Confucian thinker applies 'Yijing' to international politics
- By Zhang Lulu
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 25, 2017
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Professor Chung-ying Cheng's latest book "Philosophy of the Yijing: New thinking on international politics." [Photo provided to China.org.cn] |
'Moral power'and 'natural power'
In his latest book, Professor Cheng also raised concepts stemming from ancient Confucian thinking into the discourse of international affairs.
He argues in the book that "hard power," coupled with "soft power" and "smart power" invented by American political scientist Joseph Nye, has been used by the U.S. to advance at the expense of other countries' development.
As the U.S. exerts the three powers, it grows more powerful but violates others' sovereignty and rights to develop. This goes against morality, Cheng said. He introduces the idea of "moral power," which in the book is defined as being "based on human virtues and working towards public interests and the natural realization of human rights." He said the development of such a moral power is necessary to create goodwill among different countries.
He also invented the idea of "ziranli," or roughly translates as natural power, which refers to the force of nature and and the innate capability that a country has in its hand.
Cheng argued that the various military actions taken by the U.S. are examples of it having gone beyond its natural capacity and is unlikely to be able to sustain.
Professor Cheng's book is written in Chinese and published in May by the People's Oriental Publishing & Media Co. Ltd.
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