The dawn of Neo-Confucianism [electronic resource] : Liu Tsung-Yuan and the intellectual changes in T'ang China, 773-819.

1987

1 online resource (294 p.)

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This dissertation examines the character of the mid-T'ang (ca. 750-850) Confucian revival, which paved the way for the far-reaching Northern Sung Neo-Confucianism, by studying one of its prime leaders: Liu Tsung-yuan (773-819). Before the rise of mid-T'ang Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism had dominated the intellectual arena for over five centuries. The general intellectual views then were that Confucianism governed social and family lives while Buddhism and Taoism took charge of spirituality, and that only the latter deserved philosophical pursuit. Confucianism became essentially a liveless ideology. Along with some other thinkers, however, Liu strove to reinvigorate and re-interpret the Confucian doctrine. This work explores the nature and sources of Liu's Confucian thought, his class, family and personal backgrounds, his inner life, and his views on Buddhism and Taoism. It emerges that Liu conceived Confucianism as basically a philosophy of the public good. This was largely due to his deep commitment to the welfare of the people in response to the ongoing socio-political crisis. Moreover, though Taoism and Buddhism still played significant roles in his inner life, the Confucian yearning to improve the world became an important raison d'etre for his life. In sum, as seen from Liu's thought, a chief motivating force behind the mid-T'ang Confucian movement was the intellectuals' social concern; what these new Confucianists differed from the traditional medieval literati was that social concern was their ultimate, rather than secondary, concern.

Books / Online / Dissertations & Theses

English

July 12, 2011

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 1987.

Yale University.