Abstract
Chung 忠 always has an object it is directed towards. At the same time, we also often discuss the loyal character of an individual (the subject) regardless of the object to which their loyalty is directed. This duality is an essential feature of chung. When explaining, criticising, and defending the concept of chung, most researchers focus on one of these two aspects: the subject or object side of the duality. This paper compares the concept of chung in Confucianism to the concept of loyalty in modern ethics, and to the concept of Chungseong 忠誠 in the modern Korean language using this subjective-objective framework. It shows that a similar dilemma to the “loyal Nazis dilemma” caused by the objectivity of loyalty also exists in the Confucian notion of chung (the dilemma of Bo Yi and Shu Qi) and reveals the unique nature of the concept by examining various solutions to the dilemma suggested by several traditional Confucian scholars.
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