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

(dayi 大義) to an “inferior” one (xiaoyi 小義), and from a “general” obligation (gongyi 公義) to a “personal” one (siyi 私義).⁹ In all situations, there are extreme cases where incompatible duties clash with each other, and any choice made turns out to be morally wrong, as in the story reported by Mark Elvin which exemplifies a conflict between filial duty and the continuation of the line of descent.¹⁰ Literary production especially offers examples where Confucian concepts are mixed with Dao-Buddhist elements; although conflicts between Confucian and Buddhist conceptions of morality are in theory possible, Confucian rules and values are generally assumed to prevail over Buddhist ones. In practice, at least for the period under examination, there is a tendency in the narrative production to make compromises between the two, one system sometimes taking precedence the other, and vice versa, depending on individual preferences. Some examples are to be found in fiction, but here the conflict, rather than being brought to the forefront, is overcome by appealing to the syncretistic ideology of the “Three Doctrines” (sanjiao 三教). Similarly, morality books tend to combine Confucian duties with Buddhist and Daoist prescriptions. Nonetheless, this does not mean that there was not a certain tension, at least a latent one, between these traditions, and concurrently a syncretic combination; the personality of the late Ming thinker Li Zhi, who lived out these contradictions first hand in a masterly fashion, is perhaps the clearest evidence. These contradictions allowed him to practice his interpretations of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in a new way. He accepted traditions but kept his substantial independence and believed in the autonomy of each person to frame their own principles. His revolutionary spirit consists of his awareness that principles are relative with respect to both time and circumstances: there is no one Way, but many Ways. The individual is the source and the final aim of morality, although any person is not perceived as in contrast with society and cosmos.

The manifestation of one’s integrity was stimulated by inner ethic and aesthetic reactions (“shame”; inability to bear the suffering of others, buren 不忍; revulsion for certain actions). It was not only the internalization