What Can Americans Learn from Confucianism?

Jay McDaniel

 1. America’s best hope is to adopt a more Confucian lifestyle: more focused on education, more respectful to old people, better able to subordinate private needs to public goods, more responsible to the needs of family, more polite in our daily lives, and more hardworking.

 2. Of course, many Americans wouldn’t call this adopting a Confucian lifestyle. They would call it becoming a good and responsible person.Confucianism does not have a monopoly on hard work or care for families. But these are among the virtues that Americans come to admire, when they begin to learn about Confucian-influenced cultures. Confucianism is a window into these and other virtues.

 3. If Americans take time to study Confucianism, they may quickly realize that it is not a “religion” in the same way that, for example, Christianity and Judaism and Islam are religions. Its focus is not on a creator God above the world, but rather on the world itself, as a place where ultimate meaning is found. If we equate ultimate meaning with what is truly sacred in life, then Confucianism finds the sacred in the secular, in the relationships of ordinary life.

 4. The sacred is found in preparing and sharing meals with family and friends over a dinner table; in harmonious and respectful relations in the workplace; in being a gracious and hospitable host to guests who visit your home; in appreciating the gift of learning and taking “education” as one of life’s greatest gifts; in having a sense of inner self-discipline and restraint, not needing to share every emotion or ventilate every emotion; in being polite and respectful to old people, knowing that they have a wisdom which comes from experience; in being willing to give yourself to the needs of your family even at the expense of personal sacrifice; in having the freedom to live simply and non-ostentatiously, in a humane and caring way, without needing to be famous.

 5. These are among the primary values of a living Confucianism: a Confucianism for ordinary life. But the values at issue are best realized, not by reading about them in books, but rather by seeing them in action, as exemplified in the humane grace of another person: a grandfather, a grandmother, an aunt, an uncle, a teacher, a cousin, a friend. In the Confucian tradition, we learn to become virtuous by seeing others who are virtuous and by being inspired by their example.

 6. Underlying these values is an even more fundamental value that permeates every one of them: a sense that harmony is the highest ideal in life.The harmony that is so important in East Asia has diverse expressions. It is a harmony that can be heard in music; that can be seen in the variety of foods on a dinner table; that can be felt in mutually respectful relations with other people and in the more general order of the natural world. This harmony is not sameness. It is not a collapse of everything into one thing. It is also not stagnant. It is not the harmony of a statue that seems fixed in one place. It is a moving harmony, a changing harmony, a dynamic harmony.

 7. In other words, Confucianism is, above all things, a leaning toward harmony as life’s highest ideal. The harmony at issue is dynamic not static, flexible not fixed, diversified not homogenized. It is a harmony that includes healthy disagreements and has a democratic spirit, respectful of the voices of individuals as well as groups.

 8. Among Western philosophers, Alfred North Whitehead offers a similar vision. He sees harmonious intensity and intense harmony as the happiness — the satisfaction — which all living beings seek at every moment of their lives. Love, for Whitehead, is the ultimate form of harmony.In Confucianism this is called human-heartedness or Ren (仁). The loving person is a person whose heart is attuned to harmony and who embodies harmony in his or her own life.

 9. Finally here is a question: Is Confucianism enough? Can a person find its alternative way of being religious sufficient for a healthy and satisfying life? My own hope is that self-identified Christians and Buddhists, Jews and Muslims, will gradually learn more and more about the wisdom of Confucianism, incorporating elements of it into their lives. The ideas enunciated above are all compatible with a walk with Christ, a practicing of the Dharma, a walk with Torah, a practicing of Islam. Living Confucianism can enrich the practice of these religions. There are also the large numbers of people in many parts of the world who are not identified with any other formal religion, but who do indeed want to be good people, who find themselves leaning toward harmony, and who find the various meanings of ordinary life — family, friendships, service — sufficient for a satisfying life. Some people speak of them as spiritual but not religious. For them something like Confucianism is indeed enough. It need not be called Confucianism. It can simply be called being a good person.

 10. The living Confucianism of China and other East Asian nations can help people all over the world grow in the arts of becoming good people. It can help people with and without other kinds of religion. As Americans enter into the Pacific Century we can welcome, and indeed celebrate, the living Confucianism we find in East Asian friends. Every time we find ourselves living with respect for others; every time we help Heaven by sharing goodness with the world; every time we choose to live simply and humbly, without needing to be the center of attention, we are Confucian in our way. And there is something beautiful in it.

【译文】

从儒学中，美国人能学到什么？

杰伊•麦克丹尼尔

1. 美国人最大的愿望就是过上一种更像儒家式的生活：更重视教育，更尊敬老人，个人需求更能服从集体利益，对家人更尽责，在生活中更有礼貌，在工作中更努力。

2. 当然，许多美国人并不将此称为儒家式的生活方式，而是称之为做一个更好且更有责任感的人。并非只有儒家学说提倡努力工作、关爱家人。然而，正是美国人开始学习儒家文化时，他们才开始赞美这些美德。儒家思想为学习这些和其他美德打开另一扇窗口。

3. 如果美国人花点功夫研究儒家思想的话，他们很快就会明白，儒家并不是一种“宗教”，比方说，它与基督教、犹太教、伊斯兰教是迥然不同的。儒家关注的并非是高高在上的造物主上帝，而是关注这个世界本身，并将之视为终极意义之所在。如果我们将这种终极意义等同于生活中真正神圣的东西，那么儒家便能在世俗之中、在日常生活的种种关系之中找到神圣。

4. 这种神圣随处可见，在餐桌前，与家人、朋友一同准备和享用正餐；在工作中，与同事和睦互敬；在客人来访时，做一个亲切殷勤的主人；在学习中，感恩学习天赋，视“教育”为人生最大馈赠；在与人交流时，懂得自律节制，不随意宣泄情感；面对老人时，恭敬有礼，尊重他们拥有源于阅历的智慧；在家庭问题上，能为家人之所需而付出，甚至以牺牲自身利益为代价；在个人追求中，以仁义之道，简单生活，自在由心，不追逐名利，不招摇浮夸。

5. 所有这些价值观念基本体现了现实中的儒学，亦即日常生活的儒学。然而，要更好地实现我们所探讨的价值观，读书是远远不够的，最好是从行动中领悟，从别人的仁爱中去感受。这些人包括爷爷、奶奶、阿姨、叔叔、老师、兄弟姐妹以及朋友。在儒家传统里，我们从优秀的人那里学习如何变得优秀，从他们的事例中得到启示。

6. 这些价值是基于一种更为根本的价值，这个根本价值贯穿以上每个价值：它便是生活的最高境界——和谐。在东亚地区，这种和谐非常重要，且有不同的表现形式。这种和谐可闻、可见、可感，可闻于音乐之中，可见于餐桌上丰盛的食物之中，可感于人与人之间的互敬互重以及自然大道之中。这种和谐也许并非一味地求同。它不是毁万物而成就一物，亦非静止不变的，更非固定在某个地方的一座和谐雕塑。这种和谐是不断运动的，变化的，动态的。

7. 换句话说，儒学，最重要的是，倾向于将和谐视为至高的生活理想。我们所说的和谐生机勃勃而非暮气沉沉，圆融通达而非一成不变，百花齐放而非千篇一律。这种和谐允许合理分歧的存在，它秉承民主精神，尊重个人和集体的声音。

8. 在西方哲学家之中，艾尔弗雷德•诺思•怀特海持有相似的观点。他将和而不同视为快乐——即满足——所有的人每时每刻都在追寻的东西。爱，在怀特海看来，是和谐的终极形式。在儒学之中，这被称作“仁”。仁者是那些心系和谐的人，他们的日常生活中处处体现了和谐。

9. 那么，还有一个问题：只有儒学是否足矣？一个人可否通过寻求一种另类的宗教从而过上健康满意的生活呢？我个人的愿望是：那些自诩为基督徒、佛教徒、犹太教徒和穆斯林教徒们能逐渐学习越来越多的儒教智慧，将这些智慧融入他们生活之中。上述种种观点与基督精神、佛法之道、犹太之律、伊斯兰之义都有相通之处。现行的儒家思想可以充实这些宗教修行。世界上仍有很多地区的众多人不信奉任何正式的宗教，但是他们很想成为好人，他们发现自己热爱和谐，他们在平常生活中找寻意义——在家庭、友谊和社会服务中——找寻足以让他们过上满意生活的意义。一些人称之为精神的而非宗教的。于他们而言，有儒家思想之类的东西就已足矣。不一定要称作儒家，就是说只要称作好人足矣。

10. 中国以及其他东亚国家现行的儒学思想能帮助全世界的人们学会怎样成为一个好人。它能帮助人们，不管他是否信奉宗教，信奉何种宗教。随着美国步入太平洋世纪，我们才能迎来，确切地说庆贺，我们在东亚的朋友们那里找到了现行的儒家思想。每当我们发现自己在生活中能尊重他人之时；每当我们与世界分享美好以遂天意之时；每当我们选择简单而谦恭的生活方式，不在乎他人关注之时，我们就是在以自己的方式过上儒家生活。美便在其中。