Some Clarification on Confucian Paternalistic Gratitude—Responses to Stephen C. Angle and Manyul Im

Abstract

My response to Stephen C. Angle focuses on his question: “Can the People (min 民) ever grow up?” I conclude that the people-centered approach developed in “What Did the Emperor Ever Say?” (Lee 2020) does not rule out the idea of commoners becoming politically mature. With its focus on textual evidence specifically addressing the commoners and with its attentiveness to their political agency in historical China, the approach has the potential to help scholars find room for a more progressive theory in the Confucian tradition. In response to Manyul Im, I clarify the meaning of paternalistic gratitude, specifying it as a reciprocal obligation toward the nontransactional benevolence received from the emperor. I then critically examine Im’s nonreciprocal theory of existential obligation. I argue that the existential obligation, as defined by Im, presents no check on an abusive relationship and therefore cannot withstand the test of textual evidence. Upon reflection, I conclude that the theory of paternalistic gratitude remains a plausible understanding of Confucian political obligation. For one, it accurately reflects the Confucian reciprocal idea that the commoners’ political obligation is conditional upon the ruler’s noncontractual benevolence. For another, it contains the feature of endurance which, as Im reminds us, is an essence in the parent-child relation and its political application.