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Confucian Texts
The primary sources included in The Search for Modern China illustrate the character of the Taiping rebellion. Spence correctly portrays the movement as a peasant revolution, one with obvious affinity for Christian ideology. However, Christian theology and precepts are conveyed in ways meaningful for a specific Chinese audience. Text 8.4, "The Ten Commandments," is clearly a retelling of the Biblical Ten Commandments from the Old Testament. The Taiping Ten Commandments are here presented in verse form, more lyrically than they are told in the Bible. The Commandments are themselves nearly identical, from demanding the worship of only one God to admonishments against adultery. However, these precepts are laden with imagery and diction that derives from indigenous Chinese religions like Taoism. For example, the commandment against secondary gods is phrased as the eschewing of "corrupt spirits." Christianity pervades the Taiping Ten Commandments, however, including the mentioning of Mount Sinai (143). Similarly, text 8.5 concerns precepts for proper behavior, which is derived equally from the New Testament as from the Old. Creation occurs in six days, and Jesus "willingly gave his life to redeem us from sin," (143). These two texts illustrate how the Chinese peasant classes embraced Christianity, incorporating it into Chinese indigenous religions. Rebels like Qing found solace in religious visions, which gave meaning to a social movement and offered hope for disenfranchised people. Moreover, as Spence shows, the adoption of Christian theology and ideology serves as an apt contrast against Ming authority. The Taiping Revolution was in large part a rebellion against established the Chinese aristocracy, so Christian imagery fit into place perfectly in the Taiping mindset. For instance, the Manchus were pitted against the one true God, "a God whose purity and presence had existed in China until the forces of Confucian belief swayed the Chinese away from the true path of righteousness," (173).
Accept, qualify or refute the contention that failure of late 19th-early 20th century reforms and the subsequent collapse of the imperial system spelled the end for Confucianism in China. Although the effectiveness of the attempted reforms implemented in China in the late 19th through early 20th century undoubtedly had significant implications for the followers of Confucianism and its status as a state religion, it would be a stretch to say that
External vs. The Internal View in Neo-Confucian Thought Since the beginning of time, philosophers have made a living looking at how people conduct themselves and trying to make sense of it. Sometimes the philosopher will devise a theory about how the human world works by looking inside themselves and trying to determine the answer, and other times they will observe what people actually do and make comments based on that.
Neo-Confucianism: Reframing the tenants of Confucianism for a new era Neo-Confucianism arose as a synthesis of Buddhism and Taoism in China. Although there is often a tendency to elide the ideological orientations of all the so-called 'Eastern' religions together in Western thinking, the fact that such a fusion occurred is quite surprising in retrospect. Buddhism initially faced a campaign of official persecution and only gradually became an accepted part of the Chinese
Disorder does not descend from Heaven, It is the spawn of a woman. 10 Contemporaneous with relocating the capital from Edo to Tokyo was the drawing up of the 'Memorandum on Reform of the Imperial Palace' in which Article 1 states that the emperor would 'deign to hear about all political matters' in the front throne room adding that 'women are to be prohibited from entering the front throne room' 11. Yoshii Tomozane,
Song dynasty refers to period in the history of China spread over the span of 300+ years. This period lasts from 960 to 1279 (Kuiper). In the history of China, the Song Dynasty enjoys special portion of eminence. The uncountable inventions made this era to be named as China's Age of Invention (Benn). The paper tends to explore it from various angels and aspects. The objective of paper is to
shifting gender roles within Chinese history: Connections, differentiations, and articulations of Chinese women within the ideology of Confucianism The common stereotype of the East Asian female in the West is that of a frail flower: the most popular Westernized conceptions which leap to mind are that of the bound feet of a Chinese woman. However, the reality in early Chinese history was far more complex. As in the West, Chinese women