Chenyang Li on the Confucian philosophy of harmony

Fan, Ruiping (author)

This paper argues that while Chenyang Li’s Confucian philosophy of harmony offers valuable insights that contribute to contemporary philosophical literature, three specific issues warrant careful examination. First, it remains unclear whether “disharmony” car­ries the same ontological significance as “harmony” within his framework, and whether it possesses an inherent value akin to that of harmony. Secondly, it is essential to investi­gate whether a consequentialist ethical perspective is embedded in his Confucian philos­ophy of harmony. Lastly, it may be incorrect, as he suggests, to assert that the Confucian virtue of “harmony” takes precedence over “benevolence” in Confucian theory.

• Language: English
• Keywords: harmony, disharmony, Confucian philosophy, Confucian virtues, Confucian benevolence
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 203-209
• Numbering: Vol. 14, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190611
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• DOI: 10.4312/as.2026.14.3.203-209
• Publication date in RUL: 05.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies = Azijske študije
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Chenyang Li o konfucijanski filozofiji harmonije

Abstract

Članek argumentira, da čeprav konfucijanska filozofija harmonije Chenyang Lija ponuja dragocene uvide, ki prispevajo k sodobni filozofski literaturi, tri specifična vprašanja zahtevajo natančnejšo obravnavo. Prvič, ostaja nejasno, ali ima »neharmonija« v nje­govem pristopu enak ontološki pomen kot »harmonija« in ali ima inherentno vrednost, podobno vrednosti harmonije. Drugič, treba je raziskati, ali je v njegovo konfucijansko filozofijo harmonije vgrajena konsekvencialistična etična perspektiva. Nazadnje, morda je napačno, kot meni sam, trditi, da ima konfucijanska vrlina »harmonije« v konfucijan­ski teoriji prednost pred »dobrohotnostjo«.

• Keywords: harmonija, neharmonija, konfucijanska filozofija, konfucijanske vrline, konfucijanska dobrohotnost