Abstract
The concept of “datong” in Chinese philosophy was developed more than two millennia ago in the Confucian classics. It has been translated as “Great Unity,” “Great Community,” “Great Universality,” “Great Similarity,” “Grand Harmony,” etc. In the “Liyun” section of Liji (the Book of Rites), the concept of “datong” was first introduced, and a distinction was drawn between the society of datong and that of xiaokang (translated as “Small Tranquility” or “Lesser Prosperity”).
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Notes
- 1.
The three principles are the Principle of People’s National Consciousness, the Principle of People’s Rights, and the Principle of People’s Livelihood.
- 2.
Zhang Xiang (2009) stresses the importance of culture and education (wenjiao) or cultivation (jiaohua) in Kang’s philosophy of progress towards datong.
- 3.
Subsequent page references to Thompson’s translation of Datong shu will be abbreviated Dx (x being the page number).
- 4.
For a comparison of Kang’s utopianism and utopianism (including Marxism) in Western thought, see Malmqvist (1991).
- 5.
Wang Hui (2008, chap. 7) stresses the universalism in Kang’s thought. He also identifies a tension between the universalist logic of datong and the logic of strengthening the Chinese nation (and rescuing it from its weak position in the world, particularly in face of the Western powers and Japan).
- 6.
Chang Hao (2002, pp. 174–204) points out the radical nature of Kang’s interpretation or reinterpretation of Confucianism.
- 7.
See note 2.
- 8.
See also a passage in Kang’s commentary on Liyun in Kang (1987, pp. 241–2).
- 9.
Women, however, will have no right to abortion, as Kang believed that such a right may lead to population decline and endanger the survival of the human species (D190–193).
- 10.
Author’s own translation of a sentence in the third paragraph of the Preamble to the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party (as amended in 2007).
- 11.
The quoted words are the author’s translation of parts of the ninth paragraph of the Preamble to the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party (as amended in 2007).
- 12.
Ibid. (ninth paragraph of the Preamble).
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Chen, A.H.Y. (2014). The Concept of “Datong” in Chinese Philosophy as an Expression of the Idea of the Common Good. In: Solomon, D., Lo, P. (eds) The Common Good: Chinese and American Perspectives. Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7272-4_5
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