The concept of utopia has long captivated thinkers across cultures, including in China, where diverse utopian visions emerged within Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist traditions. Scholars often argue that while Confucian utopias emphasized hierarchy and morality, Daoist models championed harmony with nature, whereas Legalist visions sought strict governance. However, rigid classifications overlook the fluidity of Chinese utopian thought, as thinkers often blended elements from different traditions. This panel challenges traditional paradigms by exploring varied Chinese utopian visions. The first paper critiques the Legalist utopia of Shang Yang and Han Feizi, highlighting its dystopian consequences. The second examines the utopian poetry of Tao Yuanming, revealing its Confucian influences. The third analyzes contemporary Confucian philosopher Zhang Xianglong’s proposal for Special Districts for Confucian Culture, showing its fusion of Confucian, Daoist, and Western ideas. Together, these studies demonstrate the adaptability of Chinese utopian thought, transcending rigid intellectual boundaries to shape evolving ideals of society.
Shang Yang and Han Feizi championed performance-based law and severe punishments, believing that strict accountability and harsh penalties would deter crime and ensure obedience. Their ideal was a crime-free utopian society where heavy punishments eliminated the need for further enforcement. However, historical evidence from Qin-Han legal statutes and cases reveals that this rigid legalism led to a distorted justice system. Administrative errors were excessively punished as crimes, subjecting diligent officials to the same severe penalties as violent offenders. The high standards and strict regulations created widespread legal violations, fostering resentment toward the law and sympathy for the punished. Despite ongoing criticism from scholars, officials, and even emperors, no significant legal reforms occurred. This study highlights the dangers of perfectionism in governance and explores its role in shaping Confucian opposition to strict legalism, offering a historical perspective on the challenges of balancing efficiency, justice, and human fallibility in legal systems.
Tao Yuanming’s poem “Time Moves On” is in close dialogue with Analects 11.26 where Kongzi asks his disciples about their aspirations. Of the four in attendance, the first three profess goals of statecraft. Only Zengxi speaks about his desire to escape from the situation and enjoy time with good company. After hearing all four disciples’ wishes Kongzi stated, “I’m with Zengxi.” Like Kongzi, Tao is with Zengxi. Utopias exist outside of time. They are imaginative reconceptualizations of the present. In “Time Moves On” there is a longing for a time that never was; a time Kongzi could only imagine. Tao Yuanming continually imagines alternatives to the present in his poetry to express his discontent with the present. This presentation will explore two of his imaginings in the context of the Analects and other early Chinese literature. I will also discuss interventions that Tao’s utopias make in utopian studies.
Mainland Chinese society is often characterized as highly secularized. Organized religion has been the subject of continuous criticism by the state and its expressions are tightly controlled. Yet, scholars also agree that secularization has been accompanied by a parallel process of sacralization – a growing drive to depict the nation-state, its institutions, and its leaders as sacred. This paper will build on this argument to shed new light on the sacralization of tradition in contemporary Confucian utopianism. Focusing on the writings of Zhang Xianglong (1949-2022), it will demonstrate that his proposal to establish “Special Districts for Confucian Culture,” small autonomous intentional communities designed to preserve Confucian values and practices, is driven by a desire to designate traditional culture as sacred in order to save it from extinction in an increasingly profane society. Zhang’s utopian vision offers us a new insight into the revival of Confucian religiosity in contemporary Chinese society.
My paper makes a case for an ecological and democratic global political order based on and inspired by the relevant resources in the tradition of Confucian political thought. I will do so by putting into conversation two most prominent contemporary proponents of Confucian cosmopolitan thinking, Zhao Tingyang of People’s Republic of China and Na Jongseok of South Korea. My thesis is that the concepts of tianxia (天下) and daedong (datong 大同), when reimagined through the lens of an ecologically grounded cosmopolitan democratic thinking, could offer a way to liberate the global commons from its enslavement to the reign of extractive neo-liberal global capitalism and the hegemonic/imperial nation-states.
| Anna Sun, Duke University | anna.x.sun@duke.edu | View |