ABSTRACT
Many scholars have examined ancient Chinese texts for practices that might support democracy, but very few have looked for deliberative theory and practices. Extending Sor-hoon Tan’s comparative political work that builds connections between early Chinese texts and Amy Gutman and Dennis Thompson’s Democracy and Disagreement, this chapter rereads Confucius’ The Analects, creating a Confucian theory of deliberation. Gutmann and Thompson call publicity, reciprocity, and accountability “(t)he three principles that constitute the conditions of deliberation” (165). Tan uses these three principles for guarded conclusions about Confucian democracy. Eschewing questions of democracy to focus on deliberation, the chapter finds manifestations of the three principles: (1) It places publicity in the public, rhetorical nature of the concepts of duty (zhōng) and ritual (lǐ). (2) Arguing for a connection between shù and reciprocity, it interrogates the analogical aspects of shù, showing how one must understand the other through understanding oneself. (3) It develops a sense of Confucian accountability through his insistence on the proper use of names (zhèngmíng) and a demand for making good on one’s words. Confucian deliberation eschews persuasion, the great orator, and tropes as it emphasizes duty, tradition, honesty, accuracy, and each interlocutor’s reflection on understanding the self and other. Confucian deliberation denies antagonism while acknowledging agonism and difference, and it requires a self-reflective deliberator, committed to truth and duty.
