Confucianism Study

Asian values

Role of C. in East Asian modernization?; "Asian values"; how does East Asian modernity differ from West?; six points; corpus of belief known as Asian values; Tu Wei-Ming's observations: Gov. leadership is not only necessary but desirable; in West, there is distrust of gov.; view not developed in East Law is essential but only humane ethical practices lead to social stability; person is charge matters The family is where core values should be transmitted; bed-rock Confucianism Civil society cannot flourish apart from the family and the state Education should be the civil religion of society; cannot be emphasized enough The quality of life of any society depends on the level of self-cultivation of its members; society cherishes virtue-centered political leadership Japan last to centralize—hard for C. to put the lid on other types of expression Shinto practices viewed as distinct but compatible with C. rituals

Jesuits (Order of the Society of Jesus)

1. despite bleak situation, the expansion of Europe's physical horizons was accompanied by new intellectual awakening back home; driven by such factors as the rediscovery of European classical learning and spread of the use of printing; brought about foundation of universities 2. because it became threatened by spread of Protestants, the Roman Catholic Church tried to share spirit of revival, gave life to new Christian monastic orders; Society of Jesus founded somewhere between 1534 and 1540 at University of Paris; fired by spirit of its leader Ignatius Loyola; zealous in his outlook--order grew rapidly; emphasized as part of creed that members would be willing to go wherever was necessary to propagate faith; primary concern with salvation of others rather than monastic life 3. modern scientific knowledge enabled them to attain remarkable positions of authority at Chinese court 4. after Loyola's death, leadership of order fell to Francis Xavier; advanced Jesuit missionary program in important ways; put "wherever" clause into practice, traveling himself to India in 1542; confronting the P. on their tactics, X. emphasized patience, charity, and Christian tolerance; another characteristic was choice of working with the poor, outcast, and children in order to make converts; in 1549, X. moved onto Japan—methods worked reasonably well; at length, X. concluded that J. could only be converted by converting cultural tradition that was at their source because it was so profoundly influenced by Chinese civilization; however, before reaching China, X. died off coast of Canton (a corruption of name Ghuangzhou) in 1552 5. first managed to reach Beijing in 1600 at end of Ming dynasty; learned Chinese language, particularly those in wake of Ricci; studied Chinese classics and changed to dress to that of scholars—could find acceptance in upper classes, could propagate Christianity there; early Manchu rulers disposed to favor Jesuits 6. last of Jesuits died in 1805; rapid demise of Jesuit mission boded ill for future of Chinese-Western relations; the Jesuits had at least a time had enhanced understanding between cultures—campaign to respect and engage Chinese on their own terms; the image of China that J. send back to Europe was collectively a nation that had much to offer in way of ethical conduct and humane institutions 7. entire view of Chinese mediated through J. letters; Jesuits encountered society that was essentially equal; Chinese making imprint on Western consciousness for the first time; China unavoidable subject in minds of intellectuals 8. impressed by the fact that there were no priests—no religious authority 9. in European mind, due to Jesuits, China and C. had become one and the same

Qianlong

1. in 1742, decree settled all points against Jesuits 2. the Qianlong emperor sided with Jesuits—on the verge of signing edict of toleration of Christianity before this occurred; decree was spectacularly ill-advised; it was demanded by the Church that the rites and ceremonies of China be forbidden by missionaries 3. edicts anti-Christian; persecuted Christians; all Catholic missionary influence declined; most significant intellectual contact with Western world

Kang Youwei

1858 to 1927 later on, he and a friend called on the older Cantonese scholar Kang Youwei—wanted to be his students; content of K.'s teachings was very C., but it also was very much of the times; in the later 1880s and 90s slow spread of outside knowledge, especially with translations of missionary connected orgs; scholars writing about need for advisory assembly; parliamentary ideas fused with idea of open consultation between ministers and rulers; no idea of citizens defending their rights against their ruler; K. position among advanced thinkers was not a prominent one; ideas adventurous though, dangerous to some; Q was much affected by K—"it was like cold water down my back, hit on the head with a club"; for K. reforms were not necessary adjustments for sound , but part of effort to recover true C. lost some 2000 years ; despite C. insistence being a transmitter, C. was creator of this tradition, uncrowned king; creator of a new teaching, lost in later times—one element was vision of progressive change throughout human history from disorder to smaller order to great harmony, or datong; or great peace, taiping; in which all the usual barriers of human society had been swept away; theories of this kind had been popular in old as Han dynasty; harmony dependent on those who understood teaching rather than ruler; amazing teachings have impression on young scholar; how thoroughly they would horrify status quo in years to come; both went to Beijing in 1895 for final level exam; K. passed, Q. failed—would never succeed; nevertheless, together, they began mobilizing scholars to petition court to reject peace treaty imposed on Chinese for Sino-Japanese War for 1894-95; institutional reforms needed to save China from foreign aggression; more success in Shanghai in 1896; founded journal—China Progress; strategic breakthrough—regular transmission of new ideas to large centers; Q essays were important and influential; time to published book on Western gov.; China had to learn from Western and Japanese political life, not just tech; still adhered to C. teachings; in his essays, Q asked openly why China was having such difficulty making reforms necessary to defend itself; contrast case of neighboring Japan—it's success was that it had reformed its political order, instead of tech changes in inappropriate political order; new order in Japan was much more effective in promoting qun; already in 1897, Q was developing concept of qun, finding tendencies for people to group together for mutual protection; Social Darwinist ideas, struggle among individuals for survival; only those people who developed effective forms of social solidarity would survive among competition among nation states; need to work together when competing with other groups; we must have 10,000 eyes with one sight, 10,000 powers with only one purpose of life, then state is established 10,000 fold strong; Japanese had been so successful in establishing strong nation states—energetic gentlemen with great goals; zhishi; had been used in late 19th century Japan to refer to individuals who acted boldly in trying to make changes in Japan; in embracing this concept, Q found himself moving away C. aversion to pleasure; more and more suspicious of C. concept of ren and of a kind of public spirit that excluded any consideration of private gain; public and private goals were pursued at the same time; dissolution of the system of political roles and morality that had followed so many changes; no longer enough for officials to rule over people with paternal kindness, no longer enough for local scholars to aspire to become officials, beyond network of 1-1 relationships implied by ruler and minister; had to take the fate of the nation in their own hands; mobilizing, taking action; even the common people, had to become constantly involved citizens; jun = son of ruler, prince, someone whose words were worthy of being written down; chen (servant, minister) = eyes downcast before the ruler, not looking the ruler directly in the face; position of subservience; this is what Q is objecting to; can't have ministers be groveling; in international and largely imperial arena, Japan not only encroaching on China sov., Germany and Britain and kinda France; fear of China being carved up like a melon during this time; officials recognized that major changes in policy were needed to preserve state; 26 yo emperor was sympathetic to reform proposals; aunt ruled behind the scenes; she continued to exercise her power; no longer involved of day-day decision making, maintained influence; political manipulator; was a creature of tradition, and cared about her own survival in power—most important goals; none of this made reform impossible, but emperors did not normally take initiative in policy making; still on June 11, emperor approved an edict committing to basic fundamental changes—imperial college, extensive borrowing of Western learning; exams change to practical matter and essays rather than ; consultations in country side; political infighting; Cixi returned from summer palace; promulgated edict in his name asking her to return to power; 100 Days Reform was over; almost all the innovative measures were canceled; reformers were arrested including Q; six of reformers were executed without trial a few days later; K. fled into exile with the help of the British; Q turned up trembling at Japanese embassy, and somehow made it to exile in Japan; in ensuing 14 years, much would take place; Boxer Rebellion; 1911 Revolution—end of Manchu rule and collapse of imperial dynasty; Q had to watch all of this from a distance; he and other radical reformers would return in 1912; between 1898 and 1911, discussed policy and goals; K. and Q became more distant; Q less interested in C.; both less interested in overthrow; from late 1898 to 1912, Q spent most of his time in Japan—exile made possible study and writing, influence; drawn into futile political activity, but did not consume his life; intervals where he could spend time reading and writing with Japanese; reasonably stable funding for periodical, and could pretty much say what he wanted; drew upon new learning to reexamine his old ideas—qun and active individual of zhishi; nature of individual participant was something he gave great attention to now; used phrase xinmin, renovate the people, new citizen; word from the common people, min = people, xin = new; carried strong C. overtones as well—as a term, appears in Daxue or Great Learning, established before by Zhu Xi as one of the Four Books, renovate the people; idiom of self-renovation in C., Q. was more convinced traditional C. ethics guidance for renovation now needed; personal relationships was ; filial piety might even reinforce wider political loyalties; ruler-minister concepts were woefully inadequate; 1902—new writing, much clearer of solidarity and activism necessary if China was to survive; motivating force stemmed from citizenry struggle—unmistakable strain of social Darwinism in his thinking; during and after his exile, traveled widely in N. America and SE Asia and Pacific; now went to Europe, London in 1919, collapse of old order, revolution in G and R, Europe simply between two wars, encountered disillusion with science and democracy; still anxious to tap latest currents of Western intellectual thought, met people who said that the West was bankrupt and was looking to East; should develop unique virtues of own culture; important for younger intellectuals that accompanied him; throughout 1920s, taught at university, did research, wrote several important books; as many of Chinese intellectuals thought of progress, Q. critiqued faith in science; taught that C. had much to teach; self-cultivation; middle way between Indian otherworldliness and Western materialism; turned to C.; died in 1929; contributed immensely to long and still problematic struggle for Chinese participation in the modern world; perhaps like C. he should've died more confident all that he'd accomplished than he did

Liang Qichao

1873 to 1929 Liang Qichao—eminent member of Chinese elite that came to see China as one guo among many; articulated to Chinese people the immense consequences of China's participation in society of competitive nation states and strains this placed on them; curriculum of study not that different from Zhu Xi, Q spent much of his life interpreting non-Chinese thought to help make China better; born in 1873, not far from Canton; area had been deeply involved in foreign trade for years, was now sending many immigrants to California or Australia; immigres; grandfather had received first level degree; only member of his family who'd even begun long climb toward officialdom; delight when Q proved to be a child prodigy, winning the second-level degree at the age of 16; roughly comparable to getting a master's; spent next two years at academy—Neo-C. studies with classics; no place in curriculum for world outside China yet; spring of 1890, went to Beijing, where he failed on final exam; stopped in Shanghai, where he acquired some Chinese books about the Western world; later on, he and a friend called on the older Cantonese scholar Kang Youwei—wanted to be his students; content of K.'s teachings was very C., but it also was very much of the times; in the later 1880s and 90s slow spread of outside knowledge, especially with translations of missionary connected orgs; scholars writing about need for advisory assembly; parliamentary ideas fused with idea of open consultation between ministers and rulers; no idea of citizens defending their rights against their ruler; K. position among advanced thinkers was not a prominent one; ideas adventurous though, dangerous to some; Q was much affected by K—"it was like cold water down my back, hit on the head with a club"; for K. reforms were not necessary adjustments for sound , but part of effort to recover true C. lost some 2000 years ; despite C. insistence being a transmitter, C. was creator of this tradition, uncrowned king; creator of a new teaching, lost in later times—one element was vision of progressive change throughout human history from disorder to smaller order to great harmony, or datong; or great peace, taiping; in which all the usual barriers of human society had been swept away; theories of this kind had been popular in old as Han dynasty; harmony dependent on those who understood teaching rather than ruler; amazing teachings have impression on young scholar; how thoroughly they would horrify status quo in years to come; both went to Beijing in 1895 for final level exam; K. passed, Q. failed—would never succeed; nevertheless, together, they began mobilizing scholars to petition court to reject peace treaty imposed on Chinese for Sino-Japanese War for 1894-95; institutional reforms needed to save China from foreign aggression; more success in Shanghai in 1896; founded journal—China Progress; strategic breakthrough—regular transmission of new ideas to large centers; Q essays were important and influential; time to published book on Western gov.; China had to learn from Western and Japanese political life, not just tech; still adhered to C. teachings; in his essays, Q asked openly why China was having such difficulty making reforms necessary to defend itself; contrast case of neighboring Japan—it's success was that it had reformed its political order, instead of tech changes in inappropriate political order; new order in Japan was much more effective in promoting qun; already in 1897, Q was developing concept of qun, finding tendencies for people to group together for mutual protection; Social Darwinist ideas, struggle among individuals for survival; only those people who developed effective forms of social solidarity would survive among competition among nation states; need to work together when competing with other groups; we must have 10,000 eyes with one sight, 10,000 powers with only one purpose of life, then state is established 10,000 fold strong; Japanese had been so successful in establishing strong nation states—energetic gentlemen with great goals; zhishi; had been used in late 19th century Japan to refer to individuals who acted boldly in trying to make changes in Japan; in embracing this concept, Q found himself moving away C. aversion to pleasure; more and more suspicious of C. concept of ren and of a kind of public spirit that excluded any consideration of private gain; public and private goals were pursued at the same time; dissolution of the system of political roles and morality that had followed so many changes; no longer enough for officials to rule over people with paternal kindness, no longer enough for local scholars to aspire to become officials, beyond network of 1-1 relationships implied by ruler and minister; had to take the fate of the nation in their own hands; mobilizing, taking action; even the common people, had to become constantly involved citizens; jun = son of ruler, prince, someone whose words were worthy of being written down; chen (servant, minister) = eyes downcast before the ruler, not looking the ruler directly in the face; position of subservience; this is what Q is objecting to; can't have ministers be groveling; in international and largely imperial arena, Japan not only encroaching on China sov., Germany and Britain and kinda France; fear of China being carved up like a melon during this time; officials recognized that major changes in policy were needed to preserve state; 26 yo emperor was sympathetic to reform proposals; aunt ruled behind the scenes; she continued to exercise her power; no longer involved of day-day decision making, maintained influence; political manipulator; was a creature of tradition, and cared about her own survival in power—most important goals; none of this made reform impossible, but emperors did not normally take initiative in policy making; still on June 11, emperor approved an edict committing to basic fundamental changes—imperial college, extensive borrowing of Western learning; exams change to practical matter and essays rather than ; consultations in country side; political infighting; Cixi returned from summer palace; promulgated edict in his name asking her to return to power; 100 Days Reform was over; almost all the innovative measures were canceled; reformers were arrested including Q; six of reformers were executed without trial a few days later; K. fled into exile with the help of the British; Q turned up trembling at Japanese embassy, and somehow made it to exile in Japan; in ensuing 14 years, much would take place; Boxer Rebellion; 1911 Revolution—end of Manchu rule and collapse of imperial dynasty; Q had to watch all of this from a distance; he and other radical reformers would return in 1912; between 1898 and 1911, discussed policy and goals; K. and Q became more distant; Q less interested in C.; both less interested in overthrow; from late 1898 to 1912, Q spent most of his time in Japan—exile made possible study and writing, influence; drawn into futile political activity, but did not consume his life; intervals where he could spend time reading and writing with Japanese; reasonably stable funding for periodical, and could pretty much say what he wanted; drew upon new learning to reexamine his old ideas—qun and active individual of zhishi; nature of individual participant was something he gave great attention to now; used phrase xinmin, renovate the people, new citizen; word from the common people, min = people, xin = new; carried strong C. overtones as well—as a term, appears in Daxue or Great Learning, established before by Zhu Xi as one of the Four Books, renovate the people; idiom of self-renovation in C., Q. was more convinced traditional C. ethics guidance for renovation now needed; personal relationships was ; filial piety might even reinforce wider political loyalties; ruler-minister concepts were woefully inadequate; 1902—new writing, much clearer of solidarity and activism necessary if China was to survive; motivating force stemmed from citizenry struggle—unmistakable strain of social Darwinism in his thinking; during and after his exile, traveled widely in N. America and SE Asia and Pacific; now went to Europe, London in 1919, collapse of old order, revolution in G and R, Europe simply between two wars, encountered disillusion with science and democracy; still anxious to tap latest currents of Western intellectual thought, met people who said that the West was bankrupt and was looking to East; should develop unique virtues of own culture; important for younger intellectuals that accompanied him; throughout 1920s, taught at university, did research, wrote several important books; as many of Chinese intellectuals thought of progress, Q. critiqued faith in science; taught that C. had much to teach; self-cultivation; middle way between Indian otherworldliness and Western materialism; turned to C.; died in 1929; contributed immensely to long and still problematic struggle for Chinese participation in the modern world; perhaps like C. he should've died more confident all that he'd accomplished than he did

Lu Xun

1881 to 1936 new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed their shops in sympathy strike; developed into a boycott of Japanese goods—clashes with J. residents in China; for more than a year, students advocated for destruction of J. economy in China; labor unions joined in—largest demonstration; startling thing—led by intellectuals, brought science and democracy and new patriotism in anti-imperialist program; student class now assumed responsibility for Chinese fate; tried to bring scholars into touch with peasants; still mostly urban, but mixing of elite with common folk; literature led the way—novels and new vernacular; most writers were from upper-class; audience was; first person narrative was shocking to Confucian mores; outstanding writer of 20th century was Lu Xun; took first level exams and become med training in Japan but finally settled upon interest in literature as means of social reform; early efforts at translation met with no real response; returned to gov. job after study abroad thoroughly dejected; 1918—published in New Youth satirical diary (Diary of a Madman), finds between virtue two words repeated everywhere, which were "eat men"; saw Chinese culture of serving one's masters, misery of multitude; how did C. fare?; short answer is not great; C. did have its defenders, but can best remember May 4th as spawning first anti-Confucianists; ensconced at Baida; Wu Yu—had been waging his own battle against filial piety by appealing to Legalism and Daoism; in 1916 from Sichuan he changed forces with radical teachers at baida; effort to drench to Confucian refuse with waters of enlightenment—exhausting for Wu Yu; sense of commonality often anxious and tenuous; each had lost faith in Confucian solutions; never quite lost sense of isolation; most of professors forced to work in accordance with demands of filial piety; committed to liberation of next generation; most remained devoted to their wives and women—footbinding. Strident act on family system was professors outlet; Wu Yu was one of the most bitter—accused family structure of problem; father messes things up; raised cry against filial piety in Winter of 1919; critique of despotism—attack on filial piety itself; family and state collaborated to bind and gag individual; burden of gratitude and chains of filial piety—forgot our own selves; public was "slaves of the myriad death"; Lu Xun gave view popularity; Diary of a Madman—equation of C. virtue with cannibalism; attack on paternal authority developed into program; I love Confucius but I love truth more—Liang; Lu's major arguments against C. were that paternalism had become despotism; unquestioning loyalty to ruler; zhong—heart and mind and center; comradery in arms; most treasured value is loyalty, or sheng; Confucian idea was to eliminate any desire to protest or rebel on part of people; mixture of filial piety with loyalty—welcomed by all rulers, especially autocrats; embodied it in institutions; unfilial act one of 10 vices; emphasized acts of filial piety to extreme degrees; Mencius—having no offspring was unfilial act; concubinage prevailed; one should not travel far when one's parents living—spirit of adventurism discouraged; after exposed defects by Wu Yu, said many Chinese ancients opposed C. too; Han Feizi—contradiction between filial piety and loyalty; soldier who always retreated because he didn't want to die because father needed him; Wu Yu attacked advocacy of caste-system; C. upheld superior to inferior; M. had promoted idea that people most important, those who rejected parents and monarch were beasts; application of theory to Chinese institutions—effects on Chinese society; HS praise WY; "overthrow C. & sons"—slogan; W. critical attitudes toward C. probably met needs of time; saw falsity in Analects; W. ends taken further through fiction; LX popularized ideas through short stories; LX's attack was broader and extended to whole of Chinese society; used satire—large number of readers; 1918; influence of such Russian authors as Gogol—attack on old Chinese civ.; eat people—Chinese society is society in which those on top basically preserved themselves by devouring those below; lives on back of someone else—live off offspring; just basically people using other people; China should reject benevolence and humanity—individualism; professors trying to point the way for generation following them; first generation to have traveled abroad through Boxer Protocol

Feng Youlan

1895 to 1990 advocacy of ren—C. discovered nobility of man, new humanity into new rights—most common assessment before CR, unparalleled contribution; in this interpretation , C. as a revolutionary had encompassed concepts of serving the people and self-sacrifice in ren; discovered humanity in slaves ad that this recognition of qualities was behind movement to liberate them; of these pro-C., the one that stands out as most detailed and philosophical was Feng Youlan; he had in 1950s already made observations about benevolent nature of ren; 1957—conference of Chinese philosophy at Beijing university; at that event, Y offered his method of abstract inheritance—example of C. idea of ren; F claimed that if C. had only advocated ren to urge slaves to love slave-owners, one should discard the concrete aspect of ren because it belonged to a different age; but even when discarding that, one should retain abstract concept of loving humanity; because this abstract principle is transhistorical—belongs to all ages; F found many supporters who elaborated on ideas and many critics who attacked them; critics could not be love that transcended class, Y quoted extract from MZ—no such all-inclusive love since humanity was divided into classes; usually used to demonstrate that class-transcending love is impossible; F contrary—just because it had never been practiced, doesn't mean it couldn't be; when C. used airen, actually meant a love that was above and beyond class; most ideas F wrote had concrete and abstract—ideas had continually been adapted to fit circumstances; each class extracted knowledge from earlier times that was deemed appropriate; ideas of inheritance was fulcrum on which F arguments turned; while in the May 4th era, it had been fashionable to attack tradition as feudal, feudal implied all negative aspects of life like foot binding; with the advent of Marxist historiography, it was possible now it was possible to argue that in being feudal C. could be progressive; ironically, on the whole, post-1945 Marxist interpretations of C. ethics are less damning than the May 4th criticisms had been; when May 4th movement launched, wanted Western ideas to replace old C. ones; in early 1950s, May 4th style attack on C. was launched but ignored by scholars—more interested in class and periodization materialism vs. idealism; after formation of People's Republic, tended to strengthen social order; ethics stressed cooperation with the state; conformist behavior, and adhering to sense of moral duty; C. education stressed rote learning and blind obedience and respect for authority; once in power, communists found they could benefit from such a tradition and continues to benefit until today 5 stages: barbarism, slave, feudal, capitalist, and communist; tried to shoehorn slave period into their history; C. among all the philosophers in the Chinese tradition has been greatest political football—reputation swings back and forth Two interpretations: early China slave-owning—C. progressive by promoting feudalism; early China feudal and C. progressive by trying to overthrow it with ren Debate up until CR; orthodoxy established then; FY suffered during CR Materialist would say that only concrete meaning matters—FY wrong in giving ren abstract/idealist; Since 1949 with People's Republic of China, C. embraced as resource for promotion of communism until CR Among philosophies, easiest to compartmentalize; can't take from other classical traditions in same way

Way of the Ruler and Minister

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Anti-Confucius Campaign

1973 to 1974; low watermark of Confucianism in China historically Also more controversial accounts—C. member of slave owning class, and tried to keep society from falling apart; C. tried to destroy 3 powerful Lu family because these families were threat to slave owning aristocracy; analysis was also textual—meaning of terms used in the Analects were taken into account; some scholars concluded that when C. said airen—to love men—he actually meant love the class of slave owners; in the time of C. ren signified slave owners; slaves were min—the common people, the masses; view promoted throughout 50s and 60s; by the time to cultural rev. and certainly by Anti-Confucian Campaign, this was the only view that was accepted—C. preserver of slave tradition; 1966 to 1976 for CR—bitter years for C.; era when MZ took to task and waged war on all tradition; attacks were mounted against Four Olds—customs, culture, ideas, habits; C. fit all of these; MZ called for these olds to be swept away; Red Guards listened to MZ's call—architecture ransacked, classics burned, paintings ripped apart; many families' long-kept genealogy books were burned; people in possession of these goods were persecuted; scholars were tortured, imprisoned, killed; class as a concept in the history of Chinese philosophy because significant only after establishment of communism; traditionally most important facet of C. has not been its class groundings but rather its ethics; thus debates about C. class , were prelude to debates about his moral doctrines; those inclined toward his ethics—anything he said about materials construed as embrace of materialism; argued that C. had worked for class that was historically progressive; materialism used to defend ethics; however, C.'s comments about ghosts were also used either to advantage or disadvantage by turn; used to support the view that there were elements of materialism in C., critics used same passages; tenuous nature of arguments—same quotations used to arrive at opposite positions; debate of materialist or idealist character of the philosophical principles of C. became conducted very like the loose subjective and inconclusive one over his class background; passages used to purposes of scholars; purpose of deciding whether C. was materialist or not was debate over whether his ethics was inheritable or not; reasonable to conclude elements of idealism and materialism ; advocacy of ren—C. discovered nobility of man, new humanity into new rights—most common assessment before CR, unparalleled contribution; in this interpretation , C. as a revolutionary had encompassed concepts of serving the people and self-sacrifice in ren; discovered humanity in slaves ad that this recognition of qualities was behind movement to liberate them; of these pro-C., the one that stands out as most detailed and philosophical was Feng Youlan; he had in 1950s already made observations about benevolent nature of ren; 1957—conference of Chinese philosophy at Beijing university; at that event, Y offered his method of abstract inheritance—example of C.

bodhisattva ("being of wisdom"; Buddha-to-be)

Bodhisattva was the being of wisdom, or Buddha-to-be in Buddhist philosophy. He is one who has reached "para-nirvana" but remains on earth, or ended karmic cycle in himself but remains behind to assist others. He is motivated by concern for others.

Buddha (Siddartha Gautama)

Buddha, or the Enlightened or Awakened One, was an Indian prince on whom the philosophy of Buddhism was founded. He is significant in that he emphasized personal salvation, which allowed Buddhism to enter into China during the period of Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties to fulfill the spiritual needs of the Chinese during this period of turmoil. However, he was also concerned with explaining ultimate reality, and so its entrance into and endurance in China forced Confucianism to develop its metaphysics. intellectual life of India in ferment during Axial Age; beginning of Buddhism traceable to a single person; Indian prince lived about the same time as Confucius; slightly older; son of the chief of a Himalayan hill tribe; in the prime of life, became a monk; after several years, emerged as a band of followers; advanced a middle way between monasticism and worldly life; mostly unreliable reports; many of his sermons are the work of people of later times; confusion about what his original message even was

Chinese Progress

C. was creator of this tradition, uncrowned king; creator of a new teaching, lost in later times—one element was vision of progressive change throughout human history from disorder to smaller order to great harmony, or datong; or great peace, taiping; in which all the usual barriers of human society had been swept away; theories of this kind had been popular in old as Han dynasty; harmony dependent on those who understood teaching rather than ruler; amazing teachings have impression on young scholar; how thoroughly they would horrify status quo in years to come; both went to Beijing in 1895 for final level exam; K. passed, Q. failed—would never succeed; nevertheless, together, they began mobilizing scholars to petition court to reject peace treaty imposed on Chinese for Sino-Japanese War for 1894-95; institutional reforms needed to save China from foreign aggression; more success in Shanghai in 1896; founded journal—China Progress; strategic breakthrough—regular transmission of new ideas to large centers; Q essays were important and influential; time to published book on Western gov.; China had to learn from Western and Japanese political life, not just tech; still adhered to C. teachings; in his essays, Q asked openly why China was having such difficulty making reforms necessary to defend itself; contrast case of neighboring Japan—it's success was that it had reformed its political order, instead of tech changes in inappropriate political order; new order in Japan was much more effective in promoting qun; already in 1897, Q was developing concept of qun, finding tendencies for people to group together for mutual protection; Social Darwinist ideas, struggle among individuals for survival; only those people who developed effective forms of social solidarity would survive among competition among nation states; need to work together when competing with other groups; we must have 10,000 eyes with one sight, 10,000 powers with only one purpose of life, then state is established 10,000 fold strong; Japanese had

gang

Gang was Dong Zhongshu's notion of a cord or tie between heaven and earth, which he considered to be the wang, or ruler. It is significant in that it was a central concept in his political and metaphysical theory, which took the ruler to be the basis . Gang was the

Han Wudi

Han Wudi was the best known of the Han Dynasty rulers. He used Legalist policies to significantly expand the size and strength of the Chinese empire, and to reduce the influence of the aristocracy. However, he is also significant for establishing Confucianism as the official religion of China, turning it from a jia, or school, into a jiao or state-sponsored cult, and so contributing to its endurance.

social Darwinism

Q essays were important and influential; time to published book on Western gov.; China had to learn from Western and Japanese political life, not just tech; still adhered to C. teachings; in his essays, Q asked openly why China was having such difficulty making reforms necessary to defend itself; contrast case of neighboring Japan—it's success was that it had reformed its political order, instead of tech changes in inappropriate political order; new order in Japan was much more effective in promoting qun; already in 1897, Q was developing concept of qun, finding tendencies for people to group together for mutual protection; Social Darwinist ideas, struggle among individuals for survival; only those people who developed effective forms of social solidarity would survive among competition among nation states; need to work together when competing with other groups; we must have 10,000 eyes with one sight, 10,000 powers with only one purpose of life, then state is established 10,000 fold strong; Japanese had been so successful in establishing strong nation states—energetic gentlemen with great goals; zhishi; had been used in late 19th century Japan to refer to individuals who acted boldly in trying to make changes in Japan; in embracing this concept, Q found himself moving away C. aversion to pleasure; more and more suspicious of C. concept of ren and of a kind of public spirit that excluded any consideration of private gain; public and private goals were pursued at the same time; dissolution of the system of political roles and morality that had followed so many changes; no longer enough for officials to rule over people with paternal kindness, no longer enough for local scholars to aspire to become officials, beyond network of 1-1 relationships implied by ruler and minister; had to take the fate of the nation in their own hands; mobilizing, taking action; even the common people, had to become constantly involved citizens; jun = son of ruler, prince, someone whose words were worthy of being written down; chen (servant, minister) = eyes downcast before the ruler, not looking the ruler directly in the face; position of subservience; this is what Q is objecting to; can't have ministers be groveling; in international and largely imperial arena, Japan not only encroaching on China sov., Germany carried strong C. overtones as well—as a term, appears in Daxue or Great Learning, established before by Zhu Xi as one of the Four Books, renovate the people; idiom of self-renovation in C., Q. was more convinced traditional C. ethics guidance for renovation now needed; personal relationships was ; filial piety might even reinforce wider political loyalties; ruler-minister concepts were woefully inadequate; 1902—new writing, much clearer of solidarity and activism necessary if China was to survive; motivating force stemmed from citizenry struggle—unmistakable strain of social Darwinism in his thinking; during and after his exile, traveled widely in N. America and SE Asia and Pacific; now went to Europe, London in 1919, collapse of old order, revolution in G and R, Europe simply between two wars, encountered disillusion with science and democracy; still anxious to tap latest currents of Western intellectual thought, met people who said that the West was bankrupt and was looking to East; should develop unique virtues of own culture; important for younger intellectuals that accompanied him; throughout 1920s, taught at university, did research, wrote several important books; as many of Chinese intellectuals thought of progress, Q. critiqued faith in science; taught that C. had much to teach; self-cultivation; middle way between Indian otherworldliness and Western materialism; turned to C.; died in 1929; contributed immensely to long and still problematic struggle for Chinese participation in the modern world; perhaps like C. he should've died more confident

taixu

Supreme or Great Void

Four Books

The Four Books were the Analects, Mencius, Daxue, and Zhongyong, curated by Zhu Xi. They are significant insofar as they served as the basis for Neo-Confucian orthodoxy from the Song period onward. Importantly, this was to the exclusion of many other Confucian texts, which Zhu Xi orthodoxy became Confucian orthodoxy; after much study, decided to elevate four books which had not previously been classics to such a status; Lunyu—Analects, Mengzi, Daxue (Great Learning), Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean); latter two works are extracted from the Liji

Mongols

The Mongols were a full-horse nomadic tribe that conquered the Song Dynasty. They are significant in that they were the first non-Chinese people to rule all of China. They also made some steps toward preserving Confucianism during their rule, such as making Zhu Xi writing the basis for civil service exams. more than mere policemen, but not intellectually inclined

Qin Shihuangdi

This figure was the leader of state of Qin, which defeated the states of Chu and Qi to establish the Qin Dynasty. He thus became the first emperor of China. He is significant in that he served to unify China after the Warring States period and destroyed its feudal order. He also centralized the government and implemented Legalist policies, the spirit of which has been preserved to this day.

Song Dynasty

This was the dynasty following the Tang and prior to the Ming. It is significant in that it saw the rise of Neo-Confucianism, which reoriented Confucianism toward metaphysics. However, with this rise came intense ideological conformity, which was reflected in the perfection of the civil service examination or keju, and the intertwinement of classical learning and civil service. It also unfortunately was complicit in the rise of 960 to 1279; Backdrop for today's lecture Remarkably open and tolerant Great cosmopolitan age Buddhism and other religions entered into China—Islam and Judaism Buddhism a religion of foreigners, but foreigners accepted during most of the Tang; only as empire began to near its end did intolerance first manifest itself markedly Tendencies of wariness and even hostility toward foreign people and ideas dramatically intensified; start of Song was intensely nativist; "China turning inward" Differences between Song and Classical tradition: • A dissimilarity of focus • Chiefly a doctrine focused on ethics, and ethics only • Social relations; aim was devising a way such that people could peacefully cohabit • With the Song, due to contact with Buddhism, Confucianism forced to reorient; now questions were how does the world work; how did the world begin? Etc.; ethical hardly abandoned—what is the human role in the relationship with the world?; metaphysics characterized first wave of Neo-C. tradition—early Song One crucial dimension that emerged over the Sung Dynasty was ideological conformity; after Zhu Xi as its core curriculum, never did anything better reflect conformity that civil service exam (keju) only until 9th century that things changed—examination/degree holders increased in numbers, played a more important role in gov.; keju reached its perfection in the Sung dynasty; more people sought to take the test—keener competition; adversely influenced school education; how much weight to be given to examinations?; enhancing equality; increased anonymity of examinees, such that they could mark scripts impartially; saw to it that all regions of China had access to keju; presented to emperor for final examination—introduced in Sung and preserved thereafter; no candidate at that level was actually dismissed; practice became finalized; candidates about 35 years old; most important among the Sung improvements was to hold the exam tri-yearly for the rest of its history; finally abolished in 1905; another important development was after 1069 the jinshi becomes the only subject that actually counts; content changed as system developed; affected education in three crucial respects: exam content and how it affected development Chinese thought important; kept shifting between Classical study and poetry; Sung thinkers became increasingly fixed on testing knowledge of the classics; Classical learning therefore intertwined with civil service; became more evident after 1313—decided to make Zhu Xi's interpretation of the Four Books the standard for the exams; began with test of 1315 1. more uniform 2. more goal-oriented; exams redirected school education—made it more goal-directed; only prepared people to take exams, less learning; no longer possible to enforce school residency; schools were merely way-stations along the way to exam process 3. more formalistic; exams constrain instruction—making it more formalistic; emphasis on form rather than content; candidates often paid attention only to memory; number of words per line; required literary devices; stifling effect—extreme; more pronounced during the Ming and Qing eras; eight-legged essay: way of taking exams that is quite rote; often compared to a spider—had 8 parts;

wang

Wang was Dong Zhongshu's notion of the the ruler, or king. In Dong's view, the wang was the nexus between heaven and earth, which were in constant correspondence, both cosmologically and morally. As such, the wang was the most important figure in society, as he was a reflection of heaven, and was responsible for the establishment of harmony on earth.

Wang Yangming

Wang Yangming was the towering scholar of the Ming period, and a tireless arch-opponent of orthodoxy in nearly all of its forms. He departed significantly from Zhu Xi orthodoxy in arguing that knowledge was not prior to and so separate from action, but that they were one and the same. His idea of zhixing hyi, or the unity of knowledge and action, required that we continuously combat self-interest, as a moral quest, and so his theories were one of the most compelling formulations of Confucian philosophy. 1. Less bookish and elite 2. Influence of Daoism and Buddhism--amoral aspects of human nature being neither good nor evil 3. Insights start from understanding that social commitments are not external but part of the structure of our minds; hardwired as social beings 4. To study things outside oneself important, but only as means of clarifying one's own nature 5. Unremitting moral effort; serious study all afforded innate knowledge; introspection alone not great; experience must accompany this knowledge 6. Knowledge could also be sensed as part of unity of cosmos; one body between man and universe; clear intelligence of the human mind; stones would not be what they are without innate knowledge of humanity 7. ecumenical view of sagehood; "streets are filled with sages" intellectual development turned from conventional to intensely personal quest for source of Neo-C tradition; Zhu Xi—primacy of the investigation of things; in self-cultivation, everyone should aim at becoming a sage, nothing less; Z more interested in history, but W studies clump of bamboo; knowledge first, and action later was principle of civil service exams too; practicing Daoist techniques of meditation; seeking to break his ties with the world; came to realize that filial piety was part of basic structure of human mind; insights start from understanding that social commitments are not external but part of the structure of our minds; hardwired as social beings; thought is contoured by our investment in sociality; taught his insights to growing number of students; stability shattered by typical episode of Ming politics; eunuchs—catered to whims of irresponsible ruler; manipulated rulers; central figure in whole cabal was powerful eunuch named Liu Jin; hated; large numbers of high officials condemned situation; had some thrown in prison; Confucian inability to remain silent in face of bad gov. caused him to protest imprisonments of higher officials by eunuchs; sent to malarial mountain posts; shaken by public beating and imprisonment; came to peace after speaking with father; arrived at post in 1508; one a pampered young man, now emotional and physical support for 3 servants who accompanied him into outback; all around him were aborigines, outlaws, and deep valleys; drew on his new-found courage; bought a coffin for himself and meditated before it; mistaken in investigating external things before—announced "my own nature is sufficient for me to attain sagehood"; "10,000 or myriad things are all complete within me"; achieved an equally important insight that knowledge and action are one; rephrasing of deepest insights of C.; to study things outside oneself important, but only as means of clarifying one's own nature; zhixing hyi—unity of knowledge and action; Zhu Xi—discipline the mind through study and ceremonial practice; very easy to drift Zhu Xi's serious project into just going through the motions of ceremonies without them having moral effect; study first and action later—Ming; symptoms—hypocrisy of high official class; tendency of them to say "I know what should be done but doing it is hard"; Wang rejected all such excuses; insisted that people to respond to good and evil as they respond to a bad smell; they don't stop and think about getting away from it, move immediately to escape; if they don't do so for good and evil, unity of knowledge and action was broken up by self-interest; nothing can be considered learning that does not involve action; to be earnest is action is to be genuine and sincere; in learning, one cannot help having doubts; therefore one inquires; came to these insights at a time when he faced death and humiliation; one of the most important forms of the selfishness that came between action and knowledge was that people thought to highly of bodies and lives; any success previously achieved would be spoiled; divergence from Zhu Xi orthodoxy made him a heretic; little indication that gov. might be of positive benefit to people; this characterization typical of Ming; volume of attacks on him for break with orthodoxy grew; Chuanxilu—collection of W's insights; emphasis on master/discipline relationship reminiscent of Analects and Buddhist sutra; inborn or innate knowledge—liangzhi; developed to explain the nature of knowledge of morality always present within us; that which is extended in our moral action; rephrasing of unity of k and a; hard work; improving one's character, serious study all afforded innate knowledge; introspection alone not great; experience must accompany this k; k could also be sensed as part of unity of cosmos; one body between man and universe; clear intelligence of the human mind; stones would not be what they are without innate knowledge of humanity; unremitting moral effort; W taught in similar way to Buddhists—basic substance of the mind was unremitting moral effort, and vice versa; one final step in development of W's thinking—carried him to outer bounds and some would say beyond basic moralism of C tradition; Four-Sentence Doctrine composed in 1527 The basic structure of the mind contains neither good nor evil Good and evil arise only with the exertion of the will Knowing good and evil is innate knowledge Doing good and doing away with evil is the investigation of things Real shocker is first one; W had not forgotten everything he'd learned from D and B; amoral aspects of the mind; teachings encouraged in many a new earnestness; quest for moral engagement transferred better than any other form of Neo-C; teachings remained influential in places like Japan; 1527—W given high provincial post back in home province; offered generous terms to leaders; took remaining forts in a month's time; was ill already before this, but died on the way home; last words: "my heart is full of brightness; what more can I say" Tabula rasa—blank slate; all have basic desire for innate knowledge—participation in society; strange intuitionist interiority; "myriad li are in me"; I can sit alone in a room and apprehend li; but also experience?; in Zhu Xi—chasmist distance between heaven and earth; merged in W; ecumenical view of sagehood; "streets are filled with sages"; W made reputation as a warrior—appealed to Japan; philosophy not bookish; experience keeps you grounded—roll up your sleeves, get dirty, get involved; character building not acquisition of knowledge; practical wisdom—phronesis; people were just checking the boxes with orthodoxy—saying right things; ambivalent feeling toward civil service exams—necessary pain; many more followers than Zhu Xi—followers in spirit; W might appeal to someone who was not a product of the system; less elite

Shinto

Way of the Gods Wang Yangming were allowed to flourish; unlike their counterparts in K., J. of T. period also maintained healthy diversity with respect to religion; both Chinese records and J. tradition, no real line between religion and gov. in early J.; earliest religious practice was broader current of animistic nature worship; early Japanese, awed by menacing and beneficent forces of nature, thought of natural phenomena were spirits—kami; thus they paid reverence to waterfalls, to mountains, trees, unusual rock formations; progenitor gods were such deities put into human form and woven into mythology; human leaders easily entered into category of kami; thus so-called divinity of J. line was far cry from West; divinity of nature allowed ritual worship; nature worship of kami came in later times to be called Shinto to distinguish it from Buddhism; not an organized religion, loose conglomerations of cults and ; only one shared principle—ritual purity; cleansing ceremonies, ritual abstentions; priestly class which performed these rites—represented J. equivalent of shamans; modern J. emphasis on cleanliness may hark back to concepts of ritual purity; indigenous national religion of S.—influence through great shrines and periodic festival; J. still has S. shrines—some massive, some small local shrines; all are marked by torii; clapping one's hands to attract gods attention, then bowing and washing out the mouth; festive affairs—food and amusement booths; carnival-like atmosphere; Shinto somewhat simple and primitive, but attitudes and practices remained important to J. cultural identity throughout centuries; B. retained its place in J.; anti-Christian edict of 1640 forced all J. to register at some local temple; maintained family graves; new B. temples were built in the respective capitals of J.; unifiers of J. had drastically reduced wealth and influence of B. church; samurai shift in attitude made it lose intellectual vigor; J. was largely secular society—some adoption of Neo-C.

Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi was the most important Neo-Confucian scholar, and the second most important Confucian. Most broadly, he is significant for his integration of Confucian ethics and metaphysics, thus articulating at long last a unified and comprehensive Confucianism. What's more, he had a significant impact on the development of the Confucian orthodoxy, as he used the concept of daotong or lineage to discard thinkers like Xunzi from study, and establish the Four Books as canon. 1130 to 1200 role was essentially that of a great synthesizer; influence of Z—instilled a new life into C. tradition, renaissance of in the Neo-C.; incorporating best of Daoism and Buddhism into C, thus weakening those traditions beyond recovery; didn't enjoy particular success during his lifetime fashioned ultimate product by combining early ideas with new ideas lived 100 years after Cheng brothers—not a direct disciple; able to view their teachings from a clearer perspective because of this historical distance; great molder and supreme scholar of Neo-C.; fashioned ultimate product by combining early ideas with new ideas; for more than 500 years, his commentaries were the official works required to be studied by all in civil service exams; his influence on Confucian classics was so great that his works were studied always with them; Zhu Xi orthodoxy became Confucian orthodoxy; greatest single influence on Chinese thought other than Confucius; after much study, decided to elevate four books which had not previously been classics to such a status; Lunyu—Analects, Mengzi, Daxue (Great Learning), Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean); latter two works are extracted from the Liji; formulated from the findings of his predecessors a complete system of thought—metaphysics and ethics; nature of two inherent forces of the universe li and qi; every physical object in nature has an inherent li; developed an orthodox lineage of succession—daotong; he was the one who elevated Mencius; expelled Xunzi, largely on the basis of his argument that human nature was evil, also for criticizing Mencius; man too is a composition of both li and qi; li is human nature and the same for all men, but it is the qi that makes men different; clear vs. muddy; did not believe that people were necessarily fixed in these positions—could refine your qi through education; human uniqueness—we alone have capacity to become aware of li by refining qi, which allows li to shine forth; other creatures are stuck at other levels of clarity; li is original human nature vs. material nature, li embedded qi; refine qi to move to comprehensive knowledge; the muddy substances which obscure man's original nature; at long last, complete system of thought; by no means a planter, Zhu Xi was a happy harvester—role was essentially that of a great synthesizer; influence of Z—instilled a new life into C. tradition, renaissance of in the Neo-C.; incorporating best of Daoism and Buddhism into C, thus weakening those traditions beyond recovery; didn't enjoy particular success during his lifetime to Zhu Xi, qi is largely a differentiator; criminal has very dense qi; inanimate things have qi that is so dense that they lack consciousness; uses Cheng Yi more so than Cheng Hao; li is foremost in Zhu Xi's thinking; examining things and objects—interest in natural history; also philology—interest in words; proto-scientific

jinshi

advancing or presented scholar

method of abstract inheritance

advocacy of ren—C. discovered nobility of man, new humanity into new rights—most common assessment before CR, unparalleled contribution; in this interpretation , C. as a revolutionary had encompassed concepts of serving the people and self-sacrifice in ren; discovered humanity in slaves ad that this recognition of qualities was behind movement to liberate them; of these pro-C., the one that stands out as most detailed and philosophical was Feng Youlan; he had in 1950s already made observations about benevolent nature of ren; 1957—conference of Chinese philosophy at Beijing university; at that event, Y offered his method of abstract inheritance—example of C. idea of ren; F claimed that if C. had only advocated ren to urge slaves to love slave-owners, one should discard the concrete aspect of ren because it belonged to a different age; but even when discarding that, one should retain abstract concept of loving humanity; because this abstract principle is transhistorical—belongs to all ages; F found many supporters who elaborated on ideas and many critics who attacked them; critics could not be love that transcended class, Y quoted extract from MZ—no such all-inclusive love since humanity was divided into classes; usually used to demonstrate that class-transcending love is impossible; F contrary—just because it had never been practiced, doesn't mean it couldn't be; when C. used airen, actually meant a love that was above and beyond class; most ideas F wrote had concrete and abstract—ideas had continually been adapted to fit circumstances; each class extracted knowledge from earlier times that was deemed appropriate; ideas of inheritance was fulcrum on which F arguments turned; while in the May 4th era, it had been fashionable to attack tradition as feudal, feudal implied all negative aspects of life like foot binding; with the advent of Marxist historiography, it was possible now it was possible to argue that in being feudal C. could be progressive; ironically, on the whole, post-1945 Marxist interpretations of C. ethics are less damning than the May 4th criticisms had been; when May 4th movement launched, wanted Western ideas to replace old C. ones; in early 1950s, May 4th style attack on C. was launched but ignored by scholars—more interested in class and periodization materialism vs. idealism; after formation of People's Republic, tended to strengthen social order; ethics stressed cooperation with the state; conformist behavior, and adhering to sense of moral duty; C. education stressed rote learning and blind obedience and respect for authority; once in power, communists found they could benefit from such a tradition and continues to benefit until today 5 stages: barbarism, slave, feudal, capitalist, and communist; tried to shoehorn slave period into their history; C. among all the philosophers in the Chinese tradition has been greatest political football—reputation swings back and forth Two interpretations: early China slave-owning—C. progressive by promoting feudalism; early China feudal and C. progressive by trying to overthrow it with ren Debate up until CR; orthodoxy established then; FY suffered during CR Materialist would say that only concrete meaning matters—FY wrong in giving ren abstract/idealist; Since 1949 with People's Republic of China, C. embraced as resource for promotion of communism until CR Among philosophies, easiest to compartmentalize; can't take from other classical traditions in same way

Chang'an

capital

strike down the Kong family shop

feudal no longer term of contempt for Marxists—could imply progress; linked to class and periodization; to talk about the ideas of the pre-Chen philosophers without at least mentioning their class would be ignoring Marxist conception of history; very class makeup of pre-Qin society was unclear—historical accounts not very specific; scholars had to limit themselves to vague generalizations that the philosophers had to belong to upper classes; what were upper classes?; most of discussion centered on C.; to denounce tradition it was necessary to "strike down the Kong family shop"; while Daoists and Mohists and Legalists have been condemned, but none have aroused contentiousness as C.; new methodology adopted after 1949 reflects; among scholars today, still belief that philosophy and individual has nothing to do with class; argued repeatedly that ren was class-transcending value; Marxist methodology demanded class—did not deter philosophers from looking post-1949 at his class; C. said to have had a number of positions; had students from very different classes; possible to situate him in any class; before Cultural Revolution, no established periodization; in the early 1950s, great deal of confusion over class and periodization; some scholars content to use traditional understanding—C. member of gentry; no slave period—though who embraced traditional accounts ignored Marxist periodization (had slave period); Spring and Autumn—time of great social change; although as a period feudal, nevertheless was demise of clan system and rise of family system—C. member of shi or knight or cultural expert; middle and petty bourgeoisie—neither to upper aristocracy nor lower classes—vacillated between them, and interests as well; thought that C. was member of progressive part of class and fought against old class by introducing ren and li; line of reasoning was closer to traditional accounts—C. responsible for integrating all ideas before him, like zhongyong; historians expressed same ideas of different ways—like C. stood on the side of the ruling junzi (aristocracy, ruling class) class; C. tried to reach compromise between junzi and lower classes through things like zhengming; using this advice, urged them to carry out their roles and not overstep their bounds so lower classes would not be exploited; on the whole, these views did not contradict tradition account that C. was important to development of Chinese society Also more controversial accounts—C. member of slave owning class, and tried to keep society from falling apart; C. tried to destroy 3 powerful Lu family because these families were threat to slave owning aristocracy; analysis was also textual—meaning of terms used in the Analects were taken into account; some scholars concluded that when C. said airen—to love men—he actually meant love the class of slave owners; in the time of C. ren signified slave owners; slaves were min—the common people, the masses; view promoted throughout 50s and 60s; by the time to cultural rev. and certainly by Anti-Confucian Campaign, this was the only view that was accepted—C. preserver of slave tradition; 1966 to 1976 for CR—bitter years for C.; era when MZ took to task and waged war on all tradition; attacks were mounted against Four Olds—customs, culture, ideas, habits; C. fit all of these; MZ called for these olds to be swept away; Red Guards listened to MZ's call—architecture ransacked, classics burned, paintings ripped apart; many families' long-kept genealogy books were burned; people in possession of these goods were persecuted; scholars were tortured, imprisoned, killed; class as a concept in the history of Chinese philosophy because significant only after establishment of communism; traditionally most important facet of C. has not been its class groundings but rather its ethics; thus debates about C. class , were prelude to debates about his moral doctrines; those inclined toward his ethics—anything he said about materials construed as embrace of materialism;

Matteo Ricci

first European to become aware of Chinese intellectual tradition and to transmit it back to west 2. by far towering figure of Christian influence in China; greatest Jesuit pioneer in Asia; Italian monk 3. impressive personality; striking physically—tall, vigorous, curly flowing beard, penetrating blue eyes, bell-like voice 4. staggering achievement in China—no prior knowledge of conditions there before arriving; unlike those before, he was quick learn—impressed his successors in his nimbleness and adaptability to Chinese culture; learned language quickly 5. tried to come to grips with Neo.-C. understanding; reason was not so much broad-mindedness as an attempt to convert the literati to Christianity; needed to gain some idea of how they thought if he was to be successful; interpreted any ambiguities in C. to suit Catholicism 6. had little respect for other religious traditions; wanted alliance with C. against B; much like merchant predecessors, believed China was large and wealthy; the reason for this prosperous life were fertile soil, mild climate, and industriousness of people—referring to South China; another thing that struck him favorably was how peace-loving Chinese appeared; also dwelled on bad aspects of China—slavery, female infanticide, and castration; horrified by power of the magistrates; found penal laws too severe; his picture only partly a favorable one 7. lived in China when Ming dynasty was in decline; striking just how positive Ricci's picture was—aim to Christianize China influenced his view of the country 8. become convinced that the only way to make advancements with lower class was through upper class; abandoned preaching, held enlightened conversations with Chinese scholars; aroused their curiosity in Western learning; represented Christianity as wisdom compatible with Confucianism 9. Ricci had secured the patronage of high officials and was able to establish residence in Beijing; achieved position expressly through policy of accommodation; criticized many times by anti-intellectuals; Ricci and his brethren actually performed ketou (kowtow); presented gifts, returned visits quickly; conformed to Chinese custom; brought Western library and translated writings on Christianity; in active attempt to access to literati, relative permissiveness of local religious practices—met with Christian opposition

xin (heart-mind)

however, Cheng Hao emphasized different concept as ordering principle—xin, or heart-mind (pictograph looks like a heart); heart has not only emotive functions but cognitive functions; basically extension of the Mencian idea—inherently a more ethical thinker

Four-Sentence Doctrine

inborn or innate knowledge—liangzhi; developed to explain the nature of knowledge of morality always present within us; that which is extended in our moral action; rephrasing of unity of k and a; hard work; improving one's character, serious study all afforded innate knowledge; introspection alone not great; experience must accompany this k; k could also be sensed as part of unity of cosmos; one body between man and universe; clear intelligence of the human mind; stones would not be what they are without innate knowledge of humanity; unremitting moral effort; W taught in similar way to Buddhists—basic substance of the mind was unremitting moral effort, and vice versa; one final step in development of W's thinking—carried him to outer bounds and some would say beyond basic moralism of C tradition; Four-Sentence Doctrine composed in 1527 The basic structure of the mind contains neither good nor evil Good and evil arise only with the exertion of the will Knowing good and evil is innate knowledge Doing good and doing away with evil is the investigation of things Real shocker is first one; W had not forgotten everything he'd learned from D and B; amoral aspects of the mind; W suggested that his original teaching about the nature of the mind was only for the few; others needed more positive and detailed moral teaching—B some teachings are for the quick and some for the slow; teachings encouraged in many a new earnestness; quest for moral engagement transferred better than any other form of Neo-C; teachings remained influential in places like Japan; 1527—W given high provincial post back in home province; offered generous terms to leaders; took remaining forts in a month's time; was ill already before this, but died on the way home; last words: "my heart is full of brightness; what more can I say" Tabula rasa—blank slate; all have basic desire for innate knowledge—participation in society; strange intuitionist interiority; "myriad li are in me"; I can sit alone in a room and apprehend li; but also experience?; in Zhu Xi—chasmist distance between heaven and earth; merged in W; ecumenical view of sagehood; "streets are filled with sages"; W made reputation as a warrior—appealed to Japan; philosophy not bookish; experience keeps you grounded—roll up your sleeves, get dirty, get involved; character building not acquisition of knowledge; practical wisdom—phronesis; people were just checking the boxes with orthodoxy—saying right things; ambivalent feeling toward civil service exams—necessary pain; many more followers than Zhu Xi—followers in spirit; W might appeal to someone who was not a product of the system; less elite

King Zheng

r. 246 to 221 BCE

min

traditionally, the common people, the masses Also more controversial accounts—C. member of slave owning class, and tried to keep society from falling apart; C. tried to destroy 3 powerful Lu family because these families were threat to slave owning aristocracy; analysis was also textual—meaning of terms used in the Analects were taken into account; some scholars concluded that when C. said airen—to love men—he actually meant love the class of slave owners; in the time of C. ren signified slave owners; slaves were min—the common people, the masses; view promoted throughout 50s and 60s; by the time to cultural rev. and certainly by Anti-Confucian Campaign, this was the only view that was accepted—C. preserver of slave tradition; 1966 to 1976 for CR—bitter years for C.; era when MZ took to task and waged war on all tradition; attacks were mounted against Four Olds—customs, culture, ideas, habits; C. fit all of these; MZ called for these olds to be swept away; Red Guards listened to MZ's call—architecture ransacked, classics burned, paintings ripped apart; many families' long-kept genealogy books were burned; people in possession of these goods were persecuted; scholars were tortured, imprisoned, killed; class as a concept in the history of Chinese philosophy because significant only after establishment of communism; traditionally most important facet of C. has not been its class groundings but rather its ethics; thus debates about C. class , were prelude to debates about his moral doctrines; those inclined toward his ethics—anything he said about materials construed as embrace of materialism; argued that C. had worked for class that was historically progressive; materialism used to defend ethics; however, C.'s comments about ghosts were also used either to advantage or disadvantage by turn; used to support the view that there were elements of materialism in C., critics used same passages; tenuous nature of arguments—same quotations used to arrive at opposite positions; debate of materialist or idealist character of the philosophical principles of C. became conducted very like the loose subjective and inconclusive one over his class background; passages used to purposes of scholars; purpose of deciding whether C. was materialist or not was debate over whether his ethics was inheritable or not; reasonable to conclude elements of idealism and materialism ; advocacy of ren—C. discovered nobility of man, new humanity into new rights—most common assessment before CR, unparalleled contribution; in this interpretation , C. as a revolutionary had encompassed concepts of serving the people and self-sacrifice in ren; discovered humanity in slaves ad that this recognition of qualities was behind movement to liberate them; of these pro-C., the one that stands out as most detailed and philosophical was Feng Youlan; he had in 1950s already made observations about benevolent nature of ren; 1957—conference of Chinese philosophy at Beijing university; at that event, Y offered his method of abstract inheritance—example of C. idea of ren; F claimed that if C. had only advocated ren to urge slaves to love slave-owners, one should discard the concrete aspect of ren because it belonged to a different age; but even when discarding that, one should retain abstract concept of loving humanity; because this abstract principle is transhistorical—belongs to all ages; F found many supporters who

Voltaire

0. leading sinophile 1. conscripted C. against tyranny and aristocracy of ancient regime 2. deism--interpreted C. as not superstitious, but believed in a god; used C. to mount assault on Catholic Church 3. attempted work of universal history; though bad, included other cultures; set out explicitly to show that there were other major civs alongside that of Europe—at least equivalent in extent and cultural achievement; wound to West 4. in dramatic work and stories he followed oriental genre by considering China—held up critical mirror to Western faults 5. superiority of Chinese moral philosophy and political system; not on hereditary aristocracy, but on rational principles; political philosophy free of religious dogma; ideals foundation of harmonious political order believed to prevail in China 6. no liking for "polytheistic rubbish" found in India; following Jesuits lead, contemptuous of Buddhism and Daoism; believed he had found in middle kingdom flower of tolerant religion—pure deism 7. played in an important part in subversive tactic against Christianity; controversy was origins of human race and civilization; according to orthodox view, genealogy to be discovered in Bible; with expansion of European consciousness and globalism, this standard view subjected to doubts; in particular, discovery of great civs in East, acknowledgement of great antiquity of India and China, great priority given to Israel of Bible looks more questionable

Leibniz

0. perhaps less radically revolutionary side of this process best represented Leibniz 1. claimed that Chinese had formulated religion based on reason 2. more of an establishment figure than V, more search for principles of harmony, reconcile warring factions and bring together by adopting China as a kind of "ally in the fight to bring down spiritual and moral barriers separating man from man" 3. began as a reaction to continuing conflicts between Catholics and Protestants 4. Discourse on the Natural Theology of China--treatise on Chinese philosophy

sinophile

1. accounts that Jesuits sent back to Europe ignited enthusiasm; foremost staging ground for Enlightenment enthusiasm for China was France 2. philosophes loved China 3. use of Voltaire of Jesuit-filtered image of China to attack orthodoxy of church and state was repeated and refined by many of his contemporaries; Diderot and Helvetius; prominent representatives of radical Enlightenment; old order had to be completely swept away before a new order could replace; enlisted Orient in effort to bring this about

Early visitors to China

1. despite their interest in economic profit, as observers of another culture, the first wave of European visitors (1300s and 1400s), like Marco Polo, were by and large a shallow and incurious lot 2. beyond the outward veneer of order and prosperity, the Europeans like Portuguese and Spanish and Dutch were either unwilling or unable to penetrate the deeper significance of the Chinese they were encountering 3. not until beginning of 17th century were first attempts to understand China's inner spirit—not easily conducted; the tangible benefits of wealth and prosperity changed European thinking regarding China's degree of political and moral advancement 4. new conception had much to do with the fact that the Ming interpreters to Europe were Jesuits—believed China would be vast new ground for propagation for Christianity 5. religious conversion a goal as well as wealth; first Europeans to enter the Asian continent arrived their in lingering spirit of Crusade—that of fighting against enemies and converting the world to Christian belief; Portuguese were at forefront of this mission, as well as wealth; two aims: to convert natives to the faith, and to turn them into second-class citizens of the empire

Rites Controversy

1. in active attempt to access to literati, relative permissiveness of local religious practices—met with Christian opposition; 2. Rites Controversy—permitted converts to practice sacrifices to Confucius and to familial dead; idolatry; Ricci argued they were merely a token of respect 3. Jesuit opponents argued that liberal attitudes of Jesuits compromised Church tenants—monotheism 4. in 1640s, with commencement of Qing dynasty, Franciscan and Dominican friars began to make their way to China; opposite philosophy to Jesuits, thought C. was damned to everlasting hell; antagonisms developed between orders; Rites Controversy ground on for another half-century; 5. Pope issued decrees against Jesuits in 1742; demanded by the Church that the rites and ceremonies of China be forbidden by missionaries; retarded development of Christianity in China for next 150 years; all Catholic missionary influence declined 6. basic strategy of Ricci was accepting teachings of C.—not to destroy C. but to fully articulate his beliefs; attacked Neo-C.—vested in Classical tradition; didn't like weird cosmology; Jesuits turned C. into religious teacher; claimed that there were Biblical traces in Chinese tradition; veneration of ceremonies attending C.—were they to be allowed?; what about the rites performed in front of the tablets to ancestors—commemoration or idolatry?; fiercely debated; easy to see Jesuit motivation—to ban these practices, banning participation in normal Chinese life; would them appear unfilial in eyes of non-Christian fellows Jesuit learned Chinese language, particularly those in wake of Ricci; studied Chinese classics; could find acceptance in upper classes, could propagate Christianity there 1. rapid demise of Jesuit mission boded ill for future of Chinese-Western relations; the Jesuits had at least a time had enhanced understanding between cultures—campaign to respect and engage Chinese on their own terms 2. the image of China that J. send back to Europe was collectively a nation that had much to offer in way of ethical conduct and humane institutions; amazement and respect; Jesuits had fostered positive view of China—culture that could serve as "an example and model even for Christians"

deism

1. term arose only during 1670s and 80s; coinciding with Jesuit impact in China 2. belief in the existence of a God on the evidence of reason and nature only, with rejection of supernatural revelation; belief in a God who created the world but has since remained indifferent to it; clockmaker 3. group of thinkers most responsive to China were Deists; frequently drew upon Confucian philosophy in defending ideas; argued they were essentially agreeing; "Chinese only regular body of deists in the universe"

tribute system

1. to begin to understand the spread of C. to neighboring localities, must first have some understanding of a convention deeply entrenched called tribute system 2. international relations were conducted in China in the form of tribute—emperor to be regarded as ceremonially superior to all other rulers; still from Chinese perspective, all foreigners were foreigners—placed beneath the Chinese, world order in which China center; China alone thought to represent true civilization; other Chinese emperor deserved to be human ruler; in Confucian hierarchy, K. and J. rulers were "younger brothers" to Chinese emperors; people who refused to honor rites of C. were even lower; ideal is mainly what mattered 3. considering location of Korea, would make sense that C. would show up relatively early in Korean history; C. first appearance in Korea is at latest the 4th century 4. evolved into what became thought of as the culture that was socially and spiritually indigenous to Korea—didn't make much of a distinction about where C. came from; C. became centerpiece of culture and religion 5. while China made new forms in Neo-C., K. took their interpretation further than even the Chinese—practiced classically purist form of C., as they imagined it had been practiced; Korea tended to denounce all other practices; can see this development in most mature form in perfected C. that characterized the Yi dynasty; quickly established tributary relationships with Ming dynasty; for its five centuries, remained in close contact with China and remained unwaveringly loyal to it; tributes increased 6. Yi dynasty was the heyday of Confucianism in K.; why? 1. Goryeo dynasty was same time as late Tang and Sung, with development of Neo-C.; developments in China reinforced Korean Confucianism--Zhu Xi thoroughly adopted 2. another reason was the closer contacts with China that Korea had developed first with the Goryeo that preceded Yi 3. one final reason was that the increasing success of the use of the Chinese political pattern; complete adoption of Chinese examination system; elites focused all their efforts on the mastery of C. philosophy and Chinese concepts; K. in early Yi dynasty adopted C. with such enthusiasm that their social practices were restructured along Chinese lines; small country—manageable and homogeneous; K. may have been more fully permeated by C. ideas than Chinese itself; K. became an almost model C. society 7. came to show some of the strengths and some of the weaknesses of the C. polity; for instance, K. placed more emphasis on formal education than Chinese itself; language and subject matter of exams were foreign to K.—more effort necessary to learn it; K. almost developed literal and sincere attachment to C. principles and almost fanatic attachment to ritual; filial piety extolled; 3-year mourning period (observed and also not observed in China)—strictly observed in K.; chastity of wives enforced, and remarriage of widows severely condemned; Chinese literary arts highly valued; Classics were passion of ruling class; narrowing of range of intellectual interest and dogmatism; C. was first more pragmatic in K., but then Zhu Xi version of C. established dogmatically; because borrowed, Z. doctrines more narrowly restricting than in China; 15th century was a golden age of intellectual endeavor; host of important works of scholarship in Chinese language appeared; geography, medicine, histories; at any rate, rise of C. meant corresponding fall in status of B.—had shown signs of corruption and lessening intellectual vigor centuries before, but it decreased precipitously in 15th century; 1425—various sects of B. forced to combine down into only 2; monasteries shut down; K. B. sank into sad state of social esteem and ideological confusion; rare that philosophy is so entirely adopted by another society; many dynamics still operative

Cheng Hao

1032 to 1085; Neo-C. tradition reached its truly formative stage; they were responsible for initiating two main strands of Neo-C. tradition; school of li—Cheng Yi; school of heart-mind—xin; li is immaterial cosmic principle to be distinguished from qi of which all material things are constituted; Yi's view more popular; there must also be li—DNA which allows things to become what they are; li—primordial law or ordering principle; universal and eternal; qi changes and dissolves, but li governs the change of qi; qi is below shapes, li is above shapes; li = Plato's Forms; as an idea, it is eternal; thus the Neo-C. argued for this idea of li and particularly Cheng Yi; however, Cheng Hao emphasized different concept as ordering principle—xin, or heart-mind (pictograph looks like a heart); heart has not only emotive functions but cognitive functions; basically extension of the Mencian idea—inherently a more ethical thinker

Joseon (Yi) Dynasty

1392 to 1910

Tokugawa (Edo) period

1600 to 1868 1. even while closed off to the world, Tokugawa period in Japan still period of creativity; turned inward on its own resources, had the chance to develop own identity and culture; Tokugawan Japan pattern of social org. and political rule that had been established in first half of 17th century was hardened and consolidated; not stagnation—very dynamic economic and cultural growth; after centuries of warfare, peace was strong impetus of change 2. impact of peace and political unity felt most strongly by samurai class; to rule in peace, J. needed administrators, not warriors; samurai became urbanized class of well-educated bureaucrats; provided in time of peace superabundance of administrators—burden on gov. finances; remained organized in the most part into military units; actual warfare had become increasingly a matter of theory; development of gunnery largely ignored; swordsmanship and archery preferred for character-building value; judo, kendo, karate; samurai value system natural outgrowth of military formed into conscious ethical philosophy—strict fulfillment of all obligations, veneration of honor—became written down in bushido 3. social realities moving away from conditions that had created this particular value system; C. was beginning to mold this ancient warrior class; as the samurai turned into hereditary civil bureaucracy, C. began to take hold and have greater appeal in J.; in a country at last at peace, concept of political leadership dependent on ethical leadership attractive; rude warrior class was transformed into literate officialdom because of C.;. Neo-C. introduced by Zen monks; in 17th century, burst out of monastic confines; C. schools founded; helped spread concept of essentially secular society, natural moral order; centralized state with ethically upright bureaucracy; C. emphases on filial piety and loyalty; concepts of hereditary classes early in the 17th century fit J. very well 4. contradiction between feudal value system of samurai and social and political realities in which they operated; C. emphasized centralized imperial rule not military hegemony; C. stressed uniform bureaucratic relationships in gov. rather than personal bonds of loyalty on which feudalism was based; C. maintained that individual learning and virtue were reasons for leadership, not hereditary status; resulting tensions were perhaps in part disruptive, but in more ways creative; C. concepts provided alternate pattern of political org.; incongruities allowed J. to recognize importance of merit; salaries in addition to hereditary stipend; able administrators allowed to get raises; demands for recognition of merit over birth grew toward end of the period; conflict between Chinese political and philosophical principles and J. social realities, greater pressure on individual to conform than ever existed in traditional China; these in turn may account for J. emphasis on discipline and will power; extremely strong sense of duty, honor, and obligation; feeling of needing to live up to all that society expected of them; gradually transferred from samurai to lower classes; legacy extraordinary formalism and rigidity and strong personal drive; contradictions between C. ideas may have helped keep J. thought becoming limited by dogmatism; intellectual diversity—number of autonomous regions; Zhu Xi established as orthodox, but other orders like that of Wang Yangming were allowed to flourish; unlike their counterparts in K., J. of T. period also maintained healthy diversity with respect to religion; both Chinese records and J. tradition, no real line between religion and gov. in early J.; earliest religious practice was broader current of animistic nature worship; early Japanese, awed by menacing and beneficent forces of nature, thought of natural phenomena were spirits—kami; thus they paid reverence to waterfalls, to mountains, trees, unusual rock formations; progenitor gods were such deities put into human form and woven into mythology; human leaders easily entered into category of kami; thus so-called divinity of J. line was far cry from West; divinity of nature allowed ritual worship; nature worship of kami came in later times to be called Shinto to distinguish it from Buddhism; not an organized religion, loose conglomerations of cults; only one shared principle—ritual purity; cleansing ceremonies, ritual abstentions; priestly class which performed these rites; B. retained its place in J.; anti-Christian edict of 1640 forced all J. to register at some local temple; maintained family graves; new B. temples were built in the respective capitals of J.; unifiers of J. had drastically reduced wealth and influence of B. church; samurai shift in attitude made it lose intellectual vigor; J. was largely secular society—some adoption of Neo-C.

Qing Dynasty

1644 to 1912 1. in 1640s, with commencement of Manchu Qing dynasty, Franciscan and Dominican friars began to make their way to China; antagonisms developed between orders; Qing tended to side with the Jesuits for obvious reasons; 2. dissimilar self-perceptions—starkest terms, Qing C. China was too successful to conceive of possible improvements, or to seek change; to a poorer, less developed Europe, change and enterprise were more compelling as a means to progress; perhaps nowhere was this more apparent than in science; China was once an outstanding pioneer; China remained ahead of the West in 17th and 18th centuries 3. C. made little place for abstract theorizing or for speculation about what was not directly perceivable; learning focused on classics and on records of the past as guides for present and future; learned man--deep division between those who labored with their minds and with their hands; joining of theory, design, and practice that produced achievements of Western science; simply did not occur in China; enjoyed already high level of development 4. new revelation that they might have fallen gravely behind; possible role of C. in that development; consideration of first wave of thinkers who began to ponder that under the strains of their times the inherited tradition of C. might be more of a liability than an asset 5. tianxia—world that mattered 6. tianzi—Emperor, at least ceremonially the superior of all other rulers 7. China was very much the center of the world; Chinese culture was only true high culture

Rousseau

1712 to 1778; Noble Savage of even greater influence, image of that country propagated by European sinophiles had been inflated—moral philosophy and politics more flattering to China than realities would warrant; definite change of heart evident among philosophes themselves; many members of China cult began recanting their earlier enthusiasms; once rated at least the equal of West, now rated their practices as biased and un-scientific; group led by Rousseau—substituted idea of noble savage as ideal that Europe should follow; came to condemn much lauded Chinese despotism as unenlightened tyranny; pronounced China worship to be in bad taste—was unenlightened; Chinese state was tyranny based on fear; political freedom virtually unknown; most stridently anti-Chinese voice was Rousseau; Chinese appearing to him to enjoy an existence even more artificial and unnatural than his fellow Europeans; there's been much dispute in recent times in validity of E. interpretations; C. certainly more diffuse and complex than they believed; strong elements of projection; thus these individuals tended to see NC, term itself coined by J, was corruption of ancient, pure C; infused by superstitious belief; little interest in Daoism and Buddhism; wrong to deny that E period saw spectacular enhancement in understanding of China, genuine sympathy demonstrated, but evident for instance in debate over whether Chinese were deists or theists; understanding distorted by concerns of contemporary Europe—to that extent, a European construction; just as J saw Confucius in terms of their project; philosophes interpreted in light of E. ideas; reflecting idea for transformed Europe; Chinese did become closely integrated into consciousness of European E.

Chen Duxiu

1879 to 1942 Hu Shi at Cornell and Columbia promoted baihua, or the pure speech of Chinese; many others joined in, denied superior ; Classics became works of reference rather than textbooks; tyranny of the Classics had been broken; S. was student of John Dewey—leader of advocacy of scientific methods; application to Chinese scholarship—attacked myths of early Chinese society and sometimes Classics themselves; with science came democracy; leadership in these was Chen Duxiu—absorbed tradition of French Revolution in France; founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed

Hu Shi

1891 to 1962 One point of attack, starting place of demands for reform, was classical written language itself; 20th century—characters largely created by 200 BCE still in use; question when this language had not become outmoded and insufficient for modern needs; Chinese had been the creation and the creator of those who studied it; begun to absorb modern technical terms; question was social one—whether its use could be spread among the great mass of Chinese people as a written medium; literacy was prize of the elite—40% of men were literate; written language one of tools with which elite maintain dominance—language reform and mass literacy have been fundamental problem in China's various revolutions; first stage in linguistic revolution—use everyday speech now in written form; gulf had developed between written language and spoken language; movement toward using vulgate language in written form; Chinese elite taken on by one person primarily—Hu Shi at Cornell and Columbia promoted baihua, or the pure speech of Chinese; many others joined in, denied superior ; Classics became works of reference rather than textbooks; tyranny of the Classics had been broken; S. was student of John Dewey—leader of advocacy of scientific methods; application to Chinese scholarship—attacked myths of early Chinese society and sometimes Classics themselves; with science came democracy; leadership in these was Chun Du Sho—absorbed tradition of French Revolution in France; founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed

Mao Zedong

1893 to 1976 Karl Marx—view of history characterized by materialistic and dialectical nature of socialist agenda and social progress; Marx first person to explain law of development; criticized all earlier historians; Marx strongly opposed study of ideas outside of contexts of where they originated; whether we could attain truth was a practical not a theoretical question; this idea was expressed by Mao Zedong—if you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself; Marxist evaluation of pre-Chen philosophers requires an analysis of social and political context; when iconoclasts of May 4th attacked, their task was easy in just destroying all tradition—fengjian; but when under the scrutiny of Marxist methodology in the 1920s, Chinese history was beginning to be viewed as epochs as opposed to one never-changing line; feudal no longer term of contempt for Marxists—could imply progress; linked to class and periodization; to talk about the ideas of the pre-Chen philosophers without at least mentioning their class would be ignoring Marxist conception of history; very class makeup of pre-Qin society was unclear—historical accounts not very specific; scholars had to limit themselves to vague generalizations that the philosophers had to belong to upper classes; what were upper classes?; most of discussion centered on C.; to denounce tradition it was necessary to "strike down the Kong family shop"; while Daoists and Mohists and Legalists have been condemned, but none have aroused contentiousness as C.; new methodology adopted after 1949 reflects; among scholars today, still belief that philosophy and individual has nothing to do with class; argued repeatedly that ren was class-transcending value; Marxist methodology demanded class—did not deter philosophers from looking post-1949 at his class; C. said to have had a number of positions; had students from very different classes; possible to situate him in any class; before Cultural Revolution, no established periodization; in the early 1950s, great deal of confusion over class and periodization; some scholars content to use traditional understanding—C. member of gentry; no slave period—though who embraced traditional accounts ignored Marxist periodization (had slave period); Spring and Autumn—time of great social change; although as a period feudal, nevertheless was demise of clan system and rise of family system—C. member of shi or knight or cultural expert; middle and petty bourgeoisie—neither to upper aristocracy nor lower classes—vacillated between them, and interests as well; thought that C. was member of progressive part of class and fought against old class by introducing ren and li; line of reasoning was closer to traditional accounts—C. responsible for integrating all ideas before him, like zhongyong; historians expressed same ideas of different ways—like C. stood on the side of the ruling junzi (aristocracy, ruling class) class; C. tried to reach compromise between junzi and lower classes through things like zhengming; using this advice, urged them to carry out their roles and not overstep their bounds so lower classes would not be exploited; on the whole, these views did not contradict tradition account that C. was important to development of Chinese society Also more controversial accounts—C. member of slave owning class, and tried to keep society from falling apart; C. tried to destroy 3 powerful Lu family because these families were threat to slave owning aristocracy; analysis was also textual—meaning of terms used in the Analects were taken into account; some scholars concluded that when C. said airen—to love men—he actually meant love the class of slave owners; in the time of C. ren signified slave owners; slaves were min—the common people, the masses; view promoted throughout 50s and 60s; by the time to cultural rev. and certainly by Anti-Confucian Campaign, this was the only view that was accepted—C. preserver of slave tradition; 1966 to 1976 for CR—bitter years for C.; era when MZ took to task and waged war on all tradition; attacks were mounted against Four Olds—customs, culture, ideas, habits; C. fit all of these; MZ called for these olds to be swept away; Red Guards listened to MZ's call—architecture ransacked, classics burned, paintings ripped apart; many families' long-kept genealogy books were burned; people in possession of these goods were persecuted; scholars were tortured, imprisoned, killed; class as a concept in the history of Chinese philosophy because significant only after establishment of communism; traditionally most important facet of C. has not been its class groundings but rather its ethics; thus debates about C. class , were prelude to debates about his moral doctrines; those inclined toward his ethics—anything he said about materials construed as embrace of materialism; argued that C. had worked for class that was historically progressive; materialism used to defend ethics; however, C.'s comments about ghosts were also used either to advantage or disadvantage by turn; used to support the view that there were elements of materialism in C., critics used same passages; tenuous nature of arguments—same quotations used to arrive at opposite positions; debate of materialist or idealist character of the philosophical principles of C. became conducted very like the loose subjective and inconclusive one over his class background; passages used to purposes of scholars; purpose of deciding whether C. was materialist or not was debate over whether his ethics was inheritable or not; reasonable to conclude elements of idealism and materialism ; advocacy of ren—C. discovered nobility of man, new humanity into new rights—most common assessment before CR, unparalleled contribution; in this interpretation , C. as a revolutionary had encompassed concepts of serving the people and self-sacrifice in ren; discovered humanity in slaves ad that this recognition of qualities was behind movement to liberate them; of these pro-C., the one that stands out as most detailed and philosophical was Feng Youlan; he had in 1950s already made observations about benevolent nature of ren; 1957—conference of Chinese philosophy at Beijing university; at that event, Y offered his method of abstract inheritance—example of C. idea of ren; F claimed that if C. had only advocated ren to urge slaves to love slave-owners, one should discard the concrete aspect of ren because it belonged to a different age; but even when discarding that, one should retain abstract concept of loving humanity; because this abstract principle is transhistorical—belongs to all ages; F found many supporters who elaborated on ideas and many critics who attacked them; critics could not be love that transcended class, Y quoted extract from MZ—no such all-inclusive love since humanity was divided into classes; usually used to demonstrate that class-transcending love is impossible; F contrary—just because it had never been practiced, doesn't mean it couldn't be; when C. used airen, actually meant a love that was above and beyond class; most ideas F wrote had concrete and abstract—ideas had continually been adapted to fit circumstances; each class extracted knowledge from earlier times that was deemed appropriate; ideas of inheritance was fulcrum on which F arguments turned; while in the May 4th era, it had been fashionable to attack tradition as feudal, feudal implied all negative aspects of life like foot binding; with the advent of Marxist historiography, it was possible now it was possible to argue that in being feudal C. could be progressive; ironically, on the whole, post-1945 Marxist interpretations of C. ethics are less damning than the May 4th criticisms had been; when May 4th movement launched, wanted Western ideas to replace old C. ones; in early 1950s, May 4th style attack on C. was launched but ignored by scholars—more interested in class and periodization materialism vs. idealism; after formation of People's Republic, tended to strengthen social order; ethics stressed cooperation with the state; conformist behavior, and adhering to sense of moral duty; C. education stressed rote learning and blind obedience and respect for authority; once in power, communists found they could benefit from such a tradition and continues to benefit until today 5 stages: barbarism, slave, feudal, capitalist, and communist; tried to shoehorn slave period into their history; C. among all the philosophers in the Chinese tradition has been greatest political football—reputation swings back and forth Two interpretations: early China slave-owning—C. progressive by promoting feudalism; early China feudal and C. progressive by trying to overthrow it with ren Debate up until CR; orthodoxy established then; FY suffered during CR Materialist would say that only concrete meaning matters—FY wrong in giving ren abstract/idealist; Since 1949 with People's Republic of China, C. embraced as resource for promotion of communism until CR Among philosophies, easiest to compartmentalize; can't take from other classical traditions in same way

"Hundred Days" of Reform

1898 Became a sort of public intellectual; one of the first among Chinese intellectuals to visit US 100 Days of Reform—mostly significant for intent Cixi assented to some of them downcast before the ruler, not looking the ruler directly in the face; position of subservience; this is what Q is objecting to; can't have ministers be groveling; in international and largely imperial arena, Japan not only encroaching on China sov., Germany and Britain and kinda France; fear of China being carved up like a melon during this time; officials recognized that major changes in policy were needed to preserve state; 26 yo emperor was sympathetic to reform proposals; aunt ruled behind the scenes; she continued to exercise her power; no longer involved of day-day decision making, maintained influence; political manipulator; was a creature of tradition, and cared about her own survival in power—most important goals; none of this made reform impossible, but emperors did not normally take initiative in policy making; still on June 11, emperor approved an edict committing to basic fundamental changes—imperial college, extensive borrowing of Western learning; exams change to practical matter and essays rather than ; consultations in country side; political infighting; Cixi returned from summer palace; promulgated edict in his name asking her to return to power; 100 Days Reform was over; almost all the innovative measures were canceled; reformers were arrested including Q; six of reformers were executed without trial a few days later; K. fled into exile with the help of the British; Q turned up trembling at Japanese embassy, and somehow made it to exile in Japan; in ensuing 14 years, much would take place; Boxer Rebellion; 1911 Revolution—end of Manchu rule and collapse of imperial dynasty; Q had to watch all of this from a distance; he and other radical reformers would return in 1912; between 1898 and 1911, discussed policy and goals; K. and Q became more distant; Q less interested in C.; both less interested in overthrow; from late 1898 to 1912, Q spent most of his time in Japan—exile made possible study and writing, influence; drawn into futile political activity, but did not consume his life; intervals where he could spend time reading and writing with Japanese; reasonably stable funding for periodical, and could pretty much say what he wanted; drew upon new learning to reexamine his old ideas—qun and active individual of zhishi; nature of individual participant was something he gave great attention to

New Youth

1915 many others joined in, denied superior ; Classics became works of reference rather than textbooks; tyranny of the Classics had been broken; S. was student of John Dewey—leader of advocacy of scientific methods; application to Chinese scholarship—attacked myths of early Chinese society and sometimes Classics themselves; with science came democracy; leadership in these was Chen Duxiu—absorbed tradition of French Revolution in France; founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed their shops in sympathy strike; developed into a boycott of Japanese goods—clashes with J. residents in China; for more than a year, students advocated for destruction of J. economy in China; labor unions joined in—largest demonstration; startling thing—led by intellectuals,

tianxia

All-under-Heaven, the world Dissimilar self-perceptions—starkest terms, Qing C. China was too successful to conceive of possible improvements, or to seek change; to a poorer, less developed Europe, change and enterprise were more compelling as a means to progress; perhaps nowhere was this more apparent than in science; China was once an outstanding pioneer; China again on threshold of new change; Sung achievements basically analogs with Europe in 18th century—China was 5 to 6 centuries ahead; China remained ahead of the West in 17th and 18th centuries; catalog of empirical discoveries—they're adaptations rather than result of sustained scientific inquiry; C. made little place for abstract theorizing or for speculation about what was not directly perceivable; learning focused on classics and on records of the past as guides for present and future; learned man deep division between those who labored with their minds and with their hands; Chinese artisans were highly skilled, but did not often experiment—many probably not literate; scholars saw all manual labor as beneath, even experimental work; joining of theory, design, and practice that produced achievements of Western science; this merger of factors simply did not occur in China; enjoyed already high level of development Frame new revelation that they might have fallen gravely behind; possible role of C. in that development; consideration of first wave of thinkers who began to ponder that under the strains of their times the inherited tradition of C. might be more of a liability than an asset Tianxia—world that mattered Tianzi—Emperor, at least ceremonially the superior of all other rulers China was very much the center of the world; Chinese culture was only true high culture

Buddhism

Buddhism was a school of thought that gained prominence in China during the period of Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties. It is significant in that it emphasized personal salvation, which allowed it to fulfill the spiritual needs of the Chinese during this period of turmoil. However, it was also concerned with explaining ultimate reality, and so its entrance into and endurance in China forced Confucianism to develop its metaphysics. not exactly known when Buddhism first entered China; myth, but may indicate certain awareness of Buddhism, first reference to it—65 CE; did not come directly from India to China; Buddhism flourishing around beginning of CE along Silk Road; distinctly urban phenomenon; more a religion than a school of thought; emphasis is on personal salvation; not difficult to convince people there was suffering; especially persuasive to Chinese given the times in which it entered; filled a void left by Confucianism; satisfied spiritual needs of people; provided long-awaited consolation of religion

Chan (Zen)

Chan or Zen was the philosophy that was birthed from the interaction between Buddhism and Daoism. Symbiotic relationship between Buddhism and Daoism; Buddhism would have made little progress at all in China without Daoism; early fourth century onward, Buddhism became associated with Neo-Daoist trend; amalgam of the two by 6th century; gave rise to remarkable and sophisticated philosophy—Chan or Zen; influenced the thoughts of monks and laymen alike Daoists used conceptual framework of Daoism to accommodate Buddhism

doctrine of Science and Democracy

Chinese elite taken on by one person primarily—Hu Shi at Cornell and Columbia promoted baihua, or the pure speech of Chinese; many others joined in, denied superior ; Classics became works of reference rather than textbooks; tyranny of the Classics had been broken; S. was student of John Dewey—leader of advocacy of scientific methods; application to Chinese scholarship—attacked myths of early Chinese society and sometimes Classics themselves; with science came democracy; leadership in these was Chun Du Sho—absorbed tradition of French Revolution in France; founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed;

concubinage

Concubinage was the practice whereby men brought multiple women to whom they could not be formally married into the household. It is significant in that it represented a gross injustice to civil rights during the Song Dynasty. As such, its presence illustrated the complacency of the dominant ideology of Neo-Confucianism in addressing social problems. expected to be subservient to wife; women had far fewer rights in relationship; same rights of ownership as wife: could only own something through husband; used for production of male offspring; might be discarded arbitrarily at any time; generally from lower social status; bought and sold likes slaves; subordinate to wife; purchased by male master typically from own father; typically pretty; might be treated well or ill by wife or husband, but had no redress; husband might sell her away at any time; no ceremonies of induction into lineage like wife had; with expansion of commercial cities and flourishing of a money economy, concubinage increased; men who might've just used prostitutes had money to purchase concubines; used to be restricted to court at first; mushrooms in Sung due to urbanization and commercialization

Response of Confucianism to Buddhism

Despite transplantation, began to dominate intellectual life throughout China; how did C. react to this displacement? Filial piety—not limited to living, extends to dead; ancestor worship; practiced with great fidelity; rites of ancestor worship—cultivated moral values among people at large; Xunzi—common people think it's ghosts, learned think it's for moral cultivation; Liji—sacrifice was simply expression of human feelings; secure moral harmony among people; education depends on the imitation of models; children learned stories about filial piety China has been riddled with supernatural intervention in human affairs Civil service examinations hotbed of superstitious ideas Held literary functions to God of Literature to get edge on exams If granted position, had to deal with city god Household gods demanded constant attention Supernaturalist elements detectable within C. Humanism of agnosticism at core of C. belief reflected in a society in which no church ever succeeded in achieving powerful status independent of the state; education always secular In face of Buddhism, C. drew on its old ideas Emergence of intolerance toward Buddhism—xenophobia Famous denunciation of Buddhism by Han Yu, poet of Tang dynasty; C. scholar, adherent to Mencian strain of C.; influential in raising him to position of Second Sage; was an orphan at the age of 3; grew up in difficult circumstances; eventually rose to be a vice-minister all through the channel of the civil service examination system; renowned for his essays; advocated simplicity in literature; militant Confucian; precursor of Neo-C.; fierce opponent of Buddhism for its superstitious nature and foreignness Bone of Buddha gets circulated; comes to capital; Memorial on the Bone of Buddha—essay to Ming to reject bone of Buddha; Ming punished Han Yu; originally sentenced to death; with intervention of friends had sentence commuted to exile to Guangdong—southeast extreme of Chinese world; did return to court, but died 5 years after returning; helped turned C. tide against Buddhism; restressing ancient ideals of family piety, state order, and cultivation of self; strengthened Confucianism

Zhou Dunyi

Dunyi was the founder of Neo-C. tradition. He is significant for modifying the idea of the supreme ultimate, or taiji, which was that from which all existence flowed. Though its meaning was somewhat unclear, Dunyi used it to emphasize the relationship between the moral and physical worlds. This connection became a central tenet and focus of Neo-Confucianism thereafter. made it a basis for his cosmological views; treatise on it; diagram as explained by Zhou became orthodox as its meaning and purpose became widely known; almost a classic in itself; essential for understanding of philosophy; explanations of diagram begin with cosmic evolution—based on principle of taiji, which functions almost as a source of cosmic origin; man is regarded as the highest of all creations; express role of taiji is to produce things in the world; source of everything—the big bang, so to speak; sage greatest of all men; emphasis on quiescence over movement—influence of Daoism; emphasizes relationship between moral and physical world; mixture of cosmological concerns with infusion of ethical ideals; classic of change—claimed represented the essence of his thinking regarding Supreme Ultimate; SU became focus of philosophical discussion for all scholars afterward; meaning not clear however—scholars developed new ways of thinking about it

footbinding

Footbinding was the binding feet of young girls; practice emerged in China and nowhere else did not become widespread as a mark of upper class status until later; notion became established that a woman's foot should be tiny—lily feet; tight wrappings—prevented foot from growing normally; distorting and bending toes; reduced mature women to a hobble; missionaries pressing for emancipation of women—crusade against custom of footbinding; lily foot now required of a bride; campaign against footbinding began among Chinese reformers in 1860s

datong

Great Harmony, Great Unity K. position among advanced thinkers was not a prominent one; ideas adventurous though, dangerous to some; Q was much affected by K—"it was like cold water down my back, hit on the head with a club"; for K. reforms were not necessary adjustments for sound , but part of effort to recover true C. lost some 2000 years ; despite C. insistence being a transmitter, C. was creator of this tradition, uncrowned king; creator of a new teaching, lost in later times—one element was vision of progressive change throughout human history from disorder to smaller order to great harmony, or datong; or great peace, taiping; in which all the usual barriers of human society had been swept away; theories of this kind had been popular in old as Han dynasty; harmony dependent on those who understood teaching rather than ruler; amazing teachings have impression on young scholar; how thoroughly they would horrify status quo in years to come; both went to Beijing in 1895 for final level exam; K. passed, Q. failed—would never succeed; nevertheless, together, they began mobilizing scholars to petition court to reject peace treaty imposed on Chinese for Sino-Japanese War for 1894-95; institutional reforms needed to save China from foreign aggression; more success in Shanghai in 1896; founded journal—China Progress; strategic breakthrough—regular transmission of new ideas to large centers; Q essays were important and influential; time to published book on Western gov.; China had to learn from Western and Japanese political life, not just tech; still adhered to C. teachings; in his essays, Q asked openly

Han Gaozu (Han Gaodi)

Han Gaozu was the first and founding ruler of the Han Dynasty, and was also likely China's first poor and illiterate ruler. He is significant for ruling over a period of relative unity, and allowing China to remain a confederation of states. This stability promoted cultural unity as well, and so provided stable conditions for Confucianism to grow to be the dominant ideology in China. also Liu Bang; Confucianism established as orthodox doctrine in Han; success still uncertain in first years of Han; extremely humble—China's first poor ruler; likely illiterate; distaste of excessive ceremony attached to learning; gregarious and well-thought of by rivals; people felt that commoner would work in their interest; very popular among masses; China remained a confederation of states—not independent but regional cultures; Confucianism became standard though—cultural unity; Gaozu put into motion process by which Confucianism became most important tradition; vestigial survival of Legalism; Chinese are Daoist are private and Confucian in public, but may be that Chinese public officials always had Legalist bent; Mohism died during Han

Han Yu

Han Yu was a poet of the Tang Dynasty and militant Confucian scholar who issued a famous denunciation of Buddhism to the emperor Ming. His Letter on the Memorial Bone of Buddha urged the emperor to reject the bone coming to the capital. He is significant insofar as he helped turned Confucian tide against Buddhism, and also strengthened Confucianism by restressing ancient ideals of family piety, state order, and the cultivation of self. famous denunciation of Buddhism by Han Yu, poet of Tang dynasty; C. scholar, adherent to Mencian strain of C.; influential in raising him to position of Second Sage; was an orphan at the age of 3; grew up in difficult circumstances; eventually rose to be a vice-minister all through the channel of the civil service examination system; renowned for his essays; advocated simplicity in literature; militant Confucian; precursor of Neo-C.; fierce opponent of Buddhism for its superstitious nature and foreignness; 768 to 824

Chuanxilu

Instructions for Practical Living Chuanxilu—collection of W's insights; discontinuous form; emphasis on master/discipline relationship reminiscent of Analects and Buddhist sutra; inborn or innate knowledge; developed to explain the nature of knowledge of morality always present within us; that which is extended in our moral action; rephrasing of unity of k and a; hard work; improving one's character, serious study all afforded innate knowledge; introspection alone not great; experience must accompany this k; k could also be sensed as part of unity of cosmos; one body between man and universe; clear intelligence of the human mind; stones would not be what they are without innate knowledge of humanity; unremitting moral effort; W taught in similar way to Buddhists—basic substance of the mind was unremitting moral effort, and vice versa; one final step in development of W's thinking—carried him to outer bounds and some would say beyond basic moralism of C tradition; Four-Sentence Doctrine composed in 1527

jiao

Jiao meant both to teach and to instruct, and also cult or religion. It is describes the condition of Confucianism during the Han dynasty, where it was raised from a Jia, or school, to an imperially-sanctioned cult. As a jiao connected to the state, Confucianism was thus equated with the Han, and so fell out of favor concurrently with the demise of that Dynasty in 220 CE. new official recognition—transformation from philosophy to imperially-sanctioned cult; change from jia (school) to jiao (cult); for the remainder of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was an emblem of the state; establishment of state university; during the first century of CE; all gov. schools forced to make sacrifices to Confucius; Han declined not due to Confucianism; however, when Han collapsed in 220 CE, all faith in Confucianism as a guiding ideology fell too

keju

Keju were the civil service examinations that became standard for entrance into the Chinese bureaucracy. It is significant insofar as it was a mechanism for establishing Confucian orthodoxy, as it evaluated knowledge of fixed interpretations of the Confucian tradition. It was also one of the most important contributions of China to the world, in promoting meritocratic standards for entrance into the government and paper-based exams. only recruiting qualified people to service; idea goes back to C.; supreme responsibility of rulers to find morally fit people to serve in gov.—C.; rulers should have more than just hereditary qualifications; Warring States—rulers openly sought people with special ability; retaining and nurturing scholars—Chinese educational mores; young men of noble backgrounds made up majority of those hired; Chinese system was an archetype/milestone; idea was introduced to Arab countries and so to Europe in 12th century; made major contributions to modern gov. practice as we know it; in connection with problem of orthodoxy, scope of exam system raises questions: philosophical question—what are the relative merits in society of having everyone sharing the same outlook and having same background and ambition; leads to orthodoxy; would ensure most efficient fitting into system of candidates; would ensure that gov. people were educated

Li Si

Li Si was the stern prime minister of Qin Shihuangdi, the first Qin Dynasty ruler. He is significant for completely destroying the previous feudal order, centralizing the Chinese government, promoting Legalist policies, and condemning Confucianism. This paved the way for a large central government in China with a sizable meritocratic bureaucracy and great influence over its citizenry, and also for synthesis of Legalism with Confucianism. anti-feudal—strong central government backed by efficient military machine, replacement of aristocracy by well-trained bureaucrats, carriages and roads, and most importantly, division of empire into well-defined administrative units managed by non-hereditary person; 120,000 noble families relocated to Xianyang—privately owned weapons melted down and made into bronze statues for emperor; destroyed all books of other traditions, and of poetry and history; beheaded if reading them; books on medicine, agriculture, and divination spared; students required to study law; Confucianism and other schools get rekt; burying alive of scholars who refused to surrender their beloved texts; fall of Qin in 206 BCE

li (principle, pattern)

Li is the Neo-Confucian idea of pattern or principle, which only took on this philosophical significance during the Song. It was both foundational to philosophies of Neo-Confucian thinkers; Cheng Yi believed it was the cosmic principle that governed the changes in our qi, thus illustrating the turn to metaphysics in this movement. Zhu Xi also believed it was both a cosmic principle and our human nature, which we could refine through education, so illustrating the synthesis of old and new ideas. school of li—Cheng Yi; school of heart-mind—xin; li is immaterial cosmic principle to be distinguished from qi of which all material things are constituted; Yi's view more popular; there must also be li—DNA which allows things to become what they are; li—primordial law or ordering principle; universal and eternal; qi changes and dissolves, but li governs the change of qi; qi is below shapes, li is above shapes; li = Plato's Forms; as an idea, it is eternal; thus the Neo-C. argued for this idea of li and particularly Cheng Yi nature of two inherent forces of the universe li and qi; every physical object in nature has an inherent li; developed an orthodox lineage of succession—daotong; he was the one who elevated Mencius; expelled Xunzi, largely on the basis of his argument that human nature was evil, also for criticizing Mencius; man too is a composition of both li and qi; li is human nature and the same for all men, but it is the qi that makes men different; he who receives a qi that is clear becomes a sage; ethics is how to restore pearl with original luster; did not believe that people were necessarily fixed in these positions—could refine your qi through education; human uniqueness—we alone have capacity to become aware of li by refining qi, which allows li to shine forth; other creatures are stuck at other levels of clarity; li is original human nature vs. material nature, li embedded qi; refine qi to move to comprehensive knowledge; the muddy substances which obscure man's original nature li only takes on philosophical significance as pattern or principle at this time; hard to overstress this novel idea; everything has to have a li, but not necessarily qi—imaginary objects have li but no qi; both Platonic Forms and logos

May Fourth Movement

May Fourth Movement—intellectual movement that crystalized in Beijing student protest, May 4th, 1919; come to represent whole tenor of school thought before and after that date; stands for a couple years prior to incident itself; necessary prep for successful revolutions of the future; May must be seen against backdrop of warlordism, industrialism, and increasing patriotism; who took active leadership?; failure of constitutional reform—100 days—and parliamentary movement—no Western reformulation of China would work; Japanese victories over China in 1905 Sino-Japanese War and Boxer Rebellion and 21 Demands—strengthened realization that Chinese society must be somehow revived and reformed by fundamental changes or would not survive One point of attack, starting place of demands for reform, was classical written language itself; 20th century—characters largely created by 200 BCE still in use; question when this language had not become outmoded and insufficient for modern needs; Chinese had been the creation and the creator of those who studied it; begun to absorb modern technical terms; question was social one—whether its use could be spread among the great mass of Chinese people as a written medium; literacy was prize of the elite—40% of men were literate; written language one of tools with which elite maintain dominance—language reform and mass literacy have been fundamental problem in China's various revolutions; first stage in linguistic revolution—use everyday speech now in written form; gulf had developed between written language and spoken language; movement toward using vulgate language in written form; Chinese elite taken on by one person primarily—Hu Shi at Cornell and Columbia promoted baihua, or the pure speech of Chinese; many others joined in; Classics became works of reference rather than textbooks; tyranny of the Classics had been broken; S. was student of John Dewey—leader of advocacy of scientific methods; application to Chinese scholarship—attacked myths of early Chinese society and sometimes Classics themselves; with science came democracy; leadership in these was Chen Duxiu—absorbed tradition of French Revolution in France; founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Qichao—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed their shops in sympathy strike; developed into a boycott of Japanese goods—clashes with J. residents in China; for more than a year, students advocated for destruction of J. economy in China; labor unions joined in—largest demonstration; startling thing—led by intellectuals, brought science and democracy and new patriotism in anti-imperialist program; student class now assumed responsibility for Chinese fate; tried to bring scholars into touch with peasants; still mostly urban, but mixing of elite with common folk; literature led the way—novels and new vernacular; most writers were from upper-class; audience was; first person narrative was shocking to Confucian mores; outstanding writer of 20th century was Lu Xun; took first level exams and become med training in Japan but finally settled upon interest in literature as means of social reform; early efforts at translation met with no real response; returned to gov. job after study abroad thoroughly dejected; 1918—published in New Youth satirical diary (Diary of a Madman), finds between virtue two words repeated everywhere, which were "eat men"; saw Chinese culture of serving one's masters, misery of multitude; how did C. fare?; short answer is not great; C. did have its defenders, but can best remember May 4th as spawning first anti-Confucianists; ensconced at Baida; Wu Yu—had been waging his own battle against filial piety by appealing to Legalism and Daoism; in 1916 from Sichuan he changed forces with radical teachers at baida; effort to drench to Confucian refuse with waters of enlightenment—exhausting for Wu Yu; sense of commonality often anxious and tenuous; each had lost faith in Confucian solutions; never quite lost sense of isolation; most of professors forced to work in accordance with demands of filial piety; committed to liberation of next generation; most remained devoted to their wives and women—footbinding. Strident act on family system was professors outlet; Wu Yu was one of the most bitter—accused family structure of problem; father messes things up; raised cry against filial piety in Winter of 1919; critique of despotism—attack on filial piety itself; family and state collaborated to bind and gag individual; burden of gratitude and chains of filial piety—forgot our own selves; public was "slaves of the myriad death"; Lu Xun gave view popularity; Diary of a Madman—equation of C. virtue with cannibalism; attack on paternal authority developed into program; I love Confucius but I love truth more—Liang; Lu's major arguments against C. were that paternalism had become despotism; unquestioning loyalty to ruler; zhong—heart and mind and center; comradery in arms; most treasured value is loyalty, or sheng; Confucian idea was to eliminate any desire to protest or rebel on part of people; mixture of filial piety with loyalty—welcomed by all rulers, especially autocrats; embodied it in institutions; unfilial act one of 10 vices; emphasized acts of filial piety to extreme degrees; Mencius—having no offspring was unfilial act; concubinage prevailed; one should not travel far when one's parents living—spirit of adventurism discouraged; after exposed defects by Wu Yu, said many Chinese ancients opposed C. too; Han Feizi—contradiction between filial piety and loyalty; soldier who always retreated because he didn't want to die because father needed him; Wu Yu attacked advocacy of caste-system; C. upheld superior to inferior; M. had promoted idea that people most important, those who rejected parents and monarch were beasts; application of theory to Chinese institutions—effects on Chinese society; HS praise WY; "overthrow C. & sons"—slogan; W. critical attitudes toward C. probably met needs of time; saw falsity in Analects; W. ends taken further through fiction; LX popularized ideas through short stories; LX's attack was broader and extended to whole of Chinese society; used satire—large number of readers; 1918; influence of such Russian authors as Gogol—attack on old Chinese civ.; eat people—Chinese society is society in which those on top basically preserved themselves by devouring those below; lives on back of someone else—live off offspring; just basically people using other people; China should reject benevolence and humanity—individualism; professors trying to point the way for generation following them; first generation to have traveled abroad through Boxer Protocol Exposing what May 4th Movement saw as cruelty of institutions imposed on people through centuries in name of C.—calling to task of inequitable principles and institutions that were either based on C. original theories or pretended to adopt them; vital battle was fight against stagnant tradition, of which C. at core However, of political q.s pertaining to modern China, perhaps the question that is most puzzling to many in the West is how was it that the Chinese people, with such deep tradition and strong sense of family, could ever have accepted with such apparent ease the coming of an alien philosophy such as Marxism; answers to q. touch on aspects of Chinese national character; consider matter entirely on intellectual plane, some answers surface

Ming Dynasty

Ming born of reactions against Mongol rule shared a hatred of foreign rule; noteworthy among China's imperial periods for its insularity and nativism; one important expression—all foreign contact with China took form of tribute system and emissaries; tensions—carried much further trend toward autocracy; concentration of power in the person of the ruler; limitation of the independent actions of the ministers Ming farther from C. ideals of gov. than Sung had been; tended to nourish even more Neo-C moralism

Cheng Yi

Neo-C. tradition reached its truly formative stage; they were responsible for initiating two main strands of Neo-C. tradition; school of li—Cheng Yi; school of heart-mind—xin; li is immaterial cosmic principle to be distinguished from qi of which all material things are constituted; Yi's view more popular; there must also be li—DNA which allows things to become what they are; li—primordial law or ordering principle; universal and eternal; qi changes and dissolves, but li governs the change of qi; qi is below shapes, li is above shapes; li = Plato's Forms; as an idea, it is eternal; thus the Neo-C. argued for this idea of li and particularly Cheng Yi; however, Cheng Hao emphasized different concept as ordering principle—xin, or heart-mind (pictograph looks like a heart); heart has not only emotive functions but cognitive functions; basically extension of the Mencian idea—inherently a more ethical thinker

Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism was a revival and reformulation of classical Confucianism primarily during the Song Dynasty. It is significant in that it articulated for the first time complex metaphysical and cosmological positions, which undergirded Confucianism's ethical and political theories. However, its proponents also established ideological conformity with Zhu Xi's idea of daotong, or the correct lineage of thinkers in the Confucian tradition. This resulted in an orthodoxy that was reflected on the civil service examinations. Neo-C. at last able to establish itself at the summit—victory complete real problems of a winner begin only after it's on top dilemmas faced by Neo-C. were weighty ones; positions taken have had much to do with shaping our views of the ancient Classical version of the philosophy in our times Final attainment of orthodoxy did not come without costs—made C. as much responsible for everything wrong with Chinese culture as everything that was good or right about it Seems only fair C. now found to be praiseworthy for all that was good, and blameworthy for bad One crucial dimension that emerged over the Sung Dynasty was ideological conformity; after Zhu Xi as its core curriculum, never did anything better reflect conformity that civil service exam (keju) Final reflections on shortcomings: addressing harsh realities of certain social practices; dark underbelly of Neo-C. context; supreme sin of C. orthodoxy; complicit in addition of almost unspeakable negatives; burdened by guilt by association; common theme that underscores all these practices—subjugation of women; three practices: concubinage, widow chastity, and footbinding; all three practices predate Sung times, but became vastly more prominent; what role did Neo-C. orthodoxy play? Neo-C. never directly caused any of these practices; astonishing disinclination of Neo-Cs to address these problems; refusal to condemn is moral fault; seems to make Neo-C responsible for abetting Policy of indifference; main crime of C. was not speaking out against inhumane practices

nirvana (extinction, the "blowing out")

Nirvana; extinction; blowing out; reached by transcendent understanding; unanticipated; beyond rational thought; desire utterly destroyed; breaks off process of death and rebirth; blowing out of fires of desires, like a candle; one also terminates influence of karma

Qi

Qi was the last state to be defeated by the Qin, and it surrendered in 221 BCE. It is significant in that its fall marked the end of the Zhou dynasty and the feudal order.

Qin

Qin was the state that defeated the Chu and Qi to establish the Qin Dynasty. It was a remote state, and so the last admitted to the federation, and so the most welcoming of the ideas of the new Legalist thinkers. It is significant for unifying China under a new dynasty, which in turn implemented Legalist policies and centralized the government.

Shao Yung

Shao Yung was a Neo-Confucian scholar during the Song Dynasty who emphasized the importance of shu, or number, over li or principle. He is significant insofar as he was persecuted for his departure from Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, and was thus removed from the daotong. He as a figure therefore illustrates the darker insularity of Neo-Confucianism in its later articulation. in climate of orthodoxy that ensued, exclusion; quietistic lifestyle—reminiscent of Daoism, never even took civil service exams; for different reasons from Xunxi, omitted from daotong; despite achievements, excluded; uniformity in thinking that admitted of no deviance excluded him; more and more forced to see Confucianism, at least in its later articulation, triumphantly confident and also racked with tensions

shu (number)

Shu was Shao Yung's idea of number, which influenced his study of the Yijing, or Book of Changes. It is significant insofar as it was the foundation of alternate strand of Confucian study that was rejected. It thus reflected the rigidity and orthodoxy of Neo-Confucianism, as represented by Zhu Xi and daotong.

tianzi

Son of Heaven, the emperor Dissimilar self-perceptions—starkest terms, Qing C. China was too successful to conceive of possible improvements, or to seek change; to a poorer, less developed Europe, change and enterprise were more compelling as a means to progress; perhaps nowhere was this more apparent than in science; China was once an outstanding pioneer; China again on threshold of new change; Sung achievements basically analogs with Europe in 18th century—China was 5 to 6 centuries ahead; China remained ahead of the West in 17th and 18th centuries; catalog of empirical discoveries—they're adaptations rather than result of sustained scientific inquiry; C. made little place for abstract theorizing or for speculation about what was not directly perceivable; learning focused on classics and on records of the past as guides for present and future; learned man deep division between those who labored with their minds and with their hands; Chinese artisans were highly skilled, but did not often experiment—many probably not literate; scholars saw all manual labor as beneath, even experimental work; joining of theory, design, and practice that produced achievements of Western science; this merger of factors simply did not occur in China; enjoyed already high level of development Frame new revelation that they might have fallen gravely behind; possible role of C. in that development; consideration of first wave of thinkers who began to ponder that under the strains of their times the inherited tradition of C. might be more of a liability than an asset Tianxia—world that mattered Tianzi—Emperor, at least ceremonially the superior of all other rulers China was very much the center of the world; Chinese culture was only true high culture

taiping

Supreme or Great Peace K. position among advanced thinkers was not a prominent one; ideas adventurous though, dangerous to some; Q was much affected by K—"it was like cold water down my back, hit on the head with a club"; for K. reforms were not necessary adjustments for sound , but part of effort to recover true C. lost some 2000 years ; despite C. insistence being a transmitter, C. was creator of this tradition, uncrowned king; creator of a new teaching, lost in later times—one element was vision of progressive change throughout human history from disorder to smaller order to great harmony, or datong; or great peace, taiping; in which all the usual barriers of human society had been swept away; theories of this kind had been popular in old as Han dynasty; harmony dependent on those who understood teaching rather than ruler; amazing teachings have impression on young scholar; how thoroughly they would horrify status quo in years to come; both went to Beijing in 1895 for final level exam; K. passed, Q. failed—would never succeed; nevertheless, together, they began mobilizing scholars to petition court to reject peace treaty imposed on Chinese for Sino-Japanese War for 1894-95; institutional reforms needed to save China from foreign aggression; more success in Shanghai in 1896; founded journal—China Progress; strategic breakthrough—regular transmission of new ideas to large centers; Q essays were important

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was the dynasty after the Sui and before the Song. It is significant in that it was a golden age for poetry and the arts, which was reflected in their place on civil service exams. It also saw both the rise of Confucianism, such as in the establishment of state-run Confucian schools, and later increasing intolerance toward Buddhism, as reflected in Han Yu's Letter on the Memorial Bone of Buddha. first action of unifying Sui dynasty was to create a special test; admit those with outstanding literary talent; continued by Tang rulers; distinct emphasis on literary skills; Tang added many more subjects; none received as much attention; became not only a test, but a degree; composing policy essays, memorization of C. classics, and also producing poetic writings; reflected Tang preoccupation with belles-lettres; despite the rise of the keju, Tang still heavily influenced by aristocratic ideas; only until 9th century that things changed; Backdrop for today's lecture Remarkably open and tolerant Great cosmopolitan age Buddhism and other religions entered into China—Islam and Judaism Buddhism a religion of foreigners, but foreigners accepted during most of the Tang; only as empire began to near its end did intolerance first manifest itself markedly

Three Bonds

The Three Bonds were the relationships that Dong Zhongshu emphasized: ruler-minister, father-son, husband-wife. They are significant in that they place the ruler-minister relationship above the father-son relationship, and so reflect the Zhongshu's belief in the cosmological importance of the ruler. They are Five Relationships to strengthen ruler to ruled; Three Bonds—; gang—cord, central core of rope, all others are attached to this cord, ruler = gang; ruler-minister moved above father-son; yin-yang; bolstered authority of ruler—chief beneficiary of Dong; made ruler aware of his responsibility for every action!; wants to get rid of equal relationships

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan dynasty was the period under which the entire Chinese state fell under the control of Mongols. The Mongaols made some steps toward preserving Confucianism during their rule, such as making Zhu Xi writing the basis for civil service exams. This is significant for in that it directed the focus of the Ming dynasty that followed it--Ming noteworthy among for its insularity and nativism; one important expression, all foreign contact with China took form of tribute system and emissaries; tensions

term question

The term question was a a debate over whether to accept certain words in the C. classics as equivalent to the Christian term God--two words in particular: Tian (Heaven) and Shangdi (Lord-on-High). It is significant in that it challenged the Western belief that Christianity was the first monotheistic religion. This was a dilemma in that, if they did constitute monotheism, then the Western view was challenged; if they did not, then missionaries had to antagonize C. instead of accommodate it.

zhixing heyi (unity of knowledge and action)

This was Wang Yangming's idea of unity of knowledge and action 1. to study things outside oneself important, but only as means of clarifying one's own nature 2. Zhu Xi—discipline the mind through study and ceremonial practice; very easy to drift Zhu Xi's serious project into just going through the motions of ceremonies without them having moral effect; study first and action later—Ming 3. Wang insisted that people to respond to good and evil as they respond to a bad smell

taiji

This was Zhou Dunyi's idea of the Supreme or Great Ultimate, or that from which all existence emanates. It is significant in that it reflects the philosophical synthesis inherent to Neo-Confucianism, as it was likely of Daoist origin. It also was importantly used to support Dunyi's views on the relationship between the moral and physical worlds, and was the locus of Neo-Confucian discourse thereafter. explanations of diagram begin with cosmic evolution—based on principle of taiji, which functions almost as a source of cosmic origin; man is regarded as the highest of all creations; express role of taiji is to produce things in the world; source of everything—the big bang, so to speak; sage greatest of all men; emphasis on quiescence over movement—influence of Daoism; emphasizes relationship between moral and physical world; mixture of cosmological concerns with infusion of ethical ideals; classic of change—claimed represented the essence of his thinking regarding Supreme Ultimate; SU became focus of philosophical discussion for all scholars afterward; meaning not clear however—scholars developed new ways of thinking about it

daotong

This was Zhu Xi's concept of the transmission of the Way, or the correct lineage of thinkers from classical Confucianism. It is significant in excluding several prominent thinkers from the canon, such as Xunzi, while elevating others like Mencius. It thus served to ossify the Confucian orthodoxy, and so for standardizing Confucian ideology. expelled Xunzi, largely on the basis of his argument that human nature was evil, also for criticizing Mencius

yin/yang

This was a concept found in the Yijing of the fundamental duality of all things--that they have a dark and light side, but are interconnected nonetheless, and may give rise to each other. It is significant in that it was used by Dong Zhongshu to promote the idea that human actions, as part of this interchange, have cosmic consequences. With a moral dimension, it was then used to emphasize the importance of the ruler in establishing harmony between heaven and earth, reinforcing the Legalist aspects of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty.

"Memorial on the Bone of Buddha"

This was a famous denunciation of Buddhism by Han Yu to the emperor Ming during the Tang Dynasty. It urged the emperor to reject the bone of Buddha coming to the capital. It is significant insofar as it helped turned Confucian tide against Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty, which facilitated the rise of Neo-Confucianism to orthodoxy in the Song. Bone of Buddha gets circulated; comes to capital; Memorial on the Bone of Buddha—essay to Ming to reject bone of Buddha; Ming punished Han Yu; originally sentenced to death; with intervention of friends had sentence commuted to exile to Guangdong—southeast extreme of Chinese world; did return to court, but died 5 years after returning; helped turned C. tide against Buddhism; restressing ancient ideals of family piety, state order, and cultivation of self; strengthened Confucianism

Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties

This was a period of internecine conflict between the fall of the Han and the rise of the Sui Dynasties. It is significant in that it marked a partial return to aristocratic and decentralized rule, the fall of Confucianism, and the rise of Neo-Daoism and Buddhism. These latter developments in turn forced the next rise of Confucianism to develop a complex metaphysical outlook, due to its interaction with these metaphysically-oriented philosophies. 220 to 589 CE

eight-legged essay

This was a style of essay writing that was standard for civil service exams. It emphasized rote memorization and precise form over content and innovation. It is significant in illustrating the stifling effect of the keju, as it forced everyone to have the same background and opinions on the Confucian tradition, reinforcing orthodoxy. Exams constrain instruction—making it more formalistic; emphasis on form rather than content; candidates often paid attention only to memory; number of words per line; required literary devices; stifling effect—extreme; more pronounced during the Ming and Qing eras; eight-legged essay: way of taking exams that is quite rote; often compared to a spider—had 8 parts;

dhyana (meditation)

This was the Buddhist concept of meditation, or the reflective. It is significant in Buddhist philosophy in that it is the means to cease the, and so to achieve nirvana. Broadly, it spoke to the only way to prepare way to escaping this cycle

dukkha (misery; suffering)

This was the Buddhist concept of misery or suffering, which results from our desires, or our wanting things to be other than how they are. It is significant in Buddhist philosophy in that it . Broadly, this concept spoke to the Buddhist emphasis on enlightenment and the elimination of suffering, which made the philosophy appealing to the Chinese during the brutal conflict of Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties, and helped it fill the religious void left by Confucianism. reason that there is suffering because there is desire or craving or covetousness; attachments, expectations, wanting; meant wanting things to be other than they really are

atman (the individual, the "I")

This was the Buddhist idea of the self or the "I". It is significant in Buddhist philosophy in that it was held together by desire, and so was to be destroyed in nirvana, releasing us from the suffering this desire produces. Broadly, this concept spoke to the Buddhist emphasis on enlightenment and the elimination of suffering, which made the philosophy appealing to the Chinese during the brutal conflict of Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties, and helped it fill the religious void left by Confucianism. Supreme desire is to exist as an atman, or an individual apart from everything else that exists; such a desire presumes that things can be permanent, which is false; atman is just a bundle that dies and is born again; atman is held together by desire, especially desire to exist as an individual with a permanent ego; nothing exists as a lasting entity

Yijing

This was the Confucian classic the Book of Change(s), which was a treatise on divination. It is significant in that it was taken and reinterpreted by Dong Zhongshu with a metaphysical emphasis on its idea of yin/yang, or the interconnection of seemingly conflicting forces. This idea informed Dong Zhongshu's view that earth and heaven were connected, which in turn supported his belief in the importance of the ruler, as he served as the nexus between these realms.

Sui Dynasty

This was the Dynasty that unified China following the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties. It is significant in that it saw the re-establishment of Confucian education, and the Confucian examination system for bureaucrats, while also synthesizing it with the Buddhism that had gained prominence prior. It also undertook many reforms and constructions projects with significance after it fell. stress placed on filial piety; reflected in classic of filial piety; after fall of Qin and Han—marked a change, a resumption of the aristocratic social structure; recruitment based on family background; first action of unifying Sui dynasty was to create a special test; admit those with outstanding literary talent

God of Literature

This was the god that the exam takers prayed to for before the civil service exams during the . It is significant in that it demonstrated the importance of literature in the exams, and so . It is demonstrated both the importance that was placed on success at examinations, and also how the exams were a hotbed of superstitious ideas China has been riddled with supernatural intervention in human affairs Civil service examinations hotbed of superstitious ideas Held literary functions to God of Literature to get edge on exams If granted position, had to deal with city god Household gods demanded constant attention Supernaturalist elements detectable within C.

Five Phases (Five Agents, Five Elements)

This was the idea that there were five processes--fire, water, earth, metal, and wood--which served as the basis of all change and interactions between things. It is significant in that it was used by Dong Zhongshu to support his theory of correlative cosmology, or the correspondence between heaven and earth. This in turn supported his belief in the importance of the ruler, as he served as the nexus between these realms.

Neo-Daoism

This was the manifestation of Daoism after the fall of Confucianism and the Han Dynasty. It is significant in that it paved the way for the entrance of Buddhism into China, as many Daoists saw conceptual overlap between them. When Confucianism came into prominence again with the Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties, it was thus forced to articulate a metaphysical view, which undergirded its ethics.

Xianyang

This was the province to which Li Si relocated 120,000 noble families during the Qin dynasty. It is significant in that it represented the final resting place of the feudal order that characterized the pre-Qin political scene.

bushido

Way of the Warrior remained organized in the most part into military units; cult of militarism; actual warfare had become increasingly a matter of theory; schools were founded to teach the military arts; development of gunnery largely ignored; swordsmanship and archery preferred for character-building value; emphasis on other character-building martial arts; judo, kendo, karate; samurai value system natural outgrowth of military formed into conscious ethical philosophy—strict fulfillment of all obligations, veneration of honor—became written down in bushido; social realities moving away from conditions that had created this particular value system; C. was beginning to mold this ancient warrior class; as the samurai turned into hereditary civil bureaucracy, C. began to take hold and have greater appeal in J.; in a country at last at peace, concept of political leadership dependent on ethical leadership attractive; rude warrior class was transformed into literate officialdom because of C.;. Neo-C. introduced by Zen monks; in 17th century, burst out of monastic confines; C. schools founded; helped spread concept of essentially secular society, natural moral order; centralized state with ethically upright bureaucracy; C. emphases on filial piety and loyalty; concepts of hereditary classes early in the 17th century fit J. very well; contradiction between feudal value system

widow chastity

Widow chastity was the Song norm according to that wives, upon the death of their husbands, could not remarry, so keeping wealth in the patrilineal family. It is significant in that it represented a gross injustice to civil rights during the Song Dynasty. As such, its presence illustrated the complacency of the dominant ideology of Neo-Confucianism in addressing social problems. It was also the closest to classical Confucian thinking in commitments involved in the relationship between husband and wife.

Zhang Zai

Zhang Zai was a Neo-Confucian philosopher who believed that the taiji was actually a void made of qi, of which we were all created. He was significant first advocate of this idea of qi actually a supreme void that produced everything in the world; this void constituted of qi; qi condenses—gives shape to things; disperses—becomes invisible; through condensation and dispersion that things are continually formed and dissolved; qi is dual in nature as it contains yin and yang which wax and wane according to a fixed principle; vacillates between solid and gaseous; related to another significant term—li; contends that there is a unity of heaven and man; qi is substance of which all things are created; qi is something like skin—all share it, makes us the same, but also the same thing that makes us different; he was quick to emphasize the sharedness of this qi; allows us to extend the concept of ren to all things and all peoples; new ideal according to Neo-C. was to form one body with the universe Zhang Zai—first advocate of this idea of qi; talked about it mostly in terms of its integrative role; what in which it bonds us; establishes commonality; thing of which everything is made—everyone has it; allows us to have shared feeling of ren which we can extend to all things

Dong Zhongshu

Zhongshu was the prime minister to Han Wudi during the Han Dynasty. He is significant for influencing Wudi away from Legalism and other schools and toward Confucianism, convincing him to establish the latter as the state religion. However, he also reconceived of the place of the ruler as the wang or moral and cosmic connection between heaven and earth, and so synthesized the authoritarianism of Legalism with the political ethics of Confucianism as well. reinterpreted Spring and Autumn Annals in metaphysical spirit like Yijing (Book of Change, Changes); yin/yang; as each reaches fullness it turns into opposite; revealed hidden correspondences; purpose of this work was divination; formulated absolutely guiding premise for own worldview: human actions have cosmic consequences; developed elaborate view of correspondences; correlative cosmology; inquired into meaning of Five Phases: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth; correspondence of human beings and numerical categories of heaven; resonance theory—sympathetic interrelation; integrated Confucian ethics and naturalistic cosmology; all revolved around wang—ruler, king; relationship with emperor Wu was shaky; sometimes taken to have predicted overthrow of Han dynasty; still able to influence emperor because of theories of role of ruler; ruler was reflection and extension of heaven; provided emperor Wu justification for accession to throne; made it harder for enemies to dethrone; also eternal triad—ruler intermediary between heaven and earth; concern is Golden Mean of emotion; ruler cannot govern well without accepting role in trinity; king must nourish and love his people, must be humane toward them; ruler, not family, was the basis of society; ruler solely responsible for education of people; in order to educate, must attain reverence of people; enlightened ruler led life of inactivity; ministers acted for him; passive and unengaged ruler, faultless ministers doing his bidding—reasonable because of merit of ministers, civil service examination; inactivity of ruler (Daoist and Legalist), perfect bureaucracy (Confucian; operating not because of punishment but because of moral purpose); Five Relationships to strengthen ruler to ruled; Three Bonds—ruler-minister, father-son, husband-wife; gang—cord, central core of rope, all others are attached to this cord, ruler = gang; ruler-minister moved above father-son; most important of roles of ruler—intermediary between heaven and man; human actions and heavenly responses; transcendental significance of human actions; bolstered authority of ruler—chief beneficiary of Dong; made ruler aware of his responsibility for every action!; wants to get rid of equal relationships; had everything besides Six Classics stamped out

qun

a group, a clustering; social solidarity ; Social Darwinist ideas, struggle among individuals for survival; only those people who developed effective forms of social solidarity would survive among competition among nation states; need to work together when competing with other groups; we must have 10,000 eyes with one sight, 10,000 powers with only one purpose of life, then state is established 10,000 fold strong; Japanese had been so successful in establishing strong nation states—energetic gentlemen with great goals; zhishi; had been used in late 19th century Japan to refer to individuals who acted boldly in trying to make changes in Japan; in embracing this concept, Q found himself moving away C. aversion to pleasure; more and more suspicious of C. concept of ren and of a kind of public spirit that excluded any consideration of private gain; public and private goals were pursued at the same time; dissolution of the system of political roles and morality that had followed so many changes; no longer enough for officials to rule over people with paternal kindness, no longer enough for local scholars to aspire to become officials, beyond network of 1-1 relationships implied by ruler and minister; had to take the fate of the nation in their own hands; mobilizing, taking action; even the common people, had to become constantly involved citizens; jun = son of ruler, prince, someone whose words were worthy of being written down; chen (servant, minister) = eyes downcast before the ruler, not looking the ruler directly in the face; position of subservience; this is what Q is objecting to; can't have ministers be groveling; in international and largely imperial arena, Japan not only encroaching on China sov., Germany and Britain and kinda France; fear of China being carved up like a melon during this time; officials recognized that major changes in policy were needed to preserve state

literati

attempt to convert the literati to Christianity; needed to gain some idea of how they thought if he was to be successful; interpreted any ambiguities in C. to suit Catholicism; Ricci wanted alliance with C. against B; literati—in China, by this point in history, equivalent to shi (scholar-official class)—that is, the former knights and/or cultural experts of classical times; order: knights, peasants, artisans, merchants

Shandong

attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed their shops in sympathy strike; developed into a boycott of Japanese goods—clashes with J. residents in China; for more than a year, students advocated for destruction of J. economy in China; labor unions joined in—largest demonstration; startling thing—led by intellectuals, brought science and democracy and new patriotism in anti-imperialist program; student class now assumed responsibility for Chinese fate; tried to bring scholars into touch with peasants; still mostly urban, but mixing of elite with common folk; literature led the way—novels and new vernacular; most writers were from upper-class; audience was; first person narrative was shocking to Confucian mores; outstanding writer of 20th century was Lu Xun; took first level exams and become med training in Japan but finally settled upon interest in literature as means of social reform; early efforts at translation met with no real response; returned to gov. job after study abroad thoroughly dejected; 1918—published in New Youth satirical diary

karma

causation; causality; Karma; causation, causality; moral law of cause and effect; every act produces a seed in human soul until it can be cultivated; act retributed; goes on forever until nirvana reached; end of karmic process doesn't necessarily mean physical death; may continual a residual existence in body for many years; since he has destroyed the roots of karma, he can be reborn no more

guo

country, nation, nationality; 1. Liang Qichao—eminent member of Chinese elite that came to see China as one guo among many; articulated to Chinese people the immense consequences of China's participation in society of competitive nation states and strains this placed on them 2. curriculum of study not that different from Zhu Xi; Q. spent much of his life interpreting non-Chinese thought to help make China better

fengjian

feudal Karl Marx—view of history characterized by materialistic and dialectical nature of socialist agenda and social progress; Marx first person to explain law of development; criticized all earlier historians; Marx strongly opposed study of ideas outside of contexts of where they originated; whether we could attain truth was a practical not a theoretical question; this idea was expressed by Mao Zedong—if you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself; Marxist evaluation of pre-Chen philosophers requires an analysis of social and political context; when iconoclasts of May 4th attacked, their task was easy in just destroying all tradition—fengjian; but when under the scrutiny of Marxist methodology in the 1920s, Chinese history was beginning to be viewed as epochs as opposed to one never-changing line; feudal no longer term of contempt for Marxists—could imply progress; linked to class and periodization; to talk about the ideas of the pre-Chen philosophers without at least mentioning their class would be ignoring Marxist conception of history; very class makeup of pre-Qin society was unclear—historical accounts not very specific; scholars had to limit themselves to vague generalizations that the philosophers had to belong to upper classes; what were upper classes?; most of discussion centered on C.; to denounce tradition it was necessary to "strike down the Kong family shop"; while Daoists and Mohists and Legalists have been condemned, but none have aroused contentiousness as C.; new methodology adopted after 1949 reflects; among scholars today, still belief that philosophy and individual has nothing to do with class; argued repeatedly that ren was class-transcending value; Marxist methodology demanded class—did not deter philosophers from looking post-1949 at his class; C. said to have had a number of positions; had students from very different classes; possible to situate him in any class; before Cultural Revolution, no established periodization; in the early 1950s, great deal of confusion over class and periodization; some scholars content to use traditional understanding—C. member of gentry; no slave period—though who embraced traditional accounts ignored Marxist periodization (had slave period);

Beijing (Peking) University

founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession of Shandong in China; some 5000 students from Baida and other institutions held a mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square; burned the house of a pro-Japanese minister and beat minister to Japan; police beat students; students organized strikes; a few students were killed; prisons soon full of demonstrators; spirit of protest spread among merchants and they closed their shops in sympathy strike; developed into a boycott of Japanese goods—clashes with J. residents in China; for more than a year, students advocated for destruction of J. economy in China; labor unions joined in—largest demonstration; startling thing—led by intellectuals, brought science and democracy and new patriotism in anti-imperialist program; student class now assumed responsibility for Chinese fate; tried to bring scholars into touch with peasants; still mostly urban, but mixing of elite with common folk; literature led the way—novels and new vernacular; most writers were from upper-class; audience was; first person narrative was shocking to Confucian mores; outstanding writer of 20th century was Lu Xun; took first level exams and become med training in Japan but finally settled upon interest in literature as means of social reform; early efforts at translation met with no real response; returned to gov. job after study abroad thoroughly dejected; 1918—published in New Youth satirical diary (Diary of a Madman), finds between virtue two words repeated everywhere, which were "eat men"; saw Chinese culture of serving one's masters, misery of multitude; how did C. fare?; short answer is not great; C. did have its defenders, but can best remember May 4th as spawning first anti-Confucianists; ensconced at Baida; Wu Yu—had been waging his own battle against filial piety by appealing to Legalism and Daoism; in 1916 from Sichuan he changed forces with radical teachers at baida; effort to drench to Confucian refuse with waters of enlightenment—exhausting for Wu Yu; sense of commonality often anxious and tenuous; each had lost faith in Confucian solutions; never quite lost sense of isolation; most of professors forced to work in accordance with demands of filial piety; committed to liberation of next generation; most remained devoted to their wives and women—footbinding. Strident act on family system was professors outlet; Wu Yu was one of the most bitter—accused family structure of problem; father messes things up; raised cry against filial piety in Winter of 1919; critique of despotism—attack on filial piety itself; family and state collaborated to bind and gag individual; burden of gratitude and chains of filial piety—forgot our own selves; public was "slaves of the myriad death"; Lu Xun gave view popularity; Diary of a Madman—equation of C. virtue with cannibalism; attack on paternal authority developed into program; I love

liangzhi

inborn knowledge; innate knowledge 1521 to 1527—volume of attacks on him for break with orthodoxy grew; Chuanxilu—collection of W's insights; discontinuous form; emphasis on master/discipline relationship reminiscent of Analects and Buddhist sutra; inborn or innate knowledge—liangzhi; developed to explain the nature of knowledge of morality always present within us; that which is extended in our moral action; rephrasing of unity of k and a; hard work; improving one's character, serious study all afforded innate knowledge; introspection alone not great; experience must accompany this k; k could also be sensed as part of unity of cosmos; one body between man and universe; clear intelligence of the human mind; stones would not be what they are without innate knowledge of humanity; unremitting moral effort; W taught in similar way to Buddhists—basic substance of the mind was unremitting moral effort, and vice versa; one final step in development of W's thinking—carried him to outer bounds and some would say beyond basic moralism of C tradition; Four-Sentence Doctrine composed in 1527

chinoiserie

influence of China on Britain in this period most evident in cultural and artistic spheres; close connections of art with history of ideas of this period; enthusiasm for chinoiserie—fanciful European adaptation of Chinese styles in furniture, pottery, textile design, was rampant on both sides of Channel in 17th and 18th centuries; less obvious was Chinese influence on Romantic sensibility; development of water color painting; became popular in R. period; strongly influenced by traditional Chinese painting techniques; second and more significant evolution of Ango-Chinese garden; shifted ideals away from regularity of Enlightenment period toward a greater sense of naturalness and freedom; enthusiasm for China was by no means universal; declined by 18th century; chinoiserie run its course; revival of Hellenism following excavations of remains of Pompeii—eclipse of Sinomania, and expulsion of all those Christian missionaries in China—1770; of even greater influence, image of that country propagated by European sinophiles had been inflated—moral philosophy and politics more flattering to China than realities would warrant; definite change of heart evident among philosophes themselves

Daxue (Great Learning)

latter two works are extracted from the Liji; formulated from the findings of his predecessors a complete system of thought—metaphysics and ethics

Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean)

latter two works are extracted from the Liji; formulated from the findings of his predecessors a complete system of thought—metaphysics and ethics

zhishi (shishi)

literally, gentlemen with great goals, or men of determination Zhishi—educated participant; populace before regarded as inert; Q had in mind of parliamentary assembly, had in mind British system, constitutional monarchy; for the introduction of certain Western values to reinforce those that were immanent in Chinese civ.—Social Darwinism; wasn't going to throw out baby with the bathwater drawn into futile political activity, but did not consume his life; intervals where he could spend time reading and writing with Japanese; reasonably stable funding for periodical, and could pretty much say what he wanted; drew upon new learning to reexamine his old ideas—qun and active individual of zhishi; nature of individual participant was something he gave great attention to now; used phrase xinmin, renovate the people, new citizen; word from the common people, min = people, xin = new; carried strong C. overtones as well—as a term, appears in Daxue or Great Learning, established before by Zhu Xi as one of the Four Books, renovate the people; idiom of self-renovation in C., Q. was more convinced traditional C. ethics guidance for renovation now needed; personal relationships was ; filial piety might even reinforce wider political loyalties; ruler-minister concepts were woefully inadequate; 1902—new writing, much clearer of solidarity and activism necessary if China was to survive; motivating force stemmed from citizenry struggle—unmistakable strain of social Darwinism in his thinking; during and after his exile, traveled widely in N. America and SE Asia and Pacific; now went to Europe, London in 1919, collapse of old order, revolution in G and R, Europe simply between two wars, encountered disillusion with science and democracy; still anxious to

baihua

literally, pure speech; vernacular speech One point of attack, starting place of demands for reform, was classical written language itself; 20th century—characters largely created by 200 BCE still in use; question when this language had not become outmoded and insufficient for modern needs; Chinese had been the creation and the creator of those who studied it; begun to absorb modern technical terms; question was social one—whether its use could be spread among the great mass of Chinese people as a written medium; literacy was prize of the elite—40% of men were literate; written language one of tools with which elite maintain dominance—language reform and mass literacy have been fundamental problem in China's various revolutions; first stage in linguistic revolution—use everyday speech now in written form; gulf had developed between written language and spoken language; movement toward using vulgate language in written form; Chinese elite taken on by one person primarily—Hu Shi at Cornell and Columbia promoted baihua, or the pure speech of Chinese; many others joined in, denied superior ; Classics became works of reference rather than textbooks; tyranny of the Classics had been broken; S. was student of John Dewey—leader of advocacy of scientific methods; application to Chinese scholarship—attacked myths of early Chinese society and sometimes Classics themselves; with science came democracy; leadership in these was Chun Du Sho—absorbed tradition of French Revolution in France; founded journal called New Youth; in this medium and score of similar ones, the scholars of this revolution debated and discussed the application of Western ideas to China's ancient culture; S. stood toward critical attitude toward all things—skeptical and gradual; DS attacked greatest enemy of progress of China—C.; like Liang Chi Cho—ethical revolution at very roots of ancient Chinese society; 1918 centered at Beijing University; new chancellor there added both guys to the faculty; May 4th provoked by decisions of peacemakers at Versailles—left in Japanese hands the former German possession

ketou

literally, to knock the head on the ground Ricci had secured the patronage of high officials and was able to establish residence in Beijing; achieved position expressly through policy of accommodation; one ingredient of Ricci's policy was working from top down; Ricci and his brethren actually performed ketou (kowtow); presented gifts, returned visits quickly; conformed to Chinese custom; brought Western library and translated writings on Christianity

zhong

loyaltyattack on filial piety itself; family and state collaborated to bind and gag individual; burden of gratitude and chains of filial piety—forgot our own selves; public was "slaves of the myriad death"; Lu Xun gave view popularity; Diary of a Madman—equation of C. virtue with cannibalism; attack on paternal authority developed into program; I love Confucius but I love truth more—Liang; Lu's major arguments against C. were that paternalism had become despotism; unquestioning loyalty to ruler; zhong—heart and mind and center; comradery in arms; most treasured value is loyalty, or sheng; Confucian idea was to eliminate any desire to protest or rebel on part of people; mixture of filial piety with loyalty—welcomed by all rulers, especially autocrats; embodied it in institutions; unfilial act one of 10 vices; emphasized acts of filial piety to extreme degrees; Mencius—having no offspring was unfilial act; concubinage prevailed; one should not travel far when one's parents living—spirit of adventurism discouraged; after exposed defects by Wu Yu, said many Chinese ancients opposed C. too; Han Feizi—contradiction between filial piety and loyalty; soldier who always retreated because he didn't want to die because father needed him; Wu Yu attacked advocacy of caste-system; C. upheld superior to inferior; M. had promoted idea that people most important, those who rejected parents and monarch were beasts; application of theory to Chinese institutions—effects on Chinese society; HS praise WY; "overthrow C. & sons"—slogan; W. critical attitudes toward C. probably met needs of time; saw falsity in Analects; W. ends taken further through fiction; LX popularized ideas through short stories; LX's attack was broader and extended to whole of Chinese society; used satire—large number of readers;

gentry

new methodology adopted after 1949 reflects; among scholars today, still belief that philosophy and individual has nothing to do with class; argued repeatedly that ren was class-transcending value; Marxist methodology demanded class—did not deter philosophers from looking post-1949 at his class; C. said to have had a number of positions; had students from very different classes; possible to situate him in any class; before Cultural Revolution, no established periodization; in the early 1950s, great deal of confusion over class and periodization; some scholars content to use traditional understanding—C. member of gentry; no slave period—though who embraced traditional accounts ignored Marxist periodization (had slave period); Spring and Autumn—time of great social change; although as a period feudal, nevertheless was demise of clan system and rise of family system—C. member of shi or knight or cultural expert; middle and petty bourgeoisie—neither to upper aristocracy nor lower classes—vacillated between them, and interests as well; thought that C. was member of progressive part of class and fought against old class by introducing ren and li; line of reasoning was closer to traditional accounts—C. responsible for integrating all ideas before him, like zhongyong; historians expressed same ideas of different ways—like C. stood on the side of the ruling junzi (aristocracy, ruling class) class; C. tried to reach compromise between junzi and lower classes through things like zhengming; using this advice, urged them to carry out their roles and not overstep their bounds so lower classes would not be exploited; on the whole, these views did not contradict tradition account that C. was important to development of Chinese society Also more controversial accounts—C. member of slave owning class, and tried to keep society from falling apart; C. tried to destroy 3 powerful Lu family because these families were threat to slave owning aristocracy; analysis was also textual—meaning of terms used in the Analects were taken into account; some scholars concluded that when C. said airen—to love men—he actually meant love the class of slave owners; in the time of C. ren signified slave owners; slaves were min—the common people, the masses; view promoted throughout 50s and 60s; by the time to cultural rev. and certainly by Anti-Confucian Campaign, this was the only view that was accepted—C. preserver of slave tradition; 1966 to 1976 for CR—bitter years for C.; era when MZ took to task and waged war on all tradition; attacks were mounted against Four Olds—customs, culture, ideas, habits; C. fit all of these; MZ called for these olds to be swept away; Red Guards listened to MZ's call—architecture ransacked, classics burned, paintings ripped apart; many families' long-kept genealogy books were burned; people in possession of these goods were persecuted; scholars were tortured, imprisoned, killed; class as a concept in the history of Chinese philosophy because significant only after establishment of communism; traditionally most important facet of C. has not been its class groundings but rather its ethics; thus debates about C. class , were prelude to debates about his moral doctrines; those inclined toward his ethics—anything he said about materials construed as embrace of materialism; argued that C. had worked for class that was historically progressive; materialism used to defend ethics; however, C.'s comments about ghosts were also used either to advantage or disadvantage by turn; used to support the view that there were elements of materialism in C., critics used same passages; tenuous nature of arguments—same quotations used to arrive at opposite positions; debate of materialist or idealist character of the philosophical principles of C. became conducted very like the loose subjective and inconclusive one over his class background; passages used to purposes of scholars; purpose of deciding whether C. was materialist or not was debate over whether his ethics was inheritable or not; reasonable to conclude elements of idealism and materialism ; advocacy of ren—C. discovered nobility of man, new humanity into new rights—most common assessment before CR, unparalleled contribution; in this interpretation , C. as a revolutionary had encompassed concepts of serving

samurai

one who serves; as a group, the warrior class of Japan

The Diary of a Madman (A Madman's Diary)

outstanding writer of 20th century was Lu Xun; took first level exams and become med training in Japan but finally settled upon interest in literature as means of social reform; early efforts at translation met with no real response; returned to gov. job after study abroad thoroughly dejected; 1918—published in New Youth satirical diary (Diary of a Madman), finds between virtue two words repeated everywhere, which were "eat men"; saw Chinese culture of serving one's masters, misery of multitude; how did C. fare?; short answer is not great; C. did have its defenders, but can best remember May 4th as spawning first anti-Confucianists; ensconced at Baida; Wu Yu—had been waging his own battle against filial piety by appealing to Legalism and Daoism; in 1916 from Sichuan he changed forces with radical teachers at baida; effort to drench to Confucian refuse with waters of enlightenment—exhausting for Wu Yu; sense of commonality often anxious and tenuous; each had lost faith in Confucian solutions; never quite lost sense of isolation; most of professors forced to work in accordance with demands of filial piety; committed to liberation of next generation; most remained devoted to their wives and women—footbinding. Strident act on family system was professors outlet; Wu Yu was one of the most bitter—accused family structure of problem; father messes things up; raised cry against filial piety in Winter of 1919; critique of despotism—attack on filial piety itself; family and state collaborated to bind and gag individual; burden of gratitude and chains of filial piety—forgot our own selves; public was "slaves of the myriad death"; Lu Xun gave view popularity; Diary of a Madman—equation of C. virtue with cannibalism; attack on paternal authority developed into program; I love Confucius but I love truth more—Liang; Lu's major arguments against C. were that paternalism had become despotism; unquestioning loyalty to ruler; zhong—heart and mind and center; comradery in arms; most treasured value is loyalty, or sheng; Confucian idea was to eliminate any desire to protest or rebel on part of people; mixture of filial piety with loyalty—welcomed by all rulers, especially autocrats; embodied it in institutions; unfilial act one of 10 vices; emphasized acts of filial piety to extreme degrees; Mencius—having no offspring was unfilial act; concubinage prevailed; one should not travel far when one's parents living—spirit of adventurism discouraged; after exposed defects by Wu Yu, said many Chinese ancients LX popularized ideas through short stories; LX's attack was broader and extended to whole of Chinese society; used satire—large number of readers; 1918; influence of such Russian authors as Gogol—attack on old Chinese civ.; eat people—Chinese society is society in which those on top basically preserved themselves by devouring those below; lives on back of someone else—live off offspring; just basically people using other people; China should reject benevolence and humanity—individualism; professors trying to point the way for generation following them; first generation to have traveled abroad through Boxer Protocol

xinmin

renovate the people, new citizen drawn into futile political activity, but did not consume his life; intervals where he could spend time reading and writing with Japanese; reasonably stable funding for periodical, and could pretty much say what he wanted; drew upon new learning to reexamine his old ideas—qun and active individual of zhishi; nature of individual participant was something he gave great attention to now; used phrase xinmin, renovate the people, new citizen; word from the common people, min = people, xin = new; carried strong C. overtones as well—as a term, appears in Daxue or Great Learning, established before by Zhu Xi as one of the Four Books, renovate the people; idiom of self-renovation in C., Q. was more convinced traditional C. ethics guidance for renovation now needed; personal relationships was ; filial piety might even reinforce wider political loyalties; ruler-minister concepts were woefully inadequate; 1902—new writing, much clearer of solidarity and activism necessary if China was to survive; motivating force stemmed from citizenry struggle—unmistakable strain of social Darwinism in his thinking; during and after his exile, traveled widely in N. America and SE Asia and Pacific; now went to Europe, London in 1919, collapse of old order, revolution in G and R, Europe simply between two wars, encountered disillusion with science and democracy; still anxious to tap latest currents of Western intellectual thought, met people who said that the West was bankrupt and was looking to East; should develop unique virtues of own culture; important for younger intellectuals that accompanied him; throughout 1920s, taught at university, did research, wrote several important books; as many of Chinese intellectuals thought of progress, Q. critiqued faith in science; taught that C. had much to teach; self-cultivation; middle way between Indian otherworldliness and Western materialism; turned to C.; died in 1929;

samsara (the world)

samsara changing—deterioration and regeneration; only way to stop this cycle is to terminate desires It is significant in Buddhist philosophy in that it was held together by desire, and so was to be destroyed in nirvana, releasing us from the suffering this desire produces. Broadly, this concept spoke to the Buddhist emphasis on enlightenment and the elimination of suffering, which made the philosophy appealing to the Chinese during the brutal conflict of Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties, and helped it fill the religious void left by Confucianism.

chen

servant, minister away C. aversion to pleasure; more and more suspicious of C. concept of ren and of a kind of public spirit that excluded any consideration of private gain; public and private goals were pursued at the same time; dissolution of the system of political roles and morality that had followed so many changes; no longer enough for officials to rule over people with paternal kindness, no longer enough for local scholars to aspire to become officials, beyond network of 1-1 relationships implied by ruler and minister; had to take the fate of the nation in their own hands; mobilizing, taking action; even the common people, had to become constantly involved citizens; jun = son of ruler, prince, someone whose words were worthy of being written down; chen (servant, minister) = eyes downcast before the ruler, not looking the ruler directly in the face; position of subservience; this is what Q is objecting to; can't have ministers be groveling; in international and largely imperial arena, Japan not only encroaching on China sov., Germany and Britain and kinda France; fear of China being carved up like a melon during this time; officials recognized that major changes in policy were needed to preserve state; 26 yo emperor was sympathetic to reform proposals; aunt ruled behind the scenes; she continued to exercise her power; no longer involved of day-day decision making, maintained influence; political manipulator; was a creature of tradition, and cared about her own survival in power—most important goals; none of this made reform impossible, but emperors did not normally take initiative in policy making; still on June 11, emperor approved an edict committing to basic fundamental changes—imperial college, extensive borrowing of Western learning; exams

kami

spirit; the divine Wang Yangming were allowed to flourish; unlike their counterparts in K., J. of T. period also maintained healthy diversity with respect to religion; both Chinese records and J. tradition, no real line between religion and gov. in early J.; earliest religious practice was broader current of animistic nature worship; early Japanese, awed by menacing and beneficent forces of nature, thought of natural phenomena were spirits—kami; thus they paid reverence to waterfalls, to mountains, trees, unusual rock formations; progenitor gods were such deities put into human form and woven into mythology; human leaders easily entered into category of kami; thus so-called divinity of J. line was far cry from West; divinity of nature allowed ritual worship; nature worship of kami came in later times to be called Shinto to distinguish it from Buddhism; not an organized religion, loose conglomerations of cults and ; only one shared principle—ritual purity; cleansing ceremonies, ritual abstentions; priestly class which performed these rites—represented J. equivalent of shamans; modern J. emphasis on cleanliness may hark back to concepts of ritual purity; indigenous national religion of S.—influence through great shrines and periodic festival; J. still has S. shrines—some massive, some small local shrines; all are marked by torii; clapping one's hands to attract gods attention, then bowing and washing out the mouth; festive affairs—food and amusement booths; carnival-like atmosphere; Shinto somewhat simple and primitive, but attitudes and practices remained important to J. cultural identity throughout centuries; B. retained its place in J.; anti-Christian edict of 1640 forced all J. to register at some local temple; maintained family graves; new B. temples were built in the respective capitals of J.; unifiers of J. had drastically reduced wealth and influence of B. church; samurai shift in attitude made it lose intellectual vigor; J. was largely secular society—some adoption of Neo-C.

eunuchs

stability shattered by typical episode of Ming politics; eunuchs—catered to whims of irresponsible ruler; manipulated rulers; central figure in whole cabal was powerful eunuch named Liu Jin; hated; large numbers of high officials condemned situation; had some thrown in prison; Confucian inability to remain silent in face of bad gov. caused him to protest imprisonments of higher officials by eunuchs; sent to malarial mountain posts; shaken by public beating and imprisonment; came to peace after speaking with father; "neither peace nor danger can make a mark on me"; arrived at post in 1508;

qi (lowercase)

this void constituted of qi; qi condenses—gives shape to things; disperses—becomes invisible; through condensation and dispersion that things are continually formed and dissolved; qi is dual in nature as it contains yin and yang which wax and wane according to a fixed principle; vacillates between solid and gaseous; related to another significant term—li; contends that there is a unity of heaven and man; qi is substance of which all things are created; qi is something like skin—all share it, makes us the same, but also the same thing that makes us different; he was quick to emphasize the sharedness of this qi; allows us to extend the concept of ren to all things and all peoples; new ideal according to Neo-C. was to form one body with the universe qi changes and dissolves, but li governs the change of qi; qi is below shapes, li is above shapes nature of two inherent forces of the universe li and qi; every physical object in nature has an inherent li; developed an orthodox lineage of succession—daotong; he was the one who elevated Mencius; expelled Xunzi, largely on the basis of his argument that human nature was evil, also for criticizing Mencius; man too is a composition of both li and qi; li is human nature and the same for all men, but it is the qi that makes men different; he who receives a qi that is clear becomes a sage, whose nature is like a pearl lying in cold translucent water, he who receives a qi that is turbid or dense will become a fool, whose nature is like that of a pearl in muddy water; ethics is how to restore pearl with original luster; brings us face-to-face with familiar ; did not believe that people were necessarily fixed in these positions—could refine your qi through education; human uniqueness—we alone have capacity to become aware of li by refining qi, which allows li to shine forth; other creatures are stuck at other levels of clarity; li is original human nature vs. material nature, li embedded qi; refine qi to move to comprehensive knowledge; the muddy substances which obscure man's original nature

Wu Yu

translation met with no real response; returned to gov. job after study abroad thoroughly dejected; 1918—published in New Youth satirical diary (Diary of a Madman), finds between virtue two words repeated everywhere, which were "eat men"; saw Chinese culture of serving one's masters, misery of multitude; how did C. fare?; short answer is not great; C. did have its defenders, but can best remember May 4th as spawning first anti-Confucianists; ensconced at Baida; Wu Yu—had been waging his own battle against filial piety by appealing to Legalism and Daoism; in 1916 from Sichuan he changed forces with radical teachers at baida; effort to drench to Confucian refuse with waters of enlightenment—exhausting for Wu Yu; sense of commonality often anxious and tenuous; each had lost faith in Confucian solutions; never quite lost sense of isolation; most of professors forced to work in accordance with demands of filial piety; committed to liberation of next generation; most remained devoted to their wives and women—footbinding. Strident act on family system was professors outlet; Wu Yu was one of the most bitter—accused family structure of problem; father messes things up; raised cry against filial piety in Winter of 1919; critique of despotism—attack on filial piety itself; family and state collaborated to bind and gag individual; burden of gratitude and chains of filial piety—forgot our own selves; public was "slaves of the myriad death"; Lu Xun gave view popularity; Diary of a Madman—equation of C. virtue with cannibalism; attack on paternal authority developed into program; I love Confucius but I love truth more—Liang; Lu's major arguments against C. were that paternalism had become despotism; unquestioning loyalty to ruler; zhong—heart and mind and center; comradery in arms; most treasured value is loyalty, or sheng; Confucian idea was to eliminate any desire to protest or rebel on part of people; mixture of filial piety with loyalty—welcomed by all rulers, especially autocrats; embodied it in institutions; unfilial act one of 10 vices; emphasized acts of filial piety to extreme degrees; Mencius—having no offspring was unfilial act; concubinage prevailed; one should not travel far when one's parents living—spirit of adventurism discouraged; after exposed defects by Wu Yu, said many Chinese ancients opposed C. too; Han Feizi—contradiction between filial piety and loyalty; soldier who always retreated because he didn't want to die because father needed him; Wu Yu attacked advocacy of caste-system; C. upheld superior to inferior; M. had promoted idea that people most important, those who rejected parents and monarch were beasts; application of theory to Chinese institutions—effects on Chinese society; HS praise WY; "overthrow C. & sons"—slogan; W. critical attitudes toward C. probably met needs of time; saw falsity in Analects; W.