ABSTRACT
Confucians exist who are not East Asians, just as there are Platonists who arenot Greek or even Western. But the idea of a Western Confucian seems more problematic to some than the idea of a non-Greek Platonist. Confucianism, of course, was not limited to China, spreading to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere in East Asia, and to diaspora communities of these nationals outside of East Asia. But Confucianism took with it, according to the common belief, a rich East Asian primary culture of family life and authority structures that was distinctive to Confucianism and yet is alien or irrelevant to the primary cultures o f non-East Asian societies. Confucianism is thought by many to be unable to flourish outside of an East Asian family culture. This essay examines
the conditions under which Confucianism might legitimately be transported to cultures outside the East Asian type, understanding this transition in Con fucianism to be influenced, in part, by the rise, temporary and ironic as it might be, of its Boston school.
