Confucian Authority and the Politics of Caring

Abstract

It is inarguable that Confucianism is the most prominent intellectual tradition in Chinese civilization, whose earliest dynastic records stretch back to the Xia dynasty founded by three sage-kings: Yao, Shun, and Yu. Confucius was born in the state of Lu to a minor knight who in his old age took in a young maiden as his concubine. As a political philosophy, the teaching of Confucianism hinges on actualizing benevolent governance, which starts with the self-cultivation of a moral personhood at home; one’s sphere of moral influences is then concentrically radiated from one’s own family, community, state, to the world at large. This chapter offers a Confucian take on what constitutes a legitimate political authority and its accompanying obligations to care for its political constituents, especially the vulnerable—the young, the old, the sick, and the disabled—as a mitigating measure in shifting our attitude toward caring for others.