Category Archives: Confucianism

New Book: El Amine on Classical Confucian Political Theory

Another happy announcement: Loubna El Amine’s new book, Classical Confucian Political Thought: A New Interpretation, has been published by Princeton University Press. PUP has provided us with a flyer that offers a 20% discount to celebrate! If you’d prefer, here is a link to Amazon. Congratulations, Loubna!

Noticed any typos in Hutton’s Xunzi?

Eric Hutton has informed me that Princeton University Press intends to release a paperback edition of his translation of the Xunzi, and there is an opportunity for him to make minor changes to the translation. Readers of this blog who have noticed typos in the current edition or who have other small corrections to suggest are invited to email them directly to Eric at: eric.hutton@utah.edu.

New book on Confucian Revival

An important new book on the revival of Confucianism in China has now appeared in English: The Sage and the People, by Sebastien Billioud and Joel Thoraval.

Based on almost a decade of fieldwork and a cross-disciplinary approach (anthropology, sociology, history), this book explores the popular revival of Confucianism that has taken place in China since the beginning of the twenty-first century. It does not primarily focus on intellectual or normative discourses but on the reappropriation and reinvention of popular practices in society. Analyzing empirically cases and narratives of activists involved in this “revival,” it attempts to understand their motivations, aspirations, difficulties, and achievements, as well as their ambiguous relation to Chinese politics. The Confucian revival is studied within the broader context of emerging challenges to Western categories (religion, philosophy, science etc) and great modernization narratives that prevailed throughout the twentieth century. Finally, by means of a comparison between state cults carried out in both Mainland China and Taiwan the book discusses the articulation of the political and the religious and, beyond that, the contemporary fate of the Chinese cosmological tradition.

In a world of “Confucius Says (子曰),” What Can Confucius Say About Gay Marriage?

7/25/15: Upon review this blog has been edited significantly for grammatical correctness and clarity. I apologize for any glaring difficulties and hope that this revised version is easier to follow.

Synopsis: This paper-length blog post covers some of the developments in the gay-marriage debate among contemporary Confucian scholars. Throughout this piece I summarize and reconsider some of the proposed stances that some modern Confucian scholars take towards same-sex marriage. I consider what I call the Mengzi/Child Argument, the Metaphyiscal Argument, the Ren Argument, and the Institutional Argument.

Continue reading →

Summer School and Conference at Univeristy of Ljubljana

On behalf of the organizers, I’d like to announce two forthcoming events at the Department of Asian and African Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia).

The first one is a summer school on Wei, Jin, Nanbei Period and the Importance of Transition to be held 2-9 September 2015 in Korte (Slovenia). Applications are invited from graduate students as well doctoral degree holders. There is no tuition fee and the costs of full board are covered by Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Participants should cover their own travel expenses to Ljubljana, transportation between Ljubljana and the summer school venue will be provided by the organizers. A letter of motivation as well as further enquires should be sent to natasavampelj@yahoo.com by 1 July 2015. For more information, see here.

The second one is a conference in the Special Topics in Chinese Studies (STCS) series to be held 11-13 December 2015 in Ljubljana (Slovenia). This year’s topic is Comparative Perspectives: Islam, Confucianism and Buddhism. Proposals are invited for panels, roundtable discussions, and individual papers addressing the conference theme as outlined in the Call for Papers. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to maja.veselic@ff.uni-lj.si by 25 August 2015. For more information, see here.