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The single most influential work in Chinese history is Lunyu, the
Confucian Analects. Its influence on the Chinese people is
comparable to that of the bible on the Western world. It is neither
a tract of prosaic moralism contained in the fortune cookies in
Chinese restaurants nor a manual of political administration that
prescribes do's and don't's for new initiates. A book claiming a
readership of billions of people throughout the history in China
and East Asia and now even in the Western world must be one that
has struck a chord in the readers, one which appears to arise from
the existential concerns that Confucius shared: How can one
overcome the egoistic tendency that plagues life? How does one see
the value of communal existence? What should be one's ultimate
concern in life?These questions call for a line of inquiry on the
Analects that is explicitly existential. An existential reading of
the Analects differs from other lines of inquiry in that it not
only attempts to reveal how the text spoke to the original audience
but also to us today. It is not only a pure academic exercise that
appeals to the scholarly minded but also an engagement with all who
feel poignantly about existential predicaments.In this existential
reading of the Analects, the author takes Paul Tillich as an
omnipresent dialogical partner because his existential theology was
at one time very influential in the West and currently very popular
in Chinese academia. His analysis of ontological structure of man
can be applied to the Analects. This conceptual analysis reveals
that that this foundational text has three organically connected
levels of thought, proceeding from personal cultivation through the
mediation of the community to the metaphysical level of Ultimate
Reality. Few scholarly attempts like this one have been made to
reveal systematically the interconnectedness of these three levels
of thought and to the prominence to their theological
underpinnings.This existential reading of the Analects carries with
it a theological implication. If one follows the traditional
division of a systematic theology, one will find that the Analects
has anthropological, ethical, and theological dimensions, which
correspond to the three levels of thoughts mentioned. If one
understands soteriology more broadly, one will find the Analects
also has a soteriological dimension. The Analects points to the
goal of complete harmony in which a harmony within oneself, with
the society and cosmos are ensured.If one is to construct a
theology of the Analects, the existential reading enables the
drawing of certain contrasts with Paul Tillich's existential
theology. The Confucian idea of straying from the Way differs from
the symbol of fall. The Confucian reality of social entanglement
differs from the reality of estrangement. The Confucian paradoxical
nature of Heaven differs from trinitarian construction of God. The
most important contribution of this study is that it reveals the
religious or theological dimension of the Confucian Analects.This
is an important book for those engaged in the study of the
Confucian Analects, including those in Chinese studies as well as
comparative theology and religion.
This book examines Republican China's diplomatic strategies and
engagement, and power reconfiguration in East Asia after 1914.
Drawing on a vast trove of primary sources, including newly
declassified archival materials, the book offers not only a
richly-informed account of how the Beiyang government conducted
diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference but also new insights into
why. Calling into question such long-held beliefs that the Beiyang
government was inadequately prepared for the Conference, was
treasonous in urging the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, and
that its behavior at the Conference amounted to a thorough failure
of diplomacy, the author tries to make a case for a much more
nuanced re-interpretation and re-evaluation of this critical period
in the country's diplomatic history.
This book examines Republican China's diplomatic strategies and
engagement, and power reconfiguration in East Asia after 1914.
Drawing on a vast trove of primary sources, including newly
declassified archival materials, the book offers not only a
richly-informed account of how the Beiyang government conducted
diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference but also new insights into
why. Calling into question such long-held beliefs that the Beiyang
government was inadequately prepared for the Conference, was
treasonous in urging the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, and
that its behavior at the Conference amounted to a thorough failure
of diplomacy, the author tries to make a case for a much more
nuanced re-interpretation and re-evaluation of this critical period
in the country's diplomatic history.
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