On the Relationship between Interpretations of Confucian Classics and Political Power in East Asia: An Inquiry Focusing upon the Analects and Mencius
Resource
臺大歷史學報, 40, 001-018
Journal
臺大歷史學報
Journal Issue
40
Pages
001-018
Date Issued
2007-12
Date
2007-12
Author(s)
Abstract
This article focuses on the complex relationship existing between interpretation of Confucian classics and political power in China, Japan, and Korea. A wide range of materials is contained for discussion, namely, East Asian scholars' commentaries on the Analects (《論語》)and Mencius (《孟子》), questions extracted from the Book of Mencius in the civil-service examinations in the Ming (1368-1644) China, reminders which a Tokugawa Japanese scholar marked on Mencius against imperial reading, and quotations from Confucian classics appearing in the dialogues between emperors and courtiers in the Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasty. It is pointed out that the dual role played by the East Asian interpreters as Confucians and as administrators- had closely connected the interpretation of classics to political power. Briefly speaking, three forms of relationship are observed: inseparability, competition, and the balance to be struck between the interpretation of classics and political power. To sum up, the East Asian Confucians read and understood the classics through their own "existential structures," at the same time endowing the classics with "existential" content; they were not just playing "intellectual games."
Subjects
東亞
儒家
經典詮釋學
政治權力
論語
孟子
East Asia
Confucianism
Hermeneutics
Political Power
Analects
Mencius
Type
journal article
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