Neo Confucian Self Cultivation

Approximately fifteen hundred years after Confucius, his ideas reasserted themselves in the formulation of a sophisticated program of personal self-cultivation. Neo-Confucians argued that humans are endowed with empathy and goodness at birth, an assumption now confirmed by evolutionary biologists. By following the Great Learning—eight steps in the process of personal development—Neo-Confucians showed how this innate endowment could provide the foundation for living morally. Neo-Confucian students did not follow a single manual elaborating each step of the Great Learning; instead they were exposed to age-appropriate texts, commentaries, and anthologies of Neo-Confucian thinkers, which gradually made clear the sequential process of personal development and its connection to social order. Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation opens up in accessible prose the content of the eight-step process for today’s reader as it examines the source of mainstream Neo-Confucian self-cultivation and its major crosscurrents from 1000 to 1900.

A concise and accessible introduction to the evolution of the concept of moral self-cultivation in the Chinese Confucian tradition, this volume begins with an explanation of the pre-philosophical development of ideas central to this concept, followed by an examination of the specific treatment of self cultivation in the philosophy of Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius), Xunzi, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, Yan Yuan and Dai Zhen. In addition to providing a survey of the views of some of the most influential Confucian thinkers on an issue of fundamental importance to the tradition, Ivanhoe also relates their concern with moral self-cultivation to a number of topics in the Western ethical tradition. Bibliography and index are included.

Over two thousand years ago, the Chinese sage Confucius proposed that learning, and putting persistent learning into practice, is a great joy or pleasure. In Learning of the Way (Daoxue), Dr. John E. Young presents, from a Confucian perspective, the rationale for engaging in traditional Chinese arts and practices. Dr. Young relies on his experience as a Chinese martial arts expert and professor emeritus to share the results of his comprehensive examination of the concept of Confucian learning that explores self-cultivation, introduces the era of Neo-Confucianism, investigates the practices of jing and gewu, examines the Zhu Xi approach, applies Confucian and Neo-Confucian concepts specifically to the art and practice of wushu, and scrutinizes the traditional aspects of wushu as understood and practiced by Chinese grandmasters. Included is a description of the state of enlightenment that suggests this level of consciousness--guantong--is identical to integral consciousness and is urgently needed in todays increasingly complex, interconnected environments. Learning of the Way (Daoxue) is a comprehensive guidebook that examines and teaches Westerners about traditional Chinese arts and practices.

This first paperback edition of a renowned collection of essays by noted scholar of Chinese history and philosophy Tu Wei-ming includes a new introductory essay by Robert Cummings Neville, Dean of

This is a study of the most significant debate in Korean Neo-Confucianism between the two most eminent Neo-Confucian thinkers, summarizing their philosophies and providing refreshing insights into Confucian language and culture.

This book is an attempt at contextualizing the Christian doctrine of justification by faith – as an act of God’s grace alone. The target is Chinese contexts as influenced by the New Confucian idea of attaining sagehood by means of self-cultivation.

The Chinese Continuum of Self-Cultivation explores a transcultural philosophy of education based on the Neo-Confucian concept of the universal nature of self in the co-creative process of self-cultivation (xiushen 修身). This ancient approach to knowledge synthesis and consolidation informs and enhances the educational theories of John Dewey (1859–1952), creating a cross-cultural educational template for the 21st century. The Confucian-Deweyan educational model explored is not only a transcultural educational approach in the changing face of globality, but also a means to encourage and foster humanitarian and communitarian values in the learner. That is, a wholistic approach to education whereby the individual considers the other – human and natural – tantamount to the self in an increasingly shifting world. This concept is in direct opposition to the anthropocentric approach of egoistic individualism currently prevalent in post-modern societies. The educational model developed fosters cooperation, rather than competition; community over individualism, enabling non-European indigenous values and problem-solving to co-exist in balance with Western neo-liberal forces in the global arena. The model of education developed herein enables the phenomenon of glocalization (the overlap of global and local issues) to be pragmatically addressed in cross-cultural contexts, promoting economic, environmental, cultural and human sustainability for the future. This work will appeal to comparative philosophers, educationalists, and designers of pre-tertiary curricula.

Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation is a collection of Tu's seminal essays. It is a sustained deliberation on the substance and worth of the Confucian conception of personhood. This analysis complements Tu's highly acclaimed Humanity and Self-Cultivation: Essays in Confucian Thought as a continued expression of his deepening understanding of Confucianism voiced through various perennial human concerns. Tu weaves philosophic, historical, anthropological, sociological, and psychological perspectives into a coherent discussion of the Confucian themes that continue to inspire the modern intellectual mind. His is a vital contribution to Chinese thought and religion.