Abstract: To prove the legitimacy of Confucianism against the backdrop of the contention between China and the West since the modern times, scholars have emphasized that Confucianism, as Western philosophy, embraces transcendence on the one hand, and Confucian transcendence is internal while Western transcendence external on the other. However, it has been ignored that the transcendence in Western philosophy is self-centered while Chinese transcendence is self-overcoming since Confucianism advocates the inclusion of the other from both temporal and spatial dimensions in the real world. It is due to the fact that Confucianism advocates self-overcoming that it pays more attention to one's moral responsibilities to the other rather than one's rights as well as one's derived duties to the other. This may help to ease the intense conflict rooted in the prevalent consciousness of right.

Key words: Confucianism, self-centered transcendence, self-overcoming transcendence