19. The Kingly Way: Confucian Political Philosophy

Mengzi and Xunzi show that a Confucian political theory need not be idealistic.

• W.T. de Bary, The Trouble with Confucianism (Cambridge MA: 1996).

• L. El Amine, Classical Confucian Political Thought: A New Interpretation (Princeton: 2015).

• E.L. Harris, “Relating the Political to the Ethical: Thoughts on Early Confucian Political Theory,” Dao 18 (2019), 277-83.

• Kung-chun Hsiao, A History of Chinese Political Thought, Vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the Sixth Century, trans. F.W. Mote (Princeton: 1979).

• S. Kim, Theorizing Confucian Virtue Politics: The Political Philosophy of Mencius and Xunzi (Cambridge: 2020).

• S.-S. Lee, “Paternalistic Gratitude: the Theory and Politics of Confucian Political Obligation,” Dao 20 (2021), 635-59.

• H. Rosemont Jr., “State and Society in the Xunzi: a Philosophical Commentary,” in T. Kline III and P. Ivanhoe (eds.), Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi (Indianapolis: 2000), 1-38.

• M. Sato, The Confucian Quest for Order: the Origin and Formation of the Political Thought of Xin Zi (Leiden: 2003).

• J. Tiwald, “A Right of Rebellion in the Mengzi?” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 7 (2008), 269-82.