In recent years, there has been a re-evaluation of the impact of Confucianism upon East Asian. At the heart of the debate has been the question of family versus individual, and how the values associated with the familial and individual played out in these texts. In general terms, the role of the five cardinal relationships (the hierarchically structured dyads of ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder brother-younger brother, friend-friend) have been examined to measure how society was constructed. We will explore the five cardinal relationships across East Asia, including Ming dynasty China (1368-1644), Chosŏn Korea (1392-1897) and the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429-1879). We will also approach a variety of texts: dramas, primary texts (for students), poetry, and historical narratives. Our purpose is to explore how shared aspects of cultural tradition played regionally across cultural, textual and disciplinary lines. Each of the papers will conform to a twelve-minute limit, to provide the proper fifteen-minute discussion with the audience at the end.

Parent-child relationships are central to the cardinal relationships. The influence of this on East Asian polities is seen in a discussion of how Ryukyu historians handled this in the official histories compiled in 1650, 1701 (rev. 1725) and 1745. This was the most prominent of the five relationships discussed in the texts. The relationship between Ryukyu kings and their successor sons is naturally central to these depictions but that of mother and children (sons and daughters) is also important. Depictions of the parent-child relationship within the Ryukyu royal histories is an ideological window through which readers can see the assertion of a native, Ryukyu identity against an imported, Confucian (and Chinese) identity. Specifically, the Ryukyu royal histories assert the importance of not only mothers but also the importance of the relationship of parents with their daughters. These depictions signify the native reverence for female power, and the attempt to naturalize Chinese Confucianism to accommodate it.

A second relationship, elder brother-younger brother is one of the lesser of the five relationships. Like father-son relationships, it can also include a variety of actual relationships, including brother-sister and cousin-cousin. In the poetry and other writings of the Yang family, particularly Yang Shen (1488-1559), there is often a juxtaposition of brothers and paternal cousins, as was a common practice across China. The presenter will explore how other same-generation relationships beyond the paternal lines (such as maternal cousins and brothers-in-law) played out. These symbolic brotherly roles often allowed for a blurring in practical terms, although in formal terms (such as in ritual concerns ancestor worship) did not.

Friend-friend relations were controversial among the five relationships due to their non-hierarchical and non-blood-related nature. Early modern China witnessed a significant rise of the status of friendship in cultural discourses, as seen in the Water Margin story cycle, best known in its 100-chapter 16^th century novel. Dramas featuring stories from this cycle, while valorizing friendship at the surface, are haunted by a subtle caution regarding friendship. In Shen Jing’s (1553－1610) Righteous Hero and Li Kaixian’s (1502－1568) Record of the Precious Sword, these is caution over friendship, either the brotherhood among outlaws or the friendship among officials in court, suggesting a wariness over friendship in traditional Confucian thinking, namely, concern over the danger of factionalism in bureaucracy, and the threat that non-hierarchical friendship posed to the hierarchical family-state order.

Loyalty and the overall importance of the five cardinal relationships had a huge impact on Chosŏn Korea. In primary reader books (haengshito), Korean authors explored these relationships and the loyalty at their heart, including conflict between friend-friend and ruler-subject. The Samgang haengsilto (Illustrated Guide to the Three Relations [of father-son, ruler-subject, husband-wife]) first published in 1434 and revised afterwards, the Iryun haengsilto (Illustrated Guide to the Two Relations [brother-brother, friend-friend], and the Oryun haengsilto (Illustrated Guide to the Five Relations, 1797) give an overview of the evolution and development of the five cardinal relationships and discourse about the importance of loyalty throughout the history of the dynasty.

The response will examine ways that the five cardinal relationships were a useful rubric for exploring texts in early modern East Asia, and why these texts from across East Asia used a similar paradigm, whether in agreement or in challenging that, and in addition how further explorations of Confucian paradigms will contribute to the study of the Early modern East Asian texts.

The panel consists of a diverse body of scholars (3 male; 2 female; 3 East Asian, including two native-born), representing various statuses from graduate student and lecturer to full professor.