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multicultural society, the coexistence of different ideas, social groups, and communities is a reality which people constantly have to deal with in their daily lives. In managing differences, especially those pertaining to cultural minorities, new answers can be found by comparing and integrating knowledge from various past traditions and elements of each existing culture. An invaluable contribution for a sustainable life and the formation of a truly global culture comes from Confucianism, which is thought to help enhance the spontaneous development of such culture in three ways: (1) by presenting its social and organizational efficacy to the world so as to attract younger generations and the intellectual strata of society; (2) by exploiting its millenary history, exceptional adaptability, and ease of transformation in order to better accommodate new socioeconomic changes; (3) integrating its morality of duties with institutional and legal tools in defence of human dignity and rights. Rather than proposing a set of solutions, this chapter will focus on some historical aspects with the aim of encouraging further research in this direction.

10. For a clear summary on violence in late imperial China, see Rowe, “Violence in Ming-Qing China,” 90–95. See also ter Haar, “Rethinking ‘Violence’ in Chinese Culture,” 123–240; “Violence in Chinese Religious Culture,” 249–262, and “Violence in Chinese culture: bibliography”; Tong, Disorder under Heaven; Robinson, Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven; and Rowe, Crimson Rain. For the representation of violence in literary materials in modern and premodern China, see David Der-Wei Wang, The Monster That Is History; and Bailey, “Violence in Ming and Qing Literature,” 1–146. For a broader evaluation of the two examples of repression presented in this part, see Lidén, “The Taizhou Movement,” 230–255, for a discussion on the persecution of some Taizhou practitioners and the ideological and psychological motivations of intolerance in the late Ming period.

11. The state’s control over writings, ideology, and Confucian Classics’ interpretations has been studied by several researchers. Fuehrer (“State Power and the Confucian Classics,” 235–251) explores the control over Confucian Classics and their interpretation as an instrument of state power to ensure maintaining hierarchies of social status and political power, and scholars’ subordination. The case study is the policy of Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 (Hongwu r. 1368–1398) in canonical reading, especially the censored version of the Mencius, in the sections focusing on the relationship between subjects and rulers. This censorial attempt, however,