The Economy of The Song Dynasty or The Experience of Failed Modernization: The Boundaries of Institutional Corridors

The article contributes to institutional matrices theory (Kirdina, 2011). On the reforms carried out in China during the Song Dynasty in the second half of the XI century, the hypothesis of the existence of so-called "institutional corridors" is considered. The "institutional corridor" implies a space limited by a set of certain institutions that define the principles of decision-making and the boundaries of institutional environment reform. The article briefly describes the economic situation of China during the Song dynasty, analyzes the main reforms carried out by the first Minister of the empire Wang Anshi and the reasons for their failure. The concept of jing ji is analyzed. Jing ji assumes an integrated approach to regulating the economy in China, based on Confucian ethics' moral and ethical concepts. The concept of jing ji has become the main one in regulating the economy in China. It is concluded that Confucian ideology during the implementation of the Wang Anshi reforms became the defining boundary of the "institutional corridor" of the variable that predetermined the failure of the reforms. The reforms of Wang Anshi, often called a Proto-Keynesian, went beyond the ideological "institutional corridor" and were therefore doomed to failure.

儒家為什麼反對超人類主義？

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. The concept of human enhancement is a key to understanding transhumanism. According to Confucian ethics, the supervision of human enhancement technology is vital because we are facing the reasonable expectation of achieving “the unity of heaven and man.” (The idea of harmony between man and nature is not exclusive to Confucianism; it can be found in other schools of thought in the pre-Qin dynasty period, especially the philosophy of Taoism. However, the idea is uniquely expressed and developed in Confucianism.) Furthermore, human enhancement makes people unable to “settle in their place.” Therefore, Confucianism cannot accept it.

我們該如何存在？——關於超人類主義的若干批判

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. Transhumanism banishes the body from being, which leads to the separation of technology and virtue. In the Confucian view, the body is the symbiosis of technology and virtue, human relations and politics. We can use the notions of “benevolence” and Tao in Confucian ethics to criticize transhumanism. The fundamental problem involved in the debate between Confucianism and transhumanism concerns how human beings define themselves. Confucianists believe that human beings cannot and should not violate certain fundamental restrictions and principles presented by the universe. We should continue to think about what these fundamental restrictions and principles should be, and whether they are likely to be breached with technological progress.

論胚胎的道德地位——儒家倫理的視角

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. For 40 years, international rules have limited human embryo research to the first 14 days of embryonic development. On May 26, 2021, in its latest guidelines for stem cell research and its medical applications, the International Society for Stem Cell Research eased the 14-day restriction. This raises myriad ethical issues. At their core is the debate over the moral status of embryos, which exposes ethical conflicts between cultural perspectives. This article discusses the moral status of embryos and argues from the perspective of Confucian ethics that the 14-day limit should not be waived at the present moment.

Intercultural dialogues in times of global pandemics: The Confucian ethics of relations and social organization in Sinic societies

Since COVID-19 is a global-scale pandemic, it can only be solved on the global level. In this context, intercultural dialogues are of utmost importance. Indeed, different models of traditional ethics might be of assistance in constructing a new, global ethics that could help us confront the present predicament and prepare for other possible global crises that might await us in the future. The explosive, pandemic spread of COVID-19 in 2020 clearly demonstrated that in general, one of the most effective tools for containment of the epidemics is precisely human and interpersonal solidarity, which must also be accompanied by a certain degree of autonomous self-discipline. The present paper follows the presumption that these types of personal and interpersonal attitudes are—inter alia— culturally conditioned and hence influenced by different traditional models of social ethics. In light of the fact that East-Asian or Sinic societies were more successful and effective in the process of containing and eliminating the virus compared to the strategies of the Euro-American regions, I will first question the widespread assumption that this effectiveness is linked to the authoritarian political traditions of the Sinic East and Southeast Asian areas. Then, I will critically introduce the Confucian ethics of relations, which in various ways has influenced the social structures of these regions, and clarify the question of whether and in which way the relics of this ethics had an actual effect on the crisis resolution measurements. The crucial aim of this paper is to contribute to the construction of theoretical groundworks for a new, transculturally grounded global ethics, which is more needed today than ever before.

An Alternative to Individualism: Relational Concept of Human in Confucian Role Ethics

The article proposes to see Confucian role ethics as a philosophical project that puts forward metaethical and metaphilosophical arguments regarding the nature of ethics and the concept of human beings, instead of concentrating on its interpretational work in explicating the nature of early Confucian ethics. Thus, a more fitting context for evaluating the core claims of role ethics is suggested, one that is comprised of different positions, coming from a wide range of philosophical and cultural backgrounds, as well as different disciplines, all of which criticize individualism or formulate a non-individualistic concept of person. Role ethics concept of person, as a totality of one’s lived roles and relations, is discussed by concentrating on the specificity of two key notions in this position, that is, “relation” and “role”. The article ends with a suggestion that the deeper and fuller investigation and exposition of normativity, as stemming from the specific and concrete role-relationships, is the most needed and promising direction of further development of role ethics.

On Virtue and Reason: Integrative Theory of De 德 and Aretê

This article is to argue that virtue is experienced and understood in Confucian ethics as power to act and as performance of a moral action, and that virtue (de 德) as such has to be onto-cosmologically explicated, not just teleologically explained. In other words, it is intended to construct an integrative theory of virtues based on both dao (the Way 道) and de. To do so, we will examine the two features of de, as the power that is derived from self-reflection and self-restraining, and as the motivated action for attaining its practical end in a community. Only by a self-integrated moral consciousness can one’s experience, action and ideal remain in consistency and coherence, which leads us to the Aristotelian notion of virtue as excellence (aretê) and enables us to see how virtue as aretê could be introduced as a second feature of de, namely as the power for effective action in the whole system of virtues, apart from the first feature of de as self-restraining power. We will conclude that reason and virtue are practically united and remain inseparable, and that taking into account the onto-cosmological foundation of virtues, reason and virtue are inevitably the moving and advancing forces for the formation and transformation of human morality just as they are motivating and prompting incentives for individual moral action.

Contemporary Chinese Philosophy and the Importance of Confucian Kinship Relations

Li Zehou belongs to the most influential Chinese philosophers of our time. This paper will present a critical introduction of his theory regarding the consolidation of the specific Confucian system of kinship relations, which for him forms a crucial foundation of traditional Chinese social order. In Confucianism, the inter-familial relations form a basis of the social system, in which interpersonal relations are of utmost importance and which Li therefore denotes as “relationalism”. According to him, this kinship-based Confucian model originates in shamanistic rituality performed by Neolithic humans living in the land occupied by modern-day China. These Neolithic cultures were rather advanced and based their societies on small-scale semi-agricultural production, in which communities were mainly constructed through kinship relationships. Shamanistic ceremonies were enhancing and strengthening the awareness of such social unities. These early collective rites, especially those that include music and dance, had a powerful effect on early humans, creating intense feelings of respect, love and loyalty, and thus forming a basis for the Confucian social order based upon kinship relations, and the Confucian ethics, rooted in interpersonal humanness. Li’s theory of the shamanist origins of Confucian relationalism will be critically illuminated through the lens of current historical and anthropological scholarship on shamanist rituality and their function within the corresponding cultural orders.

Japanese Reinterpretations of Confucianism

This article aims to introduce the study of Itō Jinsai from the point of view of the value of his Confucian interpretations within the context of the project of Confucian ethics—in other words, trying to ascertain in what ways Jinsai’s project can help facilitate the study of Confucian ethics beyond the realm of intellectual history in the global context of the 21st century. It is imperative to allow Jinsai’s notions, as much as possible, to speak for themselves; but it is also of great importance to first place Jinsai within his own time and inside the intellectual space in which he formulated his ideas. A number of scholarly sources will be considered, with the intention of illuminating Jinsai’s work from a few different angles.

The Translating Subject beyond Borders

In the early twentieth century, the political environments of China, Japan, and Korea were heterogeneous, encompassing various discourses and orientations. Using biographies of George Washington, this article examines the particularities of the texts created through such translations. In relay translations of biographies of Washington, Fukuyama Yoshiharu 福山義春 (Japanese, published 1900) sought an ideal model of Confucian ethics; Ding Jin 丁錦 (Chinese, published 1903) represented Washington as a strong warrior who won independence after a long fight; and Yi Haejo 李海朝 (Korean, published 1908) offered a portrait in which the warrior figure recedes and the Confucian image is again reinforced. Despite the gap between the political environments of Japan and Korea and the absence of a direct connection between them, Fukuyama's and Yi's editions share more overlapping features with each other than with Ding's. Properly recognizing and highlighting individual translation and adaptation practices that do not converge on the norms of national discourse will expand the horizons of the national discourse itself.