Skip to main content
Log in

Heaven as a Source for Ethical Warrant in Early Confucianism

  • Published:
Dao Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Contrary to what several prominent scholars contend, a number of important early Confucians ground their ethical claims by appealing to the authority of tian, Heaven, insisting that Heaven endows human beings with a distinctive ethical nature and at times acts in the world. This essay describes the nature of such appeals in two early Confucian texts: the Lunyu (Analects) and Mengzi (Mencius). It locates this account within a larger narrative that begins with some of the earliest conceptions of a supreme deity in China. The essay concludes by noting some similarities and differences between these early Confucian accounts and more familiar views commonly shared by monotheists.

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.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Confucius. 2003. Confucius Analects. Trans. by Edward Slingerland. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mark. 2004. Material Virtue: Ethics and the Body in Early China. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwall, Stephen. 1999. “The Inventions of Autonomy: Review of The Invention of Autonomy.” European Journal of Philosophy 7.3: 339–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dennett, Daniel. 1978. Brainstorms. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, Eric. 1987. “The Motif of Recognition in Early China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.1: 5–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ivanhoe, Philip J. 1988. “A Question of Faith: A New Interpretation of Mencius 2B.13.” Early China 13: 153–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • _____. 1990. “Thinking and Learning in Early Confucianism.” The Journal of Chinese Philosophy 17.4: 473–493.

    Google Scholar 

  • _____. 2000. “Human Nature and Moral Understanding in the Xunzi.” In Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi. Ed. by T. C. Kline III and Philip J. Ivanhoe. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • _____. 2000a. Confucian Moral Self Cultivation. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • _____. 2003. “Death and Dying in the Analects.” In Confucian Spirituality: Volume One. Ed. by Mary Evelyn Tucker and Tu Weiming. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keightley, David N. 1998. “Shamanism, Death, and the Ancestors: Religious Mediation in Neolithic and Shang China (ca. 5000–1000 B.C.).” Asiatische Studien 52.3: 763–831.

    Google Scholar 

  • _____. 2000. “The Ancestral Landscape: Time, Space, and Community in Late Shang China (ca. 1200–1045 B.C.).” Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mengzi (Mencius). 1970. Trans. by D.C. Lau. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puett, Michael. 2002. To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice and Self-Divinization in Early China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Royce, Josiah. 1908. The Philosophy of Loyalty. New York: The Macmillan Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneewind, J. B. 1998. The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Charles. 1994. “The Politics of Recognition.” In Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition. Ed. by Amy Gutmann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Norden, Bryan W. 2000. “Mengzi and Xunzi: Two Views of Human Agency.” In Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi. Ed. by T. C. Kline III and Philip J. Ivanhoe. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yearley, Lee H. 1975. “Towards a Typology of Religious Thought: A Chinese Example.” Journal of Religion 55.4: 426–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip J. Ivanhoe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ivanhoe, P.J. Heaven as a Source for Ethical Warrant in Early Confucianism. Dao 6, 211–220 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-007-9013-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-007-9013-1

Keywords

Navigation