SOURCE: Jensen, Lionel M. “Introduction: Confucius, Kongzi, and the Modern Imagination.” In Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions & Universal Civilization, pp. 3-28. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997.

In the following essay, Jensen traces the evolution of scholars's understanding of Confucian concepts over the centuries.

A little more than four centuries ago, a detachment of seamen in service to Philip II of Spain (r. 1556-1598) and a few missionaries of a new order of the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus, sailed by Portuguese carrack to the south coast of China. We have lived the consequences of this passage ever since. Portuguese vessels, in particular, had been navigating this route for about three decades by the 1570s, calling twice a year at China's southern port of Guangzhou (Canton) for luxury items. Thus, there was nothing logistically unusual in the missionaries' arrival in 1579 on Chinese soil. The historical significance of their...