Harmony: A confucian prescription to build a better world in the 21st century

Abstract

Extract: Since the emergence of human society there have been moral concepts underpinning relations among people, as well as between people and the natural environment. If the two kinds of relations; human-to-human and human-to-nature, are well handled people will have cause to be happy and society will develop smoothly. If they are not, disturbances will overtake human and social development, with the potential for total breakdown, perhaps extinction. The 21st century is especially vulnerable to these bleak possibilities. So it is of primary importance to establish harmonious human relations and a harmonious relationship with nature.