San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Faculty Publications Humanities January 1992 Confucius and Capitalism: Views of Confucianism in Works on Confucian Ethics and Economic Development Christian Jochim San Jose State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/humanities_pub Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Christian Jochim. "Confucius and Capitalism: Views of Confucianism in Works on Confucian Ethics and Economic Development" Journal of Chinese Religions (1992): 135-171. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Humanities at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Christian Jochim CONFUCIUS AND CAPITALISM: VIEWS OF CONFUCIANISM IN WORKS ON CONFUCIANISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Introduction In "the Myth of Confucian China," Laurence Thompson surveyed the development and nature of a certain bias in Chinese studies down into the 1970s: the tendency to consider all of Chinese culture "Confucian" (Thompson 1974). He indicated that this bias had its roots in attitudes formed among Chinese intellectuals during recent centuries, and that it had influenced Chinese studies for decades. In his own work on the religious dimension of Chinese culture, including the text Chinese Religion: An Introduction (Thompson 1988), he set out to correct this bias by striving to present Buddhist, Taoist, and "folk" traditions in China, alongside the Confucian tradition, as distinct traditions each worthy of scholarly attention and respect. Others working in this area during recent decades have also strived to use interpretive categories, especially "Confucianism" and "Taoism," very carefully.