Ancient Confucianism has long been regarded as the cornerstone in the tradition of Chinese intelligentsia. However, little attention has been paid to the question of how Confucianism interprets and understands the issue of “serving in the government”. It is without doubt that ancient Confucianism has a clear interest in politics and political participation, but their standpoint concerning serving in the government is ambiguous and further research is therefore needed. One the one hand, Confucianism emphasizes “keeping working towards a goal the realization of which he knows to be helpless” (i.e., the willingness to serve in the government even when the Way falls into disuse). On the other hand, Confucianism also stresses “keeping out of sight when the Way does not prevail” (i.e., the un...[ Read more ]

Ancient Confucianism has long been regarded as the cornerstone in the tradition of Chinese intelligentsia. However, little attention has been paid to the question of how Confucianism interprets and understands the issue of “serving in the government”. It is without doubt that ancient Confucianism has a clear interest in politics and political participation, but their standpoint concerning serving in the government is ambiguous and further research is therefore needed. One the one hand, Confucianism emphasizes “keeping working towards a goal the realization of which he knows to be helpless” (i.e., the willingness to serve in the government even when the Way falls into disuse). On the other hand, Confucianism also stresses “keeping out of sight when the Way does not prevail” (i.e., the unwillingness to join the government). This shows the complexity and tensions of the Confucian attitude towards the issue of serving in the government. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate the topic of political participation in ancient Confucian philosophy, and attempts to enrich the discussion of this issue in the literature.

Excluding the foreword and the summary, this thesis is divided into seven parts. The first part analyzes the historical background of how “serving in the government” becomes a prominent concept in ancient Confucianism. The second part discusses the Confucian motivations and reasons concerning serving in the government. The third part points out the Confucian thoughts about the qualifications and requirements of being an official. The fourth part analyzes the principles and opportunities of serving in the government from the Confucian perspective. The fifth part deals with the Confucian ideas of duties and responsibilities of being an official. The sixth part analyzes the principles and opportunities of leaving the government. The seventh part discusses various ways of political participation other than taking office which Confucianism has advocated.