Category Archives: Confucianism

Assistant Professor Position in Sogang University, South Korea

The Department of Religious Studies at Sogang University, the Jesuit University in Seoul, South Korea, invites applications for a full-time, tenure track faculty position in ‘Chinese religions’ (centered on Confucianism) at the assistant/associate professor rank, to begin in fall 2013. The Ph.D. must be in hand by time of appointment.

The ideal candidate is expected to have a background in religious studies, specializing in the study of Chinese religions (centered on Confucianism). The candidate must be able to work with classical Chinese, and fluent in (spoken and written) Korean and English so as to conduct academic works of teaching and publication in both languages.

Application process will begin with online application at Sogang University toward the end of February 2013 (as of November 13, 2012, it does not appear that the application is open yet). Inquiries and nominations can be sent by e-mail to the chair of the Religious Studies Department, at <pgpak@sogang.ac.kr>.

New Books on the Revival of Confucianism

Some intriguing new books have been published in a new series featuring essays by many of the leading voices calling for a revival of Confucianism—people like Jiang Qing, Kang Xiaoguang, Chen Ming, and so on. See below for some information  on the volumes in the series that have been published in 2012. (For some further information, see this website.)

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ISCP at AAR Conference in Chicago (11/17/2012)

The International Society for Chinese Philosophy has an Ethics and Chinese Thought panel session at the American Academy of Religion meetings in Chicago. From Eric Nelson (U. Mass. Lowell):

The International Society for Chinese Philosophy panel at the American Academy of Religion is scheduled for November 17th, Saturday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM in the South Building, Room S106b at the McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL
M17-202
International Society for Chinese Philosophy
Theme: Ethics and Chinese Thought
Saturday, 1:00 PM–4:00 PM
MPS-106B
Chair: Michael Paradiso-Michau (North Central College)

  1. Jinli He (Trinity University), Qing Ethics: An Alternative Thinking?
  2. Rafal Banka (Jagiellonian University), Philosophy of Action in Confucian Ethics
  3. Leah Kalmanson (Drake University), Now I Get It!: Thinking Slowly about Sudden Enlightenment for Ethics Today
  4. Eric S. Nelson (University of Massachusetts, Lowell), Killing the Buddha: Chan Buddhism and Antinomian Ethics

"When two go together"

This post proposes a book project, for anyone who wants it.

Two kinds of serious conversation

By “serious” conversations I mean conversations that work toward knowledge (at least for one party), or good decision (at least by one party), or designing something complex.

The serious conversations glimpsed in the Analects are mainly between a master and student. The Mencius is more concerned with how an adept should counsel a king. 1A7 looks like a handbook for that.

These two kinds of conversation get their shape and point from inequalities: unequal wisdom and unequal power. Between master and student, one side has the wisdom and the power. Between counselor and king, one side has the wisdom and the other has the power. The point of both conversations, as understood by all parties, is to transmit  some wisdom from the wiser party to the other — within constraints imposed by the powerful party, such as limited time.

One could do a study of these two forms of conversation in Confucian literature: the varieties of each and the guidance on how to do them well. That’s not my main proposal here.

Is it fair to say that when early Confucianism thought about serious conversation, these two are the main kinds it thought about?

Diomedean conversation

The Western tradition saliently values another kind of conversation, aiming more at discovering or creating than transmitting. Continue reading →

New book on Chinese religion and philosophy

Prof. SHAN Chun (University of Politics and law in Beijing; International Confucian Association) has published a new book with Springer titled Major Aspects of Chinese Religion and Philosophy. Those with institutional access to SpringerLink should be able to get the full text on-line; everyone should be able to access at least the Table of Contexts and the abstracts of each chapter. It is a broad, synthetic account, appreciative rather than historically or philosophically critical, that represents one contemporary Chinese approach to China’s religio-philosophic traditions.

New Book: Daxue and Zhongyong: Bilingual Edition

I’ve just received a copy of the new Johnston and Wang translation of Daxue and Zhongyong from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press (distributed in the US by Columbia University Press). Since there are quite a few translations of these texts around, and it doesn’t seem that one can get a Table of Contents or much information from the CUP or Amazon websites, I thought I’d share a bit about the volume here.

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The Shortcomings of the Sages

I’d like to use this as an opportunity to think about depictions of sages in early Confucian texts (Mengzi in particular). I’ve thought, for better or worse, that the authors of these texts used the figures of the sages as representations of fully cultivated people. Yet I’ve noticed that these sages are sometimes described as falling short of perfection, and this gives rise to a question–in what ways can one be deficient, and yet still be considered a sage? Continue reading →