Thread by @Helenreflects

My next class in the philosophy of religion course #PORcourse will deal with the idea of the Confucian sage, and will also look at the feminist perspective offered by Im Yunjidang, 任允摯堂, a female neo-Confucian Korean scholar, writer and philosopher (1721-1793).

Im Yunjidang was one of the few published female Confucian philosophers in Korea. Due to gender bias, her work, Yunjidang Yugo, could not be published in her lifetime. A central thesis of this work is that women can be Confucian sages. 2/

As an aside, can we have sageuk drama (historical k-drama) with Im Yunjidang as the protagonist? That would be the coolest thing ever 3/

So, Yunjidang Yugo is currently untranslated in English but I've heard a translation is currently underway. I am so excited to see that come out and will be ordering it. First things first, What's a Confucian sage? 4/

Linda Zagzebski, in her book Exemplarist Moral Theory (2017)
argues that a sage is a kind of moral exemplar. Moral exemplars are people that can teach us about morality, not so much in what they say but in the kind of person they are 5/

Zagzebski distinguishes three kinds of moral exemplars:
* the hero, who inspires us by their great courage
* the saint, who inspires us by their self-sacrifice and spiritual lifestyle
* the sage, who inspires us by their wisdom, wise deeds and wise decisions particularly 6/

Take the hero as moral exemplar. Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were German students who spread anti-Nazi pamphlets during world war II to German citizens 7/

biographyonline.net/women/sophie-s…

It's hard not to be struck with a feeling of admiration when you consider the risks Sophie and Hans took when they warned fellow Germans "Nothing is so unworthy of a nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by a clique that has yielded to base instinct"... 8/

According to Zagzebski, we have a feeling admiration for sages, saints and heroes, and through that sense we recognize them as exemplars, this in turn helps us to morally grow too. 9/

The problem is: what if you're mistaken in the exemplar you have identified? What if your admiration is misplaced? Take e.g.. Jean Vanier, revered as a near-saint, who is now accused of abuse of women 10/ vox.com/identities/202…

You could also admire moral exemplars for the wrong reasons. So Zagzebski's theory is not without problems (she herself acknowledges these problems, and they remain unresolved, in my view). Still, the sage is an interesting exemplar to be thinking about 11/

Kongzi (Confucius) is the paradigmatic example of a Confucian sage. His analects (lunyu) collect not only what he said but also what he did, particularly this chapter ctext.org/analects/xiang… - his deeds are important as well as his words, and show his wisdom 12/

For instance, he would bury friends if there were no relations who could do it; he would show deference to people in mourning, he would help a blind musician by letting them know where the steps are when entering a house 13/

A sage, in Zagzebski's view, is not primarily identified by their actions (unlike saints and heroes) but by their wise words and wise decisions. Confucius exhibited the virtue of rén, 仁, humaneness, and had a thorough knowledge of li, 禮, or ritual 14/

So well did he know li that he could improvise. He did not follow the rites in a rigid way, but allowed for flexibility. Mengzi (Mencius) another Confucian philosopher identified wisdom as the ability to flexibly make decision when faced with competing moral demands 15/

Sages are all-rounders. Their moral virtue also requires things like political insight and intelligence. Because it requires so much maturity, it takes some years to become a sage and to cultivate the dispositions necessary to attain sagehood 16/

See Confucius' spiritual autobiography, in Analects 2:4 "At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At 30, I stood firm. At 40, I had no doubts. At 50, I knew the decrees of Heaven. At 60, my ear was obedient. At 70, I could follow what my heart desired without doing wrong" 17/

Now if we add gender into this mix, it gets interesting. Confucian philosophy is often seen as inherently sexist. This testimony from the anonymous blog "Being a woman in philosophy" summarizes this sentiment very aptly beingawomaninphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/pro… 18/

But is Confucianism (and its successor neo-Confucianism) inherently sexist? This is a hard question to answer, particularly in a series of tweets. One thing to note is that Confucians such as Mengzi make claims about all human beings having the capacity needed to be a sage 19/

That all human beings (regardless of gender) have the capacity for moral growth, e.g., Mengzi 人皆有不忍人之心 "All people have hearts that are not unfeeling towards others" (Mengzi 2.6A) 20/

Still, there are undeniably sexist gender norms at work in ancient cultures such as Warring States China and Joseon Dynasty Korea. It is in this situation you can put Yunjidang. She was born into an aristocratic family but suffered an unhappy life with lots of hardship 21/

husband died only eight years into their marriage, and she had no surviving children. He had failed the civil exam, and since she could not remarry lived as a widow in his household. Still, this offered her freedom to pursue scholarly work 22/

Paper on her life and work here: jstor.org/stable/4328967… 23/

Yunjidang wrote "Though I am woman, the nature I originally received was no different from that of a man. Though I am unable to study what Yan Yuan studied, am completely earnest in sharing his aspiration to become a sage."24/

Yan Yuan was a disciple of Confucius. Yunjidang expresses frustration that she is barred from studying what he did, due to her gender, and asserts that women are not inferior to men but that all human beings can be distinguished from animals in their moral status 25/

As Sungmoon Kim argues, Yunjidang did not want to become like a man. Rather, she wants to overcome bodily desires and passions which neo-Confucians referred to as the "seven emotions", of which you can read more here mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/11… 26/

Basically, neo-Confucians thought you had 4 moral emotions discussed in Mengzi, which I mentioned in an earlier thread, which were the sprouts of virtues, such as pity and compassion (惻隱), shame and dislike (羞惡), compliance and deference (辭讓), and right and wrong (是非) 27/

But then you also have seven emotions, which were seen as either morally neutral or ambivalent, such as joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate, and desire. Yunjidang argued that she is able to overcome these emotions--related to bodily desires--thus becoming a Confucian sage 28/

She writes "The sages are the same in kind as I am. Most people are the same as the sages in being endowed with the principles of the Great Ultimate as their nature...." (all quotes from Kim's article). A problem arises though for Yunjidang... 29/

If everyone has the incipient capacity to become a sage, why then don't we see more sages "Why is it that we are unable to become like [such ancient sages as] Yao, Shun, Duke of Zhou, and Confucius, despite the fact that human nature is absolutely good?" 30/

You also need cultivation, practice, to overcome our selfish desires. Thus, Yunjidang expresses an optimism about human nature and our capacity for sagehood that reminds somewhat of Mengzi. Regardless of gender or class, we can all become sages if we practice the rites 31/

(the article also raises interesting questions about how she can harmonize these claims about radical gender equality about moral worth with an acceptance of traditional gender roles and other issues. The whole article is worth reading!) 32/

Some closing thoughts: I'm still very skeptical about a positive role of exemplars in guiding our moral behavior, including sages. One worry I have is that exemplars disappoint us, or we pick the wrong ones, and if they disappoint, then we become cynical and weary 33/

But to the extent that we are guided by exemplars through our admiration of them (an empirical question, as Zagzebski acknowledges), it's really important we get a wide range of role models, people of different genders, classes, etc. that we can use as guides 34/

And in this respect, it is really important that we study scholars such as Im Yunjidang, to give insight into what a female Confucian sage is, and thus also I think give us a better insight into the concept of Confucian sagehood /end

@threadreaderapp please unroll for my students!