ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how transformational citizenship exemplified by suzhi is deeply rooted in the age-old legacy of Confucian political thinking. It argues that the common thread that runs directly between a Confucian political thinking and the suzhi improvement rationale is an understanding of humanity as a shared mission of moral perfection and completeness. The chapter focuses on its primary purpose of providing a political and cultural blueprint for social order and highlights the coherence in its own argument given its view on human nature. It provides the essential differences between political thinking in Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism and Mohism to argue that the philosophical and psychological foundations of suzhi can be best linked to Confucian political philosophy. The chapter also provides an integrated view of core elements of Confucianism to construct a link between Confucianism as a particular mode of cultivating a person for social/political ends and the philosophical, psychological and ethical rationale of transformational citizenship.
