Was there a Confucianism?
One of the problems in discussing the history of Confucianism is the question of what Confucianism is. In fact in the book, Manufacturing Confucianism, David Jensen claims that our modern image of Confucius and Confucianism, which is that of a wise symbol of learning and a state-sponsored quasi-religion, did not exist in China from time immemorial, but was manufactured by European Jesuits in order to portray Chinese society to Europeans. The notion of Confucianism was then borrowed back by Chinese who then used the notion of Confucianism for their own purposes.
To simplify this discussion, we shall simply define Confucianism as any system of thinking that has at its basis the works that are regarded as the "Confucian classics," but even this definition runs into problems as it is not clear what are the "Confucian classics."
1 -[Confucianism]
2 -[Confucianism : Key concepts in Confucian thought]
3 -[Confucianism : Historical development of Confucianism]
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