Timing and Rulership in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu), livre ebook

Explores proper timing and the arts of rulership in the work that inspired China's first emperor.

Explores proper timing and the arts of rulership in the work that inspired China's first emperor.

Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu) inspired the king who united the warring states to become China's first emperor. In this work on the Lüshi chunqiu, author James D. Sellmann finds that the concept of "proper timing" makes the work's diverse philosophies coherent. He discusses the life and times of its author, Lü Buwei, and the structure of the work. Sellmann also analyzes the role of human nature, the justification of the state, and the significance of cosmic, historical, and personal timing in the Lüshi chunqiu. An organic instrumentalist position begins to emerge from the diverse theories of the Lüshi chunqiu. In conclusion, Sellmann looks at the implications of the syncretic philosophies of the Lüshi chunqiu for contemporary conceptions of time, human nature, political order, and social and environmental ethics.

Acknowledgments
A Note Concerning Conventions Used in This Book

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Lüshi chunqiu's Background and Foreground
Lü Buwei and the LSCQ
Season Timing (chunqiu) and the Nature of the LSCQ
The LSCQ's Impact
The Mythification of History
Chapter 2. The LSCQ's Programmatic Conceptions of Xing: Cultivating Desires in the Process of Life
The LSCQ's Seasonal Arrangement of Traditional Theories on Xing

Chapter 3. An Emergent Social Order
Human Character and Social Order: An Analogy
A Survey of Pre-Qin Organic and Instrumental Positions and Their Impact on the LSCQ
The LSCQ's Uniþed Eclectic Conception on the Origin and Role of the State: An Organic Instrumental Position
Chapter 4. Proper Timing in the Cosmic, Historical, and Moral Realms
Cosmic and Seasonal Proper Timing
Historical Proper Timing
Proper Timing in Moral and Interpersonal Relations
Chapter 5. Applying Proper Timing to Contemporary Issues
Is Social and Political Philosophy Culture Bound?
Contemporary Philosophy and the LSCQ
Appendix I. Phenomenological and Etymological Conceptions of Timing (Shi)
Appendix II. A Study of Xingming zhi Qing in the LSCQ: The Achievement of One's Character (Xing) in One's Natural Relations (Ming)
Notes
Bibliography
Index