Confucian Life, Confucian Mind

Listen to the Editorial Conversation for this chapter:

Dynastic Chinese literati life and education were inseparable from the philosophical and religious influences of Confucianism[1], Daoism[2], and Buddhism[3]. At various times throughout Chinese history, an emperor would favor each one of these competing and, in turn, cooperating religions and philosophies. To the extent that a philosophy was implemented and realized across the Dynastic period, the Chinese state adopted the religion of Confucianism and then the philosophy of Neo-Confucianism as its governing ideology.