The Cult of Confucius

Next Monday is the talk by Thomas A.  Wilson on Confucius Cult.  Let’s have a look of this on His website: The Cult of Confucius.

The talk is at 6:00pm at Raebum Room, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9UL.

To reserve a place please call 0131 662 2180 or book your ticket at

www.confuciusinstitute.ac.uk/chinese-courses/featured/featured.html

孔子學院儒家系列預告

下周是系列二：主題是：The Cultic Confucius.

“This will be presented by Professor Thomas A. Wilson, who is Asian Studies Chair and Professor of History at Hamilton College.

He is editor of ‘On Sacred Grounds’ a collection of academic essays which reflect also on the variety of the Confucian tradition and consider the evidence for the cult of Confucianism and attempt to recover the meaning and significant of the religious side of Confucianism.”  

以上錄自孔子學院是次系列講座之宣傳單張。

據本人第二指導教授Gentz之說，下周之講座會談天壇。

孔子學院儒家系列

今晚參加孔子學院主辦的儒家講座，是由University of Heidelberg 的 Prof. Wagner（華格納）所主講。一系列的講座是由我的第二指導教授Prof. Joachim Gentz 所籌劃。Gentz博士論文寫的是公羊傳。Wagner是他的指導教授。他今晚的演講是談到儒家經典之注釋的多元詮釋。引證多從《論語》而出，論證孔子之聖人地位。詮釋角度偏向以先秦時期思想之流動性，論孔子偏向老子《道德經》及王弼之玄學為主。然後以孔子之「微言」導出類似與「道可道，不可道」之論調，以論證孔子之為神龍見首而不見尾之聖人特徵。

雖以不可道之道喻不可道之聖人，卻評道德經之道仍落入「言」之境，而孔之卻以「微言」勝，而以孔子高老子等。到華格納卻又支持孔子曾求教於老子之傳說，似乎有不夠圓融之論。

額外的收獲是會後能與幾位中國來的年輕人交談，最後邊走回家邊聊，他們問起許多信仰和教會的問題。

On-Cho Ng on Confucian Onto-Hermeneutic and Gadamer

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Cheng Chungying, Gadamer

“Several epistemological principles, according to Cheng, may nevertheless be abstracted from the Confucian ontological conception of the human self as the vital site where self-cultivation, fiduciary relations with others, and ultimate identification with heaven organically converge. These principles are found in the seamless Confucian web of metaphysical speculation and moral pondering and therefore exceed the bounds of formal logical positivism narrowly focused on cognitive meaning. First is the ‘principle of comprehensive observation,’ which is clearly evident in the Yijing‘s notion of guan (to view (to view and see), the careful and wide-ranging investigation of the universe symbolically and graphically represented by the hexagrams, so that one who seeks to know will probe and appreciate the world in their multiple dimensions—the natural, the cosmological, the moral, and the transcendent.26 Second is the “principle of congruence of reciprocal feelings,”which centers on one’s knowledge of humanity. The primary task is to construe and treat life as a vast field of moral sentiments,wherein one cultivates the moral ability to feel the sentiments of others and thereby experiences reality as it really is.
Through analogical reasoning that always places one in another’s shoes,as it were,one comes to know and appreciate the sufferings of others and consequently develops the moral virtue of empathetic response. Third is the “principle of practice and self-cultivation,” which demands the constant realization of knowledge through action, given the existential fact that knowledge is always in a dynamic flux, whose acquisition and apprehension depend on one’s incessant expansion of the Way through adaptation, adjustment, and transformation. In short,the theoria of knowledge must always be completed and fulfilled by the praxis of action. Fourth is the “principle of unity of virtues and reason,”derived from the Confucian dictum and injunction of “rectification of names”(zhengming).To correctly identify the names, that is, the multivalent components of reality, is a rational process that is nonetheless shot through with moral meanings, for reality must be both recognized and rectified in order that its descriptions are true—a father no longer merits the name of a father if he does not act in ways that befit one.” (381)

“Together, these four epistemological principles form the interpretive basis for the onto-hermeneutic enterprise of understanding humanity with reference to its cosmological and ontological moorings,which may be encapsulated in the two fundamental principles of hermeneutic understanding that Cheng elaborates and develops in terms of the Mencian conception of human nature. The first is that of
the “principle of ontological reference by way of unification and harmonization.”The entity of xing in the Mencian sense is not static but in the process of becoming, to the extent that the cultivation of the self generates not only knowledge of human nature but also that of human morals and culture, through which the self can be ultimately transformed in a way that it actually comes to know heaven (tian). To refer to the idea of xing is to experience it and to be in the midst of it,in the sense of fully living out its potentiality—it coevality and co-indentiy with heaven,which is the transcendently immanent ontology of the Mencian philosophical anthropology. In hermeneutic terms then, the reading and interpretation of a notion requires the reference to an unmistakable ontological imperative that both unifies the multiple points of view and accommodates their varied manifestations. The interpretation and understanding of xing unfold and unravel as part of the ontology of tian, which both unifies and harmonizes the hermeneutic processes. The second fundamental hermeneutic principle is that of “practical application and constructive participation.” This principle is an elaboration and extension of the third epistemological principle of completing knowledge with action,in that it seeks not only to fulfill our good intentions acquired in the process of knowing on an individual basis,but also to create a humane society and moral community by fully realizing our humanity,ren.28″ (382)