The Victory of Han Confucianism

Ideological Orthodoxy, State Doctrine, or Art of Governance? The “Victory of Confucianism” Revisited in Contemporary Chinese Scholarship

“…As a scholar of Chinese philosophy, he tends to accept English scholarship's philosophical framework. For example, he agrees with Dubs's view that the "victory of Confucianism" was a long-term process, 54 and therefore, he disagrees with Japanese historians' "obsession" with the task of identifying the most crucial event and pinning down the moment of Confucianism becoming the official doctrine/religion. For the same reason, Fukagawa argues that philosophical influence should not be downplayed if we accept the long-term process in which Confucianism gradually became the dominant thought at the Han court.…”

“…He holds also that becoming the official doctrine/religion does not mean that Confucianism was officially endorsed by the political authority because the authority wanted to manipulate it to serve certain political purposes. In other words, in the Japanese jukyo kokkyoka framework, the prominence of Confucianism does not imply that Han emperors exploited the figure of Confucius as a puppet, as suggested by English language and Chinese works such as those by Dubs, 60 Wallacker, 61 and Liu and Lin. 62 Instead, he thinks that the establishment of Confucianism as the state religion means that Confucianism acquired sacred authority over secular power, namely, the Emperor.…”

“…12 Dubs's essay "The Victory of Han Confucianism" can be seen as one of the earliest publications that adopt the "philosophical" framework. 13 He uses the term "Confucianism" throughout the essay and depicts the process of the victory of Confucianism as a process of a system of thought that was gradually made "the philosophy of the government." 14 Dubs therefore sees the process of its gaining dominance as an ongoing battle against other philosophical systems.…”