Since Heaven has not yet Destroyed this Culture, what Can the Men of Kuang Do to me?”: Cosmological Confucianism and the Development of Science

Abstract

This article addresses the issue how, in traditiona l Chinese society in which Confucianism held a dominant position, philosophy was organized in ‘schools of thought,’ how these schools remained relatively sta ble ‘transmitters of wisdom,’ and how they dealt with ‘science’. More precisely, it is argued that the kind of ‘cosmological Confucianism’ that became the state o rthodoxy of imperial China is a kind of correlative thinking that accepts a cl ose relation between the natural and the political world. In a context in which ‘phi losophers’ increasingly became advisors to the political elite in their performing of their duties of maintaining cosmic order, the ruling elite came to depend on th e advice of these ‘philoso* The author is professor Chinese language and cultu re at Ghent University. He is indebted to Erik Weber for his invitation to contri bute to this issue, and to the anonymous reader for his/her comments and suggestions.