Exemplarism -- the view that exemplary people, whom we admire, are the bearers of our moral concepts -- presents considerable challenges to the (widely-assumed) place of moral "theory" in how we learn to be moral. Exemplarism has been garnered by Amy Olberding to articulate a Confucian approach to moral learning. This paper extends…

Superdiversity now highlights the complexity of diverse societies. Celebrating and encouraging diverse populations, therefore, remains a priority to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all. Multiculturalism, once seen as part of the solution to diversity issues, is now regarded as problematic, although this is by no means new. Asian contexts…

Cultivating "wenhua dacai" (great cultural talent) is a central goal of the ongoing "dujing" (classics reading) education movement, which is an integral part of the broad Confucian revival in contemporary China. Focusing on the concept of "wenhua dacai," this article explores three interrelated issues. First, as a…

Humility as an aspect of our humanity is an important concept in both Confucian and Western philosophy. In the modern world, whether Western or not, there seems to be a growing need to promote humility, especially intellectual humility, as a fundamental virtue among students. In this paper, I first compare and contrast the Confucian and Western…

Traditionally, the genealogy of Edo Confucianism, that is, Confucianism reinterpreted and reconstructed in the Tokugawa period, has been classified into the Chu-Hsi, Wang Yang-ming, Ancient, and Eclectic schools. These classifications are based on the most representative Confucian theories in the Tokugawa period and are useful for understanding…

This paper discusses the nature of Chinese ideology and the policy of citizenship education from a cultural perspective, in the light of traditional life philosophies and current tendencies. The aim is to understand the Chinese conception of citizenship and the education of citizens as a nation-specific cultural formation and a production of…

This paper extends the dominant understandings of empathy -- as a trait, state, communication or relationship -- by conceptualising it as a virtue and as a tool to address anti-Asian hate crime. Drawing upon the writings of the Confucian philosopher Xunzi, this article interprets empathy as a personal quality that attests to one's moral…

In traditional Chinese philosophy, silence occupies a pivotal position by not being merely treated as the absence of speech, but also as the transcendence of it. Silence in early Confucianism implies the timing, subjects and issues to which one should not teach and talk about, and in depth it also refers to the manifestation of utmost sincerity…

In China as elsewhere in the world, human bodies and body parts have long been used for a wide range of medical and non-medical purposes. In recent decades, China has played a considerable role in some of the public exhibitions of plastinated bodies and body parts, and the commercial trade in organ donations. These contemporary developments have…

In this essay, I draw upon Ellen J. Langer's notions of mindlessness and mindfulness to identify and delineate Confucius' views on mindfulness. Langer's theory exemplifies a social-cognitive approach to mindfulness which is a prominent orientation in the extant research. I argue that Confucius, like Langer, rejects mindlessness that is…

In this article, we argue that virtues can emerge from contemplation which can lead us to attunement with the Dao thereby realizing our inner goodness and intrinsic traits. This requires us to persist in doing inner and outer work. Inner work involves meditation and reflective practices to awaken ourselves and others. Outer work involves engaging…

Confucianism has been widely perceived as a major moral and cultural obstacle to the donation of bodies for anatomical purposes. The rationale for this is the Confucian stress on "xiao" (filial piety), whereby individuals' bodies are to be intact at death. In the view of many, the result is a prohibition on the donation of bodies to…

This article challenges the dominant notion of the 'high-performing education system' and offers an alternative interpretation from a Daoist perspective. The paper highlights two salient characteristics of such a system: its ability to outperform other education systems in international large-scale assessments; and its status as a positive or…

Within the last few decades, scholars have uncovered remarkable similarities between Confucian and pragmatist philosophies. Given these resonances, how would a philosophy of music education founded on a synthesis of Confucian and pragmatist ideas look? How would such a philosophy compare with extant philosophies of music education? In this paper,…

This article explores the conceptualization of cosmopolitan citizen and the relevant teaching practice in the emerging Confucian classical education in contemporary China. It addresses two aspects. First, the cosmopolitan orientation of the cultural subject constructed in the theory of classics-reading education is embedded in the presupposition…