Peking University, Nov 8, 2011: Speaking of Confucius and Confucianism, the first idea occurs to many people may be something abstract and ancient, which is passed from generation to generation for thousands of years. Indeed, the research of Confucius has long been focused in the field of philosophy, culture study, and Chinese literature and so on. However, with the further study of Confucius, now some economists have found a way to connect Confucianism with economics, moreover, they try to explain economics in Confucianism. So who are those economists, what kind of theory they have put forward, how to explain their theory and how to understand it? To answer these questions, we should go back to the Beijing Forum.
On Nov.5, the Economics Sub-forum was held in Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center in Peking University (PKU). In the second session, featuring Regional Integration and Economic Growth, a speech delivered by Professor Reg Little (Bond University, Australia) who was both the founding director of Centre for East West Economic and Cultural Studies and vice president of International Confucian Association, has drawn much attention. His speech, named as Asian Confucian Wisdom–Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities, also brought about plenty of questions during the discussion.
Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities
In Professor Little’s speech, he mainly talked about the potential of Confucian administrations. As his speech revealed, “The financial, military and political misadventures of the major NATO members have led increasing commentators to foreshadow the decline and disintegration of the global order of the past two centuries — essentially an Anglo-American economic order. At the same time, practices of ‘intellectual apartheid’ have prevented any meaningful understanding in the West of the rise of Confucian Asia, essentially China, Japan, Korea and the ten ASEAN nations, with its distinctive cultural strengths. These qualities, which are most vital amongst administrative and commercial elites, have blindsided the ruling order. They have facilitated what has to date been a peaceful transition of power, consolidated by vaulting advances in education and technology. The misadventures of the Anglo-American economic order in areas like chemical agriculture, processed food, synthetic pharmaceuticals, ecological disruption, environmental destruction, casino finance and extravagant and destructive military technology - all of which detract from human well-being - now pose major challenges. Most of these are the product of excessive reliance on and faith in corporate energies directed by little more than overly simplified market imperatives and profit maximisation, something that Confucian administrations have shown themselves much better able to manage to strategic advantage. In fact the feral character of American corporate influence seems to be a major force facilitating the rapid rise of Confucian Asia - perhaps somewhat sooner than would be ideal. Confucian leaderships now confront what may prove to be even more of a challenge than their peaceful rise, as they seek to identify and address problems inherent in a major Anglo-American legacy - a pervasive counterfeit culture. Unique qualities in central classics of the Confucian tradition such as the Lunyu, Daodejing and Yijing all have important contributions to make in re-evaluating many of the certainties of “progress” over the past two centuries.” After the Economics Sub-Forum was over, Professor Little accepted the interview from PKU News reporter.
How is the current development of Confucius study in the West?
The first question was posed as to the situation of the study of Confucius in Western world. “Actually, people from West still find it hard to talk about this topic. Even a couple of years ago, people didn’t really want to talk about it. And now, though we can study it, yet people think it unnecessary to learn that. Also, hardly, hardly do people know about the value of Confucianism, or what a significant role it is playing in the global economy.”
How to connect Confucianism to economics, one is abstract while the other one is changeable?
On responding to the next question, Professor had a lot to say, “On the contrary, I think economics is so abstract and inaccurate, while Confucianism is fairly practical and stable. I nearly spent half of a century on this subject. All I can tell is that, the Confucianism has left deep influence on a lot of Asian people, no matter Chinese, Korean or Japanese. To understand the way that how Confucian Asian do business, deal with economics problems, cope with banking industry or basically anything relevant to economy and finance, you have to know about their culture first. Since you can clearly see that, as far as current situation is concerned, Confucian Asian is efficiently working on the problem while Westerners are a little bit freaking out, that can also be concluded from the fact that east get rich while west get bankrupt. Also, combining the study of Asian culture with economics is essential to the west, especially when Confucian Asian can find out the limitation of westerners. “
Won’t it be very challenging to introduce this kind of study to the west world?
"Well, sure it is very hard to tell people about the Confucianism." Professor Little said. “Like what I have mentioned before, in the early years, westerners quite refused to mention this topic. They have no idea about Lunyu, Yijing, Daodejing, however, some people have realized the importance of the role culture is playing in economics. As Professor Ki-seok Kim (Seoul National University, Republic of Korea) has pointed out in his speech at the Sub-Forum that some economists have noticed the different culture reflected on business and market behavior. So this is a good sign, showing that people are no longer separate things, on the contrary, thinking from different angles is necessary. Complicated as economics is, every potential element should be taken into consideration.” Professor Little also added at the end of the interview that, “Certainly it is impossible to call for enough attention to Confucianism and Asian culture, however, the Beijing Forum is providing a good chance for people to notice this theory, also it would be better if it has gained much academic attention.
Reported by: Qian Xin
