Scholars on both sides of the Pacific have explored with greater frequency since the late 20th century the possible contributions that Confucianism may make to increasingly specialized subfields of philosophy, particularly ethics. The cardinal virtue of humaneness, when conceived as a sentiment of benevolence or as a conscientious concern, has played a key role in scholarly discussions within environmental philosophy, bioethics, and the ethics of care (particularly in medical ethics). Also, Confucianism’s stress upon the cultivation of humane characteristics and the development of virtuous dispositions has inspired some scholars to interpret the Confucian Way as a sophisticated mode of virtue ethics that developed independently of the Western tradition. Confucianism’s emphases on human nature and on the primacy of interpersonal relationships in human life arguably make it amenable to feminism, according to some scholars. The strength exhibited by economic markets not only in mainland China but in East Asia more broadly has promoted scholarship on how Confucian values may inform business ethics. Finally, the Confucian tradition’s emphasis upon the heart-and-mind (considered to be one organ in the classical Chinese worldview) and upon the emotional basis of human cognition and action have influenced Western scholars in cognitive science, neuropsychology, and evolutionary and developmental psychology. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Citation Information
Article Title: Confucianism
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 12 August 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confucianism
Access Date: August 14, 2019
Additional Reading
The study of Confucius and Confucianism, not only as a historically significant inquiry but also as a philosophically meaningful and challenging endeavour, has come of age in the English-speaking world since the 1970s. Useful overviews of Confucius’s stature in Chinese philosophy and religion are Wing-tsit Chan, An Outline and an Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Philosophy, rev. ed. (1969); and Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese Religion in Western Languages: A Comprehensive and Classified Bibliography of Publications in English, French, and German Through 1980 (1985).
H.G. Creel, Confucius: The Man and the Myth (1949, reissued 1975), also published as Confucius and the Chinese Way (1949, reprinted 1960), is a pioneering study. Herbert Fingarette, Confucius—The Secular as Sacred (1972), perceives the Confucian idea of ritual as a philosophical issue; David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, Thinking Through Confucius (1987), provides a philosophical interpretation of Confucius; Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China (1985), approaches Confucius and Confucianism as a challenging intellectual enterprise in comparative studies of great civilizations; and Annping Chin, The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics (2007), views the traditional sources for Confucius’s life in the context of archaeological and textual finds made since 1993.
Modern translations of Confucius, The Analects (Lun Yü), include those by D.C. Lau (1979, reissued 1986); Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr., The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation (1998); and Edward Slingerland (2003). Significant translations of Mencius, Mencius, are those by D.C. Lau (1970); and Bryan Van Norden (2007). The first complete translation of Xunzi, Xunzi, into an Indo-European language is the English translation by John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works, 3 vol. (1988–94). I.A. Richards, Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in Multiple Definition (1932, reissued 1983); and Kwong-loi Shun, Mencius and Early Chinese Thought (1997), are important interpretative studies. Richard Wilhelm (trans.), The I Ching; or, Book of Changes, 3rd ed. (1967, reprinted 1981; originally published in German, 1924), is unsurpassed in its richness of primary sources and clarity of presentation. Scholarly interpretations of classical Confucian thought include Donald J. Munro, The Concept of Man in Early China (1969); Tu Wei-ming, Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness (1989); and Hellmut Wilhelm, Heaven, Earth, and Man in The Book of Changes: Seven Eranos Lectures (1977).
Important primary sources in the Confucian tradition, all translated from Chinese, can be found in Wing-tsit Chan (trans.): Reflections on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology (1967), writings compiled by Chu Hsi (Xi Zhu) and Lü Tsu-ch’ien (Zuqian Lü); Neo-Confucian Terms Explained: The Pei-hsi tzu-i (1986), writings by Ch’en Ch’un; and Instructions for Practical Living, and Other Neo-Confucian Writing (1963), writings by Wang Yang-ming. Julia Ching and Chaoying Fang (Zhaoying Fang) (eds.), The Records of Ming Scholars (1987), provides excerpts from writings by Huang Zongxi.
Several symposium volumes dedicated to the study of the neo-Confucian form of life have been published, including Wm. Theodore de Bary (ed.), Self and Society in Ming Thought (1970), and The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism (1975); Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (eds.), Principle and Practicality: Essays in Neo-Confucianism and Practical Learning (1979); Hok-lam Chan and Wm. Theodore de Bary (eds.), Yüan Thought: Chinese Thought and Religion Under the Mongols (1982); and Wm. Theodore de Bary and JaHyun Kim Haboush (eds.), The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea (1985). Barry C. Keenan, Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation (2011), is a study of the spiritual dimension of the movement.
Wing-tsit Chan (ed.), Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism (1986), is an impressive collection of essays on Zhu Xi’s thought. Studies on major thinkers include Chi-yun Chen, Hsün Yüeh (A.D. 148–209): The Life and Reflection of an Early Medieval Confucian (1975); James T.C. Liu, Ou-yang Hsiu: An Eleventh-Century Neo-Confucianist (1967; originally published in Chinese, 1963); A.C. Graham, Two Chinese Philosophers: Ch’êng Ming-tao and Ch’êng Yi-ch’uan (1958, reprinted 1978); Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch’en Liang’s Challenge to Chu Hsi (1982); Winston Wan Lo, The Life and Thought of Yeh Shih (1974); Julia Ching, To Acquire Wisdom: The Way of Wang Yang-ming (1976); Tu Wei-ming, Neo-Confucian Thought in Action: Wang Yang-ming’s Youth (1472–1509) (1976); Edward T. Ch’ien, Chiao Hung and the Restructuring of Neo-Confucianism in the Late Ming (1986); and David S. Nivison, The Life and Thought of Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng, 1738–1801 (1966).