Confucianism vs. Modernity: Expired, Incompatible or Remedial?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2014.2.1.21-38Keywords:
Confucianism, modernization, capitalism, consumerismAbstract
This paper is an exploration of the reappraisal that has been taking place since the 1980s of Confucianism’s suitability for a modernized society. The first section focuses in particular on the discussion that took place in Singapore on Confucianism as a stimulant for economic activity, arguing that it was first and foremost a politically motivated attempt to establish Confucianism as a convenient ideology. I then move to a discussion of recent attempts to rehabilitate Confucianism in the PRC. In the final section, I suggest how Confucianism can be a healthy antidote to some of the ills produced by contemporary capitalist practice.
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References
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Bell, Daniel A. 2010. “Reconciling Confucianism and Socialism? Reviving Tradition in China.” Dissent Magazine (Winter).
“Brüder im Geiste.” 2007. Der Spiegel 3. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-50186303.html
Chen, Albert H.Y. 2011. “Three Political Confucianisms and Half a Century.” In The Renaissance of Confucianism in Contemporary China, edited by Fan Ruiping, 205–23. Dordrecht: Springer.
Ellis, Erle C., and Peter K. Haff. 2009. “Earth Science in the Anthropocene: New Epoch, New Paradigm, New Responsibilities.” Eos 90: 49, 473–74.
Englehart, Neil A. 2000. “Rights and Culture in the Asian Values Argument: The Rise and Fall of Confucian Ethics in Singapore.” Human Rights Quarterly 22(2): 548–68.
Fairbanks, John King, and Merle Goldman. 2006. China. A New History. Cambridge, Mass and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Fan, Ruiping. 2010. Reconstructionist Confucianism. Rethinking Morality after the West. Dortrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer.
---, ed. 2011. The Renaissance of Confucianism in Contemporary China. Dordrecht: Springer.
Gänßbauer, Monika. 2011. Confucianism and Social Issues in China – The Academician Kang Xiaoguang. Investigations into NGOs in China, the Falun Gong, Chinese Reportage, and the Confucian Tradition. Bochum and Freiburg: Projekt Verlag.
Gardner, Daniel K. 2011. “Mao Reclaims Tiananmen Square: For How Long?” Huffington Post, May 13, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-k-gardner/mao-reclaims-tiananmen-sq_b_860710.html
Hansen, Valerie. 2000. The Open Empire. A History of China to 1600. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company.
Hong, Lysa, and Huang Jianli. 2008. The Scripting of a National History. Singapore and Its Pasts. Singapore: NUS Press.
Kuo, Eddie C.Y. 1996. “Confucianism as Political Discourse in Singapore: The Case of an Incomplete Revitalization Movement.” In Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Moral Education and Economic Culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons, edited by Tu Weiming, 294–309. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Levenson, James R. 1958–1965. Confucian China and Its Modern Fate: A Trilogy. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Li Chi: Book of Rites. 1967. Vols. 1 &2. Translated by James Legge. New York: University Books.
Mencius. 1970. Translated by D.C. Lau. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Palsson, Gisli, et al. 2013. “Reconceptualizing the ‘Anthropos’ in the Anthropocene: Integrating the Social Sciences and Humanities in Global Environmental Change Research.” Environmental Science & Policy, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci. 2012.11.004
Roberts, Dexter. 2012. “Confucius Makes a Comeback in China”. Bloomberg Businessweek, Nov. 1, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/confucius-makes-a-comeback-in-china
Shobert, Benjamin A. 2011. “Confucius Reprises Role as Political Pawn.” Asia Times Online, Aug. 9, http://atimes.com/atimes/China/MH09Ad01.html
Sigurðsson, Geir. 2014. “Frugalists, Anti-Consumers and Prosumers: Chinese Philosophical Perspectives on Consumerism.” In The Changing Landscape of China’s Consumerism, edited by Alison Hulme. Cambridge: Chandos.
Song, Xianlin. 2003. “Reconstructing the Confucian Ideal in the 1980s China: The ‘Cultural Craze’ and New Confucianism.” In New Confucianism. A Critical Examination, edited by John Makeham, 81–104. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tu, Weiming. 1984. Confucian Ethics Today. The Singapore Challenge. Singapore: Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore.
–––. 1993. “Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Exploring Moral Authority and Economic Power in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons.” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 46(8): 5–19.
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. London: Harper Collins Academic.
---. 1978. Die protestantische Ethik II. Kritiken und Antikritiken. Edited by Johannes Winckelmann. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn.
Yew, Leong. 2011. “A Brief History of the Hub: Navigating between ‘Global’ and ‘Asian’ in Singapore’s Knowledge Economy Discourse.” In Singapore in Global History, edited by Derek Heng and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied, 269–90. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Zhao, Yong. 2007. “Why Are We Always Correcting Yu Dan’s Mistakes?” Danwei, May 8, http://www.danwei.org/scholarship_and_education/yu_dan_defender_ of_traditional.php
Zhou, Liangfa 周良发. 2011. “Liang Qichao de rujia zhexue lun 梁启超的儒家哲学论 (A Discussion of Liang Qichao’s Confucian Philosophy).” Journal of Shanxi Datong University (Social Science) 山西大同大学学报（社会科学版） 25(3): 27–30.
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Published
30.05.2014
How to Cite
SIGURÐSSON, G. (2014). Confucianism vs. Modernity: Expired, Incompatible or Remedial?. Asian Studies, 2(1), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2014.2.1.21-38
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Section
Modern Confucianism as a New Chinese Ideology
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