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Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China
Oxford University Press
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This book, Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal Freedom, is a systematic presentation of the intellectual projects at the origins of moral-political philosophy in early China. The foundational period in Chinese philosophy, from the time of Confucius (551-479 BCE) to the establishment of the first unified imperial dynasty in 221 BCE, has always been considered the single most creative and vibrant chapter in Chinese intellectual history. Works attributed to Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Shang Yang, Shen Dao, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi and many others represent the origins of moral and political thought in China. As testimony to their enduring lure, in recent decades many Chinese intellectuals, and even leading politicians, have turned to those classics, especially Confucian texts, for alternative or complementary sources of moral authority and political legitimacy.
I make three key points in retelling this founding narrative of Chinese moral-political philosophy. First, the central intellectual challenge during the Chinese classical period was how to negotiate the relationships between the personal, the familial, and the political domains (sometimes also characterized as the relationship between the private and the public) when philosophers were reimagining and reconceptualizing a new sociopolitical order, due to the collapse of the old order. Consequently, philosophers offered a dazzling array of competing visions for that newly imagined order. Second, the competing visions can be characterized as a contestation between impartialist justice and partialist humaneness as the guiding norms of the newly imagined moral-political order, with the Confucians, the Mohists, the Laoists, and the so-called fajia (Legalist) thinkers being the major participants, constituting the mainstream intellectual project during this foundational period of Chinese philosophy. Third, Zhuangzi and the Zhuangists were the outliers of the mainstream moral-political debate during this period who rejected the very parameter of humaneness versus justice in the mainstream debate. Zhuangzi and the Zhuangists were a lone voice advocating personal freedom. For the Zhuangists, the mainstream debate was intellectually banal, morally misguided, and politically dangerous. All such efforts took place within the context of an evolving understanding of Heaven and its relationship with the humans.
This new narrative aims at offering an alternative paradigm to interpret the unique configuration of classical Chinese philosophical landscape and helping to chart a new course in understanding the central motivating issues underlying the Chinese moral-political debate at its very inception. The book has incorporated scholarship on classical Chinese philosophy of the last several decades, providing a new overarching framework to recast the narrative of this formative period of Chinese philosophy. It is philosophically schematic and historically informed.
Award
Association for Asian Studies
Honorable Mention, Joseph Levenson Prize – Pre-1900 China, 2023
Author-Meets-Critics Special Feature
Philosophy East and West, April issue, 2023
Loy Hui-chieh: Introduction and Mozi
Hagop Sarkissian: Confucius
Sungmoon Kim: Mencius, Xunzi
Yuan Ai: Laozi
Yuri Pines: Fajia (Legalists)
Paul J. D’Ambrosio: Zhuangzi
Tao Jiang: Author's response
Book Events
American Philosophical Association Central Division
Book Panel
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Denver, CO|02/24/2023
American Academy of Religion
Book Roundtable
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Denver, CO|11/21/2022
City University of Hong Kong
Book Symposium
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Hong Kong|02/04/2022
Reviews
Jiwei Ci, University of Hong Kong
“Jiang ranges over the entire foundational period of Chinese philosophy with effortless erudition, unfailing intellectual sympathy, and, above all, a brilliantly economical conception that shines a uniquely revealing and integrating light on all the major figures and schools of thought. The result is that rare kind of book which has the potential to change the way Chinese philosophy is viewed and practiced, and has all the scholarly and philosophical attributes that should make it a classic in due course.”
Roger T. Ames, Peking University
“Tao JIANG in this hugely intelligent monograph provides his readers with an interpretive context twice. First, his project of rehearsing the story of the origins of Chinese moral-political philosophy is located within a state-of-the-art account of the politics of the Western academy and the best efforts of its Sinologists and philosophers to make sense of the complex textual narrative of pre-Qin China in all of its parts. Again, appealing to a cluster of seminal themes—humaneness, justice, and personal freedom—he recounts the way in which different philosophical voices advocated for their own disparate and competing models of structuring and construing personal, familial, and political relations within the overarching context of what are fundamentally different valorizations of the notion of Heaven.”
David Wong, Duke University
“Tao Jiang has provided a coherent and sweeping narrative of the development of moral and political philosophy in the classical period of Chinese philosophy. He integrates many plausible insights gleaned from sinology and philosophy to argue provocatively that the classical period can be understood in terms of a struggle to deal with conflicts between the values of humaneness (pertaining to the personal and familial realms) and of justice (pertaining to the political realm). This book is highly recommended both to specialists and to those with a more general interest in Chinese moral and political philosophy.”
Taisu Zhang, Yale Law School
“A grand and well-argued history of early Chinese philosophy.”
British Journal for the History of Philosophy
“In this very important book, Tao Jiang provides a dynamic model of the development of moral-political philosophy in early China (ca. 551–221 BCE), which embodies a new approach to thinking about freedom in complicated socio-political realities. It convincingly demonstrates that thinkers of early China are important for philosophical studies today not only because they cover the themes that remain fundamental in contemporary debates but also because their argumentations came out of intellectual exchanges that were no less robust than their ‘Western’ counterparts.”
Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture
“What kinds of social environments and political institutions will enhance our lives and foster human flourishing? And how do we interpret early Chinese insights on these topics? Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China addresses both questions, in the process offering an important account of the rich and complex early Chinese intellectual exchanges on the nature of government and political institutions, and of human relationships, moral life, and freedom.”
The Journal of Asian Studies
“Tao Jiang's new magnum opus is the most welcome addition to the rapidly increasing number of studies of early Chinese thought. Origins of Political-Moral Philosophy in Early China offers inspiringly refreshing perspectives on the major texts associated with the so-called Hundred Schools of Thought. Rich in insights, lucidly written…, and based on thorough incorporation of secondary studies in English…, this monograph is a must-read for students and scholars of China's intellectual history.”
Dao
“A distinct feature of this book is synthesizing Sinological studies into its philosophical interpretation. The author acutely recognizes the regretful gap between Sinology and the study of Chinese philosophy. In this book, the comprehensive Sinological references and intimate engagements with contemporary scholarship (particularly in English) of Chinese philosophy are admirable.”
Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory
“Every single chapter of Tao Jiang’s Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China is steeped in exhaustive research and analysis and presents provocative and insightful challenges to common perspectives. It will, in my view, become a standard in the field, and its influence and pedigree will outpace the decade and a half that went into writing it. It is a must-read for serious students of early Chinese philosophy.”
Journal of Chinese Philosophy
"This monograph is one of the most ambitious works in recent years on early Chinese philosophy, a major contribution that offers new readings and fresh interpretations. … I believe it will soon become a must-read for scholars and students interested in classic Chinese philosophy, as its findings will exert impact on our current understanding of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism and Legalism."
H-Net
"Jiang always succeeds in providing interesting examples to make his point. It will attract nonacademic but well-informed readers as well as intelligent undergraduates who love Chinese history. It should be read by graduate students who intend to become specialists in Chinese philosophy and pre-imperial China. More important, Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China promises to be a valuable resource for those teaching courses that cover to various degrees pre-imperial Chinese thought, politics, and culture at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Instructors teaching survey courses on China or East Asia can refer to the basic information and interesting anecdotes contained in the book to introduce essential ancient Chinese texts and their main ideas. In graduate seminars, students can be encouraged to think about how the book provides new perspectives on early Chinese thinkers ranging from Confucius to Han Fei."
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"Tao Jiang’s book presents an ambitious and sweeping survey of early Chinese thought that is in some ways a successor—but also a rival—to a handful of other classic English-language studies likewise offering ambitious and sweeping treatments of the subject, such as Benjamin Schwartz’s The World of Thought in Ancient China (Belknap Press, 1985) and Angus Graham’s Disputers of the Tao (Open Court, 1989)."
MIND
"It is difficult not to be impressed with his erudition. I repeatedly found myself marking interesting books and articles that I was previously unfamiliar with but wanted to read for myself after Jiang drew them to my attention. I can easily imagine Jiang’s book being the focus of a productive reading group with advanced students of Chinese philosophy and religion, for whom it could introduce a wide range of topics and approaches."