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advocate utopian ideals. In essence, Confucian world outlook embraces things
being mutually reinforcing and operating in circle.
Confucianism is sometimes ridiculed as “common sense of morality”.
I would like to defend it in this regard. It is a form of common sense that tells us
how to live our lives, and how to uphold our morality. It has even become part of
the common social narrative. New and eerie theories keep emerging in the West,
some offer no common sense whatsoever and others simply distort common
sense. In this regard, the common sense that has been preserved for centuries is
particularly precious.
Confucianism sets store oncommon sense.Wecan take Commentaries and
Annotations on the Four Books (I四书章句集注J) by Zhu Xi as an example. It was
the guide and text for the imperial examination for hundreds of years. In
Commentaries on The Great Learning (I大学章句J), Zhu pointed out that
Confucianism had become a belief because “it requires nothing but to learn the
principles of daily life and ethical codes,” (Zhu, 1983, p. 1) and in Commentaries
on TheDoctrineofthe Mean (I中庸章句J), he pointed out, “The master of the
whole body must be the doctrine and the heart” and “The doctrine is not un-
fathomable.” (Zhu, 1983, p. 14) Zhu Xi quoted what Confucius had said, “Even if
strangeordeceitful actionsweretobelaid down in history books, I would never
follow suit,” (Zhu, 1983, p. 21) as well as the quote, “The path is not far.” (Zhu,
1983, p. 17) He gave his interpretations as follows: “The doctrineislikeapath.
Human beings, like everything else, will find their path through daily life in line
with their innate characters. To follow the doctrine means to follow nature, so
Confucianism is something that everyone knows and can follow inherently,
thus it is not far from our grasp. Those who despise it and need something
more superior and elusive can never succeed” (Zhu, 1983, p. 23). Confucianism
is not something lofty and untouchable, but inherently simple, in pursuit of
harmony. Confucian scholars should stick to Confucian teachings and find out
the essence behind them. In this regard, they may draw inspiration from Con-
fucius himself.
Of course, contemporary Confucianism has to meet with new challenges.
China used to be an agrarian society but today, it is to some degree, an urban
society strong in industry and hi-tech. When we study this age-old wisdom we
should try to find wisdom that can be applied to today’s Chinese society and to the
world at large. Meanwhile, though Confucianism is still part of humanities, it is
also applicable in the study of the metaphysics of morality and political philoso-
phy, as well as in a number of other academic fields, such as ethics, law, science
and technology, rural construction and urban governance; as such, it could well
bring benefits to the eras ahead.