Ethics in the Confucian tradition : the thought of Mengzi and Wang Yangming / Philip J. Ivanhoe.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-232) and indexes.

This volume serves both as an introduction to the thought of Mengzi (Mencius) and Wang Yangming and as a comparison of their views. By examining issues held in common by both thinkers, Ivanhoe illustrates how the Confucian tradition was both continued and transformed by Wang Yangming, and shows the extent to which he was influenced by Buddhism. Topics explored are: the nature of morality; human nature; the nature and origin of wickedness; self cultivation; and sagehood. In addition to revised versions of each of these original chapters, Ivanhoe includes a new chapter on Kongzi's (Confucius') view of the Way.

Introduction -- Pattern and vital stuff -- Nature -- Heartmind -- Emotions -- Knowing -- Self-cultivation -- Virtues -- Governance and institutions -- The enduring significance of Neo-Confucianism -- Teaching Neo-Confucianism topically -- Table of Neo-Confucians.

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, has played a leading role in East Asian cultures around 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 onto one of the world's most important philosophical traditions. -- from back cover.

Local access dig. epub [Angle-Tiwald-Neo-Confucianism.epub]

The new world of the eleventh century: 750 and 1050 compared. Foreign relations ; North and south ; Commerce and urbanization ; Social change -- Searching for a new foundation in the eleventh century. Literati opinion and the civil service examinations ; Taking apart the Tang model of antiquity ; The new policies : legislating a system -- The Neo-Confucians. Neo-Confucians and Confucians ; An external reading of the internal history ; Approaches and questions -- Politics. The question of autocracy ; The rhetoric of empire ; Neo-Confucianism and politics ; The Neo-Confucian mission and the literati ; The later imperial state and Neo-Confucianism : the significance of the early Ming -- Learning. Neo-Confucian learning as theory and practice ; Learning as the solution, learning as the problem -- Belief. The problem of judgment and motivation ; Unity as belief -- Society. Creating a choice in literati learning in Song and Yuan ; An alternative for the family in Song and Yuan ; Literati voluntarism and community in Song and Yuan ; From voluntarism to legislation : the Ming founding ; The great revival and the return of voluntarism.

PDF of table of contents Online.

"Where does Neo-Confucianism - a movement that from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries profoundly influenced the way people understood the world and responded to it - fit into our story of China's history?" "This interpretive, at times polemical, inquiry into the Neo-Confucian engagement with the literati as the social and political elite, local society, and the imperial state during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties is also a reflection on the role of the middle period in China's history. The book argues that as Neo-Confucians put their philosophy of learning into practice in local society, they justified a new social ideal in which society at the local level was led by the literati with state recognition and support. The later imperial order, in which the state accepted local elite leadership as necessary to its own existence, survived even after Neo-Confucianism lost its hold on the center of intellectual culture in the seventeenth century but continued as the foundation of local education. It is the contention of this book that Neo-Confucianism made that order possible."--Jacket.

Local access dig.pdf. [Bol-Neo-Confucianism.pdf]

The world of thought in Chu Hsi's time -- The great ultimate (T'ai-chi) -- Spiritual beings (Kuei-shen) -- Rituals (Li) -- Human nature (Jen-hsing) and the ethics of perfectability -- Personal cultivation (Hsiu-sheng) -- Philosophical disputes with Lu Chiu-yüan -- Chu Hsi and Taoism -- Chu Hsi and Buddhism -- Chu Hsi's critics -- Chu Hsi's relevance.

Local access dig. pdf. [Ching-Religious Thought Chu Hsi.pdf]
Also online via Gleeson Library.

The title page gives the title (Zhang gelao jingyan Sishu zhijie), the place of publication (Deju tang) and the publisher (Chen Changqing): 正字全編，張閣老經筵四書直解，德聚堂陳長卿梓. On top there is a red, round seal with a design of the god of literature (Kuixing 魁星) and a dragon. Below there is a red seal in seal characters, giving the place of publication: 德聚堂. An inscription on the first folio of juan 1 gives the title, the author (Zhang Juzheng) and the collaborators (Shen Li 沈鯉, Tao Gong 陶珙 and Fang Qixun 方奇峋): 新訂四書直解正字全編相國太岳張居正直解龍江沈鯉正字後學滇南陶珙訂新安方奇峋校.
There is a preface by Tao Gong 陶珙 of Yunnan, dated 15.VIII Chongzhen jiaxu 崇禎甲戌中秋 (6 September 1634), another preface by Ye Can 葉燦, dated 9.IX Chongzhen 8 (崇禎八年乙亥, 19 October 1635) and a prologue by Shen Li to the list of standard characters used for free private schools with the signature: “an elder of Longjiang” 龍江老人. At the end it gives the names of the supervisors of the printing of the book, Chen Youzhi and Chen Yuzhi, sons of the publisher Chen Changqing 陳長卿: 男有芝，毓芝督梓.
For Shen Li (1531–1615), see MJCC, p. 179; DMB 1:616; for Tao Gong, see Wang 1983, p. 351. Ye Can (1566–1643) was a native of Tongcheng 桐城 (Anhui) and a jinshi of 1613, see Wang 1983, p. 667.
The main text has eighteen characters to each column. Annotations and commentary are given in smaller print with seventeen characters to each column.
This book is a collection of lectures which were given to the Wanli emperor in the early days when the latter was still a minor and Zhang was his tutor. The style is simple and clear; it was probably revised before it was printed. Cf. Zhang Taiyue ji 張太岳集 (Shanghai, 1984), juan 38, folio 14b. This book consists of:

1. Daxue zhijie 大學直解, juan 1 (one ce);
2. Zhongyong zhijie 中庸直解, juan 2–3 (two ce);
3. Lunyu zhijie 論語直解, juan 4–12 (nine ce);
4. Mengzi zhijie 孟子直解, juan 13–26 (twelve ce).

The Siku tiyao does not list this book, but it does mention another book of Zhang Juzheng, the Shujing zhijie 書經直解 in thirteen juan (SKTY 1:269), a series of lectures given to the Wanli emperor and written about the time of the Lunyu zhijie. Cf. Wang 1983, p. 44.

The Naikaku Bunko owns a number of editions of this book by Zhang Juzheng (NBC, p. 37); other editions are mentioned by Shao Yichen (TTSK, p. 148). None of them, however, consists of twenty-six juan in twenty-four ce. Cf. Courant 2844–2846, 2847–2848 and 2849 (see K. Lundbaek, “Chief Grand Secretary Chang Chü-cheng & the early China Jesuits” and D. E. Mungello, “The Jesuits’ use of Chang Chü-cheng’s commentary of the Confucian Four Books (1687),” in China Mission Studies Bulletin 3, 1980, pp. 2–11 and 12–22).

Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 13-14.

"本書開創了系統研究經學與理學的關係之先, 以研究經學和理學及其相互關係為基本內容, 把中國經學與宋明理學, 經典詮釋與哲學詮釋有機結合起來展開論述, 以揭示經學理學化的歷史必然性, 時代意義和價值"--OCLC record note.