A confucian theology: Through the prism of Dong Zhongshu

Abstract

While contemporary Western and post-Mao Chinese philosophers dismiss the spirit realm in early Chinese thought, the Confucian tradition is riddled with spirits (shen (sic)) from souls (hunpo (sic)(sic)) to ghosts (gui (sic)) to lesser deities (di (sic) of mountains, rivers, rain, and the underworld, etc.) to the High God (shangdi (sic)(sic)). We will develop a Confucian theology of Di, Shangdi (God, the High God or the Lord on High) and Tian (sic) (Heaven) by looking beyond Canonical Confucianism (Four Books (Analects, Mencius, the "Great Learning" and the "Doctrine of the Mean") and Five Classics (Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents, Book of Rights, I Ching, and Spring and Autumn Annals)) and into the writings of subsequent, self-identified "Confucians." As such, we will explore the theology of Heaven of one such "Confucian," Dong Zhongshu (195-115 BCE), who is believed to be instrumental in establishing "Confucianism" as imperial orthodoxy. I will carefully exposit Dong's Chunqiu Fanlu (sic) (sic)(sic)(sic)(The Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals), making reference to canonical Confucianism as I proceed.