Confucian viewpoints on destiny, necessity, and fate
pp. 153-164
in: Xinzhong Yao (ed), Reconceptualizing Confucian philosophy in the 21st century, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
In the Analects, "benevolence" 仁 (ren), "rituals' 禮 (li), and "destiny" 命 ( ming) are the three most important philosophical concepts holding their own places within the complete theoretical structure of Confucius' thought. These concepts separately correspond to different categorical levels: mind and human nature for the first, social ethics for the second, and transcendence for the third. For many years now, theoretical explanations of "benevolence
