Confucius and Confucianism: The Essentials by Lee Dian Rainey (review)

Book Reviews 127 Pan’s method of argumentation is to take a recorded name or title, discuss the historical, literary, and philosophical associations connected with it, then suggest that Li may have known of these and meant to embody them in his painting. After constructing the subsections of a chapter in this manner, Pan abandons the conditional voice and ends with a flat assertion of his findings as factual. The Epilogue restates his entire argument without any of the qualifiers. This sleight of hand is troubling, since the chains of supposition rely on speculations that cannot be proven. Moreover, in his zeal to highlight Li’s Buddhism, Pan has created a portrait of the artist no less unbalanced than the “Confucian” one he decries. Let us hope that the next book on Li Gonglin will be a synthesis that does not treat these as mutually exclusive “faiths” but recognizes Li’s multifaceted interests and practices in a variety of spheres.20 JULIA K. MURRAY, University of Wisconsin Confucius and Confucianism: The Essentials LEE DIAN RAINEY. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. xiii, 262 pages. ISBN 978-1-4051-8840-1. ₤19.99 paper. Lee Dian Rainey, who teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, has produced a lively addition to the small group of good college-level textbooks on Confucianism. The book begins with a chapter on “Confucius’ world and his life,” followed by two chapters on his thought, two on his opponents, and one each on Mencius 孟子 and Xunzi 荀子. This brings the book roughly to the midpoint of its basic text (not including notes, glossary, suggestions for further reading, and bibliography). There follow three chapters on the Qin 秦, Han 漢, and Han-Tang 漢-唐 periods, one on Song-Ming 宋-明 Neo-Confucianism, and one on “Confucianism and modernity” (Qing 清 through the present day, including the “New Confucians”). The final 20. Art-historical scholarship has largely discarded the idea that artists typically paint to express “faith” of any kind, so a more integrated study of Li should also explore his relationships with patrons and other social considerations. For illuminating discussions that debunk the idea that literati painters simply express themselves in their art, see James Cahill, The Painter’s Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), and Craig Clunas, Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004). 128 Journal of Chinese Religions chapter covers such issues as the tradition’s relationships to democracy, capitalism, and women, and the philosophy/religion debate. Throughout the book the author makes very clear how contested most of these subjects are, drawing upon very recent scholarship in English. She has done her own translations from the Chinese, often improving upon those already available. There is, however, one glaring exception: tianming 天命 as the “choice of Heaven,” instead of the usual “mandate of Heaven.” The reasoning behind this is clear enough: Heaven “chooses” one ruling family over another. But Rainey surely knows that “choice” has no connection with the root meaning of the word ming, which derives from ling 令 “command.” And “mandate,” which does reflect this etymology, is commonly-enough used in English not to be obscure to the average undergraduate (e.g. “The solid electoral victory gave the new president a mandate—i.e. the authority—to pursue his policies”). So I find this odd translation quite baffling. In all other respects the book does an excellent job of explaining Confucianism on an introductory level and—especially—making it accessible and relevant. Sentences like “The practice of filial piety is not for wimps” (p. 27) and “Confucius lived in a world where standards were declining, sleaze and corruption were everywhere, and most people were behaving badly” (p. 204) have a freshness to them that appeals to the undergraduate in me. Rainey is good at illustrating Confucian ideas in recognizable ways, e.g. “ritual” (li 禮): We practice rituals all the time, mostly not noticing them until they break down. The next time you feel annoyed at someone’s behavior, try to think what your expectations were. The person who butts into line, for example, is ignoring ritual and...

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