Confuciuss love of antiquity was motivated by his strong desire to understand why certain life forms and institutions, such as reverence for ancestors, human-centred religious practices, and mourning ceremonies, had survived for centuries. East Asians may profess themselves to be Shintists, Daoists, Buddhists, Muslims, or Christians, but, by announcing their religious affiliations, seldom do they cease to be Confucians. (Analects XIII, 3, tr. Social harmony or morality is identified as patriarchy, which is expressed in the worship of ancestors and deified progenitors in the male line, at ancestral shrines. The term Confucianism is derived from Confucius, the conventional name for Master Kong, the most revered sage of this religious tradition. [73] Both the dynasties worshipped the supreme godhead, called Shangdi ( "Highest Deity") or D () by the Shang and Tian ( "Heaven") by the Zhou. Tongdong Bai presents an in-between solution by proposing a two-tiered bicameral system. Although the earliest dynasty confirmed by archaeology is the Shang dynasty (18th12th century bce), the historical period that Confucius claimed as relevant was much earlier. In this set of flashcards, you will learn about the long and fascinating history of one Asia's most major religions: Confucianism. Robert Eno argues that the term has been "burdened with the ambiguities and irrelevant traditional associations". Confucian ethics is characterised by the promotion of virtues, encompassed by the Five Constants, Wchng () in Chinese, elaborated by Confucian scholars out of the inherited tradition during the Han dynasty. [citation needed] The emperors of China were considered agents of Heaven, endowed with the Mandate of Heaven. What does Tian say?") "[55] Confucius also defined rn in the following way: "wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others."[56]. [40] There are such a number of uses in Chinese thought that it is not possible to give one translation into English. [109], Bell, Wang, and Bai all criticize liberal democracy to argue that government by the people may not be government for the people in any meaningful sense of the term. said Zi-lu. In addition, loyalty does not mean subservience to authority. Among all things of creation, humans themselves are "central" because they have the ability to cultivate and centre natural forces.[58]. This did not exclude martial arts culture. The Lunyu ( Analects ), the most-revered sacred scripture in the Confucian tradition, was probably compiled by the succeeding generations of Confucius's disciples. This system depended on blood ties, marriage alliances, and old covenants as well as on newly negotiated contracts. The petty person is egotistic and does not consider the consequences of his action in the overall scheme of things. This line of thought would have influenced all Chinese individual and collective-political mystical theories and practices thereafter. Confucianism is a philosophy developed in 6th-century BCE China, which is considered by some a secular-humanist belief system, by some a religion, and by others a social code. Scholars recognise that classification ultimately depends on how one defines religion. That Confucius admitted students of different classes as disciples is a clear demonstration that he fought against the feudal structures that defined pre-imperial Chinese society. In 9.5 Confucius says that a person may know the movements of the tin, and this provides with the sense of having a special place in the universe. Filial piety is considered a key virtue in Chinese culture, and it is the main concern of a large number of stories. Confucianism is a philosophy developed by Master Kong (known more commonly as Confucius) during China's Zhou Dynasty (1045 - 253 BC). They call this approach "progressive conservatism", a term that reflects the ambiguous place of the Confucian tradition within the Left-Right dichotomy. A Confucian revival began during the Tang dynasty (618907CE). Since social harmony is of utmost importance, without the proper rectification of names, society would essentially crumble and "undertakings [would] not [be] completed. [143] Some critics have also accused the prominent Song neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi for believing in the inferiority of women and that men and women need to be kept strictly separate,[146] while Sima Guang also believed that women should remain indoors and not deal with the matters of men in the outside world. Streng, Frederick, "Understanding Religious Life," 3rd ed. In the New Culture Movement, Lu Xun criticised Confucianism for shaping Chinese people into the condition they had reached by the late Qing dynasty: his criticisms are expressed metaphorically in the work "Diary of a Madman", in which traditional Chinese Confucian society is portrayed as feudalistic, hypocritical, socially cannibalistic, despotic, fostering a "slave mentality" favouring despotism, lack of critical thinking and blind obedience and worship of authority, fuelling a form of "Confucian authoritarianism" which persists into the present day. [29] The scholar Promise Hsu, in the wake of Robert B. Louden, explained 17:19 ("What does Tian ever say? In the 16th and the 17th centuries, the earliest European arrivals in China, the Christian Jesuits, considered Confucianism to be an ethical system, not a religion, and one that was compatible with Christianity. [64] The famous thinker Huang Zongxi also strongly criticised the autocratic nature of the imperial system and wanted to keep imperial power in check. She stresses the complementarity and equal importance of the male and female roles according to yin-yang theory, but she clearly accepts the dominance of the male. The followers of the Buddhist religion accounts for 6% of the population. [101], Baker calls respect for the family the only element common to almost all Chinese believers.[68]. How many Confucianism followers are there worldwide? [48] 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. [75] In Shang theology, the multiplicity of gods of nature and ancestors were viewed as parts of Di, and the four fng ("directions" or "sides") and their fng ("winds") as his cosmic will. Though closer to a philosophy than a true religion, Confucianism was a way of life for ancient Chinese people, and it continues to influence Chinese culture today. Confucius includes in his discussions of li such diverse topics as learning, tea drinking, titles, mourning, and governance. [25], Philosophers in the Warring States period, both "inside the square" (focused on state-endorsed ritual) and "outside the square" (non-aligned to state ritual) built upon Confucius's legacy, compiled in the Analects, and formulated the classical metaphysics that became the lash of Confucianism. "So! In other words, at a minimum, democracy needs Confucian meritocratic checks. [65], Many Confucians also realised that loyalty and filial piety have the potential of coming into conflict with one another. Religion in China: History and Statistics They uphold that its modern transformation, as a creative response to the challenge of the West, is a continuation of its classical formulation and its medieval elaboration. [86] The most enthusiastic New Confucians proclaim the uniqueness and superiority of Confucian Chinese culture, and have generated some popular sentiment against Western cultural influences in China. [12], Confucian liturgy (called r, or sometimes simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: zhngtng, meaning 'orthopraxy') led by Confucian priests or "sages of rites" (; ; lshng) to worship the gods in public and ancestral Chinese temples is preferred on certain occasions, by Confucian religious groups and for civil religious rites, over Taoist or popular ritual.[13]. Also, the Hong Kong Confucian Academy, one of the direct heirs of Kang Youwei's Confucian Church, has expanded its activities to the mainland, with the construction of statues of Confucius, Confucian hospitals, restoration of temples and other activities. In 17.19 Confucius says that tin spoke to him, though not in words. The ultimate goal is that the government behaves much like a family, the junzi being a beacon of filial piety. Jiang Qing, by contrast, imagines a tricameral government with one chamber selected by the people (the House of the Commoners ), one chamber composed of Confucian meritocrats selected via examination and gradual promotion (the House of Confucian Tradition ), and one body made up of descendants of Confucius himself (The House of National Essence ). Zhougong was said to have helped consolidate, expand, and refine the feudal ritual system. Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. Though in his own day, Confucius had rejected the practice of Martial Arts (with the exception of Archery), he did serve under rulers who used military power extensively to achieve their goals. After the An Lushan rebellion, patronage for Buddhism and its institutions fell to a new southern gentry class, formed through the massive population shift southward as people fled the war-torn north. These are accompanied by the classical Sz (), that singles out four virtues, one of which (Y) is included among the Five Constants: There are still many other elements, such as chng (; , honesty), sh (, kindness and forgiveness), lin (, honesty and cleanness), ch (; , shame, judge and sense of right and wrong), yng (, bravery), wn (; , kind and gentle), ling (, good, kindhearted), gng (, respectful, reverent), jin (; , frugal), rng (; , modestly, self-effacing). [46], 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 (a popular saying), in 3.13 Confucius says that in order to appropriately pray gods one should first know and respect Heaven. The Rise and Fall of Confucian Family Values First published Tue May 20, 2008; substantive revision Mon Oct 3, 2022. Using stricter definitions of religion, Confucianism has been described as a moral science or philosophy. These names do not use the name "Confucius" at all, but instead focus on the ideal of the Confucian man. Spotlight on Other Religions The "other religions" category is diverse and comprises all groups not classified elsewhere. "[71], According to He Guanghu, Confucianism may be identified as a continuation of the Shang-Zhou (~1600256 BCE) official religion, or the Chinese aboriginal religion which has lasted uninterrupted for three thousand years. Since the surviving line of the Zhou kings continued to be recognized in name, they still managed to exercise some measure of symbolic control. Another meaning of rn is "not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself. [115] At the local level, as with Bell, Bai advocates Deweyan participatory democracy. [111] For Bell, the ideal according to which China should reform itself (and has reformed itself) follows a simple structure: Aspiring rulers first pass hyper-selective examinations, then have to rule well at the local level to be promoted to positions as the provincial level, then have to excel at the provincial level to access positions at the national level, and so on. William Theodore De Bary, Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 91110. Examples of such xiaoren individuals may range from those who continually indulge in sensual and emotional pleasures all day to the politician who is interested merely in power and fame; neither sincerely aims for the long-term benefit of others. "[57] Confucius also said, "rn is not far off; he who seeks it has already found it." [44] Tin may also be compared to the Brahman of Hindu and Vedic traditions. Going beyond the Master, they theorised the oneness of production and reabsorption into the cosmic source, and the possibility to understand and therefore reattain it through meditation. [41], Confucius used the term in a mystical way. Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue in a morally organised world. [100], Confucianism, despite supporting the importance of obeying national authority, places this obedience under absolute moral principles that curbed the willful exercise of power, rather than being unconditional. The Master replied, "What is necessary to rectify names." Besides the waning Zhou ritual system, what may be defined as "wild" ( y) traditions, or traditions "outside of the official system", developed as attempts to access the will of Tian.
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