|
Confucius - Chinese Thinker and Social Philosopher |
|
 Confucius (Kong Fu-zi, September 28, 551 - 479 BCE) was a famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced East Asian life and thought.
His philosophy emphasised personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism or Daoism during the Han Dynasty.
Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism. It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to
Latinize the name as Confucius.
His teachings are known primarily through the Analects of Confucius, a short
collection of his discussions with his disciples, which was compiled posthumously.
Personal Life and Family
According to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BCE (during the Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement) in the city of Qufu, which was located in the Chinese State of Lu (now part of present-day Shandong Province and culturally and geographically close to the royal mansion of Zhou). He was born into a deposed noble family which had recently fled from the State of Song.
The Records of the Grand Historian, compiled some 400 years later, indicate that Confucius was conceived out of wedlock. His father was seventy, and his mother only fifteen at his birth. His father died when he was three, and he was brought up in poverty by his mother. His social ascendancy links him to the growing class of Shi, a class between the old nobility and the common people. This class later
became the prominent class of Intellectual because of the cultural and intellectual skills they shared.
According to Kongzide Gushi, Confucius's father's name was Shu Liang-he. Shu Liang-he originally had nine daughters and one crippled son. He decided to marry another woman in the hope of having a healthy son. This new wife became Confucius's mother. However, on the day that Confucius was born, Shu Liang-he briefly seemed frustrated on seeing his ugly son.
As a child, Confucius was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases on the sacrifice table. As a young man, he was a minor administrative manager in the State of Lu and rose to the position of Justice Minister. After several years he resigned because he disapproved of the politics of his Prince. Around age fifty, seeing no way to improve the government, he gave up his political career in Lu, and began a 12-year journey around China. He sought the Way and tried unsuccessfully to convince many different rulers of his political beliefs and to push them into reality. When he was about 60, he returned home and spent the last years of his life teaching an increasing number of disciples by sharing his
experiences with them and transmitting the old wisdom via a set of books called the Five Classics.
When Confucius was 23, his mother died sending him to three years of mourning, he then began to lead an ascetic life and was deeply concerned about studies. According to The sayings of Confucius, the state of Lu was doing
economically very well because of Confucius, that its neighbor the state of Qi was worried that it will become the supreme state and Qi will be the first to be
conquered. They then decided to sabotage Lu's reforms by sending one hundred horses and eighty beauties to the King of Lu.
The King of Lu then indulged himself in pleasure seeking and did not attend to any official duties for three days. At the sacrificial rites he did not give the counselors the meat in accordance to the rites. By then, Confucius had done all he could to bring Lu to its height and decided to leave.
Teachings
In the Analects, Confucius presents himself as a transmitter who invented nothing. He put the greatest emphasis on the importance of study, and it is the Chinese character for study that opens the text. In this respect, he is seen by Chinese
people as the Greatest Master. Far from trying to build a systematic theory of life and society, he wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and relentlessly study the outside world, mostly through the old scriptures and by relating past political events (like the Annals) or past feelings of common people (like the Book of Odes).
In times of division, chaos, and endless wars between feudal states, he wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven that could unify the world (China) and bestow peace and prosperity on the people. Therefore, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatism, but a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used (and maybe twisted) past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: rulers to be chosen on merit, not parentage, rulers who were devoted to their people, and rulers who reached for perfection. Such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules.
One of the deepest teachings of Confucius, one of the hardest to understand from a Western point of view, may have been the superiority of exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. His ethics may be considered one of the greatest virtue ethics. This kind of indirect way to achieve a goal is used widely in his teachings by way of allusions, innuendo, and even tautology. This is why his teachings need to be examined and put into context for access by Westerners. A good example is found in this famous anecdote:
When the stables were burnt down, on returning from court, Confucius said, Was anyone hurt? He did not ask about the horses.
The anecdote is not long, but it is of paramount importance. In his time horses were perhaps 10 times more expensive than stablemen. By not asking about the horses, Confucius demonstrated his greatest priority: human beings. Thus, according to many Eastern and Western commentators, Confucius' teaching can be
considered a Chinese variant of humanism.
Confucius also heavily emphasized what he calls rites and music, referring to these social conventions as two poles to balance order and harmony. While rites, in short, show off social hierarchies, music unifies hearts in shared enjoyment. He added that rites are not only ways to arrange sacrificial tools, and music is not only the sound of sticks on a bell. Both are communications between someone's humanity and his social context; both feed social relationships, such as the five prototypes: between father and son, husband and wife, prince and subject, elder and youngster, and friend and friend. Duties are always balanced, and if a subject must obey his ruler, the subject must tell the ruler when he is wrong.
Confucius' teachings were later turned into a corps de doctrine by his numerous disciples and followers. In the centuries after his death, Mencius and Xun Zi both wrote a prominent book on it, and in time, a philosophy was elaborated, which is known in the West as Confucianism.
Philosophy
Although Confucianism is often followed in a religious manner by the Chinese, arguments continue over whether it is a religion, because it makes little reference to theological or spiritual matters (god(s), the afterlife, etc).
Confucius' principles gained wide acceptance primarily because of their basis in common Chinese opinion. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives, and the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself (similar to the Golden Rule). He also looked nostalgically upon earlier days, and urged the Chinese, particularly the politicians, to model themselves on earlier examples.
Ethics
The Confucian theory of ethics is based on three important concepts:
While Confucius grew up, li referred to the three aspects of life: sacrificing to the gods, social and political institutions, and daily behavior. It was believed that li
originated from the heavens. Confucius argued that it flowed not from heaven but from humanity. He redefined li to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society. Li, to Confucius, became every action by a person aiming to meet his surface desires. These can be either good or bad. Generally, attempts to obtain short term pleasure are bad while those, which in the long term try to make one's life better, are generally good. These concepts are about doing the proper thing at the proper time.
To Confucius, yi was the origin of li. Yi can best be translated as righteousness. While doing things because of li, one's own self-interest was not necessarily bad, one would be a better, more righteous person if one bases one's life upon following yi. This means that rather than pursuing one's own selfish interests, one should do what is right and moral. It is doing the right thing for the right reason. Yì is based upon reciprocity. An example of living by yi is how one must mourn one's father and mother for three years after their death. Since they took care of the child for the first three years of one's life, one must reciprocate by living in mourning for three years.
Just as li flows out of yi, so yi flows out of ren. Ren can best be translated as kindness. His moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To live by ren was even better than living by the rules of yi. To live by ren one used another Confucian version of the Golden Rule: he argued that one must always treat others just as one would want others to treat you. Virtue under Confucius is based upon harmony with other people.
He applied an early version of the Golden Rule: What one does not wish for oneself, one ought not to do to anyone else; what one
recognizes as desirable for oneself, one ought to be willing to grant to others.
Politics
Confucius' political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argues that the best government is one that rules through rites and people's natural morality, rather than using bribery and force. He explained that this in one of the most important analects: If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good. This sense of shame is an
internalization of duty, where the punishment precedes the evil action, instead of following it in the form of laws as in Legalism.
While he supported the idea of the all-powerful Emperor, probably because of the chaotic state of China at his time, his philosophies contained a number of elements to limit the power of the rulers. He argued for according language with truth; thus honesty was of the most paramount importance. Even in facial expression, truth must always be represented. In discussing the relationship between a subject and his king (or a son and his father), he underlined the need to give due respect to superiors. This demanded that the inferior must give advice to his superior if the superior was considered to be taking the wrong course of action. This was built upon by his disciple Mencius to argue that if the king was not acting like a king, he would lose the Mandate of Heaven and be overthrown. Therefore, tyrannicide is justified because a tyrant is more a thief than a king. Attempted tyrannicide, however, is not justified.
Disciples
Confucius' disciples and only grandson, Zisi, continued his philosophical school after his death. While relying heavily on Confucius'
ethical-political system, two of his most famous disciples emphasized radically different aspects of his teachings. Mencius articulated the infinite goodness inherent in humanity, while Xun Zi underscored the realistic and materialistic aspects of Confucian thought.
Home Town
Soon after Confucius' death, Qufu, his hometown, became a place of devotion and remembrance. It is still a major destination for cultural tourism, and many Chinese people visit his grave and the surrounding temples. In China, there are many temples where representations of Buddha, Lao Zi and Confucius are found together. There are also many temples dedicated to him, which have been used for Confucianist ceremonies.
Descendants
Confucius' descendants were repeatedly identified and honored by successive imperial governments with titles of nobility and official posts. They were honored with the rank of a marquis thirty-five times since Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and they were promoted to the rank of duke forty-two times from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang first bestowed the title of Marquis Wenxuan on Kong Sui of the 35th generation. In 1055, Emperor Zhenzong of Song first bestowed the title of Duke Yansheng on Kong Zong of the 46th generation. Despite repeated dynastic change in China, the title of Duke Yansheng was bestowed upon successive generations of descendants until it was abolished by the Nationalist Government in 1935. The last holder of the title, Kung Te-cheng of the 77th generation, was appointed Sacrificial Official to Confucius.
Today, there are thousands of reputed descendants of Confucius. The main lineage fled from the Kong ancestral home in Qufu to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. The current head of the household is Kung Te-cheng, a professor at National Taiwan University. He previously served in the Republic of China government as President of the Examination Yuan. Kung married Sun Qi-fang, the great-granddaughter of the Qing dynasty scholar-official and first president of Beijing University Sun Jia-nai, whose family created one of the first business combines in modern-day China, which included the largest flour mill in Asia, the Fou Foong Flour Company. The Kongs are related by marriage to a number of prominent Confucian families, among them that of the Song Dynasty prime minister and martyr Wen Tian-xiang. The Qianlong Emperor married a daughter to Kong Xian-pei of the 72nd generation, linking the Aisin-Gioro imperial house with the Kong family.
|
|
