The Value of Authenticity: Another Dimension of Confucian Ethics

Abstract

This paper explores the Confucian value of authenticity. Taking as the starting point of the Confucian concept of becoming authentic persons of bo, da, jing, and shen, the paper first demonstrates that a high–far–firm zhixiang, creativity, an examined life, and sincerity are four necessary conditions for a self to be an authentic one of bo, da, jing, and shen. It then demonstrates that Confucian ethics operates with a metaphysical concept of a substantive self and Confucian self-cultivation implies authenticating such a substantive self. Finally, it demonstrates that in Confucian ethics, cultivating a person’s self (the primary substance) and cultivating the person’s humanity (the secondary substance) are not separable and entail one another.