First of all, Confucianism is the contemporary road to the revival of Confucian learning. Along with the serious setbacks that China has suffered in modern times, Confucian culture also suffered unspeakable disasters. We do not need to review that tragic period of history since it has already been engraved in everyone’s heart. In an even more difficult time than today, there was a highly respected man, he was known as “Sage Kang”, the reform Leader Kang Youwei. Facing all sorts of difficulties, including the barbaric invasions of imperialists, declining national strength, and the sinking of Confucian learning that was tied together with the imperial examination system and the family system, Kang Youwei tried almost every possible way to save Confucian culture. In fact, many contemporary practices aiming to save Confucian culture all learn from Kang Youwei. Therefore, it seems that our emphasis on the historical role of Kang Youwei is far from enough.

The first way Kang Youwei opened up was the way of Confucian learning, also known as the way of philosophy. Kang Youwei was originally a scholar of Gongyang-studies ( 公羊学, an academic school to research on Confucian principles of righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Annals), yet in the era advocating “learning from the advanced technologies in the West to resist the invasion of the Western powers”, Kang Youwei began to harbor such a strong interest in the Western philosophy that he even imitated Western philosophers in his attempt to establish a strict system of philosophy and wrote Shili gongfa quanshu (实理公法全书, The complete book on the veritable order and public law). This was the Chinese’s early attempt to reconfigure Confucian philosophy by imitating the practice of Western philosophy. As for his most famous philosophical book, the Datongshu (大同书 , Book of the Great Unity), it linked the Confucian ideal of great unity with communism. The second way Kang Youwei opened up was the way of politics. His most important writings in this aspect was the book Kongzi gaizhi kao ( 孔子改制考, Confucius’ approach towards governmental reform). And in order to prove the necessity and rationality of his reform, he portrayed Confucius as the forefather of reforms and he actively initiated the Reform Movement of 1898 ( 戊戌变法). Kang Youwei did so because he clearly recognized that the crisis of Confucian culture was closely linked with the crisis of the whole nation, and Confucian learning, as the core of the Confucian culture, must solve the crisis of itself through dealing with the crisis of the whole nation. The third way that Kang Youwei opened up was the way of Confucianism. He advocated that Confucianism should be transformed in line with the organization pattern of Christianity and it should be promoted as the state religion. Today, Confucianism of Kang Youwei’s type has long disappeared in the Chinese mainland, but in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, there are still some scattered remnants. And some ideas of Confucianism in today’s academic circles are still related to the thinking of Kang Youwei. Secondly, Confucianism is an important way to instill Confucian learning into people's minds. Though Confucian learning ( 儒学), Confucian tactics ( 儒术), and Confucianism ( 儒教) had special emphasis in different periods of history, they were actually one in essence. However, to clear their relationships is still quite difficult and often sets off debate in today’s discussions of how to promote Confucian culture.

Confucian culture has a set of unique doctrines and creeds different from other schools or other religions. Yet regarding Confucian culture as Confucian learning is an inclination in modern times. “Confucian culture” is now named as a second level discipline under the first level discipline “Chinese philosophy” in the university system designated by the Education Ministry. This kind of practice plays a significant role in saving and carrying on Confucian culture. But it results in an illusion that is not easily perceived: it seems that Confucian culture only becomes “Confucian philosophy” and is interpreted by the same language as Western philosophy. And if one wants to understand the essence of those Confucian sages, one should first of all receive Western philosophical training and become proficient in the academic language of Western philosophy, and then one can use this language to explain Confucian learning in whatever way one likes. And as long as the discipline of philosophy exists, the impulse to perceive Confucian learning from a philosophical perspective can hardly be resisted. Moreover, for some researchers working on Confucian learning in universities or research institutions, other than purely intellectual researches, their main task is to find a new rhetoric to discuss tradition. It is after all a good thing that more people are discussing Confucian learning in varied ways, and regarding Confucian culture as a research object is no doubt in line with the norms of objective research. However, restricting Confucian culture only to Confucian learning and conducting only academic studies without promoting the real construction of Confucian culture is quite a problem. Besides, due to the disciplinary background, it’s easy for one to subconsciously do the research in the method of Western philosophy even in the field of Confucian studies. The academic value of such a method, however, is very dubious. We may ask ourselves: in that difficult time of national salvation and prevailing Western culture, it was both unavoidable and arduous for the previous two generations to confine Confucian culture to the academic research system; yet in today’s China that has already gone through the most difficult times, should we still consider Confucian culture only as the object for academic research and let it remain alienated from the society and the public as our predecessors did in the past? And as we continue looking for the so-called “modern values” and “contemporary significance” in Confucian classics, have we ever thought about that even if we spend our whole life and do find many extraordinary academic findings, yet how can we carry out these values and significance in real life and instill them into people’s minds? These academic research findings are helpful for the researchers to gain professional titles, to plump up a CV, but what about their contribution to the promotion of Confucian learning itself, if any? Should we waste our precious life only in exploring something unrealistic and impractical? If we want our Confucian ideology to display its practical social effect, we should pay attention to the social forms that make it work. Let us first have a brief review of how Confucian learning was put into effect in history. Confucius argued for “following the road of Yao and Shun-the legendary sage kings in ancient China and following the system of Emperor Wen and Wu of the Zhou Dynasty”( 祖述尧舜，宪章文武). He pursued the political ideals of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty after studying the Ritual and Music Culture ( 礼乐文化) of the Zhou Dynasty. As a matter of fact, Confucianism in pre-Qin days did not formally enter the political arena, and therefore in those days it was mainly demonstrated as Confucian learning -a set of doctrines striving to influence the political realities. Just as Han Yu ( 韩愈, a classical prose stylist and poet) described in his essay Yuan Dao ( 原道, original path) : Confucianism before Zhou Gong ( 周公, the Duke of Zhou was a Zhou dynasty nobleman) was directly used in political practice by the political leaders, yet after Zhou Gong, Confucian scholars no longer had the highest political power and thus Confucianism was confined to doctrines on paper. In the Han Dynasty, Confucian learning became Confucian tactics ( 儒术)-an ideological tool to govern the country. It was this shift that actually displayed the function of Confucian learning in helping the king rule his people. In this sense, the principles of Confucian learning were truly implemented in social governance. However, this tool had its limitation, since its control over individuals mainly depended on heteronomy-a force outside the individual instead of an individual’s self-discipline. Moreover, in the late Han Dynasty, Confucian learning declined with the rise of metaphysics ( 玄学) which emphasized the grow of the inner spirit. In the Tang Dynasty, Confucian learning in general focused on the commentary and semantic analysis of Confucian classics, which determined that it couldn’t become a systematic philosophy of life at that time. In the Song Dynasty, Confucian learning became a religion — Confucianism ( 儒教), stressing again its significance in helping the individual become a sage through self-cultivation and self-discipline. In addition, Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty enriched Confucianism, and enabled it, like Buddhism and Daoism, to provide systematic answers to the philosophical problems of life. And many Confucian followers began to realize that “Confucianism was all-inclusive, and they no longer needed the help from Buddhism, Taoism and other religions”. So we can see, Confucian learning, firstly in the form of Confucian tactics, performed its function of helping the king govern his people in the Han Dynasty, and later when facing serious challenges from Buddhism and Taoism, Confucian learning, in the form of Confucianism, carried out its function of helping individuals become a sage. Along with these two major transitions, the core of Confucian learning also developed accordingly.

Among the relationships between Confucian learning ( 儒学), Confucian tactics ( 儒术), and Confucianism ( 儒教), Confucian tactics is the way by which Confucian learning can be implemented in the society, and Confucianism is the way by which Confucian learning can be instilled into people's minds. Without Confucian tactics or Confucianism, Confucian learning would be like a flying seed that finds no place to take root. In today’s China when Confucian culture has little influence upon political power, the so-called Confucian tactics is to observe, understand and interpret Confucian learning from the perspective of political philosophy. Although Confucian learning is no longer the official ideology, yet Confucian understanding of politics and the resulting intuitional arrangements have its positive and reasonable values. It is not only a unique perspective, but also an important resource for contemporary political construction. As for Confucianism, it consoles and encourages people to face life and death, and provides mental peace and emotional support for those who are plagued by spiritual problems. Confucianism is therefore a good choice for those who seek shelter in religion. On the other hand, Confucian learning is the theoretical essence of Confucian tactics and Confucianism, and it is also the academic research on the practice of Confucian tactics and Confucianism. In other words, without Confucian tactics and Confucianism, Confucian learning would be merely an academic research to explore objective knowledge which is isolated from real life, or even worse, just the self entrainment among a few scholars. Traditionally, Confucianism was mostly practiced by officials or intellectuals of prestigious status ( 士大夫), yet under the contemporary social condition of universal education, contemporary Confucianism is no longer confined to intellectuals, but has also reached the masses. As the saying goes “every Confucian can derive pleasure out of the ritual culture of Confucianism” ( 儒者自有名教可乐), anyone who has faith in Confucianism is a Confucian and each Confucian can obtain help from Confucianism in his life. And in this age when Chinese culture is experiencing a major change, it will be very meaningful and wonderful if Confucianism once again takes charge of the rituals related to civil ceremonies like weddings, funerals, and restores our glory as a state of ceremonies.

(Peng Yongjie, Professor, Philosophy School, Renmin University of China) (Translated by Xu Wenjiao）