A new journal, publishing both Chinese-language and English-language articles on Confucianism, has been established jointly by the International Confucian Association and Tsinghua University: 《国际儒学（中英文）》 or International Studies on Confucianism. More information, including the Table of Contents of the first issue, is here.
2020 Dao Annual Best Essay Award
Winner: Shu-shan Lee, “ ‘What Did the Emperor Ever Say’—The Public Transcript of Confucian Political Obligation,” Dao 19. 2: 231-250
What is the Confucian conception of political obligation? While there is a widespread view
that it demands people’s absolute obedience to their rulers, there are also scholars arguing
that it includes people’s duty to correct rulers. In this award-winning essay, Shu-shan Lee
shows that the former lacks textual support, while the latter confuses Confucian scholar-
officials’ political duty with commoners’ political obligations. Instead, Lee argues,
convincingly, that imperial Confucian political obligation is a conditional theory of
paternalistic gratitude: common people’s obedience to their rulers is an expression of, and
thus is conditional upon, their rulers’ benevolent care for them. This ground-breaking
conception of Confucian political obligation results from Lee’s careful study, integrating
multi-faceted perspectives, philosophical and historical, theoretical and empirical, and
ancient and contemporary. It is the type of research that Dao aims to promote.
New Book: The Making of the Global Yijing in the Modern World
Wai-ming Ng, ed., The Making of the Global Yijing in the Modern World (Springer, 2021)
This book represents an ambitious effort to bring leading Yijing scholars together to examine the globalisation and localisation of the ‘Book of Changes’ from cross-cultural and comparative perspectives. It focuses on how the Yijing has been used to support ideologies, converted into knowledge, and assimilated into global cultures in the modern period, transported from the Sinosphere to British, American and French cultural traditions, travelling from East Asia to Europe and the United States. The book provides conceptualised narratives and cross-cultural analyses of the global popularisation and local assimilation of the Yijing, highlighting the transformation and application of the Yijing in different cultural traditions, and demonstrating how it acquired different meanings and took on different roles in the context of a global setting. In presenting a novel contribution to understandings of the multifaceted nature of the Yijing, this book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in the ‘Classic of Changes’. It is also a useful reference for those studying Chinese culture, Asian philosophy, East Asian studies, and translation studies.
Click here to see full Table of Contents.
TOC: Journal of Chinese Humanities Volume 6.2; Special Issue – Limitations of the Tang-Song Transition Theory
Dear Colleagues,
The latest issue of the Journal of Chinese Humanities (JOCH) is now available, open acces, on Brill. Please find the table of contents below as well as a link to the full text: HERE.
Volume 6.2; Special Issue: Limitations of the Tang-Song Transition Theory
Editor’s Introduction: Limitations of the Tang-Song Transition Theory
Author: Qi Sun (孫齊)
Pages: 127–128
Dispelling the Myth of the “Tang-Song Transition Theory”
Author: Jiping Yang (楊際平)
Pages: 129–152
Time to Turn the Page in Tang and Song History Studies: Exploring the Tang-Song Transformation Theory from Multiple Perspectives
Author: Huarui Li (李華瑞)
Pages: 153–179
A Historical Study of Political System Reform in the Tang and Song Dynasties
Author: Huayu Wang (王化雨)
Pages: 180–191
A Discussion of Several Issues Concerning the “Tang-Song Transition”
Author: Fasong Mou (牟發松)
Pages: 192–212
Confucianism and Democracy: Four Models of Compatibility
Authors: Sophia Gao and Aaron J. Walayat
Pages: 213–234
Tao Yuanming’s Perspectives on Life as Reflected in His Poems on History
Author: Yue Zhang (張月)
Pages: 235–258
Review Essays
Buddhism and Modern Chinese Society
Author: Jian Chen (陳堅)
Pages: 259–269
Can Confucianism Save Liberalism? Should It?
Author: Mateusz Janik
Pages: 270–277
Book Reviews
Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case, written by Bai Tongdong
Author: Sor-hoon Tan
Pages: 279–285
Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu: Modern Tales of a Chinese Romantic, written by Xu Xu
Author: Ronald Suleski
Pages: 286–290
Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World, written by Daniel Bell and Wang Pei
Author: Paul Manfredi
Pages: 291–295
US-China Cosmopolitan Research Group
We are pleased to announce the U.S.-China Research Group on Cosmopolitanism, convened by
Philip J. Ivanhoe of Georgetown University in collaboration with Peng Guoxiang of Zhejiang
University, sponsored by the U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University.
The Research Group on Cosmopolitanism brings together nine scholars from the United States
and the Chinese cultural sphere. Over the coming three years, it aims to develop and pursue a
structured dialogue around theoretical and practical problems related to cosmopolitanism with
the goal of identifying issues of shared concern.
For more details about the group, please see the preliminary web page:
https://uschinadialogue.georgetown.edu/topics/research-group-cosmopolitanism
Greater China Summer Workshop Program in Chinese Studies
The Sinological Development Charitable Foundation (SDCF) is inviting to join our 2021 Summer Program that will take place from 16th July to 14th August 2021.
This years schedule can be consulted here:
http://sinological.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-Program-only.pdf
Application form and other information:
ToC: Dao. Volume 20, Issue 2
Reason and Moral Motivation in Mòzǐ By Myeong-seok Kim
Resenting Heaven in the Mencius: An Extended Footnote to Mencius 2B13 By Daryl Ooi
How to Defend a Small State?—Han Fei Zi, Plato, and Mencius By Tongdong Bai
How Does Genuineness-Substance ( Cheng – Ti ) Act?: A Clarification of the Phenomenon of Genuineness Based on Zhong Yong By Yinghua Lu
The Need for More than Role Relations By I. M. Sullivan
Global Justice without Self-centrism: Tianxia in Dialogue on Mount Uisan By Jun-Hyeok Kwak
The Confucian Strategy in African Americans’ Racial Equality Discourse By Tao Zhang
Liang, Zhiping 梁治平, Conducting Government: Ideas of Governance in Ancient China 為政: 古代中國的致治理念 By Yun Tang
Nelson, Eric S., Daoism and Environmental Philosophy: Nourishing Life By Yumi Suzuki
Osterhammel, Jürgen, translated by Robert Savage, Unfabling the East: The Enlightenment’s Encounter with Asia By Dinu Luca
Sun, Xiangchen 孫向晨, On Family/Home: Individuals and Relations 論家: 個體與親親 By Yanyan Zhao
Van Els, Paul, The Wenzi : Creativity and Intertextuality in Early Chinese Philosophy By Fan He
Zhang, Zhaowei 張昭煒, The Tacit Dimension of Chinese Confucianism 中國儒學緘默維度 By Gensheng Fan
Job Opening, American University
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Religion, College of Arts and Sciences, American University
The Department of Philosophy and Religion in the College of Arts and Sciences at American University invites applications for a full-time, academic year appointment in Asian and comparative ethics and moral philosophy at the rank of Professorial Lecturer beginning August 30, 2021. Teaching duties include introductory courses in moral philosophy as well as a graduate seminar on global ethics. We particularly welcome candidates with expertise in Asian and comparative philosophy.
CFP: ACPA group session at the 2022 Eastern APA
Tentative schedule: Montreal, Quebec, January 5 – 8, 2022*
Submission deadline: June 20, 2021
We welcome scholars to submit proposals for individual papers to be considered for inclusion on a single ACPA group session at the 2022 APA Eastern Division Meeting. (Please note: The APA now limits groups such as ACPA to a maximum of two total sessions at APA meetings. Because the ACPA sponsors a “Dao Best Essay Award” session at the Eastern APA every year, with the participants invited by Professor Yong HUANG and the editorial board of Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, we will only be able to sponsor a single additional ACPA group session for Eastern APA. Thus, we are inviting only proposals for individual paper presentations, not proposals for a complete panel session.)
– We are open to submissions that engage with Chinese philosophy in a wide variety of ways and we are not specifying a theme for the group session prior to receiving proposals.
– In addition to the quality of submission, the selection of papers for presentation will be based on how well they can be worked into a good session.
– We particularly encourage junior, women, BIPOC, and other underrepresented scholars to apply.
– Information on the Association of Chinese Philosophers in North America (ACPA) is available here: http://
(*A note from APA regarding Meeting 2022:Note: The next Eastern Division meeting will be held in person in early January 2022. . .Because of complications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not yet have a confirmed location or dates for the meeting. We hope to have such information soon, . . .)
(To view paper guidelines and for info on abstract submissions see below)
ToC: APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies
Special Issue on Buddhist Philosophy: Book Symposium on Why I Am Not a Buddhist by Evan Thompson
From the Editors
“Editors’ Introduction: Buddhist Modernism and Its Discontents,” A. Minh Nguyen and Yarran Hominh
Articles
“Précis of Why I Am Not a Buddhist,” Evan Thompson
“On Pursuing the Dialogue Between Buddhism and Science in Ways That Distort Neither,” Christian Coseru
“On Being a Good Friend to Buddhist Philosophy,” Bronwyn Finnegan
“Buddhism after Buddhist Modernism: Comments on Evan Thompson’s Why I Am Not a Buddhist,” Jonardon Ganeri
“Throwing Out the Buddha with the Offering Water: Comments on Evan Thompson’s Why I Am Not a Buddhist,” Jay L. Garfield
“Free to Be You and Me: Cosmopolitanism, Pluralism, and Buddhist Modernism,” Laura P. Guerrero
“Some Questions for Friends of Buddhism,” Sonam Kachru
“Thompson Is Not a Buddhist, But What about the Rest of Us?,” Constance Kassor
“Deconstructing Buddhist Modernism Without Postmodern Orientalism?,” Abraham Velez de Cea
“Buddhist Modernism: Let’s Be Suspicious But Not Because It Lacks Faith,” Louise Williams
“Replies to Critics,” Evan Thompson
Click here for the full text of these essays and more information
