Chen Huanzhang's The Economic Principles of Confucius and His School: A Reappraisal

Abstract

This article offers a reappraisal of Chen Huanzhang's The Economic Principles of Confucius and His School (1911): the published version of his doctoral thesis, completed at Columbia University. The book came with introductory testimonials from Columbia professors Friedrich Hirth and Henry R. Seager that have been read as “accolades,” while reviews from J. M. Keynes and E. A. Ross have been singled out as significant badges of merit. It is demonstrated that Chen's version of “Confucianism” had been taken, without express acknowledgment, from Chen's teacher, Kang Youwei, and that the main purpose of Chen's work was to embellish Kang's “Confucianism” in the service of Kang's political cause. It is argued further that Chen's work suffered from manifest deficiencies, some of which were noticed by other contemporary reviewers. As for the “positive” reviews, it is contended that these were directed more at general and incidental features of Chen's work, in ignorance of Kang's influence, while the “accolades” from Hirth and Seager were, respectively, a terse, unelaborated acknowledgment of Chen's “discipleship” of Kang and an unconvincing effort to claim scholarly merit for Chen's work in deference to his participation in Kang's political cause.