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Confucianism
Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā "The School of the Scholars"), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius.
Debated during the Warring States Period and forbidden during the short founder Qin dynasty, Confucianism was chosen by Han emperor Han Wu Di and used as a political system and a kind of state religion. Despite loss of influence during the Tang dynasty, Confucianist doctrine remained mainstream Chinese orthodoxy for two millennia, until the beginning of 20th century.
Since Confucius' death, many people, mostly in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, have professed Confucianist beliefs and seen in this historical figure the "Greatest Master."
Taoism and Buddhism are two other systems of thought with a major influence on China but, during the Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi and other thinkers built a renewed Confucianism integrating their mystical aspirations into a syncretic system referred in the West as to Neo-Confucianism.
Development of early Confucianism
Confucius was a man of letters worried about the troubled times he lived in. He went from place to place trying to spread his political ideas and influence the many kings contending for supremacy of China. The loss of might (or, said in a Chinese way, the loss of Dao) of the previous Zhou emperors drove China to permanent civil war and many wished to reunify the country (although the contention that China was unified previously is debatable). Deeply persuaded he had a mission on Earth ("If right principles prevailed through the empire, there would be no use for me to change its state." Analects XVIII. 6.), Confucius tirelessly promoted the ancient virtues of illustrious kings, as the Duke of Zhou, trying to get sufficient political power and found a new dynasty, as when he planned to accept an invitation from a rebel and "make a Zhou dynasty in the East" (Analects XV. 5). In this respect, his thinking may be said to be political. However, as the common saying Confucius is a "King without a crown" shows, he never did gain the opportunity to apply his ideas, was expelled much of the time and eventually went back to his homeland to spend the last part of his life teaching.
The Analects of Confucius, considered the closest we have to a primary source for his thoughts, relates discussions with his disciples in short sayings. As this book is a compilation of snatches of conversation, questions and answers, or slices of Confucius' life, there is no description of a coherent system of thought. Instead of using deductive reasoning and the law of non-contradiction, like many Western philosophers, he used tautology and analogy to explain his ideas. Because of this, Western readers may think he had no clear ideas on what he wanted, but he also said "I seek a unity all pervading" (Analects XV. 3., trad. Legge) and "There is one single thread binding my way together." (IV.15. trad. Lau).
The first drafts of a real system may be due to disciples or disciples of disciples, but firstly to Zi Si, Confucius' grandson. During the philosophically fertile period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, great early figures of Confucianism like Mencius and Xun Zi (not to be confused with Sun Zi) developed Confucianism into an ethical and political doctrine. Both had to fight contemporary ideas and gain the ruler's confidence through argumentation and reasoning.
Some of Xun Zi's disciples, like Han Feizi, became Legalistss (a kind of law-based totalitarism very far from virtue-based Confucianism) and helped Qin Shihuangdi to unify China under a very strong state control of every human activity. This was the first Chinese dynasty. It lasted 16 years, during which money, written Chinese characters, laws and the width of an axle were unified, and a great auto da fe declared against all existing books except medical and technical ones. So, historically, Confucius' dream of unification and peace in China came from a school of thought, Legalism, that was almost diametrically opposed to his consistent reliance on rites and virtue.
The spread of Confucianism
Although mostly rejected in Confucius's lifetime, as evidenced by his failure to reach a truly powerful government position, Confucianism spread during the succeeding centuries until Confucian scholars were a regular fixture in most courts. But when the state of Qin unified the nation in 221 BCE, the emperor crushed all non-Legalist thought, as stated above. Because Confucians tried to advise the emperor frequently, and because they usually disagreed with his strict policies (as per their philosophy), they were punished and restricted most severely.
Fortunately for Confucianism, the Qin Dynasty did not last long, and soon afterward a trove of Confucian classics was uncovered hidden in the walls of a scholar's house. The new Han Dynasty approved of the doctrine and sponsored Confucian scholars in the court. Eventually, Emperor Han Wu Di made Confucianism the official state philosophy.
This had a huge effect on Confucianism's popularity. Civil service examinations were instituted to ensure scholarly politicians places of power (as opposed to scheming warlords). Being the state philosophy, Confucianism was the primary subject of these tests, and Confucian classics the primary reading material. Confucian principles were also taught in schools. With Confucianism firmly ensconsed in the minds of the Chinese people and their politicians, the philosophy became the country's foremost, and no serious attempt to replace it came until the advent of Communism in the 20th century.
Rites and Government
"Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in their
place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will be
without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in
their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to
developing a sense of shame, will order themselves harmoniously."
Analects II. 3. tr. Legge
This pivotal sentence concisely explains an essential difference between legalism and ritualism, and could be seen to point out a key difference between Western and Eastern societies. Confucius explains that with the Law, that punishes after the action and from the outside, people behave well without really understanding (comprising, making it one's) the reason why they should. With the Rite, that works before and from the inside by giving shapes to behaviors and giving self-control on desires, people behave properly because they fear shame and seek honor, as they want not to lose face. A related saying is: "Even if I could try a civil suit as well as anyone, it would be better to bring it about that there were no civil suits." (Analects XII. 13. Tr. A. Waley).
Rite (禮, Lǐ) stands here for a complex set of ideas hard to render in Western languages. Its Chinese character previously had the religious meaning of "sacrifice": 禮 is 示 'altar' on the left of 曲 on 豆 representing a vase full of flowers, offered as a sacrifice to the gods. Its Confucian meaning goes from politeness and propriety to the understanding of everybody's correct place in society. In its external form, Rites are used to distinguish between people, their usage making everyone know at all times who is the younger and who is the elder, who is the guest and who is the host and so forth. In its internal effect, it makes everyone know their duty among others and what one can expect from them.
Internalization is the main process in Rites: behavior formalization becomes progressively internalized into the channelling of desires, and personal cultivation is the inner side of social correctness. This idea goes against the common saying that "The cowl does not make the monk," but in Confucius' mind "sincerity" is used to allow the behaviour to dye the self. Obeying the rites with sincerity makes them the most powerful way to cultivate oneself. Thus, "Respectfulness, without the Rites, becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, without the Rites, becomes timidity; boldness, without the Rites, becomes insubordination; straightforwardness, without the Rites, becomes rudeness." (VIII. 2. Trad. Legge mod.) The Rites can be seen as a means to stay between two opposing qualities, that, unbalanced, or "unharmonized," can become a fault.
Linked to protocol and ceremonies, assigning to everyone a defined place in the society and the behaviors related to this place, Rites divide people into categories, building a hierarchical structure of relationships within the group. But this is almost always balanced in Confucius sayings with reference to Music, which has the role of unifying the hearts. (Music seem to have played a great role in Confucius' life.) Even though the Analects heavily promote (ancient) rites, Confucius himself broke them often, for example when he cried too much at his preferred disciple's death, or when he met a fiendish princess (VI. 28.). Those latter rigid ritualists who forgot that the Rites are "more than presents of jade and silk" (XVII. 12.) were going far from their Master.
How to promote laws is relatively simple in a unified state: a few decrees will do the job. Promoting rites and virtue is done in a different manner. Another key Confucianist concept is that to govern people, one must first govern oneself. The King's personal virtue, when developed enough, is changed into a spreading beneficient influence on the kingdom. This idea is developed further in the Great Learning and is a tight link with Taoist Wu Wei: the less the King actually does, the more is done because of him. "He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it." (II. 1. Trad. Legge) This idea that the sole cultivation of Virtue is enough for the King to rule his Kingdom is, on one side, probably related to early shamanistic beliefs, like that of the King (Wang, 王) being the axe between the Sky, the Men and the Earth. Sitting at the right place on the throne, facing south, and once a year at the right time promulgating the new calendar, was, in short, the way to shine forth its might all over the world. Another view is that this idea may have been used by ministers and counsellors to prevent aristocratic whims having bad effects on the population.
Meritocracy
In teaching there should be no distinction of classes.
Analects XV. 39. tr. Legge
Many western admirers of Confucius, like Voltaire or, closer to us, H. G. Creel, have pointed out a very new and quite revolutionary idea of Confucius : He replaced the noblesse of blood by that one of virtue. Jūnzǐ(君子), which meant "noble man" before him, slowly moved in his sayings to a new sense, a little bit like "gentleman" did in English. A virtuous plebeian who cultivates his qualities can be a "gentleman", whilst a shameless son of King is only a "small man". That he allowed any kind of students to be his disciples (although his teachings were intended to train future rulers), is a clear demonstration that he did fight against previous feudal structures of Chinese society.
Although Confucius claimed he never invented anything and was only transmitting ancient knowledge (Analects VII. 1.), he did produce a number of new ideas. The particular idea of "meritocracy" led to the introduction of the Imperial examination system in China, a system which allowed anyone who passed an examination to become a government officer, a position which would bring wealth and honour to the whole family. It is noticeable that the Western university system, which is now copied in China, has been partly built with an eye on China's one.
Confucius wanted to solve the problems of his times and, in his "flat" way to see things, he decided that choosing a minister regarding its own qualities instead of its filiation was the best way. He praised those ancient Kings leaving their kingdom to the most qualified ones, instead of their elder son. Thus, his direct achievement has been to set up a school producing statemen with a strong sense of state and duty. This is known as Rujia, the School of LiteratiAs a result, a number of "intellectuals" during the Warring States Period and the early Han dynasty did promote confucianism. After the short and violent dynasty of Qin, Liu Bang founded the Han dynasty and, soon after, the Emperor Han Wu Di decided that China was a confucianist state and launched the examination system. During this period, China did grow a lot and the need for a solid and centralized corporation of government officers able to read and write administrative papers may explain this choice. This corporation of men chosen regarding their knowlegde of ancient scriptures and ability to write political essays (and poetry) was an efficient counter-power against the remaining landowner aristocracy which was threatening the unity of the state.
Since then, Confucianism has been used as a kind of "state religion", with autoritarianism, legitimism, paternalism and submission to authority as political tools to rule China. Actually, most Emperors used a mix of Legalism and Confucianism as ruling doctrine, often using the latter as an embellishing mask for the first. They often used varieties of Taoism or Buddhism as their personal philosophy or religion. As many other canonised men, Confucius himself would certainely have disapproved a lot of what has been done in his name, and Confucianism, in its official rigidly ritualist or zealously devout form, was very far from his humanistic teaching.
Is Confucianism a Religion ?
The Master said, "I have been the whole day without eating, and the whole
night without sleeping:-- occupied with thinking. It was of no use. The
better plan is to learn."
Analects XV. 30. tr. Legge
Zilu asked how one should serve ghosts and spirits. The Master said,
"Till you have learnt to serve men, how can you serve ghosts?" Zilu then
ventured upon a question about the dead. The Master said, "Till you know
about the living, how are you to know about the dead?"
Analect XI. 11. tr. Waley
(Zilu is an impetuous disciple of Confucius)
It is debatable whether Confucianism should be called a religion. While it prescribes a great deal of ritual, little of it could be construed as worship or meditation in a formal sense. Confucius occasionally made statements about the existence of other-worldly beings that sound distinctly agnostic and humanistic to western ears. Thus it is usually considered an ethical tradition without being considered a religion.
However, its effect on Chinese society and culture has been very deep and parallels the effects of religious movements seen in other cultures. Those who follow the teachings of Confucius are comforted by it; it makes their lives more complete and their sufferings bearable. Moreover, religions in Chinese culture are not mutually exclusive entities — each tradition is free to find its specific niche, its field of specialisation. One can be a Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Shintoist or Buddhist and still profess Confucianist beliefs.
Religious aspects of Confucianism may include worship of ancestors, sacrifice to chtonian spirits and celestial deity or even deification of the Emperor as a Son of Heaven. All these could be traced back to previous Chinese beliefs and, in this respect, are more Chinese than specifically Confucianist.
Some key concepts in Confucian thought
A simple way to appreciate Confucian thought is to consider it as based on varying levels of honesty. The biography of Confucius deals with the origins of this view. In practice, rituals of Confucianism accrued over time and matured into the following form:
- Lǐ (禮) — ritual. This originally meant "to sacrifice." From this initial religious ceremonial meaning, the term was soon extended to include secular ceremonial behaviour, and then took on an even more diffuse meaning, that of the propriety or politeness which colours everyday life. Rites were codified and treated as an all-embracing system of norms. Confucius himself tried to revive the etiquette of earlier dynasties, but in later Confucian tradition, he himself was regarded as the great authority on ritual behaviour.
- Xiào(孝) — filial piety. This was considered among the greatest of virtues, and had to be shown towards both the living and the dead. The term "filial", meaning "of a son", denotes the respect and obedience that a son should show to his parents and, traditionally, especially to his father. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series of five relationships: those between father and son, ruler and subject, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother, and that between friends. Specific duties were prescribed between each of the participants in these sets of relationships. Such duties were also extended to the dead, and this led to the veneration of ancestors, to which the living stood as sons to their fathers. At this point we can see xiào almost imperceptibly fading into lǐ, e.g. the precise regulations on the length and manner of mourning on the death of a family member. In time, filial piety was also built into the Chinese legal system: a criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers exercised enormous power over their children. Much the same was true of the other unequal relationships. The main source of our knowledge of the importance of filial piety is The Book of Filial Piety, a work which is attributed to Confucius, but was almost certainly written only in the third century B.C. Nevertheless, filial piety has continued to play a central role in Confucian thinking to the present day.
- Zhōng(忠) — loyalty. This was the equivalent of filial piety on a different plane, that of the relationship between ruler and minister. It was particularly relevant for the social class to which most of Confucius's students belonged, because the only way for an ambitious young scholar to make his way in the world was to enter the civil service of a ruler. Like filial piety, loyalty was often subverted by the autocratic regimes of China. Confucius had advocated a sensitivity to the realpolitik of the class relations that existed in his time: he did not propose that "might makes right", but that a superior who had received the "Mandate of Heaven" (see below) should be obeyed because of his moral rectitude. But this was soon reinterpreted and became a doctrine which demanded blind, unquestioning obedience to the ruler from the ruled. It is generally held that Confucius would not have supported this — he was far too subtle a thinker for that.
- Rén(仁) — humaneness. Confucius was concerned with people's individual development, but he maintained that this is realized within the context of human relationships. Ritual and filial piety are the ways in which one should act towards these others, but the underlying attitude is one of humaneness. Unlike ritual, it is not the kind of thing that can be easily defined or identified in a particular person. It is perhaps best expressed in the Confucian version of the Golden Rule, which is phrased in the negative: "Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you." Rén also has a political dimension; if the ruler lacks it, it will hardly be possible for the subjects to behave humanely. This, in fact, is the basis of the entire Confucian political theory: it presupposes an autocratic ruler, who is then exhorted to refrain from acting inhumanely towards the subjects. An inhumane ruler runs the risk of losing the "Mandate of Heaven" — the right to rule. Such a mandateless ruler need not be obeyed. But a ruler who reigns humanely and takes care of the people is to be obeyed strictly, for the very fact of this benevolent dominion shows that the ruler has been mandated by heaven. Heaven (Shang Ti or T'ien) here is a vague concept of an impersonal superior reality, much as westerners might say, "Heaven help us" (although some scholars interpret the concept theistically). Confucius himself had little to say on the will of the people, but his leading follower Mencius (孟子 — Meng Tzu) did state on one occasion that the people's opinion on certain weighty matters should be polled.
- Jūnzǐ(君子) — the gentleman. The gentleman is the ideal towards which all Confucians strive. (In modern times, the masculine bias in Confucianism has weakened, but the same term is still used.) The term literally means "son of a ruler," and there was a hereditary elitism inherent in the gentleman concept, but besides this, gentlemen were also expected to act as moral guides to the rest of society. Gentlemen are those who cultivate themselves morally, who participate in the correct performance of the rites, who show filial piety and loyalty where these are due and who have cultivated humaneness. The great exemplar of the gentleman is Confucius himself. It is indeed one of the great tragedies of his life that he was never awarded the high official position which he desired, and from which he wished to demonstrate the general well-being that would ensue if humane persons ruled and administered the state. The opposite of the Jūnzǐ was the Xiǎorén (小人), literally 'small person.'
Later developments in Confucianism
During the time of Confucius and a couple centuries later, between the noblemen and the "small people" was an intermediate class called the shi (仕), commonly translated as "knights," who filled minor administrative posts and served as junior officers in the army. To these, too, Confucius and his disciples recommended the same virtues prescribed for the gentlemen. In time, the shi were transformed into a class of scholars and bureaucrats who owed their positions to the official civil service examinations. Because these examinations were entirely based on verbatim knowledge of Confucius's books
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