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A Confucian Saint is often believed to share four merits for his life: high position, attracting bonuses, good reputation, and long life. But the model of both Confucius and his most favored disciple Yan Hui did not testify to these merits in their lifetime. Confucius lived a miserable life and longer than average of his peers, often being chased after and driven out by dukes like a stray dog, and Yan Hui died in poverty at the age of 29. Yet both Confucius and Yan Hui were quite satisfied with their lives by demonstrating the beauty and merits of moral lives that philosophers could expect. So the life philosophy exhibited in Confucius and Yan Hui provoked a heated debate among Neo-Confucians: What is the sense of Moral Happiness of Confucius and Yan Hui (kongyan lechu)? The exploration into this Moral Happiness of Confucius and Yan Hui became an intellectual focus of the key exponents of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. The Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi expounded it in connection with cosmology and epistemology, that is, any secular misfortune that occurred to human beings can be dwindled into nothing by comparing to cosmic dynamics or rather such universal consciousness would comparatively increase moral happiness of philosophers. Therefore, the moral happiness with a Chinese philosophical bent reveals the truth that the understanding of natural beauty and cosmic dynamics succinctly constitutes the optimistic spirituality permanently inspiring a Confucian believer to live as a saint.

In my research and understanding, religion could be briefed concisely as “faith established between human and his God”, but God is, of course, the equivalent term for any transcendent Being.

Daoism or Taoism is one of the major intellectual trends in Chinese philosophy and spiritual pillar of Chinese faith system, philosophic Daoism or Dao Jia, and spiritual Daoism or Dao Jiao being thus termed respectively. As identical to Daoism, ancient Chinese used to describe it as the scholarship and worship based on its intellectual initiator Lao Zi or Lao Tzu, therefore we believe that he is the patriarch scholar and a peer philosopher to Confucius, the masterpiece of Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching, with 5000 words in tis total 81 chapter) to his credit being considered as one of the greatest works full of creative originality in human culture. As a cultural legend, Dao De Jing has been enormously influential in molding Chinese culture, standing for natural philosophy in Chinese spirituality, and its intellectual merits being appreciated far and wide as source of wisdom in current transformation of human civilization. Being concise in words and rich in thoughts, Dao De Jing has being serving as the spiritual incubator for wisdom since its compilation, bringing out open-ended philosophic storage for human society and its mental resources having never been exhaustive in human employment. The greatest contribution of Dao De Jing is its peculiar explanation to Dao or Tao, the key concept based on which the systematic Dao-styled culture is established, and hence constituting the mega trend of oriental culture in the form of bilateral relations with Confucius and Mencius scholarship and triangular relations with Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism.

Confucianism, Daoism (or Taoism), and Buddhism, abbreviated as the “Three Religions” or “Three Teachings” (sanjiao), have been commonly accepted as the mainstay of Chinese culture and their religious and philosophical essentials constitute the main focus of Chinese style scholarship. Similar to other leading spiritual traditions of the axial age, they originated and acquired their forms in China around the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers about 2,000 years ago, gradually solidifying into the main body of the Chinese faith system. Dissimilar to the spiritual traditions of ancient Egypt, Israel, Athens, Rome, and India, the Chinese faith system, consisting of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, has religion and philosophy in their specific dimensions coinciding with each other, exhibiting a unity between being inner saint and outer king in human endeavors. Specialized in its sustained heritage and creative adaption to alien cultures, such a faith system has been identifying its adherents all around the world as Chinese people toward a common spiritual DNA and conceptual base for her national renaissance.

The Enlightenment of the modern west is indicative of reason in criticizing the intellectual obscurities inflicted on Europeans by religious dogmatism and political despotism in the ideology of King’s power by God’s Covenant. Such intellectual movement had not only greatly enlightened human mentality but also positively motivated the French and Americans in their social revolutions. In a due course, people in the west had accomplished a drastically new approach toward religion and religious institutions also had attained their domestic improvement, a triad being more convincing among civilians that philosophy seeks truth, religion goodness, and art beauty. Within the domain of reason we have therefore the role of philosophy or science and in a contrastive frame the role of religion has been agreeably limited within the domain of pure reason, being activated by human free will.

From cosmology to salvation, the concept of heaven always plays an indispensable role in Chinese faith system as much as God does in the Abraham faith system in the west. For Chinese, heaven is the creator, lawgiver, moral admonisher, and savior. The relation between heaven and the creature is one of integration between them, in this cosmic integration the specific one between heaven and man bearing distinguishable prominence. Since Chinese cosmology is categorized as evolutionary one instead of an absolute otherness creation by God, every sentient being like human beings shares by nature the holiness of heaven, hence introducing in a universal incarnation exhibiting unique initiative and dynamic in human beings, so-called the embodiment of sacred heaven by man. The religious message bestowed on heaven, the natural celestial body, reveals the peculiar feature of Chinese culture. Heaven is the orthodox source for all possible worlds of Chinese: emperors are sons of heaven, people are the civilian of heaven, laws are the reasons of heaven, fates are the mandates of heaven, morals are the hearts of heaven, the whole worlds the spheres under the heaven, and therefore heaven is condemned to be the justification for Being and beings.

At the Spring Festival banquet of 2010, one of the most affectionate moments for ordinary Chinese nationals, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao solemnly proclaimed: “What we have done is solely targeted at making a happier and more dignified life for our people.” Such statements like “making a happy life for people” have been frequently made by Chinese leaders at various political events, but they have been fairly occasional in promising that Chinese people should be given a more dignified life. It certainly acquires extraordinary import when such promise is made at the Spring Festival, full of optimistic expectation for Chinese nationals. Such promise, consequentially, aroused heated discussions among Chinese nationals from all walks of life, generalizing roughly to two categories: one being the material aspect of dignified life in ‘affluence in food and clothing’ as well as ‘living in peace and plenty’, and another being the spiritual aspect of dignified life in ‘free thinking’ as well as ‘independent personality’.

Daoism for both religion and philosophy has Lao Zi (Lao Tzu) and Zhuang Zi (Zhang Tzu) as their patriarchal thinkers, with Lao Zi focused more on cosmological ontology and political philosophy while Zhuang Zi on cosmological skepticism and philosophy of life. When Indian Buddhism was first introduced in China, Chinese scholars would rather parallel its dependent origination with Lao Zi’s cosmological Dao while its nirvana with Zhuang Zi’s philosophy of life or mentality of cosmic liberty (xiaoyaoyou). But now when trying to introduce Zhuang Zi as an originative philosopher to western readers, it would be instructively appropriate to refer to Hellenic Pyrrho of Elis and his anecdotal account: Once terrified and threatened by a stormy sea travel, Pyrrho pointed at an eating pig careless of all risks and thus commented: wise man should be undisturbed as this pig! When travelling to India in the wake of Alexander the Great, Pyrrho met naked philosophers there and admired their tranquil, impassive, and non-committal mentality in evidencing the noblest virtue. And his idea of “peace of soul” realized in avoiding any definite judgment made the modern German philosopher Nietzsche believe that Pyrrho was a Hellenic Buddhist. Thus any philosopher who seeks for spiritual tranquility by rejecting all definite conceptions, ideas, and principles is labeled as Pyrrhonist.

Dao (dao or tao) is a master-word in Chinese, being metaphysically universal in its diversified scope of concepts from heavenly doctrine (tiandao) to knack (mendao), thus making me extremely reluctant to say that it is the word next to God in the Chinese context. When Chinese intellectual tradition is symbolically depicted as the unity of three doctrines (sanjiao), it can be comprehensively perceived both as philosophy and religion in either of Confucianism, Daoism, and Chinese Buddhism. Here, I specifically expose Daoism to its religious aspects, moderately complemented by its philosophical tradition and its relations with Confucianism and Buddhism.

Chinese Buddhism, as a comprehensive systematic thought, consists of cosmology, epistemology, and value orientation or life philosophy of its own character. Its own specialty vindicates the key note of value orientation in a reciprocal resonance to its cosmology and epistemology. In the context of its Dependent Origination(yuanqi), its cosmology immensely transcends the cycle of birth, growth, and death though originated in it, its epistemology targets at transcending all empirical knowledge by intuitional analysis, and its value orientation glorifies itself at achieving prajnā bodhisattva via enlightened nirvana. Its enlightened subjectivity in value orientation integrates the Buddhist cosmology based on dependent origination elaborately that no nirvana could be independently illustrated without referring to prajnā, i.e., no ethics could be ever attained without being elucidated by way of epistemology in western philosophy.

The contribution of Chinese Chan (or Zen) School to Buddhism is not only confirmed in its methodology of intuitional enlightenment, but also should be associated to its new perspective to Buddha nature which justifies its peculiar way to individual enlightenment. Traditional Indian Buddhism emphasized the solitude of Buddha nature, but Chinese Chan masters shifted this emphasis to the awareness of Buddha nature, highlighting the initiative originality of Buddha nature. This emphasis integrated ontology with value orientation of traditional Buddhism, thus cogently explained the inter correlativeness among the awareness of Buddha nature, reflective meditation and intuitional enlightenment.

The New History of Chinese Philosophy (in 7 volumes) written by Professor Feng Youlan or Fung Yulan (1895−1990), with 1.6 million Chinese characters, saw its complete publication in 10 years from 1982 (volume 1) to 1992 (volume 7). The same 10 years witnessed his first volume at the age of 85 and his seventh volume at the age of 95. These seven volumes written in his last 10 years can best signify all the possible versatility in learning and brilliance in thought for a philosopher with a rare life expectancy. He distinguishes himself in this life work of seven volumes with permanencies of human sagacity exclusive to the confines of one nation and one era and this glory of his owes a great deal to the social upheavals of his time, his colorful life experience, his peculiar endowments, his relentless diligence, his deep insights, and especially his sound-minded longevity. His contribution to philosophy has been widely valued as monumental.

The Spring and Autumn Period is a special phase of Social Chaos in Ancient China. Li (Rule of Rite) was then the governmental rule of the Zhou Dynasty, into which Confucius introduced Xiao (filial piety), Zhong (loyalty), and Y, (righteousness or cosmopolitan commitment) as governmental constituents at family, dukedom, and universe levels respectively. The governmental rule of Confucian investigation has its focus on the right to live as human beings and family ethos. In the constitutional structure of families, dukedoms, and the universe the power and right, responsibility and obligation, have been balanced between father and his sons, duke and his subjects, as well as emperor and his dukes. The power of father over sons, duke over subjects, and emperor over dukes is held in check by being morally obliged to be a kind father for sons, benevolent duke for subjects, and generous emperor for dukes, constituting a universally harmonious polity. By this investigation Confucius ushered into Chinese political and legal traditions a Rule of Virtue, paving the base of governmental rule with L, as its mainstay and Xing (Rule of Punishment) as its subordinate and establishing the principles for peaceful international relations featured as Unified Humanity for Diversified Worlds (tianxia ruiren).

The Great Learning (daxue) is the integrated scholarship between moral saint and administrative king of Confucian tradition, its essence being epitomized as Three Principles and Eight Items (san gang ling ba tiao mu) in The Great Learning. The first principle of comprehending universal representation is the human reflections upon cosmic dynamics, the second principle of assuming-new-person mirrors Confucian political idealism based on natural justice and moral consciousness for social equity, the third principle of halting at consummation represents Confucian political personality and its life philosophy.

The Doctrine of the Mean (zhongyong) is one of the major Confucian classics focusing on natural justice and its political implications vie cosmic dynamics (cheng) and its harmonious eternity. The rule of the saints modeling themselves after heaven’s virtue is advocated as the so-called rule of person or rule of virtue, in which natural harmony in the cosmos is believed to be the manifestation of eternal and universal justice. Both the editors of this book in the Pre-Qin Dynasty and its commentators in the Tang Dynasty have availed themselves in repudiating Legalist utilitarianism abused in the despotic Qin Dynasty and Empty-World Thoughts of Buddhism prevalent in the Tang Dynasty by virtue of natural justice and cosmic fairness in Heaven-Mandated-Nature Theory. Their academic endeavors are directed at consolidating cosmological faith and moral fairness for Confucian political ideology in self-regulating, family establishing, country ruling and world harmonizing.

In the Confucian tradition symbolized by The Tao (Dao) of Confucius and Mencius, the doctrine of Mencius’ Righteousness in the Paragon of Confucian Humaneness (kongren) and Mencian Righteousness (mengyi) has been associated with Heart-Nature (xinxing), which leads consequently to an intended personality of Confucian ethics and politics. The concept of righteousness, for Mencius, connotes the cosmological ethics under the heaven, transcending the secular powers of father in family and monarch in country under the auspices of heavenly sanctity. Such transcendence is often vindicated by Righteousness-Oriented Destruction of One’s Relatives (dayimieqin) and The Overthrow of Government by Performing Heaven’s Mandate (titianxingdao). The concept of Heart-Nature in Mencius is the transformation of Heaven-Mandated-Nature (xingming) from the Doctrine of the Mean (zhongyong), attesting to the subjectivity and ethics in Confucian epistemology and cosmology. The combination between Heart-Nature and Tao-Righteousness in Mencius reveals the universally existed moral rights and ethical obligations of human beings as well as the ethical transcendence and restrictions on secular powers of Son of Heaven, i.e. monarchs and dukes. The dialectics exposed in this relation between moral rights and its restrictions on administrative powers justifies social revolutions in case of moral rights being violated and abused by administrative powers.

The transformation of Chinese cosmopolitanism (tianxia) from the meaning of geographic space in the time of the “Five Emperors (wudi) and the Three Dynasties (sandai)” to the universal ethics based on humaneness (ren) in the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties witnesses a critical change in the making of the Chinese people. The importance of Chinese cosmopolitanism is seen in its preservation of the basic Chinese territory and Chinese people’s integrity. Chinese cosmopolitanism also gives rise to ethical liberalism of Chinese style, hence, making Chinese people sustained in their social lives and cultivated in their individual improvement. Chinese cosmopolitanism not only reflects the space and ethical experiences of Chinese people originated in their “Families (jia)” at the stage of the patriarchal society but also symbolizes the Chinese people in their acknowledging the “geographic world” and accepting the universal value during their more than 2,000 years’ development. In the age of globalization we could aim at the mutual communication and benefit between “humaneness and rite (ren li)” exhibited in Chinese cosmopolitanism and universal human rights exhibited in world pacifism.

Religious commitment is an emotive acknowledgement and life pursuit for the authoritative resource of value or the ultimate concern for human faith. In the western tradition this commitment is frequently depicted as experiencing the notions of all-existing truth, goodness, and beauty whereas in the Chinese Confucian tradition it is constantly estimated as integration of the mysterious cosmos and mundane human beings. The very integration of Confucianism embodies the spiritual field in which all existent beings in the universe are coordinating in the rules of benevolence, innateness, and rationality. The Chinese Confucians are devoted to these rules as if they were the Onto of all universal beings and committed their lives to the sacrifice of this onto. They persuade themselves into conviction that by doing this they are just performing the holy duties designated for their cosmos. Obviously, we do not see organizational religion and human–god worship in Confucian tradition, yet Confucians do express their religious commitments by affiliating themselves whole-heartedly to grand mundane ethical ideas seen as the mysterious onto of the universe.

In the spectrum of Chinese intellectual tradition, philosophy has been integrated as a unity among cosmology, epistemology, and value orientation. Such unity, termed as “the integration between heaven and human” (tianren heyi) of Chinese genre, reveals the feature of evolution in its cosmology as opposed to creation in the west, the intuitional feature combining objective knowledge and subjective experience in its epistemology instead of stark objective knowledge of the west, and universal incarnation for each individual as sage in its value orientation other than exclusive holy reincarnated Being in Christian tradition. The methodology in Chinese universal incarnation as individual secular sage is to initiate self-cultivation through “picking up one’s cosmic dynamics” or “cultivating one’s cosmic air” (yang haoranzhiqi) from within each individual self instead of waiting passively for the external holy salvation at doomsday. Therefore, the spirit of Chinese philosophy is concisely expressed in the harmonious relations among man and nature, person and person, and soul and body.

This study purposes an approach of computer-supported learning by teaching. The learning activities of learning by teaching a virtual character are usually involving demonstrating and tutoring. Here we combine demonstrating and tutoring into a teaching virtual apprentice activity. First, student demonstrates solving problems to the apprentice. Then student will monitor and tutor apprentice when the apprentice solves problems. We will try to explore effects of different teaching activities that are demonstrating, tutoring, and demonstrating combine with tutoring.