Upgrade needed?

Still, one might ask whether the ancient sage of Shandong province needs a reboot for the new era, an upgrade to Confucius 2.0, to remain relevant in a supercharged modern world.

Zhang, the construction supervisor in Jinan, said Confucian ideas are good, as far as they go, but they may not be adequate to handle all aspects of life in the 21st century.

"His ideas work most of the time in life. But in some situations the law or the military work more efficiently than Confucian concepts," Zhang said.

Sunyu Zhuoran, 19, a college student in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, can recite a dozen Confucian teachings in one breath - so nobody can say she doesn't know her Confucius. But she thinks the sage may be obsolete in some areas.

"I learned a lot of the Analects in middle school. It was in our exams, and there was a Confucius statue where some of my classmates would go to pray for blessings," she said.

"But some Confucian teachings need to be updated, such as 'Women are hard to handle' - which I can't agree with.

"We shouldn't inherit all the Confucian teachings without considering whether they fit for the current situation, because the environment in which Confucius lived is very different from the one we now have. We need to draw good things from Confucian teachings and discard the outdated ones."

That may be true, but Wang Xuedian, chief editor of the Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy at Shandong University, said Confucian concepts such as he and ren are being shortchanged if they are regarded merely as ethical concepts to manage relationships between people. They should be used to cure the seemingly endless political and social maladies that plague mankind.

"It's actually a theory of social science and social development," he said. "But there is still a long way to go to activate Chinese traditional culture and integrate it with people's daily lives."

Like Wang, Ames also sees value in applying the Confucian approach to global problems.

"My argument is not that Confucianism is the answer but that it deserves a place at the table, that it has some important things to say to the world when it comes to rethinking what it means to be human in light of the problems we face today. Global warming, pandemics, food and water shortages, environmental degradation, international terrorism. Whether it's an individual, a corporation or a country, we can solve these problems only if we work together.

"The Confucian concept says that the only way I can take my stand is by helping other people take theirs. If my neighbor does better, I do better. That's the Confucian wisdom. This is really needed in the world today."

As for the current state of world affairs, "What we're doing now is madness, just absolute madness - the idea of'us versus them'. We're just swimming right against the tide," Ames said.

"The human predicament requires that we change our values and practices. We have to see the world differently. That's why Confucianism has to be brought in, not as the answer to everything, but as something that can help fashion a new culture for our time."

Contact the writers at zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/30/2019 page1)