Abstract
In this chapter, Yuen examines the virtue account of the Chinese Confucian tradition and put it into dialogue with the Catholic tradition, in order to enrich the Catholic tradition. She highlights the virtue features of Confucian ethics in the writings of Confucius, focusing on the notion of moral self-cultivation. Relevant to moral self-cultivation are the concept of self and human relatedness, the virtue of ren or humaneness, the moral ideal and exemplars, and the notion of harmony. These features of Confucian ethics are imperative in forming the attitude and character of benevolence in the receiving countries toward the migrants.
Wishing to establish his own character, also establishes the character of others, and wishing to be prominent himself, also helps others to be prominent.
—Confucius (The Analects 6:30. See D.C. Lau, trans. and intro. Confucius The Analects (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1992))
The people come first; the altars of the earth and grain come afterwards; the ruler comes last.
—Mencius (The Book of Mencius 7B:14. See D.C. Lau, trans. and intro, Mencius A Bilingual Edition. rev. ed. (London: Penguin Books, 2003); Bryan W. Van Norden, Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007))
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Notes
- 1.
Confucian ethics is a long-established tradition, Confucianism has gone through significant transformations. Contemporary Confucian scholar Tu Wei-ming divides this development into three phases. For details, please refer to Tu Wei-ming, “Confucianism,” in Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness, rev and enlarged ed. of Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Chung-yung (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 155–222.
- 2.
Daxue [The Great Learning] is one of the four classical texts of Confucianism.
- 3.
Some of the scholarly works which focus on the virtue aspects of Confucianism include: Bryan W. Van Norden, Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Lee Yearley, Mencius and Aquinas: Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage (Albany, NY: State University Press, 1990); Philip J. Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, 2nd ed. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2000); Philip J. Ivanhoe, Ethics in the Confucian Tradition (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1990); Lai Chen, “Virtue Ethics and Confucian Ethics.” Dao 9 no. 3 (2010): 275–287; Lucas Chan and James Keenan, “Bridging Christian Ethics and Confucian Ethics through Virtue Ethics,” Chinese Cross Currents 5.3, under “Thoughts and Humanism,” http://www.riccimac.org/ccc/eng/ccc53/thoughtandhumanism/article1.htm (accessed 27 July 2011); Edward Slingerland, “Virtue Ethics, The Analects, and the Problem of Commensurability,” Journal of Religious Ethics 29, no. 1 (2001): 97–125.
- 4.
Liu Yuli, The Unity of Rule and Virtue in Confucianism: A Critique of a Supposed Parallel Between Confucian Ethics and Virtue Ethics (Singapore: Eastern University Press, 2004); Wm. Theodore de Bary and Tu Wei-ming, ed., Confucianism and Human Rights (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998); Joseph Chan, “Confucianism and Human Rights,” in Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction, ed. John Eitte and M. Christian Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 87–102. These works show that there can be a mixture of ethical methods in one religious or cultural tradition.
- 5.
The early Chinese classical texts of Confucianism on which I will focus are the Four Books, namely, Lunyu (the Analects), Mengzi (the Book of Mencius), Zhongyong (the Doctrine of Mean), and Daxue (the Great Learning).
- 6.
Confucius considered himself to be a transmitter responsible for the continuity of the cultural values and the social norms of the Zhou civilization, which he considered an idealized golden age of peace, stability, and prosperity. For further details, please refer to Tu, “Confucianism,” 148–151.
- 7.
This movement of thought was referred to retrospectively in the Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE) as rujia 儒家, or the school of ru. The English term Confucianism is now often used as a translation of rujia to refer to this school of thought. See Kwong-loi Shun. “Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism,” in Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 2, 2nd ed., ed. Donald M. Borchert (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA), 2006. 170–180. http://0-go.galegroup.com.grace.gtu.edu:80/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=gradtul (accessed 24 Nov. 2013).
- 8.
Confucians, especially Neo-Confucian scholars, believed that all modalities of being—humans, nature, and the spiritual world—are internally interconnected. They maintain that the person with humanity, an overarching virtue in Confucianism, forms one body with Heaven and Earth and all things without any differentiation. Neo-Confucian Cheng Hao was the first one who articulated the theme of “forming one body” as central to Confucian spirituality to achieve ren or humanness. See Wing-tsit Chan, trans. & ed. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963, 523–524; Tu, “Confucianism,” 142.
- 9.
Some philosophers, historians, and ethicists try to retrieve the liberative elements and reinterpret Confucianism, bringing new implications to the contemporary world. Some examples are: Kwong-Loi Shun, “Conception of the Person in Early Confucian Thought,” in Confucian Ethics, ed. Kwong-Loi Shun and David B. Wong (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 187–188; Joseph Chan, “A Confucian Perspective on Human Rights for Contemporary China,” in East Asian Challenge for Human Rights, ed. Joanne R. Abuer & Daniel A. Bell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 212–237; Wang Juntao, “Confucian Democrats in Chinese History,” in Confucianism for the Modern World, ed. Daniel A. Bell and Hahm Chaibong (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 72–80; Terry Woo, “Confucianism and Feminism,” in Feminism and World Religions, ed. Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999), 116–117; Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006). My goal in this chapter is to retrieve and reappropriate the liberative elements of Confucianism that can bring transformation to Chinese Catholics in the Hong Kong society.
- 10.
Confucius, The Analects, 7:22.
- 11.
Mencius, 7A4. I mainly employ D.C. Lau’s translation of Mencius in this chapter. See D.C. Lau, Mencius A Bilingual Edition (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2003).
- 12.
Shun, “Conception of the Person in Early Confucian Thought,” 187–188. I shall discuss the role of heart/mind in moral self-cultivation in a later section on Neo-Confucian Wang Yang-ming.
- 13.
Tu, “Confucianism,” 143–144.
- 14.
As formulated by Mencius: “Between parent and child there is to be affection; between ruler and minister, rightness; between husband and wife [gender] distinctions; between older and younger [siblings], an order of precedence; between friends, trustworthiness.” Mencius, 3A4.
- 15.
Building on Fei Xiaotong’s understanding of ren as morality of personal relationships, Rosenlee agrees that ren must be actualized in personal relationships governed by specific virtues appropriate to each particular relationship. See Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women, 39.
- 16.
As Mencius said, “The root of the world lies in the state; the root of the state lies in the family; the root of the family lies in oneself.” Mencius, 4A5.
- 17.
Doctrine of the Mean, 20:7.
- 18.
David Wong, “Universalism versus love with distinction,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 16 (1989): 255.
- 19.
Tu, Centrality and Commonality, 54; Tu, “Confucianism,” 142–143.
- 20.
Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women, 42.
- 21.
According to the Neo-Confucian doctrine that “the humane person forms one body with Heaven-and-earth and all things,” the human person in his/her essential nature (hsing性) is identical with all nature and of the same substance as all things. The Neo-Confucian scholars believed that all modalities of being are internally interconnected. The fundamental characteristic of the universe, or Way, is seen as its creativity or productivity, and the human person too is seen as creative in his/her very essence. This vision enables the Neo-Confucians to advocate the importance of both the realization of the person in the human community and the unity of humanity and Heaven. See Wing-tsit Chan, “Chinese and Western Interpretations of Jen (Humanity),” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 2 (1975): 114–115; Tu, “Confucianism,” 146, 173–175.
- 22.
Tu Wei-ming, “Li as a Process of Humanization,” in Humanity and Self-Cultivation: Essays in Confucian Thought (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1979), 18–20.
- 23.
Tu, Centrality and Commonality, 58.
- 24.
Confucius said that only the most intelligent and the most stupid are not susceptible to change. See Confucius, The Analects, 17:3.
- 25.
The term junzi appears 107 times in the Analects. Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 15–16.
- 26.
Confucius, The Analects, 1:1. Confucius also stated, “It is not failure of the other to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your own lack of them” (14:30).
- 27.
Confucius, The Analects, 5:16.
- 28.
Confucius, The Analects, 15:22, 23, 26.
- 29.
Liu, The Unity of Rule and Virtue in Confucianism, 58.
- 30.
Tu Wei-ming, Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 10, 12.
- 31.
Confucius, The Analects, 2.3.
- 32.
Confucius, The Analects, 7:22.
- 33.
Kwong-loi Shun, “Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism.”
- 34.
Confucius, The Analects, 2:4.
- 35.
“If one learns from others but does not think, one will be bewildered. If one thinks but does not learn from others, one will be imperiled.” Confucius, The Analects, 2:15.
- 36.
“Virtue not sufficiently practiced, learning not sufficiently digested, to hear what is right and not be able to do it, to have shortcomings and not be able to remedy them—these are the things that I worry about.” Confucius, The Analects, 7:3.
- 37.
Confucius, The Analects, 16:10.
- 38.
Confucius, The Analects, 17:2.
- 39.
Mencius, 6A6. See also Mengzi, Mengzi, With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, trans. Bryan W. van Norden (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2008), xxxii, xxxiv–xxxv.
- 40.
Mencius, 7A21. Also see Kwong-loi Shun, Mencius and Early Chinese Thought (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), 158.
- 41.
Shun, “Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism,” 173.
- 42.
The Doctrine of the Mean, 1.
- 43.
The Great Learning, 2.
- 44.
Tu, Centrality and Commonality, 20.
- 45.
The Doctrine of the Mean, 1:2.
- 46.
The Doctrine of the Mean, 1:3.
- 47.
Tu, Centrality and Commonality, 25–26.
- 48.
Tu, Centrality and Commonality, 27.
- 49.
Wing-Tsit Chan, “Chinese and Western Interpretations of Jen [Ren] (Humanity),” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 2 (1975): 107–129; Tu Wei-ming, “The Creative Tension between Jen and Li,” in Humanity and Self-Cultivation, 5–16; Tu Wei-ming, “Jen [Ren] as a Living Metaphor in the Confucian Analects,” in Confucian Thought, 81–92; Xinzhong Yao, Confucianism and Christianity: A Comparative Study of Jen and Agape (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1996); Qianfan Zhang, “Humanity or Benevolence? The Interpretation of Confucian Ren and Its Modern Implications,” in Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously: Contemporary Theories and Applications, ed. Kam-por Yu, Julia Tao and Philip J. Ivanhoe (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010), 53–72; Shirong Luo, “A Defense of Ren-Based Interpretation of Early Confucian Ethics,” in Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously, 123–143.
- 50.
Yao, Confucianism and Christianity, 70–71.
- 51.
Chan, “The Evolution of Confucian Concept of Ren,” 295–319.
- 52.
Chan, “Chinese and Western Interpretations of Jen (Humanity),” 109; Chan, “The Evolution of the Confucian Concept Jen,” 297–298.
- 53.
In the Analects, Confucius claims ren is love (12:22); Mencius also emphasizes “ren is to love others” (4B28) or “ren is to love all” (7A46).
- 54.
Chan, “Chinese and Western Interpretations of Jen (Humanity),” 111.
- 55.
Mencius, 7A45.
- 56.
Mencius, 2A6.
- 57.
Kim points out that apart from using the term ceyin zhi xin to describe the sense of compassion, Mencius also use “burenren zhi xin” (the feeling of not being able to endure other people’s suffering harm or tenderheartedness) and “chuti ceyin zhi xin” (the spontaneous feeling of pain of others who are in danger or suffering). See Kim Myeong-seok, “What Ceyi Zhi Xin (Compassion/Familial Affection) Really Is,” Dao 9 (2010): 407–425.
- 58.
In the Analects, it is stated that on one occasion, Confucius claimed that the five virtues of humanity are “respectfulness, tolerance, trustworthiness in word, quickness, and generosity” (17:6). At another time, he suggested, “while at home hold yourself in a respectful attitude; when serving in an official capacity be reverent; when dealing with others give of your best” (13.19). He also summed up three ways of practicing or three conditions for realizing ren, “When abroad behave as though you were receiving an important guest. When employing the services of the common people behave as though you were officiating at an important sacrifice. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire. In this way you will be free from ill will whether in a state or in a noble family” (12:2). Also see Yao, Confucianism and Christianity, 72.
- 59.
Shu-hsien Liu, Understanding Confucian Philosophy: Classical and Sung-Ming (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998), 19.
- 60.
Roetz argues that implicit in the Analects is a hierarchy of virtues and that ren is on the top of an ethical hierarchy that gives meaning to all the other norms. Under ren, the first level are the social virtues like trustworthiness, reverence, harmony, and giving preference, which are either restricted by concrete prescriptions of propriety or subordinate to justice and humaneness. The second level is the militant virtue of courage (yong), which is subordinate to propriety, justice, and humaneness. The third level are the intellectual virtues of prudence (zhi) and eloquence (you yan), which are subordinate to virtue (de) in general, or to humaneness. The different virtues come into their own, each in its proper place, and they should not be played off against each other. Heiner Roetz, “Humaneness (ren),” in Confucian Ethics of the Axial Age (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 120–121.
- 61.
Wing-Tsit Chan, “The evolution of Confucian concept of Ren,” Philosophy East and West 4.4 (1955): 298.
- 62.
See Chan, “Chinese and Western Interpretations of Jen (Humanity),” 108.
- 63.
According to Confucius, shu is said to be the key word guiding one’s whole life and the thread running through Confucianism. See Confucius, The Analects, 4:15, 15:3, 24. At other times, both shu and hong are regarded as Confucius’s doctrine that of a pervading unity. Confucius, The Analects 4:15. See also Yao, Confucianism and Christianity, 71.
- 64.
Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi interpreted zhong as developing one’s sincerity and shu as extending one’s sincerity to others, and therefore rendered zhong as conscientiousness shu as altruism. These two aspects are interrelated in realizing ren. These two virtues differ only in their ways of carrying our ren in the full relationship between oneself and others, doing good to others or refraining from harming others. In this sense, each of them is both developing fully one’s own sincerity and extending one’s own sincerity to others. Yao, Confucianism and Christianity, 73. Also see Chan, A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy, 785–786.
- 65.
Roetz, “Humaneness (ren),” 148.
- 66.
Mencius wanted to convince a ruler to do the right thing—to stop waging wars and exploiting his people, to lower taxes to prepare for bad years, and so on. He urged rulers to follow the path of humanity and righteousness in order to keep and perhaps even enlarge their profits. Mencius, 1A1.
- 67.
“Raise the straight and set them over the crooked and the common people will look up to you.” “Rule over them with dignity and they will be reverent; treat them with kindness and they will do their utmost; raise the good and instruct those who are backward and they will be filled with enthusiasm.” Mencius, Mencius, 2:19, 20.
- 68.
Mencius, 7B:14. Also see Julia Ching, “Human Rights: A Valid Chinese Concept?” in Confucianism and Human Rights, ed. Theodore de Bary & Tu Wei-ming (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 71–72.
- 69.
Mencius, 1A5.
- 70.
Mengzi, Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, trans. Van Norden, 6.
- 71.
Confucius, The Analects, 1:12.
- 72.
Confucius, The Analects, 3:3.
- 73.
Tu Wei-ming, “Li as Process of Humanization,” in Humanity and Self-cultivation, 18.
- 74.
Tu, “Li as Process of Humanization,” 27–29.
- 75.
Confucius says that the junzi is not predisposed to be for or against anything, but goes with what is yi. Confucius , The Analects, 4:10.
- 76.
Mencius observed that to save the life of one’s drowning sister-in-law one must suspend the customary rule of propriety prohibiting the touching of man and woman when they are giving and receiving. When his interlocutor wants to apply this idea of suspending the usual rules of propriety to save the entire country from drowning, Mencius replies that one saves one’s sister-in-law with one’s hand but cannot save the country from drowning in chaos and corruption with one’s hand. The country can only be pulled out by the dao. Mencius, 4A17.
- 77.
Wong, “Chinese Philosophy: Ethics,” 196.
- 78.
Pi Weibing, He Wei Gui de Zhengzhi Lunli Zhuiqiu: He Shiyu Zhong de Xianqin Rujia Zhengzhi Lunli Sixiang Yanjiu [“Harmony is Valuable” as an Aim of Political Ethic: Research on the Vision of Harmony in the Political and Ethical Thought in Xianqin Confucianism] (Shanghai: United Books Publishing, 2007), 31–32.
- 79.
Analects, Book 12:13.
- 80.
Pi Weibing, He Wei Gui de Zhengzhi Lunli Zhuiqiu, 31–32.
- 81.
Analects, Book 1:12.
- 82.
Mencius, Book 2B:1.1.
- 83.
Analects, Book 16:1.
- 84.
Analects, Book 13:4.
- 85.
Mencius, Book 4A:20.
- 86.
Mee-Yin Mary Yuen, “Human Rights in China—Examining the Human Rights Values in Chinese Confucian Ethics and Roman Catholic Social Teachings.” Intercultural Human Rights Law Review 8 (2013): 304–305.
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Yuen, M.MY. (2020). Confucian Ethics: Human Relatedness, Benevolence, and Reciprocity. In: Solidarity and Reciprocity with Migrants in Asia. Religion and Global Migrations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33365-2_7
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