Introductory description

This module is an introduction to classical Chinese philosophy through its foundational early texts – the Analects of Confucius (Kongzi), Mozi, Mencius (Mengzi), Xunzi, Daodejing, Zhuangzi, and Han Feizi, among others. Situating these texts within their shifting historical and conceptual landscape, we will study the key issues of debate that animated early philosophers in China and learn about the diverse ways in which they confronted basic questions of ethics, epistemology, and politics: What are the norms and patterns that should guide human life, and how do we come to know them? What are the means and ends of self-cultivation? How should we order our relations with each other and with the world? We will be engaged in close reading of source texts (in translation) and in the critical analysis of the scholarly literature. We will also pay attention to methodological problems involved in the study of Chinese and cross-cultural philosophy.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1. Introduction: Conceptual and Historical Background
Week 2. Confucius
Week 3. Mozi
Week 4. Mencius (Mengzi)
Week 5. Laozi (Daodejing)
Week 6. Reading week (no classes)
Week 7. Zhuangzi
Week 8. Xunzi
Week 9. Han Feizi and Legalism
Week 10. Philosophy in the Age of Empire: the Annals of Lu Buwei and the Huainanzi

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Have an understanding of the main concepts, concerns and positions found in the key early texts of the Chinese philosophical tradition, and of the debates within which they emerged.
• Appreciate the philosophical significance of the ideas and positions forwarded by early thinkers and be able to bring these ideas and perspectives into engagement with broader philosophical discussions and debates.
• Be familiar with the contours of the scholarly literature on the texts we have studied and be able to critically assess this literature.
• Have developed skills in the analysis and interpretation of early Chinese philosophical texts and be able to effectively communicate one’s ideas about them in writing and in class discussions.

Indicative reading list

PRIMARY SOURCES
Confucius, Analects (Lun yu)
Mozi
Mencius (Mengzi)
Laozi (Daodejing)
Zhuangzi
Xunzi
Han Feizi
The Annals of Lu Buwei
Huainanzi

SECONDARY SOURCES
Irene Bloom, ‘Human Nature and Biological Nature in Mencius.’ Philosophy East and West 47.1 (1997): 21–32.
Scott Cook, ‘The ‘Lushi Chunqiu’ and the Resolution of Philosophical Dissonance’. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
62.2 (Dec 2002): 307–345.
Mark Csikszentmihalyi and P. J Ivanhoe, eds., Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi. Albany: SUNY Press,
1999.
Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as the Sacred. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
Chris Fraser, ‘Moism and Self-Interest.’ Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38, no. 3 (2008): 437–54.
Chris Fraser, The Philosophy of the Mozi. The First Consequentialists. Columbia University Press, 2016.
Chris Fraser, ‘Wandering the Way: A Eudaimonistic Approach to the Zhuangzi.’ Dao 13, no. 4 (Dec 2014): 541-565.
Jonardon Ganeri, ‘Taking Philosophy Forward’. Los Angeles Review of Books, Aug. 20, 2018.
Jonardon Ganeri, 2016. ‘A Manifesto for Re:emergent Philosophy,’ Confluence. Journal of World Philosophies 4:
134–43
J. Garfield and Bryan W. Van Norden, ‘If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is’. The Stone, New
York Times. May 11, 2016.
Romain Graziani, ‘The Subject and the Sovereign: Exploring the Self in Early Chinese Self-Cultivation’. In J. Lagerwey
and M. Kalinowski eds., Early Chinese Religion. Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC–220 AD). Brill: Boston,
2009, pp. 459-517.
Eric L. Hutton, ‘Moral Connoisseurship in Mengzi’, in: Xiusheng Liu and Philip J. Ivanhoe (eds.), Essays on the
Moral Philosophy of Mengzi, Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2002, pp. 163-186.
Eric L. Hutton, ‘Han Feizi’s Criticism of Confucianism and Its Implications for Virtue Ethics.’ Journal of Moral
Philosophy 5, no. 3 (2008): 423–53.
Philip J. Ivanhoe, ‘Zhuangzi on Skepticism, Skill, and the Ineffable Tao.’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion
64.4 (1993): 639–54.
Philip J. Ivanhoe, ‘A Happy Symmetry: Xunzi's Ethical Thought.’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion 59.2
(1991): 309–22.
Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. Third edition. Cambridge:
Hackett, 2023.
D.C. Lau, trans., Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Penguin 1963.
Andrew Meyer, ‘Root-Branches Structuralism in the Huainanzi.’ In Sarah A. Queen and Michael Puett eds., The
Huainanzi and Textual Production in Early China. Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2014, pp. 23–39.
Nathan Sivin, ‘State, Cosmos, and the Body in the Last Three Centuries B.C.’ Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 55. 2
(1995): 5–37.
Edward Slingerland, ‘Effortless Action. The Chinese Spiritual Ideal of Wuwei’. Journal of the American Academy of
Religion 68.2 (2000): 293–327.
Curie Virág, The Emotions in Early Chinese Philosophy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Curie Virág, ‘Rituals Create Community by Translating our Love into Action.’ Psyche (29 Jul 2021)
Brook Ziporyn trans., Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings. With Selections from Traditional Commentaries.
Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett 2009, pp. 3–54, 68–76.

Research element

Students will be engaged in the close reading and analysis of primary and secondary literature as part of their preparatory work for both class discussions and for their essays.

Interdisciplinary

Sources studied cross modern disciplinary boundaries of philosophy, textual/literary studies, history and religion.

International

Sources studied consist of translations of texts that were written in classical Chinese and that emerged out of cultures quite distinct from the Anglo-European traditions that students are usually familiar with.

Subject specific skills

Understanding of the key philosophical ideas and contributions of the major texts of the early Chinese philosophical tradition, as well as the debates in which they emerged; familiarity with the positions and approaches taken in the scholarly literature on these texts; and an ability to bring the ideas and approaches found in these texts into engagement with issues of general philosophical concern.

Transferable skills

Development of ability to read, analyse and think critically about a wide range of texts, to draw out their philosophical significance, and to write clearly about them; broadening of perspectives and resources for approaching foundational questions of ethics, knowledge, and politics; and the cultivation of new and alternative ways of thinking about how philosophy might be done.