Tu Weiming

One of the world’s most prominent scholars of Confucianism, Tu Weiming is Chair Professor of Humanities and Founding Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University. From 1981 to 2010, Tu was Harvard–Yenching Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and of Confucian Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His dialogue book with Daisaku Ikeda, New Horizons in Eastern Humanism: Buddhism, Confucianism and the Quest for Global Peace, was published in 2011. Not only do Tu and Ikeda share a commitment to humanistic expressions of religion and philosophy, both are equally committed to the practice of dialogue as “the source and defining characteristic of what we call civilization,” he phased it in his preface to New Horizons. At the end of that preface, he urged all of us to maintain our faith in dialogue as the path to peace and mutual understanding: “Our challenge is neither as daunting as a high mountain nor as simple as crossing a level plain. As we proceed on the path of dialogue, we will no doubt encounter some of each. But through our perseverance, we will achieve nothing less than the embodiment of truth.”

Photo by Marilyn Humphries