Journal of Education & Social Policy

Methodological Issues in Approaching Confucianism and its Influence on Confucian Heritage Culture/CHC Learners’ Reticence
Ce Qiao

Abstract
Decades have been spent debating whether Confucianism is a factor in Confucian Heritage Culture/CHC learners' reticence. This paper does not join the debating crowd but discusses and uncovers three methodological issues in this field that may threaten academic rigour: (1) over-reliance: evidencing claim solely/ overly by mentioning Confucian verses consistent with the claim (2) misperception - misperceiving non-Confucian verses as Confucian verses and using misperceived verses to facilitate discussion about Confucianism; (3) misuse – the quoted verses cannot serve the aim of quoting them, such as the quoted verses mismatching with the claims they were used to support. These issues have caused the spread of rumours virally. In order to remedy the potential negative influence, this article provides 3 specific implications: (1) stating the source/reference of the so-called Confucian verses (2) providing explanations about why the claims can be evidenced by the quoted verse (3) defining what Confucianism is in each work.

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