XX a. konfucianizmas: vakarų ar kinų kultūros darinys?
Confucianism in 20th century: is it the product of western or chinese culture?

Summary/Abstract: There could be observed the obvious revival and cosmopolization of Confucianism in China as well as in the West in the course of recent decades. Accordingly, the number of questions come into the mind, namely, what it has in common with the real, historical Confucius and his wisdom of life? Who takes part in the creation of contemporary image of Confucianism, and who feels the need of it? Why, and in which way it is alienated from its original Chinese roots, and what hapens with it after the removal into the sphere of very different Western culture? The article attempts at examining the reasons of the revival of Confucianism, the main stages and trends of its transformation in mainland 20 th century China as well as abroad, the most influental interpretations of New Confucianism or so-called “Post- Confucianism” (xin ru jia), its relationships with the Western philosophy, the actuality of its existencial and practical implications and their ties with the Western culture, the contribution of Westerners into the process of its revival. It provides with the opportunities for contemporary Chinese and Western Confucianists to present Confucianism in the variuos terms such as “anthropocosmical humanism”, “contemporary philosophy of culture”, “moral metaphysics”, new universal religion (as based on the self-creativity instead of Creator and the creation-ex-nihilo), and with the contradictory tendencies in its interpretation such as sinocentrical culturalism and cosmopolitan universalism, moral idealism and pragmatism. Despite of this, the main change of Confucianism in XXth century seems to be the idea, that it is not necessary to be Chinese or born in China, in order to be Confucian, and the main appeal of it is to be the way of life, as it was for Confucius, instead of being the way for the engagement into the scholarly world.

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