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

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State University of New York Press, Feb 1, 2012 - Religion - 277 pages
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.
 

Contents

The Lüshi chunqius Background and Foreground
1
Cultivating Desires in the Process of Life
25
3 An Emergent Social Order
67
4 Proper Timing in the Cosmic Historical and Moral Realms
117
5 Applying Proper Timing to Contemporary Issues
151
Phenomenological and Etymological Conceptions of Timing Shi
191
A Study of Xingming zhi Qing in the LSCQ The Achievement of Ones Character Xing in Ones Natural Relations Ming
199
Notes
207
Bibliography
243
Index
253
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About the author (2012)

James D. Sellmann is Professor of Philosophy and Director of East Asian Studies at the University of Guam.

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