The Sovereignty of Tradition in Classical Confucian Thought

• In Event: Conceptualizing Sovereignty in Comparative Political Thought

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the conception of tradition embodied—and defended—in the Confucian Classics, showing the importance of intergenerational continuity and the ways in which this concern with continuity sheds light on the various aspects, like rituals and the role of the sage-king, in the Confucian conception of the political. I argue that if sovereignty is to be attributed somewhere in this conception, it should be to tradition. This sovereignty has none of the patriarchal and religious (monotheistic) qualities of other familiar conceptions of tradition because tradition itself is neither borne by men alone nor does it hark to anything outside of itself. Tradition, and thus sovereignty, is immanent in society itself and in the various parts that make society up.

Author

• Loubna El Amine, King's College London