Confucianism

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Confucianism

There is as great a debate about the religious dimension of Confucianism as there is about when Confucians first arrived in America. Many modern Confucians accept Confucianism as a religion, and others simply state that Confucianism is a philosophy and not a religion. The reason for this debate is that both sides are correct. Confucianism combines what Western intellectuals categorize as both philosophic and religious interests. Confucianism is most certainly a way of life for those who follow the teachings of the ancient sages.

The great contemporary New Confucian, Mou Zongsan (1909–1995), declared that if we demand that Confucianism resemble either the Christian churches or post-Enlightenment Western philosophy as a prototype, then we will find neither religion or philosophy in the Confucian tradition. However, if we define philosophy and religion as the perennial human quest for the ultimate significance of life, then Confucianism is both profoundly philosophic and religious. Confucianism cultivates the self in order to obtain the Way as the manifestation of the Mandate of Heaven and to serve others by creating a just, peaceful, and harmonious society. Following Paul Tillich's famous definition of religion, Confucianism represents a form of ultimate concern that has endured historically in East Asia and now in North America for over two thousand five hundred years.

Confucianism is a modern Western term used to describe an ancient Chinese "way" or practice. The name is a Latin version of Kong Fuzi (551–479 b.c.e.), the founder of the tradition. Confucius would have thought the founding of a new religion or philosophy odd if not unfilial. He lived at a time in classical China when the old Zhou dynasty was in a perilous state of decline. He believed that what was needed was a restoration of classical culture through the proper teaching of the way of the ancient sages. In short, Confucius wanted to inculcate in the young scholars of his day the teachings of the former worthies so that they could restore the world to harmony. His teachings included both the study of texts, later known as the Confucian classics, and the cultivation of virtue. Although Confucius was frustrated in achieving his hope for the reformation of China, he was venerated as the Teacher of the Ten Thousand Generations.

It is also important to recognize that Confucianism is an international movement. It rapidly spread from China to Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. It has now crossed the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is finding new homes in Europe and North America.

There have been three major eras in the development of the Confucian Way. The first is that of Confucius, followed by Mencius (371–289 b.c.e.) and Xunzi (fl. 298–210 b.c.e.). This is the classical period. The second great age came with the revival of the tradition in the Northern and Southern Song dynasties (960–1279 c.e.) and its later flowering in the Ming (1279–1644) and Qing (1644–1911). This is the Neo-Confucian era, so called in order to distinguish it from the classical period.

The third era overlaps with the second and begins with the arrival of the Western imperial powers in East Asia in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is a period of both great decline and rebirth. By 1911, when the last dynasty fell in China, Confucianism was no longer the basis for Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Vietnamese culture. Some people thought that Confucianism would disappear as the people of East Asia modernized their countries through contact with the Western powers. However, by the 1920s, a small group of committed public intellectuals had begun the reformation of the Confucian Way; this group became known as the New Confucians.

Mou Zongsan, acknowledged as the premier philosopher among the New Confucians, accepted and defined the religious dimension of Confucianism as a profound way of life based on the insights recorded in the classical texts. It is a tradition of study and practice and therefore has always been associated with the scholarly elites of East Asia. As the modern New Confucian Du Weiming states, commitment to the Confucian Way means engaging in the lifelong task of becoming human by means of an inclusive humanism that accepts the religious or spiritual dimension of the Confucian Way.

Mou Zongsan stipulates that any religious tradition must accomplish at least two fundamental movements of the human spirit. First, it must establish a vertical link between a human being and the divine reality, defined as ceaseless creativity. Second, it cultivates forms of ethical virtues and action between and among people. It must develop habits of the heart sufficient to sustain civilized human life and culture. According to Mou, what makes Confucius the great founder of the classical Confucian tradition is that Confucius was able to accomplish these two tasks through his reflections on the virtue of ren, or humaneness. Only a person who could abide in ren was on the true path of virtue. All the other virtues of civilized human life flowed from the cultivation of true humaneness. If a person could actually embody humaneness, she or he would become what Du, in a more modern idiom, calls a profound person.

The entire Confucian project of becoming human revolves around the cultivation of five prime virtues. Furthermore, each virtue is then symbolically correlated to a specific primordial social relationship:

Ren: humanity or humaneness—father and son.
Yi: righteousness or justice—ruler and minister.
Li: ritual or civility (distinctions)—husband and wife.
Zhi: wisdom or discernment—older and younger brother.
Hsin: faithfulness—friend and friend.

Modern New Confucians have recognized that these basic relationships must be recast into less hierarchical and patriarchal modes. For instance, the father-son relationship now becomes parent-child, justice becomes the relationship of government and citizens, husband and wife remain but without the subordination of the distinct roles of women to men, older and younger brothers become siblings, and friend to friend no longer depends on deference based on age but resides in mutual respect and deference.

How does one move towards an inclusive humanism? To begin, one must study in order to become a humane person. However, true Confucian study is more than merely academic excellence. Memory or even wit is not enough. As the later Neo-Confucians taught, you have to taste the real teachings of the sages so that they become part of your living person. True learning then becomes the most profound form of self-cultivation. As the most religious of the Confucian classics, The Doctrine of the Mean, teaches, a person who is able to cultivate the mind-heart can become a cocreator of the world along with Heaven and Earth.

Americans first became aware of Confucianism in the early nineteenth century through the writings of scholarly Christian missionaries. The first major contact began with Chinese immigration into California during the gold rush of 1849. However, there was soon a reaction against any continuing immigration from Asia as well as concerted attacks on anything Chinese. Although knowledge of Confucianism grew during the next century, the decisive turning point came with the new Immigration Act of 1965, which finally did away with the race-based restrictions on entry of East and South Asians into the United States.

The growth of Confucianism in North America can be divided into two parts. The first derives from the dramatic influx of East Asian immigrants after 1965. They imported their culture of strong family ties along with their modern education and skills. The second part arose from growing scholarly interest in Confucianism in East Asia and in North America. Many younger Chinese intellectuals are reprising the ancient tradition, winnowing it for material to contribute to the ecumenical new world order. The future of Confucianism depends on how the tradition is presented to the larger world beyond the academy by the New Confucians. While the future is not yet known, it is clear that Confucianism will have a future.

One of the most interesting questions is whether or not Confucianism will flourish outside of East Asia. Although Confucianism is an international tradition that includes Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese, it has yet to be truly transferred beyond the world of East Asia. Some scholars wonder if you can really be a Confucian without having recourse to the classical Chinese canon. However, there is a broad recognition that the tradition is moving out of East Asia via the Asian diaspora into Europe and North America. There is now a great deal of interaction between scholars of Confucianism in the West and in Asia. Confucianism is beginning to play a major role in Western cultural circles for the first time since people of the Enlightenment became fascinated with all things Chinese.

In Hong Kong in 1957 a group of Chinese intellectuals published a manifesto defending Chinese culture and Confucianism as worthy of study by all interested scholars. The New Confucians argued that Confucianism was not dead and that it had a major contribution to make to the emerging new global world culture. It was also at this time that North Americans began the intense study of all aspects of the Confucian tradition.

Because Confucianism had always respected the role of the scholar, it is not surprising that the renewed interest in Confucianism in North America was patronized by academicians. There was been a renaissance of Confucian studies in America over the last fifty years. Along with a fresh look at Confucianism as a living philosophic and spiritual movement, the Asian economic miracle focused new attention on the social dimensions of Confucianism. Du Weiming has made the point that even if many modern Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Japanese do not know a great deal about the history of their Confucian culture, Confucianism functions as deep form of cultural DNA within modern Asian societies and their diasporas.

Confucianism now plays a diffuse role in North America. It has become an object of study not only by students of Chinese culture but also by professionals in government, business, technology, and medicine concerned with understanding classical China in order to better engage modern China. Many Chinese at home and overseas are also pondering the fate of the tradition. To repeat, no one knows what the future will bring, though there is a growing consensus that Confucianism will reform and renew itself as it has done over and over again for more two thousand five hundred years.