Event Details

Academic Seminar Series with Lancaster University Confucius Institute and Lancaster University China Centre

Abstract:

Dr Pei Wang will argue that in Confucian philosophy, care has been considered as a feminine quality, and fully developed ren considered as a masculine virtue, precisely because the core of ren goes beyond care. In traditional Confucianism, ren does include “female” care but it is not sufficient: ren as a comprehensive virtue also encompasses lifelong love of learning and personal contributions in society and politics, which is the distinctive “male” domain of ren.

An advanced Confucian ethics of ren needs to encourage women to learn more about the Way and rightness and to establish themselves in society and in politics, while also urging men to provide more care for family members and in turn help them provide more care in the family.

For ren as a political virtue, care and learning are equally important. If we overemphasize the value of care and ignore the significance of learning, ren and care will both face the risk of misuse, which is likely to harm women in particular.

Dr Wang will start by showing how filial service and care, as the root of ren, have been gendered in the Confucian classics, with care largely viewed as a “womanly” virtue. Next, Dr Wang will develop the idea that Confucian ren includes both care and love of learning, with fully developed ren viewed as a “male” virtue. In the third section, Dr Wang will show that ren how ren can be misused in a political context if the sole emphasis is placed on care without due consideration of wisdom and political ability which can be cultivated through the process of learning.

Speaker Biography:

WANG Pei, Assistant professor at the School of Chinese, the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include Confucianism, comparative philosophy and Chinese intellectual history. She is particularly interested in Confucian feminism and how traditional Confucian virtues can be morally justified in modern China. She is the co-author (with Daniel. A. Bell) of Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World, published by Princeton University Press in 2020. She has authored over thirty academic articles in English, Chinese, and French, mainly on Confucianism and comparative philosophy, published in Philosophy & Social Criticism, China Review, and Jung Journal, among others.