Confucian humility (qian xun 謙遜) is a deeply rooted virtue in East Asian traditions and widely practiced among modern East Asians. Despite its significance, our modern understanding of it remains imperfect, partly due to a prevailing misunderstanding of its true nature under the label of “modesty­bias.” This bias is often cited as a representative trait of East Asian collectivism in social or cultural psychology, leading to a narrow focus on attitudes and behaviors associated with it, with little attention to whether (...) it accurately reflects the historical roots of Confucian humility. This paper aims to highlight the notable differences between attitudes or behaviors related to modesty­bias and traditional Confucian humility, arguing that failing to make this distinction poses a significant obstacle to understanding Confucian humility as a virtue and its contemporary expression. Methodological suggestions are provided on how to conduct interdisciplinary research on Confucian humility, emphasizing the need to recognize and address the prejudice associated with modesty­bias. Such an interdisciplinary approach can also help discern modern attitudes or behaviors rooted in Confucian humility and shed new light on the continuing relevance of this traditional virtue in contemporary East Asian society. (shrink)

An important characteristic of the ethical thought of Xunzi 荀子 that has not received the attention it deserves is related to the idea of the ideal state or condition that Xunzi believes all humans should attain in their personal interactions. I am inclined to think that Xunzi actually puts this idea at the center of his ethical outlook. If this inclination is credible, it may have significant implications for any attempt to understand Xunzi’s ethical thought in a more systematic way. (...) Moreover, this inclination seems to counter a very recent trend in the field of contemporary Chinese philosophy, which is to see early Confucian thought as comparable to contemporary virtue ethics because early Confucian thought .. (shrink)