Publication Cover
Asian Philosophy
An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East
Volume 33, 2023 - Issue 1
509
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

The Confucian concepts of tianxia天下, yi-xia 夷夏and Chinese nationalism

Pages 75-89 | Published online: 12 Dec 2022
 

ABSTRACT

There are two views on the nature of Chinese nationalism. The one view treats Chinese nationalism as political nationalism while the other recognises it as cultural nationalism. This paper argues that Chinese nationalism had been deeply shaped by Confucianism, which has two important and influential concepts of nationalism: tianxia天下and yi-xia夷夏. These two concepts reflect the two facets of Confucian nationalism. With the first facet, manifested in the concept of tianxia, Confucianism emphasizes cultural identity and the pursuit of a kind of benevolent politics; the second facet, manifested in the concept of yi-xia, stresses political identity. As in Mencius, the concept of nationalism is based on his theory of human nature and self-cultivation, and the self-identity of a politician is transformable between the two levels of the yi-xia distinction, along with his self-cultivation. Thus, Confucian nationalism is based on self-cultivation, rather than self-identity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Unger 1996, p. 2; Zheng 1998; Wang and Zheng (Citation2009), pp. 95–118.

2. Xi (Citation2014), p. 2.

3. See Cheung (Citation2012), Ji (Citation2011).

4. Zha 2005, pp. 55–69.

5. The description of Chinese nationalism as ‘culturalism’ started very early. Cf. Levenson (Citation1967), p.108; Harrison (Citation1969).

6. Using ‘cultural nationalism’ to describe Chinese nationalism can be traced back to John King Fairbank, see Fairbank (Citation1983), p. 99. This description was highlighted again by the mainland Neo-Confucian Kang Xiaoguang康曉光, see Kang (Citation2008). A literature review in this particular field can be found in Wang (Citation2008).

7. In spite of this, we should not equate Confucian political philosophy with Chinese political philosophy. The Chinese people had accepted Confucianism as the guiding principle in their politics for over 2000 years. Cf. Hsü (Citation2005), ‘Introduction’, pp. XVIII-XXI. Based on this consideration, we ignore the minor schools of Chinese political philosophy and roughly identify Confucian nationalism with Chinese nationalism in history in order to make the discussion simpler.

8. Gellner (Citation1983), p. 1.

9. Fairbank (Citation1983), p. 98.

10. Ibid., p. 99.

11. Wang (Citation2008).

12. Xu (Citation2006).

13. Walker Connor, ‘A nation is a nation, is a state, is an ethnic group, is a … ’, in Hutchinson and Smith (Citation1994), p. 40.

14. Smith (Citation1993), p. 73.

15. Ibid., p. 72.

16. Yoshino (Citation2004), p. 25.

17. Gellner (Citation1983), p. 138.

18. Ibid., p. 1.

19. Smith 1998, p. 46.

20. Ibid., p. 44.

21. Ibid., p. 45.

22. Fairbank (Citation1983), p. 98.

23. The Confucian concept of tianxia is indeed an ancient Chinese term, which has recently attracted new discussions. Cf. Angle (Citation2012), p. 78.

24. Although the connotation of ‘tianxia’ did not extend beyond the Chinese States, the intention of this word is actually to indicate the world. Cf. Fung (Citation1948), pp. 180–181.

25. See Levenson (Citation1952) & Pines (Citation2002).

26. Liang (Citation2016), p. 7.

27. Chan (Citation1963), p. 6.

28. All the quotations and section numbers of the Mencius in this paper are based on Lau’s translation.

29. For a detailed discussion of Mencius’s views on war, cf. Faber (Citation2000), pp. 268–273.

30. Cf. Mencius, 3A.1.

31. Indeed, scholars have already used this terminology in their studies. See Zheng (Citation1999), pp. 70–75; Bell (Citation2015); Visočnik (Citation2016) etc.

32. The term ‘identity’ has various meanings in the areas of philosophy, sociology and psychology. In the area of sociology, identity is ‘fundamentally a way of defining, describing, and locating oneself’. Humans have multiple identities. Cf. Clayton (Citation2012), p. 165. As we have discussed in this paper, these identities could be identifying oneself with certain race, language or territory, and so on, and these identities would affect one’s political option.

33. The Gongyang Commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals. Miller (Citation2015), pp. 180–181.

34. Cf. Schwartz (Citation1985), p. 266; Hwang (Citation1979).

35. Guo (Citation2004), p. 17.

Additional information

Funding

This study is funded by “Huaqiao University High-level Talent Scientific Research Launch Project” (22SKBS011).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 696.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.