Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius in the Hundred Schools of Thought era, Confucianism integrates philosophy, ethics, and social governance, with a core focus on virtue, social harmony, and familial responsibility.
Confucianism emphasizes virtue through self-cultivation and communal effort. Key virtues include ren, yi, li, zhi, and xin. These values, deeply tied to the notion of tian, present a worldview where human relationships and social order are manifestations of sacred moral principles. While Confucianism does not emphasize an omnipotent deity, it upholds tian as a transcendent moral order.
Confucius regarded himself as a transmitter of cultural values from the preceding Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties. Suppressed during the Legalist Qin dynasty, Confucianism flourished under the Han dynasty, displacing the proto-Taoist Huang–Lao tradition to become the dominant ideological framework, while blending with the pragmatic teachings of Legalism. The Tang dynasty witnessed a response to the rising influence of Buddhism and Taoism in the development of Neo-Confucianism, a reformulated philosophical system that became central to the imperial examination system and the scholar-official class of the Song dynasty.
The abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905 marked the decline of state-endorsed Confucianism. In the early 20th century, Chinese reformers came to associate Confucianism with China's "Century of Humiliation", and instead embraced alternative ideologies such as Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People" and later Maoism. Nevertheless, Confucianism endured as a cultural force, influencing East Asian economic and social structures into the modern era. Confucian work ethic was credited with the rise of the East Asian economy in the late twentieth century.
Confucianism remains influential in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and regions with significant Chinese diaspora. A modern Confucian revival has gained momentum in academic and cultural circles, culminating in the establishment of a national Confucian Church in China in 2015, reflecting renewed interest in Confucian ideals as a foundation for social and moral values.
American philosopher Herbert Fingarette describes Confucianism as a philosophical system which regards "the secular as sacred".
Terminology
There is no term in Chinese which directly corresponds to "Confucianism". The closest catch-all term for Confucianism is the word. Its literal meanings in modern Chinese include 'scholar', 'learned', or 'refined man'. In Old Chinese the word had a distinct set of meanings, including 'to tame', 'to mould', 'to educate', and 'to refine'. Several different terms, some of which with modern origin, are used in different situations to express different facets of Confucianism, including:- – "the school of thought";
- – " religious doctrine";
- – " studies";
- – "Confucius's religious doctrine";
- – "Confucius's family's business", a pejorative phrase used during the New Culture Movement and the Cultural Revolution.
The term "Traditionalist" has been suggested by David Schaberg to emphasize the connection to the past, its standards, and inherited forms, in which Confucius himself placed so much importance. This translation of the word is followed by e.g. Yuri Pines.
According to Zhou Youguang, originally referred to shamanic methods of holding rites and existed before Confucius's times, but with Confucius it came to mean devotion to propagating such teachings to bring civilisation to the people.
In the Western world, the character for water is often used as a symbol for Confucianism, which is not the case in modern China.
Five Classics and the Confucian vision
Traditionally, Confucius was thought to be the author or editor of the Five Classics which were the basic texts of Confucianism, all edited into their received versions around 500 years later by Imperial Librarian Liu Xin. The scholar Yao Xinzhong allows that there are good reasons to believe that Confucian classics took shape in the hands of Confucius, but that "nothing can be taken for granted in the matter of the early versions of the classics". The sixth classic similar to the Classic of Poetry was the Classic of Music. It was lost during the Han dynasty. Music carried an invaluable tool to induce focus in performing rituals. These were the internal and external keys to harmonizing society. Yao suggests that most modern scholars hold the "pragmatic" view that Confucius and his followers did not intend to create a system of classics, but nonetheless "contributed to their formation".File:Confucius Tang Dynasty.jpg|thumb|Painting of Confucius donning traditional robes, by Wu Daozi, 8th century
The scholar Tu Weiming explains these classics as embodying "five visions" which underlie the development of Confucianism:
- I Ching, generally held to be the earliest of the classics, shows a metaphysical vision which combines divinatory art with numerological technique and ethical insight; philosophy of change sees cosmos as interaction between the two energies yin and yang; universe always shows organismic unity and dynamism.
- Classic of Poetry or Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poems and songs, with the earliest strata antedating the Zhou conquest. It shows the poetic vision in the belief that poetry and music convey common human feelings and mutual responsiveness.
- Book of Documents or Book of History is a compilation of speeches of major figures and records of events in ancient times, embodying the political vision and addressing the kingly way in terms of the ethical foundation for humane government. The documents show the sagacity, filial piety, and work ethic of mythical sage-emperors Yao, Shun, and Yu, who established a political culture which was based on responsibility and trust. Their virtue formed a covenant of social harmony which did not depend on punishment or coercion.
- Book of Rites describes the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty. This social vision defined society not as an adversarial system based on contractual relations but as a network of kinship groups bound by cultural identity and ritual practice, socially responsible for one another and the transmission of proper antique forms. The four functional occupations are cooperative.
- Spring and Autumn Annals chronicles the period to which it gives its name, Spring and Autumn period, from the perspective of Confucius's home state of Lu. These events emphasise the significance of collective memory for communal self-identification, for reanimating the old is the best way to attain the new.
Doctrines
Theory and theology
Confucianism revolves around the pursuit of the unity of the individual self and , or the relationship between humanity and heaven. The principle or way of Heaven is the order of the world and the source of divine authority. or is monistic, meaning that it is singular and indivisible. Individuals may realise their humanity and become one with Heaven through the contemplation of such order. This transformation of the self is extended to family and society to create a harmonious community. Joël Thoraval studied Confucianism as a diffused civil religion in contemporary China, finding that it expresses itself in the widespread worship of five cosmological entities: Heaven and Earth, the sovereign or the government, ancestors, and masters.According to the scholar Stephan Feuchtwang, in Chinese cosmology, which is not merely Confucian but shared by many Chinese religions, "the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy", and is organized through the polarity of yin and yang that characterises any thing and life. Creation is therefore a continuous ordering; it is not creation creatio ex nihilo "Yin and yang are the invisible and visible, the receptive and the active, the unshaped and the shaped; they characterise the yearly cycle, the landscape, the sexes, and even sociopolitical history. Confucianism is concerned with finding "middle ways" between yin and yang at every new configuration of the world."
Confucianism conciliates both the inner and outer polarities of spiritual cultivation—that is to say self-cultivation and world redemption—in the ideal of "sageliness within and kingliness without"., translated as "humaneness" or the essence proper of a human being, is the character of compassionate mind; it is the virtue endowed by Heaven and at the same time the means by which a person may achieve oneness with Heaven by comprehending their origin in Heaven, and therefore divine essence. In his work The Book of Great Unity, late Qing dynasty reformer Kang Youwei considered as the means "to form one body with all things" and one can find "when the self and others are not separated... and when compassion is aroused".
"Lord Heaven" and "Jade Emperor" were terms for a Confucianist supreme deity who was an anthropomorphized, and some conceptions of it thought of the two names as synonymous.
''Tian'' and the gods
, a key concept in Chinese thought, refers to the God of Heaven, the northern culmen of the skies and its spinning stars, earthly nature and its laws which come from Heaven, to 'Heaven and Earth', and to the awe-inspiring forces beyond human control. There are so many uses in Chinese thought that it is impossible to give a single English translation.Confucius used the term in a mystical way. He wrote in the Analects that gave him life, and that watched and judged. In 9.5 Confucius says that a person may know the movements of, and this provides with the sense of having a special place in the universe. In 17.19 Confucius says that spoke to him, though not in words. The scholar Ronnie Littlejohn warns that was not to be interpreted as a personal god comparable to that of the Abrahamic faiths, in the sense of an otherworldly or transcendent creator. Rather it is similar to what Taoists meant by : "the way things are" or "the regularities of the world", which Stephan Feuchtwang equates with the ancient Greek concept of physis, "nature" as the generation and regenerations of things and of the moral order. may also be compared to the Brahman of Hindu and Vedic traditions. The scholar Promise Hsu, in the wake of Robert B. Louden, explained 17:19 as implying that even though is not a "speaking person", it constantly "does" through the rhythms of nature, and communicates "how human beings ought to live and act", at least to those who have learnt to carefully listen to it.
Duanmu Ci, a disciple of Confucius, said that had set the master on the path to become a wise man. In 7.23 Confucius says that he has no doubt left that gave him life, and from it he had developed right virtue. In 8.19, he says that the lives of the sages are interwoven with.
Regarding personal gods enliving nature, in the Analects Confucius says that it is appropriate for people to worship them, although only through proper rites, implying respect of positions and discretion. Confucius himself was a ritual and sacrificial master.
Answering to a disciple who asked whether it is better to sacrifice to the god of the stove or to the god of the family, in 3.13 Confucius says that in order to appropriately pray to gods, one should first know and respect Heaven. In 3.12, he explains that religious rituals produce meaningful experiences, and one has to offer sacrifices in person, acting in presence, otherwise "it is the same as not having sacrificed at all". Rites and sacrifices to the gods have an ethical importance: they generate good life, because taking part in them leads to the overcoming of the self. Analects 10.11 tells that Confucius always took a small part of his food and placed it on the sacrificial bowls as an offering to his ancestors.
Some Confucian movements worship Confucius, although not as a supreme being or anything else approaching the power of or the, and/or gods from Chinese folk religion. These movements are not a part of mainstream Confucianism, although the boundary between Chinese folk religion and Confucianism can be blurred.
Other movements, such as Mohism which was later absorbed by Taoism, developed a more theistic idea of Heaven. Feuchtwang explains that the difference between Confucianism and Taoism primarily lies in the fact that the former focuses on the realisation of the starry order of Heaven in human society, while the latter on the contemplation of the Dao which spontaneously arises in nature. However, Confucianism does venerate many aspects of nature and also respects various, as well as what Confucius saw as the main, the " of Heaven."
The Way of Heaven involves "lifelong and sincere devotion to traditional cultural forms" and, "a state of spontaneous harmony between individual inclinations and the sacred Way".
Kelly James Clark argued that Confucius himself saw as an anthropomorphic god that Clark hypothetically refers to as "Heavenly Supreme Emperor", although most other scholars on Confucianism disagree with this view.