Confucianism in Chinese and Japanese Accounting Systems

Ancient China has three philosophies: Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism. These three philosophies explain how people should behave and how the government should rule the people. The philosophies were guidelines to the people. Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism have different values, beliefs, and ideas of what is important and expected, but the main goal is to work towards peace and harmony. These cultures are the same way in being rewarded due to their actions, but different in government regulation because of the people in command.

Before Emperor Wu of Han decided “oust others doctrines, the overwhelming Confucianism”[ Baisha Yi，易白沙 Kongzi pingyi shang 孔子评议上[Kritische Beurteilung von Kongzi, Teil 1], Qingnian zazhi 青年杂志,1916a, 571-576], which means use Confucianism as the only religion in China, Taoism was one of the most popular religions in China. In the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Taoism was the most important religion and philosophy, and it influenced political theory. What is Taoism? How had Taoism changed politics and activities of people who lived in Han dynasty? This essay seeks to answer these questions by examining the background and few important points of Wu-wei, one of the most famous Taoist thoughts.

When comparing Han China and Roman Empire, many political, geographical, and religious similarities can be found, though many differences are also prevalent. Though Roman and Han political structures both emphasized bureaucracies, they came to them quite differently. Through many amounts of expansion, both societies spread culture and earned money, though expansion was eventually their downfalls. Their religions differed immensely, with Rome emphasizing polytheism and Han China focusing on Confucianism. The differences and similarities between these two civilizations are to be discussed in this essay. One might ask, Which civilization yielded the best economy during this era?

Han China (206 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.), and Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E. – 476 C.E.), were powerful and influential civilizations whose fall had an everlasting impact on society. The inability to protect borders and corrupt officials led to the fall of Han China and Imperial Rome. Unlike the Han, Christianity tore Rome apart while Confucianism united China.

Religion has been a major factor for the growth and development of societies since the establishment of even the very first ancient civilizations. Though each of the ancient societies—the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Indians, and the Mesopotamians—had different spiritual beliefs, they each shared the common belief that the presence of religion within a civilization would have positive results upon the entire civilization.

In 1853, first association of professional accountants, it also can be regarded as the beginning of the modern accounting profession. The UK accounting system is conducive to a principles-based approach rather than a rules-based approach to standard setting. Furthermore, the UK 's politic system is common law, which shows that accounting system in the UK has relatively fewer statutes, more interpretation and tends to be more flexible, adaptive and innovative, etc. Also, taxation does not have influence on accounting system, but Germany and Japan are in opposite Therefore, these all can have a significant influence on accounting system in the UK.

Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the

Confucianism is an ethical philosophy with many statements concerning topics such as social obligations, politics, and religion. Founded by Confucius, a philosopher from “the state of Lu, in the modern province of Shandong,” this system of beliefs seeks wisdom above all other facets of life and regards knowledge as man’s greatest treasure. Confucianism also highly stressed the importance of putting others above oneself, thinking holistically rather than individually. Studying the Analects, Confucius’s philosophical text, gives students a superior understanding of the Chinese lifestyle during the Han dynasty because these beliefs reflect the progression of philosophy during this era.

Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. ‪To a certain extent，Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. ‬The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference. ‬‬

He states that Japan used market capitalism to pursue individual and corporate material wealth. However, China has been far more conservative approach having evolved from Mao Zedong’s planned socialism towards a “functional market socialism”. Further Japan appears to have adopted a far more western attitude more readily in comparison to China.

Confucianism has easily been influential in the development of the Chinese state through history. In fact, the core ideals of Confucianism have evolved. Despite the harsh repression of Confucianism by Marxist revolutionaries during the second half of the twentieth century, Confucian values continues to be influential in Chinese society and recently, Confucian political philosophy has resurfaced again. In addition, the political ideas and social ethics of Confucianism can provide the basis for a new, functional form of government in China. Confucianism can be a viable political philosophy for China in the twenty first century because many intellectuals have turned to Confucianism to make sense of such social

When Western people think of Confucianism, they often think of it in a past sense- as something only relevant to ancient China that cannot be applied to modern day society. However, what these people fail to realize is that Confucianism’s roots have been so integrated into China’s society that the values have become a part of every day life. Without having to explicitly state that they are following specifics aspects of Confucianism, most Chinese people submit to them, often times unknowingly. However, Confucian values not only exist in the Chinese society, but also permeate into other areas of Chinese culture such as architecture and aspects of Feng-Shui.

Confucianism is a time enduring philosophy that has stood up to invading clans, war, resentment, enforcement and infringement of new philosophies, and eventually, revival. For almost 80 years, up until the late 1970’s, Confucianism and its ideas and values have been all but wiped away from China. Though effort was made to remove Confucianism for good from China by the Communist leader Mao Zedong in 1949, the ideas and values were so deeply embedded into peoples mind and the culture that even suppression could not keep it out of the culture and practices. The main factor that has brought Confucianism back into the limelight in China and other East Asian countries is the recent

One explanation of why firms might choose to put into practice conservative accounting practices lies in efficient contracting theory, for example, conservative accounting can be used as part of a firms strategy to ease the conflicts that arise among the many claimants of a firm’s net assets. This is because conservative accounting methods place restrictions on the distribution of those net assets thereby limiting the scope for self-serving opportunistic behavior. Conservative accounting can also help in bringing into line the interests of managers and shareholders through its impact on accounting earnings measures that are regularly used in management compensation contracts (Iyengar & Zampelli, 2010).

China has more than 5000 years of history, and was a mysterious country to most occidental people. Because of the influence of the culture and history, China use to be closed to foreign countries until 1979. Chinese people have their own accounting rules that are totally different from occidental countries’ accounting rules. With the development of China’s economy and the implementation of the reform and opening policy, Chinese economic system became from planning economy to free- market economy, more and more occidental countries focus on China -a fast developing country. More and more international cooperation and trade appeared. In order to get the best investment, to know well Chinese accounting system