This book explores the relationship between Confucianism and citizenship and the rise of Confucian citizens in contemporary China. Combining theoretical and empirical approaches to the topic, the book constructs new frameworks to examine the nuances and complexities of Confucianism and citizenship, exploring the process of citizen-making through Confucian education. By re-evaluating the concept of citizenship as a Western construct and therefore challenging the popular characterization of Confucianism and citizenship as incompatible, this book posits that a new type of citizen, the Confucian citizen, is on the rise in 21st-century China. The book’s clear, accessible style makes it essential reading for students and scholars interested in citizenship, Confucianism and Chinese studies, and those with an interest in religion and philosophy more generally.

"This book explores the relationship between Confucianism and citizenship and the rise of Confucian citizens in contemporary China. Combining theoretical and empirical approaches to the topic, the book constructs new frameworks to examine the nuances and complexities of Confucianism and citizenship, exploring the process of citizen making through Confucian education. By re-evaluating the concept of citizenship as a Western construct and therefore challenging the popular characterization of Confucianism and citizenship as incompatible, this book posits that a new type of citizen, the Confucian citizen, is on the rise in 21st century China. The book's clear, accessible style makes it essential reading for students and scholars interested in citizenship, Confucianism and Chinese studies, and those with an interest in religion and philosophy more generally"--

This book explores the complexities of cultivating ‘Confucian individuals’ through classics study in contemporary China by drawing on the individualization thesis and its implications for the Confucian education revival. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a Confucian classical school, three topics are investigated: parents’ narratives and actions related to ‘dis-embedding’ their children from mainstream state education and transferring them to Confucian education as an alternative; the specific discourses and practices of teaching and learning the classics in everyday school life, guided by the aim of training students to become autonomous learners; and the institutional and subjective dilemmas that arise when parents and students seek to ‘re-embed’ themselves in either the state education system or further Confucian studies at an advanced academy for the next stage of education. The research presented in this book contributes to understanding the hidden dynamics of individualization in the Confucian education revival and the intricacies of subject-making through Confucian teaching and learning in the socialist state of China.

Confucianism is reviving in China and spreading in America. The past and present interactions between the revived Confucianism and Daoism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity will likely shape the cultural and political developments in Chinese societies of mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., and will have global implications in the globalizing world. In addition to the philosophical and theological articulations of Confucianism and other spiritual traditions, this volume includes empirical studies of and analytical reflections on the spiritual traditions in Chinese societies by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists. It is a collection of articles by the best minds in China and the West, and the top experts in multiple disciplines. Collectively, the volume provides an assessment of the present situation and points to the possibilities of future development of Confucianism and other spiritual traditions in modern China and beyond.

In this book, author Jinghao Zhou uses for the first time the prism of public philosophy to examine Chinese society, modernization, globalization, and democratization as a whole. Challenging conventional thinking in China studies, he examines China systematically in seven aspects: history, ideology, economy, politics, religion, education, and China's future, and does so from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The volume asserts that the remaking of China's public philosophy is they key for the nation to achieve both economic and political prosperity, making the bold argument that this remaking can contribute profoundly not only to China's development, but to international peace and development as well. In Remaking China's Public Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century, author Jinghao Zhou uses for the first time the prism of public philosophy to examine Chinese society, modernization, globalization, and democratization as a whole. Challenging conventional thinking in China studies, he examines China systematically in seven aspects: history, ideology, economy, politics, religion, education, and China's future, and does so from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The volume asserts that the remaking of China's public philosophy—the very principles and precepts it now takes for granted—is they key for the nation to achieve both economic and political prosperity. Zhou aims for a peaceful revolution of China's democratization while he explores a new paradigm in China studies, making the bold argument that this remaking can contribute profoundly not only to China's development, but to international peace and development as well.

A new generation of Confucian scholars is coming of age. China is reawakening to the power and importance of its own culture. This volume provides a unique view of the emerging Confucian vision for China and the world in the 21st century. Unlike the Neo-Confucians sojourning in North America who recast Confucianism in terms of modern Western values, this new generation of Chinese scholars takes the authentic roots of Confucian thought seriously. This collection of essays offers the first critical exploration in English of the emerging Confucian, non-liberal, non-social-democratic, moral and political vision for China’s future. Inspired by the life and scholarship of Jiang Qing who has emerged as China's exemplar contemporary Confucian, this volume allows the English reader access to a moral and cultural vision that seeks to direct China’s political power, social governance, and moral life. For those working in Chinese studies, this collection provides the first access in English to major debates in China concerning a Confucian reconceptualization of governance, a critical Confucian assessment of feminism, Confucianism functioning again as a religion, and the possibility of a moral vision that can fill the cultural vacuum created by the collapse of Marxism.

This book is a study of the causes of the Confucian revival and the party-state’s response in China today. It concentrates on the interactions between state and society, and the implications for the Chinese state’s control over society, or in other words, its survival over a rapidly modernizing society. The book explores the answers to questions such as: Why has Confucianism suddenly gathered great momentum in contemporary Chinese society? What is the role of the Chinese state in its rise? Is the state really the orchestrator of the Confucian revival as has been widely assumed? This book will be of interest to think-tank and policy researchers, sinologists, and those with an interest in Chinese society.

As the first volume of a two-volume set that studies the ancient Chinese academy from a socio-cultural perspective, this title explores the history of the academy and its relationship with the development of Confucianism in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. Inaugurated in the Tang dynasty and eventually abolished in the late Qing dynasty, the academy, as a unique cultural and educational organization in Chinese history, exerted extensive and profound influences on ancient Chinese culture, politics, and social life. The book first revisits the inception and development of the academy by anaylzing the socio-cultural context and different driving forces including social mentality, print culture, education systems, and so on. It then examines the reciprocity and thriving relationships between the academy and Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Yuan dynasties and Yangming School of Mind in the Ming dynasty. The title will be a useful reference for scholars, students, and general readers interested in cultural history, intellectual history, and educational history of ancient China and especially the Chinese academy culture.