The Making of the Human Sciences in China: Historical and Conceptual Foundations

Abstract

dynasty and still exists in China as a monastic order; 2) “New Developments in the Confucian Ethic” (pp. 47–110), an in-depth investigation into the religious thisworldliness of “new Confucianism,” which was influenced by Chan Buddhism (Yü agreed with Tillman that it is better to use this translation than the conventional term “Neo-Confucianism” used in the West; cf. pp. xxi–xxii). These new spiritual developments were then disseminated in China, also within Daoist religion. These “Three Teachings/Religions” (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism), considered as a harmonious body within Chinese culture since the end of the third and at the beginning of the fourth centuries, have grasped “an ethic that everyone should engage in labor as a crucial component to their personal enlightenment and their duty to society” (p. xvii); and 3) “The Spiritual Configuration of Chinese Merchants” (pp. 113–199), in which Yü describes changes discovered in Chinese history in the social status of Chinese merchants and their spiritual resources within the “Three Religions,” focusing especially on the period 1500–1820. The focus of this part is the problematic of the relationship between merchants with their increased confidence in their profession and traditional ethics of Chinese religions with their work ethic developed over the ages. In his book, Yü Ying-shih does not so much strive to answer the “capitalism question” in China by engaging with Weber’s thesis as such, but rather, as he emphatically states in his “Introduction” something more modest: “Before the importation of modern Western capitalism into China, did the traditional religious ethic exert any influence on indigenously developed commercial activities? And if so, what was the specific import of such influence?” (p. 8). The English translation of Yü Ying-shih’s book, which is a welcome contribution to Western Chinese studies, should be a stimulation for intensifying investigation into the relationship between Chinese religiosity with its inner-worldly asceticism and mercantile spirit (or generally speaking economy) in China not only for Sinologists but also for researchers in religious studies, economic history and social sciences.