Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.2, 2022

Yirenxingqing and Einfühlung: A Phenomenological Perspective on the Confucian Idea of Cultivation

(Abstract)

Wang Qunhong

The Confucian concept of yirenxingqing and the Western idea of Einfühlung in phenomenology are quite similar in the following terms: both emphasize the transcendence of the subjective spirit, and the cognitive nature of the recipience of indoctrination is manifested in the co-existence of alienation and common sense; both have an important role in personality construction. Confucianism has two different ways of constructing personality, namely, by removing desire and restoring nature and by transforming emotion and removing evil. The Confucian idea of transforming emotion towards the Dao reflects the universal sense of commonality in the cognitive process.  Confucian poetic education, as a means of aesthetic transformation of emotion, more fully embodies the cognitive transcendence of the givenness and intuitiveness of the perceived object.