Professor Werner Sasse poses in the courtyard of KOTE in Insa-dong, central Seoul, Dec. 12. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

In a thought-provoking hybrid lecture organized by Royal Asiatic Society Korea, German scholar Werner Sasse challenged common misconceptions about Confucius and Confucianism, shedding light on its complex influence on Korean culture and society.

Contrary to popular belief, Korea is not a Confucian country, asserted Sasse, who first came to Korea in 1966.

"First of all, if you like contradictions, Confucianism is a wonderful subject," he told a packed room at KOTE in central Seoul's Insa-dong area on Dec. 12. "For some people, Confucianism is the villain, the bad man for keeping Korea backward. For others, he is the one, because of his zest for education, that helped Korean culture, and Korean people, to come out of poverty into what we have as Korea today. Both of them, of course, are wrong. It is far too superfluous."

He critiqued these oversimplified views, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of Confucianism in Korean culture for his lecture, titled "Is THAT what Confucius said? Saving Confucius from Confucianism."

"When we talk about Confucianism, we have to be very careful," he added. "There is no such thing. The name Confucianism was coined by Westerners. There is no equivalent to Confucianism in any of the Asian languages. Confucius is just the Latin form of the teacher Gong Ja."

He explained how the teachings of Confucius and other scholars close to him entered Western thought in the mid-17th century, following the devastation of the Thirty Years' War. After the religious-based conflict laid waste to many European countries, many of its great thinkers looked for ethics based on reason and secularism. Some, like Voltaire, Christian Wolff and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, embraced it, while other philosophers found the wisdoms contained within too simplistic and obvious.

Time for reevaluation

Sasse underscored the need to reevaluate the term and recognize the diversity within East Asian philosophy.

Examining the historical trajectory of Confucianism in Korea, Sasse dismissed the widely held notion of Korea as a Confucian country. He detailed how Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism entered Korea around the fourth century, with Buddhism temporarily becoming the state religion. However, the political shift to Confucianism in the 14th century was not rooted in anti-Buddhist sentiment but rather political and economic considerations. He added that almost half of the kings in the supposedly Confucianist Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) were Buddhists and that even King Sejong's creation of the writing form of Hangeul came from more of a Buddhist influence.

Sasse addressed one major misunderstanding — the perception of Confucianism as a religion. He emphasized that Confucianism has always been more about social ethics than religious doctrine.

The lecture delved into the coexistence of various religious practices within Korean families, showcasing the flexibility and tolerance inherent in traditional Korean religiosity. "I can say yes, that is what I found when I came to Korea in 1966," he said. "Traditional Korean religiosity was centered on ad hoc ritual-based communities. Participation in rituals was not normally taken as a sign of a long-term commitment to a particular religion. A person could participate in a Buddhist ritual today, a shaman ritual the next day and a Confucian ritual the day after without feeling any contradiction and without being seen as a Buddhist, a shamanist or a Confucian scholar. "

He explained the religious structure of a Korean family he got to know in the 1960s: "Father was nothing and when asked he would say Confucian. Mother would go to a temple. And the children because they were modern were Christian. All of them would in the family have no problem with that. They would accompany each other. So, on Christmas, the Buddhists would go to church. When there was Buddha's Birthday the Christians would come up to the temple. No contradiction."

Sasse tackled three prejudices associated with Confucianism: corruption and nepotism, hierarchy and etiquette, and the importance of education. He dismissed the notion that Confucius advocated blind obedience and explored how the ancient scholar emphasized the responsibility of those in power. According to Confucius, education's importance lies in its quality rather than its pursuit for its own sake. He quoted Analects 2.15: "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous."

Sasse highlighted that Confucius was one of four classic individuals alongside Socrates, Buddha and Jesus, according to the German philosopher Carl Jaspers. He discussed the five constant relationships — the father and son, prince and subject, husband and wife, old and young, and friend and friend — that govern society, which he said are not one-way power relationships but reciprocal between two parties with different characteristics. He also clarified that the relationship between men and women is simply they are different — Confucius did not say one has to serve the other.

Professor Werner Sasse breaks down the distribution of religious beliefs in Korean society during a lecture for Royal Asiatic Society Korea at KOTE in central Seoul, Dec. 12. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

In his transformative lecture, Sasse called for a review of Confucianism, urging those in attendance to move beyond simplistic narratives and engage with the profound philosophical traditions embedded in the East Asian cultures of Korea, China and Japan.

Sasse studied Korean studies, Chinese literature and general linguistics at Bochum University in Germany in the early 1970s. He was an assistant professor of Korean studies at the university from 1975 until 1988, at which point he became a full professor and founded the university's Korean studies department. In 1992 he moved to Hamburg University where he founded another Korean studies department. He was a guest professor at Chonnam University in Gwangju in 2007, and a chair professor at Hanyang University from 2008 to 2011. He was also president of the Association of Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) from 1999 to 2003.

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Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He's also co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.