Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation: Dimensions of Asian Spirituality

Approximately fifteen hundred years after Confucius, his ideas reasserted themselves in the formulation of a sophisticated program of personal self-cultivation. Neo-Confucians argued that humans are endowed with empathy and goodness at birth, an assumption now confirmed by evolutionary biologists. By following the __Great Learning—__eight steps in the process of personal development—Neo-Confucians showed how this innate endowment could provide the foundation for living morally. Neo-Confucian students did not follow a single manual elaborating each step of the __Great Learning;__ instead they were exposed to age-appropriate texts, commentaries, and anthologies of Neo-Confucian thinkers, which gradually made clear the sequential process of personal development and its connection to social order. __Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation__ opens up in accessible prose the content of the eight-step process for today’s reader as it examines the source of mainstream Neo-Confucian self-cultivation and its major crosscurrents from 1000 to 1900.

Japan's road to war in China in the 1930s-1940s is well known, as are the legacies of that conflict in the diplomatic disputes, territorial rows, and educational policy battles between Japan and China since the 1980s. Less understood is the nature of Japan-China relations in the intervening decades. How did a popular Japanese perception of China that facilitated imperial aggression become one that embraced restoring friendly diplomatic ties and cultivating mutually beneficial economic and cultural interactions? Exploring everyday Japanese impressions of the People's Republic of China from the end of the U.S. Occupation in 1952 to normalization of Japan-China relations in 1972, this book analyzes representations of the PRC in Japanese print media and visual culture in connection with four topics: the 1954 visit to Japan by Minister of Health Li Dequan, China's atomic weapons testing in 1964-1967, the Red Guard movement of the early Cultural Revolution years, and the culture of continental "rediscovery" in 1971-1972.

Japanese views of China under Mao were infused with elements of thematic and conceptual continuity linking the prewar, wartime, and postwar eras. In sketching out a portrait of these elements, Erik Esselstrom explains how the reconstruction of Japan’s relationship with China included more than just the trials and tribulations of Cold War diplomacy. In so doing, he reintegrates postwar Japan-China relations within the longer history of East Asian cultural interaction and engagement.

Approximately fifteen hundred years after Confucius, his ideas reasserted themselves in the formulation of a sophisticated program of personal self-cultivation. Neo-Confucians argued that humans are endowed with empathy and goodness at birth, an assumption now confirmed by evolutionary biologists. By following the Great Learning— eight steps in the process of personal development—Neo-Confucians showed how this innate endowment could provide the foundation for living morally. Neo-Confucian students did not follow a single manual elaborating each step of the Great Learning; instead they were exposed to age-appropriate texts, commentaries, and anthologies of Neo-Confucian thinkers, which gradually made clear the sequential process of personal development and its connection to social order. Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation opens up in accessible prose the content of the eight-step process for today’s reader as it examines the source of mainstream Neo-Confucian self-cultivation and its major crosscurrents from 1000 to 1900. Contents Editor’s Preface Dynastic Periods in Chinese History Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Neo-Confucianism, 1000–1400 CHAPTER 1. Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism CHAPTER 2. Neo-Confucian Education Part II. The Great Learning and the Eight Steps to Personal Cultivation CHAPTER 3. The First Five Steps of Personal Cultivation CHAPTER 4. The Three Steps of Social Development Part III. Self-Cultivation Upgrades: The Fifteenth Century through the Nineteenth Century CHAPTER 5. Reforms in Neo-Confucianism: The Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries CHAPTER 6. The Nineteenth-Century Synthesis in Confucian Learning Legacies Appendix: Chronology of Works and Thinkers with the Sequence for Reading the Four Books Indicated Notes Further Readings Index About the Author