The "New" Confucianism vs. the Development of East Asia

• Authors: Roman Sławiński
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Having drawn a history of the use of Confucianism in modern times in selected Asian countries (Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia No. 23), the author focuses on the question of evaluation of contemporary adaptations of Confucianism. The article quotes the opinions of the Chinese luminaries of philosophy from 1958 (New Confucian Manifesto), the earlier opinions of traditional thinkers (Chen Xujing (1933), Wang Xinming (1935), and of contemporary Taiwanese (Yi-yuan Li (1967), Chun-chieh Huang (2009)) concerning the usefulness of Confucianism in our contemporary time. This is followed by a critical discussion of the views of Zhu Rukai (2006) and Jiang Qing (2009), and the two Confucian concepts of the “harmonious society” (hexie shehui), “soft power”, and “moral government” (dezhi) enjoying top-down promotion. Further, in a fictionalised form, it presents a vision of living in a contemporary Confucian society. Finally, in the postscript, it reminds of the existence of another option, represented by the former participants of “the cultural revolution”.

Keywords

EN

CONFUCIANISM; CHINA; POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY; SOCIETY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2011
• Issue: 24
• Pages: 7-21

Contributors

author

Roman Sławiński

• Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, 72 Nowy Świat St., 00-330 Warsaw, Poland