[Holzbueffel_QingTN.jpg]

     CHINAKNOWLEDGE - a universal guide for China studies | [1]About |
                               [2]Guestbook |
        Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Location: [3]HOME > Confucianism]

                    Confucius and Confucianism (Rujiao )

   [4][chineseartat.JPG] 

                       [5][chineseliteratureat.JPG] 

                         [6][chinesehistoryat.JPG] 

   [imagephil.JPG] The Person
   Confucius (romanized from Chinese Kongzi "Master Kong") is said to be
   born in 551 BC as the scion of an impoverished noble family in the
   state of Lu ¯ during the [7]Spring and Autumn period. His personal
   name was Zhongni ²¼ or Kong Qiu , named after a hill in the region
   (some historians say his shape of is head resembled this hill). He
   acted as granary overseer and later as minister in his home state of
   Lu. The decline of moral of his times (rulers enjoying beautiful
   dancers instead of devoting to government) urged him to leave Lu and
   to wander around for 13 years from state to state, trying to persue
   the rulers to follow his proposals for morally correct politics.
   Disappointed by the unsuccessful admonishings, he returned to Lu and
   is said to have died in 479 BC, being buried in Qufu ²/Shandong where
   his descendants still live today. His teachings are conserved in the
   so-called [8]"Analects" Lunyu , and the collections [9]Kongzi Jiayu ¶,
   [10]Kongcongzi ¢, and [11]Kongzi Jiyu . But he is also said to have
   revised the so-called Confucian Classics, the [12]Shu ¸, [13]Yi ,
   [14]Shi ©, [15]Li ®, [16]Chunqiu ¥, and a book about ritual music
   [17]Yue .
   His Teachings
   Already as a small official, Confucius was famous for his expertise in
   matters of culture, ceremonies and rites. This knowledge was the only
   weapon he could use trying to prevent the social downfall of his
   class, the lower aristocracy. In a multistate world where the rulers
   started to make use of state-emploryed officials instead of hereditary
   nobles, Confucius looked for the ideals of the old times to conserve
   the everchanging new society. Social chaos, despoty and repression
   endangered the security of the daily life. In his dreams for a better
   society, Confucius called for a rectification of names (zhengming £),
   for a newly built social hierarchy by what everybody had his fixed
   position to his neighbors, relatives, superiors and subordinated, with
   all his rights and duties. The right "names" had social, spiritual,
   ritual and normative meaning. According to everybody's rank, man had
   to use a certain etiquette (li ®, a term originally meaning "ritual
   offering") and man had to be righteous (yi ©), this means, to behave
   with all moral qualities in every concrete situation. All these duties
   seem to be a suppression of freedom in later orthodox Confucianism,
   but they were meant as a protection from arbitrariness: The most
   superior person, the ruler, had not only to use ritual etiquette
   against his ancestors, but he had to exert a human (ren ) government,
   like the father had to show benevolence (ci ) to an obedient son.
   Power and superiority, in Confucius' thinking, is not severed from
   reciprocity, the dividing etiquette is mitigated by humanity.
   Obedience by the people is answered by imperial generosity, the ruler
   had to be a morally shining example for everybody from top to bottom.
   Thus, the powerful had always to act with self-restraint and modesty.
   Education of the self was a central point in a person's life, music
   was of great importance to create order and harmony in society. Only a
   few persons could try to become a noble person (junzi ), exerting
   virtue (de ·) against the society, loyalty (zhong  ) to the sovereign
   and filial piety (xiao ) to his parents. Confucian loyalty is in no
   way a kind of slavish obedience, but even lays the duty upon man to
   criticize his own father or ruler if necessary.
   Mutual responsiveness in a system of fixed positions was the condition
   of a tranquil and peaceful society in Confucius' thinking.
   From a Small Philosopher to a God
   Like for many philosophers and religion founders, there is a grotesk
   contrast of the practical successfulness of Confucius and is
   posthumous religious veneration. He died, disappointed by the way the
   rulers of the contending states tried to gain power and might, giving
   up any human and social thinking. During the [18]Han Dynasty,
   Confucian thinking (Confucianism; rujiao or ruxue ¸) became state
   doctrine, but like every great religion, it changed to be orthodox and
   rigid. The mutual responsiveness gave way to a practice of simple
   obedience. From the [19]Song Dynasty on, when Confucianism run through
   a renaissance after the great age of [20]Buddhism, it became a bonding
   agent for intellectual and national unity, an exhibit for the
   exclusivity of conservative Chinese culture.
   Confucius is not only venerated as the Primary Teacher (Xianshi «),
   but also as the Highest Saint (Zhisheng ³) among Chinese
   personalities. Confucius, we can say, is the nominal father of Chinese
   social culture (although most parts of his philosophy are indeed not
   his own invention; he saw himself as a transmitter and not a maker).
   Confucianism influences every part of the daily life, from the
   veneration of the ancestors to the architecture.
   Confucianism as State Doctrine
   The vast empire of the Han Dynasty made it necessary to rely on a well
   organized scholarship elite that also was able to supply
   administrative officials. Only the well-read Confucian scholars (rujia
   ¶) were able to fulfill such an immense task. Their deep knowledge of
   the old writings provided the emperors with the needed Heaven approved
   authority to lead the government of the empire. The dynastic calendar
   and yearly ritual offerings to Heaven and Earth all based upon the old
   [21]Confucian classical writings.
   After the end of Han Dynasty, war and short lived dynasties ruled over
   a divided China. People took refuge to [22]Daoism and [23]Buddhism,
   both religions that could meet the people's desire for a spiritual
   world and for religion. Except ancestor veneration, Confucianism does
   not care about the world after death. Again under the [24]Tang
   Dynasty, Confucianism could gain back its former place as state
   doctrine, but it was now only one of three systems of thought, side by
   side with Daoism and Buddhism.
   Buddhism fell into disgrace during the second half of the Tang
   Dynasty, because emperors, empresses and the nobility spent their
   wealth to protect monasteries and to have created huge Buddhist
   sculptures, and because many people joined the monasteries to escape
   tax paying and military service. Daoism as a religion and philosophy
   of the individual has never been a thinking system fitting for a state
   bureaucracy. It was the task of the Confucianists once more to engage
   as teachers for a ruling elite, educating disciples to join the ranks
   in the state bureaucracy. But Confucian scholars of the Song and
   [25]Ming Dynasties also developed philosophical systems that showed a
   much wider world view than that of the old ritual experts of the Han
   Dynasty. Cultural contact with Buddhism and Daoism has not been
   without effect. The result of this redefining Confucianism was
   [26]Neo-Confucianism (lixue ¸).
   But the ritual system and the belief in the old classical texts
   remained intact until the end of the Chinese empire in 1911. State
   examinations under the [27]Qing Dynasty were still infertile and
   unchangeable interpretations of the 2500 years old books. The first
   Europeans coming to China saw her state system and the
   philosophical-religious situation of China as that of a rotten mummy.
   No wonder that late Qing scholars and the intelligentsia of the young
   [28]Republic in China saw Confucianism as an instrument of
   backwardness and wanted to get rid of everything old. The [29]4th May
   movement 1919 wanted to crash the "Confucian Stall" (Kongdian ), and
   even the Red Guards during the [30]Cultural Revolution denounced the
   "traitor" Lin Biao as a reactionary follower of Confucius. Nowadays,
   many Chinese see Confucianism as something that gives people a
   background of social stability, and somebody who can not cite at least
   a few sentences of the Confucian classical writings, is almost seen as
   illiterate.

                        [31][chinesereligionat.JPG] 

   [32][chinesemusicat.JPG] 

                        [33][chineselanguageat.JPG] 

     © 2000 ff · Ulrich Theobald · [34]Mail

References

   1. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/About/about.html
   2. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/\\www.chinaknowledge.de/cgi-bin/guestbook.php.cgi
   3. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/index.html
   4. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Art/art.html
   5. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/literature.html
   6. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/history.htm
   7. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/zhou.html
   8. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/lunyu.html
   9. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/kongzijiayu.html
  10. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/kongcongzi.html
  11. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/kongzijiyu.html
  12. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/shangshu.html
  13. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yijing.html
  14. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/shijing.html
  15. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html
  16. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/chunqiuzuozhuan.html
  17. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/liji.html#yueji
  18. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/han.html
  19. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Song/song.html
  20. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Philosophy-Religion/buddhism.html
  21. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/classics.html
  22. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Daoists/daoists.html
  23. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Philosophy-Religion/buddhism.html
  24. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Tang/tang.html
  25. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Ming/ming.html
  26. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/neoconfucianism.html
  27. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Qing/qing.html
  28. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Rep/republic.html
  29. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Rep/republic.html#wusiyundong
  30. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/PRC/maozedong.html#wenhuadageming
  31. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Religion/religions.html
  32. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Art/Music/music.html
  33. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/language.html
  34. mailto:theobald_uli@hotmail.com