Morality as Politics: The Restoration of Ch'eng-Chu Neo-Confucianism in Late Imperial China

This study aims to explore the restoration of Ch'eng-Chu Neo-Confucianism in the mid-19th century China through the examination of the thoughts of three major Neo-Confucianists who contributed to it: T'ang Chien (1778-1861), Wo-jen (1804-1871), and Tseng Kuo-fan (1811-1872). Through the analysis of thoughts of the three minds, this study will display the development, character, and their socio-political implications of Ch'eng-Chu Neo-Confucianism in late imperial China. 

There are two foci in this study: the Ch'eng-Chu circle as an intellectual school and the Ch'eng-Chu doctrine as an ideology. To cope with this dual foci, this study will not only discuss how this Ch'eng-Chu school was successfully becoming the intellectual hegemony among the three other competitive schools like ching-shih (statecraft), T'ung-ch'eng, and chin-wen (New Text) in the first half of 19th century. It will also analyze the characteristics of inner structure of this ideology, which was marked by a strong socio-moral concern, seen as a response to the growing tides of foreign imperialism in the post-Opium-War period and its close relationship with the T'ung-chih Restoration Movement (1862-1874). 

CHAPTER 

I. THE INTELLECTUAL MILIEU ............................. 17 

II. T'ANG CHIEN: CH'ENG-CHU NEO-CONFUCIANISM AS VOCATION. 68 

III. WO-JEN: MORALITY AND STATECRAFT.................... 137 

IV. TSENG KUO-FAN: FROM INNER SAGEHOOD TO OUTER KINGSHIP.  202

CONCLUSION.............................................. 271 

GLOSSARY................................................ 279 

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................ 291