Professor of the Department of History and Institute of Humanities at Tsinghua University, Member of the Council of the International Confucian Association; Major research fields: Confucianism, History of Chinese Thoughts; Selected works: The Reestablishment of Order and the "Three Cardinal Guides” of Confucianism”(2014) [Chinese], The Destruction and Rebirth of a Civilization: Studies on Confucianism and Chinese Modernity (2011) [Chinese]. 

Speech Abstract

Problems and Possibilities in Confucian-Islamic Dialogue: The Perspective of Confucian Self-Cultivation

 As the theme of today’s forum is the dialogue among civilizations, I would like to talk about the possibility of a dialogue between Confucianism and Islam. In order to communicate effectively, I think we should first make clear the fundamental differences between the two, and then consider if we can move beyond these differences to find a common ground. Perhaps we should keep one thing in mind before we do all the work, namely that dialogue and exchange between civilizations or religions mostly involves spontaneous self-expression that is not designed or planned. This suggests that neither of us should seek to impose a certain ideal on each other even if it is the bare minimum; instead, we hope to find or reach a consensus through our own self-expression.