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This article focuses on Mencius' concepts of human nature and harmony, aiming to explore the intrinsic connection between the two and their implications for contemporary ethics, morality and social harmony. This article first provides a detailed analysis of Mencius' theory of human nature, pointing out that Mencius' "theory of good nature" emphasizes the human beings’ innate goodness. Then, using cross-cultural comparison methods, the similarities and differences between Mencius and Machiavelli in ethical concepts, social utilitarianism and human nature are analyzed. Finally, by delving into the two thinkers’ core viewpoints and their influence on modern philosophical discourse, the universality and uniqueness of Mencius' thought can be better understood. The results indicate that the concept of human nature being inherently good, advocated by Mencius, is the foundation for achieving social harmony, and his idea of harmony provides a new perspective for solving contemporary social problems, as well as important theoretical resources for modern ethics and political philosophy.

In Chinese culture, Confucian thought about interpersonal relationships and family ethics hold significant historical and cultural value. These ideas not only affect individual moral cultivation, but also play a key role in the entire society’s harmony and stability. Beginning with Confucius’ views on concepts, such as friendship and order, the paper examines the concept of interpersonal relationships in Confucius’ thought from five aspects based on the five constant virtues—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and sincerity. Based on the five constant virtues of interpersonal relationships, this paper further summarizes and analyzes Confucius’ family ethics concepts and reflects on them. Through reflection and outline of Confucius’ thoughts, we can easily grasp the foundation of Chinese traditional culture and give helpful reference and motivation to the construction of ethics and morality in current culture.

This article explores how to combine Confucian principles of filial piety and benevolence with modern aging society governance through literature review and case studies, aiming to improve the elderly people’s quality of life and promote social harmony by integrating traditional values into modern policies. This article analyzes the challenges brought by aging to Chinese society and explores how to solve the social problems caused by aging through these traditional values. The results indicate that the Confucian ideals of filial piety and benevolence provide moral guidance and cultural foundation for respecting and caring for the elderly. The concept of filial piety emphasizes the respect and care of children towards their parents, while the idea of benevolence advocates for the care and support of the elderly throughout society. It is crucial to integrate these traditional values with modern national policies in building a civilized elderly society. By doing so, China can improve its elderly citizens’ quality of life and pave the way for a respectful and caring social framework.

The rise of the People’s Republic of China has spurred research into whether this rising power will end up colliding with the United States, following a pattern that Graham Allison has called Thucydides’ Trap. However, some of these studies depart from the idea that the State is a unified actor and that conflict is inherent to the international system. In other words, China will behave in the same manner as all western powers on the international stage. This article will sustain that it is impossible to analyse and/or infer the potential conduct of the People’s Republic of China without grasping its over 2000-year’s cultural heritage. The legacy of Confucianism enjoyed a rebirth in the People’s Republic of China since the 1990s. In this sense, the theoretical tool of constructivism is used to study that legacy and its impact on Chinese strategic thinking, which is also linked to Chinese traditions and can be observed in the dynamics of Wéiqí: the weakening of the adversary in order to obtain greater territorial control. To that effect, we observe how investment, trade and cultural penetration by China into the world has evolved in the last few years.

Confucian educational thought is a complete educational theoretical system based on Confucius’ ethical thought, which is increasingly enriched and perfected in the later Confucian thinkers’ continuous inheritance and development. Confucian educational thought is different from Western educational theory. It takes moral education as the core, and ethics as the feature, with strong Chinese humanistic color. In modern education, the excellent educational thought of Confucianism is still talked about by people. From the perspective of philosophical analysis, this paper makes an in-depth study of the main purpose, content and method of Confucian educational thought, probes into the philosophical idea behind Confucian educational thought and summarizes its important enlightenment to contemporary education.

O pensamento moral de Confúcio não foi criado por acaso, mas decorreu das características e exigências da sociedade chinesa no período da primavera e outono. A realidade social desse período colocou uma série de problemas prementes, obrigando os pensadores a prestar atenção e explicar. Em particular, a questão pendente é como estabilizar a ordem social e educar a moral das pessoas, transformar a sociedade de "desordem" em "paz", pessoas de "sem moral" em "ter" moralidade. Para esclarecer esta questão, o artigo se concentrará em esclarecer questões como: Visões sobre a ética e o papel da ética; Relações morais na sociedade; Padrões éticos; Métodos de educação moral para as pessoas na sociedade. A partir dessas questões, o artigo extrairá valores históricos do ponto de vista moral de Confúcio.

Social harmony is an imperative for the development of society. Without social harmony there is bound to be conflicts, violence, and social turmoil that impede the wellbeing of society. A key factor that can promote social harmony is when people live out the meaning of their names. This is what Confucius called Zhengming (“rectification of names”). For him the rectification of names implies every citizen living out the full import and meaning of their names and roles. Without rectification of names society will continue to be bedeviled by disharmony. Like many other societies the African continent is bedeviled with social disharmonies caused by poor leadership, bad governance, corruption and embezzlement of public funds, kidnapping and hostage taking, youth restiveness, illegal migration, environmental degradation, etc. It is difficult for there to be social harmony when citizens are experiencing social deprivations. The paper will use critical analytic and hermeneutic methods to examine the doctrine of rectification of names as proposed by Confucius. The paper will also apply this doctrine to the situation of social disharmony in Africa. The paper finds and concludes that there is need to use the ideas of Zhengming to mitigate social disharmonies in Africa.

Human position in society was one of the critical topics that attracted philosophers' attention in ancient China. Confucianism had systematic views on the human's role and position in social stabilization. The article aims to analyze the essential characteristics of the viewpoint on humans in Confucianism's philosophy before the Qin dynasty, such as the unity between politics and morality, the humanity in the promotion of moral rule, human civilization. These views still have influences on upholding culture as the spiritual foundation of today's Vietnamese society. This study used a qualitative research methodology through deriving from the literature and examinations of secondary resources to find out these influences. Research results show that Vietnam today is taking the people's legitimate interests and aspirations as a premise for building national solidarity, developing education and training for the development of the knowledge economy, and a lesson about focusing on people's livelihood. Although there are limitations of the times, such as discrimination of caste and status, fate, and human nature are subject to a priori idealism, the philosophy of Confucianism still has specific Vietnamese values in the current society.

This paper takes as its point of departure the sixteenth-century Jesuit construction of Confucianism and the manufacture of the figure of Confucius in the form of translations of the Chinese classics. In examining the Jesuit policy of accommodation in Asia, I ask whether we might not view these efforts as precursors for the tasks we seek to perform as Comparatists and World Literature scholars. Like the Jesuits in China who sought to package Confucius, we seek to package the world by contextualizing form and argument, canonizing a body of work, producing creative readings sand projecting a vision onto the foreign Other. I focus in particular on the work of Matteo Ricci and his catechism, the Tianzhu shiyi, as a work of cultural mistranslation. I ask to what degree are our current critical readings of the Other not also failures. I question the purposes for which one “misreads”.