Confucius (551-479 BCE)

Confucianism is based on the teachings of a government official, Kong Qiu (Master Kong). The name “Confucius” is a westernized version of his name. Confucianism refers to his teachings and the interpretation of his teachings by later thinkers. We will refer to him as Confucius which is more familiar to Western readers.

Confucius was born during what is called the “Eastern Zhou” period (771-221 BCE) when several small states were competing for power in China. Many people were nostalgic for the stability and unification of the previous period called the Western Zhou (1050 – 771). During the unstable 6th century BCE, scholar-advisors from the lower ranks of the nobility tried to convince powerful leaders within the divided political system that their ideas would help bring back the period of unity and prosperity. Confucius was one of these educated advisors who looked for a powerful patron who would support his work.

Unlike other teachers, Confucius accepted any talented person who wanted to study with him. He did not refuse to work with people who were lower on the social scale. His unusual openess earned him respect and loyalty from his students.

Seven Dimensions of Religion in Confucianism

Doctrine in Confucian Thought

The teachings of Confucius had a lasting effect on Chinese culture. Confucius did not think of himself as creating a new teaching. Instead, his purpose was to restore the greatness of earlier times. His own education was based on the Five Chinese Classics from the Shang and Chou Dynasties. These texts were compiled during the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, but were based on older records:

• Book of History (Shujing), a collection of documents of ancient rulers.
• Book of Odes (Shijing), a collection of poems, songs, and hymns.
• Book of Changes (Yijing), the 64 hexagrams and their commentary described above.
• Records of Rites (Liyi), a book of ritual behavior, but also a guide for good conduct.
• Spring and Autumn Annals, records of the state of Lu, from 722–481 BCE.

Some historians believe that Confucius himself helped to organize and edit some of these texts. Other historians argue that the only reliable source of Confucian teachings is the Analects (Lunyu) or “Conversations”. These short dialogues with his students touch on many topics: altruism, the importance of self-cultivation, good relations with others, and the value of ritual performed with reverence.

Interpreters of Confucius

Mencius (c. 390-305 BCE)

Mencius (pronounced men-see-us) was one of the most important early interpreters of Confucius’ teachings. Mencius used Confucius’ ideas to develop the idea of the “mandate of heaven” described in the first part of this chapter. This idea helped to shape ideas about kingship in Confucian thought. The mandate of heaven kept the Chinese from thinking that the king himself was sacred: heaven could take away his ruling powers, so he and his descendants would have to behave in accord with the Dao to retain power.

Mencius also developed a clearer concept of humanity which he called the “four beginnings.” We will look at this idea more closely in the section below on Anthropology in Confucianism, but the main idea is that humans are born with a tendency towards the good. They must cultivate this “good beginning” in order to develop into a truly mature and noble human being.

Xunzi (c. 312 BCE)

Xunzi (pronounced shun-zuh) believed in the cultivation of inborn qualities, but he believed more firmly in human perfectibility. He recommended the performance of the religious rites in order to develop the full human being. Humans completed the cosmos of heaven and earth through their ability to perform rituals using their full mental capacities. In his belief in the power of human spirituality, Xunzi comes close to the ideals of Daoism. We will take a closer look at how Xunzi understood humanity in the section on Anthropology in Confucianism.

Zhuxi (1138-1200 CE)

Zhuxi (pronounced juh-shi) was the founder of the movement called “Neo-Confucianism”. Zhuxi restored the emphasis on moral cultivation in Confucianism. By the twelfth century Confucian thought had become more concerned with bureaucratic matters. Zhuxi compiled and edited a collection of early Confucian texts: the Analects, Book of Mencius; and two shorter works, the “Great Learning” and the “Doctrine of the Mean” into a collection called the “Four Books” in order to provide moral cultivation and balance. These works were studied along with the “Five Classics” that Confucius himself had studied. After Zhuxi, knowledge of the “Four Books” and “Five Classics” were essential for anyone who wished to pass the yearly examinations to become eligible for government employment.

Zhuxi skillfully used ideas from Mencius and Xunzi and combined them with ancient ideas of cosmology. This combination produced a new vision of Confucianism that went beyond the former emphasis on humanity and could compete with Buddhist and Daoist cosmological and meditation systems. Neo-Confucianism spread to Korea and Japan and had a great impact on those cultures, especially through the national examination system which they adopted.

These thinkers established the main outlines of Confucian thought throughout history. Communist leaders suppressed Confucian learning during the twentieth century because they saw Confucian thought as old-fashioned, repressive, and not in line with Communist values. In the 1990s, however, Communist leaders began to reintroduce the teachings of Confucius to promote morality among the people. In the early 2000s, Communist leadership encouraged Confucian teachings in the schools.

Narrative and Experience: Confucius

There are many accounts and legends about Confucius that emphasize his greatness. These stories show us what Chinese valued about his teaching and how they viewed him as an extraordinary man. The traditional biography of Confucius appears in the Records of the Historian by Sima Qian, who lived from 145 BCE to 86 BCE.

Confucius was said to have been from an ancient ruling clan whose roots went back 700 years to the most ancient Shang Dynasty. This family lineage cannot be proven, but it suggests that people viewed Confucius as having a connection to the oldest layers of Chinese culture. This gave his interpretations of the ancient culture more authority, and helped to build his reputation of one who wished to restore the ancestral roots of Chinese civilization.

Confucius was also said to have been nine feet tall and to have an enlarged head. The exaggerated physical characteristics suggest the qualities of a super-hero: one who can restore morality to a crumbling society. The image of Confucius that seems most accurate, however, is that of the teacher conversing with his students or being quoted out of their memory. This is the image that we see in the Analects, the most reliable source of his teachings. It is in these dialogues and in the observations of his students that we can see how Confucius expressed his ideas.

The “narrative” of Confucianism is a dialogue between master and disciple. Sometimes Confucius is addressing a problem that a follower has brought to him. For example: Tzu-kung [his disciple] wanted to eliminate the sacrificial sheep at the beginning of the lunar month. The master said, “Tzu-kung, you are concerned about the sheep, but I am concerned about the ritual.” (Adapted from Sommer 1995, 43). In this example, you can see the close relationship between teacher and student. Confucius understands his concern about the life of the sheep and acknowledges it. He does not attempt to change the student. He simply points out that his own concern is about the ritual. The student (and we) have to work out the meaning.

In other cases, the Analects simply quotes Confucius’ statements. A famous passage describes Confucius’ attitude towards his own development over a lifetime:

The master said, “At fifteen I was intent on study, at thirty I had established myself, at forty I had no uncertainty, at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven, at sixty I was in complete harmony with things, and at seventy I could follow my heart’s desires without stepping over the line.” (Adapted from Sommer 1995, 43)

In this statement about his own life, we see Confucius outline the process of human development. It starts with education. As a person develops deeper awareness and confidence, humanity is gradually refined until all natural tendencies are good.

Ritual and Ethics in Confucianism

Confucian thinkers did not challenge the cosmological fundamentals of Chinese religious culture. Confucius himself studied the Book of Changes and was deeply involved in rituals. The emphasis on ritual in Confucianism has to do with honoring great people of the past, your own ancestors. Confucius expressed his personal relationship with heaven, stating: “It is heaven that understands me” and “Heaven has generated the virtue within me. What can Huan T’ui [a critic] do to me?”

The ancient texts that Confucius studied and edited emphasized the connection between orderly human relationships and an orderly cosmos. For example, the Book of Rites explains the cosmos of Heaven, Earth and Human life:

In this world only those who have developed sincerity can perfect their own nature. When they have perfected their own nature they can perfect the nature of other people. When they have perfected the nature of other people, they can then perfect the nature of things. When they have perfected the nature of things they can then participate in the transforming and sustaining forces of heaven and earth and form a trinity with heaven and earth. (Adapted from Sommer 1995, 38).

Notice the progression from the personal to the cosmic: straighten out your own mind, and you can help others and sustain the world.

Anthropology and Soteriology in Confucianism

As we saw in the Historical Overview, the human world partners with Heaven and Earth. Human actions affect conditions: when the ruler is just and sincere, then conditions from the natural world are good. Heaven approves of the ruler. But if natural disasters strike, this is a sign that the ruler may be out of alignment with the forces of the universe.

Are people naturally good or not? Two of the earliest Confucian thinkers, Mencius and Xunzi, took opposite points of view on this question. Mencius said that all humans were born with the tendency toward the good. He called this the “four beginnings.” From these four seeds of the good, a person could develop into a noble person (junzi). A child starts with the capacity for goodness and develops the qualities through training and self-study:

• Sympathy for others leads to humanity or altruism
• Shame or disgust with bad things leads to righteousness
• Respect and reverence becomes ritual
• Sense of right and wrong leads to wisdom

A person who develops the inborn mind of sympathy, shame, respect, and a sense of right and wrong becomes noble. But if these characteristics are ignored or neglected, then the person does not develop. Mencius uses the example of “Ox Mountain” which was once a beautiful mountain with tall trees. When the locals cut down all the trees for their own use, the mountain eroded and its environment was destroyed. Mencius explains that cutting down the trees is like cutting off the natural mind of sympathy, shame, respect, and the sense of right and wrong: it destroys human potential.

Mencius uses another example of a child on the edge of a well, about to fall in. People who see this rush to save the child from falling in. This impulse to save others from suffering is a sympathy for others that can develop into real humanity.

Xunzi argued that people were not born good by nature, but had to cultivate goodness from the beginning. Yet, in Xunzi’s view, humans have the capacity to develop to the point where their actions are in harmony with heaven and earth and support it with their human moral development. In Xunzi’s thought we can see how anthropology and cosmology are mutually supportive. This idea of the moral power of humanity as equal partners with heaven and earth is developed even further by the 12th century thinker, Zhuxi, discussed above.

Soteriology in Confucianism

The goal of Confucian study and practice is to become a noble person through education and self-cultivation. The noble person is guided by four principles:

1. Humanity (ren). This word is sometimes translated as “human-heartedness” or altruism. The way to learn humanity is to have a deep understanding of others. Confucians point out that the way of heaven is to study things that are close to you: other people.
2. Reciprocity (shu). Reciprocity means treating other people the way you would like to be treated. To do this, you have to understand both yourself and what others understand through your actions and words.
3. Ritual (li). In Confucianism, ritual is a path to social harmony. “Ritual” includes a wide range of things that we often think of as just ordinary courtesy. Everyone has particular role in life in relation to other people. To know what this role is and to carry it out to the best of your ability is what ritual means in Confucianism.
4. Filial Piety (hsiao). Filial piety means respect for your parents. Since your parents gave you a body and took care of you when you were helpless, your debt to them is great. Continuing to care for your parents and satisfy their needs even after death is key to your own survival and success.

These four ways of being are expressed through the five main relationships:

• Ruler and Subject
• Husband and Wife
• Father and Child
• Elder Brother and Younger Brother
• Friends

In Confucian thought, all relationships fall into one of these categories. This list shows a hierarchy: the first person in each pair has authority over the second person who must obey. But these are reciprocal relationships: both have a responsibility to each other. So, for example, the subject must obey the ruler, but the ruler has the responsibility to care for the subject and to make sure that his subjects have what they need to sustain life and to be at peace. Otherwise, he may lose the mandate of heaven and his ability to rule. Ideally, benevolence in the ruler benefits both the ruled and the ruler.