Neo-Confucianism in History: 307 Paperback – 1 May 2010
by Peter K. Bol (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
Where does Neo-Confucianism-a movement that from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries profoundly influenced the way people understood the world and responded to it-fit into our story of China's history?
This interpretive, at times polemical, inquiry into the Neo-Confucian engagement with the literati as the social and political elite, local society, and the imperial state during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties is also a reflection on the role of the middle period in China's history. The book argues that as Neo-Confucians put their philosophy of learning into practice in local society, they justified a new social ideal in which society at the local level was led by the literati with state recognition and support. The later imperial order, in which the state accepted local elite leadership as necessary to its own existence, survived even after Neo-Confucianism lost its hold on the center of intellectual culture in the seventeenth century but continued as the foundation of local education. It is the contention of this book that Neo-Confucianism made that order possible.
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Bol offers a comprehensive interpretation and polemical analysis of the place where 'Neo-Confucianism fits into our story of China's history.' In reexamining China's Middle Period, he compares the role of literati in Song and Yuan with that of the early and late Ming dynasty. Highlighting the development of discourse on learning, he observes that neo-Confucianism shifts moral authority away from the political system and toward a new conception of self, importantly developing the category of mind as the basis of moral guidance grounded in an act of will. In the late Ming this move promoted limited government combined with a new emphasis on autonomy and individual social responsibility that extended to people of all backgrounds. Bol points out that in spite of changes in the model of neo-Confucianism in the 17th century and the Qing conquest, the imperial order later continued to look to local elite leadership as the strength of its own existence. He brings forth evidence to support his projection that dual voices can perhaps 'speak to China today.' Bol argues that neo-Confucianism could serve, not just as history, but as a resource for thinking about the present.--J. M. Boyle "Choice" (6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM)
About the Author
Peter K. Bol is Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University.
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Introduction: Neo-Confucianism in History
1. The World of the Eleventh Century: 750 and 1050 Compared
2. Searching for a New Foundation in the Eleventh Century
3. The Neo-Confucians
4. Politics
5. Learning
6. Belief
7. Society
Afterword: China’s History and Neo-Confucianism
Notes
Bibliography
Character List
Index
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Paperback : 450 pages
Best Sellers Rank: 1,136,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)210 in History & Criticism of Chinese Literature
1,339 in Regional Geography
5,312 in Other Eastern Religions & Sacred TextsCustomer Reviews:
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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Twebb
5.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this to all students of Classical Chinese Intellectual History ...Reviewed in the United States on 6 December 2016
Verified Purchase
Dr. Bol has captured the essence of Neo-Confucianism in Chinese History. His Historical narrative makes understanding a very complex subject much easier than any previous historians of Chinese Intellectual History. I recommend this to all students of Classical Chinese Intellectual History and look forward to reading his other books.
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Paperback : 450 pages
Best Sellers Rank: 1,136,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)210 in History & Criticism of Chinese Literature
1,339 in Regional Geography
5,312 in Other Eastern Religions & Sacred TextsCustomer Reviews:
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
====
Twebb
5.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this to all students of Classical Chinese Intellectual History ...Reviewed in the United States on 6 December 2016
Verified Purchase
Dr. Bol has captured the essence of Neo-Confucianism in Chinese History. His Historical narrative makes understanding a very complex subject much easier than any previous historians of Chinese Intellectual History. I recommend this to all students of Classical Chinese Intellectual History and look forward to reading his other books.
Report
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Review of Bol: Neo-Confucianism in History
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Peter Bol's first book, This Culture of Ours (Stanford, 1992), changed the way we understand the crucial intellectual and social changes from the Tang to the Song. That book ended with Cheng Yi and the rise of Daoxue (or Neo-Confucianism). One purpose of his new book is to pick up the story where This Culture of Ours left off, now explaining the intellectual and social factors that led Neo-Confucianism to become a successful movement — a movement that ultimately played a major role in shaping late imperial Chinese history. This is already an ambitious goal, and one the Bol fulfills in impressive fashion. But he is also stalking a more elusive target, namely the significance of Neo-Confucianism. Bol wants us to see that it is not an ideological justification for a stagnating and ever-more autocratic state, but rather a constructive, even radical response to dramatically changing times. More than this, he concludes the book by saying, "I am convinced that Confucianism is much more than a historical subject; it remains a resource for thinking about the present" [278]. Bol therefore aims to balance a discussion of philosophical ideas with social and political context in order to present what he calls "an inquiry into the Neo-Confucians' engagement with the world" [4]. As the author of the recent Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy (Oxford, 2009), I was immediately intrigued by Bol's approach. Bol is neither apologist for Neo- Confucianism nor naïve consumer of their "internal" justifications and histories. He is a critical scholar using the full range of contemporary historiography, but he is also committed to the notion that to understand the place of Neo-Confucianism in history, we must do our best to understand how their ideas made sense and were attractive to people of their time — and even, perhaps, to people today.
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