³ I live in the north-west part of Beijing, where few foreigners live, and thus kids are sometimes surprised to see me there. When they say ‘waiguoren’ (foreigner), I turn around and say ‘zai nar?’ (where?), but that only seems to generate a laugh by the kids' parents. No doubt the parents will go on to explain ‘the truth’ to their confused children.Google Scholar

⁴ In this sense, I've learned more from Confucianism than from my earlier engagement with Western communitarianism. I was attracted to communitarianism mainly because the arguments of modern-day ‘communitarian’ thinkers seemed to make sense of my pre-existing moral commitments, but my engagement with communitarianism didn't substantially change my ‘value system’ or ‘way of life’ (it could be argued that communitarianism is meant to articulate moral commitments rather than challenge them, but once articulated such commitments, e.g. the commitment to active political participation, should also have the power to improve one's way of life).Google Scholar

⁵ Liberalism as a political philosophy inspired by such thinkers as Locke, Mill and Rawls should not be confused with the common usage of the term in the USA (left-wing supporters of the Democratic Party) or France (right-wing defenders of the free-market).Google Scholar

⁶ Nor do they have to worry about the extent to which their own personal experience shapes their political views. Let me tell a story about John Rawls, perhaps the greatest liberal philosopher of the twentieth century. He was commissioned to write an article on the topic of whether or not the USA should have used atomic bombs in Japan. He argued that it should not have done so, but he left out one (crucial?) fact: that he himself was among the first group of American soldiers to survey the damage after the bombs had been dropped.Google Scholar

⁷ I've lived with my Chinese mother- and father-in-law for several years and my Western friends occasionally praise me for this fact while noting that they couldn't do it themselves. Of course, there are conflicts, but I try to remind myself of the value of filial piety and defer to the wishes of my parents-in-law as far as possible. And, when I fail to do so, my wife reminds me of the gap between my theoretical commitment to filial piety and my way of life, and I try to change my ways. Admittedly, however, there remains a substantial gap. For example, I have tried to persuade my mother-in-law that she should not eat rotten vegetables (bad for the health). Having failed to change her ways, I should learn to be more tolerant of my mother-in-law's preference for rotten vegetables. No, that's not enough. As Confucius said, ‘In serving your father or mother you ought to dissuade them from doing wrong in the gentlest way. If you see your advice being ignored, remain reverent and do not act contrary. You should not complain even if in doing so you wear yourself out’ (4.18). In the future, I should act in such a way that my mother-in-law believes I understand, if not respect, her preference for rotten vegetables, and perhaps I should take one or two symbolic bites myself. Just as the French are ready to take health risks by eating cheese made from non-pasteurized milk because their culture prioritizes the value of eating tasty food, so I should take health risks as an expression of support for the importance of the value of filial piety in Chinese culture.Google Scholar

⁸ Why is it important, from a moral point of view, to be liked by others? Because ties of affection underpin the trust that allows for mutual criticism and hence self-improvement (see section on humour, below). People who evoke the dislike of others cannot evoke the trust of others and hence find it more difficult to improve themselves.Google Scholar

⁹ There is an interesting contrast with Aristotle's views. In the Politics, Aristotle says that ‘deliberation needs the maturity of wisdom’ and he argues for a division of labour, with the young sticking to military affairs and the mature deliberating about matters of public interest and justice (bk VII, ch. IX, 1329a). However, he also suggests – unlike Confucius – that moral judgement begins to decline after a certain age (bk II, ch. IX, 1270a) and that the aged should stick to the service of public worship. In the Rhetoric, the aged are described as cynical, distrustful, small minded, selfish, cowardly, overly fond of themselves, concerned with what's useful rather than what's noble, shameless, slaves to the love of gain and querulous (bk II, part XIII). It could be argued that Aristotle's purpose is just to warn against character defects, similar to Confucius's claim that those aspiring to be exemplary persons should guard against the tendency to be acquisitive when elderly (16.7). But Aristotle clearly presents his account as a descriptive claim (at the end of the passage he says ‘such are the characters’ of elderly men) and he goes on to say that middle age is the best because the middle aged possess the merits of both youth and old age and they reduce the defects of both (bk. II, part XIV). Moreover, there is a political purpose to Aristotle's account: he aims to give an extra share of power to the middle aged. Interestingly, Singapore senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew has put forward an ‘Aristotelian view’ regarding age and citizenship, arguing for a voting procedure that would give extra votes to persons between the ages of 35 and 60 (married and with families) because the middle aged are the most responsible, whereas the young are too capricious and the elderly more likely to vote in selfish ways that penalize productive people and future generations (Straits Times, 30 July 1994). The elderly Lee might seem to be undermining his own authority when he puts forward such arguments (as would the elderly Aristotle qua teacher to Alexander), but he would probably reply that there are great individuals such as himself who can rise above these general tendencies. For an outsider, however, the fact that Lee's son is prime minister and other family members control key levers of the Singaporean economy leads one to wonder if Lee's account of the ‘selfishness’ of elderly people may be informed by his own experience.Google Scholar

¹⁰ In non-moral disciplines such as mathematics, it is often said that the best work is done by the young, when the mind may be more creative and less bound by traditional ways. But the task for exemplary persons is not so much to create as to learn what others have said about morality. Even the tiny minority of philosophers that develop new ideas about morality usually need to first learn what others have said about the subject. As Rosalind Hursthouse puts it, ‘There are youthful mathematical geniuses but rarely, if ever, youthful moral geniuses’ (quoted in Philip J. Ivanhoe, ‘The Theory and Practice of Abortion from a Confucian Perspective’, unpublished manuscript on file with author).Google Scholar

¹¹ The same may be true of other desires that can cause harm, such as the desire for thrills by driving fast. Car insurance companies penalize young people not because of any prejudice against the young but because numbers show that they are more prone to accidents due to reckless driving. In Quebec, my home province, one can obtain a driving license at 16 years old, and when I look at my past driving behaviour I consider myself lucky to be alive today. Now I'd favour a minimum driving age of at least 18.Google Scholar

¹² In Western societies, it seems that sexuality is often viewed as an important part of the good life and there may be less of an imperative to reduce, if not extinguish, the sexual urge. Quite the opposite, in fact: those who manage to counteract what seems like the natural decline of the sexual urge are praised in the popular media (one often hears reports of elderly people who carry on ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’ sex lives, as though that's a good thing). Why should we encourage elderly people to have sex, and make them feel bad if they're not? Isn't it better to try to lead a moral life without having to worry about fulfilling our hedonistic desires?Google Scholar

¹³ At a certain point, however, the elderly may lack the mental and physical preconditions for informed moral decision-making (e.g. in the case of patients with Alzheimer's).Google Scholar

¹⁴ A sage (shengren) is morally superior to an exemplary person, because the sage can change the ways of the universe, not just the human world (see the end of the Zhongyong).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Confucius notes that exemplary persons need to guard against lust in their youth, bellicosity in middle age, and acquisitiveness when old (16.7). This passage can be read to imply that that young (and middle-aged) people can also be exemplary persons, but perhaps what Confucius is really saying is that the process of trying to become an exemplary person starts at a young age, and there are different natural tendencies to guard against at different stages of life.Google Scholar

¹⁶ See Christopher Harbsmeier's highly entertaining article, ‘Confucius Ridens: Humour in The Analects’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (June 1990), pp. 131–61. Harbsmeier is generally persuasive, but he may go a bit overboard when he suggests that Confucius is not a ‘merchant of morality’. In my view, Confucius cares about promoting morality, but he thinks that creating an informal, joking atmosphere among a group of diverse and intelligent students is the best means for self-improvement (because gentle teasing among intimates allows for criticisms without anybody taking offence). I do not mean to imply that such concerns actually motivated Confucius's behaviour in everyday life; the tendency to humour may not be so instrumental. Perhaps it's more a matter of unchosen character traits, and Confucius is naturally inclined to joking and informality, with self-improvement as the by-product rather than the purpose. Put differently, it may be difficult for relatively serious, missionary types to practise informality and humour if they aren't already inclined to that way of being.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Cohen's ‘gay’ character is used to expose the moral vacuity of the fashion industry.Google Scholar

¹⁸ I watch Cohen videos with my 12-year-old child, and I sometimes need to make the political message explicit in order to avert misunderstandings. The videos can also be used as educational tools: for example, my son didn't get the joke about euthanasia (a term that Cohen, playing Ali G., intentionally misundertood as ‘youth in Asia’) because he wasn't familiar with the concept of assisted dying, and it was a good occasion to explain the controversy.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Aristotle is more explicit that one of the benefits of music is has the power of ‘gladdening’ hearts and therefore ‘we may conclude that the pleasure it gives is one of the reasons why children ought to be educated in music’ (Politics, bk VIII, ch. V, 1339b). Like Confucius, he also praises music for its contribution to moral training, with the difference that Aristotle is mainly concerned with music's contribution to improving the individual soul rather than its contribution to group harmony. As a result, Aristotle writes more about the individual's relation to particular instruments rather than group musical performances.Google Scholar

²⁰ Even the normally stern Mencius says that the content of music is the happiness that arises from it (the same character – – refers to both happiness and music, in classical Chinese as well as today). And when the joy cannot be stopped, the listener begins to ‘unselfconsciously dance with one's feet and wave one's arms’ (IVA.27). One can imagine Mencius, overhearing the Warring States period equivalent of rock and roll, breaking into song and dance as he scolds tyrants over their misdeeds.Google Scholar

²¹ I've added ‘in the immediate aftermath’ because an Israeli friend tells me that some Israelis do tell ‘black jokes’ about suicide bombers, perhaps as a way of coping with the anxiety of living with the threat of such bombers. But it's far worse, morally speaking, to tell a joke right after such bombings. Such jokes are conceivable (e.g. you don't look so well today) and could make their appearance in, say, Quentin Tarantino movies, but anybody who makes such jokes in reality must have a moral compass that's seriously out of whack.Google Scholar

²² Huang Zongxi, Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince, trans. William Theodore de Bary, New York, Columbia University Press, 1993, p. 92 (modified).Google Scholar

²³ See Philip J. Ivanhoe, ‘Lessons from the Past: Zhang Xuecheng and the Ethical Dimensions of History’, unpublished manuscript on file with the author.Google Scholar

²⁴ One seemingly puzzling passage in the Analects where Confucius seems to be arguing in favour of a life of leisure over social commitment should instead be taken to mean that informal social interaction is foundational to social harmony (or social capital, to use the language of modern social science) and rule by moral power rather than coercion. In this passage (11.26), four different students describe their different ideals to Confucius. The first argues for governing a large, militarily powerful state, the second for governing a small state, the third for serving as a minor protocol officer, and the fourth favours swimming and singing with a group of intimates. Confucius expresses subtle disapproval at the first student, Zilu, who thinks he can change a state simply by virtue of his personal presence and the right kinds of policies, without mentioning the social trust that can render those policies effective. The last student, named Zengxi, explicitly receives Confucius's endorsement because, arguably, Zengxi points to the importance of singing and swimming among intimates as crucial for forging the bonds of trust that underpin social harmony and rule by moral power. If we interpret Zengxi's ideal (and Confucius's response to it) that way, the passage as a whole also makes more sense: political commitment involves everything from governing the state down to informal interaction among intimates, with the latter being more foundational. Yu Dan, in her best-selling book on the Analects (‘Lunyu’ Xin De (Reflections on the Analects of Confucius), Beijing, China Publishing House, 2006) (over ten million copies sold in China!), claims that Confucius's reaction to Zengxi shows that he affirms the ideal of self-development, but there would be no reason for Confucius to favour ‘individualistic’ self-development over social commitment.Google Scholar

²⁵ This passage may not be as controversial as it sounds. It may just mean that family members should not be forced to incriminate each other, which is not very different from the ‘Western-style’ immunity that protects spouses from testifying against each other (though Confucians would want to extend that immunity to the relationship between adult children and their elderly parents).Google Scholar

²⁶ There may be controversy regarding the degree of ‘badness’ of rulers. In the Yuan dynasty (ruled by Mongols), two famous Confucians chose different paths: Xu Heng chose to collaborate with the authorities in the hope that he could help bring about the Confucian way, whereas Liu Yin withdrew from politics on the grounds that the Confucian way could not prevail if scholars accept Mongol masters. Today, there are similar debates. Some Confucian scholars, such as Yu Ying-shih, seem to think that the Chinese Communist Party is irredeemably tainted with evil, to the point that they would refuse to have anything to do with it. Others, such as Jiang Qing, advise political rulers if they are called upon to do so. I personally side with the latter. My view is that withdrawal may have been reasonable during the Cultural Revolution, but things have changed for the better since then. If my students choose to work for the Party with the hope of reforming it from the inside, I would not object.Google Scholar

²⁷ But I still need to refer on occasion to the English translations to help make sense of the texts. In this article, I have drawn upon translations by Roger Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr, The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, New York, Ballantine Books, 1998; D. C. Lau, Mencius, Hong Kong, Chinese University Press, 1984; and John Knoblock, Xunzi, Changsha, Hunan People's Publishing House, 1999. These translations have been modified to suit my own style and vocabulary.Google Scholar

²⁸ And perhaps I'm ripping the quotes from the Analects of Confucius from their context and my interpretations are completely wrong. But I lack the detailed historical knowledge that would allow me to evaluate such claims.Google Scholar

²⁹ Alternatively, I should just forget about this essay and get on with what I've been doing: adopting relatively piecemeal approaches to the Confucian tradition for the purpose of drawing ideas for improving my life and the East Asian societies where I've been living and working the past few years. Such an approach would involve being open to other traditions as sources of inspiration. I'm tempted to say that such openness is consistent with the ‘Confucian spirit’, but I will refrain from doing so due to my limited grasp of the Confucian tradition.Google Scholar