Confucius

Confucius

     Confucius was China’s most well-known Theorist and/or Philosopher. He resided in Ancient China in the Zhou Dynasty (Freedman, 2003). Confucius was a regime official, and in his lifetime (551 to 479 B.C.) he saw growing chaos and turmoil in the system. Perhaps due to the chaos and prejudices he saw, he set himself to establish a new moral code based on reverence, honesty, education, benevolence and strong family bonds. His teachings later became the foundation for spiritual and ethical life all over the China (Freedman, 2003).

     Confucius’ main beliefs gained broad acceptance primarily because of their basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He obtained strong familial allegiance, ancestor worship, reverence of elders by their kids, and the family as a foundation for a model administration (Freedman, 2003). Although Confucianism is often pursued in a spiritual manner by the Chinese, arguments carry on over whether it is a religion. Confucianism does not lack a life after death; the texts explain simple views about Paradise, and are comparatively unconcerned with some religious matters often measured necessary to spiritual thought, such as the nature of the soul (Freedman, 2003).

     The Confucian philosophy of morals as represented in Li is based on three significant conceptual features of life: ceremonies related with give up to ancestors and deities of different kinds, social and political foundations, and the manners of everyday behavior. It was considered by some that li originated from the paradises (Freedman, 2003). Confucius’s philosophy was more nuanced. His style stressed the development of li through the actions of intellectual leaders in human history, with less stress on its link with paradise. His negotiations of li seem to redefine the term to refer to all actions committed by an individual to establish the ideal community, rather than those simply in compliance to canonical standards of rite (Freedman, 2003). In the early Confucian custom, li, though still connected to conventional types of action, came to point towards the balance between keeping these standards so as to perpetuate a moral social structure, and infringing them in order to do moral good. These theories are about doing the appropriate thing at the appropriate time, and are related to the belief that training in the li that past philosophers have devised develops in people virtues that contain moral decision about when li must be implemented in light of situational contexts (Freedman, 2003).

     Confucius’ political concept is based upon his moral thought. He disputes that the best administration is one that principles through “rites” and people’s natural ethics, rather than by employing corruption and coercion. He described that this is one of the most significant analects. “If the individuals be led by rules, and uniformity sought to be provided them by sentences, they will attempt to evade the sentence, but have no sense of embarrassment. If they be led by good quality, and uniformity sought to be provided them by the laws of politeness they will have the sense of the embarrassment, and furthermore will become good” (Freedman, 2003). This “sense of shame” is an internalisation of responsibility, where the sentence precedes the sin action, instead of subsequent it in the type of rules as in Legalism.

     Eventually, Confucius’s works are researched by several scholars in several other Asian nations, specifically those in the Sinosphere, such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Several of those nations still hold the conventional memorial ceremony every year (Freedman, 2003). His methods, preserved in the Lunyu or Analects, shape the base of much of following Chinese speculation on the education and behavior of the perfect man, how such a person should reside his live and communicate with others, and the forms of community and regime in which he should contribute. Fung Yu-lan, one of the great twentieth century powers that be on the history of Chinese thought, evaluates Confucius’ affect in Chinese history with that of Socrates in the West.

Reference

Freedman, Russell. (2003). Confucius: The Golden Rule. New York:

Arthur A. Levine Books.