Has any individual ever shaped his own country's civilization more thoroughly than Confucius? Certainly no other world figure has ever been set up as an example to more of his fellow countrymen. But what we know about the man himself is vague and shadowy, often contaminated with fiction. And the sayings attributed to him may often seem – to the Westerner who knows little or nothing about Chinese culture – obscure, trivial or banal. Raymond Dawson resolves these paradoxes. He takes as a model the long-established Chinese tradition of commentary on classical texts – in this case the Analects, the oldest and most reliable Confucian text. Always with a cautious eye on textual doubts, he finds a body of thought whose expression does seem to reflect the views and aspirations of a recognizable person. Like scholars in the imperial Chinese examination halls we consider the implications of separate gobbets of the Master’s thought and see how they cohere into a distinct social, ethical and intellectual system. We find that – as Confucius would have wished – our studies are joyful and require no specialist training or jargon. Unlike those scholars we can see not only the contemporary applicability of the sayings but also the strength of their influence throughout the two and a half millennia of their currency – even in a China that has formally rejected them.
Author
Raymond Stanley Dawson was born in London, 15 February, 1923, and was educated at Emanuel School, evacuated from London to Petersfield, Hampshire, and then went up to Oxford. At the outbreak of war Dawson joined the Royal Air Force, and trained in South Africa as a navigator, & flew missions until late in WW2. After the war he returned to Oxford, graduated in Greats in 1947. He was invited to stay on at the university to read Chinese. The Scarbrough scheme that funded this post-war cohort of students was designed to create a group of potential teachers of Asian languages in post-war Britain. He was appointed Lecturer in Chinese Religion and Philosophy, Durham University in 1952, which marked the foundation of Chinese Studies in that University. He also began a lifelong career as crossword setter for the New Statesman. He began this sideline in 1952 under the name of Setsquare, and produced a monthly cryptic crossword for the next 50 years. In 1958 Dawson launched an Honours course in Chinese. Dawson was Spalding Lecturer in Chinese Language and Civilisation, 1957-61; University lecturer in Chinese, Oxford University, 1961-90; Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford, 1963-90 [Emeritus]. Dawson published a string of works for Oxford University Press, including *The Chinese Chameleon: an analysis of European conceptions of Chinese civilisation* [1967], and *Confucius* [1981] for the OUP Past Masters series. He served on the university's General Board and building up a strong tradition of Asian language studies in Wadham. Beyond the university he reached a wide audience with a steady flow of accessible books on aspects of Chinese history and society, translations of classic texts, and a much-reprinted Introduction to Classical Chinese (1968). He married in 1944, Eve Harding, by whom he had two sons and one daughter. (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!top...)
