Justice in East Asian Thought - Preimperial Confucianism, Preimperial Daoism, Subsequent Developments, Law And Justice During The Ming And Quing Dynasties
daoist corrective philosophical chinese
East Asian thought should include a wide range of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese concerns covering more than twenty-five hundred years of history. This article is limited to the Chinese sphere, and its primary focus is on the preimperial period (before 221 B.C.E.).
How issues related to justice have appeared in the preimperial Confucian ("Ruist") and Daoist traditions involves both historical and philosophical investigation. While penal codes ("corrective justice") were enforced even by the ancient sage, Confucius (Master Kong; 551 B.C.E.–479 B.C.E.), the political emphasis of Confucian scholars in general was to support an elitist system where humane forms of fairness provided flexible standards for determining the appropriate distribution of opportunities and goods ("distributive justice") and so sought to lessen the need for corrective justice. Early Daoist philosophical texts advocated an alternative way, something like a benign form of anarchism. Their rulers would be compassionate, frugal, and unobtrusive, allowing every person within the kingdom to follow the Way (Dao) in a spontaneous and uncontrived manner.
In what follows, central themes and institutions related to justice that appeared within Confucian and Daoist teachings in preimperial China will be explained and evaluated, followed by brief comments about later developments.
Additional Topics
Records about political policies and concepts in ancient China began at least five hundred years before Confucius, but his teachings provided the first philosophical basis for its ideological and institutional development. His political vision rested on these earlier sagely antecedents but sought to provide moral and political justifications for reestablishing the monarchical form during his own i…
The form of social justice found in the Dao de jing has been described as a benevolent
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The most outstanding contributions to Confucian traditions came during the Song dynasty (ninth to twelfth centuries). Confucian scholars then promoted a form of political justification that based all social values on heavenly patterns (tianli), resembling many aspects of a natural-law system of ethics and governance. Justice was then determined by alignment with patterns of heavenly harmony and wa…
Legal codes during the last two dynasties of imperial China were framed under values undergirding patrifamilial order and class differences. In principle, lands belonged to a family in perpetuity, but when faced with the need for survival many commoners sold these lands under leases that often brought privilege and power to the already wealthy. Courts did uphold reclaiming these properties, as a f…
Legge, James. The Chinese Classics. Oxford: Clarendon, 1893–1895. A standard rendering and authoritative interpretation of the Four Books and three ancient Confucian canonical scriptures by this famous Scottish missionary-scholar. ——. The Sacred Books of China. Oxford: Clarendon, 1879–1891. Six volumes in the Sacred Books of the East, edited by F. Max Müller. Vols.…
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