Chinese Philosophies

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Chinese Philosophies

• Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism and Buddhism

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Confucianism

• Kong Fuzi lived 551-479 BCE
• A time of warfare and unrest
• Focus The Importance of How People Relate to
  One Another
• Education overcomes ignorance
• People are good
• Ideal ruler is an educated, moral person who
  guides society by good example.

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Five Relationships

• Ruler to subject
• Father to son
• Husband to wife
• Older brother to younger brother
• (The above are unequal relationships)
• Friend to Friend (based on love and mutual
  respect)

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• Duty is the path to harmony

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• Only virtue gives one the right to rule, not
  heredity.

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• Virtue can be acquired through education.

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Daoism

• Lao Tzu lived around 604 BCE. Little known.
• the way is the life force of all natural
  things.
• Yin and Yang are complementary principles.
• Against all organizations, including formal
  education.
• Least government is best. Ideal ruler doesnt
  govern.
• Harmony created if people follow the dao.
• Nonaction, simplicity, humility, quiet,
  plainness, and peace emphasized.

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• Dont interfere with the affairs of others
  (individuals or states)

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• Those who know, do not speak of it. Those who
  speak of it do not know it.

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• Water seems weak, always seeks the easiest way,
  always flows downhill, yet will wear away stone.

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• Daoism stresses harmony with nature,
• Confucianism stresses harmony between people.

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Legalism

• Attributed to HanFeizi (280-233 BCE)
• Persecuted Confucian scholars and gave philosophy
  a bad name
• People are naturally evil.
• They are motivated by fear and greed.
• Punishment/Reward is necessary to control
  behavior.
• Severe punishment is necessary to prevent
  undesirable behavior. (Death penalty)

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Legalism (continued)

• There is no absolute right or wrong. Laws
  replace morality.
• Government should be based on world as it exists.
  (Reject tradition and supernatural)
• Good ruler maintains and expands borders. He
  uses laws, rewards and punishments

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• A ruler should govern his subjects by the
  following trinity
• Fa (? fa) law or principle.
• Shu (? shù) method, tactic or art.
• Shi (? shì) legitimacy, power or charisma.

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• Strength, not goodness is important

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Buddhism

• Spread from India in 1st Century CE
• Not concerned with governing but with individual
  behavior.
• Controls all aspects of daily life
• A Buddhist doesnt eat meat, kill, believes in
  rebirth, and believes that how a person lives
  affects his future existence.

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Buddhism (continued)

• Every living thing is part of a universal spirit.
• A person who practices good moral conduct,
  discipline and meditation moves upward to
  nirvana, which ends the painful rebirths.
• Eightfold Path/Four Noble Truths

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NAME THAT PHILOSOPHY
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• When you do something, you should burn yourself
  completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace
  of yourself. Shunryu Suzuki

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• "The only way for a ruler to rule is with an iron
  fist and pen to write strict laws."           
• -Alex Downey

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• A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't
  correct it, is committing another mistake.

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• If you seek, how is that different from pursuing
  sound and form? If you don't seek, how are you
  different from earth, wood or stone? You must
  seek without seeking. Fo-Yan

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• Without an acquaintance with the rules of
  propriety, it is impossible for the character to
  be established.

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• In fact, whatever comes is recognized as
  "violence" only when we oppose it.  To deal with
  it we go along with it - this is the weapon that
  deals a death blow to violence.

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• Have no friends not equal to yourself.

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• Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who
  practices it will have neighbors.

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• Those who do not study are only cattle dressed up
  in mens clothes.

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• A flower falls, even though we love it and a
  weed grows, even though we do not love it.
  Dogen

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• The great self reflects things, but does not
  change them.-- Chang Chung-yuan,

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• There is nothing you can do about the world.You
  can only follow what is natural in pushing the
  myriad things ahead.There is no getting to the
  bottom of the changes they undergo.You can only
  grasp the essential destination and lead them
  there.-- Huainanzi, translated by D. C. Lau and
  Roger T. Ames

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• "People are not simple enough to structure their
  lives around how other people act or
  behave."                                -Alex
  Downey

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• Let us dig our gardens and not be elsewhere Let
  us take long walks in the open air... Let us
  bathe in the rivers and lakes... Let us indulge
  in games... Let us be more simple simple and
  true in our minds above all. Let us be ourselves.
  Robert Linssen