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

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian philosophy
Main Author: Zhaohui, MAO (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Carfax 2023
In: Asian philosophy
Year: 2023, Volume: 33, Issue: 1, Pages: 75-89
Further subjects:B yi-xia夷夏
B tianxia天下
B Chinese nationalism
B Confucianism
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:1469-2961
Contains:Enthalten in: Asian philosophy
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09552367.2022.2155351