In this article, I trace a shift in Confucian scholars' interpretations about the idea of "learning for one's self" vs. "learning for others" from "the Analects": a shift from the philological interpretation to the philosophical one. Despite its defect, most Neo-Confucians accepted the philosophical interpretation, because it was considered to play a role of minimizing a newly emerged educational bane, that is, students' exclusively instrumental study for civil service examinations, while establishing the supremacy of "learning for the cultivation of mind". I will examine whether this shift would also be said to be valid to contemporary Koreans or East Asians, who are often pictured as exam obsessed.