Confucian Virtues in the Tangut-Chinese Glossary A Time-based Pearl in the Palm of the Tangut and Chinese Languages (1190)

This article examines the reception of Confucian virtues in Tangut culture through an analysis of the bilingual glossary A Time-based Pearl in the Palm of Tangut and Chinese Languages (1190). Scholars have long emphasized the profound influence of Confucianism on the statehood and elite culture of the Tangut state (that was frequently and justifiably described as largely a product of intensive engagement with its neighbors). The present study challenges this assumption by demonstrating that Tangut appropriation of Confucianism was, in fact, highly selective. Lexical evidence from the glossary indicates that the categories adopted were predominantly ethical concepts of a general philosophical nature. Terms such as “noble man”, “sagehood”, “righteousness”, etc. are presented not through a specifically Confucian perspective, but rather in terms of a broader cross-cultural moral vocabulary. In contrast, core Confucian terminology (e.g. li, “rites”), the metaphysical terminology of Song Neo-Confucianism (contemporary with the Tangut state), and the religious veneration of Confucius himself remained outside the scope of Tangut sources. When viewed against the far more profound reception of Buddhism, this pattern suggests that the limited appropriation of Confucianism reflected not a lack of familiarity or competence, but its subordinate position within a Tangut cultural landscape overwhelmingly shaped by the Buddhist worldview.