Nordic Network on Chinese Thought (NNCT) is a network for Nordic scholars on Chinese thought. The purpose of the NNCT is to promote and facilitate discussion on Chinese philosophy and history of ideas within the Sinosphere and to provide a platform for open and critical dialogue, as well as for sharing topical research ideas and papers. The NNCT will also advance collaboration and dialogue with Asian scholars on related topics.

The activities of the NNCT include seminars, workshops, study events and lectures in the field of Chinese thought on such relevant themes as the role of concepts in Chinese philosophy.

The NNCT aims at bringing together scholars and students approaching Chinese thought from diverse angles and within different time periods in a way which inspires each member to reach out and to learn from the approaches of others.

Inaguration seminar of NNCT: ”Lapland Manifesto of Confucianism”
Date: 20th of April 2021, from 10 AM to 12 PM Helsinki time (UTC+3)
Link: Click here! (Microsoft Teams or a Chromium browser capable of using web version of Microsoft Teams required)

Speakers:
Jyrki Kallio (Ph.D) Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Torbjörn Lodén Professor Emeritus, Stockholm University
Matti Nojonen Professor, University of Lapland

Commentator:
Huang Chun-chieh Distinguished Chair Professor, National Taiwan University

本宣言探討儒家傳統，以及如何存其菁、復其用的方法。「Confucianism」（孔 夫子主義）一詞是歐洲所創的名詞，是將某一套傳統與孔子（Confucius）其人其 教相聯繫，並將此以「主義」（ism）加以標示。然而，對應的中文「儒家」或「儒 學」，讓我們更能理解這套豐富的傳統。所謂「儒家」是指「術士」的學派。1 本 文所理解與提倡的儒家傳統，並不是一套以若干教條規範而成的僵固的思想體系， 而是一種正在進行中的討論，這個討論直指人類現實的困頓，而討論的起點大約 在三千年前，甚至早於孔子（卒於公元前 479 年）。在本文中，我們可以找出幾 項主軸和問題作為核心元素，例如：「人」與「天」的本質、善與惡的涵義、人 格的育成，以及如何達到社會秩序與世界秩序的和諧，乃至各種關係的和諧，例 如「知」與「行」的關係之和諧、道德與學術研究的關係之和諧。

閱讀拉普蘭儒學宣言全文

This Manifesto discusses the Confucian tradition and ways of preserving its merits and restoring its relevance. The word ‘Confucianism’ is a European coinage, which associates the tradition with the person of Confucius and his teachings, and labels the tradition as an “ism”. However, our understanding of this rich tradition is much better conveyed by the equivalent Chinese word rujia 儒家, which means ‘The School of the Learned”. The Confucian tradition, as it is understood and promoted in this manifesto, is not a fixed system of thought that can be defined in terms of a certain number of dogmas, but rather an ongoing discussion of the human predicament that started about three thousand years ago, even before Confucius (孔子, d. 479 BCE). In this discussion, we may identify a number of themes and questions as key elements: among them the nature of ‘Man’ (ren 人) and ‘Heaven’ (tian 天), the meaning of good and evil, the cultivation of humanity, the question of how to bring about a harmonious society and world order, as well as various relationships such as the relationship between knowledge and action and that between morality and scholarly inquiry. 

Read rest of the manifesto