In 2012, based on the previous three selections, according to the Constitution of Confucius Culture Prize, examined by Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and Shandong provincial government, professor of Minzu University of China Mr. Mu Zhongjian and Sungkyunkwan University were selected as the winner of Confucius Culture Prize 2012, the awarding ceremony was held during the during the opening ceremony of the fifth World Confucian Conference. As the leading figure to study and carry forward Confucianism and the renowned organization to adhere to and carry forward Confucianism, Mr. Mu Zhongjian and Sungkyunkwan University commanded public respect and support to win this laurel.

Mu Zhongjian

     Mu Zhongjian is the accomplished philosophical historian and religious scholar of China, the pioneer and pathfinder of Chinese contemporary religious studies. He was born in Yantai city of Shandong province in May, 1939. From 1957 to 1965, he studied from Feng Youlan, Ren Jiyu, Zhu Bokun and so on at Philosophy Department of Peking University as the undergraduate and graduate student. From April, 1966 to November, 1987, he worked at World Religion Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (the former Philosophy and Social Sciences Department of Chinese Academy of Sciences). Starting from 1987, he has been serving as professor and doctoral tutor of Philosophy and Religion Department of Minzu University of China, once serving as the director of the Research Center of “985 Project” Contemporary Major National Religious Issues. He also serves as the consultant of International Confucian Association, consultant of Chinese Religious Society, the academic consultant of China Confucius Foundation, national condition expert of National Library, professor of National School of Administration, professor of the Training Center of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs, member of the expert committee of the World Confucian Conference, dean of Nishan Shengyuan Academy.
 

     Mr. Mu Zhongjian has been devoted to Confucianism and the Taoist culture, advocated civilized dialogue, promoted Chinese academy, made extraordinary accomplishments in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, religious study, and Chinese philosophy.
     Mr. Mu is one of the well-known Chinese philosophical historians and religious historians, the pioneer and explorer of contemporary Chinese religious study. For many years he has carried out deep study on Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese religious study, Chinese philosophy and so on, put up a series of prospective thesis and views. Mr. Mu made comprehensive and deep study on Confucianism, put up the conception of “new benevolence theory”. He put up the “three new path” of returning to the nature and innovating the new, comprehensive innovation, getting rid of the stale and bringing forth the new. He is the initiator of Chinese religious history and national religious study. He sorted out and elucidated the historical characteristics of Chinese religion development, put up the new concept of “the patriarchal traditional religion” to express the Chinese basic faith of respecting the nature and ancestor that has lasted for thousands of years, which clarified the theoretical confusion caused by “Confucianism”. Under the big context of building the harmonious society, he combined the parallel ethnology and religious studies in theory, founded the ethnological religious study, adding a new branch to religious studies, contributing to solving the ethnological and religious issues.
     Mr. Mu made a deep accomplishment to Chinese traditional culture. He put up the new idea of the “mutual influence pattern among multiple pattern” of Chinese culture, holding that Confucianism constitutes the trunk, while the bottom color is the complementary relation between Confucianism and Taoism. He deeply analyzed the essence and characteristics of the traditional culture, elucidated the charm and value of the national culture, actively explained and carried forward the traditional culture by publishing many papers, and made outstanding contribution to the development of the traditional culture in the new era. He pursued his studies with a broad vision, adhered to Confucius’ thought of “harmony in diversity”, advocated the equal dialogue among various civilizations, stood for merging the China and foreign countries together and various schools together, absorbing all the excellent achievements of human civilization and recreating the glory of Chinese civilization.
     Mr. Mu Zhongjian created abundant works, including the Study of Lv Shi Chun Qiu and Huai Nan Zi, Chinese Religion and Culture, Chinese Taoism, Approaching Chinese Spirit, the New Exploration of Chinese Spirit, Exploring Religion, Religion•Literature and Art•Folk-custom. He also wrote the following works together with others: the General History of Chinese Religion (with Zhang Jian), the Summary of Chinese Religion and Traditional Culture (with Lv Daji), Wang Chongyang’s Seven Disciples and Qilu Culture, Scanning Chinese Religion, Talking about Chinese Traditional Life Philosophy, the Encyclopedia of Chinese Confucianism and so on. He edited the ten volumes of History of Chinese Civilization•Religion, the General Interpretation of Taoism, Taoism Volume (the selected series of contemporary Chinese religion study), volume 1-5 of Religion and Nation, the Exploration of the Modernization of Confucianism. He participated in the writing of volume 1-4 of the Development History of Chinese Philosophy (edited by Ren Jiyu), the Well-rounded Argument of Religious Studies (edited by Lv Daji), the History of Real Learning in Ming and Qing Dynasty (edited by Ge Rongjin), the History of Chinese Taoism (edited by Ren Jiyu). He published over 300 papers, presided over the national social science fund projects for three times.
     For many years, Mr. Mu Zhongjian has concentrated on studies, been attendant in doing scholarly research, made bold innovations, made a lot of contribution in the research and spread of Chinese culture, and made active and far-reaching influence in the academic circle.
 

Sungkyunkwan

     Sungkyunkwan is located at the capital of South Korea Seoul, is the Confucianism center of South Korea. She has a long history, in 1398 it was founded with the Confucian main essence of benevolence, justice, rite and wisdom. It was the top educational institute for high learning, equal to ancient Chinese imperial college.
     The words “Chengjun” came from Zhouli•Chunguan. The aim of Sungkyunkwan was “to cultivate the unprecedented talents and to correct the bad atmosphere in society”. It was the national Confucianism education center during Korean Dynasty period and cultivated a lot of loyal and patriotic historical figures excellent both in morality and learning. Later, with the abolition of the imperial examination system, the educational mode and property of Sungkyunkwan University changed. Beginning from 1895, it started the course of Confucian classics, began to provide the “new knowledge” of history, geography, world history and mathematics to the students and became the birthplace of Korean college learning. In 1910, the Japanese empire invaded and occupied Korea, the traditional national education was forced to stop, and the name of Sungkyunkwan University was changed into “Institute of Confucian Classics”. After the surrender of Japanese empire, on September 25th, 1945, the national Confucians donated to build the “Sungkyunkwan University” to inherit the tradition of national education. Now Sungkyunkwan and Sungkyunkwan University are operated separately, making unremitting effort for inheriting and developing the Confucian tradition, together with 234 “country schools” all over the country.
     Now Sungkyunkwan includes 3 corporations, 5 educational institutes, Confucian broadcasting and TV station, newspaper agency, country schools and academies all over the nation, regularly organizing the Confucian gathering, female and juvenile Confucian gathering. The chief cause includes the sacrificial ceremony at the Confucian temples, namely, leading and guiding 234 country schools to hold Confucius memorial ceremony; the administration of Sungkyunkwan and local country schools; the spread and cultivation of the Confucian culture; carrying out the work for public good.
 

     Over the past many years, Sungkyunkwan has been made efforts to promote the development of Confucius’ Confucianism, established the academic organizations such as the Confucian Academic Institute, National Academy, Confucian Society, Confucian Culture Research Institute and so on, held or sponsored over 30 national and international large-scale symposiums every year, edited and published the Confucian works of the Confucianism Events, Filial Conduct Record, Book of Etiquette, Ming Xin Bao Jian, the Confucian Teaching Materials and so on. What’s more, Sungkyunkwan established “the Confucian Academic Award”, “the Confucian Literary Award”, “the Fund of Carrying forward Confucianism” to encourage the development of the Confucian research and thought, producing important and active influence to the exchange, development and study of Confucianism in modern society.
     Sungkyunkwan is the place where the traditional culture was preserved most intensively in South Korea. It reveres the founder of Confucianism Confucius and the Confucian sages of various generations, actively carried forward their great thoughts and achievements. The memorial tablets of 39 Confucian saints and past philosophers were consecrated at Dacheng Hall, where the Confucian Temples and other sacrificial ceremonies were held regularly and lasted until nowadays. On May 11th, Confucius’ Memorial Day, and September 28th, Confucius’ birthday every year, both Sungkyunkwan and the 234 country school holds “Confucius Memorial Ceremony”, the dance during the sacrificial ceremony called Yi Wu was preserved entirely during the thousand-year history and became the treasure of South Korea. At the same time, it continued various Confucian rites such as the adult ceremony to spread Confucianism, making extraordinary contribution for the preservation of the Confucian Liyue culture in modern society.
     In the high-speed development of modernization, Sungkyunkwan kept pace with the times. It was actively dedicated to the modernization of Confucianism, putting up the “three goals of Confucianism development”: the popularization of the Confucian classics, the popularization of the Confucian theory, and the popularization of the Confucian culture. In 1973, it published the Ethics Declaration and Practice Outline and initiated the social morality movement. Meanwhile, it paid more attention to the spiritual education in the contemporary materialistic society, was actively dedicated to cultivating the spirit of benevolence, justice, ritual, wisdom and trustworthiness of the South Korean people by establishing “the Confucian Scholar Cultural Academy of South Korea” and “Protocol School of South Korea” to spread the Confucian culture to the juveniles so as to become the cradle of national spirit. She paid a lot of effort in translating and teaching the Confucian classics such as the Analects, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean, and meanwhile, it spread the Confucianism to the masses through the modernized means such as TV, broadcasting station, mobile, internet and so on, to the effect of promoting the popularization of Confucianism. Now the juveniles’ personality education, the university students’ Confucian culture experience, the social people’s old-style private school training, the Confucian mentors’ continuing education led by the Sungkyunkwan have become common practice in South Korean society and the steady stream of momentum to sustain the development of the Confucian culture.
     All the time, Sungkyunkwan inherited the tradition, based on reality, faced the future, made outstanding contribution in expanding the influence of Confucius’ Confucianism, promoting Confucianism exchange and study and fostering the Confucian spirit. It is the important Confucianism organization famous in East Asia and even the whole world.