A Conceptual Lexicon for Classical Confucian Philosophy

by Roger T. Ames

Overview

Uses a comparative hermeneutical method to explain the most important terms in the classical Confucian philosophical texts, in an effort to allow the tradition to speak on its own terms.

Over the years, Roger T. Ames and his collaborators have consistently argued for a processual understanding of Chinese natural cosmology made explicit in the Book of Changes. It is this way of thinking, captured in its own interpretive context with the expression "continuities in change" (biantong) that has shaped the grammar of the Chinese language and informs the key philosophical vocabulary of Confucian philosophy. Over the past several centuries of cultural encounter, the formula established by the early missionaries for the translation of classical Chinese texts into Western languages has resulted in a Christian conversion of Confucian texts that is still very much with us today. And more recently, the invention of a new Chinese language to synchronize East Asian cultures with Western modernity has become another obstacle in our reading of the Confucian canons. This volume, a companion volume to A Sourcebook in Classical Confucian Philosophy, employs a comparative hermeneutical method in an attempt to explain the Confucian terms of art and to take the Confucian tradition on its own terms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438490809
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	04/02/2023
Series:	SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Pages:	552
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Roger T. Ames is Humanities Chair Professor in the Philosophy Department at Peking University in China and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Hawaii. His published works include collaborations on translations of the Chinese philosophical canons and several interpretive studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

霸ba. "Hegemon."

本ben. "Root, trunk."

誠cheng. "Sincerity, with integrity, resolve, (co-)creativity."

恥chi. "A sense of shame."

道dao. "The proper way, way-making, dao."

德de. "Moral virtuosity, excelling morally, virtuality."

惡fa. "Standards, norms, laws, models."

和he. "Optimal harmony, optimizing symbiosis."

幾ji. "Inchoate, incipient beginnings."

祭ji. "Sacrificing, sacrifice."

諫jian. "Remonstrating, remonstrance."

兼愛jian’ai. "Inclusive care, inclusive concern."

教jiao. "Teaching, education."

精神jingshen. "Spirituality, vigor, vitality, mystery."

敬jing. "Respecting, revering, seriousness."

靜jing. "Sustained equilibrium."

君子junzi. "Exemplary persons, ruler, prince, lord."

樂le (also pronounced yao when transitive). "Enjoyment, making the music of enjoyment."

類lei. "Categories, groupings."

禮li. "Ritual propriety in one’s roles and relations, ritual practices, ‘social grammar, rites, customs, etiquette, propriety, morals, rules of proper behavior, reverence’."

理li. "Patterning, coherence."

利li. "Benefitting, profiting, personal advantage."

倫lun. "Order, relation, category, class."

美mei. "Beautiful."

民min. "The common people."

命ming. "Commanding, ordering, command, mandate, the propensity of things, the force of circumstances."

明ming. "Acuity, brilliance."

名ming. "Naming, making a name for yourself, reputation."

內外neiwai. "Inner and outer, inside and outside."

氣qi. "Vital energy, qi."

情qing. "Emotions, passions, feelings, the way things are, situation, circumstances."

仁ren. "Consummate persons, consummate conduct."

儒ru. "Confucianism, Ruism, scholar-teacher, literati tradition."

善shan. "Felicity, efficacy, behaving well, auspicious conduct."

上帝shangdi. "High god(s)."

神shen. "Heavenly gods, ancestors, spirituality, vigor, vitality, mystery."

身shen. "Lived, social body."

生sheng. "Living, growing, birthing."

聖（人）sheng or shengren. "Sage, sagacity."

慎其獨shenqidu. "Internalizing and consolidating virtuosic conduct as one’s habituated disposition for action, being circumspect when dwelling alone."

士shi. "Warrior, retainer, knight, scholar-official."

勢shi. "Purchase, momentum, configuration."

始shi. "Fetal beginning, natal beginning, genealogical beginning."

恕shu. "Putting oneself in the other’s place, deference, empathy, dramatic rehearsal."

術shu. "Techniques of rulership."

思si. "Thinking, reflecting."

四端siduan. "The four inclinations."

太極taiji. "The furthest reach."

體ti. "Lived body, discursive body, embodying."

天tian. "Tian, conventionally ‘Heaven’."

天命tianming.

天志tianzhi. "The purposes or intent of tian."

體用tiyong. "Reforming and functioning, trans-form-ing."

同tong. "Sameness, similarity."

王wang. "King, True King."

萬物wanwu. "The ten thousand things, the ten thousand processes or events, the myriad things or happenings."

文wen. "The written word, patterns, culture, refinement, King Wen."

文化wenhua. "Culture, enculturation."

無wu.

無極wuji.

無爲wuwei. "Noncoercive acting."

五行wuxing. "Five modes of virtuosic conduct, the five phases."

象xiang. "Figuring, figuring out, configuring, figure, imaging, imagining, image."

孝xiao. "Family reverence, filial piety."

小人xiaoren. "Petty and mean persons."

孝悌xiaoti. "Family reverence and fraternal deference."

心xin. "Heartmind, bodyheartminding, thinking and feeling."

信xin. "Making good on one’s word, living up to one’s word."

性xing. "Natural human propensities."

虛xu. "Emptiness."

學xue. "Teaching and learning."

易yi. "Changing, exchanging, ease."

一yi. "One, uniqueness, continuity."

義yi. "Optimal appropriateness, meaning."

陰陽yinyang. "Yin and yang."

勇yong. "Courage, bravery, vigor, vitality, boldness, fierceness."

友you. "Friend, friendship."

有無youwu. "Something and nothing, determinate and indeterminate, presence and absence."

樂yue. "Music."

正zheng. "Proper, acting properly."

政zheng. "Proper governing, effecting sociopolitical order."

正名zhengming. "Using names properly."

知/智zhi. "Living wisely, realizing, wisdom, knowing."

志zhi.

直zhi.

質zhi. "Native temperament, raw stuff, basic disposition."

自然ziran. "Self-so-ing, so-of-itself, spontaneity."

中zhong. "Center, balance, focus, equilibrium."

忠zhong. "Conscientiousness, doing one’s utmost, loyalty."

中庸zhongyong. "Focusing the familiar, hitting the mark in the everyday, making the ordinary extraordinary."

主客zhuke. "Subject and object, subjectivity and objectivity."

Bibliography of Earlier Glossaries
Bibliography of Works Cited
Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

"The volume is not only of scholarly intensity and rigid but also of highly responsible originality. It provides building blocks that should attract curious and critical readers interested in Chinese philosophy as a guide to life." — Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher