Classical Confucian Political Thought: A New Interpretation

247 Pages·2015·2.05 MB·English

by  Loubna El Amine

Classical Confucian Political Thought
Classical Confucian Political Thought
A N I
EW NTERPRETATION
Loubna El Amine
P U P
RINCETON NIVERSITY RESS
P O
RINCETON AND XFORD
Copyright © 2015 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Jacket Photograph: Ancient Chinese door knocker, located in
Temple of Confucius, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China.
© aphotostory/Shutterstock All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data El Amine, Loubna, 1983-
Classical Confucian political thought : A new
interpretation / Loubna El Amine.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-16304-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Confucianism
and state. 2. Philosophy, Confucian. 3. Confucian ethics.
4. Political ethics. I. Title.
BL1840.E5 2015
320.0931—dc23
2015000234
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in
Palatino Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For my parents
Adnan El Amine and Fadia Hoteit
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Translations and Transliterations xi
PROLOGUE 1
Ethics and Politics in Classical Confucianism 2
The Thesis of This Book 9
Historical Background 16
Chapter Outline 26
CHAPTER 1. Ruler and Ruled 29
The Virtue Argument 30
The People—Continued 37
Hegemons 51
Conclusion 61
CHAPTER 2. Rules and Regulations 62
Security 63
Welfare 68
Promoting the Worthy 73
Conclusion 80
CHAPTER 3. A Harmonious Society 82
The Case against the Mohists 84
Rituals 91
Filiality 107
Conclusion 114
CHAPTER 4. Rulers and Ministers 117
Xunzi’s Vision 118
Insubordinate Ministers 124
Revisiting the Question of Virtuous Rulership 135
Conclusion 140
CHAPTER 5. Political Involvement 143
Biographical Preliminaries 144
The Virtue of Political Involvement 145
Dilemmas of Political Life 151
Conclusion 174
CHAPTER 6. Heaven in Politics 176
Heaven’s Allotments 180
Uncertainty and Political Involvement 184
Heaven’s Patterns 190
Conclusion 193
EPILOGUE 194
Bibliography 197
Index 207
Acknowledgments
There is an old Arabic saying, sometimes attributed to the Prophet
Muhammad, that goes, “Seek knowledge, even in China.” The idea of
China as a faraway—the furthest away—land had not completely
disappeared from the social imagination in the Arab world by the time I
was an undergraduate. That I ended up writing a book on China’s central
intellectual tradition was the result of an unexpected journey that started
with my professor and mentor at the American University of Beirut,
Yahya Sadowski. He encouraged his students to think about the Arab
world comparatively, often using East Asia as an example. When I
started graduate studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, it was
Robert Eno’s class on Classical Chinese philosophy that introduced me to
Confucianism, with which I have stayed since.
This book is based on my dissertation work at the Department of
Politics at Princeton University and I cannot sufficiently express my
gratitude to my advisors. Charles Beitz and Alan Patten encouraged this
project from its inception, providing continuous help and meticulous
feedback. Neither my background nor my research interests were typical,
and they, and the Princeton political theory program more generally,
were never anything but supportive. Willard Peterson open-heartedly
gave up much of his time to make sure that I was adequately versed in
Chinese history. Stephen Angle’s mentorship, both through the example
of his own work in Chinese philosophy and through his tireless
commentary on my chapters, was crucial. His characteristic generosity
also extended to seeing me through the ups and downs of academic life.
I have received more feedback in the process of writing this book
than I can adequately recognize here. I especially wish to thank Aaron
Stalnaker and David Wong for reading and commenting on the whole
manuscript. Stalnaker gave especially thorough feedback. Thanks are
also due to three anonymous reviewers. I am grateful to Tongdong Bai,
Daniel Bell, Joseph Chan, Jeffrey Isaac, Leigh Jenco, the late Iliya Harik,
Martin Kern, Melissa Lane, Stephen Macedo, Michael Nylan, Kwong-loi
Shun, Melissa Williams, and Yang Xiao for very helpful discussions and
pointers along the way. For reading and commenting on particular
chapters, I wish to thank Carlo Invernizzi Accetti, Karuna Mantena, Ryan
Nichols, and Bernardo Zacka. Mick Hunter has always graciously
answered all my questions and requests for help with early Chinese
history and Classical Chinese grammar. Sandra Field and Geneviève
Rousselière read various parts of the project at different stages and their
feedback was particularly helpful, imbued as it was with precious
friendship.
I have greatly benefited in working on this book from a two-year
Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale
University. I have also received support from the Princeton University
Center for Human Values, and the Princeton Institute for International
and Regional Studies. Thanks are also due to Xu Xiangdong for the
affiliation with Peking University during the fall of 2009. Last but not
least, I wish to thank my new institutional home, the Department of
Government at Georgetown University, as well as the Berkley Center for
Religion, Peace & World Affairs, for their support.
My editor at Princeton University Press, Rob Tempio, appreciated my
project from the first time I met him, and it has been a pleasure working
with him since. I also wish to thank Nathan Carr, Ryan Mulligan, and
the rest of the staff at PUP for their conscientious work on this book, as
well as Maria DenBoer and Jingcai Ying for indexing and proofreading.
Kevin Mazur read the whole book in its very last stage and prevented a
few awkward locutions from making it into the final version. I am sure
this would have been a better book had he had the chance to read it
earlier.
I sometimes wonder, given the centrality of family to Confucian
thought, whether I would have been drawn to it in the same way I was,
ten years ago, had I not grown up in a happy family. My brothers Mehdi
and Ramzy both react to the world with a healthy dose of humor and
bon sens, gently tugging at me when I get too tied up in the throes of
academia. My parents are both academics; we were raised amongst
books, and dinner conversations at home always involved intellectual,
political, and ethical issues. But seriousness was also balanced with light-
heartedness, and combined with a freedom for each of us to choose our