
Contents
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Has History Ended? Message from a Rising China Has History Ended? Message from a Rising China
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Which Confucianism? Which Confucianism?
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The Philosophical Approach to Early Confucianism The Philosophical Approach to Early Confucianism
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Can Early Confucian Texts Be Read Philosophically? Can Early Confucian Texts Be Read Philosophically?
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How to Read Early Confucian Texts Philosophically How to Read Early Confucian Texts Philosophically
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Early Confucianism as a Modern Political Philosophy Early Confucianism as a Modern Political Philosophy
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The Progressive View of Philosophy and Its Problems The Progressive View of Philosophy and Its Problems
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The Zhou-Qin Transition as an Early Modernization The Zhou-Qin Transition as an Early Modernization
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In Contrast to the New Confucian and Moral Metaphysical Readings In Contrast to the New Confucian and Moral Metaphysical Readings
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Conservative versus Progressive Readings of Confucianism Conservative versus Progressive Readings of Confucianism
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1 Why Confucianism? Which Confucianism?
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Published:December 2019
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Abstract
This chapter argues that early Confucians were revolutionaries with a conservative facade. According to this “progressive” reading, they tried to solve issues of modernity not by rejecting modernity but by embracing it, although some of their locutions seem to resonate with those widely used in the “good old days,” and they were not as resolute as thinkers from some other schools. Moreover, not accepting early Confucianism as a moral metaphysics, the chapter also rejects the reading that early Confucians tried to solve political issues by improving on people’s morals alone. Rather, the premise of its reading is that they apprehended the political concerns as primary and the ethical ones as secondary, a byproduct of their political concerns. They were concerned with reconstructing a political order and were thus open to the idea of institutional design, even though they themselves did not discuss it in detail. To take a continuous reading of early Confucianism by asking about which political institutions they would have in mind, especially in today’s political reality, would not be alien to Confucianism.
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