Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese religio-ethical tradition founded by Confucius (551–479 B.C.E). It is the leading component of the “Three Teachings,” which also include Daoism and Buddhism, for their pervasive influence on the Chinese people's thought and behavior. As the mainstream tradition, it both reflects and reinforces the characteristic Chinese approach to life, emphasizing the relational aspects of human existence, this-worldliness, respect for tradition, self-cultivation through learning, action over doctrine, and harmony. Confucianism's influence lives on not only in China, but also in other East Asian societies.

Confucius lived in a period of social and political turmoil, when vassal states of the weakened Zhou approximately 1110–221 B.C.E.) government vied with each other for supremacy, providing fertile ground for innovative ideas on social order and effective government. Confucianism was one of the so-called “Hundred Schools” that arose in this period. Confucius believed that social order depends on people's ethical qualities, especially the ruler's. He set himself the task of restoring the declining tradition of the ancient sage-kings, and his genius lay in reinvigorating traditional concepts through creative exegesis, a practice often emulated by subsequent generations of Chinese reformers. For example, Confucius used the term junzi, which originally meant “nobleman,” to refer to a virtuous person, thereby redefining nobleness as a virtuous achievement rather than a hereditary ascription. His own ambition was to convince the rulers to put his ideas into practice. After repeated frustrations, he settled down in his sixties to concentrate on educational activities. He is considered to be the first teacher in Chinese history to have broken the nobility's monopoly on education.

Posthumous official recognition came when the Han (206 B.C.E–220 C.E.) government of the unified empire declared Confucianism the state ideology. Numerous honors had been conferred on Confucius by emperors through the ages, including the title “Paragon and Master of the Ten Thousand Generations.” Temples were dedicated to him, where rituals in his memory were performed. Traditionally, in every schoolroom there was an altar to Confucius, in front of which students would bow. The “Four Books,” the core of the Confucian canon, became the syllabus for civil service examinations in the Yuan Dynasty (1260–1370 C.E.). Confucianism's status as state ideology ended only in the early 20th century with the overthrow of the imperial Qing government.

The Four Books are the Analects, a collection of conversations and anecdotes involving Confucius and his disciples; the Book of Mencius, a record of the conversations of Mencius (371–289 B.C.E.), a disciple of Confucius's grandson, and whose contribution to Confucianism's foundation is considered second only to that of Confucius himself; the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, two chapters singled out from the Book of Rites and grouped together with the other two works by the Song Dynasty neo-Confucian [Page 89]Zhu Xi (1130–1200) so that, with Zhu's own annotations and commentaries, the four provide a systematic introduction to Confucian learning. Zhu's effort is part of neo-Confucianism, the movement from the Song Dynasty (960–1279) to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) that systematized and elaborated Confucian teachings and practices under the influences of Daoism and Buddhism.

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