Five key questions in Confucianism

.....Zhu Xi understood daotong ( "transmission of the dao" or Confucian orthodoxy). What texts, in sequence, were to be studied? Keeping in mind the context in which he wrote, accept, qualify or refute his position.

Central to the evolution of Confucian orthodoxy, the teachings of Zhu Xi understood the transmission of the dao, the daotong, in terms of the natural ordering and hierarchy of the universe, and of universal laws. Daotong is conceptualized as a flow, a transmission of actual energy from a source higher on the cosmological hierarchy, or from the principle of Heaven, tianli (Adler 143). Moreover, the transmission of the dao is presented as an ongoing flow, more like a waterfall than a tap that gets turned off or on according to the will or desire of the human being. Zhu Xi's understanding was, however, ironically rigid and inflexible. His teachings deeply conflicted with prevailing Confucian ideology, and were yet later embraced. Zhu Xi's perspective was rooted in the selective transmission of the dao; daotong was not as arbitrary as simply receiving the heavily outflowing of wisdom but instead was categorically refined and distilled into essential texts. The authors of those texts as well as their content determined their orthodoxy and their efficacy in Zhi Xi's eyes, reflecting a moral and doctrinal hierarchy that is essentially compatible with the underlying Confucian philosophy, cosmology, and worldview. Zhu Xi, for example, harbored a strong belief in an inherited line of succession, as if the waterfall of heavenly knowledge could be transmitted directly through specific individuals not unlike the western prophetic traditions. For example, the daotong could be traced directly from Confucius onto Mencius. These sort of mystical underpinnings of Zhu Xi's teachings contradict somewhat the rational and logical spirit conveyed through his work.

Zhu Xi affirmed a hierarchy also of Confucian texts, codified later into the Four Books (Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects and the Mencius, which were to be disseminated and received in a specific order from Great Learning to Xunz. The texts were imbued with power, as with scripture and wisdom teachings. There were also false doctrines, according to Zhu Xi, which is why he drew attention to his self-described wisdom teachings

References

Adler, Joseph A. "Chance and Necessity in Zhu Xi's Conceptions of Heaven and Tradition." European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8:1 (2016), 143-162.

2. Explain what was at issue in the "Four-Seven" debate among Korean Confucian thinkers.

The Four-Seven debate is pivotal for Korean Confucian history and knowledge. It stems from Zhu Xi, actually, whose teachings made a tremendous and lasting impact on Choson-era Korea. The four-seven debate refers first to the more esoteric and symbolic concepts of the "four beginnings" and the "seven feelings," stemming from I and ki, respectively (Cua 104). Because Zhu Xi left many of the issues surrounding the emanations of the beginnings and feelings unclear and unexplained in text, when the Confucian teachings of Zhu Xi arrived in Korea, Korean philosophers grappled with the four beginnings and the seven feelings, leading to an intense scholarly debate. Central figures in Korean philosophy at the height of the four-seven debate included T'oegye (Yi Hwang), Yulgok (Yi I), Kobong (Ki Taesung), and Ugye (Song Hon). The debate flourished during the 16th century, focusing on multiple metaphysical concerns including the nature of human consciousness and the nature of the universe. However, some philosophers also focused on the moral components of the four-seven debate, adding complexity to it. For example, I as a cosmological substance was deemed to have a moral component to it, and was rendered as superior to ki, which manifests more concretely in human nature and behavior.

At stake, therefore, was the very nature of existence and related to Confucian epistemology as well as cosmology and ontology. T'oegye believed that I and ki remained definitively separate, as they were constructed from completely different source energy or source material. Yet T'oegye also showed how both are present or at least influence human nature (Cua 104). The concept of the four beginnings can also be traced to Mencius, and provided Korean philosophers with the ability to assert that human nature was essentially morally upright, in spite of the tendency towards the "seven feelings," which included anger, fear, hatred, and other negative emotions as well as positive ones (Cua 104). The four-seven debate offered considerable philosophical meat for discourse in Korean Confucian history.

References

Cua, Antonio S. Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 2003.

3. Explain how despite a concerted effort to make Confucianism state orthodoxy, Buddhism continued to thrive in Vietnam

Buddhism continued to thrive in Vietnam primarily because it was the religion of the country people, whereas Confucianism remained the religion of the state and its monarchic authority. There is therefore a strong political, economic, and social dimension to why Buddhism continued to flourish in spite of the Sinophile Nguyen dynasty. The primary force of Confucianism in Vietnam in fact did stem from the Nguyen strategic use of Confucian doctrine. Confucianism proved itself a perfect state religion given its predilection for patriarchal authoritarian systems and cosmology-enforced social and political hierarchies. Essentially, Confucianism offered legitimacy and authority to the state, entrenching the state as a divinely ordained ruling power over the people. Buddhism, on the other hand, was viewed as sectarian and divisive from the perspective of the state; it was a system of teachings and practice that empowered the individual and enabled the flourishing of traditional communities in the Vietnamese countryside and especially the more remote and mountainous regions. The political and social upheavals that continually plagued Vietnam could more easily be managed through a powerful Nguyen house, or so it was presumed. In fact, Cooke implies that the Nguyen house deliberately restored Confucian values and institutions, with tremendous social, political, and economic consequences (271). The Nguyen embrace of Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism reached its peak during the 19th century, when the first whispers or stirrings of communist-inspired social upheaval could be detected; yet it was long before that when the people of Vietnam's values clashed with those of their ruling dynasties, both in north and south. Confucianism provided a means to structure the state after its Chinese neighbors, aligning the Nguyen seat of power with their Chinese counterparts. Buddhism became almost a religion of protest, resistance against the authorities that for the hill tribes and rural people was remote, removed, and culturally irrelevant.

Cooke, Nola. "Nineteenth-Century Vietnamese Confucianization in Historical Perspective: Evidence from the Palace Examinations." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1994, pp. 270-312.

4. Explain what Maruyama Masao means by stating the actions of the Ako ronin in avenging the death of their lord, "implied a direct conflict between the feudal masterservant relationship, on which the bakufu [military government] itself was based, and the bakufu's position as the unifying political authority [of Tokugawa Japan]."

As Maruyama Masao explains it, the act of vengeance, the killing of Yoshinaka, was a symbolic gesture as much as it was a political one. "The incident implied a direct conflict between the feudal master-servant relationship, on which the bakufu itself was based, and the bakufu's position as the unifying political authority," (Masao 72). The master-servant relationship and the feudal social hierarchies were embedded in Confucian doctrine, which meant that subverting the authority of bakufu also meant shunning the fundamental tenets of Confucian ethics. Confucian scholars reacted with "confusion and embarrassment" to the incident, according to Maruyama Masao (72). Long into the Tokugawa period, the dynasty enjoyed a tight relationship with Confucian scholarship, which enabled the systems of power to predominate in Japan. Yet the samurai position was hailed as a morally righteous one, leading to serious ethical dilemmas. When the samuri honorably requested that their deed be legally and ethically evaluated, the scholars struggled with how to define and situate the conflict. On the one hand, the integrity and stability of the state was at stake; on the other hand, the morals and ethics undergirding Confucian philosophy and perhaps more importantly, Japanese custom and social norms, were also being called into question.

Confucian intellectual leaders like Hayashi Nobuatsu argued that the lives of the samurai should be spared, an opinion contrary to that of Confucian elders (Masao 72). Interestingly, Masao admits after careful textual assessment of the Hayashi Nobuatsu written record, that Hayashi's reasoning was unique: he stressed character ethics and moral virtue, arguing that the motives of the samurai were just even if the action was not. The situation highlights the conflicts that can emerge between the confluence of different ethical systems, one public and official, the other private and more entrenched in social norms.

References

Maruyama, Masao. Studies in Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan. Princeton University Press, 1974.

5. The year is 1659. The place is Choson Korea. The king, Hyojong, dies at the age of 40. There exists two powerful factions at court, each vying to install their preferred successor -- one faction siding with the deceased king's mother's choice and the other favouring the choice of Hyojong. This struggle is played out in a debate over imperial mourning ritual -- should the empress dowager mourn her son's death as a mother or as a subject? As the court official responsible for ritual, you have been charged to make a decision -- what is it?

The Choson depended on ritual to a large degree, as it reinforced systems of power and authority. Moreover, Choson Korea was dominated by Neo-Confucian norms related to all social hierarchies, including those that related to gender. Ritual had been integral to Confucian and especially Neo-Confucian practice. Confucianism was also patriarchal, lowering the status of women significantly. If I were the court official responsible for ritual, and if I took my role, position, and job seriously, believing wholeheartedly in the Confucian system that supported me, then I would mandate the empress dowager mourn her son's death as a subject to Hyojong. The patriarchal authority is far more important in the Confuciian worldview than the private relationship between mother and son. A political ruler, especially the King, outranks everyone in the society. The familial relationship between mother and son might be important when the two of them consider their family ties in relation to one another, but the family itself is subordinate to the state.

If the mother prefers a particular successor, her views will automatically be overridden by Hyojong's. Even if her selection were morally just, and pragmatic for the integrity of the dynasty, the mother's point-of-view is rendered relatively irrelevant in terms of the transmission of state power. Through the mourning ritual, I would oversee the mother's conscripted method of mourning and the time spent mourning, allowing for longer periods of mourning due to her being the mother but not conferring upon her any power or authority to play a part in naming the successor. Having said that, I would be aware that the empress dowager might have political ties of her own, and had she forged those relationships strategically and skillfully, might have been able to influence men in positions of power who could be persuaded to rule in her favor.