He came from a poor but respected family. His father, Shu-liang He, a soldier and district steward in Lu, died when Confucius was three. She wanted Confucius to be a gentleman and did what she could to see that he was educated. It is not clear whether she was able to pay for formal education, but somehow he gained knowledge through interacting with people around him.
At age fifteen, Confucius made the decision to become a great scholar. At the age of eighteen, Confucius was married and had a son and later a daughter. From there, he gradually moved up. The power of this account is that the extended mourning period is exactly what Confucius would have done based on his philosophy of life, and we will examine this later as we look at his basic precepts. Following the mourning period, Confucius in his mid-twenties began his teaching career.
Confucius taught a wide variety of subjects, something much easier to do in his day than now, because his library consisted of what are known as the Five Classics. Based on these, Confucius taught history, poetry, government, moral conduct, and music.
Government would not change unless his students assumed governmental posts, for they would bring the values required to govern. Lest one think that Confucius was merely a bookworm, we should note that he loved hunting and fishing, and it is said that he could knock down a duck in flight with a bow and arrow. Many cannot do that with a shotgun! Basically, Confucius enjoyed life and probably would have been pleasant company.
Confucius's goal was to train students to become moral government officials. Confucius had to live. But if a student really wanted to learn, whether he could pay or not, Confucius would accept him, perhaps reflecting his own desire to learn as a young man but being thwarted from formal education because of his poverty.
Fundamentally, Confucius believed that anyone who wanted to learn should be permitted to do so. Thus, 2, years ago, he believed in universal public education, something which first occurred in the twentieth century in the United States with the growth of public school systems, community colleges, and state universities.
A divergence in the story occurs when Confucius is approximately fifty years old. Some accounts say that although Confucius sought all his life for a government position for himself, he never found one. Thus, at the end of his life, he felt that he had failed in his life mission.
The other tradition, represented by Annping Chin, holds that at age fifty, Confucius gained the major position of Minister of Crime in the government of Lu. Probably the idea of moral government was no more popular 2, years ago than it is today, and to suggest that a ruler should rule for all his subjects and not for just a few may have caused Confucius to have to leave Lu.
According to this tradition, Confucius wandered for thirteen years, teaching here and there and looking for a government position. Finally through the good offices of one of his students, he was invited to return to Lu. There he lived the last three years of his life teaching a little and giving occasional counsel to the duke.
He died, however, feeling that he had failed. How does one determine which of these two stories is historically correct? What creates a sense of failure? Suppose a person wanted to be president of an organization, submitted his or her resume, but never received a call back.
That certainly need not cause a sense of failure. One can just say the organization did not know what it was missing and go on with life. If one gained the position, however, and then failed to lead others to catch his or her vision, that would create a sense that one had failed. Confucius truly believed that one Confucian gentleman in the midst of a barbarian society, merely by his presence, could change that society.
If Confucius was Minister of Crime and was forced out of office through court intrigue, that would create a strong sense of failure, given his belief in the influence of the Confucian gentleman. In both accounts, he had to leave Lu around the age of fifty-five. The first account has no reason to explain this, while the second does. Thus it seems most likely that Confucius did have an opportunity to serve in government between the ages of fifty and fifty-five but failed to create the environment he had hoped to create.
Hence, his life ended with a feeling that he had not succeeded as he had hoped he would. Confucius, however, did not live long enough to see his dreams realized. During this period, a pivotal figure was born who prepared the way for stabilization in China. Initially, they lived near a cemetery. To avoid this, she moved near a school, hoping that he would copy the behavior of the teachers and students, and this seems ultimately to have led to Mencius becoming a great scholar like his model, Confucius.
He firmly believed in the goodness of human beings and their ability to follow the good when they saw it in others because he believed each person is predisposed to that which is good.
He also believed, like Confucius, that he was following the guidance of heaven in his teaching. During the reign of emperor Wu Di —87 BCE , Dong Zhong-shu, a Confucian scholar, encouraged the emperor to look closely at the principles of Confucianism in order to end confusion among the people concerning what school or standard they should follow.
The emperor agreed and established an academy for the teaching of Confucian values. From this point until the fall of the Manchu-Ching dynasty in CE, Confucianism was the philosophy that guided China. Tradition says that Confucius edited these, and they are as follows, beginning with the oldest. The first is the Classic of Changes and is used by diviners to determine whether persons should do things at certain times.
Confucius recommended it for finding moral and metaphysical meaning in life. The second book is the Classic of History and contains material from the early Chou dynasty — BCE , which Confucius held to be the golden age in China. The third book is the Classic of Poetry , containing about three hundred poems all set to music. Finally, there is the Classic of Rites , which contains an account of rituals that were both public and private.
In addition to the Five Classics, there are also the Four Books. Most of these postdate Confucius, and the first of the books is the Analects , the sayings of Confucius.
Second is the Book of Mencius , which is well organized and about twice as long as the Analects. The introductory chapter is considered to be from Confucius, with the following ten chapters being commentaries on the first by Tseng-tzu. The focus is on the moral ruler as an example for his people. Finally is the Doctrine of the Mean , also a chapter in the Classic of Rites , which teaches that persons should avoid going to the extremes in any aspect of life. His model ruler was the Duke of Chou, who ruled in this time frame.
Thus, the place to look for the values that had been lost from China, whose loss had led the country to the edge of the Warring States Period, was the discipline of history. According to Confucius, persons cannot teach until they embody that which they teach. Li is the foundational principle of Confucianism. It is the glue which holds society together.
Failing to practice Li is much like having a stack of canned corn in a grocery store. Someone decides to pull out a bottom can, and the whole structure tumbles down. So it is with Li. If Li is not practiced, society will disintegrate and fall apart. Confucius puts it this way:. These five relationships are the following:.
It is within actual relationships that Li functions. Each person understands how a relationship is to take place, for Li defines the role of each partner. For example, I may be a subject of a ruler who calls me into his presence, and we both know the script.
I do not speak until spoken to. When the sovereign addresses me, he does so in very condescending language. In response, I must use language that exalts him and minimizes me. As I leave, I never turn my back on the ruler. Returned missionaries from Asian countries report the reality of this situation.
When they are out on the street, local people will talk to them using the forms of address for cats, dogs, and little children. The missionaries are on the bottom of the totem pole.
However, on Wednesday night, the missionaries teach an English class, and all of a sudden they are teachers, the most respected vocation in a Confucian society! Now the language used in relationship to them is from below to above. In the husband-wife relationship, the husband is to treat his wife with righteousness and provide for and support her. She in return is to show righteous behavior before him and be obedient to his will, but it is not a harsh relationship.
Confucianism enjoyed imperial patronage and has become a lasting influence on Chinese culture. Confucius taught the importance of developing human-heartedness, a deep caring or empathy for others. Filial piety is the virtue of respect for one's ancestors and elders. In the Confucian understanding of filial piety, society consists of a just hierarchy, where those below submit to those above, and where those above have the responsibility to look after those below.
Traditionally, this hierarchy consisted of the ruler above the people, the husband above the wife, the father above the son and the elder above the younger. Although decades of revolution and reform have changed the popular understanding of many of these relationships in China, respect for elders and ancestors has remained a cornerstone of the Confucian way of life in Chinese culture.
As respect of elders and ancestors is a chief concern of Confucianism and is practiced by many Chinese in the home, at temples and at the graves of relatives, a common Confucian practice includes ancestral tablets and shrines dedicated to deceased elders. An ancestral tablet is often made of stone and includes names of ancestors carved in lists. The Confucian system looks less like a religion than a philosophy or way of life. This may be because it focuses on earthly relationships and duty and not on deities or the divine.
Confucianism teaches that the gentleman-scholar is the highest calling. Confucius believed that the gentleman, or junzi , is a role model and the highest calling for a person.
The gentleman does not remove himself from the world but fulfills his capacity for goodness. He does so by a commitment to virtue developed through moral formation. Though ritual is quite important, there is not much concern with an afterlife or eschatology. Whereas a religion like Hinduism devotes much of its doctrine to accomplishing spiritual fulfillment, Confucianism is concerned with social fulfillment. Unlike Buddhism, there are no monks. There are no priests or religious leaders. It does not have many of the conventions of a religion.
Confucius did not give his followers a god or gods to be worshipped. Confucianism is not against worship, but teaches that social duties are more important. The focus is on ethical behavior and good government and social responsibility. Relationships are important in Confucianism. Order begins with the family. Children are to respect their parents. Due honor must be given to those people above and below oneself.
This makes for good social order. The respect is typified through the idea of Li. Li is the term used to describe Chinese proprietary rites and good manners. These include ritual, etiquette, and other facets that support good social order. The belief is that when Li is observed, everything runs smoothly and is in its right place. There are five main relationship principles : hsiao , chung , yi , xin , and jen. Together, these principles balance people and society.
These rituals are designed to protect an expectant mother. A special procedure is prescribed for disposal of placenta. The mother is given a special diet and is allowed rest for a month after delivery. Maturity is no longer being celebrated, except in traditional families. Marriage rituals are very important. They are conducted in six stages. At the proposal stage, the couple exchanges eight Chinese characters.
These characters are the year, month, day, and hour of each of their births.
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