Shakespeare in Chinese Philosophy: Kings and Rectification of Names

Yanli HUANG

Abstract


Appeal for order and harmony permeated Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and it relied a lot on the monarch. This paper aims to analyze the images of three monarchs in Henry IV and Richard II to interpret Shakespeare’s political philosophy from perspective of Confucius’s thought of rectification of names. Richard II is the legal king, but he doesn’t follow what a king should do; Henry IV is also not Shakespeare’s ideal king for he takes the crown illegally, though he performed well as a king; with legal succession of the crown and Machiavellian tactics, Henry V is the perfect monarch for Shakespeare.

 


Keywords


Monarch; Rectification of names; Political philosophy

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/12396

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