Prof Kiri Paramore – A Global History of Confucianism: The Cambridge History of Confucianism Volume I (prehistory– 1400 ce)

This talk will introduce The Cambridge History of Confucianism, Volume I (pre-history-1400), the editing of which Prof Paramore is currently completing with publication expected in early 2026.

Confucianism has been a major force in the cultural history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam for thousands of years, affecting the art, literature, science and politics of all these countries. Confucianism was not only a major ideological and cultural determiner in East Asian premodernity, but also played a crucial role in East Asia’s transition to modernity, mediating the importation of scientific and medical thought and the re-creation of major political ideologies of modernity like liberalism. Beyond Asia, Confucianism was also a major topic of intellectual discussion in early modern Europe – a foil for the political theories of thinkers from Voltaire to Montesquieu. This Cambridge History will introduce Confucianism through the entire long durée history of the tradition, beginning with its pre-historic Chinese roots, and extending through the entire history of imperial Chinese and broader Asian history into the contemporary period.

Kiri Paramore is Professor of Asian Studies in the National University of Ireland, University College Cork, where he directs the Irish Institute of Chinese Studies and the Irish Institute of Japanese Studies. He is the author of Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History (Cambridge University Press, 2016), (a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award winner, 2016), Ideology and Christianity in Japan (Routledge, 2009), and Religion and Orientalism in Asian Studies (Bloomsbury, 2016). His articles have appeared in Modern Intellectual History, the Journal of Asian Studies, the Journal of Early Modern History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Journal of Japanese Studies, and the Proceedings of the British Academy, etc. He currently serves as chief editor of the Cambridge History of Confucianism, and as one of the authors of the Cambridge History of Democracy, and the New Cambridge History of Japan.

To join online please email Matty at mb@royalasiaticsociety.org