KIN4340 - Autumn 2016

Self Cultivation in Chinese Tradition

Traditional Chinese thought is more often about the practice of self cultivation than any abstract theory. According to most accounts, the early Confucians were moralists, while the early Daoists advocated spontaneity; Buddhism brought meditation and metaphysical speculation to China, while the Neo-Confucians created an amalgamation of Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist concerns. Let us judge for ourselves, by reading excerpts from the original texts, as well as some of the secondary literature. And let us see whether it is true that, as a famous Harvard sinologist has said about his course on early Chinese thought, "this course is going to change your life".

The following is a list of our secondary source readings, some of which will be found in Fronter. Primary source readings are either located in the Fronter room for this course, or linked through the Schedule page, where you will also find all the readings listed for each class.

de Bary, "Neo-Confucianism", in Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, ed. Linsun Cheng, pp. 1576–1579, Great Barrington: Berkshire Publishing, 2009

Brokaw, Cynthia, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China, Princeton: Princeton University Press (Introduction and ch. 3)

Brook, Timothy, "Rethinking Syncretism: The Unity of the Three Teachings and Their Joint Worship in Late-Imperial China", Journal of Chinese Religions 21 (1993) pp. 13-44

Graham, A. C., Two Chinese Philosophers: Ch'êng Ming-tao and Ch'êng Yi-ch'uan, London: Lund Humphries, 1958 (General Introduction)
–––––––, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989 (chapters I.1, II.1, II.3, III.2)

Ivanhoe, Philip J., Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000 (chapters 1-5)

Johnston, Ian, and Wang Ping, Daxue and Zhongyong, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2012 (General Introduction)

Mabuchi, Masaya, "'Quiet Sitting' in Neo-Confucianism", in Asian Traditions of Meditation, ed. Halvor Eifring, pp. 207-226, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press

Sharf, Robert H., "Mindfulness and Mindlessness in Early Chán", in Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context, ed. Halvor Eifring, pp. 55-75, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015

Shun Kwong-loi, "Wang Yangming on Self-Cultivation in the Daxue", Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38 (2012), pp. 96–113. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6253.2012.01691

Slingerland, Edward, Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003 (pp. 119-130 and 175-216)

S?rensen, Henrik H., "The History and Practice of Early Chan", in Readings of the Platform Sūtra, eds. Morten Schlütter and Stephen F. Teiser, pp. 53-76, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012

Virág, Curie, "Self-Cultivation as praxis in Song Neo-Confucianism", Modern Chinese Religion I (2 vols), eds. John Lagerwey and Pierre Marsone, pp. 1187–1232, Leiden: Brill, 2014

Published May 20, 2016 1:17 PM - Last modified Aug. 24, 2016 11:34 PM