Center and Periphery in Eighteenth-Century Annamese Neo-Confucian Discourse

This paper examines 18th-century Annamese Neo-Confucian discourse on conceptual issues related to zhongguo and the hua-yi dichotomy as expressed across a diversity of 18th-century writings. I engage with Huang Chun-chieh's theory of "contextual turn" and localized subjectivity in 18th-century East Asian Confu cianisms by arguing that 18th-century Annamese Neo-Confucianism operated along a dissimilar ideological trajectory which affirmed "geographic China, politi cal China, and cultural China" as a trans dynastic and singular zhongguo from which Annam received its politico-cultural legitimation and prestige. This discourse of dependence on institutional recognition and geographical con nection to the Chinese zhongguo distinguished 18th-century Annamese literati not only from contemporaneous modes of Confucian intellectuality in Japan and Joseon, but also from foundational concep tions of Vietic statehood characteristic of the early Le dynasty. My analysis of metaphysical theories invoked by 18th-century Annamese literati in their discussions of zhongguo and the rise of human civilization en gages with both Huang Chun-chieh's theory of a philo lo gical turn away from the metaphysical commitments in 18th-century East Asian Confucianisms and Alexander Woodside's theory of pre-modern Viet namese Confucianism being charac terized by a non-metaphysical "classical primordialism."