INTRODUCTION
Confucianism is regarded as one of the primary religions that have profoundly influenced Chinese beliefs and ideologies. While Kongzi, or Confucius, is the founder of Confucianism, he is not the only philosopher who has contributed to such a significant impact on China. Similarly, the Analects of Confucius is not the single text that represents Confucianism. In fact, during different time periods throughout the history, there are a number of eminent representatives of Confucian thoughts, such as Mengzi and Xunzi. Because Confucianism aims at eliminating chaos and maintaining order in a harmonious society , they all agree that the guidance and education of virtuous Confucian pioneers are of extreme importance to achieve this
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Rather, Mengzi regards men as born with a potential property, which could lead to good moral attributes like ren, yi, li, and zhi. On the contrary, Xunzi argues that men are born with an instinct called xing, which could result in immoral attributes like affection and desire . Nevertheless, the fact that men are born with a property leading to goodness does not contradict the fact that men are born with an instinct leading to badness.
As a result, neither of Mengzi and Xunzi has an absolute definition of human nature, since they only consider part of human nature they prefer. An interesting parable of this point would be that half glass of water is seen as half-full by Mengzi, whereas half-empty by Xunzi . Sadly, no one is really sure which explanation would be the absolutely correct one, since there does not tend to be an absolute truth about this type of ambiguous problem. Hence, one cannot claim that Mengzi and Xunzi completely disagree with each other solely by the fact that they consider human nature from different points of view. In addition to the intrinsic ambiguity of human nature, Mengzi and Xunzi have utterly distinct emphasis on their theory about human nature. As long as part of human nature is overly stressed by each of them, they become more and more biased with respect to their overall definition of human nature. According to
during the Zhou Dynasty, China was experiencing a great deal of political turmoil. A major part of this era was called the Period of the Warring States. It was a time when there were numerous wars that occurred due to the conflict that existed between seven states. (Watkins, 2013) These warring states were the Han, Wu, Zhao, Chu, Qi, Yan and Jin. According to Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler of the book Traditions and Encounters, “This period forced some people to reflect on the nature of society, and the roles of humans beings within society.” The authors continued saying that it forced others to “identify principles that would restore political and social order.” (Bentley & Ziegler, 2011) The principles of Confucianism were established and followed in order to help the citizens of China to live and govern their communities more efficiently. Through Confucianism, Confucius helped legitimize China’s rule and bring about order in the mist of turmoil. The effects of Confucius’ principles are still seen and felt today in many aspects of modern day Chinese society. Veritably, there were points throughout Chinese history where Confucianism affected almost every aspect of life in China. Confucius has impacted the development of Chinese thought and culture in various ways from education to politics, to familial relationships.
Good and bad, two opposite terms that are used by people. ‘Good’ is known as morally excellent and ‘bad’ is known as being wicked or having an evil character. The ideas of good and bad are thought to be connected to human nature. Human nature is the characteristics, feelings, and behaviours of humankind that is shared by all humans. Because good and bad are two opposite terms and it is in human nature this has led to attempts to explain how both good and bad behaviours affect peoples’ daily life. The debate of on explanations of human’s good and bad behaviour still is ongoing nowadays. Two Chinese philosophers, Mencius (2016) and Hsun Tzu (1963) have relevant approaches to analysing this behaviour. Hsun Tzu focused on human
This essay will illustrate the history of Confucianism and the background of Master Kong (Confucius) in the early beginnings of the religion. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the common characteristic of Confucianism with other eastern religions, the contemporary issues it faces, and the interaction between the modern world and Confucianism. Also the paper list the nine most common text of literature used by the religion and it includes the role of women and the five bonds also known as the five great relationships.
Mencius believed that human nature is good. Every person is born instilled with four main virtues; Righteousness, Ritual property, Wisdom and Benevolence. These virtues will only develop fully if it is nurtured and put to effect appropriately. He also claimed that those who are not virtuous have been “corrupted by the environment” . He believes that “Individual effort was needed to cultivate oneself, but one’s natural tendencies were good to begin with.” In this way, Mencius has integrated elements of Taoism into his theory. Basically, people are born well with good intentions, but they must work to maintain their good nature.
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
The term “Confucianism” is often regarded as a complex mechanism of social, political, moral as well as religious beliefs that have considerable influence especially upon the civilizations belonging to the East Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea along with Singapore and Vietnam. With reference to the observation made by Reid (1999), it can be viewed that a clear depiction about different principles and beliefs exists within the sphere of “Confucianism”. Therefore, the major purpose of this report is to briefly review of T. R. Reid’s book “Confucius Lives Next Door: What Leaving In The East Teaches Us About Living In the West” through concisely unfolding the experience of
Many people have different views about human nature. Some believe we tend to be good, others evil, and some even believe we can be neutral. Mengzi is more optimistic about humanity. He believes our nature is to be good. It is a belief he holds up throughout each book. Even though some like Gaozi, believe differently. But through all that we still can’t have a certain answer, it all depends on your own beliefs, be it religiously or morally.
The Confucian philosopher, Mengzi, asserts that humans have instincts by nature that tend toward goodness. Meaning, because human have virtuous instincts, human nature is good. Within his philosophy, Mengzi claims that humans have four sprouts;
The first section will deal with the similarities between the two philosophers beliefs and methodologies, and their interpretations in the modern day. Then, the essay will individually analyze first Mencius, then Xunzi’s fundamental stance on human nature using the primary sources mentioned above. Subsequently, I will reiterate the primary stance of my thesis and support it using the primary and second sources that I have acknowledged in the body of my paper. Finally, I will conclude by examining these two competing beliefs in light of modern interpretations of human nature.
Confucianism is one of the main influential ideologies on the Chinese culture. The founder of this religion is Confucius; he was a Chinese teacher. He taught traditional disciplines at that time, and believed that he could change the order of the Chinese society. He has different principals in life. First, Li: “It is the medium within which to talk about the entire body of the mores, or more precisely, have the authentic tradition and reasonable conversations of society” . In other words, li is the social rituals between people and they are divided into different categorized relationships like father and son, filial piety, between brothers, husband and wife; Ruler and subjects, and between friends. The Second principal was Jen, which is humaneness; it describes the inner personality of a person and that people should practice respect to one another. Li and Jen are values that complete each other to create the superior man, according to the Confucius. Also, Confucius believed in the spirits but keeping them at a distance. There are Five Classics and the Four Books are regarded as a reference for Confucianism.
There is set ways that humans are perceived to act and its broadened into many types of personalities and characteristics. Humans are expected to follow some sort of destiny pulled by an ultimate force and the will to live. Monkey is a story that follows four unlikely individuals on their episodic journey to the west to receive scriptures from the buddha. During the journey the reader can clearly pull out distinct aspects of human nature from three of the characters. The three characteristics that can easily be represented are wisdom, restlessness, and greed. In all, these can be used to help explain the characteristics of human nature represented in monkey.
Confucius created a system of thinking called Confucianism. If only one word could be used to summarize the Chinese way of life for the last two thousand years, that word would be Confucian. No other person has had as great an effect on the life and thought of the Chinese people as Confucius. He is the most adored person in Chinese history. Confucius claimed no greatness, instead he looked to a past time that he saw as the golden age. He told one of his disciples, "I transmit but I do not create. I am sincerely fond of the ancient. I would compare myself to Old P'eng who was fond of talking about the good old days." Confucius was a transmitter of the wisdom of the past. From his study of Chinese tradition, he gathered the
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