The Book of Mencius and Its Reception in China and Beyond

The Book of Mencius and Its Reception in China and Beyond
Author: Junjie Huang
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2008
Genre: Philosophy, Chinese
ISBN: 9783447056694

The Mencius, attributed to the philosopher Mengzi (Lat. Mencius, ca. 370-290 BC), the "second Sage" of the Confucian school after its founder, is one of the most prominent of all Chinese classics, with a great impact on the historical development of Confucianism. Today, it serves as one of the determinants for positioning Confucianism in the modern world, and it is the most discussed Chinese philosophical text in the context of the search for universally valid ethical norms and democracy. The essays collected in this volume by scholars from Taiwan, Japan and Germany focus on various aspect of the reception of the work in East Asia from the Song-Dynasty to the present day. They call into mind the signifance of a thinker who according to Albert Schweitzer is "the most modern one of all thinkers of antiquity".

Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius

Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius
Author: Yang Xiao
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 702
Release: 2023-04-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3031276205

This book is about the philosophical, historical, and interpretative aspects of Mencius. It explores his influence, reception, and relevance in China from the third century BCE to the present, as well as offers comparative studies of Mencius and major figures in the history of Chinese and Western philosophy. With 34 accessible articles written by leading philosophers and scholars, the Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius provides both broad pictures and in-depth discussions regarding the work of one of the most important and influential Chinese philosophers. It covers his normative ethics, meta-ethics, political philosophy, epistemology and moral psychology. The last section of the volume, “Mencius and Western Philosophers: Comparative Perspectives,” explicitly puts him in dialogue with major Western philosophers. The Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius serves as an essential volume for college students, graduate students, and scholars who study and teach Mencius as well as Chinese philosophy and comparative philosophy in general.​

Imagining China in Tokugawa Japan

Imagining China in Tokugawa Japan
Author: Wai-ming Ng
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438473079

Pioneering study of the localization of Chinese culture in early modern Japan, using legends, classics, and historical terms as case studies. While current scholarship on Tokugawa Japan (1603–1868) tends to see China as either a model or “the Other,” Wai-ming Ng’s pioneering and ambitious study offers a new perspective by suggesting that Chinese culture also functioned as a collection of “cultural building blocks” that were selectively introduced and then modified to fit into the Japanese tradition. Chinese terms and forms survived, but the substance and the spirit were made Japanese. This borrowing of Chinese terms and forms to express Japanese ideas and feelings could result in the same things having different meanings in China and Japan, and this process can be observed in the ways in which Tokugawa Japanese reinterpreted Chinese legends, Confucian classics, and historical terms. Ng breaks down the longstanding dichotomies between model and “the Other,” civilization and barbarism, as well as center and periphery that have been used to define Sino-Japanese cultural exchange. He argues that Japanese culture was by no means merely an extended version of Chinese culture, and Japan’s uses and interpretations of Chinese elements were not simply deviations from the original teachings. By replacing a Sinocentric perspective with a cross-cultural one, Ng’s study represents a step forward in the study of Tokugawa intellectual history. “What the author has done with great success is to break down the longstanding dichotomies that have been established in prior scholarship between center and margins, self and ‘other,’ empire and tributary states, civilization and barbarism, and so forth, treating China and Japan on equal terms. An impressive achievement.” — Richard J. Smith, author of The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography
Author: Kerry Brown
Publisher: Berkshire Publishing Group
Total Pages: 1735
Release: 2017-12-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1933782617

The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, the first publication of its kind since 1898, is the work of more than one hundred internationally recognized experts from nearly a dozen countries. It has been designed to satisfy the growing thirst of students, researchers, professionals, and general readers for knowledge about China. It makes the entire span of Chinese history manageable by introducing the reader to emperors, politicians, poets, writers, artists, scientists, explorers, and philosophers who have shaped and transformed China over the course of five thousand years. In 135 entries, ranging from 1,000 to 8,000 words and written by some of the world's leading China scholars, the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography takes the reader from the important (even if possibly mythological) figures of ancient China to Communist leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. The in-depth essays provide rich historical context, and create a compelling narrative that weaves abstract concepts and disparate events into a coherent story. Cross-references between the articles show the connections between times, places, movements, events, and individuals.

The Politics of the Past in Early China

The Politics of the Past in Early China
Author: Vincent S. Leung
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2019-07-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108425720

History mattered to the political elite in ancient China. Leung explores why it was so important and to what end.

Christianity and Confucianism

Christianity and Confucianism
Author: Christopher Hancock
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 697
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567657698

Christianity and Confucianism: Culture, Faith and Politics, sets comparative textual analysis against the backcloth of 2000 years of cultural, political, and religious interaction between China and the West. As the world responds to China's rise and China positions herself for global engagement, this major new study reawakens and revises an ancient conversation. As a generous introduction to biblical Christianity and the Confucian Classics, Christianity and Confucianism tells a remarkable story of mutual formation and cultural indebtedness. East and West are shown to have shaped the mind, heart, culture, philosophy and politics of the other - and far more, perhaps, than either knows or would want to admit. Christopher Hancock has provided a rich and stimulating resource for scholars and students, diplomats and social scientists, devotees of culture and those who pursue wisdom and peace today.

Essays on Argumentation in Antiquity

Essays on Argumentation in Antiquity
Author: Joseph Andrew Bjelde
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2021-07-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030708179

This book provides a collection of essays representing the state of the art in the research into argumentation in classical antiquity. It contains essays from leading and up and coming scholars on figures as diverse as Parmenides, Gorgias, Seneca, and Classical Chinese "wandering persuaders." The book includes contributions from specialists in the history of philosophy as well as specialists in contemporary argumentation theory, and stimulates the dialogue between scholars studying issues relating to argumentation theory in ancient philosophy and contemporary argumentation theorists. Furthermore, the book sets the direction for research into argumentation in antiquity by encouraging an engagement with a broader range of historical figures, and closer collaboration between contemporary concerns and the history of philosophy.

Confucianism

Confucianism
Author: Ming-huei Lee
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2018-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0824878329

“In Confucianism: Its Roots and Global Significance, English-language readers get a rare opportunity to read in a single volume the work of one of Taiwan’s most distinguished scholars. Although Ming-huei Lee has published in English before, the corpus of his non-Chinese writings is in German. Readers of this volume will soon discover the hard-mindedness and precision of thinking so associated with German philosophy as they enter into his discussions of Confucianism. As readers progress through this book, they will be constantly reminded that all philosophy should be truly comparative. . . . “The work is divided into three sections: Classical Confucianism and Its Modern Reinterpretations, Neo-Confucianism in China and Korea, and Ethics and Politics. These sections evince just some of the range of Ming-huei Lee’s thinking as well as his inclusive reach of Confucian philosophy to the whole of East Asia, especially to Korea. In the Ethics and Politics section, readers will get a taste for the return to his own tradition through the lens of Kantian philosophy with his analysis of Confucius and the virtue ethics debate in Confucian philosophical circles. Lee’s thinking through Mou Zongsan’s interpretation of Confucianism, Zhu Xi and the Huxiang scholars’ debate on ren, and the unfolding of the debates over the 'four buddings' and 'seven feelings' in Korea by Yi Toegye and Gi Gobong sets up the subsequent chapters of the book: a reconstruction of Wang Yangming’s philosophy and theories of democracy, and a critique of Jiang Qing’s 'political Confucianism.' His work in this book adds a sizable appendage to Confucian scholarship. Moreover, the interrelated ideas and arguments presented in this book are a special contribution to the Confucian project in English-speaking countries across the world.” —from the Editor’s Foreword An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.

Comparative and Intercultural Philosophy

Comparative and Intercultural Philosophy
Author: Hans Lenk
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2009
Genre: Culture
ISBN: 364310202X

The volume documents the results of the Annual Meeting of the International Institute of Philosophy at the occasion of the World Congress of Philosophy 2008 in Seoul. Logically, systematic and methodological differences and comparisons between cultural traditions are analyzed from a multicultural perspective. General challenges of multiculturalism for "world philosophy" are analyzed from ethical and ontological approaches, e.g. of ancient Chinese and Greek philosophy. Historical studies regarding influences and "migrations" of philosophical texts across different cultures as well as religious and human rights debates about tolerance are topical themes. In addition, the question is raised whether logical principles are cross-culturally valid.

Political Philosophy in the East an West

Political Philosophy in the East an West
Author: Jaan Islam
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2018-01-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1622733657

In the 21st century, amid the convergence of global political, social, and economic forces we are asking ourselves the fundamental values we hold true, facing an antagonism between different school of philosophy¿between left and right politics. The proposed book provides a comprehensive analysis of western political philosophy and underlines the core principles of each argument. It then argues that non have solved, or have any pathway to eventually solve, the question of right and wrong¿we are essentially moral relativists in disguise. In order to break out of this cycle of uncertainty, the book purposes a solution of knowledge-based cognition: policy based on a concrete and prove understanding of an absolute and certain body of truths. This requires an analysis and blending of non-western political philosophical traditions, such as those espoused by Islam and Confucianism. This book gives an original critique of western political philosophy and is the first book to engage in a philosophical reconstruction of Islamic political philosophy.