To Build Deeper Love for the Country and Family, to Make Prosperous the Culture of Junzi --The Fifth National Forum on Junzi Culture Held in Shanghai

The Fifth National Forum on Junzi Culture organized by Guangming Daily Press and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was held at SJTU from 24 to 25 August 2019. Over a hundred experts and scholars from more than 60 higher education and research institutions attended the forum, including those from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Fudan University, and Zhejiang University. Focusing on “Love for the Country, Family, and the Junzi (often translated as gentleman) Culture”, this forum aims to rejuvenate the traditional Junzi idea in modern context.

During the opening ceremony, Gu Feng, Deputy Secretary of the CPC at SJTU, Hu Hao, Director of the Publicity Department of the Party Committee at SJTU, and Li Chunlin, Deputy Editor of Guangming Daily Press, gave speeches respectively. Qi Hong, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Humanities, then announced that Professor Yang Guorong from the Department of Philosophy at East China Normal University would be the director of SJTU Research Center on Chinese Junzi Culture and Yu Zhiping from the Department of Philosophy at SJTU, the executive director. 

Speech by Gu Feng

The forum lasted for a day and a half, with keynote speeches delivered by 17 experts, including Xie Xialing, Chairman of the Shanghai Academy of Confucianism at Fudan University, Qian Niansun, Honorary Chairman of Anhui Junzi Culture Research Association, Luo Chuanfang, a researcher from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Fang Zhaohui, a history professor from Tsinghua University. The topics they discussed include the existential structure of Junzi Culture, the unifying nature between family and country, Junzi in Confucianism, loyalty and filial piety, and passing on and transcending Junzi Culture in a new era. During the group discussions, scholars explored the relationship between family and country, individual and ethnic group, the individual and the collective, and also probed into other issues, such as practicing Junzi or gentleman from the perspective of studying Confucian classics and the image of Junzi in literary works.

With the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC coming near, the forum aims to rediscover the significance of Junzi Culture in modern society. Through the rediscovery of its vision, concepts, values and norms, and its application to modern society, Junzi Culture will be properly inherited and innovated, thus made to show its eternal glamour in our modern world. 

This forum is hosted by SJTU Research Center of Chinese Junzi Culture, and co-sponsored by Anhui Junzi Culture Research Association, Hunan Junzi Culture Research Association, Zhejiang University Junzi Culture Research Center, Junzi Culture Research Center at Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, and Junzi Culture Research Center of Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.