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This book invites readers on a path of transformation, narrating how encounters with Confucian thought can bring about a fundamental reshaping of the way we engage with ourselves and the world. The unexpected depths to be found in Confucianism surprised the author Charles Jones when he began teaching East Asian religions to undergraduate students thirty years ago. It raised a set of fascinating questions relevant to life today:
- How do we relate to other people?
- What does it mean to be human?
- What does moral development look like?
- What does religious practice accomplish?
- What is the goal of a good life?
To understand the Confucian answers to these questions, Jones familiarizes readers with Confucius, his main successors, and the situations to which their writings responded. The book then journeys through core aspects of the philosophical tradition: ritual propriety, what “human nature” means from a Confucian perspective, and the “way” or right path to follow and practice throughout our lives.
This is not another textbook introduction to Chinese religion and thought. Jones is an engaging, inquisitive scholar and thought provocateur writing for a wide audience. Through engagement with Confucian ideas, readers will find that they bring to consciousness the cultural presuppositions that lurk unnoticed in their thought. Afterward, they will see just how different the Confucian approach often is, resting as it does on a very different set of assumptions about human life. You might find yourself saying, “I didn’t know it was even possible to think like that!” In this way, Confucius can be appreciated as a profound shaper of modern thought, much like Aristotle and Lao-tzu—and he might even change your mind.
