Is Confucianism Supporting a Liberal Tradition? - A Critical Review of Wm. de Bary's Confucianism

Is Confucianism supporting a liberal tradition? Wm. Theodore de Bary, American Historian of China in Columbia University, gives a positive answer to such question in his book entitled The Liberal Tradition in China. In the book, de Bary points out four major themes of Neo-Confucianism that are believed to support a liberal tradition: the repossession of the Way (dao-tong 道統), Zhu Xi’s idea of liberal education, Neo-Confucian individualism, and Huang Zong-xi’s thought of liberalism. The aim of this project is then to conduct a critical review of de Bary’s quest of a liberal tradition in China, and on top of that, a reflection on the subject matter as whole. I subscribe to Paul Cohen’s opinion that de Bary’s approach to Confucianism in general shows a type of parochialism that is to believe the only kind of change important enough to be worth looking for in the Chinese past is the change leading toward modernity as defined by the Western historical experience. Yet de Bary’s major fallacy lies in the heart of his use of the term “liberalism” along with “individualism” which is too loose to be meaningful. Moreover, the four themes of Neo-Confucianism presented by de Bary can hardly support the case of a liberal tradition. I will then endeavor to go beyond the discussion towards de Bary’s Confucianism, and point out another angel to look into this kind of comparative hermeneutics. The main methodologies employed in this project are textual exegesis and conceptual analysis.