Power, Wealth, and a Confucius for Today- A lecture by Dr. Peter K. Bol, Harvard University 1.1

The Institute for Asian Studies & Confucius Institute at PSU present
Power, Wealth, and a Confucius for Today
A lecture by Dr. Peter K. Bol, Harvard University
Friday, October 26, 2012,
6:30 - 8:00 PM(1620 SW Park Ave)
Over the last 2500 years Confucius has been several times reinterpreted to make him speak to the present. And, so it is again today. There is a Confucius for authoritarians and a Confucius for the liberal critics of authoritarianism. But do Confucius and the Confucian tradition really have anything to say today?
Dr. Peter K. Bol is a renowned scholar of Neo-Confucianism and Chinese history at Harvard University. His research is centered on the history of Chinese thought and society from the 8th - 17th centuries. He is author of Neo-Confucianism in History and directs the Center for Geographic Analysis, the China Historical Geographic Information Systems project, and the China Biographical Database project.

[@bbmtau]

I am in China and I have written a paper titled 'Confucianism as a strength to China's development today' and right now Confucianism has gained a lot of ground in China, I agree with professor that there is a great revival to go back to Confucianism. Confucianism is more than a philosophy or ideas, its also the back born of culture in China, and arguably I concluded that China's development has a correlation with Confucian values.

[@XiaoZhaoable]

Virtually everything in China is relative ot Confucian values, which is constantly changing among 2000 years. Exactly contemporary Chinese ppl values are large different from the one of Confucius and other philosophers during Spring-Autumn period of China. So, have you finished your paper yet? I expect your details...

[@warnegoodman]

Would you still stand by what you wrote in that paper today Tim?

[@bbmtau]

@@warnegoodman indeed!

[@bbmtau]

@@warnegoodman indeed!

[@cindyzhang9403]

Such an inspiring speech. The part discussing how the National College Entrance Examination in China is returning to classics remains relevant today, for "gaokao" this year asks students to write a paper responding to chapters of Zhuangzi. I wonder how a "Confucius for Today" 10 years ago, as discussed in this speech, is different from what we observed in 2023.

[@arbide3]

This is a truly great lecture.

[@JasonChen-c8d]

In enlightening analogy, ritual refers Church life, walk of heavenly Spirit /Dao; Ren refers to Grace, in Christ. Those two together, is the formula of mingling heaven with man (天人合一), ie God-Man.

[@TheNewVocal]

Hello from Singapore! Wish you'd have a wonderful week =)

[@howeyhanley3947]

Great thumbnail. MonkeyPirate Lol. I'll be seeing what else the speaker has out there for us

[@dougspray7160]

A great lecture trying to give we non Chinese an understanding of Confucius philosophy. Leaders should be scholars and moral ( think of Greece - Kings should be Philosophers ). Perhaps an improved Capitalism could be constructed where wealth is more equitably shared although one does not have to be a scholar or genius to know that all excessive wealth should be highly taxed.

[@Eyesayah]

I liked hearing that the importance of ritual is conditioned on human heartedness. The notion of having to accept current realities as a basis for redeeming action seems more reasonable to me than revolutionary approaches. I don't know what to make of the assertion that Confucianism has been the province of the elites; it seems that if as this speaker says the key thing for China with regard to Confucius would be to realize it as a model for the wider world with regard to redemption, that would need to change. I think I see in the teaching of Jesus the pattern noted here: it must be helpful to those in power as well as to those critiquing power.

[@dougspray7160]

A great lecture trying to give we non Chinese an understanding of Confucius philosophy. Leaders should be scholars and moral ( think of Greece - Kings should be Philosophers ). Perhaps an improved Capitalism could be constructed where wealth is more equitably shared although one does not have to be a scholar or genius to know that all excessive wealth should be highly taxed. China will have huge problems in the future, when unavoidable recessions hit their economy, let us hope Confucian ideals will prevail when this happens.

[@indrajanaazali6305]

very interesting idea of confucius in today

[@thomascbartlett5106]

At 1:04:20 Daniel Bell is, very surprisingly, identified as an "American", which is only true in the rarely used sense that all residents of North (and South) America are "Americans". But Bell is not "American" in the everyday sense of that word; as used globally to refer to the "United States of America". Rather, Bell is outspokenly Canadian, as contrasted with "American".

[@malamati007]

+Thomas Bartlett Really glad to know that Dan is Canadian, and that Mencius is misquoted.

[@listener5519]

+Seneca Your juvenile sarcasm is entirely unworthy of the tragic philosopher whose name you pretentiously adopt to conceal your identity. Your evident incomprehension of the subject is revealed in your response to the comments about Bell and Mencius.

[@malamati007]

+Listener Actually, it's Juvenal sarcasm...and I commend you on so openly divulging your own identity. Cheers!

[@FFede-ji9lv]

48:00 Three houses of parliament!!

[@thomascbartlett5106]

In my comment below referencing the misquotation of Mencius, the time should be 1:10:20 and following.

[@indrajanaazali6305]

I think it is a good idea on how to become confucius-ist in indonesia

[@michalmilencki2927]

interesting

[@nuqleo]

genio

[@karlgelbsland4855]

The Q&A session was a major disaster, if not one of colossal scale -- If your great university would every hold any public speech with Q&A session, it would be very very much worthwhile to consider to equip a few people to hand out the microphone so that the statements --- comments or questions, and so on -- can also be picked up by the audio in the audio uploaded here. Halfway good deeds are NOT good deeds indeed.

[@TehPieLuver]

Agreed!

[@guyvanburen]

My understanding is that Confucius ate much 🐕 and 🦇 yes? 🤔

[@stanstarygin6622]

Very scattershot. This is more of an inner monologue than something that would be of use to a student of Confucianism.