John A. Tucker

Professor
Ph.D., Columbia University

Office: Brewster A-317

Phone: 252-328-1028

John A. Tucker is a professor of Japanese and East Asian history. His research specialization is in Japanese Confucianism and East Asian philosophies. He teaches courses in Japanese and Chinese history from ancient times to the present.

Tucker holds an A.B. in history from Davidson College (1977), two master’s degrees from the University of Hawaii (Asian philosophy 1981 and Asian history 1983), and a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University (1990).

A recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship, he did research at Kyoto University’s Institute for Research in the Humanities, 1988-1989. Earlier, he did graduate work at the Institute while on a Japanese Ministry of Education Scholarship, 1984-85, following Japanese language study at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, 1983-84. With Japan Foundation fellowships he returned to the Kyoto Institute as a visiting professor in 1995 and again in 2000. He has also done research as a visiting professor at Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan, and at National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Tucker’s recent publications include Governing the Realm and Bringing Peace to All Below Heaven, published by Cambridge University Press (2020), and The Forty-Seven Ronin: The Vendetta in History, also published by Cambridge University Press (2018). Along with Chun-chieh Huang, he coedited Confucianism for the Twenty-First Century, published by V&R Unipress (2023).

He has published translation-studies of Itō Jinsai’s Gomō jigi, with E. J. Brill (1998), and of Ogyū Sorai’s Bendō and Benmei, with the University of Hawaii Press (2006). He edited a four-volume work, Critical Readings in Japanese Confucianism, published by Brill (2013). Again with Chun-chieh Huang, he co-edited an anthology, Dao Companion to Japanese Confucian Philosophy (Springer, 2016).

Tucker formerly served as ECU’s university historian and in that capacity published several works including John F. Kennedy’s North Carolina Campaign (Arcadia, 2012) and, along with Arthur Carlson, co-editor, East Carolina University (Arcadia, 2013). With Arthur Carlson and Brooke Tolar, he co-edited East Carolina University Football (Arcadia 2016). And, with Brooke Tolar and Chelsea Head, he co-edited The Art of Giving: Leo W. Jenkins’ Paintings (Apple Books). He also authored several hundred entries for the ECU Chronicles website documenting the university’s history. https://lib.ecu.edu/sites/chronicles/

Selected Publications: Books

Confucianism for the Twenty-First Century. Co-edited with Chun-chieh Huang. Global East Asia Series, Vol. 10. Göttingen, Germany: V&R Unipress, 2023. https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/themen-entdecken/literatur-sprach-und-kulturwissenschaften/philosophie/58276/confucianism-for-the-twenty-first-century

Kumazawa Banzan: Governing the Realm and Bringing Peace to All Below Heaven. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2020). https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/kumazawa-banzan-governing-the-realm-and-bringing-peace-to-all-below-heaven/D1CBEBBAF50079D483DF131AD6EE78A8

The Forty-Seven Rōnin: The Vendetta in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fortyseven-ronin/038EB8D05D9F248B5C09CBF7AC1B8725

Book Chapters:

“Dài Zhèn and Japanese Confucianism: East Asian Developments in Philosophical Lexicography.” In Dao Companion to Dài Zhèn’s Philosophy. Zheng Zemian, editor. Switzerland: Springer, forthcoming.

“Zhū Xī (1130-1200) in Early-modern and Modern Japan: Philosophical Receptivity, International relations, and Geo-political Contexts.” In Intercultural Zhū Xī. Kirill Thompson, editor. Albany: State University of New York Press, forthcoming.

“Confucianism in Japan: The Tokugawa Era.” In The Oxford Handbook of Confucianism. Jennifer Oldstone-Moore, editor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-confucianism-9780190906184?cc=us&lang=en&#

“Toward a More Compassionate Economic Order: The Confucian Imperative for Greater Wealth Equity.” In Confucianism for the Twenty-First Century. John A. Tucker and Chun-chieh Huang, editors. Göttingen, Germany: V&R Unipress, 2023.

“Mencius in Japanese Confucian Philosophy.” Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius. Yang Xiao and Kim-chong Chong, editors. Switzerland: Springer Academic Publishers. 2023. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-27620-0_19

“Searching for the Historical Bodhidharma in Goblet Words.” In Charles Prebish and Oncho Ng, editors. The Theory and Practice of Zen Buddhism. Chinese Culture, Vol 6. Switzerland: Springer, 2022. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-8286-5_2

Courses Offered:

HIST 1030: World Civilizations to 1500
HIST 1031: World Civilizations Since 1500
HIST 3610: History of East Asia to 1600
HIST 3611: History of East Asia Since 1600
HIST 3615: History of Traditional Japan
HIST 3620: History of Modern Japan
HIST 3625: Field Study in Japanese Historical Culture
HIST 3626: Field Study in Japanese Historical Texts
HIST 3627: History of Japanese Buddhism
HIST 3629: History of Traditional China
HIST 3630: History of Modern China
HIST 5680: Diplomatic History of Modern Asia