The History of Why

Tradition

5 readings

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Confucian learning and ritual

Tradition · 5 readings

The selected Analects passages connect learning, humaneness and inherited forms. How the three relate is debated, and the collection preserves several voices rather than a single speech we can recover.

All readings

5 readings · Title A–Z

  • Guided course · Module 4 · Lesson 18

    Can institutions work without virtuous rulers?

    The Han Feizi proposes standards, offices and incentives that do not depend on a virtuous ruler. The lesson weighs the reliability they promise against what strict control can cost, and its checkpoint returns to the grain store where it began.

  • Guided course · Module 4 · Lesson 15

    How do people become good?

    Mengzi finds moral beginnings in human nature, while Xunzi calls for its deliberate transformation. On either account education has work to do, and neither makes sustained effort unnecessary.

  • Guided course · Module 7 · Lesson 39

    How inherited ideas become new arguments

    Toegye and Yulgok debate how the Four Beginnings relate to the Seven Feelings, and what makes a feeling morally good. Itō Jinsai’s criticism of inherited vocabulary shows another way of transforming Confucian learning.

  • Guided course · Module 7 · Lesson 38

    Knowing what is right and acting on it

    Zhu Xi calls for the investigation of things, and Wang Yangming ties genuine knowing to acting. How does understanding a duty relate to felt response, practice and a change in conduct?

  • Guided course · Module 4 · Lesson 13

    Learning to become humane

    Selected passages of the Analects suggest how learning and ritual might form humane conduct. Why can a correct performance fail to express care, and how can such teachings preserve unequal authority?

Selected reading groups

The meaning of a practice

Ask when a form helps someone care, and when performing it correctly still leaves a relationship wanting. The module sets this reading beside other early Chinese arguments.

  • Guided course · Module 4 · Lesson 13

    Learning to become humane

    Selected passages of the Analects suggest how learning and ritual might form humane conduct. Why can a correct performance fail to express care, and how can such teachings preserve unequal authority?