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4 What Is Confucianism?

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Confucianism in Context
This chapter is in the book Confucianism in Context
4What Is Confucianism?Roger T. AmesI want to contest the resistance among many contemporary scholars to thick cultural generalizations by attempting to answer the question: What is Confucianism? I would argue that the canopy of an always emerging cultural vocabulary is itself rooted in and grows out of a deep and relatively stable soil of unannounced assumptions sedimented over generations into the language, customs, and life forms of a living tradition. And further, I would argue that to fail to acknowledge this fundamental character of cultural diff erence as an erstwhile safeguard against the sins of either “essentialism” or “relativism” is not innocent. Indeed, like the preacher who, come Monday, commits the very sins he railed against the day before, this antagonism to cultural generalizations leads to the uncritical essentializing of one’s own contingent cultural assumptions and to the insinuating of them into interpretations of other traditions.1Taking this claim regarding a resilient indigenous impulse—what we might call a cultural common sense—as a starting point, we might defi ne Confucianism as the always changing yet still persistent cultural core or daotong of the Chinese population itself, and then by extension and in diff erent degree, of the sinitic cultures of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Interestingly, a porous yet enduring Confucianism thus understood predates the historical fi gure of Confucius himself. In fact, Confucius allows as much, claiming that he is a cultural transmitter rather than an innovator who has inherited the substance of his philosophy from the legacy of the Zhou dynasty and earlier:Th e Master said, “Following the proper way, I do not forge new paths; with confi dence I cherish the ancients—in these respects I would presume to compare myself with Old Peng.”267SP_CHA_Ch04_067-086.indd 67SP_CHA_Ch04_067-086.indd 672/24/10 6:17:36 AM2/24/10 6:17:36 AM
© 2010 State University of New York Press

4What Is Confucianism?Roger T. AmesI want to contest the resistance among many contemporary scholars to thick cultural generalizations by attempting to answer the question: What is Confucianism? I would argue that the canopy of an always emerging cultural vocabulary is itself rooted in and grows out of a deep and relatively stable soil of unannounced assumptions sedimented over generations into the language, customs, and life forms of a living tradition. And further, I would argue that to fail to acknowledge this fundamental character of cultural diff erence as an erstwhile safeguard against the sins of either “essentialism” or “relativism” is not innocent. Indeed, like the preacher who, come Monday, commits the very sins he railed against the day before, this antagonism to cultural generalizations leads to the uncritical essentializing of one’s own contingent cultural assumptions and to the insinuating of them into interpretations of other traditions.1Taking this claim regarding a resilient indigenous impulse—what we might call a cultural common sense—as a starting point, we might defi ne Confucianism as the always changing yet still persistent cultural core or daotong of the Chinese population itself, and then by extension and in diff erent degree, of the sinitic cultures of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Interestingly, a porous yet enduring Confucianism thus understood predates the historical fi gure of Confucius himself. In fact, Confucius allows as much, claiming that he is a cultural transmitter rather than an innovator who has inherited the substance of his philosophy from the legacy of the Zhou dynasty and earlier:Th e Master said, “Following the proper way, I do not forge new paths; with confi dence I cherish the ancients—in these respects I would presume to compare myself with Old Peng.”267SP_CHA_Ch04_067-086.indd 67SP_CHA_Ch04_067-086.indd 672/24/10 6:17:36 AM2/24/10 6:17:36 AM
© 2010 State University of New York Press

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Foreword ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Transmitting the Dao 9
  7. The History of Confucianism in Korea 33
  8. The History of Confucianism in Japan 53
  9. What Is Confucianism? 67
  10. Confucian Person in the Making 87
  11. Confucianism and Democracy 103
  12. Confucianism and Human Rights 121
  13. The Short Happy Life of Boston Confucianism 145
  14. A Feminist Appropriation of Confucianism 175
  15. Confucian Trajectories on Environmental Understanding 191
  16. List of Names 211
  17. Historical Periods of China, Japan, and Korea 215
  18. Glossary 219
  19. Bibliography 227
  20. Contributors 235
  21. Index 239
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438431925-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Foreword ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Transmitting the Dao 9
  7. The History of Confucianism in Korea 33
  8. The History of Confucianism in Japan 53
  9. What Is Confucianism? 67
  10. Confucian Person in the Making 87
  11. Confucianism and Democracy 103
  12. Confucianism and Human Rights 121
  13. The Short Happy Life of Boston Confucianism 145
  14. A Feminist Appropriation of Confucianism 175
  15. Confucian Trajectories on Environmental Understanding 191
  16. List of Names 211
  17. Historical Periods of China, Japan, and Korea 215
  18. Glossary 219
  19. Bibliography 227
  20. Contributors 235
  21. Index 239
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