Confucianism: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:33, 10 September 2005

Revision as of 14:37, 10 September 2005

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===Filial Piety (''Xiào'', 孝)===

This was considered among the greatest of virtues and had to be shown towards both the living and the dead. The term "filial", meaning "of a son", denotes the respect and obedience that a son should show to his parents, especially to his father. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series of five relationships: those between father and son, ruler and subject, husband and wife, elder and younger brother and between friends. Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. Such duties were also extended to the dead, where the living stood as sons to their deceased family. This led to the veneration of ancestors.

In time, filial piety was also built into the Chinese legal system: a criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers exercised enormous power over their children. Much the same was true of other unequal relationships.

The main source of our knowledge of the importance of filial piety is ''The Book of Filial Piety'', a work attributed to Confucius but almost certainly written in the third century BC. Filial piety has continued to play a central role in Confucian thinking to the present day.

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===Humaneness (''Rén'', 仁)===

Confucius was concerned with people's individual development, which he maintained took place within the context of human relationships. Ritual and filial piety are the ways in which one should act towards others from an underlying attitude of humaneness. Confucius' concept of humaneness is probably best expressed in the Confucian version of the [[Ethic of reciprocity|Golden Rule]] phrased in the negative: "Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you".

: Rén also has a political dimension. If the ruler lacks rén, surely it will be difficult if not impossible for his subjects to behave humanely. Rén is the basis Confucian political theory: it presupposes an autocratic ruler, exhorted to refrain from acting inhumanely towards his subjects. An inhumane ruler runs the risk of losing the "Mandate of Heaven", the right to rule. Such a mandateless ruler need not be obeyed. But a ruler who reigns humanely and takes care of the people is to be obeyed strictly, for the benevolence of his dominion shows that he has been mandated by heaven. Confucius himself had little to say on the will of the people, but his leading follower [[Mencius]] did state on one occasion that the people's opinion on certain weighty matters should be polled.

===The Perfect Gentleman (''Jūnzǐ'', 君子)===