A History of Chinese Political Thought by Youngmin Kim

Author:Youngmin Kim
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2017-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

Dao Learning and the Metaphysical Republic

For those interested in Chinese intellectual history, the Tang–Song intellectual transition represents, first and foremost, the decline of Buddhism and the ascendancy of Dao Learning as the dominant current of political thought. In its formative stage, Dao Learning disturbed its contemporaries as a different way of viewing things. And yet it increasingly gained ground among the elite of the Southern Song. Indeed, Chinese society underwent significant changes that affected the ruling elite as well as other members of society as Dao Learning gained wider acceptance during the late imperial periods. It became, among other things, part of the civil service examination. To the extent that the elite had, at least, passed the lowest level of the civil service examination, they might be presumed to have internalized Dao Learning.

In theory, Dao Learning offers a new political subjectivity that differs from that of Wang Anshi, the architect of the New Policies, who believed that one cannot speak of human nature itself as being either good or evil.7 Although the proponents of Dao Learning argue that the capacity for goodness is inherent within all people, its position departs from Mencius’ view in that human beings possess a fully fledged sagehood rather than its sprouts. In keeping with its revolutionary character, Dao Learning departs from other positions in its view of human nature, which has significant implications. First of all, in contrast to other positions, it presents an “absolute” theory of human nature: “Nature is a mixture of good and bad” (Yang Xiong); “Nature is different in different individuals” (Wang Chong); “There are three grades of human nature: good, intermediate, and bad” (Xun Yue and Han Yu). These positions afford room for people to be defined contingently according to their dispositions. By contrast, Dao Learning chooses the moral disposition among many human dispositions and defines it as “nature.” This claims an absolute understanding of what we are as persons, and offers us an intense experience of the self's identity. Second, the innate goodness of human nature entails a high estimate of human moral and spiritual resources. Being optimistic concerning the prospect of human moral perfectibility accords new power to individuals. Perhaps there is something encouraging and inspirational in the idea that our original nature is derived from Heaven and that perfection is an attainable aim of our concerted human efforts. However, there is also a trade-off, for the idea of moral perfectibility implied an enormous responsibility, which requires a virtually infinite process of self-mastery.

In practice, Dao Learning represents first and foremost an emphasis on personal morality. The emphasis on personal morality here means not only emphasizing morality rather than legal institutions and literary activities, but also emphasizing each individual's morality rather than social morality. This does not mean that we cannot find a concern for legal institutions and literature in Dao Learning. Nor does it mean that practitioners of Dao Learning emphasize the morality of the individual at the expense of that of society. Rather, it means that Dao

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