Engaging confucian ethics as philosophy : Japanese confucianism as a cautionary tale?

Ogrizek, Marko (author)

This paper looks at the relationships among Japanese Confucianism, Confucian ethics and Confucianism as philosophy. It examines this relationship from three different angles: first, by examining the transformation of Japanese Confucianism into “Chinese philoso-phy”, which helped facilitate the Japanese national morality and imperial way discourses; second, by examining an alternative view of the Edo period Japanese Confucianism as having achieved the development of universal Confucian ethics even before the advent of European philosophy in East Asia; and finally, by examining the relationship between Confucian philosophy versus Confucian ritual as highlighted by the development of Jap-anese Confucianism. Building upon the understanding that Japanese Confucians were also working towards resolving the tensions of the relationship between the particular, universal and exemplary that marked their specific engagement with Confucianism out-side of the Chinese cultural context, the paper tries to think about how the cautionary tale of Japanese Confucianism might help inform future philosophical studies of Confucian ethics in the global space.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Japanese Confucianism, Confucian ethics, Chinese philosophy, imperial way, particular and universal
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 75-99
• Numbering: Vol. 14 (30), iss. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-186604
• UDC: 1(510)(520)
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2026.14.3.75-99
• COBISS.SI-ID: 289859075
• Publication date in RUL: 03.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies = Azijske študije
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Filozofska obravnava konfucijanske etike: japonsko konfucijanstvo kot svarilo?
• Keywords: japonsko konfucijanstvo, konfucijanska etika, kitajska filozofija, cesar-ska pot, univerzalno in partikularno

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0243-2019
• Name: Azijski jeziki in kulture

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-50202-2023
• Name: Konfucijanski preporod in njegov vpliv na sodobne vzhodnoazijske družbe skozi prizmo odnosa med individuumom in družbo