Confucius is arguably the one of the greatest ancient philosophers, his teachings have shaped Chinese society and his values have extended to societies around the world. Perhaps his most well known teaching is his response to his disciple, Tzu-kung’s question, “Is there one word which can serve as the guiding principle for conduct throughout life?” Confucius’ response was, “It is the word altruism (shu). Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” (Chan) To follow this principle and other Confucian teachings of moral uprightness and virtue is attain the position of a superior man. Superior man in Confucian ideology refers to someone who is benevolent (jen) and has achieved learning and exhibits filial piety and honors his ancestors. …show more content…
A main focus of his teachings was filial piety. Filial piety centers around the idea that in order for children to love their parents, their parents must first love them. This learning of love is what enables children to honor and care for their parents later in life. There is a circular process that must be observed. A disciple of Confucius, Yu tzu, said, “Few of those who are filial sons and respectful brothers will show disrespect to superiors, and there has never been a man who is not disrespectful to superiors and yet creates disorder. A superior man is devoted to the fundamentals (the root). When the root is firmly established, the moral law (Tao) will grow. Filial piety and brotherly respect are the root of humanity (jen).” (Chan) In this statement he addresses why filial piety is so central to Confucian ideology: without proper love and respect for one’s family and elders, it cannot be extended outward to those with no familial connection. Therefore, filial piety is the root that centers the path to moral …show more content…
Confucius was the first in Chinese history to propose the idea that “in education there should be no class distinction.” (Chan) He took students from all backgrounds because in learning is the way to becoming a superior man. While filial piety may set a knowledge of humanity, “one who loves humanity but not learning will be obscured by ignorance.” (Chan) Learning is proposed as a way to channel humanity in order to serve others. The Confucian focus on learning is always for the sake of others. (Kodera) This follows with what is considered Confucius’s golden
However, after Tzu death, Confucianism was crowned the new philosopher of china. As the newly appointed philosopher, he denies all of Tzu opposing views about mankind, but agrees to Mencius another famous Confucian after Confucius himself optimistic theories. Notwithstanding, Tzu was the first philosopher to develop Confucius observation that holds a general truth, for example “if ain’t broke, don’t fix it” into a system of complete thought that become today one of the significant development of the Chinese philosophy. In contrast, he disagrees with the Confucius ideology of human nature, but accepted his analysis on the importance of education that changed a lot of people throughout the Chinese history to commit their lives relating to serious academic learning. Tzu uses figurative words as a main form of procedure to back up his arguments.
2. What is Confucius 's argument for virtue? They want to have a good leader and have faith on people and want people that follow rules. Ji said," What is killing good for?" Master knows that people will learn from that and will remember what they did wrong
The Chinese government is trying to integrate some of the Confucian principles into the lives of the Chinese by creating TV shows based on “good Confucian emperors” (Benjamin 7). The Confucian ideology as a whole was considered the main ideology of China for over a millennium, and it was accepted by the majority of Chinese until the 20th century (Benjamin 7). Confucianism has had a powerful influence on Chinese culture, and will likely continue to as long as the Chinese people adopt the values into their everyday lives. Although there pure Confucians may not exist in abundance, many others still practice certain aspects of this ideology. As long as humans desire to become better, more respectful people, the centuries old Confucian ideology will continue to have an influence on modern
Three perspectives of bringing peace to society was Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism. In people’s lives peace in society is very important. People were longing for no violence and expected to be treated well. They wanted to feel comfortable and stable. Because they were searching for peace and order, they wanted rules to be enforced.
Confucius and his disciples believed that people had a natural sense of empathy and that we owed it to one another to be kind to each other. This is a really big belief in modern society as well. We are taught as children that we should be kind to one another and care of one another. This has been a teaching throughout the centuries of human existence, and this isn’t just mentioned in the writings of Confucius and his disciples it’s also in the writing of other literary works as well. The Bible tells it reads to, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you,” (Ephesians 4:32).
Confucianism enforced harmony, between people while legalism enforced strict following of rules. For confucianism was built on the belief that harmony results when people in society accepted their place in their lives. However, Legalism was built on the fact that all humans are more inclined to do the wrong thing instead of the right thing due to the motivation of self-interest. Confucianism is described through the five key relationships: father to son, elder brother to younger brother, husband to wife, elder friend to younger friend, and ruler to subject. But legalism was described
By following these theories, it is clear that both are in direct conflict with one another. In regard to the nature of man, this is obvious, with Confucius writing on inherent goodness and Han Feizi writing and agreeing on the opposite. This leads to some interesting situations, particularly for the societies which would aim to adopt each philosophy. However, both did agree that order was necessary and through the state order can be achieved. Confucius thought emphasized this in The Doctrine of Learning by stating that “the ancients who wished to manifest their clear character to the world would first bring order to their states” (Chan p. 86).
(Quote 5) “one must be transformed by the example of a teacher and guided by the way of ritual and rightness before one will attain modesty and yielding, accord with refinement and ritual, and return to order” This quote, is similar to Mencius’ view, as although both believe differently in the nature of humans, the two philosophers both stand for the importance of education, where teachers and rituals play a very big part in the development of a
Family by Pa Chin is a captivating novel that describes what life in China was like in the twentieth century. Confucianism, a big religion in China at the time, was heavily focused on filial piety. Filial piety is the relationship of obedience, in which the elders are to be respected by the younger generation (Wu, lecture notes, 2015). This religion was one of the main structures on how the society was ran. Chin represents how the younger generation was upset with how the old traditions of the Confucian system were ran and that they were ready to change it.
The third is younger and older siblings, older sibling were supposed to be considerate toward their younger siblings and in turn the younger sibling are supposed to be respectful to their older siblings. The fourth is friend and friend, the confucianism categorize this the same as the older and younger sibling relationship. The last relationship is father and son, fathers are taught to be kind to their sons and sons are taught to be obedient and listen to their fathers. Confucius also called Kongzi or Kongfuzi in chinese is the founder of Confucianism in 770B.C to 476B.C. He devoted his whole life to education and he had around 3,000 disciples.
Their rationalities are still being used today. They were incredible masterminds with awesome impact in the antiquated society. Confucianism imparts to Aristotle mindfulness that for people to be great, they require moral astuteness and in addition different demeanors of character, yet Confucianism places more prominent accentuation on the part of reflection and concentrate in the improvement of good insight (Provis, 2017). Over the next several paragraphs, it is my goal to address the following: 1)
Confucius, Aristotle, and Lao-Tzu—all incredibly influential thinkers—did not always agree on how one ought to live; where Aristotle believed that thought or study led to virtue, Lao-Tzu placed focus on inaction, and Confucius taught that rituals paved the way to the best life. A few ideas, however, tie Confucius closer to Aristotle than to Lao-Tzu. Because Aristotle also placed importance on names, emphasized the need to find a mean of behavior, and believed that rulers should most critically be moral, Confucius would have preferred Aristotle to Lao-Tzu. Names—Aristotle utilizes them, even though he recognizes the difference between what exists in reality and the form represented by its name, while Lao-Tzu, on the other hand, maintains that names only serve to put limits on the named, and, in fact run the risk of creating opposites. According to Lao-Tzu, “Recognize beauty and ugliness is born.
t Comparing the Dao in Confucianism to the Dao in Daoism, similarities or differences Dao in Confucianism represents the entire normative human order. The Dao in Daoism antedates Tian and acts as the basis of the natural order. While in Confucian Dao they hold the ideal political-social-ethical order ordained by tian for the people. Confucianism encourages their perfectibility through self-effort the teaching of ethics and good movement. The primacy of the Confucian Dao requires superior human beings, sages and men of virtue to exert their highest effort to actualized its ideal design.
Although both Confucius and Mencius have a lot in common with regards to governance, the two do have varying opinions on certain matters such as the legitimacy when rulers are overthrown, and the relationship between the ruler and his people. In precedence to coming up with policies and administrative measures, one has to first consider the issue of human nature as it plays an essential role in the development of a state 's political system. In the Confucian philosophy, the belief is that goodness is innate in humans and that everyone shares this same trait [子曰:“性相近也,习相远也。”] (Analects, 17.2). Mencius further elaborated on this doctrine by stating that it is mankind’s natural tendency to be kind to others, just as water would naturally flow downwards (Mencius, 6A2).
Confucian teaching emphasizes relationship hierarchy and being respectful to elders. In the second paragraph, Yang criticizes Jesus for not recognizing these relationships between ruler and subject because he was crucified for plotting against his country. Guangxian did not understand how Christians could