Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch’en Liang’s Challenge to Chu Hsi (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Hardcover

Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674931769 ISBN 13: 9780674931763

Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center, 1982

Synopsis

An event of the first magnitude in the history of Neo-Confucianism was the debate between Chu Hsi (1130–1200), principal architect of Neo-Confucianism, and Ch’en Liang (1143–1194), who represented an admixture of Confucian humanism with utilitarian approaches to current questions. The issues that engaged them―the conflict between ethical and practical considerations in politics and society, and the tension between traditional values and historical change―persist as human problems to this day.

This volume analyzes that debate and its place in the lives of the two philosophers within a detailed intellectual and historical context. The development of Ch’en Liang’s thought is traced through an examination of his writings, including the rare, hitherto unutilized 1212 edition of his works. Although Ch’en Liang was overshadowed by rival schools of thought in traditional China, contemporary Chinese esteem him as a person who epitomized the spirit and content of much modern criticism of the Neo-Confucian cultural legacy. This is the first book in a Western language to focus closely upon his challenge to Chu Hsi and Chu Hsi’s response.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

I believe the material should be utilized as supplemental data for exploring Ch'en Liang's intellectual development.Ch'en's thought evolved through a tao-hsueh phase to the utilitarian positions for which he is famous. This 'radicalization' represented an evolutionary process. To understand this process, the debate with Chu Hsi, and the significance of both in China's political culture, it is first necessary to take notice of the cultural setting-traditional Confucian polarities and their configurations in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

About the Author:

Hoyt Cleveland Tillman is Professor of Chinese Intellectual History at Arizona State University.

Benjamin I. Schwartz was Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0674931769
• ISBN 13: 9780674931763
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304