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makes clear how the moral self was perceived and modified as well as how the interaction between personal autonomy and tradition took place. The sense of responsibility in China and the West varies considerably in its representation, evaluation, and conceptualization. In China, for instance, there is almost no philosophical debate on the contrast between determinism and free will, which has animated the history of thought in Europe. While in Western ethics a strong structural affinity with the law has been codified with prescriptive formulas and recognized procedures for exempting conditions or extenuating circumstances, we cannot say the same for Confucian morality, which mainly operates through teaching by moral examples and emulation of role models. Since the universe is an organic whole in an endless process of change where all existences are continuously interrelated, another difference pertains to the concept of cosmos and its relation with humans. Again another difference concerns the Western prevalent view of God as the creator of both nature and humans, as well as the monotheistic concept of the almighty God identified with good, which, in turn, raises the contradiction of the coexistence of God and evil. Indeed, in the West, the development of the great debate on responsibility as free will is deeply associated with this dilemma. Conversely, in Confucian thought, transgressions represent a) a lack of virtues and self-cultivation, rather than violations of a certain rule; and b) not sins or offences to divinity, but a manifestation of evil or wrong behavior toward the communities to which the subject belongs.
When it comes to self-cultivation, descriptions of “conflicts” (lit. xinzhan 心戰, or liyu jiaozhan 理欲交戰) in Confucian Classics’ commentaries are not so much frequent as in the Western dramas where the soul struggles with itself and against its desires, apprehensions, and internal tensions. In traditional China, the hesitation was regarded with disfavor, as a weakness, or paralysis of the will. The idea of cultivation seems more effective than that of conflict.26 Notwithstanding such differences, in both cultures, there is debate about the precise “moment” when responsibility begins. In European Christianity during the whole Middle Age, the main question concerning responsibility was oriented toward the relation between God