Confucius

Confucius (551BC to 479 BC) also known as Kong Qui or Kung Fu-Tzu was a Chinese philosopher, teacher and political figure. His teachings, preserved in the analects, focused on creating ethical models of family and public interaction and setting educational standards.

As a culturally symbolic figure, he has been alternately idealised, defied, dismissed and rehabited over the milennia by both Asian and non-Asian thinkers and regimes. The tradition that bears his name 'Confucianism' ultimately traces itself to the sayings and biographical fragments recorded in the text known as the Analects. It remains the traditional source of information about Confucius' life and teaching.

Early Life of Confucius

Confucius, (the great Chinese sage) was born on 19th June, 551 BC at Shang-Ping in the country of Lu. His original name was Kong, but his disciples called him Kung-Fu-Tzu i.e. Kong means the Master or teacher.

The Tesuit Missionaries Latinised this name into Confucius. His father died when he was only three years of age, but he was very carefully brought up by his mother, Yan-She. Confucius from his earliest years, displayed an extraordinary love of learning and veneration of the ancient laws of his country.

The death of his mother, which occurred in his 23rd year, gave occasion to the first solemn and important act of Confucius as a moral reformer. He organised the burial ceremony in accordance with ancient customs and this struck his fellow citizens with astonishment. Confucius shut himself up in his house to pass in solitude for three years of mourning and dedicated all the time to philosophical study. He reflected deeply on the eternal laws of morality and determined to make them the immutable rule of all his actions.

Henceforth his career is only an illustration of his ethical system. He commenced to instruct his countrymen all the virtues he inculcated in others. Gradually his disciples increased which were generally men of middle age, respectable and occupying important public positions.

His ideas were moral, not religious and aimed exclusively at fitting men for conducting themselves honorably and prudently in this life. He died in 479 BC, in the 70th year of his age. Immediately after his death Confucius began to be venerated and his family was distinguished by various honours and privileges.

Confucian Political Philosophy

Confucianism is an ethics tied intimately with political philosophy. According to the text the most reliable guide to the teaching of Confucius, the Analects Lunyu, took the Mandate of Heaven or Tian Ming (a Chinese political and religious doctrine) as a guide.

The Confucian diagnosis of China's troubles suggest that the way out of the turmoil required a moral transformation led by the top ranks of Chinese society, return to the virtue of the early Zhou kings.

Confucian political philosophy discuss Confucianism and its relation of political philosophy, the rule of ritual in the cultivation of goodness, the concept of Ren and Junzi, the debate between Mozi and Mencius over filial loyalty versus impartial concern, family as the paradigm in a relational and communal conception of political society, the goodness or badness of human nature and its relation to morality, perfections and harmony, democracy rights, and gender equality.

Confucius' View of Ruling through Virtue

In Analects, Confucius says that leading people through coercive regulation and punishment will only make them evasive while leading them with virtue and keeping them in line with ritual will enable them to have a sense of shame, and they will rectify themselves. In Chinese sense, leading by virtue means living a life of exemplary person, as a gentlemen who has power, excellence and moral charisma.

The virtues connected to this ideal are filial piety (respect owed to one's parents and ancestors), a respect for and dedication to the performance of traditional ritual forms of conduct, and the ability to judge the right thing to do in the given situation.

The Junzi (gentlemen) is equated with the person who is 'Ren'. The concept of Ren is of a moral excellence, having all the virtues. Ren in some places in the Analects is treated as one virtue among others such as wisdom or courage. Hence, according to Confucius, a true ruler is one who has the quality of Ren.

Confucius' Ethics of Rituals and Cultivation of Goodness

One of the most distinctive marks of Confucian ethics is the centrality. It accords to ritual performance in the ethical cultivation of virtuous character and especially of Ren as goodness. By providing conventionally established symbolic ways to express respect for other, ritual forms give participants ways to act on and therefore to strength their dispositions to have respect for others. 

The conventional ritual forms are regarded as necessary for expressing respect. While there are non conventional dimensions to show respect such as providing one's parents with food. In the every day process of moral socialisation, children learn what their behaviour means to others and what it should mean, by learning how to greet others, to make and answer requests and to serve others, all in a respectful manner.

Confucian ethics provides an alternative understanding the nature of the moral life that is different from an understanding that is based primarily on abstract principles, This is why there is significant resonance between Confucianism and Conmunitarian philosophies such as those defended by Alasdair Macintyre and Michael Walzer. 

Confucianism Perfectionism 

Confucian political philosophy is centered on a deeply relation conception of how to live and it qualifies as a perfectionist political philosophy. Confucian doctrine that coercive regulations and punishment will only make the people evasive. Antonio Cua, in presenting his interpretation of Confucian virtue of Ren, suggest that the virtue involves an orientation towards human conflicts.

It aimed at the reconciliation of the contending parties by repairing the rupture of human relationship rather than by deciding who is right and who is wrong. This leads to creation of harmony and get them to appreciate one another as interacting members in a community.

Harmony as a Confucian Value

Harmony is the value that promotes reconciliation and congruence between the individuals interests, the interests of others and the group's common projects. Confucius says "The exemplary person seeks harmony rather than agreement; the small person does the opposite". Harmony requires the mutual willingness of the parties concerned to adjust their interests to those of the others.

Harmony as Unity

Xia Yong (1992) expresses a theme in differentiating between harmony and unity. He says that harmony is a proper balance between separation and connection. The interpretation of harmony aims for the mutual accommodation of potentially conflicting interests possessed by different members of the community.

There is another interpretation that stresses and aims at agreements on the right way to combine interest. In Xia Yong's terms, the tilt in this conception is toward unity. This emphasis on harmony as unity is often tied to the need for a government with absolute or near absolute power. 

Harmony as Ritual

A Confucian harmony that is kept separate from unity depends on fostering a sense of willingness to interpret and adjust one's interests in relationships with other in political society. Ritual plays a key role in such fostering.

The reason in support of harmony for its own sake is that ritual has a power to foster a sense of shared purpose and common fate that does not depend on agreement on a relatively specific set of value and normative doctrines. Ritual consists in not just spoken word but also stylised, emotionally resonant actions that represent some aspects of the participants, life together.

Confucius on Democracy and Rights

The harmony principles of Confucianism express that what is accommodative to individual right to dissent and criticism and simultaneously highlights the democratic values of Confucianism.

According to Confucianism, the ground for recognition of individual right is that those right should be in resonance with collective or public good. The autocracy ground for the recognition of right constitute the constraints and limits on the extent on which the individual personal interests may be sacrificed for the sake of public on collective goods.

Confucianism believes that the airing of divergent views helps to inform leadership of its errors and limitations in its information as to how its policies are affecting all segments of political society.

It helps the process of the mutual adjustment of potentially conflicting interests because the interests of some are liable to be ignored or automatically subordinated to those of the powerful. A good case can be made that it is necessary to recognise a duty for all to honor a protected space for speech and dissents.