Books by keith knapp
Early Confucians viewed their world in an anthropocentric way-man was an embodiment of the cosmos... more Early Confucians viewed their world in an anthropocentric way-man was an embodiment of the cosmos and embodied the virtues of benevolence and righteousness. By the early medieval period (220-589), though, Confucian tales of virtuous animals flourished, betraying that Confucian attitudes towards animals had changed: the moral boundaries between animals and humans were fluid and beasts could serve as exemplars for humans. One of the few early medieval Confucian thinkers who spoke at length about animals was He Chengtian 何承天 (370-447), a famed historian, astronomer, classical scholar, musicologist, and numerologist. His view of what separates humans from animals emerges from letters and essays he wrote attacking Buddhism. To refute the idea that humans and animals are both sentient beings, he espoused the old belief that people had a privileged place in the universe because of their moral excellence. Moreover, even though there was a gap between sages and ordinary humans, the latter were still ethically superior to beasts. In addition, for him, meateating was both a natural and sacred activity. Ironically, man's benevolence and righteousness are most visible in the humane ways that Confucians wanted people to hunt and fish. He Chengtian's opposition to Buddhism thus seems to have pushed him to a more extreme view of animals than his contemporaries. Nevertheless, his attempt to refute the idea of karmic retribution through an example taken from the animal kingdom betrays that he saw humans and non-human animals on a more equal footing than he cared to admit.
Both Western and Chinese intellectuals have long derided filial piety tales as an absurd and grot... more Both Western and Chinese intellectuals have long derided filial piety tales as an absurd and grotesque variety of children’s literature. Selfless Offspring offers a fresh perspective on the genre, revealing the rich historical worth of these stories by examining them in their original context: the tumultuous and politically fragmented early medieval era (A.D. 100–600). At a time when no Confucian virtue was more prized than filial piety, adults were moved and inspired by tales of filial children. The emotional impact of even the most outlandish actions portrayed in the stories was profound, a measure of the directness with which they spoke to major concerns of the early medieval Chinese elite. In a period of weak central government and powerful local clans, the key to preserving a household’s privileged status was maintaining a cohesive extended family.
Keith Knapp begins this far-ranging and persuasive study by describing two related historical trends that account for the narrative’s popularity: the growth of extended families and the rapid incursion of Confucianism among China’s learned elite. Extended families were better at maintaining their status and power, so patriarchs found it expedient to embrace Confucianism to keep their large, fragile households intact. Knapp then focuses on the filial piety stories themselves—their structure, historicity, origin, function, and transmission—and argues that most stem from the oral culture of these elite extended families. After examining collections of filial piety tales, known as Accounts of Filial Children, he shifts from text to motif, exploring the most common theme: the "reverent care" and mourning of parents. In the final chapter, Knapp looks at the relative burden that filiality placed on men and women and concludes that, although women largely performed the same filial acts as men, they had to go to greater extremes to prove their sincerity.
Book chapters by keith knapp
Cambridge History of China, Volume 2: The Six Dynasties, 220-589, 2019
秦漢魏晉南北朝史：國際學術研討會論文集, ed. 樓勁 and 陳偉 , 2018
Animals through Chinese History: Earliest Times to 1911, edited by Roel Sterckx, Martina Siebert, and Dagmar Schafer, Cambridge University Press, 2018
Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China, edited by N. Harry Rothschild and Leslie V. Wallace, 2017
China and Beyond in the Mediaeval Period: Cultural Crossings and Inter-Regional Connections, 2014
Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History, 2004
傳記傳統與傳記現代化—中國古代傳記文學國際學術研討會論文集, 2012
Places of Encounter: Time, Place, and Connectivity in World History, Volume One To 1600, 2012
The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, 2012
T oo often the Ru tradition, which is known to Westerners as Confucianism, is presented as a para... more T oo often the Ru tradition, which is known to Westerners as Confucianism, is presented as a parade of philosophers, such as Confucius, Mencius, Dong Zhongshu, and Zhu Xi. Since the historical record does not have much information about many of these figures, most of what we know about them comes from the philosophical texts that either they or their disciples composed; hence, where the historical man ends and the philosophical text begins is hard to discern, Many accounts of Confucianism are thereby based on a collection of texts rather than flesh-and-blood people, Little wonder that most Westerners view Confucianism as stodgy and dry. Since scholars are principally concerned with the tradition's most prominent advocates, they have largely ignored those periods of the Confucian tradi tion in which there were no major thinkers-a number of accounts make a huge leap from the end of the Eastern Han (25-220 CE) to the Song (960-1279) Dynas ties, as if the Ru tradition was in hibernation during the medieval period, This chapter will argue that Confucianism was much more than its prominent thinkers and texts-it was often promoted and articulated through popular tales, history books, community compacts, images of exemplars, morality books, and ritual prac tices, Moreover, the Confucian conceptual framework was flexible enough that it was always possible to incorporate opponents' ideas and practices.
Early Chinese Religion, Part Two: The Period of Division (220-589), edited by John Lagerwey and Lü Pengzhi, 2010
In early medieval China, among its upper classes, no religious ceremonies were more frequently pe... more In early medieval China, among its upper classes, no religious ceremonies were more frequently performed and had a greater impact on daily life than the ancestral rites. Sacrifi ces to the ancestors punctuated the calendar, sanctioned the institutions of marriage and concubinage, and periodically reminded the living of their lifelong debt to those who came before them. One could argue that it was the most fundamental and universal form of religious worship in China. Regardless of social class, no matter who one was, one esteemed and made off erings to his departed kin. 1 Furthermore, unhappy ancestors were not to be toyed with-they could have an adverse eff ect on the fortune and fate of oneself and one's family. For rulers, since their powerful ancestors helped secure their present fortune, how and which ancestors were to be honored was an important political issue-one that oft en occasioned vigorous court debate. Despite the obvious signifi cance of these rites, beyond the earliest period of Chinese history, Western scholars have written relatively little about them, especially about the form they took during the early medieval period. In other words, we only have a vague sense of how these rituals were performed and what their participants saw themselves as doing. We take it for granted that, at the very least, the upper classes had been performing these rituals for a long time and that the rites themselves changed little. We also assume that rulers undertook these rites because they legitimated their power, but it is not entirely clear how these rites did so. Th is chapter's purpose is to explore in what ways and to what extent the ancestral rites were practiced in early medieval China (AD 100-600), as well as how these ceremonies were connected to the conveyance of political legitimacy. 2 1 Although commoners probably only worshipped their own most recent deceased kin, such as their father and grandfather, they would have regarded this as being akin to the sacrifi ces that the upper classes dedicated to more remote ancestors.
Teaching Confucianism, edited by Jeffrey Richey, 2008
Confucian cultures of authority: edited by Peter D. …, Jan 1, 2006
Hawai'i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, 2005
Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, 2014
Early Medieval Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, Dec 2015
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Books by keith knapp
Keith Knapp begins this far-ranging and persuasive study by describing two related historical trends that account for the narrative’s popularity: the growth of extended families and the rapid incursion of Confucianism among China’s learned elite. Extended families were better at maintaining their status and power, so patriarchs found it expedient to embrace Confucianism to keep their large, fragile households intact. Knapp then focuses on the filial piety stories themselves—their structure, historicity, origin, function, and transmission—and argues that most stem from the oral culture of these elite extended families. After examining collections of filial piety tales, known as Accounts of Filial Children, he shifts from text to motif, exploring the most common theme: the "reverent care" and mourning of parents. In the final chapter, Knapp looks at the relative burden that filiality placed on men and women and concludes that, although women largely performed the same filial acts as men, they had to go to greater extremes to prove their sincerity.
Book chapters by keith knapp
Keith Knapp begins this far-ranging and persuasive study by describing two related historical trends that account for the narrative’s popularity: the growth of extended families and the rapid incursion of Confucianism among China’s learned elite. Extended families were better at maintaining their status and power, so patriarchs found it expedient to embrace Confucianism to keep their large, fragile households intact. Knapp then focuses on the filial piety stories themselves—their structure, historicity, origin, function, and transmission—and argues that most stem from the oral culture of these elite extended families. After examining collections of filial piety tales, known as Accounts of Filial Children, he shifts from text to motif, exploring the most common theme: the "reverent care" and mourning of parents. In the final chapter, Knapp looks at the relative burden that filiality placed on men and women and concludes that, although women largely performed the same filial acts as men, they had to go to greater extremes to prove their sincerity.
It is my prediction that the new twenty-four filial exemplars will be a tremendous flop. Part of the reason why the Twenty-four Filial Exemplars have stood the test of time is because pre-modern Chinese found them both fascinating and moving. What gave the book continued relevance was its compelling stories of historical individuals who realized this moral value. In this essay, I will argue that these stories still have many important lessons to teach us. However, modern people need to be taught how to read the stories: they need to pay attention to the spirit rather than the letter of the tales; moreover, the stories have to be read figuratively rather than literally. These tales have significant value for modern people, but they need to be read in a sophisticated manner.