Project Description

Harmony in Diversity – Confucianism and Islam

孔教與伊斯蘭教的「和而不同」

Posted on 7/2/2015

Harmony in Diversity - Confucianism and Islam

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土耳其是一個橫跨歐、亞兩洲的國家,是兩洲交接的紐帶,在地理、文化、國際政治方面,均有着舉足輕重的地位。而土耳其又是一個歐亞文化互相融合的文化體,有其極為深刻豐富的文化內涵。今天,本人應邀來到土耳其中心跟各位交流,分享孔子儒家思想的偉大,實是今人萬分高興的。

孔子是孔敎儒家的創始人,孔子思想的光輝,超越時空,深刻地影響了全人類,對人類精神文明作出了巨大的貢獻。孔教由聖人孔子創立,以四書十三經為經典,以“仁、義、禮、智、信、忠、孝、悌”為基本教義。1988年1月,一批諾貝爾獎獲得者在巴黎開會結束時呼籲:“如果人類要在二十一世紀更好的生存下去,須回顧二千五百年前,去吸取孔子的智慧。”2009年10月28日美國國會眾議院以361票贊成,47票反對,通過了紀念孔子誕辰的決議。由此可見孔子思想影響力貫通古今,世界認同。

在中國,明末清初之時,不少穆斯林學者相繼開展了漢文譯著伊斯蘭教經籍的活動。他們著書立說,“以儒詮經”,將儒家文化與伊斯蘭教結合起來,被稱為“中阿兼通”,“懷西方(指伊斯蘭教)之學問,習東土之儒書”的“回儒”。出現了一大批代表人物和代表作品:如張中的《歸真總義》,王岱輿的《清真大學》,伍遵契的《歸真要道》,劉智的《天方性理》、《天方典禮》,馬注的《清真指南》,藍煦的《天方正學》等,影響甚廣。

對於至上神,孔教與伊斯蘭教有相同的看法。孔教的至上神是昊天上帝,簡稱為“天”。孔子即是昊天上帝在人間的使者,孔子說:“巍巍乎唯天為大”(《論語.泰伯》)“天何言哉,四時行焉,百物生焉,天何言哉!”(《論語.陽貨》)“獲罪於天,無所禱也。”(《論語.八佾》)“予所否者,天厭之,天厭之。”(《論語.雍也》)“不怨天,不尤人,下學而上達。知我者其天乎?”(《論語.憲問》)昊天上帝無形無象,無所不在。伊斯蘭教認為宇宙之間是有主宰的,宇宙萬物是由大仁大慈、普育眾生、絕對獨一的“安拉”所創造,“安拉”無形象,無方位,也是無所不在。

和諧是孔教儒學的核心價值觀之一,《論語》中有“禮之用,和為貴,先王之道,斯為美”。“和”的主要含義是,協調不同的人和事並使之達到和諧的狀態。《尚書.堯典》說:“百姓昭明,協和萬邦”。孔子說:“君子和而不同,小人同而不和。”(《論語.子路》)孟子進而提出“人和”的思想,他說:“天時不如地利,地利不如人和。”(《孟子.公孫丑下》) “和”的功能是什麼呢?《中庸》裏講得很清楚:“致中和,天地位焉,萬物育焉。”達到了“和”,天地萬物才會處於有序的狀態,萬物得到生長,社會才能進步。“和”還有保持中道,不過份的意思。《廣韻》:“和,順也,諧也,不堅不柔也。”《新書.道術》:“剛柔得適謂之和,反和為乖”,都是和諧適度的意思。《中庸》說:“喜怒哀樂之未發,謂之中。發而皆中節,謂之和。”只有使自己的情緒處於不偏激的狀態,才能不傷人,不傷己,這也是道德修養的一種境界。董仲舒認為,用仁義道德去教化民眾,是建設和諧社會的根本之道。孟子主張“窮則獨善其身,達則兼善天下。”《孟子‧盡心》。伊斯蘭教也建立了一套修善積德的方法,提出“念、禮、齋、課、朝”等五功,以“念”、“禮”兩功修煉個人內在的心性,以“齋戒”展現對人間饑餓貧苦的惻隱之心,以“課”功周濟社會福利的公平,以“朝”拜天房達到天下一家的理想,實現社會和諧,促進世界和平。

社會和諧主要體現在“五倫”關係中,明末清初的伊斯蘭教學者劉智在《天方典禮》一書中,用了大量篇幅論述他的“五典”之說。所謂“五典”,實際上是指“君臣、父子、夫妻、兄弟、朋友”五個方面的人倫關係。儒家非常重視家庭和諧,宣導齊家之道,宣導“夫義婦順”。伊斯蘭文化重視家庭價值,認為家庭是男女雙方情投意合共同生活的合法正道。儒家非常重視孝道,認為孝道是“天之經”、“地之義”,孝道是行仁之始,主張父慈子孝。《古蘭經》中也主張對父母要孝敬,要謙卑,要和顏悅色相待,更時時感激雙親撫育之恩。儒家主張仁政,對殘疾人、病痛者、老人等特殊群體實施“皆有所養”政策。伊斯蘭文化主張對貧者弱者要慷慨解囊,贈予財物。“天課”是穆斯林的五項天職之一,每人每年將淨收入的百分之二點五的錢財捐出,這是一個非常重要的制度。孔子具有人類最早的平等意識,他主張“有教無類”,“仁者愛人”。伊斯蘭教則主張,任何不同的種族膚色、不同性別的人、無論尊卑富貧,都應享有平等人權,在安拉真主面前人人平等。

綜上所述,孔教與伊斯蘭教都應對社會和諧、人類和平做出重要貢獻。希望在座各位朝著這一方向作出自己的努力。

* The talk will be conducted in Mandarin.

Dr TONG Yun Kai, SBS, MBE, DBA
President, The Confucian Academy

Dr. TONG Yun Kai, was born in 1934 in Guangdong Province, China. He left his hometown at the age of 13 and immigrated to Hong Kong. He is the President of the Confucian Academy, Managing Director of 5 companies, President of Hong Kong Badminton Association, Member of the Selection Committee of Chief Executive for the First, Second, Third & Fourth Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Honorary Vice President of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, Honorary Life President of Asian Badminton Confederation and Honorary Advisor (former Vice Chairman) of International Confucian Association. Dr Tong is ranked 12th in the Precedence List in the Government of Hong Kong SAR, not to mention he has been conferred over 200 honorary titles by a number of institutions in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, the United States, Japan and the other countries and territories. Dr. Tong was conferred by her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Member of the British Empire (MBE) on March 2005 for his contribution in the field of business, education, religion and sport. In the same year, he was granted the World Peace Award by the World Religion Federation in Japan. In March 2006, he was awarded by President George W. Bush of United States the President’s Award for his Educational Excellence as an “Outstanding Confucian Scholar”. In July 2009, Dr. Tong was awarded the “World Peace Grand Prize” by Lincoln Memorial Foundation for Peace in recognition of his contribution to the freedom and the world peace. Recently, He received the high Confucius Culture prize from the Ministry of Culture of China in 2011.
Dr. Tong has all along been paying tribute to Confucius since his childhood. For more than fifty years, he has spared no efforts to promulgate the Confucian school of thoughts. He was elected to be the Vice President of The Confucian Academy in 1987 and later was voted to be the President of The Confucian Academy in 1992. Since then, he worked strenuously in propagating and developing the Confucian philosophy. He financed and made study tours to the antiquities pertaining to Confucian culture at both homeland and abroad. In addition, he has participated in many various seminars sponsored by other Confucian institutes and contributed generously towards various Confucian entities. His publications include “Symposium in Confucian School of Thoughts”, “Confucian Virtue Curriculum for Primary Schools of Hong Kong” Book

Biography – Dr Tong Yun-kai

1- 6. “Confucian Virtue and Civic Education Curriculum for Secondary Schools in Hong Kong” Book 1- 3. “Symposium of Tong Yun Kai’s Speeches on Confucian Thoughts during His Global Trips”, Vol. 1- 22 are published to the public; and up to now there are over 1170 times of speeches. Apart from publications, his footprints are found all over China (except Qinghai and Inner Mongolia). His contributions on promoting Confucianism are witnessed by his visits to countries all over the world, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Philippine, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Sweden, Singapore, Indonesia, Morocco, Russia, Costa Rica, Cuba and so forth. Dr. Tong has donated more than 150 million Hong Kong dollars in promoting Confucian philosophy; the money has been used to donate more than 500 Confucius Statues, a Confucian hospital and various Confucianism related topic books, and so on.
According to Dr Tong Yun Kai, there are six types of Confucius followers reflect the behavior of Confucian in nowadays society, namely Confucian scholars, Confucian preachers, Confucian government officials, Confucian military commanders, Confucian businessmen and Confucian medicinal practitioners. There are still other people in various trades who lead lives according to the disciplines of Confucian school of thoughts and thus promote the Confucian culture.

Dr. Tong believes that Confucian school of thoughts can contribute in six main functions: –

1. be able to promote world peace,
2. be able to enhance the quality of the virtue of human beings,
3. unify people of different cultures all over the world,
4. become the spiritual essence of the 56 minority races and 1.3 billion people of China,
5. be able to promote the unification of China, and
6. Share equal status among all other religions in the world

JAN., 2015 The President Office, The Confucian Academy

Presented By: Pearl Institute (Formerly knowns as Anatolia Cultural & Dialogue Centre)

Venue: 909 CCWU Building, 302-308 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong SAR

Date: February 7, 2015, Saturday

Time: 18.30 – 20.00

* The talk will be conducted in Mandarin

* Please kindly inform us if you cancel your registration after you made RSVP.

* There will be refreshment service after the talk

* This is a free event

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