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"Neo-Confucianism"
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IWanwuyiti/I and IFinding God in All Things/I: A Comparative Study between Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation and Ignatian Spirituality
It seems that the early Jesuits misinterpreted the key Neo-Confucian terms taiji/li from an Aristotelian perspective in the seventeenth century, thereby leading to a dialogical failure in their initial encounter with Neo-Confucian tradition. What necessitates interreligious dialogue today is a pluralistic stance that deems all religious quests worthy in their own context. Therefore, this paper renews the dialogue between two spiritual traditions, long overdue, by reading two representative texts, side by side, from each tradition on self-cultivation: Reflections on Things at Hand (twelfth century) and The Spiritual Exercises (sixteenth century). The comparison showcases that the notion of “wanwuyiti ”, a concomitant of the Confucian ren, is tantamount to a religious imperative for human ethical engagements, and the Ignatian axiom “Finding God in All Things ” energizes a spiritual self-transformation to forge an intimate bond with God and the world. While Neo-Confucian cultivation focuses on the removal of desires, seeking to maintain “equilibrium” and “centrality”, the Ignatian exercises foreground commitment to “discernment” and “indifference”. The Neo-Confucians address human and worldly affairs in a procedural manner, with ever-broadening horizons, to establish an orderly society. In contrast, the Ignatian self is directed toward an orderly life to serve, love, and bring ever more to God’s Divine Majesty.
Journal Article
Rectificar la estupidez y Corregir la ignorancia: las inscripciones del Oeste y del Este de Zhang Zai
La Inscripción del Oeste y la Inscripción del Este son dos textos fundamentales que han tenido trayectorias distintas en la historia del pensamiento chino. Mientras que la primera alcanzó gran reconocimiento poco después de la muerte de su autor, la segunda permaneció casi olvidada hasta su redescubrimiento durante la dinastía Ming. No obstante, ambos textos deben entenderse como partes complementarias de un único camino hacia la sabiduría. En esta colaboración, presento la traducción completa al español de estas dos obras breves pero profundas, que encapsulan algunos de los principios metafísicos y éticos clave del sistema filosófico de Zhang Zai.
Journal Article
From Sacred Doctrine to Confucian Moral Practice: Giulio Aleni’s Cross-Cultural Interpretation of “Goodness and Evil of Human Nature”
This paper explores the cross-cultural interpretation of “the goodness and evil of human nature” by Jesuit missionary Giulio Aleni in the late Ming Dynasty, and it examines the intersections and complementarity between Catholicism and Confucianism in moral ethics based on Aleni’s integration. The study finds that Aleni, while basically adhering to the Catholic “original sin”, connected the “spirituality” endowed to humans at the beginning of God’s creation with the Confucian ontological concepts such as “ultimate good” (zhishan 至善); centering on “self-mastery” (zizhuan 自專), “sharpening” (dili 砥礪), and “overcoming nature” (kexing 克性), he actively guided the goodness–evil debate towards a Confucian practical morality, and sacred doctrines are served as an impetus of moral practices. The redemption, together with reward and punishment of God, further intensifies the ultimate concern and the way of transcendence. Aleni’s bridging and synthesizing of the two traditions is highly significant: concerning both sanctity and practicality of ethics can to some extent overcome the risks brought by the instrumentalization of ethics or the illusory issues of existence. This has important implications for the self-development and integration of Christian and Confucian morality.
Journal Article
Natural Theology and Neo-Confucianism in Timothy Richard and Ren Tingxu’s Translation of Alexander Pope’s IAn Essay on Man/I
Voltaire praised Alexander Pope’s poem, An Essay on Man, as a magnificent and profound philosophical work that garnered widespread popularity and had a significant impact. It was believed that the poem’s philosophical concepts were influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who drew inspiration from Jesuit writings and regarded Neo-Confucianism as China’s “natural theology”. In December 1897, Yan Fu translated six lines from Pope’s poem into Chinese as a part of his translation of Tianyan lun. Subsequently, Timothy Richard and Ren Tingxu collaborated for five months to translate An Essay on Man into Chinese, known as Tianlun shi (A Poem of Heavenly Ethics), which was published in mid-summer 1898. This Chinese translation became the first extensive Western poem to be translated into Chinese. It consisted of four parts, with over 1300 lines in its original form and approximately 17,200 Chinese characters in translation. Ren rendered Pope’s heroic couplets into a quatrain-style Chinese poem. The term “Tianlun” (Heavenly Ethic) was derived from Young John Allen’s theory, which aimed to supplement Confucian ethics by illustrating the “man and heaven” (or “man and God”) relationship. The poem successfully intertwined Christian and Confucian ideas, harmoniously blending the two discourses of natural theology and Neo-Confucianism. Ren’s literary embellishments played a significant role in this remarkable achievement. Richard and Ren’s translation of the poem served various purposes, including introducing Western knowledge to China and promoting political reform.
Journal Article
Wonders and Politics of the Chosŏn Dynasty: Reflections on the Unexplored Side of the Chosŏn Neo-Confucian System
Wonder was deeply rooted in the Chosŏn Neo-Confucian system. Through this wonder, we can see various layers of consciousness of Neo-Confucian scholars. Exploring the use of the element of wonder in political and scholarly areas requires more than just looking at aspects that have been neglected. This task is meaningful in that it shows the multi-layers of Neo-Confucianism in the Chosŏn era. It also provides an opportunity to examine how Confucianism intersected with other religions of the time. This allowed Neo-Confucianism to be more closely aligned with the general views of Chosŏn society.
Journal Article