Centuries of inculcation with Confucianism was as important to the rise of East Asia’s hyper-growth economies as the conjunction of Protestantism and the rise of capitalism was to the west. Confucianism’s tenets still provide an inner compass to most East Asians in a post-Confucian age, just as Biblical admonitions remain standards for the West in a post-religious age.
数千年来儒教的谆谆教诲之于东亚的经济崛起，就如同新教之于西方资本主义的崛起一样重要。儒教的原则在后儒教时代的东亚仍然为人们提供着内在的指引，正如《圣经》的训诫仍然是后宗教时代的西方不可或缺的标准一样。