Skip to main content
Log in

What is the Matter with Conscience?: A Confucian Critique of Modern Imperialism

  • Published:
Dao Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Through a Confucian critique of modern colonial politics and the failure of Western conscience in a number of historical and literary settings (including the Opium Wars, the Holocaust and the modern slavery), the article criticizes the illusory foundation and inexorable predicaments of modern imperialism. The goal of my investigation is to break open the normative authority of modern Western ideologies so as to initiate a new horizon for the hermeneutics of Confucianism and to suggest an alternative vision of humanity and cosmopolitanism in Confucianism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Analects/Lunyu Zhengyi 論語正義. 1986. ed. Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 and Liu Baonan 劉寶楠. Photographic reproduction of the version in Zhuzi Jicheng 諸子集成 (Collected Works of Past Masters). Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Shudian 上海書店.

  • Association of Chinese Historical Studies 中國史學會, ed. 2000. The Opium Wars 鴉片戰爭. 6 Vols. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe 上海人民出版社 & Shanghai Shudian 上海書店

  • Beeching, Jack. 1976. The Chinese Opium Wars. New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Jonathan. 1974. “The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn.” Philosophy 49: 123–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brizay, Bernard. 2003. Le Sac Du Palais D’Été: L’expédition Anglo-Française de Chine en 1860 (Troisième Guerre De L’Opium). Jean-Paul Bertrand: Éditions Du Rocher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, An. 2009. “The Heart of China 華心.” In The Complete Literature of the Tang Dynasty 全唐文. Edited by Dong Gao 董誥, Vol. 676. Beijing 北京: Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局.

  • Edwards, Jonathan. 1817. “The End of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous: or, The Torments of the Wicked in Hell, no Occasion of Grief to the Saints in Heaven.” In The Works of President Edwards, Eight Volumes. London: James Black and Son.

  • Fei, Xiaotong 费孝通. Ed. 1999. The Pattern of Diversity in Unity of the Chinese Nation 中華民族多元一體格局. Beijing 北京: Zhongyang Minzu Daxue Chubanshe 中央民族大學出版社.

  • Ferm, Vergilius, ed. 1953. Puritan Sage: Collected Writings of Jonathan Edwards. New York: Library Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelber, Harry G. 2004. Opium, Soldiers and Evangelicals: Britain’s 1840–42 War with China, and its Aftermath. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gu, Hongming (Ku Hung-ming) 辜鴻銘. 1996. The Collected Works of G u Hongming 辜鴻銘文集. 2 Volumes, ed. Huang Xingtao 黃興濤. Haikou 海口: Hainan Chubanshe 海南出版社.

  • Hall, David L. and Ames, Roger T. 1999. The Democracy of the Dead: Dewey, Confucius, and the Hope for Democracy in China. Chicago and Lasalle: Open Court.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hugo, Victor. 1904–1952. Oeuvres Complètes. Paris: Ollendorff.

  • Jia, Jingyan 贾敬顏. 1999a. “A Textual Research of the Term ‘Han’ ‘漢人’考.” In Fei, ed. 1999: 169–84.

  • ____. 1999b. “‘Qidan’ – Another Name for Han ‘契丹’ – `漢人之别名.” In Fei, ed. 1999: 185–91

  • ____. 1999c. “The ‘Han Component’ in Ethnic Minorities 歷史上少數民族中的‘漢人成分.’” In Fei, ed. 1999: 192–210

  • Ku, Hung-ming (Gu Hongming 辜鴻銘). 1912. The Story of A Chinese Oxford Movement, 2nd ed. Shanghai: Shanghai Mercury, Ltd

  • ____. 1915. The Spirit of the Chinese People 春秋大義. Peking: The Peking Daily News

  • Lang, Xianping 郎咸平. 2010. L ang Xianping Speaks: New Imperialism in China 郎咸平說:新帝國主義在中國. Beijing 北京: Dongfang Chubanshe 東方出版社.

  • Liji/The Book of Rituals 禮記. 1965. In Si Bu Bei Yao 四部備要 (The Complete Selection of the Most Important Works in the Four Categories of Chinese Classics).

  • Lin, Huixiang 林惠祥. 1939. History of Chinese Nationalities 中國民族史. Beijing 北京: Shangwu Yinshuguan 商務印書館

  • Lin, Zexu 林則徐. 1979. “Lin Tse-Hsü’s Moral Advice to Queen Victoria.” In Ssu-yu Teng & John K. Fairbank, China’s Response to the West: A Documentary Survey 1839–1923, 24–7. Boston: Harvard University Press.

  • ____. 2002. “Draft of Communiqué to the Monarch of England 擬頒發檄諭英國國王稿.” In L in Zexu Quanji 林則徐全集, 5: 221–24. Fuzhou Shi 福州: Haixia Wenyi Chubanshe 海峽文藝出版社

  • Lü, Simian 吕思勉. 2008. History of Chinese Nationalities with Two Other Titles 中國民族史外二種. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe 上海古籍出版社

  • Manwell, Roger, and Heinrich Fraenkel. 1965. Heinrich Himmler. London: Putnam.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, Justin. 1881. A History of Our Own Times. Vol. 1. London: Chatto and Windus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mengzi 孟子. 1965. Annotated by Zhao Qi. In Si Bu Bei Yao 四部備要 (The Complete Selection of the Most Important Works in the Four Categories of Chinese Classics).

  • Merson, John. 1990. The Genius that Was China: East and West in the Making of the Modern World. Woodstock: The Overlook Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • M’Ghee, R. J. L. 1862. How We Got into Pekin: A Narrative of the Campaign in China of 1860. London: R. Bentley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mou, Zongsan 牟宗三. 1997. The Features of Chinese Philosophy 中國哲學的特質. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe 上海古籍出版社.

  • ____. 1998. Lectures on the Theory of Four Causes 四因説演講錄. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe 上海古籍出版社.

  • Neeson, J.M. 1996. Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700 – 1820. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pacini, David S. 2008. Through Narcissus’ Glass Darkly: The Modern Religion of Conscience. New York: Fordham University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qian, Zhongshu 錢鍾書. 1986. A Collection of Fragmentary Insights 管錐編. 2nd ed. Beijing 北京: Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局.

  • ____. 2005. “China in the English Literature of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” In A Collection of Qian Zhongshu’s English Essays 錢鍾書英文文集, 82–280. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

  • Rorty, Richard. 1999. Philosophy and Social Hope. London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirer, William L. 1960. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sima, Qian 司馬遷. 1965. Shiji (History 史記). In Si Bu Bei Yao 四部備要 (The Complete Selection of the Most Important Works in the Four Categories of Chinese Classics).

  • Tang, Yijie 湯一介. 2001. Harmony without Unanimity 和而不同. Shengyang 瀋陽: Liaoning Renming Chubanshe 遼寧人民出版社.

  • Twain, Mark. 2001. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. Ed. by Michael Patrick Hearn and E.W. Kemble. New York/London: W. W. Norton & Company.

  • Wang, Huaiyu. 2007. “Conscience and the Aporia of Being and Time.” In Research in Phenomenology 37: 357–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ____. 2009. “The Way of Heart: Mencius’ Understanding of Justice,” Philosophy East & West 59.3: 317–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ____. 2013 (forthcoming). “Ren and Gantong: Openness of Heart and the Root of Confucianism,” Philosophy East & West 63:2.

  • Wang, Zhixin 王治心. 1996. History of Chinese Religious Ideologies: An Outline 中國宗教思想史大綱. Beijing 北京: Dongfang Chubanshe 東方出版社

  • Wells, H.G. 2007. A Short History of the World. New York: Penguin Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Xiangkui 楊向奎. 1992. The Sib Society of the Zhou Dynasty and the Civilization of Ritual and Music 宗周社會與禮樂文明. Beijing 北京: Renmin Chubanshe 人民出版社

  • Zhang, Xuecheng 章學誠. 1985. Wenshi Tongyi Jiaozhu (Annotations on the Comprehensive Commentaries on Classical Works of Literature and History 文史通義校注). Beijing 北京: Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局.

  • Zhouyi Zhengyi/The Book of Changes 周易正義. 1965. In Si Bu Bei Yao 四部備要 (The Complete Selection of the Most Important Works in the Four Categories of Chinese Classics).

  • Zhu Qianzhi 朱謙之. 1993. Nestorianism in China 中國景教. Beijing 北京: Renmin Chubanshe 人民出版社

  • ____. 2006. The Influence of Chinese Philosophy on Europe 中國哲學對歐洲的影响. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe 上海人民出版社

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huaiyu Wang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, H. What is the Matter with Conscience?: A Confucian Critique of Modern Imperialism. Dao 10, 209–229 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-011-9211-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-011-9211-8

Keywords

Navigation