Abstract

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Title:: Confucianism and Stress Management: Stress Study from the Chinese Perspective

Abstract:: The Confucian paradigm of stress management includes the cognition of and the reaction to pressure. Considering sufferings indispensible to growth, Confucianism advocates keeping aloof from difficulties and pains. When the stress is beyond one’s ability to cope with, Confucianism introduces the notion of destiny to alleviate the pressure. Confucians emphasize a person’s internal cultivation and external behavior and maintain that stress can be managed from these two aspects. Rising above the western skewed view on stress management, which puts too much emphasis on non-psychological means, the Confucian way of coping with stress integrated psychological and non-psychological means. As an effective Chinese way of coping with stress, it also constitutes an important access to Chinese national character.