The Awakening Of Faith And New Confucian Philosophy

"This innovative volume demonstrates how and to what ends the writings of Xiong Shili, Ma Yifu, Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan adopted and repurposed conceptual models derived from the Buddhist text Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith. It shows which of the philosophical positions defended by these New Confucian philosophers were developed and sustained through engagement with the critical challenges advanced by scholars who attacked the Treatise. It also examines the extent to which twentieth-century New Confucians were aware of their intellectual debt to the Treatise and explains how they reconciled this awareness with their Confucian identity"--

This highly accessible book provides a comprehensive unpacking and interpretation, suitable for students and scholars in all fields, of towering philosopher Mou Zongsan’s understanding of Buddhist thought and his Confucian appropriation of Tiantai Buddhist ideas.

The book addresses academically the major aspects of Chinese religion and philosophy, designated as the doctrine of being internal sage and external king. The perspective applied is the integration between western and Chinese scholarship and English readers may gain an easy and interesting access to Chinese intellectual tradition, distinctive itself in a harmony between being holy and secular in any mundane human being to the western tradition of “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”. By this contrast the intellectual charms and spiritual merits of Chinese tradition will be better appreciated, hence conducive to the much anticipated dialogues between western and eastern civilizations at this globalized yet conflicted world. ​

Dasheng qixin lun, or Treatise on Awakening Mah=ay=ana Faith , has been one of the most important texts of East Asian Buddhism since it first appeared in sixth-century China. It outlines the initial steps a Mah=ay=ana Buddhist needs to take to reach enlightenment, beginning with the conviction that the Mah=ay=ana path is correct and worth pursuing. The Treatise addresses many of the doctrines central to various Buddhist teachings in China between the fifth and seventh centuries, attempting to reconcile seemingly contradictory ideas in Buddhist texts introduced from India. It provided a model for later schools to harmonize teachings and sustain the idea that, despite different approaches, there was only one doctrine, or Dharma. It profoundly shaped the doctrines and practices of the major schools of Chinese Buddhism: Chan, Tiantai, Huayan, and to a lesser extent Pure Land. It quickly became a shared resource for East Asian philosophers and students of Buddhist thought. Drawing on the historical and intellectual contexts of Treatise's composition and paying sustained attention to its interpretation in early commentaries, this new annotated translation of the classic, makes its ideas available to English readers like never before. The introduction orients readers to the main topics taken up in the Treatise and gives a comprehensive historical and intellectual grounding to the text. This volume marks a major advance in studies of the Treatise, bringing to light new interpretations and themes of the text.

With a focus on Asian traditions, this book examines varieties of thought and self-transformative practice that do not fit neatly on one side or another of the standard Western division between philosophy and religion. It contains chapters by experts on Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Jain philosophies, as well as ancient Greek philosophy and recent contemplative and spiritual movements. The volume also problematizes the notion of a Western philosophical canon distinguished by rationality in contrast to a religious Eastern "other". These original essays creatively lay the groundwork needed to rethink dominant historical and conceptual categories from a wider perspective to arrive at a deeper, more plural and global understanding of the diverse nature of both philosophy and religion. The volume will be of keen interest to scholars and students in the Philosophy of Religion, Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Neo-Confucianism is a philosophically sophisticated tradition weaving classical Confucianism together with themes from Buddhism and Daoism. It began in China around the eleventh century CE, played a leading role in East Asian cultures over the last millennium, and has had a profound influence on modern Chinese society. Based on the latest scholarship but presented in accessible language, Neo-Confucianism: A Philosophical Introduction is organized around themes that are central in Neo-Confucian philosophy, including the structure of the cosmos, human nature, ways of knowing, personal cultivation, and approaches to governance. The authors thus accomplish two things at once: they present the Neo-Confucians in their own, distinctive terms; and they enable contemporary readers to grasp what is at stake in the great Neo-Confucian debates. This novel structure gives both students and scholars in philosophy, religion, history, and cultural studies a new window into one of the world's most important philosophical traditions.

Confucian Iconoclasm proposes a novel account of the emergence of modern Confucian philosophy in Republican China (1912–1949), challenging the historiographical paradigm that modern (or New) Confucianism sought to preserve traditions against the iconoclasm of the May Fourth Movement. Through close textual analyses of Liang Shuming's Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies (1921) and Xiong Shili's New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness (1932), Philippe Major argues that the most successful modern Confucian texts of the Republican period were nearly as iconoclastic as the most radical of May Fourth intellectuals. Questioning the strict dichotomy between radicalism and conservatism that underscores most historical accounts of the period, Major shows that May Fourth and Confucian iconoclasts were engaged in a politics of antitradition aimed at the monopolization of intellectual commodities associated with universality, autonomy, and liberty. Understood as a counter-hegemonic strategy, Confucian iconoclasm emerges as an alternative iconoclastic project to that of May Fourth.