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naverhtrad 's review for:
Dong Zhongshu, a 'Confucian' Heritage and the Chunqiu Fanlu
by Michael Loewe
A very interesting, highly technical, exhaustive and primary-source laden sketch of one of the most influential philosophers in Han China. Dong Zhongshu is very convincingly portrayed as a conscientious and humane official, a man moved to support the simplification of laws, the removal of corruption, the redistribution of wealth to the poor and a peaceful foreign policy with the Xiongnu. Less convincing, however, is the main and most contrarian conceit of the book, which was that Dong Zhongshu was not 'Confucian'.
It is less convincing not because Loewe is necessarily wrong about 'Confucian' being an invalid conceptual category at a time when classicists who cited Kongzi did not have an established corpus or a standard body of beliefs, but because disputing the title of 'Confucian' seems irrelevant to an appraisal of Dong Zhongshu, who clearly did hold the writings attributed to Kongzi in very high esteem and has been taken by people who DO identify as Confucians as one of their most important intellectual forebears.
It is less convincing not because Loewe is necessarily wrong about 'Confucian' being an invalid conceptual category at a time when classicists who cited Kongzi did not have an established corpus or a standard body of beliefs, but because disputing the title of 'Confucian' seems irrelevant to an appraisal of Dong Zhongshu, who clearly did hold the writings attributed to Kongzi in very high esteem and has been taken by people who DO identify as Confucians as one of their most important intellectual forebears.