The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality

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ORIGINAL PAPER

The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality

YAO Xinzhong

Published online: 15 October 2008# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008

Abstract Since the publication of his book on Zhongyong (Tu 1976), TU Weiming has

worked for more than 30 years on an anthropocosmic reconstruction of the Confucian

universe, in which self-transformation is defined both as the starting point and as the

necessary vehicle for ones spiritual journey. This article is primarily intended to examine

Tus attempts to reconstruct Confucian spirituality but further to take a step forward to

argue that in the spiritual world as construed by Confucius and Mencius, the experiential

functions as transcendental by which the self initiates and empowers the transformativeprocess. Through exploring the spiritual significance of Confucian experiences, this essay

will conclude that although transcendental experienceis only one of many dimensions in

other religious or intellectual traditions, it is the most important path for Confucians by

which the self is enabled to become fully integrated with ultimate reality.

Keywords TU Weiming. Confucian self. Religious experience. Spirituality

1 Introduction

The best illustration of TUWeimings anthropocosmicism can be found in a chapter

entitled What is the Confucian Way? (Tu 1995), which provides a short but

comprehensive outline of, and the most penetrating insight into, his underlying principles.

In this outline, Tu defines Confucian spirituality in terms of a four dimensional process: the

self as creative transformation, the community as a necessary vehicle for human flourishing,

nature as the proper home for our form of life, and Heaven as the source of ultimate self-

realization, placing the self right at the centre of the Confucian universe, which then

radiates to family, community, country, world, and beyond (Tu 1995: 142). While

advocating Confucianism as a religious humanism, Tu suggests that a Confucian individualwould take the status quo as only the starting point for his/her spiritual journey.

Dao (2008) 7:393406

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Different scholars often talk about Confucian spirituality in different senses, as an

ideology of ritual or the state cult (Smart1992: 1034), or as the theoretical function

of integrating social life and shaping the spiritual world (Cui 2001: 843). In contrast to

these, Tus approach reveals a much deeper root of a unique type of spirituality, in which an

ontologicallyexternal transcendence(Heaven or the Way of Heaven) is closely associatedwith an existentially internal awareness, enabling us to be closer to an appropriate concept

of Confucian religiousness. However, inspired by his overall project of a rational

construction of Confucian anthropo-theologyto enable Confucianism to be listed among

our religions in the world, Tu quickly dismisses the possibility of a self-sustained self-

transformation, suggesting that the idea of selfhood devoid of communication with the

outside world is alien to the Confucian tradition (Tu 1995: 143). While this is true

concerning the fulfilment of the self, by making the self conditional to the outside world, Tu

has, probably unintentionally, diverted from his own position on the self-transformation

of the creative self,leading to a contrast rather than integration of the individual and the

cumulative symbolic tradition, including social community, nature, and the ultimate

authority of Heaven.

Based on the understanding that there is no justification for any dichotomy of the

internal and the external in the early Confucian tradition, this essay is intended to take Tus

view on the Confucian self and spirituality one step further, arguing that Confucian

spirituality is characterised not only by its affirming the possibility of self-transformation or

self-realization, but also by its admitting that the transformation is fully self-powered and

self-resourced.1 Many Confucians, historic or modern, hold that the power and resources

within each person are produced by the ultimate power (Heaven) but still need to be

brought to their full realization, and accordingly champion a doctrine of ultimate-individualunity. On the surface it seems justifiable to say that the Confucian self can manifest its

values only through fulfilling its responsibilities in external activities. As far as ones

spirituality is concerned, however, these activities must be preconditioned on an awareness

of ones heavenly endowed position and mission, and the awareness must be gained

through ones own spiritual experience of the transcendent, in whatever form the

transcendent may appear to be. In this sense, to reveal the true nature of Confucian

spirituality, we must examine the religious dimension of the Confucian self and how its

experiential dimension in terms of transcendental experience comes to define Confucian

religiosity.

2 Religion and Confucian Religiosity

It is notoriously difficult, if not totally impossible, to find a definition of religion acceptable

to all people, and it is even more so to spell out clearly the link between Confucianism and

religion. Borrowing from HAN Yus terminology, we can say that there is a lack of

consensus in defining religion at least partially because religion as a category is not a

1

In a sense Confucian spirituality and Chan Buddhism share something in common. It is well known thatChan Buddhists advocate that everyone is able to realize his or her Buddha-nature, or in other words, to

become a Buddha. In the famous poem by Huineng the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan transmission line,

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definite name (ding ming)but an empty position (xu wei ), a kind of box that

can be filled up with different contents by different people and in different ages (Han 1997:

120). The same can also be said about Confucianism, which has further complicated the

issue due to the different interpretations of the tradition that is named Confucianismin the

West (Yao 2000: 26

47). A link between Confucianism and religion depends, to a greatextent, on clarifications about what religion is and how the dimensions of Confucian

teachings and practices can be matched to the criteria of religion. It is no surprise, therefore,

not only that philosophers and theologians outside the Confucian tradition often either

cement or sever the link but also that scholars of the Confucian tradition tend to highlight

different aspects to emphasize or deemphasize its religious, a-religious, non-religious, or

even anti-religious nature and function.

When expanding on Hans Blumenbergs definition of myth by its quality of significance,

Gavin Flood suggests that like the term significance itself, religion is resistant to

definition, yet despite this problem there are forms of cultural life which are clearly

identifiable as religionin contrast to other cultural practices(Flood1999: 42). Where can

we locate the special quality of these forms of cultural life? Having seen the ultimate

similaritybetween religion and secular culture, Paul Tillich seeks to enlarge the traditional

Western notion of religion by introducing the concept of ultimate concern, and further

interprets ultimate concern as involving the sacred or the holy, which facilitates

transcending the mere human existence to unlimited reality.2 Does Confucianism have

such an ultimate concern? The answer is probably universally affirmative. However,

scholars differ over whether this concern is of a holy or transcendent nature. It seems

apparent that what defines the characteristic of Confucian religiosity has much to do with

how to interpret

the ultimate,

and that the spiritual dimension of Confucianism must berevealed through a reinterpretation of transcendence.

Transcendenceitself is an ambiguous term, open to a variety of interpretations. While

the root meaning oftranscendentdoes not necessarily contain a religious connotation (to

transcend is to be or go beyond the range or limits of), throughout European history it

has become closely associated with the Christian Gods existing apart from and not subject

to the limitations of the material universe (Pearsall 2001: 1522). Following phenomen-

ologists of religion, notably Mircea Eliade (19071986) and Ninian Smart (19272001),

contemporary scholars of religions have significantly expanded this narrowly understood

concept, and associated it with a more flexible, culturally adapted, and therefore more

abstract and general quality. For example, by defining religion as any beliefs which involvethe acceptance of a sacred, trans-empirical realm and any behaviours designed to affect a

persons relationship with that realm, Peter Connolly suggests the transcendental quality

can be found in the concept of trans-empirical or sacred (Connolly1999: 67). Keith

Ward provides yet another example of how liberal Christian theologians take a further step

toward an abstract and broadened concept of transcendence and religion. For him

religions relate human life in some way to a supramaterial realm of spirit or mind, whether

spirit is conceived as one or many, as substantial or as in continual flux (Ward1998: 1).

For many postmodern scholars, the connotation ofreligionmust be in one way or another

reverted to its earlier meanings referring to personal vision and piety of life and departedfrom a religious intellectualism (modernism) that takes religion to be an impersonal system

of beliefs and practices (Smith 1978: 45). This has provided a theoretical and theological

The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality 395
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background for contemporary Confucian scholars, including Tu, to reconstruct Confucian

spirituality.

In a broad sense the function of religion is to assist its followers to reach the unlimited

realm, either called paradise or named enlightenment, and religion can therefore be

defined as a transcending process. Like people in other traditions, Confucians are alsoconcerned with the problem of how to go beyond the limits of the sensed world, and make

serious attempts to transcend the conditionality of our existence. However, there is a

significant difference between the Confucian and a theistic (for example, Christian) system.

While for a theistic tradition the transcending of human limitation can be achieved only

through an act of salvation by the Transcendent, namely an omnipotent Being, for

Confucians this has to be initiated and moved from within, and on these grounds some

scholars such as Julia Ching, Tu, and John Berthrong tend to regard Confucianism as a

humanistic religion (Yao1996: 1415) or to highlight the religious dimensions ofan open

or inclusive humanism (Berthrong1998: 7).

Questions have been raised concerning the suitability of giving the status of religion to

Confucianism simply on the basis of its aiming to go beyond the limits of the human

realm, because in a Confucian context this aim can be understood purely as a process of

intellectual learning and moral cultivation. To disperse the clouds of doubt, we have to

ascertain whether or not we can identify the sacred in these seemingly secular activities. It

is admitted that All religions have created sacred space and time, structuring day-to-day

life, and connecting secular activities with gradations of sacrality (Beit-Hallahmi and

Argyle1997: 1), but it is equally apparent that the ways of connecting secular activity with

sacredness are significantly different. Herbert Fingarettes thesis of the secular as sacred

has an enormous influence over peoples view of the Confucian sacred, and has in one

sense substantially extended the boundaries of the worlds religions (Fingarette 1972).

Following Fingarette, Tu examines the issue from a reverse point of view, exploring the

sacred in the secular or how a concept of the sacred can be distilled from a seemingly

secular system of thought and practice. For him, the religiosity of Confucianism lies in none

other than its attempt to manifest the sacredness of the secular world, to transform its

conditionality and to enable the qualities of a limited being to be the resources for

individual or communal transcendence (see Tu 2001: 40). To justify this assertion, Tu is

determined to launch a much more exciting intellectual enterprise, namely, to explore

the spirituality of matter, the embodiment of the mind, the possibility of regarding the

secular as the sacred, the creative and transformative potential in humanity, and themeaning of immanent transcendence (Tu1995: 198).

3 External and Internal Transcendence

Is immanent transcendence possible? Traditional Christian theologians and Pure Land

Buddhists, among others, would categorically deny it because for them the resources of

transcendence absolutely lie outside of sentient beings. For them humans cannot rely on

themselves for spiritual delivery, and in whatever form it might be, salvation can only beachieved by the grace or compassion of an omnipotent Being or power (God or Amitoba).

Because they advocate that the possibility and realization of personal salvation originate in

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salvation or salvation by developing or extending the resources already within. For some of

them, there is no paradise or pure land external to ones being, and ones enlightenment can

only be achieved through fully realizing what one already has, presumably in the mind and

heart. This so-called internal transcendence maximizes human subjectivity in search of

spiritual well-being and challenges the once-dominant concept of religiosity and spirituality.In dialogue with Christian scholars, some contemporary new Confucians also find it

necessary to distinguish Confucian immanent or internal transcendence (neizai chaoyue

) from theistically external transcendence (waizai chaoyue ): This is a

traditional immanent transcendence (nei-tsai-chao-yueh) in contrast to the Western

tradition of external transcendence (wei-tsai-chao-yueh) (see Liu 2003: 130). The

dichotomy of the internal and the external does not, however, sit well with the typical

presentation of Confucian spirituality, nor does it agree with the actual teachings of all

major Confucian thinkers. A distinctive feature of Confucian religiosity is that

transcendence is sought in the attempt to integrate the internal and the external, or in

other words the immanent and the transcendent. Most historical and contemporary

Confucians have indeed followed a middle way between the two polarised doctrines of

transcendence, by which a transcendence-immanence alliance is tentatively established.

They believe that as far as the spiritual value of a human person is concerned,

transcendence is a process of bringing potential to reality, and that since the potential is

believed to have been endowed by transcendent power (Heaven or the Way), its realization

is both transcendental and immanent. It is immanent because transcendental resources are

already embedded in the being and nature of an individual, and it is transcendental because

the value and meaning of an individual cannot be fully realized unless he or she is

embodied in the transcendental reality. For them, self-realisation is a dynamic process ofinteraction between spiritual resources and personal practices, or simply between

transcendence and immanence.

From a monotheistic point of view, humans are limited, conditioned, and to be

transcended, in a clear contrast with God who is unlimited, unconditional, and

transcendental. Therefore there is a gap between God and humans, a gap not bridgeable

by limited beings. Differing from this view, Confucians would argue for a unity between

the limited and the unlimited, between the conditioned and the unconditioned, and for the

possibility that the unlimited and unconditioned can be realized in the limited and

conditioned. Idealist Confucians such as Mengzi and WANGYangming have indeed argued

that there is no gap at all between the limited and the unlimited; rather the limited and theunlimited exist and function together, because humans are perceived as a continuity of

Heaven, ancestors, and spirits in this world, and Heaven, ancestors, and spirits must

manifest themselves through living (and limited) humans to become ontologically

perceivable and existentially meaningful. Drawing upon this resource in tradition, a

number of contemporary scholars such as Julia Ching and Tu reiterate the claim that

because it exists in and manifests through the limited, the unlimited must be sought in the

limited. In this sense they may well be said to have championed an existentialist view: if the

unlimited existed separately from humans, then it would be irrelevant and therefore

meaningless, as stated in the Doctrine of the Mean(Zhongyong

):

The Way cannot beseparated from us for a moment. What can be separated from us is not the Way (Chan

1963: 98). For these Confucians, both traditional and contemporary, there is no doubt that

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4 The Confucian Transcendent

There is a certain degree of ambiguity concerning the exact meaning and reference of

Confucian transcendence. Confucian transcendence is often interpreted in two interrelated

but clearly different ways. In the first sense, it is understood as centred on the spiritualother,either in the form of an anthropomorphic being or a metaphysical or spiritual power or

law, mostly represented by Heaven or the Way, but sometimes also by the sage, the ancestor,

or spirits (the divine). The spiritual other functions as the ultimate power or realm (zhigao

wushang), to which all beings are destined. In the second sense it is taken as a

creative or transformative process, a process enabling humans to transcend from the limited

and conditioned world to the unlimited and unconditional realm. Scholars in Confucian

studies disagree among themselves concerning which one is more manifested in particular

texts and sub-traditions. In general those who take Confucianism as a religious tradition, for

example, Rodney Taylor and Julia Ching, tend to highlight the first, while those of a more

philosophical mind, for example, Roger Ames and CHENG Chung-ying , place an

emphasis on the second.

Instead of seeing these two senses of transcendence as parallel, I argue that they must not

be seen as totally separate. Rather, in the Confucian world (ormoral-metaphysics,to use

MOU Zongsans term), they are in fact of one substance, as indicated clearly in a

specific statement of the Doctrine of the Mean: Sincerity is the Way of Heaven. To think

how to be sincere is the way of man (Chan: 107 and Mencius 4A12). The oneness of the

two references is the underlying reason that the study of Heaven-humans or the heavenly

way-human way relationship has been central to all Confucian discourses. Because of the

intrinsic link between Heaven and humans or between the ultimate destination and theprocess, humans are both physical and metaphysical, both moral and spiritual; or, using

Confucian terminology, the human (moral) way is part of the heavenly way.3 In other

words, we can say that major Confucian thinkers recognised that a seed of unlimitedness is

already embedded in the nature of a limited individual, and the self is able to seek

transcendence in its own nature and through its own experiences.

In early China, Heaven (tian ) was seen as something greater than humans (Eno

1990),4 and was therefore looked upon externally as the ultimate, to which humans must

conform but did not necessarily have easy access. Xunzi tended to objectify Heaven in

terms of natural laws. In the Song-Ming period, materialist neo-Confucian scholars such

as ZHANG Zai and WANG Fuzhi were inclined to dismiss earlier religiousconnotations of Heaven as irrelevant, and turned to more substantial categories such as the

supreme ultimate (tai ji ) or the material power (qi ) for a tangible transcendent

reality. Influenced by these scholars and by Marxist materialism, the majority of modern

mainland scholars tend to substantiate the Confucian concept of Heaven, suggesting that

heaven is a philosophical category irrelevant to spiritual values. This has made it necessary

for us to examine how Heaven in The Analects and Mencius is presented and understood,

by which we will be able to see that Heaven for early Confucians had a strong connotation

3To the extent that the Confucian effort to achieve human perfection involves transformation in the

direction of a moral absolute such as Heaven (Ch. tian, Jpn. ten), this activity has a manifestly religious

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of the transcendent being or power, either explicitly or metaphorically and that this tradition

has effectively influenced TU Wei-ming in his conception of Confucian spirituality.

Confucius talked about whether or not Heaven intended to destroy this culture

(Lunyu 9.5) and about the greatness of Heaven, the law of which only sage kings were

able to follow (Lunyu8.19), confirming thatHeaven generates virtues in me(Lunyu 7.3).In the same way, Mencius also talked about the transcendental Heaven which alone could

place great responsibility on a human (Mencius 6B15), while implying that Heaven must

not be defined as a fully anthropomorphic being, because Heaven does not speak.When

asked if it was true that the sage-king Yao passed the empire on to Shun, for example,

Mencius rejected this saying by confirming that no human ruler would be able to give the

empire to another; only Heaven had the authority and ability to do so.5

In whatever senses Heaven and the Way are used, it is apparent that Confucius and

Mencius had no intention of separating the spiritual other from a transformative

process, or the ultimate authority from human affairs. For them, while transcendent by

nature, Heaven was not totally alien to our being, not only because Heaven was the

source of all virtues in the self (Lunyu 7.3) but also because Heaven could have an

intention for somebody to become a sage (Lunyu9.6). In theChunqiu Zuozhuan

(Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn), we read a passage attributed to Zichan

(?-522 BCE), with whom Confucius consciously allied, that Heavens Way is distant; the

human way is close.... [how could a human being] know the Way of Heaven(Yang1990:

1395). Many people tend to interpret this as evidence of an utterly humanist doctrine,

particularly in association with the fact that Confucius was said to have seldom talked about

the Way of Heaven (Lunyu5.13) (Fung1952: 30). However, these two instances may well

be interpreted in a different way. The distantness of the heavenly way and the rareness ofConfuciustalking about it just prove how transcendent the Way of Heaven is! Further, all

evidence shows that Confucius and Mencius not only appreciated the distance of the way of

Heaven from humans, but also drew the way of Heaven into the way of humans, and

integrated the seemingly two ways into one, making the transcendence totally immanent

in the human world.6

5 The Confucian Self and Self-Transformation

From the concept of immanent transcendence, it logically follows that if all thetranscendental resources are already within us, then whether or not we gain access to

transcendental reality really depends on ourselves alone. This has clearly drawn the

transcendent into the inner realm of individuals, confirming that spiritual delivery is

possible only in the form of self-transformation.

5 He further explained that this givingmust not be understood in the sense of giving detailed and minute

instructions; rather it was made through active engagement or underlying principles: Heaven does not

speak but reveals itself through its acts and deeds (Mencius5A 5).6

Xunzi of course emphasizes the importance of separating tian from humans, arguing that those whounderstand the distinction between heaven and humans are the perfect men(Xunzi17.5). However,tian here

refers to the natural tian or natural lawfor example, the constant natural course, and the work of nature

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Although separating the honors bestowed by humans from the honors bestowed by

Heaven, Mencius believes that heavenly honors can be naturally acquired through human

efforts (Mencius 6A16). The Confucian self is thus not simply an identity, but an

embodiment of the heavenly principle or virtue for all existences and activities. When

Mencius says thatAll the ten thousand things are there in me(Mencius7A4), he does notmean that all the tangible things but their heavenly principles or virtues are embedded in the

self. Understood this way, this paragraph indicates that because the principles and virtues of

all things are already in the self, what we need to do to reach the heavenly realm is only to

explore what we already have in our being and nature. Knowing the essence of things is the

same as knowing the essence of our own being, which is the same as the essence of the

Confucian transcendent. The great joy is to find that we are true to ourselves (Mencius

7A4), which in other words is to find that our nature is the same as the nature of all other

people and all ten thousand things, by which we are able to be in unity with Heaven.

Humans are not merely passive bearers of the heavenly mission; they are actively

realizing what Heaven intends to fulfil. Arguing this way, Tu goes a step further to

underpin the practical way to the Confucian ultimate concern: we are here because

embedded in our human nature is the secret code for heavens self-realization. Since we

help Heaven to realize itself through our self-discovery and self-understanding in day-to-

day living, the ultimate meaning of life is found in our ordinary, human existence (Tu

1995: 222). It is in confirming the ultimate meaning of self-discovery and self-

understanding that Tu names the self creative transformation, implying that the self

itself is potentially sacred and that transcendence must start with ones self-cultivation

(Tu 1985). On the one hand, the creativeness of the self indicates that, however limited

and secular it is, the self has the ability to manifest the true nature of its potentiality to theunlimited and the sacred. On the other hand, the process and result must be

transformative, for it starts with the status quo but ends up fulfilling ones spiritual

potentiality that has been endowed by Heaven upon ones birth.

A creative transformation can be sought through many different paths. In theistic

traditions, a process departing from the conditioned and limited to the unconditioned and

unlimited cannot be initiated or empowered by the self; rather it must be motivated and

completed by the externally transcendental being or power. As a humanistic religionist, Tu

follows a different approach, where transformation engages with the conditioned and

limited, and indeed only by exploring the potentiality of the self can the meaning and value

of the unconditioned and unlimited be fully manifested.The self is therefore central to Confucian religiosity, and the sacredness of Heaven can be

fully appreciated only in the spiritualized self.7 Because of the sacred potentiality, self-

transformation is itself religious by nature. In his study of religious life, Frederick Streng

points out thatreligion is an integration of subjective and objective experiences,consisting

of three dimensions: personal, cultural, and ultimate, all of which are integrated and enable us

to see that religion is a means of ultimate transformation (Streng 1971: 17). The trans-

formation is driven by an extraordinarily significant and comprehensive awareness,and the

ultimate reality is experienced and expressed as a transformative power, for in realizing the

7 It has been argued that ritual is what makes Confucianism a religion, or that Heaven is the final

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nature of his or her being, a person becomes spiritually whole (Streng 1971: 8). This

ultimate transformation sounds similar to what Tu highly appreciates as creative

transformation, for in both cases transformation is not only for a solution of short-term

problems but for the realizing of the true nature of ones being, and this transformation cannot

be achieved except through ones own awareness and experience of the transcendental power.

6 An Experiential Spirituality

Taken as an intellectual tradition, many contemporary scholars have studied Confucian-

ism mainly from a rational rather than an experiential perspective. They tend to emphasize

the philosophical and ethical aspects of the Confucian tradition, in a way similar to earlier

Christian missionaries who defined Confucianism as a system of ethics but not as a

religion. Under the influence of heavily enforced intellectualism in the twentieth century,

even those who appreciate the ethico-religious significance of the Confucian tradition are

nevertheless reluctant to recognise its spirituality in its own right; they tend to define it in

terms of its intellectual reconstruction of a moral-metaphysical world.8 For whatever

reasons, it seems that the experiential dimension of Confucian spirituality has not yet

become a main focus of Confucian studies, and to a good extent it is marginalized.9

Experience is a kind of direct and observational knowledge of the world, frequently

associated with but not totally confined to sense impressions and responses. Early

empiricist philosophers asserted that sense experience is the only source and the single

criterion of knowledge or belief. They used it as a powerful lever to overturn the dominance

of Christian churches in Europe. While the experientialist claim and practice were refutedand rejected by rationalists, the importance of experience for religion was highlighted later

by William James (18421910), who defined religion in terms of the feelings, acts and

experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to

stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine (James 1902: 29). From a

different perspective, Paul Tillich also placed an emphasis on the experiential dimension of

religion by pointing out thatthe meaning of religious symbols is based on the experience

of the holy (Tillich 1963: 6064). This is a powerful reaction to the intellectual tradition

where religion is primarily defined by external, rational, and systematic parameters, and

sheds light on the internal, personal, and sensory values of beliefs and practices. It has been

observed that although most philosophers have recently come to base their vision onexperience, the real choice is not between those who look to reason and those who look to

experience, but between those who understand experience to refer to sense experience and

those who hold experience to be a much richer source of evidence (Long 1969: 53). It is

in the second sense of experience that we have found a richer source for Confucian

spirituality.

8

All those [teachings] can be termed as [religious] doctrine (jiao

) if they are able to open up humanintelligence and guide people to reach the ultimate reality through practice to purify human life(Mou1985: ii).9 Under the sway of an overall rationalism, Tus exploration of Confucianism is also heavily intellectualized:

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There are a variety of experiences that matter spiritually to individuals, but the most

important is a special kind of experience in which individuals become aware of, or

influenced by, a presence or power that transcends everyday life.10 It is difficult to define

what exactly a transcendental experience is, but scholars in the study of religion have

recently established a number of criteria for conveniently indicating the religiousness of anexperience. First, it involves an awareness of a reality that transcends oneself; secondly,

while transcendent, the reality is in some way immanent to oneself, and thirdly, between

these two expressions of the supreme reality there is a dynamic exchange (Marxwell and

Tschudin1990: 14). A parallel between what is called transcendental experienceand the

Confucian attaining of perfection, or in Tus term, creative transformation, can be easily

identified. There was no lack of spiritual experiences that awoke or enlightened individual

scholars in Confucian history. For example, under the influence of Chan Buddhism,

scholars of the Song-Ming period often claimed to have had a kind of experience that led

them to an enlightened insight into their sagely nature or heart. A classical example of these

was provided by WANG Yangming (14721529), when he described how he was

enlightened by a sudden awareness about the best way to become a transcendent sage.11

However, Confucian experiences of an immanent-transcendent nature do not have to be

confined to the suddenly enlightened cases, and early Confucians, especially Confucius and

Mencius, were equally aware of the importance of the experiential link between the self and

transcendent reality. Although there is little trace in their conversations of, to use modern

terms, experience (tiyan ) or transcendence (chaoyue ), we should have no

doubt about their intention when they talked about the effect and importance of seeing,

feeling, knowing, hearing, or dreaming the power or thing that transcended

themselves. It is apparent that they held a belief that by experiencing the power, individualswould easily see that Heaven, the Way, the Decree of Heaven, ancestors, sages, and spirits

could motivate them to go beyond the limits or conditionality they were faced with, or that

the transcendent powers or beings were bigger or higher than any individual human being,

able to provide guidance or motivation for individuals to be part of the ultimate reality.

It was a widespread belief among early Confucian thinkers that Heaven or the Decree of

Heaven determined the meaning and value of life, and personal appreciation of meaning

and value is a necessary step closer to Heaven or the Way of Heaven. With an integrated

concept of the self, for example, Mencius elaborated an experiential approach to the

Confucian ultimate when he called forextending ones heart to the utmostand knowing

the nature of oneself and all people.If he had stopped here, then we might legitimately callhim a humanist philosopher seeking a better understanding of humans. Mencius took an

important further step saying that by extending ones heart and knowing ones nature, one

would be able to know and serve Heaven (Mencius 7A1). Mencius dismissed any attempt

to justify the separation of transcendental awareness from ones own personal experience,

and provided a typical case for Confucian spirituality in which the extending(jin ) and

10 This so-called Hardy question was used by Alister Hardy (18961985) to collect examples of peoples

religious experience:

Many studies have been done investigating peoples religious experiences, all showingfrom a third to half of the population to have had some such experience which has profoundly affected their

lives (Rankin2006: 5, 15).

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knowing(zhi ) of the self were listed as two of the most important experiential paths to

transcendental reality.

The experiential paths of Confucianism perfectly match the three measures of

transcendental experience as listed above. The awareness of a transcendental being or

power is of paramount importance for Confucian creative transformation. Heaven, the Way,and the sage are generally considered the source and the reason of transcendence, and

awareness of their greatness or ultimate nature is taken as the prime cause of their being

experienced. It is therefore believed that holding them in awe distinguishes a Confucian

gentleman from a small man: The gentleman stands in awe of three things. He is in awe of

the Decree of Heaven. He is in awe of great men. He is in awe of the words of the sages.

The small man, being ignorant of the Decree of Heaven, does not stand in awe of it. He

treats great men with insolence, and the words of the sages with derision (Lunyu 16.8).

What Confucius meant here is clearly that the Decree of Heaven, great persons, and sages

were all transcendent by nature and by function, and the awareness of them would bring

about an experience in which one would come to stand in awe of the goal of ones spiritual

cultivation and personal life. This standing in awe has thus become an inseparable

element of Confucian transcendent experience. However, the transcendent nature of

Confucian awareness does not mean that the meaning and significance of Heaven, the Way,

and the sage is external to ones own existence and experience; rather it is believed to be

within and part of ones life, without which life would become meaningless or one would

no longer be a human in the full sense (hence a small man). Therefore, Confucian

Heaven, Way, and sages are immanent, not only in the sense that any individual is

potentially able to be part of them, but also in the sense that an experience of them or their

power would enable individuals to hold a wider and all-encompassing view of a spiritualaspect of reality.

Above all, in Confucian experience there is a dynamic exchange between the sense of

the transcendent and the perception of the immanent, or between the reality that is

considered beyond ones reach and the feeling, seeing, and observing of the sacred in ones

daily life. Confucius was clearly aware of the connection between his dreaming of the Duke

of Zhou and his physical and mental health, and when he did not have such a dream he

realized how much he had gone downhill (Lunyu 7.5). This suggests that in Confucius

view there exists an interactive relationship between ones experience of the sage (in this

instance, dreaming) and ones ability to carry out the teaching of the sage. Confucian

experiences manifest the presence of something transcendent, in which ones value isassociated with the highest realm and ones existence is integrated with the ultimate reality.

This can be seen from Confucius attitude toward sacrifice. Contrary to those who

performed rituals simply as customary procedures, Confucius emphasized that the

importance of ritual was to feel or see the presence of the spirits: One should make

sacrifice to a spirit as though that spirit was present(Lunyu3.12).12 Only by the presence

evident in ones perception can a set of phenomenological rituals become existentially

meaningful, because it is in this presence that the immanent nature and function of the

transcendent becomes embodied, functional, and influential in peoples ritual experiences.

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7 The Experiential as Transcendent

Distinguished scholars such as Tu have clearly seen the importance of personal experience

for enhancing Confucian religiosity and tend to place the self at the centre of Confucian

spirituality. However, confined by their rational agenda of reconstruction, they seemreluctant to confirm any direct association of personal experience to transcendence. For

them transcendence can be fully realized in the self only through a rational connection with

the external world, or through conscientious fulfilment of moral responsibilities toward the

community. There is no doubt that the self-experience in Confucianism is preoccupied with

secular matters, taking place in daily life or in the process of moral education or self-

discipline. Can we say that because of this Confucian experiences are secular by nature and

lack an explicit transcendent significance?

Confucians are concerned with social, political, and educational problems, by which

they create a vision or blueprint for a morally perfect life, the realization of which is taken

as the driving force for them to work diligently. Such an experience in Confucianism,

however, is not totally secular; rather it can be traced to a transcendent origin, either

because it is derived from an awareness of the reality that transcends the human realm, or

because in it the one who has the experience has gone through such a transformation that he

or she can be totally renewed. Therefore daily renewal is both moral and spiritual,

underlying all Confucian efforts in politics, morality, and community. The Great Learning

(Daxue) quotes from theBook of Historythat if you can renovate yourself one day, then

you can do so every day, and keep doing so day after day(Daxue2, in Chan: 87). To live a

respectful Confucian daily life is therefore to experience oneself anew everyday. It is easy to

interpret this

daily renewal

simply as a process of normal learning, adding something neweveryday to our knowledge and skills through learning and practice, by which we are

renovated. However, this is only one side of the Confucian renewal, an intellectual aspect of

Confucian experiencing. In a more subtle sense, daily renewal must be seen as a spiritual

regeneration, in which a new self is born everyday. The spiritual content of the Confucian

self is not fixed at any given time; it involves being changed or transformed, and every

renewalis a means to voice ones ultimate concernand a step closer to the transcendental

reality. Therefore the renewingis not only central to the creative transformation of the self,

but also is the key for us to understand why Confucian experiences can be said to be

transcendent by nature.

The formation and process of Confucian experience shares many features with religiousexperience in other traditions. For example, Confucian experience is initiated by an

awareness of spiritual profundity, is frequently accompanied with an enlightened insight,

and has a significant impact on the experient and his or her view of life. Confucian

experience is, nevertheless, special, with a number of characteristics that distinguish it from

other types of religious experiences. First, it can be transcendent without an extraordinary

trigger. Religious or transcendental experience normally has a kind of trigger, initiated through a

particular conscious or unconscious action or encounter. However, this is not a necessary

condition for Confucian experiencing. Because of the inter-communication between Confucian

Heaven and Confucian self, spiritual experiences mostly take place in a daily life situation,triggered by a moral engagement, not necessarily stipulated by a spiritual presence. Secondly,

typical Confucian experiences are not necessarily a sudden awareness of something

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an extraordinary awareness through a gradual process, which, when accumulating to a

breaking point, enables one to transcend ones limitation and conditionality and finally to reach

the ultimate reality where one has become a trinity with Heaven and Earth (Zhongyong22, in

Chan 1963: 108). Thirdly, religious experiences in a theistic tradition are normally

accompanied by a strong conviction or belief in the authority or power of the transcendent,and are therefore externally-pointing (numinous), rather than inwardly directing (mystical).

However, many Confucian experiences are primarily an inwardly seeking journey, an

exploration of what one already has, something innate of a transcendental nature. Therefore,

what is for the sake of the self is not merely secular, but contains spiritual meaning and is part

of Confucian transcendence. Fourthly, mystical experiences normally involve the submerging

of ones self in the ultimate reality, but Confucian experience is aimed to manifest the self,

and by experiencing the ultimate one is able to gain ultimate truth, knowing the Mandate or

Decree of Heaven (zhi tian ming ). Confucian experience is to gain freedom for

the self, not to set limits for its scope and action. The significance of the freedom for spiritual

growth can be seen from Confucius when he defined it as the highest achievement in

moral progression: at seventy I followed my hearts desire without overstepping the line

(Lunyu 2.4).

8 Conclusion

TU Weiming correctly places the self at the centre of the Confucian tradition, arguing for

the creative self to be taken as the moving force to unfold all Confucian programs and to

rebuild a moral, political, and educational world. Tu has clearly realized that the self cannotbe purely rational and moral, suggesting that it may well also be experiential and spiritual.

In this sense, Tu has proposed a new Confucian program that distinguishes him from a

number of other contemporary Confucian scholars. In unfolding the Confucian agenda,

however, Tu has followed a programmatic approach that is unable to fully reveal the

experiential dimension of Confucian spirituality and that is not possible for an appropriate

assessment over the experiential and spiritual nature of the Confucian self. To address this

weakness, as this article has argued, we must abandon the dichotomous way of thinking

concerning the rational and the spiritual that has to some extent dominated contemporary

Confucian studies, and pay more attention to the importance of transcendental experiences

of the self, by which a holistic Confucian spirituality can be firmly established.

Acknowledgment The author wishes to thank Professors TU Weiming, John Berthrong, and TSAI Yan-zen

for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this essay, some of which have been incorporated into

the paper during the process of revision.

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