Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China By ...

A basic difference concerns the Western view of a distinct God, creator of all living things. The Christian monotheistic belief of an almighty and omniscient God identified with good, and the consequent contradiction of the coexistence of God and evil stimulated the great debate on the origin of evil and responsibility as free will. In contrast, in Confucianism, transgressions are seen not as violations of a certain rule, sins, or offences against God but as (1) a lack of virtues and self-cultivation; (2) and/or as a manifestation of evil and wrong behavior toward the community to which the subject belongs.

It has been pointed out that while Western ethics have been structured in affinity with law, including prescriptive formulas and procedures for exempting conditions or extenuating circumstances, in the Confucian tradition moral examples and model emulation based on the rectification of names are mostly preferred.¹ Another important difference pertains to the concept of nature-cosmos and its relationship with human beings. In China, this concept called for a broader understanding of the universe, which is conceived of as an organic whole in an endless process of change where all existences are interrelated regardless of the representation of heaven (with or without concern for humankind). Finally, another basic difference between the history of ideas in China and Europe consists of the radically disruptive nature of the latter and the continuous evolution of the former. Saint Paul is not just another classic author of Western moral thought but rather the representative of the most radical breach of original European-Greek thought and the beginning of the Christian era. Seventeen centuries later, Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) carried on the Renaissance humanism and a reconciliation with the Classical Pagan legacy.

In a general comparative perspective, among European thinkers, Spinoza seems the closest to Li Zhi, and this allows for some interesting observations that might help clarify the construction of the self.² Considered an eccentric heretic, Spinoza had a syncretic approach. Notwithstanding his Jewish and Neo-Platonic legacy, Spinoza’s immanentist