Confucius was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher who continues to have a profound effect on politics and philosophy thousands of years after his death. His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. Confucius sought to build a great, harmonious and humanistic society. Confucius's works are studied by scholars in China and many other Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Also, on this day many of these countries hold a traditional ceremony for his birthday.
The tradition that bears his name – “Confucianism” (Chinese: Rujia) – ultimately traces itself to the sayings and biographical fragments recorded in the text known as the Analects (Chinese: Lunyu).
Confucius represented his teachings as lessons transmitted from antiquity. He claimed that he was “a transmitter and not a maker” and that all he did reflected his “reliance on and love for the ancients.” Rather than trying to build a systematic ideology or establish rules for society, Confucius wanted his disciples to think for themselves and study the outside world. He disparages those who have faith in natural understanding or intuition and argues that the only real understanding of a subject comes from long and careful study. Study, for Confucius, means finding a good teacher and imitating his words and deeds. He taught through personal exemplification rather than explicit rules of behaviour. His moral teachings emphasized self-cultivation, emulation of moral exemplars, and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules. His ethical ideals and methods are conveyed indirectly, for example:
When the stables were burnt down, on returning from court, Confucius said, 'Was anyone hurt?' He did not ask about the horses.
Analects X.11, tr. Arthur Waley
Which teaches that you should value human beings over property and it leads readers to reflect on what their response would have been: would they have asked about the horses or the humans?
In times of division, chaos and endless wars, Confucius wanted to unify the world and bestow peace and prosperity on the people. He proposes a new political agenda: a revival of a unified royal state, whose rulers would succeed to power on the basis of their moral merits instead of lineage; these would be rulers devoted to their people, striving for personal and social perfection. Such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules. Confucius thought that a ruler who had to resort to force had already failed as a ruler:
"Your job is to govern, not to kill"
Confucius' political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argues that the best government is one that rules through "rites" and people's natural morality, rather than by using bribery and coercion. While he supported the idea of government by an all-powerful and wise leader, his ideas contained a number of elements to limit the power of rulers. He argued for according language with truth and placed great importance on honesty.
Confucius' social philosophy focused on the concept of ren, “compassion” or “loving others.” Cultivating or practising compassion for others meant deprecating yourself which meant avoiding deceitful or manipulative behaviour, or being false and giving people the idea that you are wonderful, thus self-aggrandizing yourself. For Confucius, such concern for others is demonstrated through the practice of forms of the Golden Rule:
“What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others;”
“Since you yourself desire standing then help others achieve it, since you yourself desire success then help others attain it.”
(Lunyu 12.2, 6.30).
He saw devotion to parents and older siblings as the most basic form of putting the interests of others before your own and teaches that this practise of unselfish concern for others can be accomplished only by those who have learned self-discipline.
Confucius' goal wass to create gentlemen who carried themselves with grace, spoke correctly and demonstrated great integrity. His strong dislike of the selfish “petty men,” whose clever talk and pretentious manner win them an audience, is reflected passages of his teachings.
While many people may think of Indian or Chinese philosophy as intuitionistic or mystical Confucianism has been said to be a hundred times more rationalistic than Western philosophy. It is thought that Confucianism had considerable importance on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who were interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Western civilization.
While Confucius idea's of paternalism seem to embody conservatism, his ideas of rulers for the people remind me greatly of the early liberal enlightment thinkers giving him an almost middle ground political philosophy. Unfortunately, morals have not played a very important part in politics for a very, very long time and many of the thoughts in Confucianism could never work in today's society. Nevertheless Confucianism provides such a faith in human nature and strong virtues to strive towards, it is no wonder that Confucianism is now one of the religions of China.
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