Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from Confucius’s teachings. Focusing on human morality and righteous action, it has exerted a profound influence on Chinese history and culture.
Confucius(551B.C.-479B.C.) was one of the most celebrated thinkers in ancient China. He was also a great educator who taught his pupils moral philosophy and political science. Confucius lived in the period when the Eastern Zhou Dynasty declined. During this period, the successive kings of the Zhou gradually became mere figureheads, and the rulers of the vassal states began to vie with one another for military and political dominance. As a philosopher and politician, Confucius worried about the country and tirelessly propagated his concept of government among the rulers. However, he never gained the opportunity to apply his ideas. He was expelled from one state to another many times and eventually returned to his homeland to spend the last part of his life teaching. Confucius did not leave us any of his writings. His teachings were compiled by his pupils into the book entitled “the Analects of Confucius”.
The ethical thoughts of Confucius can be summed up as “the five cardinal virtues” and “the five relationships”. The five cardinal virtues include the humanity, the righteousness, the ritual, the wisdom and the faithfulness. The five relationships are central to Confucianism. Particular duties arise from one's particular situation in relation to others. The individual stands simultaneously in several different relationships with different people: as a junior in relation to rulers, parents and elders, and as a senior in relation to younger siblings, pupils, and others. While juniors are considered in Confucianism to owe their seniors reverence, seniors also have duties of benevolence and concern toward juniors. This theme of mutuality is prevalent in East Asian cultures even to this day.
As a quasi-religion, Confucianism was founded by the disciples of Confucius and their followers. Among them, the most outstanding Confucians were Mencius and Xunzi. During the Fertile Period of Hundred Philosophical Schools, both Mencius and Xunzi developed Confucius’s teachings into an ethical and political doctrine of Confucianism. Through argumentation and reasoning, they gained the ruler’s confidence. Mencius enriched Confucianism with a fuller explanation to Confucius’s teachings. He elaborated what the human nature was, what was required for good government, what the morality was. He claimed that the human nature was essentially good. On the contrary, Xunzi held that the human nature was originally bad, and therefore needed to be corrected and exposed to the rituals. Some of Xunzi’s disciples, such as Han Feizi and Li Si became Legalists who advocated to administer a country with strict laws rather than the rituals of Confucianism. The political system conceived by the Legalists allowed Emperor Qin Shi Huang(259B.C.-210B.C.) to unify the whole China and establish a highly centralized monarchy. The Confucians wished to govern the country with Confucius’s teachings. However, their dream faded away, because the emperor outlawed Confucianism in the year of 213B.C..
Confucianism was chosen to be a fundamental political principle for ruling the country by Emperor Wudi(156B.C.-87B.C.) of the Western Han Dynasty(202B.C.-8A.D.). Despite its loss of influence during the Tang Dynasty(618-907), the doctrine of Confucianism became the mainstream of Chinese orthodoxy for two millennia until the early 20th century. In the Song Dynasty(960-1279), the Neo-Confucianism was founded by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi. They were Confucian scholars and idealists who brought renewed vigor to Confucianism. Some of the ideas of both Taoism and Buddhism were assimilated into the doctrine of Confucianism. Therefore, the Neo-Confucianism was a school of metaphysics.
Author: Tina Luo
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