Jiyan Ilbrink
in China and the World: New Perspectives on Classical Topics, eds. Ksenia Radchenkova and Franz Winter, Leiden: Brill, 2026, 65-104.
About the chapter: This chapter engages with a recent Anglophone debate about Wang Anshi: Was Wang an exemplary Confucian whose “Myriad-Word Memorial to Renzong” deserves the standing of a “global classic,” in which “Wang argues on a very high level even from the perspective of the 2013 public management discourse”? I first give this debate a chronological account, tracing how it developed and what main issues it brought up. Then I add my intervention, interpreting the Memorial anew against the specific context in which it was written. In contrast to broad stroke generalizations, I delineate the eleventh century world in which Wang lived and reacted against, highlighting his break with the mid-eleventh century mainstream. Trying to understand what it was that Wang intended to do with the Memorial, I bring to the fore the central role government school education plays in his reform blueprint, an element that has eluded debate participants to date. I also address how the Memorial related to the later reform, hence whether it had failed to be implemented.
About the book: China and the World: New Perspectives on Classical Topics invites you to see China’s rise through a fresh lens. It provides the depth often absent in geopolitical discussions on China, revealing how Chinese scholars reinterpret their own political, philosophical and religious traditions to re-conceptualize contemporary law, governance, and global order. From the revival of tianxia (“all under Heaven”) and dayitong (“Great Unity”) to legal innovations under the Belt and Road Initiative, it uncovers China’s strategic use of philosophy, religion and international law for national rejuvenation. Drawing on historical sources and insider perspectives, this volume provides a vital foundation for cross-disciplinary engagement.
About the author: Jiyan Ilbrink was a HYI RSEA Fellow from 2012-14.