Confucianism
Confucius' Life
Confucius was born as K'ung-fu-tzu in 551 BC into a noble but poor family in the State of Lu. At the time of his birth, his father was seventy years old and his mother only fifteen. When he was only three, his father died, leaving only his mother to take of him in poverty. As a young man, he became an administrative manager in the State of Lu, but retired because of he disapproved of the princes politics. When he was about fifty years old, he became convinced that he could not help his own government, so he traveled around China, visiting different rulers to try to convince them to adopt his political and ethical beliefs. For the most part, he was unsuccessful, so he returned to China to teach a growing number of followers and to share his experiences. After his death, two men, Mencius and Xun Zi recorded his beliefs and wrote books about his philosophy.
Basic Philosophy
Confucian ethics is rather idealistic. It emphasizes virtuous actions for the sake of being virtuous. He preferred to teach by example, telling rulers that the only way for their people to become virtuous is for them to become virtuous themselves and rule/lead by example. Some of his important ideas are li, xiao, zhong, and junzi, and ren. Although this is no where near an exhaustive list, it helps look into what Confucianism is really about. For more of these terms and what they mean, click here.
Li:
Li is propriety or rituals. For Confucius, it became all of one's actions in order to achieve their heart's desire, both the good and the bad. You had to have the right balance of doing things for yourself and others to achieve full propriety. You couldn't just help others because it would benefit you in the long run. You help others because they need help and it is the right thing to do.
Xiao:
Xiao is filial piety and has to do with our relationships with other people. The five basic relationships we have with others are: father and son, ruler and subject, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, and friend and friend. Sometimes a sixth relationship of teacher and pupil is added. In all these relationships, both sides have certain roles. The elder commands more respect, but he too must show the other respect as well. The younger has an obligation to inform the elder when he is not fulfilling his part in the relationship.
Zhong:
Zhong is loyalty; loyalty in the five relationships from the lesser to the elder. It does not mean that the lesser should blindly obey whatever the elder says. In fact, Confucius encouraged the lesser to object to the elder when they did not think what they were doing was right. This kept a check on the elder's power, especially in the ruler and subject relationship.
Junzi:
Junzi is Confucius' idea of the ideal person leading by example. Take his teachings for example; he never set down and guidelines or rules of any kind. All that we have are his experiences and advice in The Analects. One should drive to become the perfect gentleman, whom others will follow if they display the other four previously listed traits.
Ren:
Ren is the underlying reason why one should follow the rites and piety, and is best translated as human heartedness, or humaneness. It is the idea of empathy and putting oneself in others' shoes rather than having divinely ordained rules. It is a form of the Golden Rule (do to others only what you would want done to yourself), which Confucius also believed in.
