More than 80 Confucian scholars from China and South Korea explored how Confucianism helps forge a close cultural bond between the two nations at a meeting held in Qufu City, Shandong province at the end of 2015.

The meeting, titled "China-South Korea Confucianism Dialogue 2015", was hosted by the organizing committee of the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations.

"China and South Korea have always been one community connected by a common fate as the two nations have enjoyed more than 1,000 years of extensive cultural exchanges while committing to consistent pragmatic economic cooperation", said Xu Jialu, a well-known scholar in China.

Xu also added, "The two nations share the common core values of benevolence, inclusiveness, moderation and harmony. Chinese Confucian culture dating back to the Three Kingdoms (AD 220-280) greatly influenced the Confucian scholars from South Korea. These scholars adopted Chinese characters and developed Confucianism."

Yang Houlan, Secretary-General of the China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, commented, "Cultural identity of different nationalities or countries helps one country cooperate with others. Confucianism is developed and matured in friendly communication and mutual understanding between China and other countries."

"China, Japan and South Korea made concerted efforts to enhance their cultural exchanges. They released a chart which showed 808 Chinese characters collectively used in the three nations during the tenth session of the Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum held in Seoul on Nov 30, 2015", said Yang, citing an example.

Li Longdui, the president of the South Korean Spiritual Culture Consortium, held that Confucianism was once the basic value system and the guiding ideology in the politics and society of China and South Korea. But its influence is fading gradually in people's daily lives. Rejuvenation of the Confucian spirit may cure the increasingly more social problems.

Li added that many people think that the rejuvenation of Confucianism is confronted with many obstacles, as some think that it is due to Confucianism that the Eastern countries are laggard compared with the West. China and South Korea need to open more dialogues in cultural cooperation.

Qufu is the hometown of China's ancient thinker Confucius. It is well known for the Confucius Temple, which holds a memorial ceremony for him every year.

The meeting, titled "China-South Korea Confucianism Dialogue 2015", is held in Confucius' hometown of Qufu City, Shandong province at the end of 2015. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

China, Japan and South Korea release a chart?showing 808 Chinese characters collectively used in the three nations during the tenth session of the Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum held in Seoul on Nov 30, 2015. [Photo/sdwht.gov.cn]