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The Religious Thought of Confucius: Exploring the Place of Heaven, Destiny, and Spirits in the Analects

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Reconceptualizing Confucian Philosophy in the 21st Century

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Abstract

“The religious thought of Confucius”—does this phrase have any meaning? Before exploring this issue, it is maybe better to begin with a set of prior questions, namely: What is religious thought? Can it be isolated apart from philosophical thought, and if so, based on what criteria?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Noteworthy efforts include Yu (2007), Luo (2007), Ouyang (2008), Zhang (2009).

  2. 2.

    “The Zhou dynasty looked back to the Shang and Xia. Such a wealth of culture! I follow the Zhou” (Analects 3.14). “For a long time now I have not dreamt of meeting the Duke of Zhou” (Analects 7.5). “With King Wen long dead, does not our cultural heritage reside here with us? If Heaven was going to destroy this legacy, we latecomers would not have access to it. If Heaven is not going to destroy this culture, then what can the people of Kuang do to me?” (Analects 9.5).

  3. 3.

    The Eastern Han scholar, Wang Chong, also addressed this topic. He believed that “ming” meant no more than “the ways of nature” and implied no more than a form of randomness. See the “Ouhui” 偶会 (“Accidental Phenomena for People”) Chapter of Wang Chong’s Lunheng 论衡 and his Ming Yi 命义 (The Meaning of Ming).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Maoze Zhang

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  1. Maoze Zhang
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Correspondence to Maoze Zhang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

    Xinzhong Yao

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Zhang, M. (2017). The Religious Thought of Confucius: Exploring the Place of Heaven, Destiny, and Spirits in the Analects . In: Yao, X. (eds) Reconceptualizing Confucian Philosophy in the 21st Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4000-9_7

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