Timing and Rulership in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu)

James D. Sellmann

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780791452325
  9780791452318
• eBook ISBN:
  9780791489260
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Chinese History

Explores proper timing and the arts of rulership in the work that inspired China's first emperor.

Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu) inspired the king who united the warring states to become China's first emperor. In this work on the Lüshi chunqiu, author James D. Sellmann finds that the concept of "proper timing" makes the work's diverse philosophies coherent. He discusses the life and times of its author, Lü Buwei, and the structure of the work. Sellmann also analyzes the role of human nature, the justification of the state, and the significance of cosmic, historical, and personal timing in the Lüshi chunqiu. An organic instrumentalist position begins to emerge from the diverse theories of the Lüshi chunqiu. In conclusion, Sellmann looks at the implications of the syncretic philosophies of the Lüshi chunqiu for contemporary conceptions of time, human nature, political order, and social and environmental ethics.

Table of contents

• Timing and Rulership in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu)
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• A Note Concerning Conventions Used in This Book
• 1. Introduction: The Lüshi chunqiu’s Background and Foreground
• 2. The LSCQ’s Programmatic Conceptions of Xing: Cultivating Desires in the Process of Life
• 3. An Emergent Social Order
• 4. Proper Timing in the Cosmic, Historical, and Moral Realms
• 5. Applying Proper Timing to Contemporary Issues
• Appendix I: Phenomenological and Etymological Conceptions of Timing (Shi)
• Appendix II: A Study of Xingming zhi Qing in the LSCQ: The Achievement of One’s Character (Xing) in One’s Natural Relations (Ming)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index