Lessons of Confucian philosophy on world affairs

the world inside with medium way still to come on our program what does Confucian philosophy and old history tell us about growth troubles today a preeminent Chinese Confucian scholar enlightened philosophy right after this place welcome back you're still watching world inside with me Tian where the program is coming to you life on CG Tian with the International Trading order in tatters the debate over globalization is front and center to make heads and tails of the uncertainty and looming conflict let's look at it through the prism of philosophy and history if we can back in China's warring States period of time before the Qin Dynasty all sorts of sauce and leadership battles for dominance Confucianism then was the idea whose time has come fast-forward to modern times in a way more complex world could ancient Chinese philosophy help shed some light as the conference on dialogue of civilization is going to take place in Beijing on Wednesday let's hear out professor to remain one of the most respected the Chinese confusion thinkers for a long time when it comes to comparing Chinese philosophy with Western ideas professor too is a real scholar of knowledge on China as an ancient living civilization let's listen I'm suggesting that the current chaos as compared with the warring States period magnified by thousand times global disorder not to mention the climate change environmental degradation and now the incredible development of science which may lead to the whole question of redefining humanity so all these are major chaotic forces and the diversity is even greater the technologies especially in science and communication has enabled the global community to become a global village and this is in a way our misfortune because so the village is noted for tension conflict and contradiction but it is also the great fortune for the humans to think for the first time in human history as a community but here it comes the question professor - yes that is China has already become the second largest economy in the world right at least in the number right secondly people are looking at China and say what can you offer right besides money right cash right infrastructure right what about ideas right very deep in my in my heart and in terms of my own self-reflection it's not simply arrogance or simply wishful thinking I do believe with in Chinese culture within the especially the spiritual aspects of Chinese culture there are a lot of resources that can really be mobilized and enhance our understanding of the human for example one of the ideas in the Confucian tradition is that from emperor to the commander each should regard self-cultivation as the root the idea of self cultivation is each human being despite ethnicity gender and so forth ought to first ask the question introspectively how can I be reasonable human being how can I be friendly to others this idea of self-improvement solving is then game starting from each individual it's a rich resource for the human community we are not seeing many of the great examples yes of so-called self cultivation as you just mentioned so people would say professor probably your thought is out of date it's still happening the exceptional case indicates how precious this idea it is not just Confucian and it's in the Christian names of Islamic and Hindu order to the yes if you want to understand yourself you should first of all very serious about self cultivation of our self reflection now this is a resource that every human being as it's not that going to be demonstrated by the leaders many of the leaders seem to have lost their way and because they do become political animals they're no longer human in a genuine sense of the term and so that's the only part of the story the other one is how to deal with another person or the principle of do not do to others what you will allow others do to you it's in that Golden Rule in the negative is to say the minimum requirement for human interaction if you see to it the other receives not only your recognition but your respect and you try to be public spirited lots of the private parts ego but also an open dynamic interchange person so I think in a way that is despite the challenge you're just mentioned I think it's real it's very serious and the self cultivation as a way of life is very widely accepted professors who as you may know these days when people talk about China or the Chinese in general they are saying so these are smart people right there we start getting richer and it seems that in a few decades they're going to leave all of us behind well they are going to be the group that's going to benefit the development of the world and that is interesting phenomenon because you've been advocating professor to self cultivation which in certain cases could mean the mutations are not efficient right because people tend to look inside more self-cultivation rather than increase the capability of communicating with others of exactly what your egos your desires are yes and that could lead to miscommunication misunderstanding and probably even bigger problems how do you see the balance of these two mm-hmm actually a person is always understood as a center or relationships it's not possible to think about a person as an ideal isolated individual it's not an island so subjectivity in this connection is also intercept activity you are ability to think in terms of the others or the the others becomes not only recognized respected but the dignity of the other is an end in itself rather than just a means to an end so reciprocity in the classical sense of the term is even among family members or the father-son husband and wife and only in younger siblings the relationship is always reciprocal because you have to exercise the value of consider teenis if you do not do that that will haunt you and you would not be able to to really sustain with your own one dimension or approach to express your egoistic concerns it's not your private person mm-hmm but how you understand yourself as a relationship in Russians to many other people with the many other aspirations but this is what also people been talking about yes these days is not about who is having the dignity mm-hmm who is having this moral high-ground rather who is going to be the winner this is course hops idea or even visa involved in the kind of zero-sum game it's very common and this is going to continue but they are underlying who's that allow even this level of communication to happen otherwise there's no communication like what I have to say even though we're not in a dialogical civilization no we're in a conflictual civilization but the word dialog actually occurs all the time at all levels for any society to survive not to mention the global community certain kind of rules of the game certain kind of etiquette certain kind of consideration will have to be there in order for the world to continue otherwise there's no even communication process that along dialogue professor to women was born in plumbing the nan province in the 1940s he grew up in Taiwan a later he studied and taught in several world renowned institutes in the u.s. almost a decade ago he became back to the Chinese mainland where he's been doing humanistic research based on his vast experience at home and abroad and from an insider and outsider's perspective what can be learned from China's experience over the past few decades China getting richer China getting much more respected than it used to be but at the same time there are counting tasks in front of China still probably even more as they say the reform has been going into the so-called deep water zone right is there something from China's ancient philosophy or its modern version will be able to help lead the way oh absolutely I think one very important idea is that China in terms of collectively or Chinese economy is the second but per capita the Chinese situation is still quite miserable and probably 100 100 million people are still on identify as abject poverty so what how China will develop first of all a sense of equity a sense of mutual responsibility each person's dignity has to be respected and the people who are poor will have to be helped and because so the the gap between the rich and poor in China is very serious ten percent ninety percent also and is in this situation that China need to rethink the five basic values within its own tradition and quite the first one is a sense of humanity a sense of human heartedness sympathy empathy the other one is justice not just not just freedom but also justice or and of course civility civility which is really lacking of count sometimes even in ordinary human existence and wisdom not just accumulation of knowledge but also on wisdom and the idea to reflect about one oneself all the time and very important feature is trust and we really as compared with that say Japan and with Europe and the trust is quite deficient in China this kind of spiritual ethical resources are absolutely critical for sustaining not just wealth and power but also basic equality and even basic peace and stability and that people basically agree the ideas that you teach your children and hopefully your children would be able to put them into practice are really the ideas that we need to ask you know Chinese parents Chinese leaders Chinese entrepreneurs successful Chinese to think about them but many say professor there is a fine balance between the vitality of social debates right and the stability and the efficiency of a society right how is that being reflected in today's China what is that fine balance right I think there's a lot of debate there's a lot of discussion through the internet which are and all kinds of other facilities but that's not public debate basically reaction to a particular incident to a particular situation that people don't like and there's a great deal of uproar and this is absurd of certain kind of anger frustration and this is activate how do we channel that mechanism the mechanism is there and allowing reasonable ideas to be expressed not only allowing reasonable ideas to be expressed allowing certain kind of critical spirit to be cultivated this critical spirit or self cultivation actually means you'll be able to criticize yourself it's very important not to develop a certain kind of self congratulatory notion about your greatness because you certainly feel that you're rich enough to be able to outsmart others and this is the idea of humbleness humility is very very critical for the Chinese community as a whole professor - before we go severally important words that would like to share with you for example confidence how confidence is being built reflected but at the same time make sure it is not going to become a force of self-satisfaction mm-hmm confidence and humbleness right that's right balance right confidence and arrogance are really in conflict confidence is based upon inner strength and again I return to the idea of cultivation the cultivation is a way of understanding Who I am and even though I fail to perform well in some other areas but there's always the possibility of recharge the the energy but also recognize this is not my privilege this is my responsibility many other people deserve the same kind of respect and therefore how you'll be able to learn the best from all over the world well at the same time you have some confidence that your direction is correct now this two are interconnected if they are separate then you lose not only your own confidence but also your ability to continue to learn and relearn in Confucianism right one of the most important thing is to make sure that people aspire to become a noble person right jinsol mm-hmm now today's world what are some of the most important qualities mmm if you call someone a ginger a noble person or a people uh noble people and first of all it's a sense person with dignity commander of the three armies can be snatch away the wheel of a common cannot be snatch away if you will that no matter at what kind of political or social stratification you want to be a person that you you feel not only comfortable with but proud and you want to be the best kind of person you want to become well this is the idea of learning to be human and to you Johnson talked about to establish that which is grading us everything would be man women old and young and so forth or have to will that I want to be better human being and I want to be a better human being not as an isolated individual it's against extreme form individualism I want to be a human being because I can't communicate fruitful meaningfully to other human beings and we can grow and flourish together professors who was a pleasure talking to you I learned so much today thank you so much sir for being with us thank you very much professor two women one of the best-known scholars in the world about Confucianism a lot of what he said really are food for thought for people today that is all the time we have for today if you'd like to see more try to find us world inside cgta into your search engine or check out our youtube channel you can also follow us on twitter facebook and sina weibo from EPMA and everyone on the world inside team thanks for watching tune in again next time for more insights across China and around the world

Channel: CGTN

Views: 3,407

Keywords: CCTV, CGTN, CCTVNews, News, ChinaNews, WorldNews, Politics

Id: bX-p8pRCE2E

Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2019