Mencius and masculinities : dynamics of power, morality, and maternal thinking / Joanne D. Birdwhistell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Birdwhistell, Joanne D., 1944-

Series:

SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture.

SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mencius.

Philosophy, Chinese--To 221 B.C.

Philosophy, Chinese.

Gender identity in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (170 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this innovative work, Joanne D. Birdwhistell presents the first gender analysis of the Mencius, a central text in the Chinese philosophical tradition. Mencian philosophy, particularly its ideas about the processes by which a man could develop into a cultivated gentleman, was important to the political thought of China's long imperial order. Through close textual readings, Birdwhistell offers a new interpretation of core Mencian ideas about the heart and the self-cultivation of the great man. She argues that the concept of masculinity advocated by the Mencius is derived, although without acknowledgment, from maternal practices and thinking—through processes of appropriation, inversion, and transformation. She illustrates that even though maternal practices and thinking are an invisible dimension of Mencian thought, they are constantly present in the text through their transcoding with agricultural practices and thinking.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Hidden in Plain View

Text as Cultural Landscape

Against Shen Nong’s Agrarian Masculinity

Against King Hui’s Self-Centered Masculinity

Compassionate Governing

Ruling as Son and Younger Brother

Ruling as Father and Mother of the People

Mothers, Feelings, and Masculinity

Gender, a Continuing Issue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-154) and index.

ISBN:

9780791480380

0791480380

9781429471411

1429471417

OCLC:

140182566