Abstract
Distributive justice is generally important to persons in society. This was widely recognized by early Confucian thinkers, particularly Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi, in ancient China. Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi had developed, in varying degrees and with different emphases, their respective conceptions of distributive justice to address the relevant social problems in their times. These conceptions not only are intrinsically valuable political thoughts, but may prove useful in dealing with current or future social issues. Thus in this essay, first I provide a detailed interpretation of each of those thinkers’ conceptions of distributive justice, then I combine some essential elements of those conceptions to form a general and coherent conception, which is called a complex Confucian conception of distributive justice, and finally I evaluate this conception by considering some of its implications and limitations, in theory and in practice. This aims mainly at exploring the meaning and practical bearing of basic Confucian conceptions of distributive justice.
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Notes
The term “social benefits” should be broadly understood as meaning “benefits and burdens of social life in general” in most cases in the essay. This simplification is acceptable because being imposed less burdens can be regarded as receiving more benefits.
Although most direct quotations of the Confucian texts are from English translations made by other writers, my interpretation of the Confucian thinkers’ thoughts is based largely on the original Classical Chinese texts; see Yang Bojun楊伯峻, 論語譯注 (北京: 中華書局, 1980), 孟子譯注 (北京: 中華書局, 1960); Xunzi Jijie荀子集解, ed. Wang Xianqian王先謙 (北京: 中華書局, 1988).
The key term “仁ren” is translated by Arthur Waley as “Good (Goodness)”—it may be roughly equated with “humane (humaneness/humanity)”, “good (goodness)”, or “benevolent (benevolence)” in English.
For a helpful discussion of this, see Hsiao Kung-chuan蕭公權, 中國政治思想史 (臺北: 聯經, 1982), p. 105.
“義yi” is another key term in Confucianism, which may be roughly equated with “righteous (righteousness)” or “right (rightness)” in English.
For a similar but distinct interpretation of Confucius’ conception of distributive justice, see Section Two of my essay “Rawlsian and Confucian Distributive Justice and the Worst Off,” Philosophia (2022).
The first three sentences of this passage are actually Mencius’ quotation from an earlier Confucian thinker called Gongming Yi; cf. Mencius, 3B9, p. 70.
For a detailed explanation of this conviction, see Section Three of my essay “Confucian Jus ad Bellum Principles”.
In Xunzi’s social and political thought, “ritual (li)” in general should be broadly construed as political institutions, including laws, policies, standards and measures.
The relevant original text is: “先王惡其亂也, 故制禮義以分之, 使有貧富貴賤之等, 足以相兼臨者, 是養天下之本也”; I have incorporated Wang Xianqian’s commentary on this in my interpretation.
The relevant original text is: “分何以能行?曰: 義。故義以分則和” (Xunzi Jijie, ch. 9, p. 164).
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for raising this question.
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for pointing out this.
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The writing of this article was supported by a grant from the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 19BZX013).
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Jin, H. A Complex Confucian Conception of Distributive Justice. Philosophia 51, 743–761 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00561-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00561-5