Educating Multicultural Citizens From a Confucian Heritage

This chapter explores the education of multicultural citizens in Singapore by drawing upon the teachings from Confucianism, which is a major cultural heritage of Singaporeans. A key challenge for multicultural citizenship is a superficial understanding of and limited interaction between cultural groups in a political unit. Based on two key passages from the Confucian classic Analects as expounded by Ivanhoe, this chapter suggests a Confucian notion of multicultural citizenship. This conception comprises two essential components: first, a multicultural citizen is one who subscribes to and evinces an openness to other cultures. Such a person is guided by shu (empathy) which is displayed through cross-cultural humility, interest and engagement. Second, a multicultural citizen demonstrates and promotes a shared universal family which is rooted in ren (humanity). To illustrate the application of the Confucian model to the education of multicultural citizenship in Southeast Asia, examples that foster inter-religious harmony are provided.

On Shu 書 (Documents) and the origin of the Shang shu 尚書 (Ancient Documents) in light of recently discovered bamboo slip manuscripts

In light of the recent discovery of Warring States period bamboo slips, now in the collection of Tsinghua University, inscribed with texts described as shu, “documents” or “similar to shu”, this article explores the question of “what were shu?” It suggests that shu can be understood as a literary form apart from the history of the Confucian classic, the Shang shu 尚書 (Ancient Documents) or Shu jing 書經 (Book of Documents) and the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書. Formal characteristics include: shu were – or pretended to be – contemporaneous records; and shu include formal speeches by model kings and ministers from ancient times. Many shu include the expression wang ruo yue 王若曰, which is also found in bronze inscriptions, where it indicates that a royal speech was read aloud by an official. Thus, the literary form originated with the practice of composing speeches in writing before they were read out in formal ceremonies, with a bamboo slip copy presented to the officials addressed. Later shu were fictional compositions, written in the style of these ancient documents.