Tu
Wei-ming,
“A Confucian Perspective on Learning to be Human”
from
Confucian Thought:
Selfhood as Creative Transformation (Albany: 1985), 51-66
The
Confucian commitment to the human community is firm and comprehensive.
This commitment means that the whole Confucian enterprise begins with the
person living here and now. It also
means that the person in ordinary daily existence is the basis for the full
realization of humanity. The
Confucian insistence that learning is for the sake of the self -- an end in
itself rather than a means to an end -- speaks directly to this.
Learning, for the Confucian, is to learn to be human.
Learning to be human means becoming aesthetically
refined, morally excellent, and religiously
profound, but the primary concern of Confucian learning is character
formation defined in ethical terms.
If the primary Confucian concern is to learn to become a good person,
what does this entail? The living
Confucian must be aware that the idea of learning for the sake of the self does
not mean a quest for one's individuality. "Self,"
in the classical Confucian sense, refers to a
center of relationships. It has
a communal quality that cannot be conceived of as an isolated or isolable
entity. Confucian self-cultivation
is a deliberate communal act.
Nevertheless, the self is not reducible to its social roles.
The dramatic image of the modern person who assumes a variety of social
roles is definitely un-Confucian. The
idea of my assuming the role of son in reference to my father and simultaneously
assuming the distinct and separate role of father in reference to my son is
unnatural, if not distasteful. From
my own experience, as far as I can remember, I have always been learning to be a
son. Since my own son's birth, I
have also been learning to be a father, and my learning to be a son has taken on
new significance as a result of becoming a father myself.
Furthermore, my being a son and a father is also informed and enriched by
being a student, a teacher, a husband, a colleague, a friend, and an
acquaintance. These are ways for me
to learn to be human.
Self-cultivation can very well be understood as the broadening of the
self to embody an ever-expanding circle of human relatedness.
But ethicoreligious growth, for the Confucian, is not only a broadening
process but also a deepening process. As
I myself resonate with other selves, the internal resources inherent in me are
multiplied. I acquire an
appreciation of myself through genuine communication with the other; as I know
more of myself, I apprehend more of the other.
In today's pluralistic world, the Confucian, like his or her counterpart
in the Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, or Hindu community, must learn to
live an ethicoreligious life as a deliberate choice.
It may not be far-fetched to suggest that the modern approximation of the
traditional Chinese idea of Ru
(“Confucian”) is the scholar in the humanities.
However, in the highly professionalized atmosphere of the academic
setting, a scholar in the humanities captures only one aspect of what the Ru
purports to stand for. The
contemporary use of the term "intellectual," especially in the sense
of one who is engaged in and concerned with the well-being of humanity, comes
close to the idea of Ru.
To be religious, in the Confucian sense, is to be engaged in ultimate
self-transformation as a communal act. Salvation
means the full realization of the anthropocosmic reality inherent in our human
nature.
Questions
for Comprehension
(For
discussion only: written responses
not required)
What
is the Confucian view of the "self"?
What is the relationship between this view of self and the social
context of being, as a father, a husband, a son, a mother, a wife, a
daughter, a teacher, a student, etc.?
What
does it mean to "learn to be human"?
What
is the author's contemporary definition of Ru?
Contrast
this view of the "self" with the Western view.
How does the "anthropocosmic" conception of Confucianism
differ from the individualist conception of the West?