Description: Surprisingly little is known about what ancient Confucian thinkers struggled with in their own social and political contexts and how these struggles contributed to the establishment and further development of classical Confucian political theory. Leading scholar of comparative political theory, Sungmoon Kim offers a systematic philosophical account of the political theories of Mencius and Xunzi, investigating both their agreements and disagreements as the champions of the Confucian Way against the backdrop of the prevailing realpolitik of the late Warring States period. Together, they contributed to the formation of Confucian virtue politics, in which concerns about political order and stability and concerns about moral character and moral enhancement are deeply intertwined. By presenting their political philosophies in terms of constitutionalism, Kim shows how they each developed the ability to authorize the ruler's legitimate use of power in domestic and interstate politics in ways consistent with their distinctive accounts of human nature.
Brief description: Sungmoon Kim is Professor of Political Theory and Director of the Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy at City University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Confucian Democracy in East Asia: Theory and Practice (Cambridge, 2014), Public Reason Confucianism: Democratic Perfectionism and Constitutionalism in East Asia (Cambridge, 2016) and Democracy after Virtue: Toward Pragmatic Confucian Democracy (2018).
Review Quotes: 'The book is likely to be of interest primarily to specialized scholars and researchers in Confucian political theory ... an enjoyable and enlightening read also for general students of Chinese culture and religion.' Lehel Balogh, Religious Studies Review