In our latest Asia Research Brief, “Understanding Knowledge Culture in Late Imperial China,” Lianbin Dai (YCAR CCKF Postdoctoral Fellow) tackles conventional understandings of Neo-Confucian activists. Dai proposes a shift away from dichotomous frameworks that separate moral cultivation from statecraft. He suggests that statecraft knowledge and skills were an important part of Neo-Confucian ideals of self-cultivation. His research traces the impact of programmes of learning developed by Neo-Confucian scholar, Zhu Xi.
Read Lianbin Dai’s brief at https://yorku.ca/research/ycar/publications/asia-research-briefs/.
Featured image: Portrait of Zhu Xi (1130-1200)