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This paper addresses the complex relationship between Confucian values and music education in East Asia, particularly its history in China. How does one account for the present ‘cultural fever’ of Western classical music that has infected more than 100 million Chinese practitioners? It is proposed that Western classical music finds transcultural affinities in Confucian traditional values of artful self-cultivation and virtue, while simultaneously acting as a signifier of modernity and individual creativity. The paradigm shift that applies to Confucius’s status change from a despised pre-feudal conservative to a state-sanctioned indigenous philosopher who resists market economy sociocultural destabilization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is discussed. Corresponding changes in the Chinese Communist Party’s attitudes towards Western classical music are covered, starting with condemnations of politically-suspect foreign cultural practices to current advocacy of an arts discipline that is integral in educating disciplined, high-performing citizens of the modern Chinese nation state. Correlations between ancient Eastern and Western philosophies of music and their consequences for contemporary music education are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article will argue that neither what may be called 'multiple legitimacies' nor what Leigh Jenco refers to as the hybrid view of legitimacy provides substantial guidance in reconceiving legitimacy in the increasingly pluralistic region of East Asia. Instead, a more helpful view of political legitimacy can be drawn from John Rawls's liberal principle of legitimacy. I will demonstrate that Rawls's classic formulation can be deprived of its liberal connotation by taking constitutional essentials as the source of legitimation for political authority. On the basis of this principle of pluralistic legitimacy, it will become clear that a pluralistic understanding of political legitimacy does not rule out Confucian meritocracy, but it does make a strong case for an antiperfectionist state, even if it might be nondemocratic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Relations theory about East Asia has increasingly argued that East Asia before Western penetration enjoyed a protracted peace. As explanations, a Chinese military hegemony would fit realist theory fairly well, while a cultural peace based on shared Confucian norms would be a significant anomaly. A Confucian Long Peace challenges widely held, albeit Eurocentric, realist presumptions including the perils of anarchy, the arms-racing and misperception of the security dilemma, and the regularity of power balancing. This article therefore investigates, first, whether such a peace did in fact exist, and, second, whether this might be attributed to Confucianism. A cultural peace theory requires a strong anti-war cultural norm and a shared sense of community. Skepticism is established by examining three comparative cultural spaces that nonetheless did not enjoy a culturally informed peace: the classical Greek city-state system, early modern Christendom, and the contemporary Arab state system. All were deeply riven and competitive. Nevertheless, empirical investigation of the last Chinese (Qing) dynasty before the Western arrival (1644–1839) demonstrates that it was remarkably peaceful toward its Confucian neighbors, while more ‘normally’ exploiting its power asymmetry against non-Confucian ones. Process-tracing specialized Chinese practices toward fellow Confucians suggests that the low Confucian war finding emanates from cultural restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]