Squares and Circles- Mapping the History of Chinese Thought.pdf

Squares and Circles: Mapping the History of Chinese Thought Author(s): Willard J. Peterson Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1988), pp. 47-60 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: /stable/2709703 . Accessed: 20/12/2012 17:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms Conditions of Use, available at . /page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@. . University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Ideas. This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:25:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SQUARES AND CIRCLES: MAPPING THE HISTORY OF CHINESE THOUGHT BY WILLARD J. PETERSON There are a number of labels which writers in English have used to signal parts of the whole of Chinesethinking over the past three millennia, and Chinese writers over much of that period have employed even more ways of dividing and naming parts of their intellectual heritage. Readers of English are offered sets of isms as labels for some larger segments. Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Buddhism are four which find their way into nearly every account of the history of Chinese thought but without any generally accepted criteriaby which they may be applied with certaintyto particularthinkers,tex