Confucianism -- Concept Speech

Outline

I. Introduction
· Reason of the topic
·Definition of Confucianism
·Transition


II. Body
1. Confucius and analects
2. Key words about Confucius’s teaching
Ø Core idea: 仁(ren)—Goodness·德(de)—Virtue
·礼(li)-Ritual: propriety, good manners, ceremony.
·忠(zhong)—Dutifulness: loyalty, doing one's best.
·义(yi)—Rightness: right conduct, morality.
·孝(xiao)—Filial piety: honor one's parents
·恕(shu)—Sympathetic understanding: reciprocity, consideration for others.
·君子(junzi)—the Gentleman
·小人(xiaoren)—the Petty Man


III. Conclusion
    Confucianism is social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion, it’s important to keep the good part of our ancient culture and tradition.

Speech Draft

1. Introduction
    The reason I brought this up because I am taking a history class about ancient Chinese philosophy. So we have learnt quite a lot Information about it and I find it very interesting. So I decide to share this significant historical event with you.


  The definition of Confucianism from “Encyclopedia Britannica” is “Scholarly tradition and way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BC and followed by the Chinese for more than two millennia.”


     It is often characterized as a system of social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion. In fact, Confucianism built on an ancient religious foundation to establish the social values, institutions, political ideology and so on in ancient China society; which means it plays much the same role as religion does in other cultural contexts


    Though there’re quite a few different schools under the Confucian legacy, when we talk about Confucianism, we are pretty much talk about Confucius, the founder of Confucianism’s thought.


    Here I’m going to give a brief introduction of Confucius, and the most famous book which was called Analects, and some basic key concepts in his teaching.




2. Body

Confucius

-- He was born about 551 BC and lived until 479 BC.
-- He is the single most famous, important and influential thinker in all Chinese history. For much of the history of imperial China, from about 100 BC down to 1906, his ideas were the state-supported orthodoxy.
-- He was a political figure but his lasting impact was as a teacher. He acquired a reputation for knowledge of ancient traditions and texts and rituals, and young men gathered around him seeking instruction.

The Analects

     Most of what we know about Confucius’ ideas comes from the Analects.
    It is a collection of moral and ethical principles presented in the form of conversation between Confucius and his disciples. It does not consist of organized essays but more like a scrapbook of valuable ideas that someone thought worthy of recordings.


Key words about Confucius’s teaching
     In the Analects, the core idea was仁(ren) or Goodness; Sometime also translated as "Benevolence, humanity, kindness, or compassion”


What is Goodness exactly?
      Confucius said: “restraining yourself and returning to the rites constitutes Goodness” 
What does that mean, and what are the rites then?


     Actually Goodness is not one virtue, but the source of all virtues, signifying excellent character in accord with礼(li)—Ritual, 忠(zhong)—Dutifulness, 义(yi)—Rightness, 孝(xiao)—Filial piety, 恕(shu)Sympathetic understanding, and so on…Together these constitute德(de)—Virtue.

The Gentleman

      When we talk about the Goodness, then we have to mention another keyword 君子junzi or the Gentlemen. Junzi is a very important idea in Chinese culture and one of the most prominent terms classical Confucianism .


“The Gentleman takes rightness as his substance, puts it into practice by means of ritual, give it expression through modesty, and perfects it by being trustworthy.”


     The opposite of Junzi was 小人(xiaoren) or the Petty man literally means small person. The character small in this context means petty in mind and heart, narrowly self-interested, greedy, or superficial.


“The gentleman understands rightness, whereas the petty person understands profit”


“The gentleman seeks it in himself; the petty person seeks it in others”


     In one word, the gentleman was described as "perfect man" who combines the qualities of a saint, scholar and the virtue of the Goodness. And becoming a junzi (gentleman) is one's ideal in Chinese culture.




3. Conclusion
     A Christian might find himself in agreement with many of Confucius' ethical principles and virtues. A Christian might also agree with many of the character qualities of the true gentleman and seek to develop those qualities. But after all, Confucianism is social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion as I mentioned at the beginning of this speech.


     In modern China, religion apparently is not that much valued as western country; I think one of the reasons might be that—deep down, people are still unconsciously influenced our culture tradition; And if we can keep all the Goodness from Confucius, what’s the point of a religion?




Works Cited
Berling, Judith A. "Confucianism." Focus on Asian Studies 1st ser. ? (1982): 5-7. Web. http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/Berling-Confucianism.htm

"Confucianism." Encyclopedia Britannia. Web. 
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/132104/Confucianism. 



"Confucius." Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy. 3 June 2002. Web. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/. 

Ivanhoe, Philip J., and Bryan W. Van Norden. 2nd ed. Hackett, 2006. Print. 

Notes from HIST 504 class