Confucian Tradition and Its Modern Transformations in
China and Taiwan
Course syllabus, prepared by Prof./ Dr. Yen-zen Tsai
University of Göttingen, June 29-30, July 6-7, 2012.
Aim
Confucianism has indelibly shaped Chinese mind, culture, and society in the past
over two millennia. In imperial China, it had been intertwined with official ideology,
family ethic, intellectual formation, and ruling mechanism. However, the successive
incursions of the Western powers, including the impact of science and democracy,
and the final collapse of the Manchu Dynasty at the turn of the twentieth century,
brought this ancient tradition to its knees. What has happened to Confucianism ever
since? Is it completely defunct, “museumized”, or still resilient? Does it make any
sense to talk about Confucian tradition nowadays? In view of “the rise of China”, how
do we conceptually reconcile this new world power with its Confucian past? In what
way has Confucianism influenced Taiwan since 1949 when the Nationalist
government moved to this island and established the “Free China”? Or, to inquire
about the fundamental issue, what is Confucianism actually about?
This mini-course aims to explore the aforementioned questions. It is designed to
guide the interested student to approach them from four perspectives: political,
philosophical, ethical, and religious. To facilitate the student’s learning, concrete
historical examples will be selected from the last one hundred years, particularly from
the post-1949 Taiwan, as illustrations. It is hoped that through this intensive study, the
student will not only have a better understanding of what Confucianism is and how it
has fared but also grow interested in the future it would possibly create for China,
Taiwan, and the global community.
Course Format
There will be four meeting days, June 29-30 and July 6-7. On each of these four
days, the meeting hours will be 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00. In the morning section,
the instructor gives lectures, while in the afternoon section, the whole class discusses
the assigned required reading.
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Requirements and Grading Criteria
Enrolled students are expected to fulfill the following two obligations upon
which their performance is evaluated:
1. Preparation and participation (30%)
The students should read the assigned readings listed under Course Schedule
before the class and actively participate in class discussion.
2. A 6000-word essay (70%) ─
The students should write a term paper based on their own choice of topic and
hand it in by September 30, 2012.
Course Schedule
Reading materials are of two kinds: required and recommended. The former are
a minimum requirement and should be read as instructed. The later are for advanced
students who would like to know more about the specific subjects or for research
purposes.
1st meeting, June 29. ─ The Political Dimension of Confucianism
Required reading:
1. Mencius, “The Book of Mencius,” in Chan, Wing-tsit. A Source Book in
Chinese Philosophy. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963; hereafter
abbreviated as SBCP), pp. 49-83.
2. “The Great Learning,” in SBCP, pp. 85-94.
3. Bell, Daniel A, “Democracy with Chinese Characteristics: A Political
Proposal for the Post-communist Era” Philosophy East and West vol.49,
no.4(1999): 451-493.
4. Hu, Shaohua, “Confucianism and Contemporary Chinese Politics.” Politics
& Policy vol. 35 .no. 1 (2007): 136-153.
Recommended reading:
1. Furth, Charlotte, “Intellectual Change: from the Reform movement to the
May Fourth Movement, 1895-1920,” in The Cambridge History of China,
vol. 12, Republican China 1912-1949, part 1, ed. John K. Fairbank.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 322-405.
2. Dirlik, Arif, “Confucius in the Borderlands: Global Capitalism and the
Reinvention of Confucianism,” boundary 2 22:3 (1995), pp. 229-273.
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3. De Bary, Wm. Theodore, “The New Confucianism in Beijing,” Cross
Current, 45.4 (Winter 1995/1996), pp. 479-492.
2nd meeting, June 30. ─ The Philosophical Dimension of Confucianism
Required reading:
1. Chu Hsi (Zhu Xi), “The Complete Works of Chu Hsi,” in SBCP, pp.
605-653.
2. Wang Yang-ming (Wang Yangming), “Instructions for Practical Living,” in
SBCP, pp. 667-691.
3. Song, Xianlin, “Reconstructing the Confucian Ideal in 1980s China: The
‘Culture Craze’ and New Confucianism,” in Makeham, John, ed. New
Confucianism: A Critical Examination (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp.
81-104.
4. Zhang, Shuguang, “The Renaissance of Traditional Chinese Learning.”
Frontiers of Philosophy in China vol. 5. no.2 (2010): 237-254.
Recommended reading:
1. Allito, Guy S., “The Conservative Sage: Liang Shu-ming,” in Furth,
Charlotte, ed. The Limits of Change: Essays on Conservative Alternatives in
Republican China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp.
213-241.
2. Chang, Hao. “New Confucianism and the Intellectual Crisis of
Contemporary China,” in Furth, Charlotte, ed. The Limits of Change: Essays
on Conservative Alternatives in Republican China (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1976), pp. 276-302.
3. Makeham, John, Lost Soul: “Confucianism” in Contemporary Chinese
Academic Discourse. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, for Harvard
University Asia Center, 2008.
3rd meeting, July 6. ─ The Ethical Dimension of Confucianism
Required reading:
1. Confucius, “The Analects,” in SBCP, pp. 18-48.
2. Fingarette, Herbert, Confucius 一 The Secular as Sacred (New York:
Harper & Row, Publishers), pp. 1-17.
3. Jordan, David K., “Filial Piety in Taiwanese Popular Thought,” in Walter H.
Slote & George A. DeVos, eds., Confucianism and the Family (Albany:
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SUNY Press, 1998), pp. 267-283.
4. Tu, Weiming, “Probing the ‘Three Bonds’ and ‘Five Relationship’ in
Confucian Humanism,” Walter H. Slote & George A. DeVos, eds.,
Confucianism and the Family (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), pp. 121-136.
Recommended reading:
1. Chu Hsi, Chu Hsi’ Family Rituals: A Twelfth-century Chinese Manual for
the Performance of Cappings, Weddings, Funerals, and Ancestral Rites,
translated, annotated, and introduced by Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Princeton
University Press, 1991).
2. Englehart, Neil A., “Rights and Culture in the Asian Values Argument: The
Rise and Fall of Confucian Ethics in Singapore,” Human Rights Quarterly,
vol. 22, no. 2 (2000):548-568.
3. Pang-White Ann A. “Reconstructing Modern Ethics: Confucian Care
Ethics.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 36 no. 2 (2009):210-227.
4th meeting, July 7. ─ The Religious Dimension of Confucianism
Required reading:
1. “The Doctrine of the Mean,” in SBCP, pp. 97-114.
2. Chou Tun-I (Zhou Dunyi), “An Explanation of the Diagram of the Great
Ultimate,” in SBCP, pp. 463-465.
3. Taylor, Rodney, “The Religious Character of the Confucian Tradition,”
Philosophy East and West, 48.1 (1998), pp. 80-107.
4. Jochim, Christian, “Carrying Confucianism into the Modern World: The
Taiwan Case,” in Religion in Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a
Changing Society, eds. Philip Clart & Charles B. Jones (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2003), pp. 48-83.
Recommended reading:
1. Yang, C. K. “The Functional Relationship between Confucian Thought and
Chinese Religion,” in Chinese Thought and Institutions, ed. John K. Fairbank
(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1957), pp. 269-290.
2. Tu, Weiming, “On Confucian Religiousness,” in Centrality and
Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness (Albany: SUNY Press,
1989), pp. 93-121.
3. Chen, Hsi-yuan. Confucian Encounters with “Religion”: Rejections,
Appropriations, and Transformations. London and New York: Routledge,
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2006.
Suggested Pre-class Reading
The following two books are useful in directing students who know little about
Confucianism into the topic we here propose. They provide a broad but relevant scope
in which we will begin our course learning. Try to read at least one of them.
1. Tu, Wei-ming, “Confucianism,” in Arvind Sharma, ed. Our Religions (New
York: Harper San Francisco,1993), pp. 139-227.
2. Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
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