardless of whether the Chinese communist government practices it well or not, and if the Chinese communist government does well as a political meritocracy we should find out more about this. Contrary to those accusing Bell as an apologist for the Chinese communist government, I think his book is a testimony both to Bell's integrity as a serious scholar and to his personal courage. Let me be explicit in saying that I am sympathetic to an integrated model of democracy and political meritocracy. I do not agree with a rather widespread assumption that the more democratic a society is the better it is. Besides the general and empty notion of "good," there is hardly anything of which it can be said that the more of it there is the better. Michael Sandel (1998) has argued that the appropriate amount of justice in a society depends on the circumstances of justice. Similarly, I believe the appropriate amount of democracy in a society depends on the circumstances of democracy. The circumstances of democracy should include the need for meritocracy in society. As Bell maintains, there should be a balance between democracy and meritocracy. However, I argue that Bell's model needs to be strengthened in two major areas. First, it lacks a mechanism of checks and balances on political power. Second, as a Confucian thinker, Bell needs to integrate (more of) the Confucian idea of "governance by virtue" into his model. Confucian governance by virtue is not merely about virtuous rulers; it is also about fostering a culture of virtuous behavior in government as well as in society at large. Let me first turn to the issue of checks and balances in government. After arguing for the need of both...

КОНФУЦІАНСЬКІ ПРИНЦИПИ В ПРАКТИЦІ ДЕРЖАВНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ В ПЕРІОД "РЕФОРМ І ВІДКРИТОСТІ"

The article reveals the historical stages of the use of the Confucian principles in the system of public administration in the People's Republic of China during the period of reforms and openness and its positive consequences in the case of modernization reforms. It is shown that conversion to Confucianism as an ideological and value-based belief system, which is historically traditional for the Chinese society, was caused by the discrepancy between the preserved official Marxist ideology and the contemporary need for the development and modernization of the society. The implementation of Confucian ideas into the practice of state administration served as an effective vaccination against the spread of Western, liberal values which was possible, in the conditions of the market functioning, and the connected with its formation of a civil society separate from the state. It also served as an effective tool for ensuring social stability in the transitive period. The consequence of this was the strengthening of the social mobilization of the people of the People's Republic of China and the consolidation of Chinese society.

Study of the Effect of Chinese Confucian Ideas on Korean Youth Education and Culture and Teaching Method – Based on the Data of University Students

Study of the Effect of Chinese Confucian Ideas on Korean Youth Education and Culture and Teaching Method – Based on the Data of University Students

Governing the Neighborhood with Confucian Ideas

Attributes of communities have long been considered a major influence on people's self-organized governing behavior (Ostrom 2005). Does Confucianism, a widely shared set of traditional ideas, inform Chinese homeowners in governing their neighborhoods? Based on in-depth interviews with 27 homeowner association (HOA) organizers from 16 neighborhoods in Beijing, we found evidence suggesting that their governing behaviors were informed by traditional Confucian conceptual distinctions and normative expectations: Stringent expectations were found on HOA organizers to serve with purely “public” motives and renounce “private” ones; neighborhood management, meanwhile, was not merely considered as a means for improving living conditions, but a patriotic act of serving the country. Arguably, these meanings corresponded to the Confucian ideal of junzi and its guide to moral cultivation. They helped sustain homeowners’ participation and promote a social norm that maintained accountability for their behaviors. The findings suggest further research on neighborhood governance, and contribute to the reforming governance of contemporary China.

Global Ambitions: Internationalization and China’s Rise as Knowledge Hub

The four decades since reform and opening up have seen dramatic changes in China’s higher education system. Focusing on international dimensions, the analysis supports the view that reform and opening up was not merely an economic and political reform, but an opening of the mind to the outside world, after the disaster of the Cultural Revolution. But it is important to be reminded that China’s relations with the outside world have a much longer history, with the spread of Confucian ideas to East and Southeast Asia, and the importation of Buddhism from ancient India; both during the Tang dynasty. The article points to key ongoing debates in China about the extent to which it can incorporate ideas from outside, while still retaining a Chinese essence. The rise of China as a knowledge hub and destination for international students is also charted, and the prospects for further development are assessed.

A Truly Ancient “Great Divergence”––A New History of the Chinese State

Zhao provides a new view of why China remained politically united, but unable to achieve industrialization. He traces the roots of both conditions back to the Warring States period, when Chinese leaders developed authoritarian-bureaucratic governance and combined it with Confucian moral ideas and statecraft as a legitimating ideology. This Confucian-legalist state structure proved resilient enough to hold China together despite changes of dynasty, foreign invasions, the incursion of Buddhism, and heterodox ideas. Zhao argues that this stable state structure also precluded industrialization, because it marginalized commercial thinking and allowed no space for autonomous merchant organizations or other corporate or privileged bodies. This is a valuable and impressive overview of Chinese history; but European and Chinese histories themselves need to be viewed as embedded in global history. In this context, Europeans' awareness of their technical backwardness compared to China, and differences in the evolution of classical thought in Europe vs. the evolution of Confucianism in China, are also necessary to explain why Europe was able to industrialize but China was not.

A Study on Yi I’s Chun-yan : Deletion and Transformation for Lao-zi

As Chun-yan departed from traditional comprehension about Lao-zi, through Yi I’s distinctive way of thinking, he selectively deleted and transformed from the concepts of Lao-zi. By applying this result to philosophical idea of Confucianism, he interpreted the concepts of Lao-zi. It can be seen as a loss of original features of Lao-zi, but ultimately represented obvious possibility of yi-ru-jie-lao(以儒解老). However, why we stand the position of yi-ru-jie-lao for comprehension of Chun-yan? From the results of this study, the following bases are found : Chun-yan did not completely recognize the ideological system of Lao-zi, but also not affirm that Confucianism and Taoism can communicate equally. It showed that current scholars’ interpretation about Chun-yan─rudao tongyuan(儒道同源), huitong(會通), rongtong(融通), miaohe(妙合), jiaoshe(交涉)─is emphasized to the equal relation, and this already exceeded beyond Yi I’s fundamental stance called yi-ru-jie-lao. Therefore, yi-ru-jie-lao of Yi I is reinterpreted as follows : Yi I premised that there were philosophical differences between Confucianism and Taoism, but at the same time he transformed the contents of Lao-zi with the ideas like as daoti(道體), xinti(心體), xiuji zhiren(修己治人) and etc. Consequently, it is indicated that Yi I emphasized actual utility that Lao-zi suggested through the stance of yi-ru-jie-lao and, by extension, represented an unconventional way to reinterpret and grope for Lao-zi.

Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History by Kiri Paramore

Reviewed by: Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History by Kiri Paramore Samuel Hideo Yamashita (bio) Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History. By Kiri Paramore. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016. xx, 231 pages. $99.99, cloth; $29.99, paper; $24.00, E-book. At first glance, Kiri Paramore’s Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History struck me as a throwback, a cross between Arthur Lovejoy’s The Great Chain of Being and John Whitney Hall’s Government and Local Power in Japan. Like Lovejoy’s work, Paramore’s book follows a single topic, Japanese Confucianism, from its origins to the present, tracking its different manifestations over time. This book also is reminiscent of Hall’s Government and Local Power in Japan, which traces a single theme, institutional life in Bizen Province from antiquity to 1700, and relies almost exclusively on Japanese scholarship. Writing at a time when comparative history was becoming fashionable, Hall used Max Weber’s theory of rationalization to frame his material. Like Hall, Paramore relies heavily on Japanese scholarship, but his inspiration, he tells us, was studies of “world Christianities” (p. 7) that helped him see that “Confucianism is therefore best analyzed over the longue durée utilizing the plurality that its history possesses” (p. 6). Writing after the linguistic turn, he is also less interested in a single Confucian idea or a unitary Confucianism than in “multiple Confucianisms” (p. 2). Paramore’s book opens with a discussion of what he terms “Confucianism as cultural capital.” He starts at the beginning of Confucianism’s history in Japan when it was introduced by Wani, a “Confucian professor” (p. 16) from Paekche, in 402 ce. Confucianism was imported, he tells us, together with the institutions from China and the states on the Korean peninsula, and was adopted in the seventh and eighth centuries. Based on the Han dynastic state (206 bce–220 ce), this model had both Confucian and Legalist aspects, which Paramore characterizes as “conciliatory” and “coercive,” respectively [End Page 186] (p. 20). If Confucianism’s position in the new Chinese-style state was “passive” (p. 24), it was a reflection of its weakened and diminished position in the Sui and Tang states from which it was introduced. Paramore then moves on to medieval Japan, when Confucianism’s standing changed, owing to its place in the intellectual and cultural life of the Five Mountain Zen Buddhist establishments. A new variety of Confucianism was imported from China, one that had emerged as a response to the metaphysical and ethical challenges of Buddhism and Daoism in the Tang and Song dynasties in China and is known conventionally as Neo-Confucianism. The result, Paramore argues, following William Bodiford, was that Confucianism moved beyond its “sequestered and bureaucratic character” (p. 27) to have a broader social impact, influencing funeral rites, village life, and samurai households. Paramore would have found strong supporting evidence for this argument in medieval samurai house codes and last wills and testaments, which are full of both Confucian and Buddhist concepts. In chapters 2, 3, and 4, Paramore offers bold new readings of Confucianism in the Tokugawa period. “Confucianism as religion” is the theme of chapter 2, which examines the several dramatic changes that reshaped Confucianism’s position in Japan in the seventeenth century. First, Confucianism was “vernacularized” and “popularized” (p. 41). As evidence, Paramore points to the Confucian schools emerging in the seventeenth century that shared “a clear focus on Neo-Confucian practice” (p. 44) as well as a syncretic approach to Shintōism, military science, and other indigenous Japanese traditions and a sense of what distinguished Japan and China. Second, Neo-Confucianism was used to theorize the place of samurai in contemporary society, which led the Tokugawa authorities to see the religious nature of the newly popular Confucianism as a political threat, as the careers of Kumazawa Banzan, Yamaga Sokō, Yamazaki Ansai, and even Hayashi Razan amply reveal. Third, the socioeconomic changes under way in the seventeenth century created the conditions for the popularization of Confucianism in a way reminiscent of the “modernity” of Song China. Finally, Paramore credits Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai with resolving the tension between Neo-Confucianism and other forms of spirituality, on the one hand, and the...

Shame and the Confucian Idea of Yi (Righteousness)

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Peirce and Confucianism on the Fallibility of Immediate Aesthetic Intuition: Charles S. Peirce Society 2018 Presidential Address

This essay affirms both Peirce’s insistence that all experience is interpretive and fallible and the Confucian aesthetic theory that stresses the immediacy of aesthetic experience. Can the immediacy of aesthetic experience be fallible? The essay sketches a theory of harmony drawing on both Peirce and Confucian ideas to defend the fallibility of immediate aesthetic intuition.

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