On the Notion of Person in Confucianism

The article presents the notion of person in Confucianism in the context of biographical background of Confucius (551-479 B.C.). As an itinerant sage Confucius taught the practical significance of moral values in the social and political life. His disciples collected his teachings in Analects, in which Confucius noticed that at his age of 50 he knew the will of Heaven (A 11:4). He began to teach Humanism with respect to Transcendence (T’ien).According to the great specialists, Prof. Tu Wei-Ming (Harvard University) and Prof. John Berthrong (Boston University), “the social dimension” of the human person in Confucianism is important and the person is conceived as “a center of relationships” and as a self of personal development (selfhood as creative transformation). There are five universal ways in human relations which are governed by five moral principles. The five ways are those governing the relationships between ruler and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder and younger brothers, and those in the intercourse between friends. The core of the human person is humanity (jen or ren).Just as “compassion” is the greatest Buddhist virtue, and “love” the Christian, jen is the ultimate goal of conduct and self-transformation for the Confucian. According to Confucius, education reforms a personal life as well as a social and political life in order to realize a universal love and a personal development of man (juncy).

Considering the Present from the Past: On Mohist Thought and Its Modern Transformation

Pre-Qin era Mohist thought was endowed with a Confucian legacy as well as a critical eye and a unique set of ideas. These ideas later affected Legalist thought and attracted criticism from Mencius, Xunzi, and Zhuangzi, and many disputes arose thereafter between the later Mohists. Mohist thought can be broadly characterized as possessing distinctively ethical, rational, and practical features, and we can identify three main aspects of the modern transformation of Mohist philosophy. The first derives from Mozi’s statement on “[the endeavor to] procure benefits for the world and eliminate its calamities,” which can be interpreted as calling on humanity to resolve regional issues from a global viewpoint. The second draws upon Mozi’s statement on “universal love and mutual aid” to promote a manner of thinking that embraces peace at a global level and cultivates strong worldwide environmental awareness. The third draws upon Mozi’s ideas of “identification with the superior” and “Mohist methods of thinking” to promote a type of technological integration that incorporates cultural and social approaches and scientific thought to establish a global teaching system.

New Zealand Medical Missions in South China – Ko Tong Hospital in the Kirk Years, 1896-1917

<p>During the rainy season of 1909, the first hospital of Western medicine opened to the public in the bustling market town of Ko Tong, Upper Panyu, China. Po Wai Yiyuen, or ‘The Hospital of Universal Love’, was a medical missionary endeavour of the Canton Villages Mission (CVM) of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, the only mission to China from any New Zealand church. This thesis presents the first in-depth biographical and institutional study of the CVM’s medical mission, from its conception in 1898 until the closure of its first temporary hospital at Ko Tong in 1917. The thesis argues that the trajectory of the CVM’s medical mission closely followed that of earlier medical missions in a crucial era for the presence and development of Western medicine in China. It also shows how local Cantonese responses to the medical mission in Ko Tong were complex and highly pragmatic. The study highlights the importance of relationships between returned New Zealand Chinese miners and medical missionaries. It argues that, despite numerous setbacks, the CVM’s medical mission under the leadership of Dr. John Kirk achieved a level of stability and purpose it would struggle to find again. Unlike much scholarship in New Zealand Chinese history, this research does not focus on the Chinese in New Zealand. Rather, it analyses the work and interactions of Western medical missionaries of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church active in China. A study of this kind draws on and contributes to histories of missions, medicine in China, and New Zealand-China interactions. The thesis’ three chapters contextualise the medical mission within the pre-existing Protestant missionary movement and medical missionary movement in China, consider how local Cantonese in Ko Tong viewed the ‘foreign doctor’ in their midst, and finally, analyse the influence and leadership of Dr. John Kirk, the hospital’s main superintendent. It does this by examining mission policy, the hospital’s medical care standards, and Kirk’s involvement in medical education. This research utilises primary sources from the Presbyterian Church Archives of New Zealand, highlighting an immensely rich and varied body of archival resources, which has remained largely untapped by historians.</p>

On the English Translation of Jian’ai by Late Qing Missionary-Sinologists

With an increasing volume of research being conducted on the transmission of premodern Chinese thought in the Western world, a plethora of studies have been published on the English translation of the ancient text Mozi, primarily through the lens of cross-cultural translation studies. Discussions on how the concept of jian’ai – often rendered as “universal love” – should be expressed in English have also taken place in this framework, while the topic has rarely been examined hermeneutically or with reference to histories of knowledge transfer, intellectuals, or scholarship. This article discusses the translation of jian’ai into English by the missionary-sinologists Joseph Edkins and James Legge during the mid-to-late 1800s. It points out that, while both scholars used the term “universal” to translate the concept, they differed on whether “equal” could be used. The author also demonstrates how differences in translation can signify differences in thinking. Using the “unit of thought” of hermeneutics as a methodology to study the translators’ conception of jian’ai via a comparison of common structural levels, a case can be made that both of them used the criticism by Mengzi of Mozi as a kind of “situational construction”. However, in terms of “situational processing”, Edkin’s demonstrated the necessity and equality of jian’ai by quoting the words of ancient sages and wise rulers just as Mozi did, while Legge focused on the “Teng Wen Gong I” chapter of the Mengzi, arguing that the idea of “equality” was not espoused by Mozi himself but rather his later followers. From the perspective of “situational fusion”, Edkins pointed out that, while jian’ai is similar in form to the love of Christ, it in fact shares more similarities with utilitarianism. By contrast, Legge believed that jian’ai was more in line with the thought of Confucius, while he also discussed the similarities and differences between jian’ai and the love of Christ. The differing understandings of jian’ai arrived at by these two scholars demonstrates that missionaries sent to China after the mid-nineteenth century underwent a transition from amateur to professional sinologists. Moreover, by examining how Mohism was introduced to the West in modern times, it can be shown how Legge’s interpretation of jian’ai coined a longstanding translated name for the concept.

New Zealand Medical Missions in South China – Ko Tong Hospital in the Kirk Years, 1896-1917

<p>During the rainy season of 1909, the first hospital of Western medicine opened to the public in the bustling market town of Ko Tong, Upper Panyu, China. Po Wai Yiyuen, or ‘The Hospital of Universal Love’, was a medical missionary endeavour of the Canton Villages Mission (CVM) of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, the only mission to China from any New Zealand church. This thesis presents the first in-depth biographical and institutional study of the CVM’s medical mission, from its conception in 1898 until the closure of its first temporary hospital at Ko Tong in 1917. The thesis argues that the trajectory of the CVM’s medical mission closely followed that of earlier medical missions in a crucial era for the presence and development of Western medicine in China. It also shows how local Cantonese responses to the medical mission in Ko Tong were complex and highly pragmatic. The study highlights the importance of relationships between returned New Zealand Chinese miners and medical missionaries. It argues that, despite numerous setbacks, the CVM’s medical mission under the leadership of Dr. John Kirk achieved a level of stability and purpose it would struggle to find again. Unlike much scholarship in New Zealand Chinese history, this research does not focus on the Chinese in New Zealand. Rather, it analyses the work and interactions of Western medical missionaries of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church active in China. A study of this kind draws on and contributes to histories of missions, medicine in China, and New Zealand-China interactions. The thesis’ three chapters contextualise the medical mission within the pre-existing Protestant missionary movement and medical missionary movement in China, consider how local Cantonese in Ko Tong viewed the ‘foreign doctor’ in their midst, and finally, analyse the influence and leadership of Dr. John Kirk, the hospital’s main superintendent. It does this by examining mission policy, the hospital’s medical care standards, and Kirk’s involvement in medical education. This research utilises primary sources from the Presbyterian Church Archives of New Zealand, highlighting an immensely rich and varied body of archival resources, which has remained largely untapped by historians.</p>

On the Mohist Critique of Other Pre-Qin Schools of Philosophy

Mohism was the first ideology in the pre-Qin period to engage in open critique. Although it shared a common origin with Confucianism, Mohists criticized Confucianism by claiming that “in the teaching of the Confucians there are four elements sufficient to ruin the empire.” Later students of Mohism went so far as to launch personal attacks against Confucius, the founder of Confucianism. Mohist discourse on the concepts of “universal love,” “exalting worthiness,” “reverence for ghosts,” and “opposition to fatalism” mostly aimed at criticizing the philosopher Yang Zhu, especially his concepts of “action in one’s self-interest,” “not exalting worthiness,” “disbelief in ghosts,” and “resting content in the dispositions of one’s inborn nature.” Although, at the time of the Mohists, the schools of thought on yin-yang, diplomacy, legalism, names or logic, agriculture, and syncretism had not officially formed, some of their concepts and ideologies had already begun to emerge. As a result, the Mozi contains many criticisms of them.

Political implications of compassion in Mencius

This paper examines Mencius’ view on compassion in the political realm by proposing that Mencius defends compassionate governance by reconciling the two extremes of Yangist self-love and Mohist universal love. This paper proposes a reading of two famous stories, namely, the story of a young child on the verge of falling into a well, and the story of King Xuan of Qi sparing an ox as paradigmatic cases for understanding Mencius’ account of compassion in the political realm. This paper argues that Mencius succeeds in his defense of governance with compassion against the other two extremes of self-love and altruism. To provide an argument for compatibility with egoism or self-love, this paper offers an analysis of Mencius’ idea of the ruler sharing pleasure with his people instead of denying pleasure for himself. In this sense, a good ruler does not need to sacrifice his self-interest. To counter the demand of universal love of the Mohists, Mencius develops a position that the Confucian ideal ruler, while not sacrificing his self-interests, those interests need to be guided and directed by a proper process of moral cultivation of his compassionate heart so that he can readily share his pleasures with all the peoples in his kingdom. These readings indicate Mencius’ expanded argument for political implications of compassion in the moral universe of the Confucian school.

Forgiveness as a Virtue of Universal Love

This chapter is about the relation between universal love and a virtue of forgiveness, which Robert Roberts calls the virtue of forgivingness. I argue that forgivingness is a virtue of universal love, so to understand that virtue, one needs to analyze the problematic notion of universal love. This analysis, in turn, requires an understanding of love itself as an emotion directed at particular agents as opposed to (for example) humankind as such. This creates apparent difficulties for universal love. Once these difficulties are resolved, we have a better understanding of problems with forgivingness as a virtue. In particular, I shall argue that love, including universal love, is a bond-based rather than a value-based emotion, and that forgivingness as a virtue of universal love does not require that we should forgive each and every person who has wronged us.