With regard to the influences of Confucianism in our time, there are two kinds of opposite opposite among scholars: some proclaim its death, and some grant its strong vitality. In order to unravel thin enigma, I distinguish Confucianism on three different levels: institutional Confucianism, social Confucianism, and subsurface Confucianism. Then, I point out that on these three levels, we cannot find the essence of Confucianism. Accordingly, I characterize the essence of Confucianism by the philosophical frame of ”sageliness within, kingliness without”. But in face of the change of time, modern Confucians are bound to transform this frame by way of a new interpretation of it In my opinion, the reconstruction of Confucian tradition by modern Neo-Confucians is a good example of the self-transformation of Confucianism, because they are able to maintain the essence of Confucianism in the process of modernization on one side, and to criticize the shortcomings of modern society on the other side.