Kenyon College homepage Department of Religious Studies
Joseph Adler

Religious Studies 471

Heaven and Humanity in Confucian Thought and Practice

Joseph Adler

 

Spring 2008

Ascension 312

  

TTh 2:40-4:00

427-5290

  

Ascension 114

adlerj@kenyon.edu

 

Office hours: MWF 3-4, TTh 1-2
and by appointment

This seminar will explore the philosophical and cultural history of the Confucian tradition, primarily in China, from its inception to the present day. Readings will include both primary texts and secondary studies, covering the Five Classics and the sayings of Confucius and Mencius, the Neo-Confucians of the Sung and Ming dynasties, and the "New Confucians" of the twentieth century. Among the general questions to be considered are: In what senses can Confucianism be considered a religious tradition? How is Confucianism in China related to the tension between tradition and modernity? Which aspects of the tradition are culture-bound and which are universally applicable? The last few weeks will focus on the roles of women in Confucian thought and practice.

READING

Required texts:
  • Raymond Dawson, trans., The Analects
  • D.C. Lau, trans., Mencius
  • Philip J. Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self-Cultivation, 2nd ed.
  • Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed., vol. 1
  • Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation

On Course Reserve [CR] (those with * have reading assignments):

  • * Wm. Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed., vol. 2
  • * Wm. Theodore de Bary and John Chaffee, eds., Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage
  • Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred
  • Fung Yu-lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy, 2 vols.
  • A.C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China
  • A.C. Graham, Two Chinese Philosophers: Ch'êng Ming-tao and Ch'êng Yi-ch'uan
  • * Donald Hall and Roger Ames, Thinking Through Confucius
  • Lionel M. Jensen, Manufacturing Confucianism
  • * Dorothy Ko, JaHyun Kim Haboush, Joan R. Piggott, eds., Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan
  • Michael Nylan, The Five "Confucian" Classics
  • * Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China
  • * Arvind Sharma, Our Religions
  • Kidder Smith, Jr., Peter K. Bol, Joseph A. Adler, Don J. Wyatt, Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching
  • Rodney L. Taylor, The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism
  • Rodney L. Taylor, The Way of Heaven
  • Tu Wei-ming, Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness
  • Tu Wei-ming, Humanity and Self-Cultivation: Essays in Confucian Thought
  • Tu Wei-ming, Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation
  • * Tu Wei-ming and Mary Evelyn Tucker, eds., Confucian Spirituality, 2 vols.
  • Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Berthrong, eds., Confucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of Heaven, Earth, and Humans
  • * Robin R. Wang, ed., Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture
  • Thomas A. Wilson, ed., On Sacred Grounds: Culture, Society, Politics, and the Formation of the Cult of Confucius
  • * Xinzhong Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism
  • Xinzhong Yao, ed., RoutledgeCurzon Encyclopedia of Confucianism, 2 vols. [in Reference section]

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

  1. Participation (25% of grade). The seminar format requires regular attendance, completion of reading assignments, and active participation in discussion by all members, every week. Necessary absences must be cleared in advance with the instructor; unexcused absences will result in a grade penalty.

  2. Three shorter papers (15% each), 4-6 pages each and based on the assigned readings, due the Mondays after weeks 3, 5, and 9.

  3. Research paperr (30%), 10-12 pages plus bibliography, using at least two sources outside of assigned readings, due at the end of the semester.

 

The Confucian Temple (Kongzi miao) in Taipei, Taiwan.

SEMINAR SCHEDULE

1  Jan 15-17

  

Overview of the Confucian tradition in China  
  Read: 
  • Tu Wei-ming, "Confucianism," in Arvind Sharma, Our Religions [CR]:
    141-227

2 Jan 22-24

  

Patterns of Chinese thinking 
  Read: 
  • Hall and Ames, Thinking Through Confucius [CR]: 11-25, 131-138
  • Tu and Tucker, Confucian Spirituality, vol. 1 [CR]: 39-55 (Berry)

3 Jan 29-31

  

The Five Scriptures (Wujing 五經)
  Read:
  • Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism [CR], pp. 47-67 (Confucian Classics)
  • Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China [CR]: 383-406 (ch. 10)
Monday, Feb. 4: Paper 1 due


4  Feb 5-7

  Confucius (Kongzi 孔子) and the Analects (Lunyu 論語)
• Learning the cultural tradition (wen  文) and reviving the Way (dao 道 ) of the Sages
• Being humane (ren 仁 ), ritually proper (li 禮), and appropriate (yi 義 )

Read:
  • Ivanhoe, Self-Cultivation: Introduction and ch. 1
  • Dawson, The Analects (complete)

5  Feb 12-14

  

Mencius (Mengzi 孟子)
• Heaven and human nature (renxing 人性)

 

Read:
  • Ivanhoe, ch. 2
  • Mencius, sections 1A; 1B; 2A; 3A:3-4, 4A;
    4B:12-14, 28, 32; 5A:5-6; 5B:9; 6A; 6B:2; 7A; 7B
Monday, Feb. 18: Paper 2 due

6 Feb 19-21

 

Xunzi 荀子
The Daxue 大學 (“Great Learning”)
The Zhongyong 中庸 ("The Mean")

 

Read:
  • Ivanhoe, ch. 3
  • de Bary and Bloom, Sources, pp. 159-183, 329-339

7  Feb 26-28

  

Han 漢 through Tang / T’ang 唐 Dynasties
• Dong Zhongshu  董仲舒
• The Xiaojing 孝經 (Classic of Filiality)
• Confucian texts for women
• Han Yü 韓愈
• The Yijing  易經 (Scripture of Change)

 

Read:
  • de Bary and Bloom, Sources, pp. 283-285, 292-297, 314-329, 344-346, 568-573, 582-585, 819-836
<< Spring Vacation >>

Illustration of Classic of Filial Piety, ch. 1; from Richard Barnhart, Li Kung-lin's Classic of Filial Piety.

 

8 Mar 18-20



  

Neo-Confucianism: The Northern Song 宋
• Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤: Daoism and the Yijing
• Shao Yong 邵雍: numerology and the Sage
• Zhang Zai 張載: ethics based on qi 氣
• Cheng Hao程顥and Cheng Yi 程頤: metaphysics of li 理 and qi 氣

 Read: 
  • de Bary and Bloom, Sources, pp. 587-590, 596-604, 609-612, 625-629, 641-643, 667-697
  • Wang, Images of Women: 316-320 [handout]
  Recommended: A.C. Graham,
  Two Chinese Philosophers [CR]

Zhou Dunyi
The Cheng brothers

9 Mar 25-27

Zhu Xi

 

Neo-Confucianism: Southern Song 宋
• Zhu Xi 朱熹:  architect of the Daoxue 道學 synthesis
• Lu Jiuyuan 陸九淵

 
Read:
  • Ivanhoe, ch. 4
  • de Bary and Bloom, Sources, pp. 697-734, 742-748, 837-840
  • Wang, Images of Women: 321-326 [handout]
  • Adler, "Varieties of Spiritual Experience: Shen in Neo-Confucian
    Discourse," in Tu and Tucker, Confucian Spirituality, vol. 2 [CR]:
    120-148
Monday, March 31: Paper 3 due

 

10 Apr 1-3

  

Ming 明 and Qing 清, and 20th century
   

• Wang Yangming  王陽明
• Yan Yuan 顏元
• Dai Zhen 戴震
• Kang Youwei 康有為
• "New Confucians"
• Early 20th-century critiques


Wang Yangming
 

Read:

  • Ivanhoe, ch. 5
  • de Bary and Bloom, Sources, vol. 1,
    pp. 841-851
  • de Bary and Lufrano, Sources, vol. 2 [CR], pp. 41-51, 260-273, 351-356, 545-564, 574-583

11 Apr 8-10

  

Confucianism and Women
 

Read:

  • Joseph Adler, "Daughter/Wife/Mother or Sage/Immortal/Bodhisattva?
    Women in the Teaching of Chinese Religions" [online]
  • Jian Zang, "Women and the Transmission of Confucian Culture in the Song," in Ko, et. al., Women and Confucian Cultures [CR]: 123-141
  • " Bettine Birge, "Chu Hsi and Women's Education," in de Bary and Chaffee, Neo-Confucian Education [CR]: 219-251

12-13 Apr 15-24

  

Confucianism feminism?
 

Read:

  • Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women

14  Apr 29-May 1

  

Concluding perspectives
 

Read:
  • Tu, "The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism," in Tu and Tucker, Confucian Spirituality [CR], vol. 2, pp. 480-508
  • Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism [CR], pp. 38-47 (A religious
    tradition?), 273-286 (Confucianism and its modern relevance)
Final Paper due: Thursday, May 6, 4:30 p.m.,
in my office


Edit date: 1/15/08
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