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Cette contribution vise à ouvrir quelques pistes et poser quelques jalons au sujet de l’idée de grande Roumanie au cours du xixe siècle. Ses conceptions et expressions varient, des rêves de reconstitution de la Dacie passée aux projets d’union politique des provinces habitées par des Roumains. Son histoire est beaucoup moins linéaire que l’a longtemps affirmée l’historiographie nationaliste : née à l’extérieur des pays roumains, l’idée a eu ses moments forts (1848) mais aussi ses adversaires acharnés, jusqu’au seuil de sa réalisation. This contribution aims to open up avenues for reflection and provide context for the idea of Greater Romania in the 19th century. Conceptions and expressions of the idea varied, from dreams of re-establishing historical Dacia to political union of the provinces inhabited by Romanians. Its history is far less linear than nationalist historiography long claimed: the idea, born outside the Romanian countries, had its moments (1848) but faced bitter opponents, until the eve of its realization.

Cet article procède de la philosophie politique de l’éducation, comprise comme étude de la conversion du projet démocratique en pratiques éducatives. La figure de Dewey est sans doute l’une des plus inspirantes qui soit pour une telle démarche. Nous nous demandons dans ce texte si ce qu’il a présenté en son temps comme la possibilité d’un individualisme nouveau peut nous aider à penser l’éducation et la formation en démocratie au XXIème siècle. Nous commençons (1) pour cela par trois lectures qui nous permettent de comprendre comment Dewey envisage l’articulation de trois concepts forts que sont la démocratie, l’individualisme et le libéralisme, avec toujours en toile de fond des préoccupations éducatives et formatives fortes. Nous discutons ensuite des opportunités de ressaisies contemporaines des propositions deweyennes dans ce registre (2). Une ouverture conclusive fait signe vers quelques enseignements pour une philosophie politique de l’éducation pratique et appliquée dans le contexte français contemporain (3). This article is based on the political philosophy of education, understood as the study of the conversion of the democratic project into educational practices. The figure of Dewey is undoubtedly one of the most inspiring for such an approach. In this text, we ask ourselves whether what he presented in his time as the possibility of a new individualism can help us to think about education and training in democracy in the 21st century. We begin (1) with three readings that allow us to understand how Dewey envisages the articulation of three strong concepts: democracy, individualism and liberalism, always against the backdrop of strong educational and formative concerns. We then discuss the opportunities for contemporary re-examination of Dewey’s proposals in this context (2). A concluding section points to some lessons for a practical and applied political philosophy of education in the contemporary French context (3).

Introduction Ritual activities were an essential part of the cultural, religious and political life of ancient China. While always evolving through times, they constituted a series of norms regulating (at least for the elite) behaviour and relationship. They determined propriety and impropriety. Ritual but also historical texts often made mention of those improprieties. In some instances, a ritual norm was only indirectly referred to in occasions where an act was deemed ritually improper. The...

This third volume of the “Myriades d’Asies” series is the result of an international conference which was held at the Collège de France in 2018, and published in book form by Hémisphères Editions in 2021, the present digital edition being a revised and improved version of the printed edition. It intends to look afresh at the way ancient China progressively evolved into a ritualistic society, that is a world in which social interactions in times of peace were to be conceived of within the category of rites. If such a category remains difficult to define univocally, it has appeared to us that one possible approach was to study the canonization in the Han period of a compendium of texts which aim at regulating conducts, be it social behaviour, body language, speech, the relations between the living and the dead, as well as power relations and the agenda of human activities. We are talking more specifically about a cluster of three texts which soon came to acquire the status of “classics” and which are now known as the Ceremonial and Rites (Yili 儀禮), the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 周禮), and the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記). The first objective of the volume is to examine the articulations between these texts and more precisely to inquire about the patterns of, and motivations for, the canonization of ritual in the first century of Han rule, about the rewriting effects, and about the incorporation of very heterogeneous texts in the establishment of the canon. This primary approach to “the world of ritual” is followed by a more specific study of the most composite text of the compendium, the Book of Rites. How did the ancient commentaries of this text contribute to model the interpretation of rites, and in what way did the classic never cease to be an open text, going through successive phases of deconstruction, desacralisation or reconstruction that allowed for the ritual order to be constantly recomposed as dynasties went by? And how did the text relate to ancient Chinese ritual practices revealed by archeological discoveries or by different sources? The final sections attempt to show, by contrast with other traditions and sociological approaches, how the canonization of ritual in China has shaped the sense of rites and the forms of social and political inquiry in ancient China, and how ritual still serves to underpin some modern thinking about the organization and management of men. Brought in the light of other conceptions elaborated in Asian or European societies, the ritual that has developed in China out of the Han canon thus appears to be an alternatively critical or ideological basis for a variety of discourses on the art of handling human affairs.

Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127–200) is usually portrayed as a Confucian scholar, mostly known for his prolific commentaries on the Classics, of which several were later selected as standard interpretations in official compendia. Although he was not a professional jurist –he was neither appointed as a judge, nor commissioned to draft laws– he is nonetheless credited with having produced several treatises on law, of which unfortunately no copies have been preserved. In addition, Zheng Xuan’s commentaries o...

What place do rites and treatises on rites, especially the Yili 儀禮 (Ceremonial Rites) and the Liji 禮記 (Record of Rites), occupy in the works of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200), the famous scholar from the Song dynasty (960–1279) who produced an important Confucian synthesis? This is a question which is particularly relevant as the extensive intellectual and philosophical works produced and passed on by Zhu Xi have, as we know, an important editorial and interpretative dimension –the Sishu jizhu 四書集注 (C...

The premise of this paper is a self-evident statement: neither Greek nor Roman religion can be considered as a “religion of the Book.” In the common sense, they are not systems based on a sacred scripture encapsulating a revelation and giving birth to dogmas. But this premise must be immediately qualified because writings related to religion were not absent in these cultures. Orality coexisted with writing during centuries: sanctuaries were full of inscriptions and graffiti, while written rit...

The transmission to Korea of the Chinese classics with the Song commentaries coincided with a time of crisis besetting the country’s society. Or, to put it another way, the social and intellectual crisis that affected all aspects of life in late Koryŏ 高麗 (918–1392) provided a receptive field for the appealing picture of an ordered society the classics portrayed. The classics’ elaboration of ritualism and morality promised to serve as a potent weapon against Buddhism and, at the same time, end...

When attempting to appraise the work of any thinker active over a prolonged period of time, one is inevitably faced with the task of how to account for the evolution of the system of thought he or she developed, along with the possible inconsistencies and apparent incoherences contained therein. This is particularly the case when it comes to the thought of Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858–1927), whose works span more than four decades of China’s tumultuous modern history. He has been decried both as a r...

Against the contemporary background of pseudo-ritualising practices, this article investigates how ritualisation is envisaged in the Liji 禮記 (the Book of Rites). It argues that ritualisation is carried out through a discourse on the origin, nature and function of rites which is developed through key terms such as tiandi 天地 (Heaven-Earth), li 禮 (ritual, rites, codes of conduct, propriety, etc.), ben 本 (the foundation, source, origin, to lay the foundation of), shun 順 (to follow or to be in acc...

The Classical Chinese civilisation has come to be known to a significant degree in the literature of anthropology and religious studies through the practice of sacrifice, and particularly through ancestral sacrifice. Despite its prominence as a topic of discussion, however, surprisingly little work has been done in exploring the indigenous theories concerning sacrifice that have emerged in the Chinese tradition. This paper will attempt a small piece of this larger project by discussing theori...

Cet article fait pendant à celui de Marianne Bujard, car nous avions conçu comme deux volets complémentaires nos interventions au colloque All about the Rites: from canonised ritual to ritualised society : Marianne Bujard a montré que les textes rituels transmis restent parfois muets sur certaines pratiques funéraires tandis que ma présentation visait à confronter avec les données de l’archéologie les informations relatives à des pratiques funéraires mentionnées dans ces textes. Notre problém...

Before stating anything on the exegesis of Vedic ritual, I would like to thank Professor Anne Cheng for her invitation to present a paper at the symposium “All about the Rites: from canonised ritual to ritualised society” she organised with Professor Stéphane Feuillas, and now for having this short text integrated in these proceedings. I was very honoured and grateful to take part in this intellectual endeavour. However, I also felt a little embarrassed, for I was to speak in front of an audi...

Le 11 décembre 1711 (Shōtoku 正徳 1, 11, 1), une ambassade de Corée, chōsen tsūshinshi 朝鮮通信使, fut accueillie au château d’Edo. Cette huitième ambassade depuis le début de la prise de pouvoir par les Tokugawa n’avait a priori rien d’exceptionnel. Elle venait féliciter le shōgun Ienobu 家宣 (1662-1712, s. 1709-1712) de son arrivée aux affaires (shūhō shukuga 襲封祝賀). Ce type d’ambassade était devenu d’usage depuis le troisième shōgun Iemitsu 家光 (1604-1651, s. 1623-1651). Elle fut suivie de quatre aut...

As perhaps the leading authority on ritual matters of his time and the man who, possessing the knowledge, wisdom, and charisma necessary to attract large numbers of disciples to his gates, effectively established the dominant tone for all discourse on ritual from his time forward, the figure of Confucius (Kong Zi 孔子) –not to mention his disciples– understandably looms large in both the Liji 禮記 (Book of Ritual) and Da Dai Liji 大戴禮記 (Elder Dai Book of Ritual). Outside of the Lunyu 論語 (Analects ...

This paper sets out to identify strategies and constellations in which Korean scholars, during the Chosŏn period (1392–1910), used and relied on the Record of Rites or Liji 禮記. This study is mainly focused on Confucian academies (Chin. shuyuan, Kor. sŏwŏn 書院) and how Korean literati on their grounds studied and used the ritual classic. As privately established Confucian educational institutions, the academies were, on the one hand, bound by tradition and canon, and as such followed, to a cert...

When Chinese offer sacrifices to their ancestors, are the spirits of these ancestors really present at the sacrifice and do they consume the food offerings? Based on the fear of performing idolatrous rituals, this was a major question with which the European missionaries were confronted in the 17th century. The answer to this question was of primary importance to determine their attitude towards these rites. If indeed the ancestors were present, consumed the offerings and even granted blessin...

This article will draw from three parts of the Liji 《禮記》 in an attempt to construct an early Confucian theory of ritual. This theory, in short, depicts a tragic consciousness experienced in ritual performance where ritual agents cope with vulnerability, ambiguity, and rupture with the past. In constructing this theory, I will refer to and build on a larger project that I published as a book entitled The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism. My purpose in this article is to demonstrate ...

Kang Youwei’s 康有爲 (1857–1927) commentary to the “Liyun” (Evolution of Ritual), ninth chapter of the Record of Rites (Liji 禮記), was written during the short but crucial period between the failed “Hundred days reform” of 1898 (wuxu bianfa 戊戌變法) and the Xinhai Revolution (Xinhai geming 辛亥革命, 1911), which ended the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). It was published in 1913, in Kang’s own journal, Buren 不忍 (Compassion). When reading the “Evolution of Ritual” chapter in the context of a collective work on ...

This special issue of the Revue d’études benthamiennes aims to examine the transmission and reception of utilitarian thought among various socialist movements in the nineteenth century, to shed light on their emergence, uses and legacy. By focusing on the originality and variety of these socialist reinterpretations, it builds upon renewed approaches in intellectual and political history that have successfully challenged the classical distinction between “utopian” and “scientific” socialism. Consequently, this issue brings a corrective to the tendency, on the part of established scholarship, to confine Bentham’s influence to classical liberalism. Though the contributions to this issue focus on three European countries (Britain, Ireland and France), it is hoped that they will provide a first step towards a more general, joint history of the relation between utilitarianism and socialism. Ce numéro spécial de la Revue d'études benthamiennes se propose d'examiner la transmission et la réception de la pensée utilitariste au sein de divers courants socialistes au XIXe siècle, afin d'en éclairer l'émergence, les usages et la postérité. En mettant l'accent sur l'originalité et la variété de ces réinterprétations socialistes, il s'inscrit dans le prolongement des approches renouvelées en histoire intellectuelle et politique, qui ont réussi à nuancer la distinction classique entre socialisme “utopique” et socialisme “scientifique”. Par conséquent, ce numéro apporte un correctif à la tendance, de la part des chercheurs établis, à réduire l’influence de Bentham au libéralisme classique. Bien que les contributions à ce numéro se concentrent sur trois pays européens (la Grande-Bretagne, l'Irlande et la France), nous espérons qu'elles constitueront un premier pas vers une histoire générale croisée de la relation entre utilitarisme et socialisme.