Confucianism

Confucianism

Confucius was born in 551 BCE in the state of Lu. He was a social philosopher that developed a new teaching that involved principles of good conduct, practical wisdom and proper social relationships. (Kelley , 2003) His teaching has greatly influenced Chinese way of life, their attitude toward life. He set the patterns for living and influenced how the Chinese developed their political ideologies. Confucianism became the official ideology of the Chinese state.

During Confucius life time his ideas weren’t that widely accepted. He had a hard time getting employed with the feudal lords, something he was sorry about. He wandered around many of the states of China and he got a small band of followers and students that later would spread the teaching of Confucius.

His teaching deals mostly with individual morality and ethics. Also it teaches about the proper exercise of political power by a ruler. His principles are in nine ancient works. They are divided into two groups. The Five Classics and the Four Books. The Five Classics consists of Book of Changes, Book of History, Book of Poetry, Book of Rites and Spring and Autumn Annals. The Book of Change is a manual of divination. The Book of History is a collection of ancient historical documents. Book of Poetry consist of an anthology of ancient poems. Principles of conduct, in public and private ceremonies are found in the Book of Rites. (Kelley , 2003)

The Four Books is a compilation of sayings by Confucius and Mencius and also commentaries by followers of the teaching. The books are Analects, where Confucius forms the basis of his moral and political philosophy. The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean contain some philosophical utterances that is arrange with comments and expositions by his followers. Book of Mencius is the last of the four books that contains the teaching from one of Confucius followers. (Kelley , 2003)

Jen is the highest keynote in Confucian ethics. Jen is translated as love, goodness, humanity and human-heartedness. Jen represent a supreme virtue when human qualities are at their best. (Kelley , 2003) In human relations it is between one person to another and it’s about fatefulness. Confucius said, “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.”

Some other beliefs in the Confucian ethical teaching are Li, which is to perform ritual and to have the right etiquette. Hsiao deals with love within the family. Love of parents for their children and love of children for their parents. Yi stands for righteousness and Xin is honesty and trustworthiness. Chung is loyalty towards the state. It also includes filial piety which is in terms of respect and obedience in relationship between people. Number one is father and son. Number two is ruler and subject. Number three is husband and wife. Number four is elder and younger brother and number five is between friends. (Kelley , 2003)

Confucius said that anyone that has all those virtues becomes a chuntzu, which means a perfect gentleman. When possessing all the virtues one becomes a perfect man. A perfect gentleman is supposed to act