Confucianism before Modernism

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs program on Global and International History presents “Confucianism before Modernism” with Thomas Wilson.

Confucianism has often been portrayed as a Chinese humanistic philosophy focused almost exclusively on the world of the living. Accordingly, we regard Confucius as a religious skeptic promoting a largely secular body of ethical doctrines. Even accounts acknowledging Confucianism as a kind of religion often are distracted by the misimpression that Confucius, as recorded in works like the Analects, rarely spoke about gods and spirits, let alone made devotional offerings to them. This talk contests that Confucianism was purely secular and that the imperial court and civil bureaucracy refrained from religious worship of gods as an integral part of governing.

Thomas Wilson, who is the Bates and Benjamin Professor of Classical and Religious Studies at Hamilton College, has written extensively about Confucian ritual and the cult of Confucius and has just published a book titled Confucian Gods: An Archaeology of Devotional Practice (2026), funded by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. He also received National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships in 1999-2000 and 2006-07. He has been a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, NJ and conducted research in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China on Fulbright-Hays grants in 1992-93. He earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Organized by Don Wyatt.  For more information on the Rohatyn Center click here.