HIST 7520CHINESE CULTURE IN TRANSFORMATION(Prof. Chow Kai-wing & Dr. Fan Wing-chung)

The re-significance of Zhu Xi’s conscientious pursuits for the moralistic governance of contemporary Oriental rulers to desalinate the affection of American pluralism

Name: Lee Kwun-leung Vincent (李冠良)

Student I.D No.: 09429670

Major: Master of Social Science in China Studies

(History)

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Date: 22 October 2009(4139 words)

CONTENTS Preface:

‘Nourishment’ as a governing jewel for ensuring a family-liked submissiveness from all the compatriots

Benevolent rulers:Willing to bear a greater extent of responsibilities to re-modify the social or global atmosphere, care for the dignity of humans and uphold the civic morality

Oriental rulers’ mission in this era of globalization:To influence American pluralists for a respect to cultural and ecological equilibrium by a critical reflection on their bureaucratic and diplomatic ideology

Endeavor for an organic ‘sinicization’ of Western utilitarian culture with a faithful dedication of our innermost peculiarities

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Preface:‘Nourishment’ as a governing jewel for ensuring a family-liked submissiveness from all the compatriots

In accordance to the administrative re-centralization of Northern Song Regime as a

tactic of undermining the threatening forces from the marginal provinces1, Zhu Xi

stressed the need to safeguard the “Heavenly-granted political authority” of the

Emperor, with the co-existence between “empirical loyalty” and “civilian values” as

an ideological supplement. To regard ‘compatriots’ as the prior asset of a family-

based nation, Zhu Xi brought about four major Confucian principles for the ancestral

rulers to admirably follow. They were, to nurture citizens’ livelihood (yang min養民),

to enrich citizens’ wealth (fu min 富民), to bring wholesome affection to citizens after

gaining wealth (xian fu hou jiao 先富後教) and to promote efficient governance after

ensuring wealth (fu min yi zhi 富民而治 )2. The reconstruction of family prototypes

1 John King Fairbank, “China – A New History”, 1st Edition in 1992, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England [P.88-89: China’s Greatest Age: Northern and Southern Song – Efflorescence of Material Growth]{In 960 the commander of the palace guard under the last of the Five Dynasties in North China was acclaimed by his troops as a new emperor. Thus catapulted into power, Zhao Kuangyin (趙匡胤 ) founded the Song Dynasty. He and his successor, prudent and capable, pensioned off the generals, replaced the military governors with civil officials, concentrated the best troops in their palace army, built up the bureaucracy from examination graduates, and centralized the reserves. It was an exemplary job of controlling the military and establishing a new civil power…… As the political and administrative center of Northern Song, Kaifeng (開豐) held a great concentration of officials as well as the service personnel, troops, hangers-on attracted by the court.}2 Cai Fanglu, “Zhu Xi and the Chinese Culture”, 1st Edition of Oct 2000, Guizhou People Publication Limited, PRC [P.463-465: A merge of Confucianism with Shinto in Japan as a mean to stabilize the labor discipline]{Being influenced by the “harmony-based” ideal, the Japanese entrepreneurs regarded “personnel harmony” as the theoretical basis of collective spirit. They emphasized the preservation and

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with harmony was a solid foundation for a modern Oriental society to ensure a

widespread submissiveness from the civic; in which parental, brotherhood, couple,

peer and entrepreneurial relationships were transcendentally regulated by the spiritual

temperaments of ‘mercifulness’, ‘education’, ‘filial piety”, “friendliness”, “devotion”

and “tenderness”, with an addition of every person’s willingness to fulfill their moral

obligation and relevant duties from their hierarchical positions.

Nowadays, the Protestant civilization, mainly headed by the Americans, indoctrinated

their senses of cultural superiority to either Confucian-Taoist civilization or Islamic

civilization, as a tactic of forceful assimilation with other parts of the whole world.

Based on their idea of ‘excludability’, the American pluralists, being reluctant to

strive for mutual-exchanges and organic integrations within a tolerant framework of

ideological variations, manipulated their super-structural advantages, such as

democracy, individualism, technology, market-oriented competitiveness,

utilitarianism, instrumental-rationalism and consumerism, to alienate their cultural

opponents3. Such a series of aggressive temperaments is contaminating the mentality

of our younger generation, for their unwillingness to repressively reflect the

trustworthy virtues behind a pursuit on those ever-updating hedonistic trends, nor to

be rationally clear with the ultimate purpose of upholding productivity and

effectiveness. Zhu Xi, who opened his mind to a “thoughtful analysis on various

universal substances” (ge wu zhi zhi格物致知), provided a Confucian methodology

of “self-cultivation” for the rulers to encourage their people to uphold behavioral

goodness. Apart from commoners’ self-initiatives, bureaucrats, specifically the CCP

maintenance of harmonious, intimated, integrated, compromising and collaborative relationship among their employees. Thus, their employees would foster a strong sense of responsibility towards their dominator. Not only did such interaction add vitality to the enterprises, they could command the spiritual vitality of the employees with great morale. This also healed the psychological injury of Japanese people and created another economic miracle.}3 Cai Fanglu, “Zhu Xi and the Chinese Culture”, 1st Edition of Oct 2000, Guizhou People Publication Limited, PRC [P.459-460: Zhu Xi’s Thought and Cultural Tendency of Modern China]

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cadres or HKSAR civil servants nowadays, are reminded to reconsider the humanist

and civilian-based values in certain conditional situations while persisting on their

highly executive-led administrative manners. With rulers to take the lead of

“personnel and ethical harmony” by stressing collaborative, compromising and

hierarchical relationship, they could command the spiritual vitality of widespread

compatriots with great morale for collective enhancement.

Benevolent rulers:Willing to bear a greater extent of responsibilities to re-modify the social or global atmosphere, care for the dignity of humans and uphold the civic morality

A ruler, with an aspiration of succeeding benevolence and compassion, was supposed

to be able to put his prior emphasis on people’s livelihood, popular wishes and

universal interests. According to the view of Prof. Fu Lingling from Taiwan Catholic

Furen University, such a managerial principle had to be proportionately facilitated by

Emperors’ favor on the goodness of etiquette and creditability, in which a legitimate

model of guardianship was set up to enable people for an appropriate imitation. Prof.

Fu cited the Confucian phrase, “wholesome spiritual intention of the Emperor” (zheng

jun xin 正君心 )4 to further justify her temperamental requests for those who were

doing something accountable to the commoners’ expectations:

“If an Emperor found it difficult to pursue a wholesome spiritual intention, he had to re-approach the amiable officials and alienate the cunning persons. He could identify the origins of righteous virtues and obstruct the disordered paths towards self-ambitions. Then he was able

4 Cai Fanglu, “Zhu Xi and the Chinese Culture”, 1st Edition of Oct 2000, Guizhou People Publication Limited, PRC [P.222: “Comments on Zhu Xi’s Political Thoughts” by Fu Lingling, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Taiwan Catholic Furen University]

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to perceive the positive elements. In the ancient times, the amiable rulers appointed their masters to be prominent officials, enable their distant guests to take up essential positions, establish bureaus for the contribution of criticisms. They were in favor of others’ advices from those at his frontier or his backstage, with an unbiased alternation between two camps of opinions. What they worried the most was a possibility of their momentary instability to uphold their righteous ideals. Therefore, the amiable rulers held plebiscites to select people with courage to speak, with an addition of giving them an institutional platform to justify their arguments. This provided opportunity for the talented figures to participate in political discussions.” 5

With regards to the tendency of civic demoralization and a declining predominance in

Jesuit faith in American capitalist world, the contemporary rulers, specifically those

from PRC, should take the lead of minimizing their individual supreme dignity,

upholding their heartfelt sentiments for people’s happiness and introduce a

wholesome continuity of people’s family-based prosperity by cherishing their

moralistic contributions of courageous opinions. In a diplomatic aspect, a benevolent

ruler, from any modernized nations with greater economic capacity, should effectively

utilize his forbearing attitude to mediate international conflicts with mutually-

beneficial wisdoms, eliminate imperialistic ambitions of particular invaders, maintain

peaceful coexistence and endeavor for universal integrity based on a spirit of family

unity.

Benevolence originated from the innermost beings of every mankind, in which it was

a naturalist psychological reaction of oneself to devote their love on those with

pragmatic needs with self-initiatives. Such Confucian idea correlated to the

motivation of nurturing people’s livelihoods comprehensively without being

5 Cai Fanglu, “Zhu Xi and the Chinese Culture”, 1st Edition of Oct 2000, Guizhou People Publication Limited, PRC [P.222: “Comments on Zhu Xi’s Political Thoughts” by Fu Lingling, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Taiwan Catholic Furen University]

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dominated by either personnel biases or individual bribing attempts.

“As human-beings serve for their conscientious awareness, they have to bear in mind with the four principles of behavioral goodness, which are: “benevolence”, “righteousness”, “etiquette” and “intelligence”. The benevolent people tend to forebear all kinds of variations. Such kind of temperament was motivated by our love of devotion to every kind of universal substances, whereas the sense of ‘compassion’ was adoptable to all kinds of secular perspectives. Hence, to comment on the ‘heart’ of this universe, we could trace the nourishments from ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’. Thus, the four principles of behavioral goodness did not have to be singularized for observation. Concerning the ingenious feature of human hearts, we could realize that benevolence was the vital asset from it. Thus, the four principles were easily applied in daily affairs and they didn’t have to be intentionally popularized. Benevolence emerged to serve the existence of virtues, which correlated with the hearts of all the Creatures. Though a particular substance didn’t demonstrate its ‘passion’, the relevant sentiments had already existed concretely. Even the “passion” was demonstrated, the amount of sentiments would not be exhausted. The concrete substance had already preserved such type of sincere elements. In such sense, the origin of kind responses and the fundamental basis of voluntary actions came from the virtue of benevolence.” {Translated from Zhu Xi’s proclamation in “The Benevolent Discourses” (Ren Shuo仁說) }

Unlike the blind theological pursuit, faith cynicism and biblical regurgitation of

American Protestants, Zhu Xi urged political aspirators to foster their philosophical

rationale while ingeniously dealing with the complicated interpersonal issues and

universal governance. As a ruler with comprehensive understanding on global issues

and toughed situations in particular under-developed or developing countries, they

should, both psychologically and administratively, strive for an intellectual separation

between religious persistence and secular concerns, so as to prevent from short-

sighted and superficial estimations. This could be found by rulers’ spiritual cultivation

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through a rediscovery of “broadened horizon” (bo xue 博學), “evaluation” (shen wen

審問 ), “re-consideration” (shen shi 審視 ), “identification” (ming bian 明辨 ) and

“succession” (du xing 篤行 )6. What we could deny from George W Bush’s Middle

East politics was that, he forcefully attached American perspectives onto the Muslims

with a combinative expediency of religious liberation and military invasion, whereas

the confrontation he raised was to serve for Americans’ own interests in exploiting

petroleum resources in Middle East without caring for Muslims’ persistence in super-

structural preservation. Therefore, by enhancing Americans’ ethical temperaments

with Zhu Xi’s virtual philosophy, the United States would be alerted of her

significance to uphold a global trend of diversification and promote equal status of

communications without a resort of bullying tactic.

For the PRC Government nowadays, the Communist cadres remained intolerant with

internal oppositional forces and continued with their uncompromising outlaw of

intellectual liberalists after the Tiananmen Crackdown in 1989. Though the capitalist

and free-market reforms were conducted with great success to prosper the socio-

economic circumstances of coastal Chinese cities, lots of rural provinces remained the

miserable and impoverished livelihood unresolved, as the peasants sought no legal

channel to complain about the bureaucratic exploitations and irrational treatments.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, repressive and fragmented rural protests,

together with bloody confrontation between unwaged workers and provincial cadres,

occasionally occurred that sowed many hidden elements of unrests as an invisible

6 Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.1), 1st Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC [P.162-163 – “The Discourses of Zhu Xi and Modern Education” by Hu Zhaoxi, Professor of History & Culture Department at Sichuan University]{Zhu Xi encouraged his students to make determination for a self-disciplinary learning with sophistication and detailed analysis by introducing five principles of heartfelt learning: “Books are to be reviewed by you. Virtues are to be explored by you. The instructor is just responsible for guiding you to a certain preferable direction, who, with experiences in justification, welcomes you to approach for discussions if you’re in difficulties”.}

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threat to the authoritative control of Communist rule. In Southern Song Dynasty,

Emperor Ningzhong (宋寧宗 ), being aware of the setbacks from his inferior

governance due to a renovation project in Eastern Palace, dared to neglect his

supreme dignity and publish an imperial edict to condemn him, with a reduction to the

frequency of sedan visits and an implementation of strict disciplines within the

bureaucratic strata. By re-approaching the miserable needs of people in famine

regions, Emperor Ningzhong did not allow his intimate practitioners to intervene the

political affairs and prevented the prominent officials from power monopolization for

the sake of their self-interests7. By obeying Zhu Xi’s ideal of providing civilians with

nourishments and comprehensively absorbing the constructive reminders instead of

just favoring the flattering compliments8, the contemporary PRC rulers could follow a

framework for a methodological attempt to reconstruct the necessary ideological and

moral restraints in order to better supervise the cunning power-holders, prohibit the

corrupted bureaucrats, minimize the class hatred and transform the wholesome social

habits into brilliant customs.

While stressing youngsters’ autonomy of enhancing their personal competencies and

knowledgeable capacities as a facilitation to the progressive growth of national

economy, the contemporary Chinese rulers should take the lead to fabricate the

innermost integrity of adolescence in order to make them alerted of their in-born

7 Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.1), 1st Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC [P.205 - “The Innermost Temperaments of Zhu Xi’s Civilian-based Ideal and Humanist Values” by Tan Ping, Dean of Arts and Professor of Chengdu University]8 (Same as above) [P.201: “The Innermost Temperaments of Zhu Xi’s Civilian-based Ideal and Humanist Values” by Tan Ping, Dean of Arts and Professor of Chengdu University]{Zhu Xi interpreted the concept from “Mencius’ Collection”:“Concerning the appointment of an amiable chancellor, the Emperor should prevent from being dominated by his own personnel bias and evaluate candidates’ suitability based on their concreted political talents. Both the selection of amiable officials and the relief of taxation are the major criteria for the nurture of civilians’ livelihood. Concerning the appointment of military generals, the Emperor should uphold plebiscites instead of recruiting imitate practitioners, which could ensure an unquestioned submissiveness of all the conscripted soldiers. Meanwhile, the Emperor was encouraged to forbearingly listen to the constructive reminders instead of just favoring the flattering compliments, which was the guiding principle for a comprehensive absorption of opinions.” }

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identity as an authentic ethical contributor. Lee Kuang Yew, Founding President of

Singapore, set a referential example in the Oriental world, as he implemented a series

of ‘etiquette education’ to halt the spiritual endangerments. Lee said, “If filial piety

was not highly valued, the ecosystem of human survival would become very fragile

and vulnerable. Our civilized society would tend to be full of wildness and

roughness.” To counteract with the abnormal expansion of American materialism,

eventual disintegration of family structures, ideological contamination of

utilitarianism and interpersonal degradation due to instrumental-rationalism, Lee

Kuang Yew organized the “Nationwide Civilized Behavior & Etiquette Months”,

the “Elderly-Care Weeks” and the “Chinese Culture Fiestas”9 to better promote the

five human ethics of Confucianism, namely “rulers and officials”, “parents and

children”, “husbands and wives”, “elderly and youngsters” and “peers”. The

Singaporean government leaders also made an indeed participation to act as

nationwide referential models. Through these series of activities, an atmosphere of

elderly-care respects, politeness and civilized behavior is wholesomely upheld in

Singaporean society.

Same as the Overseas Chinese in Pacific Asia, Europe, Canada or the United States,

the Singaporeans successfully transformed their family coherences as a modern

entrepreneurial ability10. They organized cross-nation incorporations. What they

mainly relied on was not the shareholdings, but their mutual-agreements and

compromising collaborations. There experienced an invulnerable trust from the

9 Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.2), 1st Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC[P.638-639: “Zhu Xi’s Ecological-ethical Thought and Its Inspiration to This Modern World” by Xu Gongxi and Su Min] (Xu Gongxi: Associate Professor and Head of Zhu Xi Philosophy Research Centre, The Jiangxi Shangrao Institute of Education; Su Min: Instructor of Zhu Xi Philosophy Research Centre, The Jiangxi Shangrao Institute of Education){Revival of Confucian education in Singapore to counter-balance the Pan-American mode of capitalism, utilitarianism, individualism and hedonism}10 (Same as above) [P.639: A comment on Confucianism in Singapore by Derek, an American sociologist]

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mutual service of the family members. With family-based values as a psychological

jewel, people would be more united to resist the intrusion of American ideologies and

persist on their humanist lives with interpersonal harmony even surviving in a market-

based economic environment.

In short, there’s a hierarchical correlation between a ruler with benevolence and the

cultivation of civilians’ wholesome behavior. Rulers, who thoughtfully understand the

need to be approachable with people’s necessities apart from stressing keen

competitions in economic modernizations, would strategically and alternatively

implement both developmental measures and educational politics. They won’t allow a

flooding tendency of money-commanded and interest-oriented thoughts from

American culture to severely disorder the moral integrity of their civic society, thus

they would strengthen their investments on social welfare to help the orphans,

divorced family, teenage criminals, neglected children and tortured women.

Meanwhile, the rulers would endeavor to encourage lower-class people for a better

initiative in intellectual enhancement and achieve an egalitarian mode of wealth

redistribution by restraining the commercial sector from exploiting the labor interests,

hoping that the poverty gap would be narrowed and social harmony could be

fabricated with people’s gratification to the government unbiased considerations.

Oriental rulers’ mission in this era of globalization:To influence American pluralists for a respect to cultural and ecological equilibrium by a critical reflection on their bureaucratic and diplomatic ideology

The American intruders regarded the Middle East countries as culturally inferior, thus

they endeavored to uphold a forceful biblical mission of Gospel extension and

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transform the Muslims (specifically Iraqi, Palestinians and Afghans) into a new group

of submissive civilization with Christian customs. However, this modification

abnormally upset the ecological harmony; as a particular circus of substances, with a

severe minimization of intra-variations, no longer demonstrated a sense of mutual-

restraint and mutual-dependence among themselves. As Zhu Xi stated in his

publication called “Categorization of Discourses” (Yue Lei 語類 ), “personalities”

(xing 性 ) were a kind of underneath substances beyond the ecological circulation,

whereas “virtues” (li 理) were the factional rationales scattered from personalities11. If

an observer could foster a sense of appreciation, obedience and submissiveness upon

the in-born (or Heavenly-granted) natures and established values possessed by

particular substances, he/she could scatter an invisible series of ‘rational wisdoms and

mental enlightenments’ from such a parallel methodology of factional harmony as

his/her spiritual re-experience of ‘transcendental virtues’ throughout this universe.

Because of the existence of “breath” (qi 氣 ) as an important sentimental asset of

defining the respectful ideas from the specific features in different kinds of

“personalities”, the initial phenomena from such contrasts could persist with

equilibrium (zhong yong 中庸 ) that resulted in a normalization of super-structural

exchanges, including a platform of mutual-communications for the ideological

contribution to the maintenance of universal goodness. “Breath”, in such sense, had to

11 Rur-bin Yang, “Essays on Zhuzi Studies in East Asia: Proceedings of the Conference on Zhuzi Studies and East Asian Civilization,” (VOL.2), 2002 Edition, Centre for Chinese Studies Research, Taiwan, ROC [P.137 – “Categorization of Discourses” by Zhu Xi]{‘The straight-forward persons should be described as being skilful to perceive the peculiar personalities, thus they fostered lots of virtues with ease. “Personalities” were a kind of underneath substances beyond the ecological circulation, whereas “virtues” were the factional rationales scattered from personalities. By obeying one’s possessions from his/her in-born natures, he/she can scatter lots of factional rationales with ease as a reflection of “virtues”. “Personalities” can be applied to human beings, but we couldn’t define humans as without virtues due to their variation in “breath” and spiritual temperaments. As Cheng Hao (程顥) and Cheng Yi (程頤) stated, “The principle of obeying our personalities was that, being a cow should be submissive with the peculiarities of cow and will never attempt to imitate the features of horses. Each kind of creature comprises its given virtues, but it is covered by its spiritual temperaments. Thus, the possibility for mutual-communication would vary pairs by pairs. But if mutual-communications are found from two or more types of creatures, virtues can exist everywhere with eternity.’ }

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be maintained without letting either one vigorous camp annex or overwhelm its

opposing camp. Or to say, a specific kind of “extraordinary breath” has to be treated

with flexibility, humanized manners and softly-approachable gestures, instead of

being mechanically re-modified to suit the ever-updating crony and materialistic

secularity. To achieve this, the pluralists had to abandon their prejudices and re-

approach a thoughtful understanding upon the behind reasons of the encountered

cultural or ideological variations, with an attempt of being sympathetic with their

uniquely-exploited competencies for the sake of preserving a wholesome

diversification in our humanist world.

What the Oriental rulers should do nowadays was to educate the American pluralists

with the Confucian idea of “moderation” (zhong he 中和 ), in which it effectively

healed their abnormal eagerness for teasing, bullying, comparison, jealousy,

excludability and discrimination. Zhu Xi regarded the willingness of upholding

ecological coexistence as a sentimental reflection from our ‘empathy’, thus there was

no need for a rigid legal definition to reallocate different substances into a non-

confrontational utopia with a strict checkmate on our philosophical minds. Zhu said,

“Moderation came from our force, and no boundary existed between Heaven and

humans. The allocation of Heaven and Earth, and the nurture of creatures,

continuously persisted with our wholesome initiation. These two pairs of persistence

was a representation of mutual-dependence, mutual-supplementation and mutual-

assistance. If moderation could not be achieved, there would be a mutual-exhaustion

between mountains and rivers, as well as instability of Heaven and Earth. The

emergence of infant mortality was due to such kind of ruined harmony.” 12 Chinese

12 Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.2), 1st Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC [P.627 – Humans could harmoniously coexist with the Nature]

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philosophers were extraordinarily keen at mediating conflicts, as they resorted to a

mind of parallel valuation. Premier Wen Jiaobao received widespread cherishment

from both European and Asian communities due to his effort of international peace, as

he was capable in enforcing the hostile pairs to separately preserve their unique

characteristics as a mean of obtaining a normal platform of sustainable socio-

economic and diplomatic development. By utilizing our sentimental thoughts to seek

for bilateral or multi-lateral negotiations, the idea of “moderation” could effectively

transform the “explosive and endangered contradictions” into a flourish of

collaborative and compromising thoughts, in which the pluralistic camp were made to

be alerted of their prior step in conducting an in-depth exploration upon the specific

rediscoveries of differences for a better preservation of the given temperaments.

Scholars who adored technologically-advanced elements of American culture might

argue that, the reintroduction of Zhu Xi’s thought in modern bureaucratic governance

might not be in accordance to the pursuit of “pragmatism”13, as the spiritual-based

persistence neglect the creation of materialistic wealth, the human satisfaction of

materialistic interests, the utilitarian demand for social productivity and the cost-

effectiveness of socio-economic development. However, to eliminate mutual-

nonchalance between rulers and people, a linkage between civilian-based governance

and behavior-based governance should be revived. By an alternative adoption of

“family-based” perceptions and strategic socio-economic considerations, moral ethics

would be re-experienced in the commercial world, whereas the upper class is

13 Cai Fanglu, “Zhu Xi and the Chinese Culture”, 1st Edition of Oct 2000, Guizhou People Publication Limited, PRC [P.449 – Hu Xi’s perception on Zhu Xi’s ideals]{Hu Xi’s stance of ‘pragmatism’ was a reflection of ‘Grabbism’ due to his biased adoration to the American thoughts, his apprenticeship with John Dewey before his establishment of Yanjing University, and his admiration to Protestant values. But Hu Xi still recognized certain elements of Zhu Xi’s virtual philosophy. He regarded the thoughtful analysis on virtues from various substances as a scholastic but rational attitude. He claimed that Zhu’s thoughts revealed not as mysterious as the other kinds of Chinese philosophies, and might be even more scientific.}

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discouraged from pursuing another polarized ideal of forgetting “universal

righteousness” for the sake of self-interest fulfillments. Chief decision-makers within

the strata of governmental seniority would also associate the quality of their

nationwide administration to the spiritual integrity of themselves.

Unlike the hereditary separation between leadership conduct and election morale in

the political culture of the United States, the efficiency of civil service in Oriental

countries could not depart from the pursuit of “wholesome spiritual intentions”.

Oriental policy-makers are mostly expected to possess an unbiased, sympathetic,

approachable, transparent and open-minded thought upon the constructive requests

from the civilians, as well as being sensitive with the ingenious concern of interests

and conflicts from the particular pairs of personnel coherences within the bureaucracy.

What Zhu Xi and his Confucian ancestors believed was that, the most important thing

for a ruler to do was to set him as an affectionate model for other bureaucrats to

imitate. That meant, the ruler had to impress his subordinate officials to carry out

“civilian-based” politics, showcase their mutual-dependence for collaboration, and

care for the people’s needs14. If the ruler hadn’t got a wholesome aspiration, his

subordinate would just pursue a carefree mode of management and heartlessly fulfill

their deserved obligations. Under the emergence of interpersonal suspicions without a

thoughtful supervision and intervention from the ruler, the proficiency of the quality

on civil service would decline because numerous administrative sectors might uphold

the irresponsible attitude as a mean of preserving their selfish concerns.

14 John King Fairbank, “China – A New History”, 1st Edition in 1992, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England [P.52-53: The First Unification – Imperial Confucianism]{Government by good example was the idea of the virtue that was attached to right conduct. To conduct oneself according to the rules of propriety or ‘li’ in itself gave one a moral status of prestige. This moral prestige in turn gave one influence over the people. “The people are like grass, the ruler like the wind”; as the wind blew, so the grass was inclined. Right conduct gave the ruler power. Confucius said: “When a prince’s personal conduct is correct, his government is effective without the issuing of orders. If his personal conduct is not correct, he may issue orders but they will not be followed.” }

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We could not deny that loopholes are found from the concrete implementation of

“civilian-based” governance due to the possible disorders of human incentives,

whereas it might not be able to accommodate the ever-changing demand of modern

social politics and evolutions in ethical perceptions. However, with regards to a belief

in Zhu Xi’s conscientious pursuit, ‘restraints from external regulations’ are a kind of

supplementation to the humans’ weaknesses of innermost restraints. In such sense,

judiciary governance can organically merge with “civilian-based” and “behavior-

based” governance15. Some utilitarian scholars might worry that; the revival

Confucian collectivism might restrain the development of humans’ personalities due

to an over-emphasis on universal integrity for the maintenance of etiquette. Individual

bodies are often ready to be drowned inside the community and society. To strive for

equilibrium, there could be mutual benefits between individual developments and

community interests. With the emergence of a particularly progressive model, a

wholesome competence for mutual-enhancements could be foreseen within the

interpersonal atmosphere, which could motivate others’ morale for better struggles.

During the time of abandoning our traditions and prospering the collectivized spirits,

we should respect the individual thoughts of particular persons and thoroughly

recognize their liberty in personalities. We should seek for a harmonious integration

between individual capabilities and society, and between individual bodies and

15 Wang Gungwu & Zheng Yongnian, “Damage Control – The Chinese Communist Party in the Jiang Zemin Era”, 1st Edition in 2003, Eastern University Press, Singapore [P.351: ‘Rule by Virtue’ under Jiang Zemin’s leadership]{Confucians believed that a ruler has to be educated in Confucian virtues before he can be a legitimate ruler; the ruler should be, first of all, morally superior to his subjects and his primary role is to be a role model for the subjects to follow. The legalists, on the other hand, favored the rule by law. Out of their conviction of the wickedness of human nature, they argued that a strong legal system should be established to deter people from doing evil. In reality, Chinese emperors governed by using a combination of the rule by law and the rule by virtue……. Law must be complemented by moral values, human feelings and family concerns (以禮輔法). If individualism, albeit permitted by law, went too far, it would become a cancer in our society.}

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collectivized interests.

The conscientious pursuits in humanist ideology, particularly the literati culture of

Northern Song Dynasty, should undergo an inheriting process first. Then, the details

within the established principles can undergo innovations within the framework of

convention. Under the condition of a strict obedience on Zhu Xi’s conscientious

ideals, the goodness of spiritual temperaments are foreseen to be transformed as a

vitality of universal contribution, whereas an applicable order is made from the task of

self-cultivation (xiu shen 修身) and national unity with family-based spirits (qi jia 齊家), to the mission of national governance (zhi guo 治國) and universal stabilization

(ping tian xia 平天下). Zhu Xi’s idea of “Heart Studies” (xin xue 心學) advocated

that, humans should dare to condemn the wrongness of the authoritative rulers. Such a

spirit of bravery was an adoptable supplement to the democratic and civilian-based

thoughts in modern bureaucratic philosophy.

Endeavor for an organic ‘sinicization’ of Western utilitarian culture with a faithful dedication of our innermost peculiarities

Humans nowadays often felt dissatisfied with the insufficient scientific elements in

their lives. Due to their over-emphasis on scientific advancement, they would

disregard humans’ autonomy as in-humanized operation units. Americans’ scientific

thoughts are actually an inconsiderate behavioral response of superficial intuition

from humans’ superego, thus their innovations could not enhance into a level of

natural science for a contribution to environmental conservations. Zhu Xi urged

people to put their emphasis on the “Heavenly virtues” of humans’ innermost

essences. The thoughtful analysis on the virtues of universal substances was a manner

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of realizing the “Heavenly virtues”. Zhu Xi’s mode of investigation was a Chinese

manner of scientific pursuit, which reflected a great extent of courtesy, humbleness,

gratification, harmony, moderation, simplicity, non-extravagance and naturalism. It

effectively healed the ethically-deteriorating philosophy from the contemporary

Eurocentric world that underwent large-scaled distortions throughout the

Americanization process.

Zhu Xi had ever urged humans to recover their sincere manner of secular attitude: “If

the innermost peculiarities were not demonstrated, the fundamental substance would

remain natural without needs for in-depth exploitation. Thus, we should persist on

such comfortable platform with devotions and care for the preservation of

temperaments. This was so called the tactic of upholding one’s innermost

temperaments without any ambitious attempts of showing-off. Whenever we were

spiritually and mentally motivated, we should initially observe our properness and

neatness for a more affectionate expansion of individual talents. This was so called

the capability of self-reflection before showcase, during silence and beyond casual

time.”16 Fr. Matteo Ricci, missionary from Ignatus of Loyola in the 17 th century, also

regarded “thoughtful analysis on universal substances” (ge wu zhi zhi格物致知) as a

channel for apostles to know more about our Creator’s compassion – a thorough

exploitation of virtues to search for their independent functionalities and ultimate

purposes, with an addition of perceiving the truths from Heaven17. This reflected that,

Zhu Xi’s endeavor for a revitalization of human sincerity, initiated from the family-

16 Rur-bin Yang, “Essays on Zhuzi Studies in East Asia: Proceedings of the Conference on Zhuzi Studies and East Asian Civilization” (VOL.2), 2002 Edition, Centre for Chinese Studies Research, Taiwan, ROC [P.148: A mature concept of ‘moderation’ by Zhu Xi]17 Tsai-chun Chung, “Essays on Zhuzi Studies in East Asia: Proceedings of the Conference on Zhuzi Studies and East Asian Civilization” (VOL.1), 2002 Edition, Centre for Chinese Studies Research, Taiwan, ROC [P.399: Nicholas Standaert, “The Investigation of Things and Fathoming of Principles (gewu qiongli 格物窮理) in the 17th Century Contact between Jesuits and Chinese Scholars”]

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based and agricultural tradition of China, are worth for inheriting as a balancing force

against the American pluralists who intransigently disrespect the supernatural values

from a peaceful collaboration with other cultural traditions. Forbearance and

tolerance, pragmatic trace on the fundamental implications, adoration to moral

integrity and patriotism, self-restraints with obedience to the public order, emphasis

on duties and civic responsibilities, emphasis on rationale and self-awareness to

control our spiritual emotion, emphasis on moral and behavioral temperaments,

emphasis on self-disciplines, emphasis on education, emphasis on a wholesome

enhancement of personal qualities and thoughts, and emphasis on the national

unification and social stability, were the trustworthy assets from the understanding of

Zhu Xi’s virtual philosophy and its fellow series of Confucian proclamations that

could be absorbed for a prospective reformation of the marine civilizations.

“A nation is never operated in accordance to human interests, but in accordance to

the interest of righteous pursuits. The over-accumulation of wealth would cause a

division of people, while a balanced distribution of wealth would fabricate a united

spirit of people. Parties, with diversified backgrounds, would not counteract with the

officials who are courteous and humble”.18 Such an ideal, extracted from “The

Virtues on Tertiary Studies” (Da Xue 大學), encouraged modern Orientals to utilize

their conscientious, objective, sympathetic and rational awareness to oppose the

nonchalance of righteous values whenever individual pursuit of interests emerged

abnormally. It was predicted that, with the growing popularity of Occidentals to

rediscover the transcendental meanings from their instrumental module of highly

competitive, machinery and individualistic lives in this capitalist era, Zhu Xi’s ideal,

18 Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.1), 1st Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC [P.9-10: “Zhu Xi’s Thoughts and the Moral Construction of Modern China” by Tan Enjie, Dean of Hong Kong Academy of Confucianism]

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specifically his “thoughtful analysis on universal substances”, would provide a

psychological framework for them to follow, in which they would regard the universal

harmony as their prior obligation, the coexisting interests of the entire globe and

mankind as their most precious jewel, and “conscientious awareness” as their most

adoptable methodology for innermost nourishments.

REFERENCE MATERIALSJohn King Fairbank, “China – A New History”, 1st Edition in 1992, The

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts;

London, England

Cai Fanglu, “Zhu Xi and the Chinese Culture”, 1st Edition of Oct 2000,

Guizhou People Publication Limited, PRC

Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New

Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.1), 1st

Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC

Cai Fanglu, Shu Dagang and Guo Qi, “New Horizon, New

Interpretation – Zhu Xi’s Ideology and Modern Society” (VOL.2), 1st

Edition in Dec 2007, Sichuan University Publication Limited, PRC

Tsai-chun Chung, “Essays on Zhuzi Studies in East Asia: Proceedings

of the Conference on Zhuzi Studies and East Asian Civilization”

(VOL.1), 2002 Edition, Centre for Chinese Studies Research, Taiwan, ROC

Rur-bin Yang, “Essays on Zhuzi Studies in East Asia: Proceedings of

the Conference on Zhuzi Studies and East Asian Civilization,”

(VOL.2), 2002 Edition, Centre for Chinese Studies Research, Taiwan, ROC

Wang Gungwu & Zheng Yongnian, “Damage Control – The Chinese

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Communist Party in the Jiang Zemin Era”, 1st Edition in 2003, Eastern

University Press, Singapore

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