馬克斯‧韋伯曾經表示儒家文化是阻礙儒家國家成為「現代化國家」的障礙，因為儒家思想要求安定的特性和現代化的條件正好衝突，所以即使在最有利的條件下，儒家社會也不能變成現代社會。然而發展起步較晚,屬于儒家文化圈一環的東亞國家如台灣、新加坡、香港，以及大韓民國卻仍舊表現出令人稱羨的經濟發展，更擠身於現代國家之列。就連信奉基督教的已故總統金大中也表示韓國的成功和韓國人的儒家特徵有重要關係。 但即便大韓民國是亞洲較早實現了現代化的一個國家，而且已經是世界第十三大經濟體，然而也必須承認這個國家的現代化之路歷經坎坷。在日本殖民和韓國內戰的影響下，一直到1962年開始才恢復經濟建設，並且因為資源的匱乏使得大韓民國的發展在初期不被任何人看好。可今天的大韓民國不僅在經濟上實現了突破，在儒家文化的傳承上也讓海峽兩岸炎黃子孫自嘆不如，它的成功經驗或者失敗教訓，對於兩岸來說都是一筆非常重要的財富，值得借鑑。 / Max Weber once stated that Confucian culture was the main drawback to the modernization of a country. Therefore, even under the most favorable conditions, the Confucian society is still unable to turn modern. However, in the East-Asian Confucian cultural circle, some of the late-developing countries, like Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, who are traditionally considered heavily influenced by the Confucian culture, show a tremendous development in their economy and are becoming one of the modern countries in the world. Just as President. Kim Dae Jung said although like South Korea is under the influence of the Confucianism, Confucian culture, undoubtedly, still makes positive contributions to the development. Typically, the success of South Korea is the most compelling evidence of the modernization of a Confucian country. Even though the Republic of Korea has become the most modern country and the 13th largest economic structure among the Asia country, they must also recognize that there are few fluctuations to achieve modernization. The influence of the Japanese colonial and the civil war in Korea have caused the recovery of economic started in year 1962. Besides that, people did not have a high expectation for this development because of the lack of resources. However, today, not only the economy of Republic of Korea to accomplish a breakthrough in the Confucian cultural heritage, but also to the Chinese people across the Taiwan Straits. Its success and failures, worth learning.