After Xunzi: Conceptions of Li in Early Han Political Discourse

• In Event: State Ritual and Political Culture in Imperial and Late Imperial China

Abstract

Scholars agree that Xunzi (ca. 316-235 BCE) synthesized diverse concepts of li into a consistent theory, which came to have wide influence in social and political discourse of the day. At the same time, scholars doubt that Xunzi shaped Han dynasty institutions and rites. This disconnect raises a puzzle: did Han thinkers develop anew theories of the state and politics, or did they base their ideas on other existing blueprints? Moreover, if it was the latter, where did those blueprints come from, the Liji, other Warring States texts, or documents that came to be buried in the recently excavated Chu tomb? This paper attempts to resolve this puzzle by comparing different arguments on statecraft informed by li in Xunzi and other texts, and examining the kernels of the respective arguments in Han thought. It finds that Han thinkers developed a new dimension of the idea of li that functioned not only as a principle of human norms, but also as the order of Heaven and creative power of Earth. This theoretical accomplishment, it is hypothesized, was a reason that Confucianism arose as the state ideology of Han dynasty.

Author

• Masayuki Sato, National Taiwan University