CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

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CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

• Confucius

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GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
Map of Current Practice
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Pre-Confucian Traditions

• Zhou (Chou) Dynasty (EWH, 49ff.)
• Mandate from Heaven
• Ancestors play a role in the bestowal of this
  mandate, but it can be taken away
• Kings must perform rituals and customs with
  sincerity
• Wu wei effortless action
• Harmony between inner disposition and external
  actions

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Period of Confucius

• Decline of Zhou
• 770 BCE sack of capital
• Kings reduced to figureheads with power in the
  many clans
• Confucius (551-479 BCE) is a scholar-official,
  appalled by the moral chaos of his age.
• It is an age focused on externalities
• It is an age of emptiness and superficiality
• The Way (tao or dao) has been lost

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Analects

• A record of the teachings of Kongzi and his
  disciples
• 18th Century Jesuits name him Confucius
• Received Version (190-249 CE)
• Main teaching is that all must seek the personal
  and social embodiment of virtue
• 2.3

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Cultivate jen (ren)

• Human-heartedness
• The right way is to live according to this human
  heartedness
• 12. 22 Care for Others
• 12.2 Do not impose on others what you yourself
  do not desire. (note that the reference on the
  image is wrong)
• 15.9 No scholar-official of the noble intention
  or Good person would ever pursue life at the
  expense of Goodness, and in fact some may be
  called upon to give up their lives in order to
  fulfill Goodness.

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Cultivate Jen through Li

• Propriety
• Ceremonial and ritual ways in which humanity is
  realized
• These are li only when in accord with jen
• Ritual actions of the ruler
• Marriage
• Shared participation in life that provide
  conditions that nourish jen
• 6.13
• 7.3

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Cultivate Jen through Hsiao (Xiao)

• Filial piety
• Respect is first cultivated in the family
• Parent-child
• Husband-wife
• Older-younger sibling
• Older-younger friend
• Ruler-subject
• Respect learned in the family results in respect
  for all humankind
• 1.11
• 12.7

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Cultivate Jen through Yi

• Righteousness
• Some actions should be performed simply because
  they are right
• 2.2
• 3.8
• 3.26
• Bring peace to the old
• Trust friends
• Cherish the young
• 12.7

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Government

• If those who govern have cultivated jen then
  there will be a just and happy society and peace
  in the world.

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Confucianism and the Experience of Transcendence

• Social Humanism
• The importance of ritual
• The avoidance of theological speculation

Confucian Temple in Nanjing