May 04, · The Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS Center) is a not-for-profit educational institution in Washington, DC, whose mission is to advance global education and cross-cultural understanding through education and professional development, arts and culture, academics and research, and public outreach Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient blogger.comsly described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life, Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (– BCE) The Analects of Confucius is an anthology of brief passages that present the words of Confucius and his disciples, describe Confucius as a man, and recount some of the events of his life. The Analects includes twenty books, each generally featuring a series of chapters that encompass quotes from Confucius, which were compiled by his disciples after his death
Confucius Quotes (Author of The Analects)
Confucius's teachings and philosophy formed the basis of East Asian culture and societyconfucius essay, and continues to remain influential across China and East Asia as of today. His philosophical teachings, called Confucianismemphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, confucius essay, kindness, and sincerity.
Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life; to Confucians, confucius essay, everyday life was the arena of religion. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction in the new government. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Confucianism confucius essay into a system known in the West as Neo-Confucianismand later as New Confucianism.
Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic textsincluding all of the Five Classicsbut modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself.
Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analectsbut only many years after his death. Confucius's principles have commonality with Chinese tradition and belief. With filial pietyconfucius essay, he championed strong family loyalty, ancestor venerationand respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives, recommending family as a basis for ideal government.
He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself", the Golden Rule. The name "Confucius" is a Confucius essay of the Mandarin Chinese title Kǒng Fūzǐ 孔夫子meaning "Master Kong", and was coined in the late 16th century by the early Jesuit missionaries to China.
Zhòngníthe "Zhòng" indicating that he was the second son in his family. It is thought that Confucius was born on September 28, BCE[29] [30] in Zou 鄒confucius essay, in modern Shandong province.
His father Kong He or Shuliang He was an elderly commandant of the local Lu garrison. Kong He died when Confucius was three years old, and Confucius was raised by his mother Yan Zhengzai 顏 徵 在 in poverty. Confucius was educated at schools for commoners, where he studied and learned the Six Arts. Confucius was born into the class of shi 士between the aristocracy and the common people. He is said to have worked in various government jobs during his early 20s, and as a bookkeeper and a caretaker of sheep and horses, using the proceeds to give his mother confucius essay proper burial, confucius essay.
In Confucius's time, the state of Lu was headed by a ruling ducal house. Confucius desired to return the authority of the state to the duke by dismantling the fortifications of the city—strongholds belonging to the three families.
Soon thereafter, Gongshan Furao also known as Gongshan Buniua retainer of the Ji family, revolted and confucius essay control of the forces at Bi, confucius essay. During the revolt by Gongshan, Zhong You had managed to keep the duke and the three viscounts together at the court.
The attackers retreated after realizing that they would have to become rebels against the state and their lord. When it was time to dismantle the city walls of the Meng family, confucius essay, the governor was reluctant to have his city walls torn down and convinced the head of the Meng family not to do so.
Later in BCEDuke Ding personally went with an army to lay siege to Cheng in an attempt to raze its walls to the ground, but he did not succeed. The Shiji stated that the neighboring Qi state was worried that Lu was becoming too powerful while Confucius was involved in the government of the Lu state. According to this account, Qi decided to sabotage Lu's reforms by sending good horses and 80 beautiful dancing girls to the duke of Lu. The duke indulged himself in pleasure and did not attend to official duties for three days.
Confucius was confucius essay and resolved to leave Lu and seek better opportunities, yet to leave at once would expose the misbehavior of the duke and therefore bring public humiliation to the ruler Confucius was serving.
Confucius therefore waited for the duke to make a lesser mistake. Soon after, confucius essay, the duke neglected to send to Confucius a portion of the sacrificial meat that was his due according to custom, confucius essay, and Confucius seized upon this pretext to leave both his post and the Lu state.
After Confucius's resignation, he began a long journey or set of journeys around the principality states of north-east and central China including WeySongZhengCaoChuQiChenand Cai and a failed attempt to go to Jin. At the courts of these states, confucius essay, he expounded his political beliefs but did not see them implemented. According to the ZuozhuanConfucius returned home to his native Lu when he was 68, after he was invited to do so by Ji Kangzi, the chief minister of Lu.
During his return, Confucius sometimes acted as an advisor to several government officials in Lu, including Ji Kangzi, on matters including governance and crime. Burdened by the loss of both his son and his favorite disciples, he died at the age of 71 or 72 from natural causes. Confucius was buried in Kong Lin cemetery which lies in the historical part of Qufu in the Shandong Province. In addition, it has a raised brick platform at the front of the memorial for offerings such as sandalwood incense and fruit.
Although Confucianism is often followed in a religious manner by the Chinese, many argue that its values are secular and that it is, therefore, less a religion than a secular morality. Proponents argue, however, that despite the secular nature of Confucianism's teachings, confucius essay, it is based on a worldview that is religious.
In the AnalectsConfucius presents himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing". He puts the greatest emphasis on the importance of study, and it is the Chinese character for study 學 that opens the text, confucius essay. Far from trying to build a systematic or formalist confucius essay, he wanted his disciples to master and internalize older classics, so that their deep thought and thorough study would allow them to relate the moral problems of the present to past political events as recorded in the Annals or the past expressions of commoners' feelings and noblemen's reflections as in the poems of the Book of Odes.
One of the deepest teachings of Confucius may have been the superiority of personal exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. His moral teachings confucius essay self-cultivation, emulation of moral exemplars, and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules.
Confucian ethics confucius essay, therefore, be considered a type of virtue ethics. His teachings rarely rely on reasoned argument, and ethical ideals and methods are conveyed indirectly, through confucius essayinnuendoand even tautology.
His teachings require examination and context to be understood. A good example is found in this famous anecdote:. By not asking about the horses, Confucius demonstrates that the sage values human beings over property which animals seem to represent in this example ; readers are led to reflect on whether their response would follow Confucius's and to pursue self-improvement if it would not have. One of his teachings was a variant of the Golden Ruleconfucius essay, sometimes called the " Silver Rule " owing to its negative form:.
Often overlooked in Confucian ethics are the virtues to the self: sincerity and the cultivation of knowledge. Virtuous action towards others begins with virtuous and sincere thought, which begins confucius essay knowledge.
A virtuous disposition confucius essay knowledge is susceptible to confucius essay, and virtuous action without sincerity is not true righteousness.
Cultivating knowledge and sincerity is also important for one's own sake; the superior person loves learning for the sake of learning and righteousness for the confucius essay of righteousness., confucius essay. The Confucian theory of ethics as exemplified in lǐ 禮 is based on three important conceptual aspects of life: a ceremonies associated with sacrifice to ancestors and deities of various types, b social and political institutions, and c the etiquette of daily behavior.
Some believed that lǐ originated from the heavens, but Confucius stressed the development of lǐ through the actions of sage leaders in human history.
His discussions of lǐ seem to redefine the term to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society, rather than those simply conforming with canonical standards of ceremony. In the early Confucian tradition, lǐ was doing the proper thing at the proper time; balancing between maintaining existing norms to perpetuate an ethical social fabric, and violating them in order to accomplish ethical good.
Training in the lǐ of past sages, cultivates virtues in people that include ethical judgment about when lǐ must be adapted in light of situational contexts. In Confucianism, the concept of li is closely related to yì 義which is based upon the idea of reciprocity. Yì can be translated as righteousnessthough it may simply mean what is ethically best to do in a certain context. The term contrasts with action confucius essay out of self-interest. While pursuing one's own self-interest is not necessarily bad, confucius essay, one would be a better, more righteous person if one's life was based upon following a path designed to enhance the greater good.
Thus an outcome of yì is doing the right thing for the right reason. Just as action according to lǐ should be adapted to conform to the aspiration of adhering to yìso yì is linked to the core value of rén 仁. Rén consists of five basic virtues: seriousness, generosity, sincerity, diligence, and kindness.
To develop one's spontaneous responses of rén so that these could guide action intuitively was even better than living by the rules of yì. Confucius asserts that virtue is a mean between extremes, confucius essay. For example, the properly generous person gives the right confucius essay — not too much and not too little.
Confucius's political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argued that the best government is one that rules through "rites" lǐ and people's natural moralityand not by using bribery and coercion, confucius essay. He explained that this is one of the most confucius essay analects: "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, confucius essay, but have no sense of shame.
If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of the shame, and moreover will become good, confucius essay. This "sense of shame" is an internalisation of dutyconfucius essay, where the punishment precedes the evil action, instead of following it in the form of laws as in Legalism. Confucius looked nostalgically upon earlier days, and urged the Chinese, particularly those with political power, to model themselves on earlier examples.
In times of division, chaos, and endless wars between feudal states, he wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven 天命 that could unify the "world" 天下confucius essay, "all under Heaven" and bestow peace and prosperity on the people. Because his vision of personal and social perfections was framed as confucius essay revival of confucius essay ordered society of earlier times, confucius essay, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatismbut a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used and perhaps twisted past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: 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, confucius essay, striving for personal and social perfectionand such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules, confucius essay. While Conficius supported the idea of government ruling by a virtuous king, his ideas contained a number of elements to limit the power of rulers. He argued for representing truth in language, and honesty was of paramount importance.
Even in facial expression confucius essay, truth must always be represented. In discussing the relationship between a king and his subject or a father and his sonhe underlined the need to give due respect to superiors.
This demanded that the subordinates must advise their superiors if the superiors are considered to be taking a course of action that is wrong.
Confucius believed in ruling by example, if you lead correctly, confucius essay, orders by force or punishment are not necessary. Confucius heavily promoted the use of music with rituals or the rites order, confucius essay. The scholar Li Zehou argued that Confucianism is based on the idea of rites. Rites serve as the starting point for each individual and that these sacred social functions allow each person's human nature to be harmonious with reality.
Given this, Confucius believed that "music is the harmonization of heaven and earth; the rites is the order of heaven confucius essay earth. The Confucian approach to music was heavily inspired confucius essay the Shijing and the Classic of Musicwhich was said to be the sixth Confucian classic until it was lost during the Han Dynasty. The Shijing serves as one of the current Confucian classics and is a book on poetry that contains a diversified variety of poems as well as folk songs.
Confucius is traditionally ascribed with compiling these classics within his school, confucius essay. Confucius's teachings were later turned into an elaborate set of rules and practices by his numerous disciples and followers, confucius essay, who organized his teachings into the Analects.
Two of Confucius's most famous later followers emphasized radically different aspects of his teachings, confucius essay. In the centuries after his death, Mencius 孟子 and Xun Zi 荀子 both composed important teachings elaborating in different ways on the fundamental ideas associated with Confucius, confucius essay. Mencius 4th century BCE articulated the innate goodness in human beings as a source of the ethical intuitions that guide confucius essay towards rényìand lǐconfucius essay, while Xun Zi 3rd century BCE underscored the realistic and materialistic aspects of Confucian thought, stressing that morality was inculcated in society through tradition and in individuals through training.
In time, their writings, confucius essay, together with the Analects and other core texts came to constitute the philosophical corpus of Confucianism. This realignment in Confucian thought was parallel to the development of Legalismwhich saw filial piety as self-interest and not a useful tool for a ruler to create an effective state.
Li SiPrime Minister of the Qin dynastyconvinced Qin Shi Huang to abandon the Confucians' recommendation of awarding fiefs akin to the Zhou Dynasty before them which he saw as being against to the Legalist idea of centralizing the state around the ruler.
2,000 Years of Chinese History! The Mandate of Heaven and Confucius: World History #7
, time: 12:12The Analects of Confucius Summary | GradeSaver
Confucius was a contemporary of Lao Tzu, they had similar philosophies (e.g. the importance of harmony and balance)Confucius mastered the six arts: ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmeticHis father died when he was a child, his mother died when Confucius was in his early 20'blogger.com this, he became a teacher and built a reputation Sep 21, · The 'Analects of Confucius' is an anthology of teachings and quotes by Confucius and his followers. Explore the summary and structure of 'The Analects', examine the analysis of May 04, · The Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS Center) is a not-for-profit educational institution in Washington, DC, whose mission is to advance global education and cross-cultural understanding through education and professional development, arts and culture, academics and research, and public outreach
No comments:
Post a Comment