Confucian Humanism and the Changes in the Twenty-First Century:Challenges and Enlightenment

Huang Chun-chieh

Abstract:This paper discusses waves of change in the twenty-f irst century,with a special focus on the challenges that COVID-19 brings to human civilization and what solutions Confucian humanism can off er.Among the major changes of the twenty-f irst century are globalization and anti-globalization,the decline of democracy,artificial intelligence and automation,and the spread of COVID-19.In response to the most profound impact of COVID-19,this paper proposes several kinds of reconciliation,including those between self and other,between one nation and another,between human and nature,and between human and the transcendent.The key is mental reconciliation.The Confucian learning of heart-mind advocates individual’s return to their heart-mind,while the study of benevolence promotes the universality of benevolence.Both are eff ective solutions to the challenges of COVID-19 and the very recipe for mental reconciliation.To sum up,Confucian humanism provides a path of reconciliation that we can take in the twenty-f irst century.

Keywords:COVID-19,reconciliation,Confucianism,renxue,xinxue

Waves of Change in the Twenty-First Century[Refer to page 23 for Chinese.Similarly hereinaft er]

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century,the following four waves of change have presented themselves,beginning with globalization and anti-globalization.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels said in 1848 that after the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century,“The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country.”1“Bourgeois and Proletarians,” chap.1 ofManifesto of the Communist Party,trans.Samuel Moore and Frederick Engels,Marxists Internet Archive,accessed November 30,2021,https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm.Since World War II,globalization has been developing into the mainstream,which,however,has provoked the underground stream and counter-current of anti-globalization.Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States in 2017 and the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom in 2016 could be taken as two major political events of anti-globalization.During the four years of Trump’s administration,the United States withdrew from various international organizations,international economic and trade agreements,and military agreements,which could be regarded as the concrete form of a wave of anti-globalization in international politics.

Second,since the beginning of the twenty-first century,there has been a trend of democracy decline around the world,which is called by scholars “democratic recession.”2Larry Diamond,“Facing up to the Democratic Recession,” inDemocracy in Decline?,eds.Larry Diamond and Marc F.Plattner (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,2015),98—118.At the end of 2014,former British Prim e Minister Tony Blair published the article “Is Democracy Dead?” in theNew York Times.3Tony Blair,“Is Democracy Dead?,” New York Times,December 4,2014,https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/opinion/tony-blair-is-democracy-dead.html.Academics have published many books analyzing the trend against democracy in diff erent countries,4See Jason Brennan,Against Democracy (Princeton,NJ:Princeton University Press,2016).approaching the decline of democracy in a pessimistic way.With the trend of democratic decline,quite a few democracies have fallen into so-called “electoral autocracy,” with the reemergence of strongman politics and the manipulation of social hatred by politicians and the tearing apart of society in order to have the most votes,all of which have led some scholars to ponder the question of “how democracy dies.”5See David Runciman,How Democracy Ends (New York:Basic Books,2018).Foreign Aff airs,a leading international academic journal,aft er a survey on the current state of democracies around the world,has published an issue titled “Is Democracy Dying?”6SeeForeign Aff airs 97,no.3 (2018),https://www.foreignaff airs.com/issues/2018/97/3.

Third,with the development of high and new technology,industrial design and manufacturing programs are being automatized and fast-changing artificial intelligence(AI) is making a few multinationals into the Leviathans of the new era.Many governments are using digital technology to enhance surveillance over their people.That has caused a loss of privacy and a loss of the sense of the meaning and value of life,which is also a major challenge in the new era.7Lee Kai-fu 李开复,AI Superpowers:China,Silicon Valley,and the New World Order [AI新世界：中国、矽谷和AI七巨人如何引领全球发展](Taipei:Commonwealth Publishing,2018),274.

Fourth,since the end of 2019,COVID-19 has ravaged the world,with the number of confirmed cases and deaths rising in different countries.Against this backdrop,the resurgence of economic and trade protectionism and regionalism,the formation of new communitarianism,and the growing tendency of countries to look inward have ushered in a new era of nationalism.Francis Fukuyama noted in an article published inForeign Aff airsthat the spread of the virus could change the established post-war international relations and world order.8Francis Fukuyama,“The Pandemic and Political Order,”Foreign Affairs 99,no.4 (2020):27—31,https://www.foreignaff airs.com/articles/world/2020-06-09/pandemic-and-political-order.

Among these four waves of change,COVID-19 has produced the most far-reaching impact,having strengthened the anti-globalization momentum in the twenty-f irst century and accelerated the change of the international political and economic structure.Former US Secretary of State Henry A.Kissinger,who is nearly a hundred years old,has begun to worry that the virus will forever alter the current world order of liberalism.9Henry A.Kissinger,“The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order,”Wall Street Journal,April 3,2020,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coronavirus-pandemic-will-forever-alter-the-world-order-11585953005.Many leading political scholars have co-authored monographs analyzing the rise of Asia and the decline of the Western-centric world and the formation of a post-Western global order.10Zhu Yunhan 朱云汉 and Zheng Yongnian 郑永年,Decline of the Western-Centric World and the Emerging New Global Order [西方中心世界的式微与全球新秩序的兴起](Taipei:Taiwan University Press,2020).The failure of the US response to the epidemic under the Trump administration has led theNew England Journal of Medicine,a leading medical journal,to make an exception by publishing an editorial expressing the worry that Trump’s leadership vacuum will lead the United States to its death.11Editorial,“Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,”New England Journal of Medicine 383,no.15 (2020):1479—1480,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812.Articles published inForeign Policyhave also expressed the worry that the pandemic will lead to the death of American competence12Stephen M.Walt,“The Death of American Competence,”Foreign Policy, May 23,2020,https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/23/death-american-competence-reputation-coronavirus/.and will kill globalization.13Philippe Legrain,“The Coronavirus Is Killing Globalization as We Know It,”Foreign Policy,May 12,2020,https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-killing-globalization-nationalism-protectionism-trump/.TheLancet,a leading medical journal,published an editorial calling for the world to open up and cooperate in response to the COVID-19.14Editorial,“COVID-19 and China:Lessons and the Way Forward,”Lancet 396,no. 10246 (2020),213,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31637-8/fulltext.The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed the growth nationalist sentiments,the widening of the gap between developed and developing countries,and the formation of “big government” in each country.The accelerating automation for pandemic prevention will accelerate changes in economic production and distribution patterns and make people and nations more alienated from each other.Thus,we should focus our thinking on COVID-19 and the challenges it creates.

New Challenges in the COVID-19 Era[25]

In sweeping the world,COVID-19 may change human lifestyles and civilizations,posing three major challenges to humanity in the twenty-f irst century.

The first is how to overcome the victimization of humanity caused by excessive individualism.This challenge,lurking in the individualism-centered culture of the West,has emerged as the pandemic ravages the world and becomes a challenge that humanity must face in the era of the epidemic.

This challenge is manifested in how self and other,or self and society,get on with each other.In European and American societies,where individual freedom is the highest value,people decide not to wear a mask out of their own free will;but in East Asian societies,where communitarianism prevails,wearing a mask is a necessary act to protect the welfare of others and social order.This is the contrast between individualism and communitarianism.How can we strike a dynamic balance between the two values? In 2020,some political science scholars from Princeton University called on humanity to correct this individualistic mentality lest everyone die together,15Jan-Werner Müller,“We Must Help One Another or Die,”New York Times, March 19,2020,https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-politics.html.which can be taken as a primary response of European and American scholars to the challenge.

The second is the challenge of how can relationships between people and nations be re-established during and after the epidemic.In other words,how can we rebuild better interconnectedness in the aftermath of the epidemic out of the current decoupling and alienation among countries during the epidemic?

An interview with twelve academic and political celebrities was published inForeign Policyin March 2020.In that interview,some argued that COVID-19 would make it necessary for countries to strengthen their capacity to cope with economic isolation;some noted that the virus would shift the world from a United State-centered globalization to a Chinacentered one;and Joseph S.Nye Jr.from Harvard University held that the United States,as the world’s leading power,could no longer guarantee its national security on its own.16John R.Allen et al.,“How the World Will Look Aft er the Coronavirus Pandemic,”Foreign Policy,March 20,2020,https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/20/world-order-aft er-coroanvirus-pandemic/.Many contemporary reflections of intellectual elite and opinion leaders point to the challenge of how one self or nation and another should live together,which deserves deeper consideration.

The third challenge is that of how to be at peace with oneself in a time when the pandemic is ravaging the world and everyone feels fearful and helpless.This is the most important and crucial challenge.The virus has strengthened the alienation of the self from the world and the dissociation within the self,making the individual a solitary being.Loneliness has become a major social problem in the twenty-first century,and the ego is vulnerable to disintegration in the epidemic.

The key word shared by the proposed solutions to the above problems is reconciliation,which includes the reconciliation between self and other,between one nation and another,between humans and nature,and between humans and the transcendent.Reconciliation manifests itself in diff erent ways in diff erent f ields.In politics,for example,it involves the redistribution of power and interests.Democracy is a key form of political reconciliation,and the former Soviet leader Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev emphasized in a media interview on March 2,2021 that the most effective way of achieving “security” is to implement democracy.17Katrina vanden Heuvel,“Opinion:Here’s What Leaders Facing Global Crises Can Learn from Mikhail Gorbachev,”Washington Post,February 23,2021,https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/23/heres-what-leadersfacing-global-crises-can-learn-mikhail-gorbachev/.However,considering the current situation of the world,democracy is collapsing in many countries,where anti-democracy is promoted in the name of democracy.In those countries,not only is this counterfeit “democracy” unable to promote reconciliation,but also society tears farther apart.Reconciliation in the economy is the reconciliation among economic classes through the redistribution of benef its.However,with the combination of high technology and capitalism,the gap between rich and poor has widened,and reconciliation is becoming increasingly diffi cult.For instance,in 2020 the pandemic was so severe that a large number of companies laid off employees,resulting in a dramatic increase of the number of unemployed,while on the other hand the CEOs of some large multinationals received dramatically raised pay.TheNew York Timeslisted the annual salaries of CEOs of nineteen major companies in 2020,the highest reaching more than 211 million dollars.18David Gelles,“C.E.O.Pay Remains Stratospheric,Even at Companies Battered by Pandemic,” New York Times,April 24,2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/business/ceos-pandemic-compensation.html.The pandemic has widened the gap between rich and poor,making reconciliation impossible at all.Finally,the reconciliation among classes and ethnic groups,based on mutual recognition and acceptance of diff erent subjectivities,is extremely diffi cult to achieve in a politically disuniting society with serious racism and a huge gap between rich and poor.Racism has long been a source of division in American society.19Arthur M.Schlesinger Jr.,The Disuniting of America:Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York:W.W.Norton,1992).Venki Ramakrishnan,former president of the Royal Society of Britain,called for open and fair treatment of all scientists without discrimination on the basis of race,color,or nationality in his July 2019 article “Reject US Anti-China Sentiment.”20V.Ramakrishnan,“Reject US Anti-China Sentiment,”Nature 571,no.7765 (2019):326.Minouche Shaf ik,president of the London School of Economics and Political Science,has also written that what is most urgently needed now is a better social contract for the twenty-f irst century.21Minouche Shafik,“What We Owe Each Other,” Finance &Development 58,no.2 (2021),https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/04/what-we-owe-each-other-book-minouche-shaf ik.htm.

To cope with the above-mentioned challenges in political,economic and social reconciliation,we must go into the fundamental basis of “reconciliation,” that is,mental reconciliation,which is the highest level of all reconciliation.

Confucian Humanism and Its Solutions to Today’s Challenges[27]

How is Confucian humanism related to the three challenges of the pandemic era?

From a macro perspective,the spread and control of the virus is related to the elements of civilization.A senior researcher at a US think tank has written that by March 2020,the regions with better control of the epidemic were those belonging to the broad circle of Confucian civilization,in which the obligations of individuals in society are highlighted,making the epidemic easier to control.22Bruno Maçães,“Coronavirus and the Clash of Civilizations,”National Review, March 10,2020,https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-and-the-clash-of-civilizations/.Moreover,in that circle,most people have their focus on interpersonal relations.23Xiong Shili 熊十力,Essentials for Reading the Classics [读经示要],vol.1 (Shanghai:Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House,2019),56.There is no tension between the “secular world” and“sacred world” in the social culture of the Confucian circle,which is a so-called “one-world”culture.24Li Zehou 李泽厚,History of Thought in Ancient China [中国古代思想史论](Beijing:SDX Joint Publishing Company,2008);Li Zehou,“A Primary Study of Deep Structure of Confucianism” [初拟儒学深层结构说],in Historical Ontology and Five Essays in 1999 [历史本体论·己卯五说],rev.ed.(Beijing:SDX Joint Publishing Company,2008),270—288.This is why the value of communitarianism is stronger in the Confucian civilization circle.This is a value conducive to epidemic control.

Confucian Humanism and Its Core Values[28]

Let us f irst look at Confucian humanism and its core values from a macro perspective,and then seek possible solutions that Confucianism can off er to the three major challenges of the twenty-f irst century.

The characteristic of Chinese culture and thought can be summarized as one word,“humanism.”25Chan Wing-tsit 陈荣捷 (1901—1994) held that “humanism” is the characteristic of Chinese culture and thought.See Wing-tsit Chan,A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton,NJ:Princeton University Press,1963),3.In contrast to ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish-Christian humanism,which focused on the tension between human and God,humanism in Chinese culture is characterized by the “unity of Heaven and humanity,” with a special emphasis on the subjectivity of human and their moral consciousness.Confucian humanism with a long tradition can be divided into two types.The first is ethno-historical humanism,which developed from the awareness of potential risks of the Zhou dynasty (1046—256 BCE).This type is oft en characterized by a return to the ideal Three Dynasties (Xia,Shang,and Zhou),with the classics as the books of the Way (dao道).The second is cultural-philosophical humanism,which focuses on the mutual interpretation of the human heart-mind (xin心)and the Mandate of Heaven,with the unity of Heaven and humanity as the core.This type,with Yao and Shun as models of personality,emphasizes the unity between the individual and the self,the sage,and the Mandate of Heaven.

Notably,both of the two types haveren仁 (benevolence) as their core value and emphasize the perfectibility of human beings.This is manifested in four aspects:both of them(1) preset the heart-mind and body as one,(2) advocate harmony between self and other,(3)teach the unity of Heaven (nature or super nature) and humanity,and (4) emphasize a sense of time and historical consciousness.26For an overview of Confucian humanism,see Chun-chieh Huang,“Humanism in East Asia,” inOxford Handbook of Humanism (Oxford:Oxford University Press,forthcoming);Huang Chun-chieh 黄俊杰,“Humanism in East Asian Confucian Tradition” [东亚儒家传统中的人文精神],inHumanism of the Third-Phase Confucianism:A Collection of Works in Commemoration of Tu Wei-ming’s Eightieth Birthday [儒学第三期的人文精神：杜维明先生八十寿庆文集],ed.Chen Lai 陈来 (Beijing:People’s Publishing House,2019),11—13;and Chun-chieh Huang,Humanism in East Asian Confucian Context (Bielefeld:Transcript Verlag,2010).Confucian humanism is fundamentally different from Western secular humanism based on the Enlightenment mentality and modernity.

The above-mentioned Confucian humanism has the human being as its center,seeking the integration of body and heart-mind of the self,and valuing the integration of self and other.It also attaches importance to the integration of the human being and the ultimate reality,and to a profound sense of time that connects the ancient and the present,which is particularly relevant to the suffering of human beings in the twenty-first century and signif icant for this era.

Confucian Solutions to the Challenges of the Era[29]

From the perspective of humanism,for the three major challenges facing humanity in the twenty-f irst century,Confucian humanism may off er at least two possible solutions:(1)a return to the heart-mind of the self,and (2) the elevation of the virtue ofren.

Returning to the Heart-Mind of the Self

Confucianism can be considered a philosophy of heart-mind.Confucius declared“the commander of the army may be carried off,but the will of even a common man cannot be taken from him” (Analects9:26),advocating that people were born with free will and encouraging his disciples to have ambitions,make their own decisions,and become“gentleman (junzi君子) Confucians” rather than “petty scholiasts” (6:13).He attached great importance to the cultivation and purity of the heart-mind,held that those who ate their fill all day long “did not exercise their heart-mind” (17:22),and praised those who struck chimes as “an exercise of their heart-mind” (14:39).He proposed as the highest state of a life well lived that “at seventy” on might “follow the heart’s desires yet never overstep the bounds” of what is right (2:4).

Confucianxinxue心学 (learning of the heart-mind) was given full play in the thought of Mencius,who put forward his theory of the four sprouts of the human heart-mind(Mencius2A:6) and took the feeling of compassion as the most fundamental,which is the essential element of what makes a human beings and what makes them symbiotic with all things in nature.Chen Lisheng 陈立胜 notes,

We can regard the feeling of compassion as a kind of heartstring that comes fromDaseinin the world when theDaseinis touched by all things in nature.When the life andseinof all things meet withDasein,the heartstring is touched and thus the feeling of interconnection is provoked between self and other,between human and other things,together with the feeling of co-living,coexistence,and co-belonging with all things in nature.27Chen Lisheng 陈立胜,“Feeling of Compassion:Empathy,Sympathy,and Grundstimmung” [恻隐之心：“同感”、“同情”与“在世基调”],Philosophical Research [哲学研究],no.12 (2011):19—27,124.

What happens when the feeling of compassion as heartstring is touched? When saying that “all human beings have a heart-mind which cannot stand to see the suff ering of others,” Mencius gave an example:“If an infant were about to fall into a well,anyone would be upset and concerned” (2A:6).The heart-mind here is cleansed of the secular considerations of interest or fame but gives out the order to rescue the infant.Mencius thus argued that in one’s heart-mind there is already an established consciousness of value.He said,“Benevolence,righteousness (yi义),propriety (li礼),and wisdom (zhi智)are not forced onto us from the outside.They are our original endowments” (6A:6).He further stated,“The essentials of the gentleman’s nature are benevolence,righteousness,propriety,and wisdom,which are rooted in the heart-mind” (7A:21).Why are benevolence,righteousness,propriety,and wisdom rooted in the heart-mind? Mencius noted,“The function of the heart-mind is to discriminate—if you discriminate,you will attain it.If you do not discriminate,you will not attain it” (6A:15).Because the function of the heartmind is to discriminate,the deeper people return to their heart-minds,the better they can understand their nature and thus the will of the ultimate entity.“If you fully explore your heart-mind,you will know your nature.If you know your nature,you know Heaven” (7A:1).The Mandate of Heaven lies in human heart-mind.Mencius talked of “good human nature”based on the “good heart-mind.”28The essence of “good human nature” put forward by Mencius lies in “innate benevolence and righteousness.” See Mou Zongsan 牟宗三,From Lu Xiangshan to Liu Jishan [从陆象山到刘蕺山](Taipei:Taiwan Student Book,1979),216.The goodness rooted in the human heart-mind is something universal,that is,“the sameness of our heart-minds beforehand” (6A:7) and “Yao and Shun being the same as other men” (4B:32).Mencius also held that if we are able to “develop” the“four sprouts” rooted in our heart-mind (2A:6),we will be able to change society.

Mencius put forward the idea ofjinxin尽心(exerting the heart-mind to the utmost),which is to say,returning to the original state of everyone’s heart-mind,and this was interpreted in two ways in the history of Confucianism.The first interpretation was that of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130—1200),based on his philosophical system centered on the idea ofli理 (principle).29Chan Wing-tsit,“Zhu Xi’s Thought on Neo-Confucianism” [朱熹集新儒学之大成],inA Collection of Zhu Xi’sThought [朱学论集](Taipei:Taiwan Student Book,1982),1—35.Zhu noted,“What cannot be exerted to the utmost is the things in one’s heart-mind,but the principle of one’s heart-mind can be exerted to the utmost....The principle for exerting the heart-mind to the utmost lies in the knowing of one’s nature and Heaven.”30Zhu Xi 朱熹,“Exerting the Heart-Mind to the Utmost I” [尽心上],in vol.60 ofClassif ied Conversations of Master Zhu I [朱子语类（一）],book 14 ofComplete Works of Master Zhu [朱子全书],eds.Zhu Jieren 朱杰人,Yan Zuozhi 严佐之,and Liu Yongxiang 刘永翔 (Shanghai:Shanghai Classics Publishing House,2002),1936.Zhu Xi formed his own system and took the principle of heart-mind as a target to be aimed at,seeming to assume that the heart-mind andprincipleare two distinct things.Therefore his interpretation of Mencius is probably not the best.The second was that of Wang Yangming 王阳明 (1472—1529),who interpretedjinxinas completing one’s nature(jinxing尽性),believing that “nature is the substance of heart-mind” and that “there are no principle but those of the mind,and nothing exists apart from the heart-mind.”31Chan Wing-tsit,Annotations to and Commentaries of Wang Yangming’s Instructions for Practical Living [王阳明传习录详注集评](Taipei:Taiwan Student Book,1983),36—37.According to Wang,jinxinmeans that one knows what to do by nature because human nature is the ontological substance of heart-mind.Wangbetter illustrated the meaning ofjinxinput forward by Mencius.Xiong Shili 熊十力 (1885—1968) said,“Human beings and all things have the same substance.”32Xiong, Essentials for Reading Confucian Classics,vol.2,124.Mencius’s notion ofjinxinoriginally means that we should return to our heart-mind and have deep contemplation and a full understanding of it.

Jinxincan be taken as a recipe to follow amid the pandemic and the world’s unrest.Challenges in the twenty-f ir st century have their own causes,but all have their root in the ego-centrism of individuals or nations.To ease the conf licts or disasters caused by this egocentrism,we have to seek sincere reconciliation between individuals,between nations,between communities,and between social classes.From the perspective of Confucianism,reconciliation must be based on mindfulness of individuals.A return to the original state of the heart-mind put forward by Mencius is a path to reconciliation through consciousness and knowledge of the heart-mind.

Apart from this,from the perspective of Confucianism,the foundation of consciousness and knowledge of the heart-mind is love.When Zixia 子夏 (b.507 BCE) asked about f ilial conduct,Confucius answered,“It all lies in showing the proper countenance” (Analects2:8).As for the “proper countenance” shown when one serves his or her parents,Zhu Xi made a wonderful analysis in hisCollected Commentarieson the Analects[论语集注].He wrote,“A f ilial son will be kind if he loves his parents;he will look pleased when he is kind;he will have mild countenance when he looks pleased.Therefore,a man is a truly f ilial son when he always shows the proper countenance;he is not a truly f ilial son when he only supports his parents.”33Zhu Xi,Collected Commentaries on the Analects [论语集注],vol.1,inCommentaries and Interpretations on the Four Books [四书章句集注](Beijing:Zhonghua Book Company,1983),56.In so saying,Zhu Xi precisely illustrated that the interaction and reconciliation between individuals base on love,without which it will be hard to reconcile with others.

Elevating Ren to a New Height

When looking at the suff ering of the world in the twenty-f irst century,we may propose the second suggestion—a return toren,a core value in Confucianism,and elevatingrento a new height.Confucius emphasized thatrenas the highest virtue must start from “care for others” (12:22) and that self and other should be organically interdependent rather than related to each other just mechanically.Therefore,“Longing to take his stand,a kind man helps others to take their stand;longing to fulfill himself,he helps others to fulfill themselves” (6:30).The interaction between self and other is based on love.In theAnalects,renis the most frequently used character,appearing 105 times,with 58 mentions coming in questions from Confucius’s disciples.When talking about the significance ofrenwith his disciples,Confucius did not off er a conceptual def inition but illustrated it with verbal phrases such as “to care for others,” “overf low in love to all,” “to help others to take their stand,” and “to help others to fulf ill themselves.” Such a way of illustratingrenwith love was carried on by Mencius,who said,“A benevolent person cares for others” (Mencius4B:28).“To care for others” can be applied broadly,but in private life it starts with “serving one’s parents” (4A:27) and in public life with “being intimate with good people” (7A:46).

Zhu Xi’s work“On Benevolence” [仁说]gave new status torenxue仁学 (studies of benevolence) in Confucianism and elevated the Chinese people’s quest to understand the self.His study ofrenis clearly structured and forcefully illustrated.He said,

All things are the heart-mind of Heaven and Earth,and human beings and things see their life coming from the heart-mind of Heaven and Earth and thus have their heart-minds.Therefore,the virtue of heart-mind has many aspects,but all of them can be summarized in the wordren.The heart-mind of Heaven and Earth has four virtues,namely,great and originating,penetrating,advantageous,andcorrect and firm,with great and originating as the all-inclusive one.The movements of the four are embodied in the order of spring,summer,autumn,and winter,in which the vitality of spring can be seen everywhere.

Therefore,human heart-mind also has four virtues,namely,benevolence,righteousness,propriety,andwisdom,withbenevolenceas the inclusive one.These four virtues generate love,deference,appropriateness,and diff erence.The feeling of compassion is all-inclusive.34Zhu Xi,“On Benevolence” [仁说],in vol.67 ofCollected Works of Master Zhu IV [晦庵先生朱文公文集（四）],book 23 ofComplete Works of Master Zhu,1936.

Zhu Xi ref ined the idea ofrenfrom caring about others in the times,as it was understood in the era of Confucius and Mencius,into a principle for love.As Mou Zongsan 牟宗三(1909—1995) wrote,“Renis the principle for love,and hence a wise and pure and peaceful heart-mind.”35Mou Zongsan,Heart-Mind and Nature [心体与性体],book 3 (Taipei:Cheng Chung Bookstore,1968),244.Lee Ming-huei 李明辉 once commented,“Zhu Xi listed four levels of order,namely,the order of being (great and originating,penetrating,advantageous,andcorrect and f irm),the order of the universe (spring,summer,autumn,and winter),the onto-ethical order (benevolence,righteousness,propriety,and wisdom) and the ethico-psychological order (love,deference,appropriateness,and diff erence).”36Lee Ming-huei 李明辉,Four Sprouts and Seven Emotions:A Comparative Philosophical Study of Moral Feelings [四端与七情：关于道德情感的比较哲学探讨](Taipei:Taiwan University Press,2005),88.Zhu Xi’s illustration elevatedrenin Confucianism to an unprecedented height.

So what canrenas conceived of by Zhu Xi do for the twenty-first century? We can consider the relief actions of two natural disasters in this century.In December 2004,the Indian Ocean earthquake triggered a huge tsunami that killed 234,271 people in Indonesia,and charitable groups from various countries rushed to the disaster zone to provide relief.However,a few religious groups,before distributing the relief materials,required the disaster-stricken people to kneel down to the groups’ religious symbols to show gratitude,creating conf lict between the religious groups and local people.From August 6 to 10,2009,the Taiwan region was hit by Typhoon Morakot,which caused serious damage to life and property.Many of the victims were indigenous people,but a private religious group provided them with vegetarian lunch,which was then discarded on the roadside.In both cases,the religious groups were trying to practice caring about others but adhered to their own ways of caring about others,which,however,were contradictory with the beliefs or culture of the victims,thus making their caring counterproductive

In hisCommentaries and Interpretations on the Four Books[四书章句集注],Zhu Xi reiterated,“Benevolenceis the virtue of heart-mind and the principle for love.”37Zhu Xi,Collected Commentaries on Mencius [孟子集注],vol.1,inCommentaries and Interpretations on the Four Books,201;Zhu Xi,Collected Commentaries on the Analects,vol.1,47.The latter was similar to Mou Zongsan’s viewpoint thatrenis that principle according to which love is love.Zhu’s new interpretation endowedrenas explained by Confucius and Mencius with a completely new significance covering both the self and the world.Concerning the self,Zhu Xi quoted at the very beginning what Cheng Hao 程颢 (1032—1085) had said,namely that “Heaven and Earth take everything as the heart-mind,”38Cheng Hao 程颢 and Cheng Yi 程颐,Additional Works of the Cheng Brothers of Henan [河南程氏外书],vol.3,inA Collection of Cheng Brothers’ Works [二程集],ed.Wang Xiaoyu 王孝鱼 (Beijing:Zhonghua Book Company,1981),366.and went on to comment that“human beings and things see their life coming from the heart-mind of Heaven and Earth and thus have their heart-mind.” This new interpretation ofrenintegrates the self into what Qian Mu 钱穆 (1895—1990) called “seeking proof for the greater self,”39Qian Mu 钱穆,“An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Learning” [国学概论],book 1 ofA Collection of Master Qian’s Works [钱宾四先生全集](Taipei:Linking Publishing,1994),278.elevating the self to some height.In the twenty-f irst century,when the world’s order is being reorganized and international relations are in a state of f lux,ifrencan be elevated to the height of a principle for love among people and nations,the strife and conf lict caused by the diff erences in the ways of practicingrencan be greatly reduced.

Relationship between Humans and the World in the Xinxue and Renxue of Confucianism

As mentioned above,a Confucian solution to the challenges of the twenty-f irst century lies in the return to the heart-mind and the elevation ofren,which may be confronted with two queries.

First,the heart-mind in the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius andreninterpreted by Zhu Xi can reduce the complex political,economic,and social issues to matters of spiritual cultivation of human beings.Confucianism ignores the specific political,economic,and social problems and advocates retreat into the inner bunker of the self,which will not help to remove the disasters of the twenty-f irst century.In hisLiberty:Incorporating Four Essayson Liberty,the philosopher Isaiah Berlin noted,“This is the traditional self-emancipation of ascetics and quietists,of stoics or Buddhist sages,men of various religions or of none,who have f led the world.”40Isaiah Berlin,Liberty: Incorporating Four Essays on Liberty,ed.Henry Hardy (Oxford:Oxford University Press,2002),182.Though he was not referring to Confucianism,what he said may be quoted to question the position of Confucians too when they give priority to the heart-mind orren.

Second,the Confucianxinxueandrenxuecould apply readily to traditional agricultural society with small populations but are less applicable to a post-industrial society in the twenty-first century.Moral and political philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote that the political ideal of Confucianism could only be put into practice in small-scale social groups rather than in modern states.41Alasdair MacIntyre,“Questions for Confucians:Ref lections on the Essays in Comparative Study of Self,Autonomy,and Community,” inConfucian Ethics:A Comparative Study of Self,Autonomy,and Community,eds.Kwong-loi Shun and David B.Wong (New York:Cambridge University Press,2004),203—218,esp.217—218.

Both of these queries about the contemporary relevance of Confucianxinxueandrenxuehave their justif ications.Here I would like to make some response.The f irst possible objection amounts to a misunderstanding ofxinxueandrenxue.It is true that Confucians take the heart-mind as the f irst priority and that the heart-mind has priority over other things,but this cannot be misunderstood to mean that Confucianism is a kind of spiritual reductionism.Confucians never escape from the suff ering of the world or retreat to an inner bunker.In fact,from Confucius onward they have not only been committed to interpreting the world,but also to changing it.Confucius never def inedrenbut merely put emphasis on the recipe for practicingrenin his dialogues with his disciplines.Mencius kept lobbying in all states,trying to warn rulers that they should exercise governance “with a heart-mind that cannot stand to see the suff ering of others” since “all people have a heart-mind which cannot stand to see the suff ering of others” (2A:6).Both Confucius and Mencius wanted to change the world with their learning.Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊 (1139—1193) held that “Confucians would like to apply their learning to governance of society though they remained silent and showed nothing of themselves.”42Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊,“To Wang Shunbo” [与王顺伯],in vol.2 ofA Collection of Lu Jiuyuan’s Works [陆九渊集],ed.Zhong Zhe 钟哲 (Beijing:Zhonghua Book Company,1981),17.Later Confucians immersed themselves in the strong desire to put their ideas into the practice of governance,having their own “general Confucian blueprint”for that enterprise.43Yu Ying-shih 余英时,“A Tentative Study of the General Planning in Confucianism:A Report on Response by Liu Shuxian” [试说儒家的整体规划——刘述先先生《回应》读后],inNeo-Confucianism and Political Culture in the Song and Ming Dynasties [宋明理学与政治文化](Taipei:Asian Culture Publishing,2004),388—407,esp.400.For instance,Zhu Xi established academies and had a township covenant signed and granaries built for famine relief.His disciple and son-in-law Huang Gan 黄榦 (1152—1221),when acting as Prefect of Anqing,led the local people to build city walls to counter the Jurchen invasion.44Toqto’a 脱脱 et al.,“A Biography of Huang Gan” [黄榦传],in vol.430 ofA History of Song Dynasties [宋史](Beijing:Zhonghua Book Company,2000),9984.And Wang Yangming even led troops to suppress a revolt.45Wang Yangming 王阳明,“Flitting over the Sea” [泛海],in vol.19 ofComplete Works of Wang Yangming [王阳明全集],eds.Wu Guang 吴光 et al.(Shanghai:Shanghai Classics Publishing House,1992),684.Confucians never ignored anything external for the sake of something internal.In their thought,self-cultivation and governance as well as their own achievement and the cultivation of everything were never separate.Therefore the f irst objection does not stand.

The second possible objection would be the suspicion thatxinxueandrenxuefall into an anachronistic fallacy.But this would be to ignore their universality and universal values,which transcend the limits of time and space.Xinxuedeveloped fully in Wang Yangming’s thought and then spread east to Japan and became the spiritual impetus for the Meiji Restoration (1860s—1890s).In the wake of the earthquake taking place in the northeast of Japan on March 11,2011,some scholars even called for a return to the Edo Confucian idea ofrenin order to restore Japanese society to normal.46Tsuchida Kenjirō 土田健次郎,Return to Normal:A Study of Ren in Confucianism in the Edo Period [「日常」の回復：江戸儒学の「仁」の思想に学ぶ](Tokyo:Waseda University Press,2012).

Thus we can further f ind a common platform for the return to the heart-mind advocated by Confucianism and the promotion ofrenbased precisely on the change of the relationship between humanity and the world.It has been mentioned in this paper that Mencius placed the feeling of compassion at the top of his list of the four sprouts of heart-mind because humanity does not regard the universe and the world as something objective that has nothing to do with the self.As one Israeli philosopher of the twentieth century put it,“WithoutItman cannot live.But he who lives withItalone is not a man.”47Martin Buber,I and Thou,trans.Ronald G.Smith (Edinburgh:T.&T.Clark,1937),34.In Confucians’eyes,neither the world nor anything else is an “It,” but rather a “thou” coexisting and having empathy with the self.In Confucianism,the relationship between the self and the world is an organic one of mutual interaction and inf iltration,and that between humanity and the world,their inter-involvement,is an organic one of symbiosis,resonance,and empathy,the two forming an indissoluble community of life.Wang Yangming said,“His heart-mind and study is pure and bright,but he has benevolence involving the unity of all things.Therefore,his spirit runs through,his ambition is sensible,and there is no diff erence between self and other or between ‘me’ and the world.”48Chan,“Zhu Xi’s Thought on Neo-Confucianism,” 196.The common value of Confucianxinxueandrenxueis a possible solution to the human predicament in the twenty-f irst century.

Conclusion [34]

In the twenty-f irst century,human beings are faced with so many challenges that,if they do not want to be drowned,they must seek enlightenment from various cultural resources at home and abroad,even from ancient times.“Those who are expert at talking about antiquity will see how their ideas tally with the present situation” (Xunzi,“Human Nature Is Bad”[性恶]).We are committed to the mutual presentation of the ancient and the present,trying to seek solutions from Confucianism to challenges of the twenty-first century and thus guiding lost heart-minds.On the other hand,we should not just “play one tone” or take measures without regard to changes in circumstances,for otherwise “we will see disasters befall us if we insist on returning to the past” (Doctrine of the Mean).

For nearly three thousand years,Confucians have developed in East Asian countries a tradition of sophisticated humanism,withxinxueandrenxueas the core.This tradition seems to be strange but is actually amiable;it seems to be distant but really is extremely close;it seems to be pedantic but in truth is extremely practical.Confucianism advocates the return to the original point of heart-mind,making the feeling of compassion in everyone’s heart-mind expand outward,so that selves can coexist and have empathy with the other and the world and thus share their breath.

Zhu Xi studied humanism and elevatedrento the height of the “principle for the whys and wherefores of love,” which is conducive to easing the tension or conf lict in values between diff erent civilizations and diff erent ethnic groups in the twenty-f ir st century.Wang Yangming’s world view of “flowers in the human heart-mind” also reminds us that in Confucianism,the self and the world form a community of life.This is probably a path to reconciliation between self and other,between one nation and another,between humanity and nature,and between humanity and the transcendent.