Is the Confucian tradition compatible with the Western understanding of human rights? Are there fundamental human values, regardless of cultural differences, common to all peoples of all nations? At this critical point in Communist China's history, eighteen distinguished scholars address the role of Confucianism in dealing with questions of universal human rights.
Wm. Theodore de Bary (1919–2017) was John Mitchell Mason Professor Emeritus and provost emeritus of Columbia University. His many books include Waiting for the Dawn, Message of the Mind, and Learning for One’s Self, as well as Sources of Japanese Tradition and Sources of Korean Tradition, all published by Columbia University Press.
Tu Weiming is the editor of China in Transformation and author of Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, and Way, Meaning and Politics: Essays on the Confucian Intellectual.
Table of Contents
1. The Chinese Tradition in Antiquity 1. The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang DynastyDavid N. Keightley 2. Classical Sources of Chinese Tradition Burton Watson, by David S. Nivison, Irene Bloom 3. Confucius and the AnalectsIrene Bloom 4. Mozi: Utilitarianism, Uniformity, and Universal Love, by Burton Watson 5. The Way of Laozi and Zhuangzi 6. The Evolution of the Confucian Tradition in Antiquity 7. Legalists and Militarists 8. The Han Reaction to Qin Despotism 9. Daoist Syncretisms of the Late Zhou, by Qin, and Early Han 10. The Imperial Order and Han Syntheses 11. The Economic Order Burton Watson, by Wm. Theodore deBary 12. The Great Han Historians Burton Watson 3. Later Taoism and Mahāyāna Buddhism in China 13. Learning of the MysteriousRichard John Lynn, by Wing-tsit Chan, Irene Bloom 14. Daoist ReligionFranciscus Verellen, by Nathan Sivin, et al. 15. The Introduction of Buddhism 16. Schools of Buddhism 17. Schools of Buddhism 4. The Confucian Revival and Neo-Confucianism 18. Social Life and Political Culture in the Tang 19. The Confucian Revival in the Song 20. Neo-Confucianism: The Philosophy of Human Nature and the Way of the Sage 21. Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian Program Wm. Theodore deBary 22. Ideological Foundations of Late Imperial China 23. Neo-Confucian Education 24. Continuity and Crisis in the Ming
