{"id":1015,"date":"2026-08-23T14:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2026-08-23T14:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:25:07","slug":"the-modern-significance-of-confucius-laments-in-virtue-ethics-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/the-modern-significance-of-confucius-laments-in-virtue-ethics-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Modern Significance of Confucius\u2019 Laments in Virtue Ethics Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span class=\"cf0\">Atsushi Asai, Hua Xu, Miki Fukuyama, Motoki Ohnishi<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"cf0\">Volume 9 Issue 1<\/span><strong><span class=\"cf0\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong>First Published: August 23, 2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/wp9835259570\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cbel-report_09_01_Asai_etal.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Abstract<\/h4>\n<p>This essay rereads the Analects by focusing on Confucius\u2019 laments, understood as emotionally charged expressions of normative tension between moral ideals and actual human conduct, social conditions, or fate. We examine twenty-one passages in which Confucius expresses disappointment, grief, self-criticism, powerlessness, or despair. These passages reveal difficulties in virtue-based moral practice: the decline of virtue, the lack of inward sincerity, the gap between understanding and practicing virtue, the limits of self-reflection and moral education, the loneliness of those who uphold moral ideals, and the absurdity of fate. Rather than treating these laments as merely biographical or rhetorical elements, we argue that they illuminate both the promise and the limits of virtue ethics. The Analects cannot simply be equated with contemporary virtue ethics, but Confucius\u2019 laments remain relevant to ethics education because they show that virtue cannot be taught merely as knowledge or external conduct. The concerns about moral issues and virtue ethics found in Confucius\u2019 society are yet to be resolved in the present society. Contemporary virtue education must therefore attend to inner motivation, the limits of educational effects, the social conditions that hinder virtue, and the possibility that a virtuous life may not lead to recognition, success, or happiness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Key words<\/h4>\n<p>Confucius, Analects, Virtue Ethics, Laments, Virtue education<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atsushi Asai, Hua Xu, Miki Fukuyama, Motoki Ohnishi<br \/>\nVolume 9 Issue 1<br \/>\nFirst Published: August 23, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[67,40],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regular-article","tag-volume-9-issue-1","tag-latest-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cbel.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}