Confucian Life Orientation

Confucian Revival and School Culture

Western ‘Sincerity’ and Confucian ‘Cheng’

In philology, both ‘sincerity’ and ‘cheng’ primarily mean, ‘to be true to oneself’. As a philosophical term, ‘sincerity’ roots in Aristotle’s ‘aletheutikos’. In medieval Europe, it is regarded as a neutral value that may either serve or disserve for ‘truth.’ As for Romantics, it is a positive value, and an individualistic concept whose two elements ‘true’ and ‘self’ refer to a person’s ‘true fe...

Workplace Civility: A Confucian Approach

Holding an Aristotelian Mirror to Confucian Ethics?

It is an honor to be part of this book symposium on YU Jiyuan’s splendid book. The best way of repaying the honor, I believe, is to engage actively and critically with the issues Yu has raised. However, in this essay I will only be able to discuss selected aspects of this extremely rich, ambitious, erudite, and inspiring book. I shall focus on three of its most impressive achievements. The book...

Confucian and Western Teaching and Learning

The authors of this article consider Western teaching and learning alongside Confucian teaching and learning through reviewing the literature. The paper emphasizes that we must teach lower order thinking skills first before we teach higher order thinking skills, and confirms that rote learning and memorization precede critical thinking and creativity. It further confirms Brookfield’s theory tha...