Abstract
Since the publication of his book on Zhongyong (Tu 1976), Tu Weiming has worked for more than 30 years on an anthropocosmic reconstruction of the Confucian universe, in which self-transformation is defined both as the starting point and as the necessary vehicle for one’s spiritual journey. This article is primarily intended to examine Tu’s attempts to reconstruct Confucian spirituality but further to take a step forward to argue that in the spiritual world as construed by Confucius and Mencius, the experiential functions as transcendental by which the self initiates and empowers the transformative process. Through exploring the spiritual significance of Confucian experiences, this essay will conclude that although “transcendental experience” is only one of many dimensions in other religious or intellectual traditions, it is the most important path for Confucians by which the self is enabled to become fully integrated with ultimate reality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin, and Michael Argyle. 1997. The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience. London and New York: Routledge.
Bell, Daniel A., ed. 2008. Confucian Political Ethics. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Berthrong, John H. 1998. Transformations of the Confucian Way. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Chan, Wing-tsit, tr. and comp. 1963. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Chang, Carsun. 1962. Wang Yang-ming: Idealist Philosopher of Sixteenth-Century China. New York: St. John's University Press.
Connolly, Peter, ed. 1999. Approaches to the Study of Religion. London and New York: Cassell.
Cui, Dahua 崔大華. 2001. Introduction to Confucianism 儒學引論. Beijing 北京: Renmin Chubanshe 人民出版社.
de Bary, Wm. Theodore de Bary, and Irene Bloom, ed. 1999. Sources of Chinese Tradition. Second edition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press.
Eno, Robert. 1990. The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery. Albany: SUNY Press.
Fingarette, Herbert. 1972. Confucius—The Secular as Sacred. New York: Harper Torchbook.
Flood, Gavin. 1999. Beyond Phenomenology: Rethinking the Study of Religion. London and New York: Cassell.
Fung, Yu-lan. 1952. A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 1. Translated by Derk Bodde. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Han, Yu 韓愈. 1997. The Complete Works of H an Yu 韓愈全集. Shanghai 上海: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe 上海古籍出版社.
James, William. 1902. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Longman Green & Co. (London: Collins, 1960).
Liu, Shu-hsien. 2003. Essentials of Contemporary Neo-Confucian Philosophy. Westport, Connecticut, and London: Praeger.
Long, Eugene Thomas. 1969. “Quest for Transcendence.” International Journal of Philosophy of Religion 45: 51–65.
Lunyu. 1979. In the Analects. Tr. by D.C.Lau. London: Penguin Classics.
Marxwell, Meg, and Verena Tschudin, eds. 1990. Seeing the Invisible: Modern Religious and Other Transcendental Experiences. London: Penguin Books.
Mencius. 1970. Tr. by D.C. Lau. London: Penguin Classics.
Mou, Zongsan 牟宗三. 1985. On the Ultimate Goodness 圓善論. Taipei 臺北: Xuesheng Shuju 學生書局.
Pearsall, Judy, ed. 2001. Concise Oxford Dictionary. Tenth edition, revised. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rankin, Marianne. 2006. An Introduction to Religious Experience, the 3rd Series, Occasional Paper 2. Lampeter: The Religious Experience Research Centre.
Smart, Ninian. 1992. The World’s Religions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. 1978. The Meaning and End of Religion. London: SPCK.
Streng, Frederick J. 1971. Understanding Religious Life. Second edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1969.
Tillich, Paul. 1963. The Encounters of Religions and Quasi-religion. New York: Columbia University Press.
Tu, Weiming. 1976. Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Chung-yung (Monograph of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, no. 3). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
______. 1985. Confucian Though: Selfhood As Creative Transformation. Albany: SUNY Press.
______. 1995. “What is the Confucian Way?” In Arvin Sharma, ed., Our Religions. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers.
______. 2001. Asian Values and Diversity 東亞價值與多元性. Beijing 北京: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe 中國社會科學出版社.
Ward, Keith. 1998. Religion & Human Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Xunzi. 1999. Translated into English by John Knoblock. Changsha: Hunan People’s Press, and Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Yang, Bojun 楊伯峻. 1990. Annotations to the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn 春秋左傳注. Beijing 北京: Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局.
Yao, Xinzhong. 1996. Confucianism and Christianity. Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press.
______. 2000. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, Dainian. 2003. Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. Translated and edited by Edmund Ryden. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, and Beijing: Foreign Language Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yao, X. The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality. Dao 7, 393–406 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-008-9088-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-008-9088-3