Confucianism and Religion

      Four years ago, I had a small conversation about religion with my first American friend when we were exchange students in Switzerland. I said, “I don’t believe in God, but I believe in fate” —by “fate”, I meant the Confucian idea of “Tianming” 天命(Mandate of Heaven), or “Tianyi” 天意(the will of Heaven).Apparently he didn’t understand at all, he asked, “how could you say that you believe in Heaven but not God, is there any difference?” I didn’t know how to answer him at that time, and later I was having doubts about my belief or Chinese’s for a long time. 

      Now I am taking an ancient Chinese history course in America, I have officially learned the term “Tianming”. I also noticed that we haven’t really made reference to religion when talking about Confucianism. Then it occurs to me that--Is the concept of “Tianming” religious? Is Confucianism a religion? 

     In consideration of the language difference, first I have to make clear the Chinese translations for Confucianism --

• Rujia儒家: School of the Scholars
• Ruxue儒学: Studies of Scholars
• Rujiao儒教: Teaching of the Scholars
• Kongjiao孔教: Cult of Confucius, or Confucian religion

     In particular, Rujiao is often also called Kongjiao, but there are also difference between them— “Rujiao” technically emerged during the reign of Emperor Wu(r.141-87 BC) in the Western Han Dynasty when Confucianism became a state-supported orthodoxy, although the word wasn’t coined until the Eastern Han Dynasty; however, “Kongjiao” was brought up by Kang Youwei of late Qing Dynasty(1644–1911) when he tried to “launch a reform movement to transform the Confucian tradition into a state religion”(Xinzhong Yao, “An Introduction to Confucianism”). Both of the word contains “Jiao”, which could imply Jiaohua教化—enlightenment, or Zongjiao宗教—religion. Apparently, “Rujiao” was given some religious color, and its existence is quite controversial.

     What about Ruxue? The Ruxue, which directly connected with Confucius and Mencius, is the primitive source of Rujiao. So before we define Rujiao as a religion or not, we have to understand the nature of Ruxue. There is no doubt about its significance as a philosophy, but is Ruxue religious so that Confucianism is eventually or virtually a religion?

    There are basically three kinds of views: 

1.  Confucianism is a religion. 
2. Confucianism is not a religion, but it has religious characteristics.
3. Confucianism is not a typical religion but a special religion (“Moral Religion”[1]).

      In fact, this issue has been debated globally among scholars over centuries. Although there is no definite answer on this question, all of the three have been studied with in-depth investigations and satisfactory results. In this paper, I am going to combine the second and the third views to talk about my opinions on the relationship between Confucianism and religion. First, I will discuss Confucianism’s religious character in terms of the idea of “Heaven”. Then I will investigate the view of religion in Confucianism culturally and discuss its religious role in modern society.

I. The idea of “Heaven” in Confucian thought

     As we know, the traditional Chinese idea of Tianming has been presented on different bases through different periods of Chinese history, but using western philosophical terms, there are nothing more than these three theoretical principles: “Theological Determinism”, “Moral Determinism”, and “Natural Determinism” (Jie Wang, “On Confucius' view of Tianming, human nature and political value”). The kings of late Shang used spiritual force to rule people by deifying themselves—calling themselves the son of Di(the high god of the Shang).In this way, their power were justified by the god—this was typical “theological determinism” with religious thought. In the Zhou dynasty, people use the word “Tian” (Heaven) to take the place of “Di”. Although both are acting like god, Tian is different from Di because it has morality (Qingzhong Yang, “Why Zhou people call the high god Tian”). Tian helped Zhou succeed in overthrowing Shang because the Zhou rulers had morality and it is their Mandate of Heaven to rule the people. This “Tian” concept showed a transition to “Moral Determinism” in Tianming’s interpretation, it is “a ruling or presiding Tian”[2], or a heaven of arbitrator. Connecting morality and Heaven with religious faith made the Zhou people pay attention to virtues and rituals because they wanted to get blessings under Heaven’s watching. However, when it applied to governing, things went differently-- the ruler behaved badly but still didn’t get punished by Heaven, so what’s the point of looking up to Tianming? “Then the trend of doubtful thought emerged inevitably” (Yibo Yang, “Reading Confucian morality's religious role from Heaven”).

     Living in Spring and Autumn period, Confucius used to deeply believe in the Shang and Western Zhou’s traditional idea of Tianming. He thought Tian has will and force to arrange people’s life. He said, “Life and death are governed by fate, wealth and honor are determined by Heaven” (Ivanhoe, 34). He saw the limitation of manpower and believed in Heaven’s mysterious power, even with some awe—“The gentleman stands in awe if three things: the Mandate of Heaven, great men, and the teachings of the sages” (Ivanhoe, 47). However, Tianming didn’t respond to him as he expected, in his troubled times, he fell into contradiction between his beliefs and reality.—“If Heaven intended this culture to perish, it would not have given it to those of us who live after King Wen’s death. Since Heaven did not intend that this culture should perish, what can the people of Kuang do to me?” (Ivanhoe, 25)By this time, the “ruling Tian” has transformed into “a fatalistic Tian”, or a heaven of fate.

     It seemed Tianming’s “Moral Determinism” did not work for the society, what then? The fall-down of the “ruling Tian”, accompanied with “a fantastic Tian,” directly brought about the rise of ‘a naturalistic Tian’ (Yang), in other words, people began to use “Natural Determinism” to explain “Tianming”.

     Confucius also had his answer to this question, he said, “…at fifty I understood Heaven’s Mandate” (Ivanhoe, 5). What did he mean by saying that?

      According to Sima Qian’s Record of the Grand Historian, Confucius was studying The Book of Changes later in his life, which also accorded with his remark in the Analects[3]. So Confucius first studied the I Ching, the divination manual which connotes Daoism idea like “the way” or “Yin Yang”, then get the essence of Tianming (Junhua Ren, “Awe Tianming and Ecological Ethics--on Confucius' idea of ecological ethics”),which meant this Tianming is not the previous Tianming anymore. It actually means natual law[4] (Ren).Confucius, the great thinker, didn’t stay stuck in this contradiction of the previous Tianming’s theory, instead, he stopped to talk about the Mandate of Heaven, but “achieved two big shifts on his view of values”:1from “Tianming” to “Tiandao” (the Way of Heaven) 2from divinity to humanity (Wang). There is one thing we need to notice, Confucius actually did not concern himself much on Tiandao, he even didn’t talk about it--In the Analects, the only place “Tiandao” appeared is Zigong’s remark, where he said, “…one does not get to hear the Master expounding upon the subjects of human nature or the Way of Heaven ” (Ivanhoe, 15).Confucius would rather focus on his second shift to humanity--“the Goodness”, “the Wisdom”, “the Sage” and so on .As a result, these series of cultural refinements had a tremendous influence on Chinese political views and civilization. 

       In addition, Confucius’ view of Tianming was also represented on his attitude towards ghost and spirits. In his time, it’s impossible to deny their existence, because most of people were superstitious about the unexplainable natural world. According to Confucius cautious personality, when he realized it was difficult to clarify a question, he wouldn’t answer it arbitrarily. Then he gave an equivocal statement-- “respecting the ghosts and spirits while keeping them at a distance—this might be called wisdom” (Ivanhoe, 18). He thought devoting efforts and doing good to people (务民Wumin) was the priority, it was what the Wisdom would do. Again, like I said before, he shifted his attentions to moral practices. “‘This is why Confucius didn’t make his teaching become a religion like Jesus’, said by Mou Zongsan[5] in his book The Particularities of Chinese Philosophy (page 21, 47)” (Wang).

      Although Confucius’s view of Tianming didn’t solve the ethical dilemma, and his view of Tiandao was deficient, he still had profound impact on later Confucian schools. After Confucius, Mencius had a different idea about Tianming. He didn’t think Heaven had will, but he pointed out that Heaven was the origin of human nature—therefore, “If one understands one’s nature, then one understands Heaven” (Ivanhoe, 152). In this way, Heaven was connected to people, it was still powerful, but it was not incomprehensible, as long as one “preserve one’s mind and nourish one’s nature” (Ivanhoe, 152). Mencius used Heaven to explain everything, but didn’t take it as some kind of god, from this, we can see a rational philosophy thought. Mencius’s Ruxue did not lose touch with reality; its religiousness was quite limited.

II. Rujia’s unique religious character

      After discussing the two greatest Rujia philosophers Confucius and Mencius’ views on Heaven, now let’s go back to the question I asked at the beginning about the relationship between Confucianism and religion. Apparently, we need to define “religion” first. Look at what basic factors Buddhism and Christianity have in common: God and scripture. But Confucianism had neither—Tian was not a personified God, and the Analects didn’t play a role as religious scripture. So Confucianism was definitely not a traditional religion. However, religions in different culture always imply different definition. Besides the idea of Heaven as I discussed earlier, Confucianism also showed other important religious characters, for example-- “Ritual”, which was also the core concept of Confucian thought. Does that mean Confucianism had religious basis? Some people agreed, some did not. Here I will use “sacrifice” as an example to show Confucianism’s unique religious character compare to other religions and explore the diversity of religious meaning in Chinese culture.

       Xunzi said, “Ritual has three roots”—“heaven and earth”, “forefathers and ancestor”, “rulers and teachers” (Ivanhoe, 275), correspondingly, there are also “three sacrifices” to these “three roots” in Confucian traditions. Most modern people think the “three sacrifices” only had a sense of gratitude but not praying, and the ceremony was given to visible objects but not to some transcendent, which showed its non-religious character(Renfu He, “The Religious Value of Tang Junyi's Ideas on the Confucian ‘Three Sacrificial Offerings’”). Tang Junyi, who was a representative figure in the second New Confucianist, expressed his insights and contradicted toward the “non-religious” comment in his book the Development of Chinese Humanities. “He pointed out that, the ‘three sacrifices’ not only had a deep religious spirit, but also had a high religious value beyond any other religions (He).

     His two main reasons are:

• It’s true that ancient Chinese regarded their gratitude to the cult objects, which include ancestors or some specific people who was related to the worshipper, usually won’t be worshipped by others and won’t be replaced by others, which gave them a unique meaning. And this uniqueness made this “sacrifice” religious.
• It’s also true that the cult object was real and it can be imagined during the ceremony, but the thing is, all the ceremony needs images—figure of Buddha, the Jesus statue, and so on—these are inevitable. However, because the object was real, the worshipper would see them objectively, they wouldn’t get too lost in it. Moreover, when Chinese worshipped the ancestor, there were only Ancestral Tablet without portrait (portrait usually was put aside), this made the worshipper more concentrated (He).

     Generally speaking, the Confucian “three sacrifices” gathered both realistic and transcendental religious spirit which was incomparable to other religions. 

III. Rujiao as a “Moral Religion”

Image via Wikipedia

     As I mentioned earlier, the word “Rujiao” came out in the Eastern Han dynasty. By that time, Confucianism had been used as a tool of enlightenment for governing for a while. As a matter of fact, ever since after Confucius died, he had been apotheosized in a way, which started as building Confucian temples in Western Han, then offering sacrifices to him (Jihui Zhao, “on Confucianism as both philosophy and moral religion”). Gradually, later generations embraced Confucius; even until today, a lot of these temples are still full of people burning incense and praying. It is hard to say if Chinese had worshipped Confucius as an oracle or just a sage ancestor. But according to the statistics, from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there were around 1560 Confucius temples (Zhao).Common people worshipped Confucius just like Buddha, this must meant something. They might think of Confucius as a symbolization of morality, ethics and civilization rather than a supernatural being, for example, a scholar would worship Confucius before they went for the imperial examination[6]. But indeed, he became a sort of spiritual sustenance where one can rest hope on. On this point, calling Confucianism as a “Moral Religion” makes sense.

      Before I started to work on this paper, I never thought of Confucianism as a religion. But now, I will have to be surprised at my conclusion--I think before the Han Dynasty, Confucianism acted as a philosophy with religious characters, but later on, it was developed into a “Moral Religion”. This is not the ultimate answer to the topic of this paper, only my own idea, and I’m not sure how long I will hold onto it. But no matter what Confucianism is, it was already part of the essence in Chinese culture; it was where I lived in, where I believed in.

---

[1] “Moral Religion” was put forward by Mou Zongsan, but later in my paper I didn’t elaborate Mou’s opinion. I only borrowed this term to express my idea of Confucius’ apotheosis.

[2] The Chinese philosopher Feng Youlan differentiates five different meanings of tian in early Chinese writings:

(1) A material or physical Tian or sky, that is, the Tian often spoke of in opposition to earth, as in the common phrase which refers to the physical universe as 'Heaven and Earth'
(2) A ruling or presiding Dian, that is, one such as is meant in the phrase, 'Imperial Heaven Supreme Emperor'
(3) A fatalisDic Dian, equivalent to the concept of Fate (ming 命), a term applied to all those events in human life over which man himself has no control.

(4) A naturalisDic Dian, that is, one equivalent to the English word Nature.
(5) An ethical Dian, that is, one having a moral principle and which is the highest primordial principle of the universe. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian#Meanings

[3] “If were granted many more years, and could devote fifty of them to learn( I-king), surely I would be able to be free of major fault”

[4] My understanding-- the Tianming here means Tiandao, because Tiandao has a sense of nature.

[5] Mou Zongsan, a Chinese New Confucian philosopher

[6] In modern life, people still do things like this. Personally, I remembered my parents asked me to worship Confucius once or twice when I was a kid for a better grade even we didn’t really count on it.

Works Cited

He, Renfu. "The Religious Value of Tang Junyi's Ideas on the Confucian "Three Sacrificial Offerings唐君毅论儒家“三祭”的宗教价值" Journal of Sichuan University(Social Science Edition) 3 (2009). Confuchina.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confuchina.com/05%20zongjiao/tangjunyi%20lun%20sanji.htm.

Ivanhoe, Philip, and Bryan Norden. Readings in classical Chinese philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2005. Print.

Ren, Junhua. "Awe Tianming and Ecological Ethics--on Confucius' idea of ecological ethics敬畏天命与生态伦理--孔丘的生态伦理思想新探" Confucius Studies 2 (2000). Confuchina.com. 29 June 2003. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confuchina.com/03%20lunlizhengzhi/kongzi%20shengtai%20lunli.htm.

Wang, Jie. "On Confucius' Tianming,human nature and political value论孔子的天命、人性及政治价值依据." Confucius Studies 6 (2005). Confuchina.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confuchina.com/02%20xinxue%20yu%20renxinglun/kongzi%20tianming%20renxing.htm.

Yang, Qingzhong. "Why Zhou people call the high god Tian论周人何以称至上神为天." Journal of South-Central University for Nationalities 1 (1997). Confucius2000.com. 26 June 2004. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confucius2000.com/confucian/lzrhyczsswt.htm.

Yang, Yibo. "Reading Confucian morality's religious role from Heaven从以天论德看儒家道德的宗教作用." Social Sciences in China 3 (2006): 39. Confucius2000.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confucius2000.com/admin/list.asp?id=2604.

Yao, Xinzhong. An introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Books.google.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://books.google.com/books?id=tAE2OJ9bPG0C&dq=Xinzhong+Yao,+An+Introduction+to+Confucianism+pdf&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=ahYiS47JKMXBngf4l430CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false.

Zhao, Jihui. "On Confucianism as both philosophy and moral religion论儒学既是哲学又是道德宗教." Confuchina.com. 04 Mar. 2003. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <http://www.confuchina.com/01%20zong%20lun/ruxue%20zhexue%20zongjiao.htm>. published on Huangshan International Ruxue seminar in July,2001

Feedback from professor:  A-

This paper addresses a very important but complicated problem,and show very sophisticated understanding of names while still being able to arrive at a clear conclusion.There are a few points I’ve indicated where the writing is not so clear ad left me puzzles as to your exact meaning. In addition, Xunzi’s ideasabout Heaven deserve to be mentioned along with those of Confucius and Mencius,since they seem to be a further development of this trend you identify（see page 269-274 in Ivanhoe)

Zhuangzi on Confucius

      Although both Confucius and Zhuangzi lived in a historical time of chaos, these two philosophers had quite a different view of the world and life. The fundamental difference and also the reason for their arguing is, in short, that Confucius rushi(入世), Zhuangzi chushi(出世).

      What is rushi and chushi? They are actually Buddhist terms in Chinese, literally meaning entering and renouncing the world, or “entering worldly affairs” and “withdrawing from worldly affairs” (Brook,p.70).In details, the former word signifies “an action to participate in social change”, and the latter one signifies “a retreat to a spontaneous, natural, and personal life” (Liu).

      Confucius was an ideologist who tried to reform the social reality. He advocated to “restrain oneself and returning to the rites”(Ivanhoe,p.33); when it applied to governing, it shows the performance of the rules of virtue, including honoring one's parents, loyalty to government, and keeping one's place in society —“Let the lord be the true lord…the fathers true fathers…”(Ivanhoe,p.36),and so on. In another classic book about Confucianism called The Great Learning, there are eight characters written by later scholars to describe Confucius’s idealism—“Things being investigated”, “knowledge being complete”, “thoughts being sincere”, “hearts being rectified”, “persons being cultivated”, “families being regulated”, “States being rightly governed”, then “the entire world was at peace”. These are the standard Confucius set for himself, which lead to his Utopia—Datong大同(this term comes from The Classic of Rites),or the Great Harmony which means a perfect society towards uniformity. In a word, Confucius has a heart for the society.

       However, Zhuangzi emphasizes the value of personal life. He thinks the big questions of individual’s life are more important than society’s issues. His attitude to governing is quite cold, we can see it from the sacred turtle story that shows his rejection of administering Chu’s kingdom (Ivanhoe, p.246). He claims “Wuwei 无为”or “non-action” which means following the nature, and act without efforts, because he thinks any “Youwei 有为” (the opposite to “non-action” )is against Tian天 or nature—they are “mechanical contraptions”, “mechanical business”, “mechanical mind”, which can stop us preserving our simplicity and having a settled spiritual life (Ivanhoe,p.243)——and that is harmful; one of the examples is the emperor of the center who when holes were drilled in body ended up dead——“Everyone has seven holes to see, hear, eat, and breathe, but he alone he alone has none. Let’s try drilling him some! Each day they drilled a hole. And in seven days, All-full died” (Ivanhoe, p.243). Apparently, “Follow the middle line and you can protect yourself, complete your life, raise your family, and finish your years” (Ivanhoe,p.224) .This is Zhuangzi’s ideal of life that we should withdraw from the society, not worry for desires; in this way people can return to nature and to have a free spirit, and that’s what it matters.

Below is a comparison chart between Confucius and Zhuangzi’s ideas with key words.

	Confucius “rushi”	Zhuangzi “chushi”
Value 基本价值观	social ideal 社会理想	life ideal 生命理想
Governing 治国	ritual 礼乐之治	wuwei "non-action" 无为之治
Pursuing 追求	want to become an official 出仕	hermit life-style 隐士
View of secular affairs 世俗观	Negate greediness, approve proper desire 否定贪欲，肯定以道得之的私有满足 “If wealth were something worth pursuing, then I would pursue it, even if that meant serving as an officer holding a whip at the entrance to the marketplace.” (Ivanhoe,p.21)	Negate all secular desire with a neutral attitude 以不肯定不否定的态度否定 “…the sage does not make it his business to attend to affairs. He does not seek gain or avoid loss. He does not enjoy being sought out and does not follow any way. Saying nothing he says something, saying something he says nothing, and he wanders outside the floating dust ”(Ivanhoe,p.222)
View of life and death 生死观	respect life   尊重生命   “lavish funeral”;  Cry for Yanhui’s death (Ivanhoe,p.31)	“It’s just like the round of the four seasons”   达生主义  Sing for his wife’s death  (Ivanhoe,p.247)

      Moreover, from the description of Confucius’s image in the book of Zhuangzi, we have to admit, Zhuangzi doesn’t approve of him very much, especially in the story of Robber Zhi, Confucius was even accused of being a hypocrite by an infamous robber. But does that mean Confucius and Zhuangzi have nothing in common? Actually they do. They both pay attention to enhance personal cultivation, or the inner power of human, and both of them think that is the prerequisite to achieve their ideal. Either Confucius’s Way on humanity, or Zhuangzi’s Way on nature, is the idealism of civilization, and both of them play a role on criticizing and maintaining the reality.

       Maybe personally I prefer Zhuangzi's refined spiritual world, but —Confucius teaches us to take responsibility, Zhuangzi teaches us to handle complicated matters with great ease—indeed, we should take both of them in.

Works Cited

Brook, Timothy. Praying for power Buddhism and the formation of gentry society in late-Ming   China. Cambridge, Mass: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University and Harvard-Yenching Institute, Distributed by Harvard UP, 1993. Print.


Ivanhoe, Philip, and Bryan Norden. Readings in classical Chinese philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2005. Print.


"The Great Learning, a Confucian classic - The Gold Scales." THE GOLD SCALES of Art, Wisdom, Extracts, Folktales, and Lore. Ed. Tormod Kinnes. Web. 16 Oct. 2009.
http://oaks.nvg.org/sa3ra7.html.


Xu, Feng. "Review of Kongzi and Zhuangzi' Cultural idealism动摇与依违--孔子及庄子之文化理想主义述评" JOURNAL OF LINYI TEACHERS' COLLEGE (2000). Print.



"Yan Lianke, Shouhuo, Liu Jianmei." Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Resource Center. Web. 16 Oct. 2009. <http://mclc.osu.edu/jou/abstracts/liujianmei2.htm>.

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