Richey has written an engaging and well-crafted book that clearly delineates the oftentimes fitful development of Confucianism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. At the same time, he masterfully demonstrates how Confucianism slowly came to dominate politics, thought, and society in each of these places and still continues to inform their assumptions, values, and institutions. Richey also expertly underscores the outsized role that government has played in promoting and sustaining this tradition's formidable influence.

Seventeen scholars from varying fields here consider the implications of Confucian concerns--self-cultivation, regulation of the family, social civility, moral education, well-being of the people, governance of the state, and universal peace--in industrial East Asia.

Confucian Democracy in East Asia explores the unique Confucian reasoning that still exists in much of East Asian culture.

"This book examines how Confucianism affects the development of democratic citizenship in East Asia. To what extent do East Asians remain attached to the particular way of life and system of government that Confucius and Mencius advocated to bring about a community of grand harmony? How does such attachment to Confucian civic norms affect their engagement in civic affairs? How does attachment to Confucian paternalistic meritocracy affect their commitment to democracy? The book addresses these question in the context of public opinion surveys conducted in East Asia and other regions"--Provided by publisher.

Western liberal constitutionalism has expanded recently, with, in East Asia, the constitutional systems of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan based on Western principles, and with even the socialist polities of China and Vietnam having some regard to such principles. Despite the alleged universal applicability of Western constitutionalism, however, the success of any constitutional system depends in part on the cultural values, customs and traditions of the country into which the constitutional system is planted. This book explains how the values, customs and traditions of East Asian countries are Confucian, and discusses how this is relevant to constitutional practice in the region. The book outlines how constitutionalism has developed in East Asia over a long period, considers different scholarly work on the ease or difficulty of integrating Western constitutionalism into countries with a Confucian outlook, and examines the prospects for such integration going forward. Throughout, the book covers detailed aspects of Confucianism and the workings of constitutions in practice.

Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries and identifying multiple waves of modernization, this book illustrates how principles originating in Chinese Confucianism have impacted the modernization of East Asia, especially in Korea. It also analyzes how such principles are exercised at personal, interpersonal and organizational levels. As modernization unfolds in East Asia, there is a rising interest in tradition of Confucianism and reconsider the relevance of Confucianism to global development. This book considers the actual historical significance of Confucianism in the modernization of the three nations in this region, China, Korea, and Japan through the nineteenth century and early twentieth century to the aftermath of the end of World War II. Examining the existing literature dealing with how Confucianism has been viewed in connection with modernization, it provides insight into western attitudes towards Confucianism and the changes in perceptions relative to Asia in the very process of modernization itself.

Confucian Academies in East Asia is a first comprehensive look at the history and legacy of these unique institutions in China, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, and both Koreas.