Modernist troublemaker in the 1890s, Nobel Prize winner in 1920, and indefensible Nazi sympathiser in the 1930s and 40s, Knut Hamsun continues to provoke condemnation, apologia and critical confusion. Informed by the works of Jacques Derrida and Sigmund Freud, Troubling Legacies analyses the heterogeneous and conflicted legacies of the enigmatic European writer, Hamsun. Moving through different phases of his life, this study emphasises the dislocated nature of Hamsun's works and the diverse and conflicting responses his fiction elicited from such figures as Franz Kafka, Katherine Mansfield, Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger. Close readings of the major novels Hunger, Mysteries, Pan and Growth of the Soil are presented alongside lesser known writings, including his early polemic on America, his turn-of-the-century travelogue through Russia, his fascist polemics of the 1930s and 40s, and his controversial post-war testimony, On Overgrown Paths. Troubling Legacies links past debates with contemporary literary theory and deconstruction in a way that contributes to critical thinking about political responsibility.

Where does Neo-Confucianism a movement that from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries profoundly influenced the way people understood the world and responded to it fit into our story of China s history?

This interpretive, at times polemical, inquiry into the Neo-Confucian engagement with the literati as the social and political elite, local society, and the imperial state during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties is also a reflection on the role of the middle period in China s history. The book argues that as Neo-Confucians put their philosophy of learning into practice in local society, they justified a new social ideal in which society at the local level was led by the literati with state recognition and support. The later imperial order, in which the state accepted local elite leadership as necessary to its own existence, survived even after Neo-Confucianism lost its hold on the center of intellectual culture in the seventeenth century but continued as the foundation of local education. It is the contention of this book that Neo-Confucianism made that order possible.

Despite famously small numbers, Christians have had a distinctive presence in modern Japan, particularly for their witness on behalf of democracy and religious freedom. A translation of Ken'i to Fukuju: Kindai Nihon ni okeru Roma-sho Jusan-sho (2003), Authority and Obedience is "a personal pre-history" of the postwar generation of Japanese Christian intellectuals deeply committed to democracy. Using Japanese Christians' commentary on Paul's injunction in Romans 13: 1-7, the counsel to "let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God...", Miyata offers an intellectual history of how Japanese Christians understood the emperor-focused modern state from the time of the first Protestant missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century through the climax and demise of fascism during the Pacific War. Stressing verse 5's admonition to "conscience" as the reason for obedience, Miyata provides a clear and political perspective grounded in his lifelong engagement with German political thought and theology, particularly that of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he calls for a conscientious citizenry in his modern society. Showing both Christians' complicity with the state and the empire - including the formation of a unified church, the Nihon Kirisuto Kyodan - and their attitude toward Christians in Asia, and the complexity of the critical voices of Christians like Uchimura Kanzo, Kashiwagi Gien, Nanbara Shigeru, and many others less well known - Miyata's work aims not at exposing cultural particularity but at showing how the modern Japanese Christian experience can give meaning to a theology and a political theory of how to live within the "freedom of religious belief".

Neo-Confucianism is the sophisticated revival of Confucian theorizing, responding to challenges from Buddhism and Daoism, which began around 1000 C.E. and came to dominate the Chinese intellectual scene for centuries thereafter. What would happen if we took Neo-Confucianism and its central ideal of sagehood seriously as contemporary philosophy? Sagehood represents supreme human virtue: a flawless, empathetic responsiveness to every situation in which one finds oneself. How could this be possible? How might one work toward such a state? According to Neo-Confucians, we should all strive to become sages, whether or not we ultimately achieve it. Taking neo-Confucianism seriously means to explore the ways that its theories of psychology, ethics, education, and politics engage with the views of contemporary philosophers. Angle's book is therefore both an exposition of Neo-Confucian philosophy and a sustained dialogue with many leading Western thinkers--and especially with those philosophers leading the current renewal of interest in virtue ethics. The book's significance is two-fold: it argues for a new stage in the development of contemporary Confucian philosophy, and it demonstrates the value to Western philosophers of engaging with the Neo-Confucian tradition.

"Rarely is a work in comparative philosophy itself an original philosophical contribution. But that is the case in this instance in which Angle brings Neo-Confucian philosophy into fruitful conversation with contemporary Western, virtue-ethics based analytic philosophers.The result is a presentation of Neo-Confucianism that advances it beyond any previous Neo-Confucian: Angle is the best in the line so far, at least among those writing or written about in English." - Robert Cummings Neville, The Review of Metaphysics
"This book does an outstanding job of engaging a wide range of sources not only from different areas of philosophy (such as virtue ethics and Chinese philosophy) but also from the disciplines of religious studies and Asian studies. Indeed, one thing that makes this book worth reading is the way it puts new and interesting sources into conversation with one another in order to shed new light on the topics at hand. While this work is certainly recommended for specialists in comparative ethics and Chinese philosophy, it is also a resource for philosophers interested in learning how non-Western philosophy might potentially contribute to work in ethics today." - Eric Cline, Mind
"Throughout the book, Angle makes good use of recent empirical studies. His book is very accessible for readers with a wide variety of backgrounds. Philosophers with no background in Chinese thought will find challenging and interesting discussions of many issues relevant to their own work. Furthermore, I think this book is also quite appropriate to assign to strong undergraduate students. I recommend it highly." - Bryan W. van Norden, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

In this engaging volume, Daniel Gardner explains the way in which the Four Books-- Great Learning , Analects , Mencius , and Maintaining Perfect Balance --have been read and understood by the Chinese since the twelfth century. Selected passages in translation are accompanied by Gardner's comments, which incorporate selections from the commentary and interpretation of the renowned Neo-Confucian thinker, Zhu Xi (1130-1200). This study provides an ideal introduction to the basic texts in the Confucian tradition from the twelfth through the twentieth centuries. It guides the reader through Zhu Xi's influential interpretation of the Four Books, showing how Zhu, through the genre of commentary, gave new coherence and meaning to these foundational texts. Since the Four Books with Zhu Xi's commentary served as the basic textbook for Chinese schooling and the civil service examinations for more than seven hundred years, this book illustrates as well the nature of the standard Chinese educational curriculum.

In this book Bryan W. Van Norden examines early Confucianism as a form of virtue ethics and Mohism, an anti-Confucian movement, as a version of consequentialism. The philosophical methodology is analytic, in that the emphasis is on clear exegesis of the texts and a critical examination of the philosophical arguments proposed by each side. Van Norden shows that Confucianism, while similar to Aristotelianism in being a form of virtue ethics, offers different conceptions of 'the good life', the virtues, human nature, and ethical cultivation. Mohism is akin to Western utilitarianism in being a form of consequentialism, but distinctive in its conception of the relevant consequences and in its specific thought-experiments and state-of-nature arguments. Van Norden makes use of the best research on Chinese history, archaeology, and philology. His text is accessible to philosophers with no previous knowledge of Chinese culture and to Sinologists with no background in philosophy.

The Essential Analects offers a representative selection from Edward Slingerland's acclaimed translation of the full work, including passages covering all major themes. An appendix of selected traditional commentaries keyed to each passage provides access to the text and to its reception and interpretation. Also included are a glossary of terms and short biographies of the disciples of Confucius and the traditional commentators cited.

This remarkable study articulates a Korean Confucian-Christian theory of human nature-theory of justification, sanctification, and salvation by means of a reformed concept of filial piety. The book investigates in depth the theological anthropology of Robert C. Neville and the inclusive humanism of Tu Wei-ming. Neville and Tu represent contemporary Christian and Confucian approaches to religious anthropology. Furthermore, they have engaged in an extended and productive dialogical encounter on the themes of comparative thought and religious renewal in Asia and North America. This book argues that Neville's and Tu's insights into human nature have great relevance for a comparative, contemporary Korean theology by focusing on the role of a reformed version of filial piety as a new component of Korean theology. The articulation of filial piety as a potential key of contemporary Korean theology is an example of creative appropriation of a Confucian theme of the Christian praxis of sanctification, and ultimately the soteriology of divine grace and transformation. This study construes human nature to be such that any living theology will reflect the creative engagement of Christian theologians as public intellectuals in search of the articulation of the gospel.

The "Ling Ch'I Ching" was first created by an unknown Chinese scholar who consciously sought to present the world with a more accessible oracle than the esoteric "I Ching," For centuries the "Ling Ch'I Ching"has been a popular divination device for attaining self-knowledge and wisdom. Like its more famous cousin, the "I Ching," the "Ling Ch'I Ching"is rich in poetic language and metaphorical imagery, linking the dynamic principles of heaven and earth with the affairs of people. But the "Ling Ch'I Ching"is far more accessible than the "I Ching," focusing on the concerns of day-to-day life and positive accomplishment, with no "moving lines" to interpret. The method of consultation includes throwing twelve coins, which are then arranged in three rows to yield one of 125 possible trigraphs. In the text, each trigraph is represented by a core oracle describing a situation, problem, or event, and its internal dynamic, along with a verse emphasizing the trigraph's more subtle, intuitive qualities. To aid the reader in interpreting the oracle, selections from classical commentaries have been included, as well as the translators' own commentary on the text.

Confucius is a key figure not only in Eastern thought and philosophy but in world history as well. The Analects, the sayings attributed to him, is a classic of world literature. Nonetheless there is a great dispute about how to approach and understand both him and his work. This is the first anthology of critical writings on this crucial and influential work. The contributors come to the Analects from a variety of perspectives - including philosophical, philological, and religious - and address a host of key topics. Rigorous yet highly accessible, the volume will also include a general introduction and an exhaustive bibliography on English-language works on Confucius.

Confucianism has influenced Chinese societies for more than 2,000 years, and such influence is likely to continue in the future. However, during the preceding centuries, the nature of what was understood to be Confucianism has changed, and this process will also continue. Today, the scholarly tradition is adapting both to the modernization of Chinese societies--mainland China, Singapore, and Taiwan--and to the emergence of global society.

Tamney and Chiang focus on current social changes, their implications for the Chinese scholarly tradition, and the responses of Confucianists to these changes. Special topics include the response of Confucian scholars to the democracy movement, how politicians are using Confucian beliefs and values, the role of the scholarly tradition in contemporary Chinese popular culture, the challenges to Confucianism resulting from the changing role of women, and how competition with world religions is affecting the scholarly tradition. Throughout the book two themes are explored: the division of Confucianism into traditionalist and modernist forms and the nature of ideological convergence in the contemporary world. Scholars, students, and researchers interested in the ways Confucianism is becoming more similar to Western beliefs and values and in the ways Confucianism is likely to remain distinctive will find the volume invaluable.

This is a new translation of the Analects (Lun Yu) of Confucius, the 5th-century BC Chinese sage whose influence on Chinese and other East Asian cultures is still felt today. Huang's translation is more literal than any available version, and is accompanied by notes that explain unfamiliar terms and concepts and provide historical and cultural context.

In Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and other parts of East and Southeast Asia, as well as China, people are asking What does Confucianism have to offer today? For some, Confucius is still the symbol of a reactionary and repressive past. For others, he is the humanist admired by generations of scholars and thinkers, East and West, for his ethical system and discipline, among other qualities. Much depends on whose Confucianism one is considering, its time and place. In the face of such complications, Theodore de Bary ventures broad answers to the question of the significance of Confucianism in today's world.

The Ch'ing scholar-thinker Tai Chen (1724-1777) was a passionate explorer. He loved words, and his most important philosophical treatise, the Meng Tzu tzu-I shu-cheng (An evidential study of the meaning of terms in the Mencius), is an exhaustive search for the meaning of the words first uttered by Mencius in the fourth century B.C. This book by Ann-ping Chin and Mansfield Freeman is the first complete and annotated English translation of that treatise. Drawing on scholarship from the eighteenth century to the present, it also includes two essays that reconstruct Tai Chen's life and time and reinterpret his thought. Unlike most of the evidential scholars of his day, Tai Chen was not satisfied merely with providing reason and proof for his reading. He was interested in the life of words as their meaning changes with the vicissitudes of time. Tai Chen felt that the terms in the Mencius, garbled by the Sung and Ming thinkers who had come under the influence of Buddhism and Taoism, would no longer have made sense to Mencius himself. Key Confucian concepts, such as "principle" and "nature," had become "blood-less" moral constructs. Tai Chen preferred their primeval meaning. Intellectual historians of this century have hailed him as a progressive thinker and a social critic, but he saw himself in a simpler role: as a reader striving to understand every word in his text.

-- Wing-tsit Chan

This volume adds to our understanding of the development of Neo-Confucianism - its complexity, diversity, richness, and depth as a major component of the moral and spiritual fibre of the peoples of East Asia.

The notion of "individualism" inevitably creeps into the conversation of Americans who try to compare their country with China. It is something we supposedly have and prize which the Chinese do not now have nor probably ever had. For several generations, noncommunists and communists in China have excoriated individualism as the equivalent of selfishness. For them it is a morally insupportable value, not least because it is thought to fragment societies. Inasmuch as the word "individualism" defines a number of different, though related, value concepts in modern usage, the point of departure for our analysis will be the examination of each of these. This approach will enable us to judge exactly what it is we were supposed to have, whether or not the concept has played a role in Chinese society, past or present, and, if so, what significance has been attached to it. The word "holism" rarely creeps into anyone's conversation, except, perhaps, that of the sociologist or philosopher. It is a scholarly word. Yet there is considerable overlap between lay remarks about individual interest being subordinate to group interest and the scholar's technical descriptions of what some holisms expect of people. The ideas suggested by the term are not exclusively scholarly. It seems to point to some Chinese ways of thinking about relations among individuals that contrast with our ways. But if anything, it is vaguer than "individualism." [1]

The author reviews the Confucian tradition through the two concepts, religion and humanities. Chinese scholars always adopt Zongjiao and Renwen from the ancient Chinese documents as the Chinese translation of religion and humanities. In respect of their own contexts of culture, the Chinese words and the English words share some similarities in meaning, but also have some vital differences. This book covers the major phases of the development of Confucianism, which have a wide historical span from the Pre-Qin period to the contemporary era with a focus on Confucianism in Song and Ming dynasties. Relevant ideas of modern Western disciplines such as philosophy of religion, religious studies and theology are employed by the author as references, not criteria, to illuminate key ideas in Confucian tradition and highlight the features of Confucianism as a religious or spiritual humanism. In some chapters, the author compares the eastern thinkers and theories with those western ones.

This book, the first English translation of what many consider to be the most original work of Chinese philosophy produced in the twentieth century, draws from Buddhist and Confucian philosophy to develop a critical inquiry into the relation between the ontological and the phenomenal. This annotated edition examines Xiong Shili's complex engagement with Buddhist thought and the legacy of Xiong's thought in New Confucian philosophy. It will be an indispensable resource for students of Eastern philosophy and Chinese intellectual history, as well as for philosophers who may not be familiar with the Chinese tradition.

This volume makes available in English the seminal treatises in Korea's greatest interreligious debate of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. On Mind, Material Force, and Principle and An Array of Critiques of Buddhism by Confucian statesman Chong Tojon (1342-1398) and Exposition of Orthodoxy by Son monk Kihwa (1376-1433) are presented here with extensive annotation. A substantial introduction provides a summary and analysis of the philosophical positions of both Neo-Confucianism and Buddhism as well as a germane history of the interactions between these two traditions in East Asia, offering insight into religious tensions that persist to this day. Translator A. Charles Muller shows how, from the time Confucianism and Buddhism met in China, these thought systems existed, along with Daoism, in a competing relationship that featured significant mutual influence. A confrontative situation eventually developed in China, wherein Confucian leaders began to criticize Buddhism. During the late-Koryo and early-Choson periods in Korea, the Neo-Confucian polemic became the driving force in the movement to oust Buddhism from its position as Korea's state religion. In his essays, Chong drew together the gamut of arguments that had been made against Buddhism throughout its long history in Korea. Kihwa's essay met Neo-Confucian contentions with an articulate Buddhist response. Thus, in a rare moment in the history of religions, a true philosophical debate ensued. This debate was made possible based upon the two religions' shared philosophical paradigm: essence-function (ch'e-yong). This traditional East Asian way of interpreting society, events, phenomena, human beings, and the world understands all things to have both essence and function, two contrasting yet wholly contiguous and mutually containing components. All three East Asian traditions took this as their underlying philosophical paradigm, and it is through this paradigm that they evaluated and criticized each other's doctrines and practices. Specialists in philosophy, religion, and Korean studies will appreciate Muller's exploration of this pivotal moment in Korean intellectual history. Because it includes a broad overview of the interactive history of East Asian religions, this book can also serve as a general introduction to East Asian philosophical thought.

Although scholars have long assumed that early Chinese political authority was rooted in Confucianism, rulership in the medieval period was not bound by a single dominant tradition. To acquire power, emperors deployed objects and figures derived from a range of traditions imbued with religious and political significance. Author April D. Hughes demonstrates how dynastic founders like Wu Zhao (Wu Zetian, r. 690-705), the only woman to rule China under her own name, and Yang Jian (Emperor Wen, r. 581-604), the first ruler of the Sui dynasty, closely identified with Buddhist worldly saviors and Wheel-Turning Kings to legitimate their rule. During periods of upheaval caused by the decline of the Dharma, worldly saviors arrived on earth to quell chaos and to rule and liberate their subjects simultaneously. By incorporating these figures into the imperial system, sovereigns were able to depict themselves both as monarchs and as Buddhas or Bodhisattvas in uncertain times. In this inventive and original work, Hughes traces worldly saviors-in particular Maitreya Buddha and Prince Moonlight-as they appeared in apocalyptic scriptures from Dunhuang, claims to the throne made by various rebel leaders, and textual interpretations and assertions by Yang Jian and Wu Zhao. Yang Jian associated himself with Prince Moonlight and took on the persona of a Wheel-Turning King whose offerings to the Buddha were not flowers and incense but weapons of war to reunite a long-fragmented empire and revitalize the Dharma. Wu Zhao was associated with several different worldly savior figures. In addition, she saw herself as the incarnation of a Wheel-Turning King for whom it was said the Seven Treasures manifested as material representations of his right to rule. Wu Zhao duly had the Seven Treasures created and put on display whenever she held audiences at court. The worldly savior figure allowed rulers to inhabit the highest role in the religious realm along with the supreme role in the political sphere. This incorporation transformed notions of Chinese imperial sovereignty, and associating rulers with a Buddha or Bodhisattva continued long after the close of the medieval period.

Over the past generation, the rise of East Asia and especially China, has brought about a sea change in the economic and political world order. At the same time, global warming, environmental degradation, food and water shortages, population explosion, and income inequities have created a perfect storm that threatens the very survival of humanity. It is clear now that the Westphalian model of individual sovereign states seeking their own self-interest will not be able to respond effectively to this win-win or lose-lose crisis. In this volume, a cadre of distinguished scholars comes together to reflect on Confucianism and Deweyan pragmatism as possible resources for a new geopolitics that begins from an ontology of interdependence and recognizes the irreducibly ecological nature of the human experience at every level. Both Confucian and Deweyan traditions emphasize the primacy of experience, the importance of vital relationality, and the moral roots of good governance. The potential benefits of conceptually blending the two are many. Indeed, the contemporary Chinese philosopher Tang Junyi provides us with a cosmological understanding of the "idea" of Confucianism that, in parallel to Dewey's "idea" of democracy, can enable us to anticipate the core values, if not the specific contours, of a "Confucian democracy." Just as Dewey's "idea" of democracy is his vision of the flourishing communal life made possible by the contributions of the uniquely distinguished persons that constitute it, Tang Junyi's Confucianism is a pragmatic naturalism directed at achieving the most highly integrated cultural, moral, and spiritual growth for the individual-in-community. In both, we find an affirmation of communal harmony as a process "starting here and going there" through which those involved learn together to do ordinary things in extraordinary ways. Just such a cosmological understanding of democracy is one way of describing what will be needed to address the many predicaments characterizing the environmental, cultural, socioeconomic, and political dynamics of the twenty-first century.

In a historical moment when cross-cultural communication proves both necessary and difficult, the work of comparative philosophy is timely. Philosophical resources for building a shared future marked by vitality and collaborative meaning-making are in high demand. Taking note of the present global philosophical situation, this collection of essays critically engages the scholarship of Roger T. Ames, who for decades has had a central role in the evolution of comparative and nonwestern philosophy. With a reflective methodology that has produced creative translations of key Chinese philosophical texts, Ames-in conjunction with notable collaborators such as D.C. Lau, David Hall, and Henry Rosemont Jr.-has brought China's philosophical traditions into constructive cross-cultural dialogue on numerous ethical and social issues that we face today. The volume opens with two parts that share overlapping concerns about interpretation and translation of nonwestern texts and traditions. Parts III and IV - "Process Cosmology" and "Epistemological Considerations" - mark the shift in comparative projects from the metaphilosophical and translational stage to the more traditionally philosophical stage. Parts V and VI - "Confucian Role Ethics" and "Classical Daoism" - might best be read as Chinese contributions to philosophical inquiry into living well or "ethics" broadly construed. Lastly, Part VII takes Amesian comparative philosophy in "Critical Social and Political Directions," explicitly drawing out the broader dimensions of social constitution and the ideal of harmony. The contributors-scholars working in philosophy, religious studies, and Asian studies-pursue lines of inquiry opened up by the work of Roger Ames, and their chapters both clarify his ideas and push them in new directions. They survey the field of Chinese philosophy as it is taking shape in the wake of Ames's contributions and as it carries forward a global conversation on the future of humanity.

In Confucianism: Its Roots and Global Significance, English language readers get a rare opportunity to read the work in a single volume of one of Taiwan's most distinguished scholars. Although Lee Ming-huei has published in English before, the corpus of his non-Chinese writings is in German. Readers of this volume will discover the hard-mindedness and precision of thinking associated with German philosophy as they enter into Lee's discussions of Confucianism. Progressing through the book, they will be constantly reminded that all philosophy should be truly comparative.