From Publishers Weekly
Oldstone-Moore, a professor at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, provides a quick, informative overview of Confucianism, China's indigenous religious philosophy. Confucianism, she explains, is somewhat misidentified because it originated centuries before Confucius, who saw himself as a compiler of the ancient tradition's best wisdom. Oldstone-Moore does a fine job of explaining the central concept of filial piety (xiao), which undergirds all human relationships in Confucian philosophy. She also discusses the interplay of yin and yang and the role of the Five Phases (fire, wood, water, metal and earth). One chapter explores "sacred time," including festivals such as the lunar New Year and the importance of the 12-year zodiac cycle; another presents sacred texts, including the Five Classics. Like the other books in Oxford's series of brief introductions to various world religions, this one is copiously illustrated with full-color photographs. The writing can sometimes be dry, but the book is so brief that it scarcely matters. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Though hardly an exhaustive introduction, this new member in the series already including Shinto and Islam [BKL Ag 02] will be welcomed by those seeking to learn more about this subjects without being overburdened by detail. Oldstone-Moore challenges the notion that Confucianism is merely legalistic, especially in her chapter on death and the afterlife, where she shows that, along with Confucianism, a murky mixture of indigenous beliefs, Taoism, and Buddhism contributes to death rituals. Arguing that the Confucian tradition is quite a bit older than Confucius himself, Oldstone-Moore traces the emphasis on filial piety and the exaltation of the group over the individual to yet more ancient Chinese roots. At the end of each chapter, Oldstone-Moore insightfully comments upon selections from the Analects and other Chinese writings. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Six centuries before the birth of Jesus, a Chinese sage named Master Kong or Kong Fuzi (later latinized to Confucius) drafted the principles of a society founded upon virtue. For more than two thousand years, Kong Fuzi's work has remained the foundation of Chinese civilization. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Jennifer Oldstone-Moore takes readers on an insightful tour of this enduring belief system. Not quite a religion, more than a philosophy, Confucianism coexists with Daoism and Buddhism in Chinese spiritual life, guiding personal relations and social structure. Oldstone-Moore explains the essence of Confucian belief--the primary importance of filial relations, and the need for governments to be founded upon virtue--and she underscores the overarching importance of the Confucian canon. Though Confucius's own sayings are preserved in the Analects, he saw himself as an editor and mediator of the wisdom of antiquity, which he gathered in the Six Classics and Four Books, which stress harmony in the social order. The author sheds much light on these texts--The Book of Changes, the Classic of History, the Classic of Poetry, the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Book of Rites, and the now-lost Classic of Music--and also discusses the role of heroes (such as the Sage Kings), rituals and the Chinese calendar, sacred places, and Confucianism's place as a state religion through much of Chinese history. No society on earth has had the continuous history--as a single people, culture, and state--that China enjoys. One of the keys to that unity, to China's very identity, is Confucianism, deftly elucidated in this attractive, informative volume.

FROM THE PUBLISHER