confucianism essay introduction

Friday Essay: an introduction to Confucius, his ideas and their lasting relevance

Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies, The University of Western Australia

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The man widely known in the English language as Confucius was born around 551 BCE in today’s southern Shandong Province. Confucius is the phonic translation of the Chinese word Kong fuzi 孔夫子, in which Kong 孔 was his surname and fuzi is an honorific for learned men.

Widely credited for creating the system of thought we now call Confucianism, this learned man insisted he was “not a maker but a transmitter”, merely “believing in and loving the ancients”. In this, Confucius could be seen as acting modestly and humbly, virtues he thought of highly.

Or, as Kang Youwei — a leading reformer in modern China has argued — Confucius tactically framed his revolutionary ideas as lost ancient virtues so his arguments would be met with fewer criticisms and less hostility.

Confucius looked nothing like the great sage in his own time as he is widely known in ours. To his contemporaries, he was perhaps foremost an unemployed political adviser who wandered around different fiefdoms for some years, attempting to sell his political ideas to different rulers — but never able to strike a deal.

It seems Confucius would have preferred to live half a millennium earlier, when China — according to him — was united under benevolent, competent and virtuous rulers at the dawn of the Zhou dynasty. By his own time, China had become a divided land with hundreds of small fiefdoms, often ruled by greedy, cruel or mediocre lords frequently at war.

But this frustrated scholar’s ideas have profoundly shaped politics and ethics in and beyond China ever since his death in 479 BCE. The greatest and the most influential Chinese thinker, his concept of filial piety, remains highly valued among young people in China , despite rapid changes in the country’s demography.

Despite some doubts as to whether many Chinese people take his ideas seriously, the ideas of Confucius remain directly and closely relevant to contemporary China.

This situation perhaps is comparable to Christianity in Australia. Although institutional participation is in constant decline, Christian values and narratives remain influential on Australian politics and vital social matters .

The danger today is in Confucianism being considered the single reason behind China’s success or failure. The British author Martin Jacques, for example, recently asserted Confucianism was the “biggest single reason” for East Asia’s success in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, without giving any explanation or justification.

If Confucius were alive, he would probably not hesitate to call out this solitary root of triumph or disaster as being lazy, incorrect and unwise.

Political structure and mutual responsibilities

Confucius wanted to restore good political order by persuading rulers to reestablish moral standards, exemplify appropriate social relations, perform time-honoured rituals and provide social welfare.

He worked hard to promote his ideas but won few supporters. Almost every ruler saw punishment and military force as shortcuts to greater power.

It was not until 350 years later during the reign of the Emperor Wu of Han that Confucianism was installed as China’s state ideology.

But this state-sanctioned version of Confucianism was not an honest revitalisation of Confucius’ ideas. Instead, it absorbed many elements from rival schools of thought, notably legalism , which emerged in the latter half of China’s Warring States period (453–221 BCE). Legalism argued efficient governance relies on impersonal laws and regulations — rather than moral principles and rites.

Like most great thinkers of the Axial Age between the 8th and 3rd century BCE, Confucius did not believe everyone was created equal.

Similar to Plato (born over 100 years later), Confucius believed the ideal society followed a hierarchy. When asked by Duke Jing of Qi about government, Confucius famously replied:

let the ruler be a ruler; the minister, a minister; the father, a father; the son, a son.

However it would be a superficial reading of Confucius to believe he called for unconditional obedience to rulers or superiors. Confucius advised a disciple “not to deceive the ruler but to stand up to them”.

Confucius believed the legitimacy of a regime fundamentally relies on the confidence of the people. A ruler should tirelessly work hard and “lead by example”.

Like in a family, a good son listens to his father, and a good father wins respect not by imposing force or seniority but by offering heartfelt love, support, guidance and care.

In other words, Confucius saw a mutual relationship between the ruler and the ruled.

Love and respect for social harmony

To Confucius, the appropriate relations between family members are not merely metaphors for ideal political orders, but the basic fabrics of a harmonious society.

An essential family value in Confucius’ ideas is xiao 孝, or filial piety, a concept explained in at least 15 different ways in the Analects, a collection of the words from Confucius and his followers.

Read more: Can Ne Zha, the Chinese superhero with $1b at the box office, teach us how to raise good kids?

Depending on the context, Confucius defined filial piety as respecting parents, as “never diverging” from parents, as not letting parents feel unnecessary anxiety, as serving parents with etiquette when they are alive, and as burying and commemorating parents with propriety after they pass away.

Confucius expected rulers to exemplify good family values. When Ji Kang Zi, the powerful prime minister of Confucius’ home state of Lu asked for advice on keeping people loyal to the realm, Confucius responded by asking the ruler to demonstrate filial piety and benignity ( ci 慈).

Confucius viewed moral and ethical principles not merely as personal matters, but as social assets. He profoundly believed social harmony ultimately relies on virtuous citizens rather than sophisticated institutions.

In the ideas of Confucius, the most important moral principle is ren 仁, a concept that can hardly be translated into English without losing some of its meaning.

Like filial piety, ren is manifested in the love and respect one has for others. But ren is not restricted among family members and does not rely on blood or kinship. Ren guides people to follow their conscience. People with ren have strong compassion and empathy towards others.

Translators arguing for a single English equivalent for ren have attempted to interpret the concept as “benevolence”, “humanity”, “humanness” and “goodness”, none of which quite capture the full significance of the term.

The challenge in translating ren is not a linguistic one. Although the concept appears more than 100 times in the Analects, Confucius did not give one neat definition. Instead, he explained the term in many different ways.

As summarised by China historian Daniel Gardner , Confucius defined ren as:

to love others, to subdue the self and return to ritual propriety, to be respectful, tolerant, trustworthy, diligent, and kind, to be possessed of courage, to be free from worry, or to be resolute and firm.

Instead of searching for an explicit definition of ren , it is perhaps wise to view the concept as an ideal type of the highest and ultimate virtue Confucius believed good people should pursue.

Relevance in contemporary China

Confucius’ thinking hs had a profound impact on almost every great Chinese thinker since. Based upon his ideas, Mencius (372–289 BCE) and Xunzi (c310–c235 BCE) developed different schools of thought within the system of Confucianism.

Arguing against these ideas, Mohism (4th century BCE), Daoism (4th century BCE), Legalism (3rd century BCE) and many other influential systems of thought emerged in the 400 years after Confucius’ time, going on to shape many aspects of the Chinese civilisation in the last two millennia.

Modern China has a complicated relationship with Confucius and his ideas.

Since the early 20th century, many intellectuals influenced by western thought started denouncing Confucianism as the reason for China’s national humiliations since the first Opium War (1839-42).

Confucius received fierce criticism from both liberals and Marxists .

Hu Shih , a leader of China’s New Culture Movement in the 1910s and 1920s and an alumnus of Columbia University , advocated overthrowing the “House of Confucius”.

Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, also repeatedly denounced Confucius and Confucianism. Between 1973 and 1975, Mao devoted the last political campaign in his life against Confucianism.

Read more: To make sense of modern China, you simply can't ignore Marxism

Despite these fierce criticisms and harsh persecutions, Confucius’ ideas remain in the minds and hearts of many Chinese people, both in and outside China.

One prominent example is PC Chang , another Chinese alumnus of Columbia University, who was instrumental in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10 1948. Thanks to Chang’s efforts , the spirit of some most essential Confucian ideas, such as ren , was deeply embedded in the Declaration.

Today, many Chinese parents, as well as the Chinese state, are keen children be provided a more Confucian education .

In 2004, the Chinese government named its initiative of promoting language and culture overseas after Confucius, and its leadership has been enthusiastically embracing Confucius’ lessons to consolidate their legitimacy and ruling in the 21st century.

Read more: Explainer: what are Confucius Institutes and do they teach Chinese propaganda?

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Confucianism.

Confucianism has existed for more than 2,500 years and is one of the most influential religious philosophies in the history of China. It is concerned with inner virtue, morality and respect for the community and its values.

Religion, Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations

Confucian Philosopher Mencius

Confucianism is an ancient Chinese belief system, which focuses on the importance of personal ethics and morality.

Photograph by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images, taken from Myths and Legends of China

Confucianism is a philosophy and belief system from ancient China that laid the foundation for much of Chinese culture. Confucius was a philosopher and teacher who lived from 551 to 479 B.C.E. His thoughts on ethics , good behavior and moral character were written down by his disciples in several books, the most important being the Lunyu . Confucianism promotes ancestor worship and human-centered virtues for living a peaceful life. Some examples of ancestor worship include maintaining a shrine in one’s home for relatives that have passed on and making offerings of food and drink, flowers or incense at gravesites. The golden rule of Confucianism is “do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you.” Confucianism is a term that Westerners coined; there is no equivalent in any Chinese dialect. Over time, Confucian teachings became closely tied to the rituals and beliefs associated with Buddhism and Taoism. Together, the tenets of these three religious philosophies became known as The Three Teachings. All three are deeply embedded in Chinese culture. Religion vs. Philosophy Scholars disagree about whether Confucianism should be considered a religion or a philosophy. It began as a revival of an earlier religious tradition and has some characteristics of the Western framework of religion. There are also Confucian temples where important community and civic rituals happen. Confucianism does not, however, fit neatly into the Western concept of religion. There are no Confucian gods, and Confucianism focuses neither on the creation of the Earth or human life nor the afterlife. Although many people emphasize that Confucianism is both a religion and a philosophy, it is better understood as an ethical guide to life in the here and now. Confucian Teachings The main idea of Confucianism is the importance of having a good moral character, which can affect the world around a person through the idea of cosmic harmony. This moral character is achieved through the virtue of ren, or “humanity,” which leads to more virtuous behaviors, such as respect, altruism and humility. If an emperor has moral perfection, his rule will be peaceful and benevolent. Natural disasters and conflict, on the other hand, are a natural consequence of straying from ancient teachings. Confucius believed in the importance of education in order to create this virtuous character. He thought that people are essentially good yet may have strayed from the appropriate forms of conduct. Rituals in Confucianism were designed to bring about this respectful attitude and create a sense of community within a group. The idea of “ filial piety ,” or devotion to family, is key to Confucius thought. This devotion can take the form of ancestor worship, submission to parental authority or the use of family metaphors, such as “son of heaven,” to describe the emperor and his government. The family is the most important group for Confucian ethics, and devotion to family can only strengthen the society surrounding it. Confucianism Past and Present While Confucius gave his name to Confucianism, he is understood as a spiritual leader as opposed to the founder of a new religion or philosophy. This is in part due to the fact that Confucius was not the first person to discuss many of the concepts that became central to Confucianism. Indeed, Confucius was concerned with the preservation of traditional Chinese knowledge from earlier thinkers, such as such as Zhougong, a leader of China in the 11th century. Confucius viewed Zhougong as a hero because he willingly and peacefully transferred power to his nephew, maintaining harmony in Chinese society. Some practices associated with Confucianism, such as ancestor worship, also appear to predate Confucius. This suggests that Confucianism incorporated existing customs. After Confucius’s death, several of his disciples compiled his wisdom and carried on his work. The most famous of these disciples were Mencius and Xunzi, both of whom further developed Confucian thought and ideals. Confucianism includes strict rules about class in Chinese society, which contributed to the stratification of ancient Chinese society. China was divided into four social classes: the noble or scholar elite class, the landowners and farmers, craftsmen, and merchants (who were lowest on the scale because Confucius argued against luxury). People were taught to stay in their social classes to create social harmony, which discouraged anyone from rising in status. Women were considered a different and lower social class than men. According to Confucian rules, women had to obey their male family members, including their sons. Practices like feet binding became more popular, and women’s social power decreased as Confucian ideas had a resurgence during the Song period (960–1279 C.E.). Confucianism remains one of the most influential philosophies in China. During the Han Dynasty, emperor Wu Di (reigned 141–87 B.C.E.) made Confucianism the official state ideology. During this time, schools were established to teach Confucian ethics. Confucianism existed alongside Buddhism and Taoism for several centuries as one of the most important Chinese religions. In the Song Dynasty (960–1279 C.E.) the influence from Buddhism and Taoism brought about “Neo-Confucianism,” which combined ideas from all three religions. However, in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912 C.E.), many scholars looked for a return to the older ideas of Confucianism, prompting a Confucian revival. Confucianism was denounced under Chairman Mao Zedong, but the current Chinese government recognizes that Confucianism is aligned with its socialist goals. For example, Confucian ideas regarding the hierarchy of society and concept of social responsibility fit with socialist communal values and strict government and societal structure.

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At different times in Chinese history, Confucius (trad. 551–479 BCE) has been portrayed as a teacher, advisor, editor, philosopher, reformer, and prophet. The name Confucius, a Latinized combination of the surname Kong 孔 with an honorific suffix “Master” ( fuzi 夫子), has also come to be used as a global metonym for different aspects of traditional East Asian society. This association of Confucius with many of the foundational concepts and cultural practices in East Asia, and his casting as a progenitor of “Eastern” thought in Early Modern Europe, make him arguably the most significant thinker in East Asian history. Yet while early sources preserve biographical details about Master Kong, dialogues and stories about him in early texts like the Analects ( Lunyu 論語) reflect a diversity of representations and concerns, strands of which were later differentially selected and woven together by interpreters intent on appropriating or condemning particular associated views and traditions. This means that the philosophy of Confucius is historically underdetermined, and it is possible to trace multiple sets of coherent doctrines back to the early period, each grounded in different sets of classical sources and schools of interpretation linked to his name. After introducing key texts and interpreters, then, this entry explores three principal interconnected areas of concern: a psychology of ritual that describes how ideal social forms regulate individuals, an ethics rooted in the cultivation of a set of personal virtues, and a theory of society and politics based on normative views of the family and the state.

Each of these areas has unique features that were developed by later thinkers, some of whom have been identified as “Confucians”, even though that term is not well-defined. The Chinese term Ru (儒) predates Confucius, and connoted specialists in ritual and music, and later experts in Classical Studies. Ru is routinely translated into English as “Confucian”. Yet “Confucian” is also sometimes used in English to refer to the sage kings of antiquity who were credited with key cultural innovations by the Ru , to sacrificial practices at temples dedicated to Confucius and related figures, and to traditional features of East Asian social organization like the “bureaucracy” or “meritocracy”. For this reason, the term Confucian will be avoided in this entry, which will focus on the philosophical aspects of the thought of Confucius (the Latinization used for “Master Kong” following the English-language convention) primarily, but not exclusively, through the lens of the Analects .

1. Confucius as Chinese Philosopher and Symbol of Traditional Culture

2. sources for confucius’s life and thought, 3. ritual psychology and social values, 4. virtues and character formation, 5. the family and the state, other internet resources, related entries.

Because of the wide range of texts and traditions identified with him, choices about which version of Confucius is authoritative have changed over time, reflecting particular political and social priorities. The portrait of Confucius as philosopher is, in part, the product of a series of modern cross-cultural interactions. In Imperial China, Confucius was identified with interpretations of the classics and moral guidelines for administrators, and therefore also with training the scholar-officials that populated the bureaucracy. At the same time, he was closely associated with the transmission of the ancient sacrificial system, and he himself received ritual offerings in temples found in all major cities. By the Han (202 BCE–220 CE), Confucius was already an authoritative figure in a number of different cultural domains, and the early commentaries show that reading texts associated with him about history, ritual, and proper behavior was important to rulers. The first commentaries to the Analects were written by tutors to the crown prince (e.g., Zhang Yu 張禹, d. 5 BCE), and select experts in the “Five Classics” ( Wujing 五經) were given scholastic positions in the government. The authority of Confucius was such that during the late Han and the following period of disunity, his imprimatur was used to validate commentaries to the classics, encoded political prophecies, and esoteric doctrines.

By the Song period (960–1279), the post-Buddhist revival known as “Neo-Confucianism” anchored readings of the dialogues of Confucius to a dualism between “cosmic pattern” ( li 理) and “ pneumas ” ( qi 氣), a distinctive moral cosmology that marked the tradition off from those of Buddhism and Daoism. The Neo-Confucian interpretation of the Analects by Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) integrated the study of the Analects into a curriculum based on the “Four Books” ( Sishu 四書) that became widely influential in China, Korea, and Japan. The pre-modern Confucius was closely associated with good government, moral education, proper ritual performance, and the reciprocal obligations that people in different roles owed each other in such contexts.

When Confucius became a character in the intellectual debates of eighteenth century Europe, he became identified as China’s first philosopher. Jesuit missionaries in China sent back accounts of ancient China that portrayed Confucius as inspired by Natural Theology to pursue the good, which they considered a marked contrast with the “idolatries” of Buddhism and Daoism. Back in Europe, intellectuals read missionary descriptions and translations of Chinese literature, and writers like Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) and Nicolas-Gabriel Clerc (1726–1798) praised Confucius for his discovery of universal natural laws through reason. Enlightenment writers celebrated the moral philosophy of Confucius for its independence from the dogmatic influence of the Church. While at times he was criticized as an atheist or an advocate of despotism, many Europeans viewed Confucius as a moral philosopher whose approach was in line with rationalism and humanism.

Today, many descriptions combine these several ways of positioning Confucius, but the modern interpretation of his views has been complicated by a tendency to look back on him as an emblem of the “traditional culture” of China. In the eyes of some late nineteenth and twentieth century reformers who sought to fortify China against foreign influence, the moral teachings of Confucius had the potential to play the same role that they perceived Christianity had done in the modernization of Europe and America, or serve as the basis of a more secular spiritual renewal that would transform the population into citizens of a modern nation-state. In the twentieth century, the pursuit of modernization also led to the rejection of Confucius by some reformers in the May Fourth and New Culture movements, as well as by many in the Communist Party, who identified the traditional hierarchies implicit in his social and political philosophy with the social and economic inequalities that they sought to eliminate. In these modern debates, it is not just the status of Confucius in traditional China that made him such a potent symbol. His specific association with the curriculum of the system of education of scholar-officials in the imperial government, and of traditional moral values more generally, connected him to the aspects of tradition worth preserving, or the things that held China back from modernization, depending on one’s point of view.

As legacies of Confucius tied to traditional ritual roles and the pre-modern social structure were criticized by modernizers, a view of Confucius as a moral philosopher, already common in European readings, gained ascendancy in East Asia. The American-educated historian Hu Shi 胡適 (1891–1962) wrote an early influential history of Chinese philosophy, beginning with Laozi 老子 and Confucius, explicitly on the model of existing histories of Western philosophy. In it, Hu compared what he called the conservative aspect of the philosophy of Confucius to Socrates and Plato. Since at least that time, Confucius has been central to most histories of Chinese philosophy.

Biographical treatments of Confucius, beginning with the “Hereditary House of Confucius” ( Kongzi shijia 孔子世家), a chapter of Sima Qian’s 司馬遷 (c.145–c.86 BCE) Records of the Grand Historian ( Shiji 史記), were initially based on information from compilations of independently circulating dialogues and prose accounts. Tying particular elements of his philosophy to the life experiences of Confucius is a risky and potentially circular exercise, since many of the details of his biography were first recorded in instructive anecdotes linked to the expression of didactic messages. Nevertheless, since Sima Qian’s time, the biography of Confucius has been intimately linked with the interpretation of his philosophy, and so this section begins with a brief treatment of traditional tropes about his family background, official career, and teaching of 72 disciples, before turning to the dialogue and prose accounts upon which early biographers like Sima Qian drew.

Confucius was born in the domain of Zou, in modern Shandong Province, south of the larger kingdom of Lu. A date of 551 BCE is given for his birth in the Gongyang Commentary ( Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳) to the classic Spring and Autumn Annals ( Chunqiu 春秋), which places him in the period when the influence of the Zhou polity was declining, and regional domains were becoming independent states. His father, who came from Lu, was descended from a noble clan that included, in Sima Qian’s telling, several people known for their modesty and ritual mastery. His father died when Confucius was a small child, leaving the family poor but with some social status, and as a young man Confucius became known for expertise in the classical ritual and ceremonial forms of the Zhou. In adulthood, Confucius travelled to Lu and began a career as an official in the employ of aristocratic families.

Different sources identify Confucius as having held a large number of different offices in Lu. Entries in the Zuo Commentary ( Zuozhuan 左傳) to the Spring and Autumn Annals for 509 and 500 BCE identify him as Director of Corrections ( Sikou 司寇), and say he was charged with assisting the ruler with the rituals surrounding a visiting dignitary from the state of Qi, respectively. The Mencius ( Mengzi 孟子), a text centered on a figure generally regarded as the most important early developer of the thought of Confucius, Mencius (trad. 372–289 BCE), says Confucius was Foodstuffs Scribe ( Weili 委吏) and Scribe in the Field ( Chengtian 乘田), involved with managing the accounting at the granary and keeping the books on the pasturing of different animals (11.14). [ 1 ] In the first biography, Sima Qian mentions these offices, but then adds a second set of more powerful positions in Lu including Steward ( Zai 宰) managing an estate in the district of Zhongdu, Minister of Works ( Sikong 司空), and even acting Chancellor ( Xiang 相). Following his departure from Lu, different stories place Confucius in the kingdoms of Wei, Song, Chen, Cai, and Chu. Sima Qian crafted these stories into a serial narrative of rulers failing to appreciate the moral worth of Confucius, whose high standards forced him to continue to travel in search of an incorrupt ruler.

Late in life, Confucius left service and turned to teaching. In Sima Qian’s time, the sheer number of independently circulating texts centering on dialogues that Confucius had with his disciples led the biographer to include a separate chapter on “The arranged traditions of the disciples of Confucius” ( Zhong Ni dizi liezhuan 仲尼弟子列傳). His account identifies 77 direct disciples, whom Sima Qian says Confucius trained in ritual practice and the Classic of Odes ( Shijing 詩經), Classic of Documents ( Shujing 書經, also called Documents of the Predecessors or Shangshu 尚書), Records of Ritual ( Liji 禮記) and Classic of Music ( Yuejing 樂經). Altogether, some 3000 students received some form of this training regimen. Sima Qian’s editorial practice in systematizing dialogues was inclusive, and the fact that he was able to collect so much information some three centuries after the death of Confucius testifies to the latter’s importance in the Han period. Looked at in a different way, the prodigious numbers of direct disciples and students of Confucius, and the inconsistent accounts of the offices in which he served, may also be due to a proliferation of texts associating the increasingly authoritative figure of Confucius with divergent regional or interpretive traditions during those intervening centuries.

The many sources of quotations and dialogues of Confucius, both transmitted and recently excavated, provide a wealth of materials about the philosophy of Confucius, but an incomplete sense of which materials are authoritative. The last millennium has seen the development of a conventional view that materials preserved in the twenty chapters of the transmitted Analects most accurately represent Confucius’s original teachings. This derives in part from a second century CE account by Ban Gu 班固 (39–92 CE) of the composition of the Analects that describes the work as having been compiled by first and second generation disciples of Confucius and then transmitted privately for centuries, making it arguably the oldest stratum of extant Confucius sources. In the centuries since, some scholars have come up with variations on this basic account, such as Liu Baonan’s 劉寳楠 (1791–1855) view in Corrected Meanings of the Analects ( Lunyu zhengyi 論語正義) that each chapter was written by a different disciple. Recently, several centuries of doubts about internal inconsistencies in the text and a lack of references to the title in early sources were marshaled by classicist Zhu Weizheng 朱維錚 in an influential 1986 article which argued that the lack of attributed quotations from the Analects , and of explicit references to it, prior to the second century BCE, meant that its traditional status as the oldest stratum of the teachings of Confucius was undeserved. Since then a number of historians, including Michael J. Hunter, have systematically shown that writers started to demonstrate an acute interest in the Analects only in the late second and first centuries BCE, suggesting that other Confucius-related records from those centuries should also be considered as potentially authoritative sources. Some have suggested this critical approach to sources is an attack on the historicity of Confucius, but a more reasonable description is that it is an attack on the authoritativeness of the Analects that broadens and diversifies the sources that may be used to reconstruct the historical Confucius.

Expanding the corpus of Confucius quotations and dialogues beyond the Analects , then, requires attention to three additional types of sources. First, dialogues preserved in transmitted sources like the Records of Ritual, the Elder Dai’s Records of Ritual ( DaDai Liji 大戴禮記), and Han collections like the Family Discussions of Confucius ( Kongzi jiayu 孔子家語) contain a large number of diverse teachings. Second, quotations attached to the interpretation of passages in the classics preserved in works like the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals , or Han’s Intertextual Commentary on the Odes ( Han Shi waizhuan 韓詩外傳) are particularly rich sources for readings of history and poetry. Finally, a number of recently archaeologically recovered texts from the Han period and before have also expanded the corpus.

Newly discovered sources include three recently excavated versions of texts with parallel to the transmitted Analects . These are the 1973 excavation at the Dingzhou site in Hebei Province dating to 55 BCE; the 1990’s excavation of a partial parallel version at Jongbaekdong in Pyongyang, North Korea, dating to between 62 and 45 BCE; and most recently the 2011–2015 excavation of the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun in Jiangxi Province dating to 59 BCE. The Haihun excavation is particularly important because it is thought to contain the two lost chapters of what Han period sources identify as a 22-chapter version of the Analects that circulated in the state of Qi, the titles of which appear to be “Understanding the Way” ( Zhi dao 智道) and “Questions about Jade” ( Wen yu 問玉). While the Haihun Analects has yet to be published, the content of the lost chapters overlaps with a handful of fragments dating to the late first century BCE that were found at the Jianshui Jinguan site in Jinta county in Gansu Province in 1973. All in all, these finds confirm the sudden wide circulation of the Analects in the middle of the first century BCE.

Previously unknown Confucius dialogues and quotations have also been unearthed. The Dingzhou site also yielded texts given the titles “Sayings of the Ru” ( Rujiazhe yan 儒家者言) and “Duke Ai asked about the five kinds of righteousness” ( Aigong wen wuyi 哀公問五義). A significantly different text also given the name “Sayings of the Ru” was found in 1977 in a Han tomb at Fuyang in Anhui Province. Several texts dating to 168 BCE recording statements by Confucius about the Classic of Changes ( Yijing 易經) were excavated from the Mawangdui site in Hunan Province in 1973. Additionally, a number of Warring States period dialogical texts centered on particular disciples, and a text with interpretative comments by Confucius on the Classic of Poetry given the name “Confucius discusses the Odes ” ( Kongzi shilun 孔子詩論), were looted from tombs in the 1990s, sold on the black market, and made their way to the Shanghai Museum. The 59 BCE tomb of the Marquis of Haihun also contains a number of previously unknown Confucius dialogues and quotations on ritual and filial piety, along with materials that overlap with sections of transmitted texts including the Analects , Records of Ritual and the Elder Dai’s Records of Ritual . Another unprovenanced manuscript, now curated by Anhui University, “Zhong Ni said” ( Zhong Ni yue 仲尼曰) has around two dozen sayings, seven of which overlap with the modern Analects . Most recently, initial reports about a 2021 excavation at Wangjiazui 王家嘴 in Hubei province of an unknown number of sayings entitled “Kongzi said,” ( Kongzi yue 孔子曰) indicate it only partially overlaps with the Analects . These new finds suggest that a larger number of sayings attributed to Kongzi once circulated together, with certain ones being selected out for inclusion in works like the Records of Ritual and the Analects .

Some excavated texts, like the pre-Han period “Thicket of Sayings” ( Yucong 語叢) apothegms excavated at the Guodian site in Hubei Province in 1993, contain fragments of the Analects in circulation without attribution to Confucius. Transmitted materials also show some of the quotations attributed to Confucius in the Analects in the mouths of other historical figures. The fluidity and diversity of Confucius-related materials in circulation prior to the fixing of the Analects text in the second century BCE, suggest that the Analects itself, with its keen interest in ritual, personal ethics, and politics, may well have been in part a topical selection from a larger and more diverse set of available Confucius-related materials. In other words, there were already multiple topical foci prior to any horizon by which we can definitively deem any single focus to be authoritative. It is for this reason that the essential core of the teachings of Confucius is historically underdetermined, and the correct identification of the core teachings is still avidly debated. The following sections treat three key aspects of the philosophy of Confucius, each different but all interrelated, found throughout many of these diverse sets of sources: a theory of how ritual and musical performance functioned to promote unselfishness and train emotions, advice on how to inculcate a set of personal virtues to prepare people to behave morally in different domains of their lives, and a social and political philosophy that abstracted classical ideals of proper conduct in family and official contexts to apply to more general contexts.

The Records of Ritual , the Analects , and numerous Han collections portray Confucius as being deeply concerned with the proper performance of ritual and music. In such works, the description of the attitudes and affect of the performer became the foundation of a ritual psychology in which proper performance was key to reforming desires and beginning to develop moral dispositions. Confucius sought to preserve the Zhou ritual system, and theorized about how ritual and music inculcated social roles, limited desires and transformed character.

Many biographies begin their description of his life with a story of Confucius at an early age performing rituals, reflecting accounts and statements that demonstrate his prodigious mastery of ritual and music. The archaeological record shows that one legacy of the Zhou period into which Confucius was born was a system of sumptuary regulations that encoded social status. Another of these legacies was ancestral sacrifice, a means to demonstrate people’s reverence for their ancestors while also providing a way to ask the spirits to assist them or to guarantee them protection from harm. The Analects describes the ritual mastery of Confucius in receiving guests at a noble’s home (10.3), and in carrying out sacrifices (10.8, 15.1). He plays the stone chimes (14.39), distinguishes between proper and improper music (15.11, 17.18), and extols and explains the Classic of Odes to his disciples (1.15, 2.2, 8.3, 16.13, 17.9). This mastery of classical ritual and musical forms is an important reason Confucius said he “followed Zhou” (3.14). While he might alter a detail of a ritual out of frugality (9.3), Confucius insists on adherence to the letter of the rites, as when his disciple Zi Gong 子貢 sought to substitute another animal for a sheep in a seasonal sacrifice, saying “though you care about the sheep, I care about the ritual” (3.17). It was in large part this adherence to Zhou period cultural forms, or to what Confucius reconstructed them to be, that has led many in the modern period to label him a traditionalist.

Where Confucius clearly innovated was in his rationale for performing the rites and music. Historian Yan Buke 閻步克 has argued that the early Confucian ( Ru ) tradition began from the office of the “Music master” ( Yueshi 樂師) described in the Ritual of Zhou ( Zhou Li 周禮). Yan’s view is that since these officials were responsible for teaching the rites, music, and the Classic of Odes , it was their combined expertise that developed into the particular vocation that shaped the outlook of Confucius. Early discussions of ritual in the Zhou classics often explained ritual in terms of a do ut des view of making offerings to receive benefits. By contrast, early discussions between Confucius and his disciples described benefits of ritual performance that went beyond the propitiation of spirits, rewards from the ancestors, or the maintenance of the social or cosmic order. Instead of emphasizing goods that were external to the performer, these works stressed the value of the associated interior psychological states of the practitioner. In Analects 3.26, Confucius condemns the performance of ritual without reverence ( jing 敬). He also condemns views of ritual that focus only on the offerings, or views of music that focus only on the instruments (17.11). Passages from the Records of Ritual explain that Confucius would rather have an excess of reverence than an excess of ritual (“ Tangong, shang ” 檀弓上), and that reverence is the most important aspect of mourning rites (“ Zaji, xia ” 雜記下). This emphasis on the importance of an attitude of reverence became the salient distinction between performing ritual in a rote manner, and performing it in the proper affective state. Another passage from the Records of Ritual says the difference between how an ideal gentleman and a lesser person cares for a parent is that the gentleman is reverent when he does it (“ Fangji ” 坊記, cf. Analects 2.7). In contexts concerning both ritual and filial piety ( xiao 孝), the affective state behind the action is arguably more important than the action’s consequences. As Philip J. Ivanhoe has written, ritual and music are not just an indicator of values in the sense that these examples show, but also an inculcator of them.

In this ritual psychology, the performance of ritual and music restricts desires because it alters the performer’s affective states, and place limits on appetitive desires. The Records of Ritual illustrates desirable affective states, describing how the Zhou founder King Wen 文 was moved to joy when making offerings to his deceased parents, but then to grief once the ritual ended (“ Jiyi ” 祭義). A collection associated with the third century BCE philosopher Xunzi 荀子 contains a Confucius quotation that associates different parts of a ruler’s day with particular emotions. Entering the ancestral temple to make offerings and maintain a connection to those who are no longer living leads the ruler to reflect on sorrow, while wearing a cap to hear legal cases leads him to reflect on worry (“ Aigong ” 哀公). These are examples of the way that ritual fosters the development of particular emotional responses, part of a sophisticated understanding of affective states and the ways that performance channels them in particular directions. More generally, the social conventions implicit in ritual hierarchies restrict people’s latitude to pursue their desires, as the master explains in the Records of Ritual:

The way of the gentleman may be compared to an embankment dam, bolstering those areas where ordinary people are deficient (“ Fangji ”).

Blocking the overflow of desires by adhering to these social norms preserves psychological space to reflect and reform one’s reactions.

Descriptions of the early community depict Confucius creating a subculture in which ritual provided an alternate source of value, effectively training his disciples to opt out of conventional modes of exchange. In the Analects , when Confucius says he would instruct any person who presented him with “a bundle of dried meat” (7.7), he is highlighting how his standards of value derive from the sacrificial system, eschewing currency or luxury items. Gifts valuable in ordinary situations might be worth little by such standards: “Even if a friend gave him a gift of a carriage and horses, if it was not dried meat, he did not bow” (10.15). The Han period biographical materials in Records of the Historian describe how a high official of the state of Lu did not come to court for three days after the state of Qi made him a gift of female entertainers. When, additionally, the high official failed to properly offer gifts of sacrificial meats, Confucius departed Lu for the state of Wei (47, cf. Analects 18.4). Confucius repeatedly rejected conventional values of wealth and position, choosing instead to rely on ritual standards of value. In some ways, these stories are similar to ones in the late Warring States and Han period compilation Master Zhuang ( Zhuangzi 莊子) that explore the way that things that are conventionally belittled for their lack of utility are useful by an unconventional standard. However, here the standard that gives such objects currency is ritual importance rather than longevity, divorcing Confucius from conventional materialistic or hedonistic pursuits. This is a second way that ritual allows one to direct more effort into character formation.

Once, when speaking of cultivating benevolence, Confucius explained how ritual value was connected to the ideal way of the gentleman, which should always take precedence over the pursuit of conventional values:

Wealth and high social status are what others covet. If I cannot prosper by following the way, I will not dwell in them. Poverty and low social status are what others shun. If I cannot prosper by following the way, I will not avoid them. (4.5)

The argument that ritual performance has internal benefits underlies the ritual psychology laid out by Confucius, one that explains how performing ritual and music controls desires and sets the stage for further moral development.

Many of the short passages from the Analects , and the “Thicket of Sayings” passages excavated at Guodian, describe the development of set of ideal behaviors associated with the moral ideal of the “way” ( dao 道) of the “gentleman” ( junzi 君子). Based on the analogy between the way of Confucius and character ethics systems deriving from Aristotle, these patterns of behavior are today often described using the Latinate term “virtue”. In the second passage in the Analects , the disciple You Ruo 有若 says a person who behaves with filial piety to parents and siblings ( xiao and di 弟), and who avoids going against superiors, will rarely disorder society. It relates this correlation to a more general picture of how patterns of good behavior effectively open up the possibility of following the way of the gentleman: “The gentleman works at the roots. Once the roots are established, the way comes to life” (1.2). The way of the gentleman is a distillation of the exemplary behaviors of the selfless culture heroes of the past, and is available to all who are willing to “work at the roots”. In this way, the virtues that Confucius taught were not original to him, but represented his adaptations of existing cultural ideals, to which he continually returned in order to clarify their proper expressions in different situations. Five behaviors of the gentleman most central to the Analects are benevolence ( ren 仁), righteousness ( yi 義), ritual propriety ( li 禮), wisdom ( zhi 智), and trustworthiness ( xin 信).

The virtue of benevolence entails interacting with others guided by a sense of what is good from their perspectives. Sometimes the Analects defines benevolence generally as “caring for others” (12.22), but in certain contexts it is associated with more specific behaviors. Examples of contextual definitions of benevolence include treating people on the street as important guests and common people as if they were attendants at a sacrifice (12.2), being reticent in speaking (12.3) and rejecting the use of clever speech (1.3), and being respectful where one dwells, reverent where one works, and loyal where one deals with others (13.19). It is the broadest of the virtues, yet a gentleman would rather die than compromise it (15.9). Benevolence entails a kind of unselfishness, or, as David Hall and Roger Ames suggest, it involves forming moral judgments from a combined perspective of self and others.

Later writers developed accounts of the sources of benevolent behavior, most famously in the context of the discussion of human nature ( xing 性) in the centuries after Confucius. Mencius (fourth century BCE) argued that benevolence grows out of the cultivation of an affective disposition to compassion ( ceyin 惻隱) in the face of another’s distress. The anonymous author of the late Warring States period excavated text “Five Kinds of Action” ( Wu xing 五行) describes it as building from the affection one feels for close family members, through successive stages to finally develop into a more universal, fully-fledged virtue. In the Analects , however, one comment on human nature emphasizes the importance of nurture: “By nature people are close, by habituation they are miles apart” (17.2), a sentiment that suggests the importance of training one’s dispositions through ritual and the classics in a manner closer to the program of Xunzi (third century BCE). The Analects , however, discusses the incubation of benevolent behavior in family and ritual contexts. You Ruo winds up his discussion of the roots of the way of the gentleman with the rhetorical question: “Is not behaving with filial piety to one’s parents and siblings the root of benevolence?” (1.2). Confucius tells his disciple Yan Yuan 顏淵 that benevolence is a matter of “overcoming oneself and returning to ritual propriety” (12.1). These connections between benevolence and other virtues underscore the way in which benevolent behavior does not entail creating novel social forms or relationships, but is grounded in traditional familial and ritual networks.

The second virtue, righteousness, is often described in the Analects relative to situations involving public responsibility. In contexts where standards of fairness and integrity are valuable, such as acting as the steward of an estate as some of the disciples of Confucius did, righteousness is what keeps a person uncorrupted. Confucius wrote that a gentleman “thinks of righteousness when faced with gain” (16.10, 19.10), or “when faced with profit” (14.12). Confucius says that one should ignore the wealth and rank one might attain by acting against righteousness, even if it means eating coarse rice, drinking water, and sleeping using one’s bent arm as a pillow (7.16). Later writers like Xunzi celebrated Confucius for his righteousness in office, which he stressed was all the more impressive because Confucius was extremely poor (“ Wangba ” 王霸). This behavior is particularly relevant in official interactions with ordinary people, such as when “employing common people” (5.16), and if a social superior has mastered it, “the common people will all comply” (13.4). Like benevolence, righteousness also entails unselfishness, but instead of coming out of consideration for the needs of others, it is rooted in steadfastness in the face of temptation.

The perspective needed to act in a righteous way is sometimes related to an attitude to personal profit that recalls the previous section’s discussion of how Confucius taught his disciples to recalibrate their sense of value based on their immersion in the sacrificial system. More specifically, evaluating things based on their ritual significance can put one at odds with conventional hierarchies of value. This is defined as the root of righteous behavior in a story from the late Warring States period text Master Fei of Han ( Han Feizi 韓非子). The tale relates how at court, Confucius was given a plate with a peach and a pile of millet grains with which to scrub the fruit clean. After the attendants laughed at Confucius for proceeding to eat the millet first, Confucius explained to them that in sacrifices to the Former Kings, millet itself is the most valued offering. Therefore, cleaning a ritually base peach with millet:

would be obstructing righteousness, and so I dared not put [the peach] above what fills the vessels in the ancestral shrine. (“ Waichu shuo, zuo shang ” 外儲說左上)

While such stories may have been told to mock his fastidiousness, for Confucius the essence of righteousness was internalizing a system of value that he would breach for neither convenience nor profit.

At times, the phrase “benevolence and righteousness” is used metonymically for all the virtues, but in some later texts, a benevolent impulse to compassion and a righteous steadfastness are seen as potentially contradictory. In the Analects , portrayals of Confucius do not recognize a tension between benevolence and righteousness, perhaps because each is usually described as salient in a different set of contexts. In ritual contexts like courts or shrines, one ideally acts like one might act out of familial affection in a personal context, the paradigm that is key to benevolence. In the performance of official duties, one ideally acts out of the responsibilities felt to inferiors and superiors, with a resistance to temptation by corrupt gain that is key to righteousness. The Records of Ritual distinguishes between the domains of these two virtues:

In regulating one’s household, kindness overrules righteousness. Outside of one’s house, righteousness cuts off kindness. What one undertakes in serving one’s father, one also does in serving one’s lord, because one’s reverence for both is the same. Treating nobility in a noble way and the honorable in an honorable way, is the height of righteousness. (“ Sangfu sizhi ” 喪服四制)

While it is not the case that righteousness is benevolence by other means, this passage underlines how in different contexts, different virtues may push people toward participation in particular shared cultural practices constitutive of the good life.

While the virtues of benevolence and righteousness might impel a gentleman to adhere to ritual norms in particular situations or areas of life, a third virtue of “ritual propriety” expresses a sensitivity to one’s social place, and willingness to play all of one’s multiple ritual roles. The term li translated here as “ritual propriety” has a particularly wide range of connotations, and additionally connotes both the conventions of ritual and etiquette. In the Analects, Confucius is depicted both teaching and conducting the rites in the manner that he believed they were conducted in antiquity. Detailed restrictions such as “the gentleman avoids wearing garments with red-black trim” (10.6), which the poet Ezra Pound disparaged as “verses re: length of the night-gown and the predilection for ginger” (Pound 1951: 191), were by no means trivial to Confucius. His imperative, “Do not look or listen, speak or move, unless it is in accordance with the rites” (12.1), in answer to a question about benevolence, illustrates how the symbolic conventions of the ritual system played a role in the cultivation of the virtues. We have seen how ritual shapes values by restricting desires, thereby allowing reflection and the cultivation of moral dispositions. Yet without the proper affective state, a person is not properly performing ritual. In the Analects , Confucius says he cannot tolerate “ritual without reverence, or mourning without grief,” (3.26). When asked about the root of ritual propriety, he says that in funerals, the mourners’ distress is more important than the formalities (3.4). Knowing the details of ritual protocols is important, but is not a substitute for sincere affect in performing them. Together, they are necessary conditions for the gentleman’s training, and are also essential to understanding the social context in which Confucius taught his disciples.

The mastery that “ritual propriety” signaled was part of a curriculum associated with the training of rulers and officials, and proper ritual performance at court could also serve as a kind of political legitimation. Confucius summarized the different prongs of the education in ritual and music involved in the training of his followers:

Raise yourself up with the Classic of Odes . Establish yourself with ritual. Complete yourself with music. (8.8)

On one occasion, Boyu 伯魚, the son of Confucius, explained that when he asked his father to teach him, his father told him to study the Classic of Odes in order to have a means to speak with others, and to study ritual to establish himself (16.13). That Confucius insists that his son master classical literature and practices underscores the values of these cultural products as a means of transmitting the way from one generation to the next. He tells his disciples that the study of the Classic of Odes prepares them for different aspects of life, providing them with a capacity to:

at home serve one’s father, away from it serve one’s lord, as well as increase one’s knowledge of the names of birds, animals, plants and trees. (17.9)

This valuation of knowledge of both the cultural and natural worlds is one reason why the figure of Confucius has traditionally been identified with schooling, and why today his birthday is celebrated as “Teacher’s Day” in some parts of Asia. In the ancient world, this kind of education also qualified Confucius and his disciples for employment on estates and at courts.

The fourth virtue, wisdom, is related to appraising people and situations. In the Analects, wisdom allows a gentleman to discern crooked and straight behavior in others (12.22), and discriminate between those who may be reformed and those who may not (15.8). In the former dialogue, Confucius explains the virtue of wisdom as “knowing others”. The “Thicket of Sayings” excavated at Guodian indicates that this knowledge is the basis for properly “selecting” others, defining wisdom as the virtue that is the basis for selection. But it is also about appraising situations correctly, as suggested by the master’s rhetorical question: “How can a person be considered wise if that person does not dwell in benevolence?” (4.1). One well-known passage often cited to imply Confucius is agnostic about the world of the spirits is more literally about how wisdom allows an outsider to present himself in a way appropriate to the people on whose behalf he is working:

When working for what is right for the common people, to show reverence for the ghosts and spirits while maintaining one’s distance may be deemed wisdom. (6.22)

The context for this sort of appraisal is usually official service, and wisdom is often attributed to valued ministers or advisors to sage rulers.

In certain dialogues, wisdom also connotes a moral discernment that allows the gentleman to be confident of the appropriateness of good actions. In the Analects , Confucius tells his disciple Zi Lu 子路 that wisdom recognizes knowing a thing as knowing it, and ignorance of a thing as ignorance of it (2.17). In soliloquies about several virtues, Confucius describes a wise person as never confused (9.28, 14.28). While comparative philosophers have noted that Chinese thought has nothing clearly analogous to the role of the will in pre-modern European philosophy, the moral discernment that is part of wisdom does provide actors with confidence that the moral actions they have taken are correct.

The virtue of trustworthiness qualifies a gentleman to give advice to a ruler, and a ruler or official to manage others. In the Analects , Confucius explains it succinctly: “if one is trustworthy, others will give one responsibilities” (17.6, cf. 20.1). While trustworthiness may be rooted in the proper expression of friendship between those of the same status (1.4, 5.26), it is also valuable in interactions with those of different status. The disciple Zi Xia 子夏 explains its effect on superiors and subordinates: when advising a ruler, without trustworthiness, the ruler will think a gentleman is engaged in slander, and when administering a state, without trustworthiness, people will think a gentleman is exploiting them (19.10). The implication is that a sincerely public-minded official would be ineffective without the trust that this quality inspires. In a dialogue with a ruler from chapter four of Han’s Intertextual Commentary the Odes , Confucius explains that in employing someone, trustworthiness is superior to strength, ability to flatter, or eloquence. Being able to rely on someone is so important to Confucius that, when asked about good government, he explained that trustworthiness was superior to either food or weapons, concluding: “If the people do not find the ruler trustworthy, the state will not stand” (12.7).

By the Han period, benevolence, righteousness, ritual propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness began to be considered as a complete set of human virtues, corresponding with other quintets of phenomena used to describe the natural world. Some texts described a level of moral perfection, as with the sages of antiquity, as unifying all these virtues. Prior to this, it is unclear whether the possession of a particular virtue entailed having all the others, although benevolence was sometimes used as a more general term for a combination of one or more of the other virtues (e.g., Analects 17.6). At other times, Confucius presented individual virtues as expressions of goodness in particular domains of life. Early Confucius dialogues are embedded in concrete situations, and so resist attempts to distill them into more abstract principles of morality. As a result, descriptions of the virtues are embedded in anecdotes about the exemplary individuals whose character traits the dialogues encourage their audience to develop. Confucius taught that the measure of a good action was whether it was an expression of the actor’s virtue, something his lessons share with those of philosophies like Aristotle’s that are generally described as “virtue ethics”. A modern evaluation of the teachings of Confucius as a “virtue ethics” is articulated in Bryan W. Van Norden’s Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy , which pays particular attention to analogies between the way of Confucius and Aristotle’s “good life”. The nature of the available source materials about Confucius, however, means that the diverse texts from early China lack the systematization of a work like Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics .

The five virtues described above are not the only ones of which Confucius spoke. He discussed loyalty ( zhong 忠), which at one point is described as the minister’s behavior toward a ritually proper ruler (3.19). He said that courage ( yong 勇) is what compels one to act once one has seen where righteousness lies (2.24). Another term sometimes translated as “virtue” ( de 德), is usually used to describe the authority of a ruler that grows out of goodness or favor to others, and is a key term in many of the social and political works discussed in the following section. Yet going through a list of all the virtues in the early sources is not sufficient to describe the entirety of the moral universe associated with Confucius.

The presence of themes in the Analects like the ruler’s exceptional influence as a moral exemplar, the importance of judging people by their deeds rather than their words (1.3, 2.10, 5.10), or even the protection of the culture of Zhou by higher powers (9.5), all highlight the unsystematic nature of the text and underscore that teaching others how to cultivate the virtues is a key aspect, but only a part, of the ethical ideal of Confucius. Yet there is also a conundrum inherent in any attempt to derive abstract moral rules from the mostly dialogical form of the Analects , that is, the problem of whether the situational context and conversation partner is integral to evaluating the statements of Confucius. A historically notable example of an attempt to find a generalized moral rule in the Analects is the reading of a pair of passages that use a formulation similar to that of the “Golden Rule” of the Christian Bible (Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31) to describe benevolence: “Do not impose upon others those things that you yourself do not desire” (12.2, cf. 5.12, 15.24). Read as axiomatic moral imperatives, these passages differ from the kind of exemplar-based and situational conversations about morality usually found in the Analects . For this reason, some scholars, including E. Bruce Brooks, believe these passages to be interpolations. While they are not wholly inconsistent with the way that benevolence is described in early texts, their interpretation as abstract principles has been influenced by their perceived similarity to the Biblical examples. In the Records of Ritual , a slightly different formulation of a rule about self and others is presented as not universal in its scope, but rather as descriptive of how the exemplary ruler influences the people. In common with other early texts, the Analects describes how the moral transformation of society relies on the positive example of the ruler, comparing the influence of the gentleman on the people to the way the wind blows on the grass, forcing it to bend (12.19). In a similar vein, after discussing how the personal qualities of rulers of the past determined whether or not their subjects could morally transform, the Records of Ritual expresses its principle of reflexivity:

That is why the gentleman only seeks things in others that he or she personally possesses. [The gentleman] only condemns things in others that he or she personally lacks. (“ Daxue ” 大學)

This is a point about the efficacy of moral suasion, saying that a ruler cannot expect to reform society solely by command since it is only the ruler’s personal example that can transform others. For this reason, the ruler should not compel behaviors from his subjects to which he or she would not personally assent, something rather different from the “Golden Rule”. Historically, however, views that Confucius was inspired by the same Natural Theology as Christians, or that philosophers are naturally concerned with the generalization of moral imperatives, have argued in favor of a closer identification with the “Golden Rule,” a fact that illustrates the interpretative conundrum arising from the formal aspects of the Analects .

Early Zhou political philosophy as represented in the Classic of Odes and the Classic of Documents centered on moral justification for political authority based on the doctrine of the “Mandate of Heaven” ( tianming 天命). This view was that the sage’s virtue ( de ) attracted the attention of the anthropomorphized cosmic power usually translated as “Heaven” ( tian 天), which supported the sage’s rise to political authority. These canonical texts argued that political success or failure is a function of moral quality, evidenced by actions such as proper ritual performance, on the part of the ruler. Confucius drew on these classics and adapted the classical view of moral authority in important ways, connecting it to a normative picture of society. Positing a parallel between the nature of reciprocal responsibilities of individuals in different roles in two domains of social organization, in the Analects Confucius linked filial piety in the family to loyalty in the political realm:

It is rare for a person who is filially pious to his parents and older siblings to be inclined to rebel against his superiors… Filial piety to parents and elder siblings may be considered the root of a person. (1.2)

This section examines Confucius’s social and political philosophy, beginning with the central role of his analysis of the traditional norm of filial piety.

Just as Confucius analyzed the psychology of ritual performance and related it to individual moral development, his discussion of filial piety was another example of the development and adaptation of a particular classical cultural pattern to a wider philosophical context and set of concerns. Originally limited to descriptions of sacrifice to ancestors in the context of hereditary kinship groups, a more extended meaning of “filial piety” was used to describe the sage king Shun’s 舜 (trad. r. 2256–2205 BCE) treatment of his living father in the Classic of Documents . Despite humble origins, Shun’s filial piety was recognized as a quality that signaled he would be a suitable successor for the sage king Yao 堯 (trad. r. 2357–2256 BCE). Confucius in the Analects praised the ancient sage kings at great length, and the sage king Yu 禹 for his filial piety in the context of sacrifice (8.21). However, he used the term filial piety to mean both sacrificial mastery and behaving appropriately to one’s parents. In a conversation with one of his disciples he explains that filial piety meant “not contesting”, and that it entailed:

while one’s parents were alive, serving them in a ritually proper way, and after one’s parents died, burying them and sacrificing to them in a ritually proper way. (2.5)

In rationalizing the moral content of legacies of the past like the three-year mourning period after the death of a parent, Confucius reasoned that for three years a filially pious child should not alter a parent’s way (4.20, cf. 19.18), and explains the origin of length of the three-year mourning period to be the length of time that the parents had given their infant child support (17.21). This adaptation of filial piety to connote the proper way for a gentleman to behave both inside and outside the home was a generalization of a pattern of behavior that had once been specific to the family.

Intellectual historian Chen Lai 陈来 has identified two sets of ideal traits that became hybridized in the late Warring States period. The first set of qualities describes the virtue of the ruler coming out of politically-oriented descriptions of figures like King Wen of Zhou, including uprightness ( zhi 直) and fortitude ( gang 剛). The second set of qualities is based on bonds specific to kinship groups, including filial piety and kindness ( ci 慈). As kinship groups were subordinated to larger political units, texts began to exhibit hybrid lists of ideal qualities that drew from both sets. Consequently, Confucius had to effectively integrate clan priorities and state priorities, a conciliation illustrated in Han’s Intertextual Commentary the Odes by his insistence that filial piety is not simply deference to elders. When his disciple Zengzi 曾子 submitted to a severe beating from his father’s staff in punishment for an offense, Confucius chastises Zengzi, saying that even the sage king Shun would not have submitted to a beating so severe. He goes on to explain that a child has a dual set of duties, to both a father and ruler, the former filial piety and the other loyalty. Therefore, protecting one’s body is a duty to the ruler and a counterweight to a duty to submit to one’s parent (8). In the Classic of Filial Piety ( Xiaojing 孝經), similar reasoning is applied to a redefinition of filial piety that rejects behaviors like such extreme submission because protecting one’s body is a duty to one’s parents. This sort of qualification suggests that as filial piety moved further outside its original family context, it had to be qualified to be integrated into a view that valorized multiple character traits.

Since filial piety was based on a fundamental relationship defined within the family, one’s family role and state role could conflict. A Classic of Documents text spells out the possible conflict between loyalty to a ruler and filial piety toward a father (“ Cai Zhong zhi ming ” 蔡仲之命), a trade-off similar to a story in the Analects about a man named Zhi Gong 直躬 (Upright Gong) who testified that his father stole a sheep. Although Confucius acknowledged that theft injures social order, he judged Upright Gong to have failed to be truly “upright” in a sense that balances the imperative to testify with special consideration for members of his kinship group:

In my circle, being upright differs from this. A father would conceal such a thing on behalf of his son, and a son would conceal it on behalf of his father. Uprightness is found in this. (13.18)

In this way, too, Confucius was adapting filial piety to a wider manifold of moral behaviors, honing his answer to the question of how a child balances responsibility to family and loyalty to the state. While these two traits may conflict with one and other, Sociologist Robert Bellah, in his study of Tokugawa and modern Japan, noted how the structural similarity between loyalty and filial piety led to their both being promoted by the state as interlinked ideals that located each person in dual networks of responsibility. Confucius was making this claim when he connected filial piety to the propensity to be loyal to superiors (1.2). Statements like “filial piety is the root of virtuous action” from the Classic of Filial Piety connect loyalty and the kind of action that signals the personal virtue that justifies political authority, as in the historical precedent of the sage king Shun.

Of the classical sources from which Confucius drew, two were particularly influential in discussions of political legitimation. The Classic of Odes consists of 305 Zhou period regulated lyrics (hence the several translations “songs”, “odes”, or “poems”) and became numbered as one of the Five Classics ( Wujing ) in the Han dynasty. Critical to a number of these lyrics is the celebration of King Wen of Zhou’s overthrow of the Shang, which is an example of a virtuous person seizing the “Mandate of Heaven”:

This King Wen of ours, his prudent heart was well-ordered. He shone in serving the High God, and thus enjoyed much good fortune. Unswerving in his virtue, he came to hold the domains all around. (“ Daming ” 大明)

The Zhou political theory expressed in this passage is based on the idea of a limited moral universe that may not reward a virtuous person in isolation, but in which the High God ( Shangdi 上帝, Di 帝) or Heaven will intercede to replace a bad ruler with a person of exceptional virtue. The Classic of Documents is a collection that includes orations attributed to the sage rulers of the past and their ministers, and its arguments often concern moral authority with a focus on the methods and character of exemplary rulers of the past. The chapter “Announcement of Kang” (“ Kanggao ” 康誥) is addressed to one of the sons of King Wen, and provides him with a guide for behaving as sage ruler as well as with methods that had been empirically proven successful by those rulers. When it comes to the mandate inherited from King Wen, the chapter insists that the mandate is not unchanging, and so as ruler the son must always be mindful of it when deciding how to act. Further, it is not always possible to understand Heaven, but the “feelings of the people are visible”, and so the ruler must care for his subjects. The Zhou political view that Confucius inherited was based on supernatural intercession to place a person with personal virtue in charge of the state, but over time the emphasis shifted to the way that the effects of good government could be viewed as proof of a continuing moral justification for that placement.

Confucius himself arguably served as a historical counterexample to the classical “Mandate of Heaven” theory, calling into question the direct nature of the support given by Heaven to the person with virtue. The Han period Records of the Historian biography of Confucius described him as possessing all the personal qualities needed to govern well, but wandering from state to state because those qualities had not been recognized. When his favorite disciple died, the Analects records Confucius saying that “Heaven has forsaken me!” (11.9). Wang Chong’s 王充 (27–c.97 CE) Balanced Discussions ( Lunheng 論衡) uses the phrase “uncrowned king” ( suwang 素王) to describe the tragic situation: “Confucius did not rule as king, but his work as uncrowned king may be seen in the Spring and Autumn Annals ” (80). The view that through his writings Confucius could prepare the world for the government of a future sage king became a central part of Confucius lore that has colored the reception of his writings since, especially in works related to the Spring and Autumn Annals and its Gongyang Commentary . The biography of Confucius reinforced the tragic cosmological picture that personal virtue did not always guarantee success. Even when Heaven’s support is cited in the Analects , it is not a matter of direct intercession, but expressed through personal virtue or cultural patterns: “Heaven gave birth to the virtue in me, so what can Huan Tui 桓魋 do to me?” (7.23, cf. 9.5). As Robert Eno has pointed out, the concept of Heaven also came to be increasingly naturalized in passages like “what need does Heaven have to speak?” (17.19). Changing views of the scope of Heaven’s activity and the ways human beings may have knowledge of that activity fostered a change in the role of Heaven in political theory.

Most often, in dialogues with the rulers of his time, references to Heaven were occasions for Confucius to encourage rulers to remain attentive to their personal moral development and treat their subjects fairly. In integrating the classical legacy of the “Mandate of Heaven” that applied specifically to the ruler or “Son of Heaven” ( tianzi 天子), with moral teachings that were directed to a wider audience, the nature of Heaven’s intercession came to be understood differently. In the Analects and writings like those attributed to Mencius, descriptions of virtue were often adapted to contexts such as the conduct of lesser officials and the navigation of everyday life. Kwong-Loi Shun notes that in such contexts, the influence of Heaven remained as an explanation of both what happened outside of human control, like political success or lifespan, and of the source of the ethical ideal. In the Analects , the gentleman’s awe of Heaven is combined with an awe of the words of the sages (16.8), and when Confucius explains the Zhou theory of the “mandate of Heaven” in the Elder Dai’s Records of Ritual, he does so in order to explain how the signs of a well-ordered society demonstrate that the ruler’s “virtue matches Heaven” (“ Shaojian ” 少閒). Heaven is still ubiquitous in the responses of Confucius to questions from rulers, but the focus of the responses was not on Heaven’s direct intercession but rather the ruler’s demonstration of his personal moral qualities.

In this way, personal qualities of modesty, filial piety or respect for the elders were seen as proof of fitness to serve in an official capacity. Qualification to rule was demonstrated by proper behavior in the social roles defined by the “five relationships” ( wulun 五倫), a formulation seen in the writings of Mencius that became a key feature of the interpretation of works associated with Confucius in the Han dynasty. The Western Han emperors were members of the Liu clan, and works like the Guliang Commentary ( Guliang zhuan 穀梁傳) to the Spring and Autumn Annals emphasized normative family behavior grounded in the five relationships, which were (here, adapted to include mothers and sisters): ruler and subject, parent and child, husband and wife, siblings, and friends. Writing with particular reference to the Classic of Filial Piety , Henry Rosemont and Roger Ames argue that prescribed social roles are a defining characteristic of the “Confucian tradition”, and that such roles were normative guides to appropriate conduct. They contrast this with the “virtue ethics” approach they say requires rational calculation to determine moral conduct, while filial piety is simply a matter of meeting one’s family obligations. Just as the five virtues were placed at the center of later theories of moral development, once social roles became systematized in this way, selected situational teachings of Confucius consistent with them could become the basis of more abstract, systematic moral theories. Yet this could not have happened without the adaptation of the abstract classical political theory of “Heaven’s mandate”, a doctrine that originally supported the ruling clan, to argue that Heaven’s influence was expressed through particular concrete expressions of individual virtue. As a result of this adaptation in writings associated with Confucius, the ruler’s conduct of imperial rituals, performance of filial piety, or other demonstrations of personal virtue provided proof of moral fitness that legitimated his political authority. As with the rituals and the virtues, filial piety and the mandate of Heaven were transformed as they were integrated with the classics through the voices of Confucius and the rulers and disciples of his era.

Earlier, the usage of “Confucius” as a metonym for Chinese traditional culture was introduced as a feature of the modern period. Yet the complexity of the philosophical views associated with Confucius—encompassing ethical ideals developed out of a sophisticated view of the effects of ritual and music on the performer’s psychology, robust descriptions of the attitudes of traditional exemplars across diverse life contexts, and the abstraction of normative behaviors in the family and state—is due in part to the fact that this metonymic usage was to some degree already the case in the Han period. By that time, the teachings of Confucius had gone through several centuries of gestation, and dialogues and quotations fashioned at different points over that time circulated and mixed. Put slightly differently, Confucius read the traditional culture of the halcyon Zhou period in a particular way, but this reading was continuously reflected and refracted through different lenses during the Pre-Imperial period, prior to the results being fixed in diverse early Imperial period sources like the Analects , the Records of Ritual , and the Records of the Historian. What remains is the work of the hand of Confucius, but also of his “school”, and even sometimes of his opponents during the centuries that his philosophy underwent elaboration and drift. This process of accretion and elaboration is not uncommon for pre-modern writings, and the resulting breadth and depth explains, at least in part, why the voice of Confucius retained primacy in pre-modern Chinese philosophical conversations as well as in many modern debates about the role of traditional East Asian culture.

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Confucianism

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Confucianism is a philosophy developed in 6th-century BCE China , which is considered by some a secular-humanist belief system, by some a religion , and by others a social code. The broad range of subjects touched on by Confucianism lends itself to all three of these interpretations depending on which aspects one focuses on.

The philosophy is based on the belief that human beings are essentially good, that they engage in immoral behavior through lack of a strong moral standard, and that adherence to an ethical code, and rituals which encourage it, enabled one to live a productive and tranquil life of peace which would translate to a strong, ethical, and prosperous state.

It was founded by Confucius (K'ung-fu-Tze, Kong Fuzi, “Master Kong”, l. 551-479 BCE), a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period (c. 772-476 BCE). Confucius is considered among the greatest philosophers of the Hundred Schools of Thought (also given as the Contention of the Hundred Schools of Thought) which references the time during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE) when various philosophical schools contended with each other for adherents. He is, without a doubt, the most influential philosopher in China's history whose views, precepts, and concepts have informed Chinese culture for over 2,000 years.

Confucius himself claimed to have written nothing and offered nothing new, insisting his views were taken from older works (known as the Five Classics) he was just popularizing through his school. The later Confucian philosopher and scholar Mencius (Mang-Tze, l. 372-289 BCE), however, attributed the Five Classics to Confucius, a view that continued to be held until the mid-20th century CE. These works, three others on Confucian thought, and one by Mencius make up The Four Books and Five Classics which have been the foundational texts of Chinese culture since the time of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) when Confucianism was made the state philosophy. The Four Books and Five Classics are:

• The Book of Rites (also given as The Book of Great Learning)
• The Doctrine of the Mean
• The Analects of Confucius
• The Works of Mencius
• The I-Ching
• The Classics of Poetry
• The Classics of Rites
• The Classics of History
• The Spring and Autumn Annals

The Five Classics are attributed to writers of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) which was in a period of decline during Confucius' lifetime. It may be that he did edit or revise the Five Classics, as tradition has held, but, even if he did not, he certainly popularized their concepts. His Analects , Books of Rites , and Doctrine of the Mean were written by his students based on his lectures and class discussions.

The Warring States Period concluded with the victory of the state of Qin over the others and the establishment of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) which adopted the philosophy of Legalism and banned all others. Confucian works were outlawed and burned along with those of any other non-Legalist philosophers. Copies of the banned works only survived because they were hidden by intellectuals at great personal risk. The Han Dynasty, which succeeded the Qin, encouraged greater freedom of speech, established The Four Books and Five Classics as required reading for administrative positions which led to a wider dissemination of Confucian thought which would seamlessly blend with Chinese culture after the Han declared it the state philosophy.

Historical Background & Career in Lu

Shortly after its founding, the Zhou Dynasty decentralized the Chinese government by sending lords, loyal to the king, to establish their own states throughout the vast territory. This policy worked well at first, but eventually, the states grew more powerful than the king, and the old loyalties were forgotten. By c. 771 BCE, the Zhou Dynasty was already weakened almost to the point of irrelevancy when barbarian invasions forced the government to move east for better defense. This was the end of the so-called Western Zhou period (1046-771 BCE) and the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period (771-256 BCE) which corresponds to the Spring and Autumn Period and early Warring States Period during which Confucius lived and taught.

Confucius was born in September 551 BCE in the village of Qufu, State of Lu (Shandong Province), the son of a military commander named Kong He who was of noble descent. Confucius' birth name was Kong Qui, but he would later be addressed as Master Kong (Kong Fuzi) which was Latinized by 16th-century CE Christian missionaries to Confucius. His father died when he was three years old and the resultant loss of income led to a life of poverty. He later attended school while working various jobs to support himself and his mother until she died when he was around 23 years old. By this time, he was already married and had at least one son and possibly two daughters.

He had been provided with basic education, as defined by the Zhou Dynasty, in the Six Arts – Rites, Music , Archery, Charioteering, Calligraphy, and Mathematics – but had taken it upon himself to improve on his knowledge in all of these through private study. Scholar Forrest E. Baird notes, “possessed of a deep love of learning by age fifteen, Confucius became one of the best-educated men of the day by his mid-twenties” (284). Married, and with a family to support, Confucius took the qualifying exam for government work as a teacher and, as Baird notes, pursued his goal of a meaningful life in a worthy profession:

His threefold professional goal crystalized early – to serve in government, to teach others, and to transmit to posterity the splendid culture of the Zhou Dynasty…He had a special fondness for poetry and music and was skilled in the performance of the latter. His reputation for excellent teaching was established by the age of thirty. As a teacher, Confucius rejected vocationalism while pioneering a liberal education that was strong in ethics, history, literature , and the fine arts. He admitted any student who could afford the token tuition – a bundle of dried meat. (284)

Confucius taught and also was involved in government at the local level, at one point serving as magistrate (or governor) of his town under the administration of the Duke of Lu. A political struggle among three of the leading families and the Duke of Lu's personal failings caused Confucius to lose interest in his work in Lu. He had attempted to teach the ruling class that they could live happier, more fulfilling lives by observing right conduct in accordance with a moral code which would result in effective and just government, but the upper class was not interested in following his advice. He resigned from his position and left the state of Lu to try making converts elsewhere.

This was a chaotic era in which the states fought each other for supremacy and many of the long-established aspects of government, including bureaucratic positions, lost cohesion. Administrators, advisers, scholars, and teachers who once held government posts, found themselves jobless and so established their own schools based on their personal philosophies. Some of these were actual schools in which students would enroll and attend classes while others were more “schools of thought” or movements but, collectively, their efforts to attract students to their system while discrediting others' would later become known as the time of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

Confucius & the Hundred Schools

The term Hundred Schools of Thought should be understood figuratively to mean “many”, not literally one hundred. Among the ones which were recorded by later historians, such as Sima Qian (l. 145-135-86 BCE), were:

• School of Names
• Yin - Yang School
• School of Minor Talks
• School of Diplomacy
• Agriculturalism
• Yangism (Hedonist School)
• School of the Military
• School of Medicine

At this time, then, Confucianism was only one of many establishing a philosophical belief system which, for the most part, they then tried to popularize. After Confucius left his position in Lu, he traveled through other states vying with proponents of the different schools for acceptance of his vision over theirs. Baird comments:

Confucius wandered through the neighboring states in the company of a small band of students, whom he continued to teach. He offered advice on government matters to local rulers and sometimes accepted temporary posts in their service. There were hardships to be endured – rejection, persecution, even attempted assassination. (284)

He had no more luck convincing the upper class of these other states of the value of his system than he had had in Lu and so returned home at the age of 68 and set up his own school. He based his curriculum on the Five Classics of the Zhou Dynasty and continued teaching until his death , of natural causes, five years later. His philosophy, at the time of his death, remained no more than one school of thought among many and was influenced, to greater or lesser degrees, by these others.

Taoism influenced Confucianism through its concept of the Tao, the creative and binding force of the universe; Legalism through its insistence on law and ritual as the means of maintaining order and controlling people's negative impulses; the School of Names through its focus on how closely the word for an object or concept corresponded to it (how well words represented the reality they referenced); the School of Medicine through its emphasis on the importance of diet in maintaining health and a clear mind. Confucius was influenced by all of these, and no doubt many others, but streamlined the thought, eliminating what he felt was non-essential or problematic, to develop a philosophical system which, if observed, could help people make better choices, lead more peaceful lives, and avoid the kind of suffering everyone at the time was enduring due to the wars between the states.

His philosophical vision was very simple: human beings were innately good, 'good' being defined as understanding the difference between right and wrong, and inclined naturally to choose what is right. This claim could be proven by how people reacted to others in times of trouble. The best-known example of this concept (given by the later Confucian Mencius) is a person coming across a young boy who has fallen into a well. One's first impulse is to save the boy – either by direct action or by running to find someone to help – even though one does not know the boy or his parents and might be risking one's own safety in trying to help him.

In cases where one did neither of these things – in other words, where one chose wrong over right – it was due to ignorance of what was right owing to a lack of a moral code and standard of conduct. Someone who would allow the boy to drown in the well would most likely have done so out of an overly developed sense of self-interest. If such a person were educated in right action and a proper understanding of the world and their place in it, they would choose right over wrong.

This is where the theological aspect comes in which encourages some to interpret Confucianism as a religion. Confucius believed in the Chinese concept of Tian (Heaven) which should be understood in this case as something quite close to the Tao. Tian is the source of and sustainer of all life which created the ordered world out of chaos. One needed to recognize the existence of Tian , a constant flux of Yin and Yang (opposite) forces, in order to understand one's place in the world. Sacrifices made to the various gods made no difference to those gods, who were all aspects of Tian , but made a significant difference to the one offering the sacrifice because belief in a higher power, whatever form it took, helped to check one's concept of self-importance, reduced one's ego, and encouraged one to move from self-interest to consider the interests and welfare of others.

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A belief in a higher power alone was not enough to encourage right action, however, nor to control one's baser instincts. Confucius advocated a strict code of ethics one should adhere to in order to maintain the middle way in life of peace and prosperity. These are known as the Five Constants and Four Virtues:

• Ren – benevolence
• Yi – righteousness
• Li – ritual
• Zhi – knowledge
• Xin – integrity
• Xiao – filial piety
• Zhong – loyalty
• Jie – contingency
• Yi – justice/righteousness

All of these were equally important, but they began with filial piety. People were encouraged to honor and respect their parents and observe a hierarchy of authority where a son obeyed his father's wishes, a younger brother respected and deferred to his older brother, and women did the same with men. In this way, the family would live harmoniously and, if enough families embraced filial piety, one would soon have a whole community of contented people, then a state, and then an entire country. There would be no need of oppressive governments or laws because people would, essentially, be governing themselves through recognition of the benefits of virtuous behavior. Confucius writes:

If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame and, moreover, will become good. ( Analects , 2.3; Tamblyn, p. 3)

By embracing filial piety, one was taking the initial step toward the other constants and virtues because one was subjecting one's self to a policy of behavior that did not elevate the self. Even the head of the household, the father, was expected to be humble, in his case in the face of Tian . No one was above observance of filial piety in accordance with righteousness. In responding to a question regarding government and control of unruly subjects, Confucius is reported as saying:

Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it. ( Analects 12.19; Tamblyn, p. 38)

Filial piety (and the rest) was informed by Ren which means not only 'benevolence' but that which makes a human truly human, one's basic humanity, which understands right from wrong and instinctively leans toward what is right. Expressed in behavior, Confucius coined the so-called Silver Rule, a much earlier version of the Golden Rule attributed to Jesus Christ ('silver' because the concept is expressed in the negative), when he said, "whatsoever you do not want done to you, do not do to another" ( Analects 12:2) which appears in his response to a question on defining perfect virtue:

It is, when you go abroad, to behave to every one as if you were receiving a great guest; to employ the people as if you were assisting at a great sacrifice; not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself; to have no murmuring against you in the country, and none in the family. ( Analects 12:2; Tamblyn, p. 36)

By adhering to these precepts, in accordance with the rituals which encouraged them, one would attain the state of junzi (literally “lord's son”) which meant a superior individual and is usually translated as 'gentleman'. A junzi recognized the order of the world and his – or her – place in it (since Confucius understood women as in need of as much instruction as men, although his era did not allow for it formally) and, through adherence to Confucius' teachings would behave well, in the interests of all involved, and live in peace with one's self and others.

Confucius' philosophy was reformed and popularized by the philosopher and Confucian scholar Mencius who, like Confucius himself, traveled state-to-state preaching Confucian ideals in an effort to end the chaos of the Warring States Period. His efforts at converting the ruling class were no more successful than those of Confucius but he did introduce Confucian precepts to a wider audience than it had at Confucius' death. Confucianism's cause was furthered by another scholar-philosopher, the last of the Five Great Sages of Confucianism, Xunzi (also given as Xun Kuang, l. c. 310 - c. 235 BCE) who reformed the system further, offering a much more pragmatic (or pessimistic) vision of the philosophy, closer in some aspects to Legalism, but still retaining the basic precepts, which he expressed in his work Xunzi .

Confucianism was rejected by the Qin Dynasty because it was critical of Qin policy. The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Shi Huangdi (r. 221-210 BCE), established a repressive regime, completely at odds with Confucian ideals, and adopted Legalism as the state philosophy in order to strictly control the populace. Confucianism was almost erased from history during the time known as the Burning of the Books and the Burying of Scholars c. 213-210 BCE, but the books were preserved by adherents who hid them from authorities.

The philosophy was revived by the Han Dynasty under its first emperor Gaozu (r. 202-195 BCE) who reestablished the values of the Zhou Dynasty. Confucianism was later made the national philosophy under Wu the Great. By the time of his reign, 141-87 BCE, Confucianism had already gained a substantial following, but Wu's decree would solidify and expand its influence.

For the next 2,000 years, Confucianism would be the dominant philosophy of China, even during periods – such as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) – when Taoism was more popular. In the 20th century CE, Confucianism was rejected by Chinese cultural reformers who felt it was outdated and by the Chinese Communist Party because of its insistence on a social hierarchy at odds with the communist ideal. Mohism, with its vision of universal love regardless of social standing, was advocated instead.

By this time, however, Confucian ideals had become so closely interwoven with Chinese culture that there was no way of separating the two. Confucianism continues to be observed, whether directly as a belief-system-of-choice or simply culturally in the present day and continues to gain adherents around the world. Of the many philosophies of the so-called One Hundred Schools of Thought, Confucius' vision ultimately triumphed by providing a specific way to live toward a greater good to live for.

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Bibliography

• Baird, F. & Heimbeck, R. S. Philosophic Classics: Asian Philosophy. Routledge, 2005.
• Confucius & Giles, L. The Analects of Confucius. The Easton Press, 1986.
• Confucius & Tamblyn, N. The Complete Confucius. Golding Books, 2016.
• Ebrey, P. B. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Koller, J. M. Asian Philosophies. Prentice Hall, 2007.
• Sima, Qian & Watson, B. Records of the Grand Historian. Columbia University Press, 1995.
• Tanner, H. M. China: A History From Neolithic Cultures through Great Qing Empire. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2010.
• Waley, A. Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China. Stanford University Press, 2010.

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Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

Confucianism Introduction

Religions of the World and Ecology Series

Confucianism and ecology volume.

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Berthrong, eds.

“ Introduction: Setting the Context” Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Berthrong

Confucian Ecology Confucianism has significant intellectual and spiritual resources to offer in the emerging discussions regarding attitudes toward nature, the role of the human, and environmental ethics. Its dynamic, organismic worldview, its vitalist understanding of ch’i (material force), its respect for the vast continuity of life, its sense of compassion for suffering, its desire to establish the grounds for just and sustainable societies, its emphasis on holistic, moral education, and its appreciation for the embeddedness of life in interconnected concentric circles are only some examples of the rich resources of the Confucian tradition in relation to ecological issues. A more detailed discussion follows of some of the key ideas of Confucianism regarding cosmology and ethics.

It should be noted that we are using the term Confucianism broadly, to cover the entire tradition. In a historical framework, however, Confucianism generally refers to the early part of the tradition in the Classical era (first millennium BCE) through the Han (206 BCE–220 CE) and T’ang (618–907 CE) dynasties up until the ninth century. Neo-Confucianism is a later development of the tradition that arose in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries and continued down to the twentieth century. A twentieth-century form of Confucianism, arising in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States, is known as the New Confucianism.

Naturalistic Cosmology Chinese naturalism as a primary ingredient of Confucianism in its broadest sense is characterized by an organic holism and a dynamic vitalism. The organic holism of Confucianism refers to the fact that the universe is viewed as a vast integrated unit, not as discrete mechanistic parts. Nature is seen as unified, interconnected, and interpenetrating, constantly relating microcosm and macrocosm. This interconnectedness is already present in the early Confucian tradition in the I Ching, or Book of Changes, and in the Han correspondences of the elements with seasons, directions, colors, and even virtues.

This sense of naturalism and holism is distinguished by the view that there is no Creator God; rather, the universe is considered to be a self-generating, organismic process. 1 Confucians are traditionally concerned less with theories of origin or with concepts of a personal God than with what they perceive to be the ongoing reality of this self-generating, interrelated universe. This interconnected quality has been described by Tu Weiming as a “continuity of being.” 2 This implies a great chain of being, which is in continual process and transformation, linking inorganic, organic, and human life-forms. For the Confucians this linkage is a reality because all life is constituted of ch’i, the material force or psycho-physical element of the universe. This is the unifying element of the cosmos and creates the basis for a profound reciprocity between humans and the natural world.

This brings us to a second important characteristic of Confucian cosmology, namely, its quality of dynamic vitalism inherent in ch’i. It is material force as the substance of life that is the basis for the continuing process of change and transformation in the universe. The term, sheng sheng (production and reproduction), is used in Confucian and Neo-Confucian texts to illustrate the ongoing creativity and renewal of nature. Furthermore, it constitutes a sophisticated awarenessthat change is the basis for the interaction and continuation of the web of life systems—mineral, vegetable, animal, and human. And finally, it celebrates transformation as the clearest expression of the creative processes of life with which humans should harmonize their own actions. In essence, human beings are urged to “model themselves on the ceaseless vitality of the cosmic processes.” 3 This approach is an important key to Confucian thought in general, for a sense of holism, vitalism, and harmonizing with change provides the metaphysical basis on which an integrated morality can be developed. The extended discussions of the relationship of li (principle) to ch’i (material force) in Neo-Confucianism can be seen as part of the effort to articulate continuity and order in the midst of change. Li is the pattern amidst flux which provides a means of establishing harmony.

The Ethics of Self-Cultivation For the Confucian tradition as a whole, the idea of self-cultivation implies a “creative transformation” 4 such that one forms a triad with Heaven and Earth. This dynamic triad underlies the assumption of our interconnectedness to all reality and acts as an overriding goal of self-cultivation. Thus, through the deepening of this creative linkage with all things, human beings may participate fully in the transformative aspects of the universe. In doing so, they are participating in an anthropocosmic worldview rather than in an anthropocentric one. Tu Weiming uses this term to indicate that the human is a microcosm situated in the macrocosm of the universe itself. 5 This calls for a sense of relational resonance of the human with the cosmos rather than domination or manipulation of nature.

In cultivating their moral nature within this triad, then, human beings are entering into the cosmological processes of change and transformation. Just as the universe manifests this complex pattern of flux and fecundity, so do human beings nurture the seeds of virtue within themselves and participate in the human order in this process of ongoing transformation. This is elaborated especially by the Han Confucians and Sung Neo-Confucians through a specific understanding of a correspondence between virtues practiced by humans as having their natural counterpart in cosmic processes. For example, in his “Treatise on Humaneness” chu Hsi (1130–1200) speaks of the moral qualities of the mind of Heaven and Earth as four, namely, origination, flourish, advantage, and firmness. These correspond to the four moral qualities of humans, namely, humaneness, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. The cosmological and the human virtues are seen as part of one dynamic process of transformation in the universe. In Han Confucian thought these virtues are coordinated with seasons, directions, and colors.

The anthropocosmic view, then, of the human as forming a triad with Heaven and Earth and, indeed, affecting the growth and transformation of things through human self-cultivation and human institutions originates in Classical Confucianism, especially in Hsün Tzu (310–213 BCE), and finds one of its richest expressions in Chang Tsai’s Western Inscription (Hsi ming) in the eleventh century. This relationship of Heaven, Earth, and human becomes expressed as a parental one, and central to this metaphor is the notion of humans as children of the universe and responsible for its care and continuation.

To summarize, then, Confucianism may be a rich source for rethinking our own relationships between cosmology and ethics in light of present ecological concerns. Its organic holism and dynamic vitalism give us a special appreciation for the interconnectedness of all life-forms and renews our sense of the inherent value of this intricate web of life. The shared psycho-physical entity of ch’i becomes the basis for establishing a reciprocity between the human and nonhuman worlds. In this same vein, the ethics of self-cultivation and the nurturing of virtue in the Confucian tradition provide a broad framework for harmonizing with the natural world and completing one’s role in the triad. This is only suggestive of the rich possibilities available within the Confucian tradition for creating a more comprehensive ecological worldview and effective environmental ethics. The essays in this volume point toward such a range of intellectual resources in Confucianism for rethinking human-earth relations. This volume is but a beginning for future exploration.

Volume Overview In order to demonstrate the past, present, and potential Confucian contributions to contemporary ecological discussions, this volume is thematically organized into five major sections. The first section presents two leading Confucian scholars’ analyses of the present ecological crisis in relation to Enlightenment values. The second section outlines the context of Confucianism’s response to the contemporary debate on ecology in terms of worldviews, ethics, and philosophical reconceputalization. The third section presents a partial catalogue of conceptual resources for the task of critique and reconstruction. These materials are drawn from the long history of Confucianism within the East Asian cultural matrix. The fourth section presents a series of philosophic reflections on how Confucianism can add its distinctive voice to the growing global conversation about ecology. The fifth section demonstrates how Confucianism can cope with some very specific contemporary issues, critiques, and case studies.

The volume begins with a foreword to the entire series on religions of the world and ecology, in which the series editors remind us that Confucianism is only one of a number of religious traditions struggling to come to grips with contemporary environmental degradation. Religions have been continually challenged historically to respond to crisis and change. Yet the modern ecological crisis is unique in its scope and destructiveness. Never before has humankind had to question, as Tu Weiming warns, whether or not the human is a viable species. Furthermore, it is now clear that any long-term solution to the ecological crisis will be based on reformulating human values to include the relation of humans to nature. Consequently, religions, as one of the principle civilizational repositories of shared human values, must find ways individually and collectively to address the ecological crisis as a matter of fundamental moral principles and attitudes.

This volume on Confucianism and ecology focuses on the specific contributions of Confucianism to the present debate. The five sections address the ecological crisis in three overlapping modes. These are historical, dialogical, and engaged. A number of the essays approach the question of Confucianism from a historical perspective and describe how Confucianism in East Asia developed views of nature, social ethics, and cosmology, which may now shed light on contemporary problems. Chapters with a dialogical approach link the history of Confucianism to other philosophic and religious traditions. The most pertinent dialogue is that of Confucianism and modernity as embodied in the Enlightenment project. The third mode displays how Confucianism has been and is now involved in concrete ecological issues ranging from economic and industrial development to the role of women as agents of ecological transformation.

The volume begins with Tu Weiming’s critique of the Enlightenment mentality. Tu argues that the modern Enlightenment project is the dominant human ideology for any analysis of the present ecological crisis. In fact, according to Tu, there has never been a more pervasive human ideology. The Enlightenment project created the modern world, which has become slowly aware that its technology has let the genie of ecological disaster out of the bottle of modernity. What began in the West as a search for liberty, equality, and fraternity has led to unrestrained industrialization and unsustainable urban sprawl on both sides of the Pacific Rim and beyond.

Wm. Theodore de Bary’s response to Tu Weiming isolates two of Tu’s main points, the need for rootedness and localization. From de Bary’s point of view, one of the main problems of the Enlightenment is that our easy sense of being rooted in the cosmos was one of the casualties of modernization. We have lost a feeling of connectedness with our world and with humanity. De Bary reminds us that many modern Western thinkers have lamented the loss of community and cosmic solidarity as well. To prove his point, de Bary cites a long passage from Wendell Berry, the American poet-farmer turned ecological activist. Berry himself was stimulated by readings from the Confucian tradition. In the end, de Bary argues that both Berry and Tu follow the classic teaching of the Great Learning (Ta hsüeh) that moves from the cultivation of the self to the proper ordering of the world. In this context, any ordering of the world begins with relearning to protect our local bioregion, cherish our families, and find a way to live in a harmonious manner with the larger cosmos.

The second group of essays, by Rodney Taylor, P. J. Ivanhoe, and Michael Kalton, situates the Confucian response to the ecological crisis within the larger discussion of religion and the environment. Taylor, by reviewing how Confucians such as Tu Weiming and Okada Takehiko look at humanity’s place in the cosmos, comes to the conclusion that Confucianism has the resources for serving as a modern environmental philosophy. Although Confucianism is traditionally considered to be humanistic in focus, Confucians such as Chang Tsai (1020–1077) always viewed human beings as part of the larger cosmos. Taylor locates Confucianism’s contribution both in its historical past and as a dialogue partner for Western philosophers and theologians. Ivanhoe extends the discussion to relate early Confucian reflections on nature to contemporary theories of environmental philosophy. Ivanhoe shows how it is possible to link the thought of Hsün Tzu to the analytical side of modern philosophy. Here again we see how Confucianism, although deeply committed to human flourishing, is always embedded in a primordial cosmic reality. Ivanhoe explains how Hsün Tzu was deeply impressed with the coordination of nature and how human beings must learn to play a role within the larger web of life. This is described in the Confucian cosmology of the interaction of Heaven, Earth, and humans.

Kalton moves on from the historical richness of the Confucian tradition to ask how it can be reconceptualized for the twenty-first century. Kalton builds on the history of Confucian thought and envisions what a modern Confucian philosophy would have to look like in order to be sensitive to the ecological crisis. He shows how this can be done by taking key Neo-Confucian ideas such as principle (li), material force (ch’i), and self-cultivation and applying them to the contemporary situation. He underscores the importance of Confucian reflections on principle and the vital matrix of material force for constructively reconceptualizing our relations with the natural world.

The next section deals in greater detail with various conceptual resources drawn from the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese contexts. Tu Weiming begins with a classic statement of the Confucian concern for the continuity of being. It is this Chinese Confucian focus on the relatedness of being that Tu holds up as the foundation for future Confucian ecological speculations. It is a statement of Tu’s vision of the anthropocosmic nature of Confucianism as an inclusive humanism that is rooted in the regenerative rhythms of the cosmos.

Joseph Adler returns to one of the founding figures of Neo-Confucianism, Chou Tun-i (1017–1073). Adler attends to a key cosmological metaphor of responsiveness (ying) as a method to unlock Chou’s vision of nature and humanity. Adler provides us with careful readings of some of Chou’s texts that reveal how this seminal thinker demonstrated that Confucian social ethics ought to be expanded to include the natural world as well. As Adler reminds us, the Neo-Confucians were famous for their sensitive understanding of living things, so much so that it was reported that Chou was worried about cutting the grass outside the window of his study.

Toshio Kuwako focuses his attention on the thought of Chu Hsi (1130–1200), the grand synthesizer of the Northern and Southern Sung Neo-Confucian philosophy. According to Kuwako, Chu’s genius lay in his ability to take the more random reflections of his Sung colleagues and weave them into a coherent philosophic whole. One of Chu’s chief concerns was to demonstrate that the virtue of humaneness (jen) not only refers to humanity but to the correlation of all living beings and nature.

The next two essays, by Young Chan Ro and Mary Evelyn Tucker, continue the historical discussion of the Confucian resources for ecology through the exploration of the crucial concept of material force (ch’i). In addition to being one of the paramount concepts in the pan-East Asian philosophic lexicon, ch’i functions as a prime resource for reflections on nature and cosmology. Ro guides us through an examination of the Korean Yi Yulgok (1536–1584), one of the most famous of the Yi dynasty Neo-Confucian philosophers. As Ro explains, Yulgok was known for his balanced presentation of ch’i as the connective cosmological link between all beings. Ch’i operates as a foundation for all ecosystems and allows for a place for both humanity and all other entities. In fact, if we consider Yulgok’s arguments seriously, then we must attend to nature as an interconnected web of nature that we disregard at our own peril. Tucker’s essay surveys the broad theme of ch’i in key Chinese Neo-Confucian figures. She then discusses how the Japanese Neo-Confucian Kaibara Ekken (1630–1714) developed an ecological philosophy based on ch’i theory. As with Kuwako and Ro, Tucker makes the case that reflection on ch’i is not only important for our understanding of the East Asian development of Neo-Confucianism but may also provide us with a way to think about humanity and nature in a global context.

The next three chapters are broad-ranging philosophic reflections on contemporary ecological concerns. Chung-ying Cheng attempts a complex interweaving of cosmology, ecology, and ethics. Cheng argues that at the heart of the Confucian vision lies an inclusive humanism based on the relational patterns of the Book of Changes (I Ching). Cheng believes that if we can revive this kind of relational, processive axiology, then we have an opportunity to reverse the dualistic and agonistic patterns of thought that have dominated Western philosophy since the Enlightenment. In much the same spirit, John Berthrong tries to show how Classical Confucian metaphors can be employed by modern New Confucians as they seek to respond to the ecological crisis. Building on the work of Mou Tsung-san, one of the most important of the New Confucians, Berthrong illustrates how the fundamental trait of concern-consciousness can guide the tradition into a strengthened understanding of nature. Robert Neville concludes the trio of philosophic studies by advancing the notion of “posture,” or “orientation,” as important for Confucian ecological reflection. For Neville, posture is related to the notion of ritual or habit, namely, how a human being relates effectively and reciprocally to the wider world, including both humans and nature. Clearly, one of the pressing concerns of the modern world is for humanity to find a balanced way or structure, such as is suggested in the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung yung), that allows for the intrinsic value of nature to be preserved and enhanced as it pertains to human flourishing.

The final triad of essays, by Huey-li Li, Seiko Goto and Julia Ching, and Robert Weller and Peter Bol, move from the theoretical to the practical. As Li notes, whatever rich resources the Confucian tradition might have to contribute to contemporary concerns, many feminists remain unconvinced. Feminists often charge that Confucianism is incurably patriarchal in structure. Li underscores the inevitable contradictions between theories and practices. She observes that despite numerous Taoist and Confucian texts focusing on the unity of nature and humanity, modern East Asia is as highly industrialized and polluted as many other parts of the world. However, Li argues that if we pay proper attention to the notion of heaven (t’ien), we might find a means to address ecofeminist critiques of Confucianism in a constructive manner.

Goto and Ching remind us that not all cultural exchanges occur exclusively through the medium of ideas. They provide us with a study of two famous parks, Kosihikawa Korakuen Park in Japan and the Würlitzer Park in Germany. In outlining some of the Confucian influences on landscape gardening, Goto and Ching underscore the broader cultural and aesthetic matrix in which Confucianism spread beyond China to East Asia and even to the West.

In the final chapter, Robert Weller and Peter Bol directly address the present ecological crisis by asking: How is it possible to promote sound ecological attitudes and policies in contemporary China? They point out that Chinese cosmology is based on a theory of cosmic resonances that shows nature is best understood in terms of pulsating harmonies. Another feature of the Weller and Bol essay is an exploration of popular culture as illustrated by the continued use of traditional almanacs and the persistence of feng shui, or geomancy. The authors note that, as modern Taiwanese try to deal with ecological degradation, they often resort to the language of kinship and cosmic resonance. Whatever ideological means the Chinese may involve in formulating sound ecological policies, some of the underlying motivations and explanations will, no doubt, continue to rely on traditional sources. 6

The essays in this volume, then, show a living Confucian tradition seeking to find a useful retrieval of resources to respond adequately to the growing destruction of the environment in Asia and beyond. Of course, the Confucian world is not alone in this task. All the major religious traditions have become more aware in recent years of the challenge presented by unrestrained development and subsequent pollution. Moreover, they are ever more conscious that, although they may have resources to construct better attitudes and policies toward nature, they have not done so adequately in the past. While further research and discussion is vital, this volume is meant to be an initial step toward lessening the divide between rich conceptual resources and efficacious environmental practices in the contemporary world.

1 Frederick F. Mote, Intellectual Foundations of China (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971) 17–18. Return to text

2 See Tu Weiming’s article, included in this volume, “The Continuity of Being: Chinese Visions of Nature,” originally published in Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation, Tu Weiming (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1985) Return to text

3 Tu Weiming, Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation, 39. Professor Tu notes, “For this reference in the Chou I, see A Concordance to Yi-Ching, Harvard Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series Supplement no. 10 (reprint; Taipei: Chinese Materials and Research Aids Service Center, Inc., 1966), 1/1.” Return to text

4 See Tu Weiming’s essays in Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation. Return to text

5 Tu Weiming uses the term “anthropocosmic” widely. See especially, Weiming, Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation and Centrality and Commonality. Return to text

6 The understanding of the ecological role of traditional sources, such as geomancy and Chinese medicine, is discussed by E. N. Anderson in Ecologies of the Heart (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Return to text

    Copyright © 1998 Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School. Reprinted with permission.

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The Analects as the embodiment of Confucian ideas

• Mencius: The paradigmatic Confucian intellectual
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• Table Of Contents

The Lunyu ( Analects ), the most-revered sacred scripture in the Confucian tradition, was probably compiled by the succeeding generations of Confucius’s disciples . Based primarily on the Master’s sayings, preserved in both oral and written transmissions, it captures the Confucian spirit in form and content in the same way that the Platonic dialogues embody Socratic pedagogy .

The Analects has often been viewed by the critical modern reader as a collection of unrelated reflections randomly put together. That impression may have resulted from the unfortunate perception of Confucius as a mere commonsense moralizer who gave practical advice to students in everyday situations. If readers approach the Analects as a communal memory, a literary device on the part of those who considered themselves beneficiaries of the Confucian Way to continue the Master’s memory and to transmit his form of life as a living tradition, they come close to why it has been so revered in China for centuries. Interchanges with various historical figures and his disciples are used to show Confucius in thought and action, not as an isolated individual but as the centre of relationships. In fact, the sayings of the Analects reveal Confucius’s personality—his ambitions, his fears, his joys, his commitments, and above all his self-knowledge .

The purpose, then, in compiling the distilled statements centring on Confucius seems not to have been to present an argument or to record an event but to offer an invitation to readers to take part in an ongoing conversation. Through the Analects Confucians for centuries learned to reenact the awe-inspiring ritual of participating in a conversation with Confucius.

One of Confucius’s most-significant personal descriptions is the short autobiographical account of his spiritual development found in the Analects :

At 15 I set my heart on learning; at 30 I firmly took my stand; at 40 I had no delusions; at 50 I knew the mandate of heaven; at 60 my ear was attuned; at 70 I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the boundaries. (2:4)

Confucius’s life as a student and teacher exemplified his idea that education was a ceaseless process of self-realization . When one of his students reportedly had difficulty describing him, Confucius came to his aid:

Why did you not simply say something to this effect: he is the sort of man who forgets to eat when he engages himself in vigorous pursuit of learning, who is so full of joy that he forgets his worries, and who does not notice that old age is coming on? (7:18)

Confucius was deeply concerned that the culture ( wen ) he cherished was not being transmitted and that the learning ( xue ) he propounded was not being taught. His strong sense of mission, however, never interfered with his ability to remember what had been imparted to him, to learn without flagging, and to teach without growing weary. What he demanded of himself was strenuous:

It is these things that cause me concern: failure to cultivate virtue , failure to go deeply into what I have learned, inability to move up to what I have heard to be right, and inability to reform myself when I have defects. (7:3)

What he demanded of his students was the willingness to learn: “I do not enlighten anyone who is not eager to learn, nor encourage anyone who is not anxious to put his ideas into words” (7:8).

The community that Confucius created was a scholarly fellowship of like-minded men of different ages and different backgrounds from different states. They were attracted to Confucius because they shared his vision and to varying degrees took part in his mission to bring moral order to an increasingly fragmented world. That mission was difficult and even dangerous. Confucius himself suffered from joblessness, homelessness, starvation, and occasionally life-threatening violence. Yet his faith in the survivability of the culture that he cherished and the workability of the approach to teaching that he propounded was so steadfast that he convinced his followers as well as himself that heaven was on their side. When Confucius’s life was threatened in Kuang, he said:

Since the death of King Wen [founder of the Zhou dynasty] does not the mission of culture ( wen ) rest here in me? If heaven intends this culture to be destroyed, those who come after me will not be able to have any part of it. If heaven does not intend this culture to be destroyed, then what can the men of Kuang do to me? (9:5)

That expression of self-confidence informed by a powerful sense of mission may give the impression that there was presumptuousness in Confucius’s self-image. Confucius, however, made it explicit that he was far from attaining sagehood and that all he really excelled in was “love of learning” (5:27). To him, learning not only broadened his knowledge and deepened his self-awareness but also defined who he was. He frankly admitted that he was not born endowed with knowledge, nor did he belong to the class of men who could transform society without knowledge. Rather, he reported that he used his ears widely and followed what was good in what he had heard and used his eyes widely and retained in his mind what he had seen. His learning constituted “a lower level of knowledge” (7:27), a practical level that was presumably accessible to the majority of human beings. In that sense Confucius was neither a prophet with privileged access to the divine nor a philosopher who had already seen the truth but a teacher of humanity who was also an advanced fellow traveler on the way to self-realization.

As a teacher of humanity, Confucius stated his ambition in terms of concern for human beings: “To bring comfort to the old, to have trust in friends, and to cherish the young” (5:25). Confucius’s vision of the way to develop a moral community began with a holistic reflection on the human condition. Instead of dwelling on abstract speculations such as humanity’s condition in the state of nature , Confucius sought to understand the actual situation of a given time and to use that as his point of departure. His aim was to restore trust in government and to transform society into a flourishing moral community by cultivating a sense of humanity in politics and society. To achieve that aim, the creation of a scholarly community, the fellowship of junzi (exemplary persons), was essential. In the words of Confucius’s disciple Zengzi , exemplary persons

must be broad-minded and resolute, for their burden is heavy and their road is long. They take humanity as their burden. Is that not heavy? Only with death does their road come to an end. Is that not long? (8:7)

The fellowship of junzi as moral vanguards of society, however, did not seek to establish a radically different order. Its mission was to redefine and revitalize those institutions that for centuries were believed to have maintained social solidarity and enabled people to live in harmony and prosperity. An obvious example of such an institution was the family .

It is related in the Analects that Confucius, when asked why he did not take part in government, responded by citing a passage from the ancient Shujing (“Classic of History”), “Simply by being a good son and friendly to his brothers a man can exert an influence upon government!” to show that what a person does in the confines of his home is politically significant (2:21). That maxim is based on the Confucian conviction that cultivation of the self is the root of social order and that social order is the basis for political stability and enduring peace.

The assertion that family ethics is politically efficacious must be seen in the context of the Confucian conception of politics as “rectification” ( zheng ). Rulers should begin by rectifying their own conduct; that is, they are to be examples who govern by moral leadership and exemplary teaching rather than by force. Government’s responsibility is not only to provide food and security but also to educate the people. Law and punishment are the minimum requirements for order; the higher goal of social harmony, however, can be attained only by virtue expressed through ritual performance. To perform rituals, then, is to take part in a communal act to promote mutual understanding.

One of the fundamental Confucian values that ensures the integrity of ritual performance is xiao (filial piety). Indeed, Confucius saw filial piety as the first step toward moral excellence, which he believed lay in the attainment of the cardinal virtue, ren (humanity). To learn to embody the family in the mind and the heart is to become able to move beyond self-centredness or, to borrow from modern psychology , to transform the enclosed private ego into an open self. Filial piety, however, does not demand unconditional submissiveness to parental authority but recognition of and reverence for the source of life. The purpose of filial piety, as the ancient Greeks expressed it, is to enable both parent and child to flourish. Confucians see it as an essential way of learning to be human.

Confucians, moreover, are fond of applying the family metaphor to the community, the country, and the cosmos. They prefer to address the emperor as the son of heaven ( tianzi ), the king as ruler-father, and the magistrate as the “father-mother official,” because to them the family-centred nomenclature implies a political vision. When Confucius said that taking care of family affairs is itself active participation in politics, he had already made it clear that family ethics is not merely a private concern; the public good is realized by and through it.

Confucius defined the process of becoming human as being able to “discipline yourself and return to ritual” (12:1). The dual focus on the transformation of the self (Confucius is said to have freed himself from four things: “opinionatedness, dogmatism, obstinacy, and egoism” [9:4]) and on social participation enabled Confucius to be loyal ( zhong ) to himself and considerate ( shu ) of others (4:15). It is easy to understand why the Confucian “ golden rule ” is “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you!” (15:23). Confucius’s legacy , laden with profound ethical implications , is captured by his “plain and real” appreciation that learning to be human is a communal enterprise:

Persons of humanity, in wishing to establish themselves, also establish others, and in wishing to enlarge themselves, also enlarge others. The ability to take as analogy what is near at hand can be called the method of humanity. (6:30)

Formation of the classical Confucian tradition

According to Han Feizi (died 233 bce ), shortly after Confucius ’s death his followers split into eight distinct schools, all claiming to be the legitimate heir to the Confucian legacy. Presumably each school was associated with or inspired by one or more of Confucius’s disciples. Yet the Confucians did not exert much influence in the 5th century bce . Although the reverent Yan Yuan (or Yan Hui), the faithful Zengzi , the talented Zigong , the erudite Zixia, and others may have generated a great deal of enthusiasm among the second generation of Confucius’s students, it was not at all clear at the time that the Confucian tradition was to emerge as the most-powerful one in Chinese history.

Mencius ( c. 371– c. 289 bce ) complained that the world of thought in the early Warring States period (475–221 bce ) was dominated by the collectivism of Mozi and the individualism of Yang Zhu (440– c. 360 bce ). The historical situation a century after Confucius’s death clearly shows that the Confucian attempt to moralize politics was not working; the disintegration of the Zhou feudal ritual system and the rise of powerful hegemonic states reveal that wealth and power spoke the loudest. The hermits (the early Daoists ), who left the world to create a sanctuary in nature in order to lead a contemplative life, and the realists (proto- Legalists ), who played the dangerous game of assisting ambitious kings to gain wealth and power so that they could influence the political process, were actually determining the intellectual agenda. The Confucians refused to be identified with the interests of the ruling minority, because their social consciousness impelled them to serve as the conscience of the people. They were in a dilemma. Although they wanted to be actively involved in politics, they could not accept the status quo as the legitimate arena in which to exercise authority and power. In short, they were in the world but not of it; they could not leave the world, nor could they effectively change it.

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Confucianism and education.

• Charlene Tan Charlene Tan Nanyang Technological University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.226
• Published online: 20 November 2017

Issues related to the aim of education, curriculum, teaching, and learning are perennial concerns in Confucianism. Within the Confucian canon, two texts, Analects ( Lunyu ) and Xueji ( Record of Learning ), are particularly instructive in illuminating the principles and practices of education for early Confucianism. Accordingly, the aim of education is to inculcate ren (humanity) through li (normative behaviors) so that learners can realize and broaden dao (Way). To achieve this aim, the curriculum should be holistic, broad-based, and integrated; students should constantly practice what they have learned through self-cultivation and social interaction. Supporting the curriculum is learner-focused education, where the teacher is sensitive to the individual needs of students. The “enlightening approach” is recommended, where the teacher encourages and guides students using the questioning technique and peer learning. The impact of Confucian education is evident in the creation and flourishing of “Confucian pedagogic cultures” in East Asia. However, a key question confronting a Confucian conception of education is whether such a paradigm is able to nurture critical and creative thinkers who are empowered to critique prevailing worldviews and effect social changes. A textual analysis of Xueji and Analects reveals that critical and creative thinking are valued and indispensable in Confucian education. Confucius himself chastised the rulers of his time, modified certain social practices, and ingeniously redefined terms that were in wide circulation such as li and junzi by adding novel elements to them. Confucian education should be viewed as an open tradition that learns from all sources and evolves with changing times. Such a tradition fulfills the educational vision to appropriate and extend dao , thereby continuing the educational project started by Confucius.

• Confucianism
• educational philosophy

Introduction

Confucianism comprises a rich tapestry of historical, political, philosophical and socio-cultural traditions that originated from Confucius ( Kong Fuzi ) ( 551–479 bce ). A prominent theme in Confucianism is education. Confucius himself devoted his whole life to teaching his disciples and persuading the political leaders of his time to enact his educational ideals. The intellectual tradition in education in Confucianism is exemplified in the Confucian canon known as the Four Books and Five Classics ( sishu wujing ). Within the canon, two texts stand out for their exposition on teaching and learning: Analects ( Lunyu ) and Xueji ( Record of Learning ). Analects , which is one of the Four Books, is a collection of the sayings and conduct of Confucius and his disciples. The process of collating Confucius’ teachings started shortly after his death in the form of little “books,” culminating in what we know today as Analects (Ames & Rosemont, 1998 ). Xueji is a chapter from Liji (Book of Rites) that is one of the Five Classics. It was probably written during the Warring States period ( 475–221 bce ) or the Han dynasty ( 202 bce –220 ce ) (Di et al., 2016 ). By the time of Xueji , an educational system comprising schools in the villages and a national academy in the capital already existed. Although Xueji was written specifically for students preparing for official positions, the educational principles discussed are applicable to all learners and reflect the essence of Confucian education.

Drawing on Analects and Xueji , this essay introduces a Confucian conception of education in terms of its aim of education, curriculum, teaching approaches, and contemporary relevance. All the English translations of the Confucian texts cited in this article were done by the author, unless otherwise stated. Efforts have been taken to preserve the original meaning and word pattern as much as possible. Any additions to the translation for the purpose of clarification are marked by square brackets (for the complete text of Analects in classical Chinese and English, see Lau, 1979 ; Ames & Rosemont, 1998 ; Slingerland, 2003 ; Chinese Text Project, 2016a ; for the complete text of Xueji in classical Chinese and English, see Legge, 1885 ; Wong, 1976 ; Di et al., 2016 ; Chinese Text Project, 2016b ).

Aim of Education

The central place of education in Confucianism is stated in the opening passage of Xueji :

If a ruler desires to transform the people [and] perfect [their] customs, [the ruler] can only do so through education! ( Xueji I).

The context of the passage is about good political governance. Rather than merely relying on laws, able officials, or virtuous advisors—all good measures in themselves—the ruler should devote attention to educating the people. The goal is to radically change the people by refining their conventional ways of thinking and doing. The reference to transformation and perfection in the above verse signifies that the scope is extensive, going beyond skills training and cognitive advancement to paradigm shift and character development. The actualization of this aim of education naturally requires a normative standard to guide the ruler in knowing whether and when the people have been transformed and their customs perfected. This standard is revealed in Xueji II to be dao (Way), which is the object of learning: “People who do not learn will not realize dao .” Dao is the Way of Heaven ( tian ) or “guiding discourse” (Hansen, 1989 ) that is passed down from antiquity. To realize dao is to understand and experience the “vision of human excellence” (Cua, 1989 ) that forms the basis for human transformation and cultural perfection. As the normative tradition inherited from one’s cultural predecessors, dao contributes to the formation of Confucian ideals and symbolic resources such as texts, cultural artifacts, and ceremonies (Chan, 2000 ). Dao was modeled and propagated by sage-kings such as Yao, Shun, and Yu of the first three dynasties of China ( Analects 8.18, 8.19, 8.20, 8.21). Among the first three dynasties, the Zhou dynasty ( 1100–221 bce ) is singled out by Confucius as embodying dao through its cultural elements, such as the exemplary conduct of its rulers, institutions, and rituals ( Analects 9.5).

Dao , while not lost and still accessible to all, is acquired through learning. As stated in Xueji III, “Although the ultimate dao is present, [one] does not know [its] goodness if [one] does not learn it.” That is why Confucius declares that “the junzi (noble or exemplary person) learns for the sake of dao ” ( Analects 19.7). Confucius also exhorts all to “be firmly committed to love learning [and] hold fast to the good dao till death” ( Analects 19.7). Not only are human beings called to realize dao , they are also entrusted with the mission to extend it. In the words of Confucius, “It is human beings who are able to broaden dao , not dao that broadens human beings” ( Analects 15.29). To broaden dao is to share in, contribute to, and advance the best of the spiritual, social, political, intellectual, and moral capital and practices derived from one’s cultural tradition.

But how do we know whether and when a person is realizing and broadening dao ? According to Confucius, such a person aspires to do all things in accordance with li (normative behaviors). Confucius underscores the pervasiveness of li as follows:

Do not look unless [it is in accordance with] li ; do not listen unless [it is in accordance with] li ; do not speak unless [it is in accordance with] li ; do not move unless [it is in accordance with] li . ( Analects 12.1)

Li covers all normative human behaviors that stem from and are accompanied by desirable values, attitudes, and dispositions (Tan, 2013 ). To realize and broaden dao is to think, feel, and act in accordance with li . Put another way, the pattern of li is the internal structure of dao (Hall & Ames, 1987 ). Given that li concerns all aspects of human life, individuals need to constantly turn to the guiding discourse in dao to act normatively in specific problem-situations. Instances of li recorded in Analects include offering appropriate greeting (3.7), sitting (10.12), eating (10.10), and even sleeping (10.24). In the context of education, li is manifested in all learning activities, such as establishing one’s aspiration in learning, analyzing texts, asking questions, and making friends (this will be elaborated on in a later section). It is significant that Confucius’ message to political rulers regarding li in Analects 2:3 corroborates the teaching in Xueji I on the importance of education. Confucius advises rulers not to govern the people through harsh laws and punishment. Instead, rulers should “keep [the masses] in line through li and [they] will have a sense of shame and order themselves” ( Analects 2.3). Rule by law and punitive measures can, at best, change the people’s outward behavior but not their mindsets and moral character. In contrast, directing the people to adhere to li is more effective, as it transforms not just their conduct but also their value systems. The transformative power of li follows logically from its integration of praiseworthy values, attitudes, dispositions, and actions that originate from dao . When people know and desire to act in accordance with li , they will naturally discipline themselves and be ashamed once their behavior deviates from li .

It is necessary, in order to further understand li , to introduce another cardinal Confucian concept: ren (humanity or benevolence). Ren defines the normativity of li in the sense that to observe li is to possess and demonstrate ren in all our thoughts, feelings, and actions (Tan, 2013 ). Confucius links li to ren by asking rhetorically: “What has a person who is not ren got to do with li ”? ( Analects 3.3). Confucius also asserts that “restraining the self and returning to li is ren ” ( Analects 12.1). To restrain oneself is to control one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions so that one does not stray from the right path of dao . Ren is the overarching and general quality that encompasses all virtues such as reverence, sincerity, empathy, tolerance, trustworthiness, diligence, and generosity (see Analects 12.1, 17.6). Xueji is replete with references to different facets of ren such as respect, love, humility, and diligence. Everyone has the potential to attain ren , as pointed out by Confucius: “Being ren lies with oneself; how could it come from others?” ( Analects 12.1). So quintessential is ren that Confucius contends that “the common people need ren more than water and fire” ( Analects 15.35) and that a ren person is prepared to “give up [one’s] life to achieve ren ” ( Analects 15.9). Putting together what we have learned from this section, the purpose of education is for learners to realize and broaden dao by internalizing and demonstrating ren -centered li at all times. Only then can the ruler succeed in transforming the learners and perfecting their customs ( Xueji I).

“Curriculum,” as used in this article, refers to the totality of learning experiences provided to students. This means that the curriculum includes not just the contents to be studied but also all planned activities, programs, events, and functions that take place in a variety of learning sites. Following the aim of education to realize and broaden dao through embracing ren -centered li , a Confucian curriculum should be holistic, broad-based, and integrated. First, the curriculum is holistic , as the spotlight is not just on the students’ cognitive progress but also on their affective and behavioral developments. Cognitively, the curriculum is designed to enrich the learner’s intellect (“broaden their learning”) and content mastery (“know their various subjects and acquire a general understanding”) ( Xueji V). As for the affective and behavioral dimensions of the curriculum, the same passage stresses the need for students to “revere their studies,” “esteem their fellow students,” “cherish their teachers,” “be firmly set and not likely to regress” in their learning, and engage in “discourses on their studies” with their teacher and peers. Other passages also highlight a commitment to learning ( Xueji V), self-discipline ( Xueji VI), enjoyment and diligence in studying ( Xueji VI, IX), and respect for and trust in dao ( Xueji VI, IX).

A rounded education affirms a Confucian mandate for students to transcend theoretical knowledge of dao by appreciating and abiding in it. That mere head knowledge is rejected by Confucius is seen in his call for all to be “a junzi scholar and not a xiaoren scholar” ( Analects 6.13). A junzi (noble or exemplary person) is the educational ideal for all human beings. Such a person is “anxious about dao ” (15.32), “acts in accordance with li ” (15.18), and “does not leave ren even for the space of one meal” (4.5, all from Analects ). On the other hand, a xiaoren , literally means “small person,” refers to an immoral person who is the opposite of a junzi . The “scholar” ( ru ) mentioned in 6.13 is a learned person who specializes in the traditional rituals and texts of the Zhou dynasty (Slingerland, 2003 ). Confucius’ point is that a comprehensive knowledge of rituals and classics, although crucial, is not sufficient to make one a junzi . This is because a scholar could be well versed yet deficient in virtuous character and conduct. What is needed, beyond knowledge acquisition, are the ren -centered motivation and disposition that are displayed through li . Confucius reiterates the deficiency of mere intellectual knowledge in another passage when he asks rhetorically,

[If a person can] recite three hundred poems but is incapable of performing an entrusted official duty and exercising [one’s] initiative when sent abroad, what good are the many poems [to that person]? ( Analects 13.5)

Here Confucius is not claiming that memorizing the poems from Book of Songs (which is one of the Five Classics) is useless. It is noteworthy that he has elsewhere commented, “The poems can give [you] inspiration, observation skill, ability to live with others, and means to express grievances” ( Analects 17.9, also see 16.13, 17.10). What Confucius is saying is that a learner should go beyond rote-memorization to conscientiously and prudently apply the ethical lessons derived from the poems to life’s circumstances and challenges (Tan, 2015a ).

Directed by ren , individuals are encouraged to reinforce and put into practice what they have learned through self-cultivation and social interaction. On self-cultivation, Xueji IX emphasizes the importance of “cultivating [oneself]” by being “‘reverentially committed to and constantly diligent in [learning].” A person self-cultivates by gradually and steadfastly appropriating the symbolic resources and sharable values from dao (Tu, 1985 ) that forms the basis of a Confucian curriculum. Self-cultivation presupposes that the realization of dao depends ultimately on oneself. That success is obtained through nurture (self-cultivation) rather than nature is taught by Confucius, who observes that “human beings are similar in their nature, but differ as a result of their practice” ( Analects 17.2). Going hand in hand with self-cultivation is social interaction through a variety of activities that take place both in and outside the classroom. The Confucian notion of the self is not a ready-made soul but formed and evolved through a “person-making” process (Li, 1999 ). What is envisioned are interdependent and mutually beneficial relationships among members of a community. As noted in Analects : “In desiring to reach a goal, [one] helps others to reach the goal” (6.30) and influences others to “become their best, not their worst” (12.16). Ample opportunities should therefore be given to students in a myriad of learning sites to develop and sustain amicable relationships with others ( Xueji V), hold fellow students in high regard ( Xueji V), select one’s friends wisely ( Xueji V), establish a close and warm relationship with one’s teachers ( Xueji V, XVII, IX), possess a sense of duty ( Xueji VI), enjoy friendship ( Xueji IX), and be willing to learn from one’s peers ( Xueji XI).

Besides being holistic, the curriculum is also broad-based . Analects stresses the primacy of learning widely (e.g., 6.27, 9.2, 19.6) and broadening oneself with culture ( wen ) (9.11). The “culture” mentioned in 9.11 is the normative tradition of dao that is encapsulated in the Zhou dynasty. A broad-based curriculum, therefore, introduces learners to varied defining aspects of Zhou culture, such as its literature, arts, and ceremonies. Rather than narrow subject specialization, Xueji V advocates that students “know the different categories [of knowledge] and obtain gain mastery [in them].” Another passage in the Xueji (VIII) refers to the learning of music (“accomplished in the stringed instruments”), poetry (“accomplished in the Book of Songs”), and rituals (“accomplished in the rituals”). The above domains of learning or subjects are part of the six arts ( liuyi ) in ancient China that consist of rituals, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy or writing, and mathematics (Tan, 2013 ).

The third characteristic of a Confucian curriculum is its integrated nature. The six arts are not unrelated and discrete disciplines, nor are they taught theoretically without real-life application. Instead, the six arts are interconnected, mutually reinforcing, and practice-oriented, with ren -centered li infused into the total curriculum. Confucius gives an example of the integration between archery and rituals:

The junzi are not competitive. If they must compete, it is in archery. [They] bow and make way for each other before ascending [the hall], [they] offer up toasts after descending [the hall] ( Analects 3.7).

We see in the above that even in sports, participants are expected to observe rituals that showcase the ren virtues of courtesy, deference, and sportsmanship. To facilitate the synthesis of subjects, the curriculum should be well-structured and progressive. Xueji V outlines a nine-year program that systematically introduces students to a values-centered, rounded, and comprehensive curriculum. Students start by forming their learning aspirations and learning to analyze texts. They work toward achieving their learning aspirations by being reverentially committed to studying; they also learn collaboratively by being in and enjoying the company of others. They continue to extend their learning and engage in discussions with their teachers and peers. They also build and maintain a close relationship with their teachers as well as make friends judiciously. In the final stage, students further broaden their learning by mastering different categories of knowledge and becoming proficient in learning without regression. It can be observed that the curriculum is structured in such a way that the students learn by “accumulating [what one has learned]” ( Xueji IX), i.e., consolidating and adding to the knowledge base. Xueji XX illuminates the learning process by likening it to an apprentice spending hours on making a sieve before progressing to more complex tasks performed by a skillful bow-maker. The idea of widening and deepening one’s learning from a solid foundational knowledge is also propounded by Confucius. He reminds learners “not to forget what one has acquired monthly” ( Analects 19.5) and “to keep alive the old in order to know the new” ( Analects 2.11).

Teaching Approaches

A learner-centered education is privileged in Confucianism so that human beings can be equipped and empowered to realize and broaden dao . The pedagogies, resources, activities, and learning environments are customized to produce junzi who are filled with ren and conduct themselves in accordance with li . Xueji X disapproves of didacticism where teachers “chant the [texts on the] bamboos” and “advance [the teaching] rapidly without regard for [the students’ abilities to] accomplish [the learning].” The same passage concludes that these teachers “are not sincere in making others [learn], and do not give [their] utmost to [consider the students’] talents when teaching them.” Such teaching is essentially rote-learning that places the teaching content and the teacher rather than the student at the heart of teaching and learning.

Underpinned by a learner-focused education, Xueji XIV urges teachers to be sensitive to the individual needs of students by “knowing [the students’] heart-minds” ( Xueji XIV). The word “heart-mind” ( xin ) in Confucian parlance refers to the harmonization of one’s thinking and feelings. It is the same word used by Confucius when he urges all to “set your heart-mind on dao ” ( Analects 7.6). He also testifies that he has followed his “heart-mind’s desires without overstepping the line” ( Analects 2.4), i.e., without transgressing li . To know the heart-mind of one’s student is to “know [the student’s] difficulty and ease in learning as well as [the student’s] good and bad [qualities]” ( Xueji XVI). The teacher should also “develop what is good [in the students] and rescue [them] from [their] deficiencies” ( Xueji XIV). Another passage advises teachers not to rush into telling students what to do so that the latter’s heart-minds remain undisturbed ( Xueji VI). This implies a teacher who makes a special effort to know the students well, particularly their mental and emotional states, which have a bearing on their learning. Only when a teacher is well acquainted with the students’ personalities, habits, lifestyles, aspirations, strengths, and weaknesses can the teacher “enlighten [the students] extensively [according to their needs]” ( Xueji XVI).

Following the injunction to leave the heart-minds of students undisturbed ( Xueji VI), teachers should refrain from evaluating the students’ learning too early in their studying. This is because early and frequent assessments would only create anxiety in the students and distract them from studying leisurely according to their personal aspirations ( Xueji VI). Instead of formal appraisal, the teacher should just monitor the student’s progress in the cognitive (e.g., ability to analyze texts), affective (e.g., desire to take studying seriously), and behavioral areas (e.g., skill in making friends) ( Xueji V). The objective is for the teacher to be informed of each student’s learning stage, growth, and potential so that the teacher can provide timely and appropriate interventions. Driving home the benefits of teacher observation, Confucius avers that it is “by observing [a person’s] errors [that we] know the degree of ren [in that person] ( Analects 4.7).” A case in point is recorded in Analects . Confucius was initially concerned that his disciple Yanhui was slow in learning, as the latter did not show overt signs of comprehending his teaching. Upon observing Yanhui’s conduct subsequently, Confucius concluded, “When [Yanhui] withdraws and [I] examine [what he does] in private, [I find that he is] able to illustrate [what I have said], so Yanhui is not stupid at all” ( Analects 2.9).

A particular teaching approach that is recommended in Xueji is the “enlightening approach” ( yu ) (Di et al., 2016 ; Tan, 2015b ):

A junzi teaches by yu (enlightening): [leads] the way [for students] without dragging [them]; strengthens [the students] without suppressing [them]; opens [the students’ minds] without arriving [at the conclusion on their behalf] ( Xueji XIII).

This approach enables the teacher to encourage and guide students instead of spoon-feeding or indoctrinating them. The adoption of the enlightening approach does not mean that direct instruction by the teacher is unimportant or jettisoned, since one still needs a tutor’s help in mastering the six arts, such as playing musical instruments and learning calligraphy. Rather, the teaching should be done in such a way that the teacher’s “words are brief yet penetrating, subtle yet appropriate, and sparing in illustrations yet illuminating” ( Xueji XV). The teacher should also inspire students to go beyond learning the contents to developing the dispositions for learning. As noted in Xueji XV, “a skillful teacher is able to motivate others to follow [one’s] aspiration [to learn].” The results are harmony between the teachers and students, effective teaching, and improved learning outcomes ( Xueji XIII).

In employing the enlightening approach, the teacher should not arrive at the conclusion on the students’ behalf. Instead, the teacher should promote reflection and independent thinking in the students ( Xueji XIII). Confucius displays the enlightening approach as follows:

[I] do not enlighten [a person who is] not striving [to understand]; [I] do not provide [the words to a person who is] not already struggling to speak. If [I] have raised one [corner] and [the person] does not come back with the other three [corners], [I] will not [teach that person] again. ( Analects 7.8)

Confucius fosters contemplation and inferential thinking by providing the initial point of learning and expecting the students to make their own deductions and judgments. Reflection and learning are closely intertwined, according to Confucius: “Learning ( xue ) without reflection ( si ) leads to bewilderment; reflection without learning leads to perilousness” ( Analects 2.15). A person who learns without reflection will be perplexed, as such a person has not adequately understood what one has studied. On the other hand, a person who reflects without learning is vulnerable to danger, since such a person lacks the requisite knowledge that is gained through learning to shield oneself from mistakes. The teacher should therefore strike a balance between knowledge transmission and independent thinking. Such a balance is achieved by the teacher supplying the necessary facts and intellectual resources without stifling the students (Tan, 2016a ). It should be added that inviting learners to think for themselves does not mean that all conclusions drawn by students are acceptable or equally valid. A learner-centered Confucian education, including the enlightening approach, is premised on preparing learners to realize and broaden dao . Hence all the deliberations and judgments made by the students (as well as teachers) should be consistent with ren -centered li within the normative tradition of dao .

Xueji further elaborates on the enlightening approach by delineating two teaching strategies for teachers: the questioning technique and peer learning. First, teachers should stimulate student engagement by asking questions and prompting students to do likewise. In responding to the student’s questions, a teacher should not “rely on rote-memorization” ( Xueji XIX), that is, stock answers that do not directly address the questions asked. Instead, the teacher “must listen [to the specific question] and explain [the answer to students]” ( Xueji XIX). That the teacher’s reply should correspond to the exact question asked is illustrated by the analogy of striking a bell. Xueji XVIII states that just as a bell gives a soft sound when it is struck lightly and gives a loud sound when it is struck hard, a skillful teacher is one who “gives [one’s] utmost to articulate [the answer to the specific question].”

In addressing students’ questions, teachers are also reminded not to undermine the student’s independent thinking by being too quick to furnish the answers. Both the teacher and students should instead “talk with each other for a long time,” with the teacher guiding the students to analyze the question, scaffolding their thought processes, and leading them step by step toward the answer ( Xueji XIX). This process is likened to a woodcutter who chops down a tree by first hewing away the easy parts before removing the knotty branches ( Xueji XIX). Xueji includes a caveat that although students are encouraged to ask questions, novice learners are dissuaded from doing so. This is to ensure that they “do not transgress the [proper] grade [they are at] in [their] learning.” ( Xueji VI). This instruction is predicated on the Confucian principles of structured and progressive learning mentioned earlier. Before jumping straight into critical discussions with their peers and teacher, novice learners should devote themselves first to acquiring the foundational knowledge. Otherwise, as cautioned by Confucius, they may shortchange their learning by being impatient and opting for quick results ( Analects 14.44).

Besides using the questioning technique, teachers should also facilitate active student participation through peer learning. Xueji XI proposes the strategy of xiangguan (mutual observation), which refers to students learning from each other through pair or group work. Peer learning takes place when students engage in “discourses on their studies” with their classmates where they demonstrate their ability to reflect on, evaluate, integrate, and apply what they have learned ( Xueji V). In the collaborative process, students listen to and observe one another, correct each other’s faults, share and build on each other’s strengths, and consequently improve themselves. So vital is peer learning that Xueji XII states that “[if a student] learns by oneself without friends, [such a student] will be solitary, uncultured, and limited in knowledge.” The reference to “uncultured” suggests that the purpose of peer learning is not just knowledge acquisition but also the enculturation of ren values, attitudes, dispositions, and conduct. Through peer learning, students are given the platforms to internalize and express instances of li such as “esteeming fellow students” ( Xueji V) and “finding joy in friends” ( Xueji IX). The strategy of “mutual observation” reiterates the centrality of social interaction discussed earlier where a learner “helps others to reach the goal” ( Analects 6.30) and brings out “their best, not their worst” ( Analects 12.16).

Contemporary Relevance

Confucian educational thought and practices have had far-reaching and lasting impact on China and other East Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. Common in these countries are the creation and flourishing of “Confucian pedagogic cultures” (Kim, 2009 ). Despite variations among them, these cultures share the following primary pedagogic patterns: a premium placed on education, high social status of and respect for teachers, student attention and discipline in class, a firm grasp of foundational knowledge, and repeated practice (Tan, 2015b , 2015c ). The Confucian accent on memorization with understanding, reflection, inferential thinking, theory-practice nexus, and peer learning support deep learning, higher-order thinking, lifelong learning, and collaboration—competencies needed by knowledge workers in the 21st century (Tan, 2016a , 2016b ). The seriousness with which East Asians view education, coupled with the high standards of teaching and learning in Confucian Heritage Cultures, has arguably contributed to the impressive performance of these students in international large-scale assessments. For example, Shanghai/China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Korea, Japan, and Singapore were consistently the top performers in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) (OECD, 2015 ; TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Centre, 2016 ).

Against a backdrop of contemporary education being increasingly determined by neoliberal agendas, Confucian beliefs in values inculcation and social interdependence are particularly salient for policymakers and educators. The global educational landscape is saturated with the trends of marketization of education, performativity, and global educational governance by international bodies such as the Organisation for Economic and Cooperation and Development (OECD). Schools are pressured to “perform” by producing measurable results through standardized testing and external audits. Concomitantly, the major frameworks for 21st-century skills are predominantly skills-based and geared towards economic priorities and quantifiable outcomes (Tan, Chua, & Goh, 2015 ). A ramification of neo-liberalism in education is the marginalization of moral and civic education where the development of ethical and communal values is neglected. This state of affairs is unfortunate, as education should not just be about what a person knows and is able to do, but also, and more importantly, about who that person is and should become. It is therefore pivotal to go beyond skills to cultivate the beliefs, values, attitudes, and dispositions that shape a person’s identity, life goals, relationships with others, and contribution to society. The process of values inculcation necessarily involves the community, since morality originates from and is kept alive by shared standards, social behaviors, logics and ends among members. It is here that a Confucian worldview of education is helpful in shifting our focus from utilitarian, performative, and individualistic concerns to ethical, non-quantifiable, and communitarian goods such as moral self-cultivation, social interdependence, and love for humanity.

Notwithstanding the before-mentioned merits of a Confucian conception of education, a key question is whether such a framework is able to nurture critical and creative thinkers who are empowered to critique prevailing worldviews and effect social changes. Confucius’ statement that he “transmits but does not make; trusts in and loves antiquity” ( Analects 7.1) gives the impression that he aims to preserve rather than reject or replace tradition. The desire to conserve one’s tradition and safeguard social harmony may make it difficult for individuals in Confucian pedagogic cultures to challenge authority and social norms, interrogate assumptions and actions, and undertake risk-taking and unorthodox ventures. So is Confucian education inimical to the development of critical and creative thinking in students? A textual analysis of Xueji and Analects reveals that critical and creative thinking are valued and indispensable in Confucian education. Critical thinking, interpreted broadly as skillful, reflective, and responsible thinking that facilitates judgment is an integral component of Confucian education. We have already noted in Analects that reflection ( si ) is inseparable from learning ( xue ) and that Confucius expects his students to draw their own inferences. A social critic and reformer, Confucius critiques the prevailing worldviews and norms, castigates rulers of his time for violating li and modifies certain social practices to align them with dao (see Analects 3.1, 3.2, 3.10. 3.26, 9.3). Similarly, Xueji enhances students’ critical thinking capacities through approaches such as asking and responding to questions, partaking in deep discussions, and formulating one’s conclusions.

As in the case for critical thinking, creative thinking, understood generally as novel changes or interpretations of experiences, actions, and events, is acknowledged and cherished in Confucian education. The broadening of dao entails not a rigid adherence to conventions and norms but a creative interpretation and appropriation of symbolic resources and ideals for particular problem-situations. Confucius ingeniously borrowed and redefined terms that were in wide circulation, such as li and junzi , by adding novel elements to them. The concept of li was expanded by Confucius from a narrow meaning of ritual propriety to comprise all normative behaviors that are accompanied by corresponding values, attitudes, and dispositions. The term junzi , historically reserved for aristocrats, was re-imagined by Confucius as the educational ideal for everyone, regardless of one’s birth. Furthermore, a junzi is conceived by Confucius as a creative person who “does not insist on certainty [and] is not inflexible” ( Analects 9.4, also see 15.37). Instructively, Analects stresses that a junzi is not “a vessel” ( Analects 2.12). A vessel in ancient China is a receptacle used in ceremonial rituals for specific functions and occasions. A junzi is not a vessel in the sense that such a person is not confined to one function or a fixed way of thinking. Instead, a junzi is capable of performing multiple duties by “going with what is appropriate” ( Analects 4.10), i.e., using one’s discretion to (re)act innovatively in disparate problem-situations. It follows that Confucian learners, in order to behave in accordance with li , must interpret experiences, respond to events, and construct personal meanings thoughtfully and inventively (Tan, 2016c ). Confucius’ pronouncement that he “transmits but does not make; trusts in and loves antiquity” ( Analects 7.1) should therefore be understood as his desire to transmit dao (rather than any Chinese tradition or discourse) and his trust in and love of Zhou culture (rather than the ancient past in general). His claim that he is a transmitter of dao does not imply that he views dao as complete and cast in stone. On the contrary, he contributes considerably to the normative tradition of dao by propagating not just the culture of the Zhou dynasty but also selected values and practices from the Xia and Yin dynasties ( Analects 15.11) (Tan, 2016d ). Analects 7.1 needs to be read in conjunction with Analects 15.29, where human beings are entrusted with the task of transmitting and broadening dao . It follows that critical and creative thinking should be extended to dao itself, where learners reflect on their prior conception of dao and purposefully co-construct a (better) vision of human excellence and guiding discourse for their fellow human beings.

To engender and buttress a culture that nurtures critical and creative thinking, it is imperative for policymakers, scholars, and educators to approach Confucian education as an open tradition . Such a tradition interacts with other traditions, learns from all sources, and adapts to changing times. By inviting its adherents to critique their own social norms, presuppositions and way of life as well as consider alternatives and better ideas, the normative tradition of dao is extended and refined. Confucius alludes to an open tradition when he teaches that we should be prepared to learn from anyone: “When walking with two other persons, [I am] bound to find a teacher among them: [I] choose to follow the good person, and correct [myself] when [I am] with a person who is not good” ( Analects 7.22). He also evinces open-mindedness by eschewing certainty, dogmatism, and inflexibility in favor of that which is desirable and productive ( Analects 7.28, 9.4, 14.32). Analects also portrays a junzi as a humble person who is receptive to new ideas, tools, and methods to arrive at good judgments ( Analects 4.10, 13.26, 15.18).

Being open to other traditions has the added advantage of assisting individuals to identify and rectify the shortcomings of oneself and one’s culture. An example is the research finding that East Asians tend to be strong in incremental and process innovation as well as “imitation behavior,” but relatively weak in questioning existing structures and generating invention and breakthroughs (Tan, 2016c ). One way to enrich the understandings, forms, and expressions of critical and creative thinking in Confucian pedagogic cultures is to explore modes of thinking and operations from other cultures, such as Socratic questioning and design thinking, that are more commonly found in Anglo-American societies. Such cross-cultural exchanges, dialogues, and problem-solving are in tandem with Confucian education as an open tradition that welcomes alternatives, new inputs, and external stimuli. Overall, an open tradition heeds the call of Confucius to broaden dao by sharing in and advancing the best of the spiritual, social, political, intellectual, and moral resources from one’s tradition. Confucian education becomes a dynamic and self-correcting process where teachers and students, individually and collectively, make sense of, adapt, and rework the normative tradition in light of the potentialities of present science and technology (Tan, 2012 , 2016b ).

Conclusions

Confucianism is currently enjoying a revival in China, due in no small part to the Chinese government’s appropriation and recasting of neo-Confucian doctrine as a formal state ideological position. An evidence of the official endorsement of Confucianism was a speech made by Chinese President Xi Jinping at an international symposium to commemorate the 2,565th anniversary of the birth of Confucius in which he supports the transmission of Confucian tenets ( Xinhuashe , 2014 ). In the context of education policy, the Ministry of Education in China has advocated the teaching of Confucianism in schools as part of the transmission of traditional Chinese culture. An official document titled “Notice by the Ministry of Education on the Issuance of the ‘Synopsis of the Education Guide on Perfecting Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture’” calls schools to “deeply excavate and elucidate China’s excellent traditional values by articulating benevolence, valuing the citizens, abiding in integrity, upholding uprightness, treasuring harmony, and seeking common ground” (Ministry of Education, 2014 ).

So has the resurgence of Confucianism in China resulted in a wide application and dissemination of the educational philosophy and practices of Confucianism as outlined in Analects and Xueji ? On the one hand, the renewed interest in Confucianism has led to greater attention and resources being directed to the learning of Confucian teachings through various avenues. A noteworthy nationwide initiative is guoxue (National Chinese Cultural Course), which was popularized by classes started by elite universities such as Beijing University and a primetime program on Analects (Yu, 2008 ). Schools have also relied on Confucian pedagogies such as the enlightening approach for their curriculum reform and introduced Confucian classics and rites to their students as part of their school-based curriculum (Tan, 2016b , 2016e ). However, we should not be overly optimistic about the prospect of a comprehensive and integrated promotion of Confucian principles and procedures in schools and society. A perennial obstacle is the pervasive exam-oriented mindset that propels educators, students, and parents to focus on exam techniques, didactic teaching, test scores, and college-entrance rates. Such a worldview vitiates the successful enactment of Confucian educational ideas such as holistic and broad-based education, learner-centered strategies, and interactive classrooms. In addition, the decision by the Chinese government to endorse elements of Confucianism has received a mixed reception, given the controversies over how Confucianism was historically used by dynastic rulers for political legitimacy and the backlash against Confucianism during the Cultural Revolution. Unsurprisingly, scholars such as Wu ( 2014 ) and Ford ( 2015 ) have contended that the Chinese Communist Party’s deployment of Confucianism is targeted at securing its cultural leadership, rationalizing continued one-party rule, and discrediting Western ideals of democratic pluralism.

It remains to be seen whether the present reinvention of Confucianism as a state ideology and the public popularization of Confucianism in China will lead to a renaissance of Confucianism that adheres to the desired outcomes, principles, and lifestyles as explicated in Analects and Xueji . This article has explained that a central aim of Confucian education is for learners to apprehend and expand dao through ren -centered li . A Confucian curriculum is essentially holistic, comprehensive, and integrated. A holistic curriculum emphasizes students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains. Learners are called to internalize and apply the contents learned through self-cultivation and social interaction. The curriculum is also broad-based; students learn the six arts of rituals, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. Furthermore, the curriculum is designed in such a way that the students learn systematically and progressively by constantly building upon, synthesizing, and putting into practice what they have studied. Teaching and learning are learner-focused, and the teacher responds empathetically to the individual needs of students. In the recommended “enlightening approach,” the teacher encourages independent thinking and guides students using the questioning technique and peer learning. Confucian education also fosters critical and creative thinking, as modeled by Confucius himself; he challenged the political leaders and convention of his time as well as strove to transform his society through a return to and continual (re)creation of dao . An open tradition ensures that Confucian education is not essentialized, static, and fossilized. Instead, it is diverse, fluid, and evolving, offering an educational paradigm that is rounded, ethical, universal, and ultimately enduring.

Further Reading

• Di, X. , Liuxin, Y. , McEwan, H. , & Ames, R. T. (Trans.) (2016). On teaching and learning (Xueji). In X. Di & H. McEwan (Eds.). (2016). Chinese philosophy on teaching and learning: Xueji in the twenty-first century (pp. 9–18). Albany: State University of New York.
• Tan, C. (2013). Confucius . London: Bloomsbury.
• Ames, R. T. , & Rosemont, H. (Trans.) (1998). The Analects of Confucius: A philosophical translation . New York: Ballantine Books.
• Chan, A. K. L. (2000). Confucian ethics and the critique of ideology. Asian Philosophy , 10 (3), 245–261.
• Chinese Text Project . (2016a). The Analects .
• Chinese Text Project (2016b). Xue Ji .
• Cua, A. S. (1989). The concept of li in Confucian moral theory. In R. E. Allison (Ed.), Understanding the Chinese mind: The philosophical roots (pp. 209–235). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
• Di, X. , Liuxin, Y. , McEwan, H. , & Ames, R. T. (Trans.) (2016). On teaching and learning ( Xueji ). In X. Di & H. McEwan (Eds.). (2016). Chinese philosophy on teaching and learning: Xueji in the twenty-first century (pp. 9–18). Albany: State University of New York.
• Ford, C. A. (2015). The Party and the Sage: Communist China’s use of quasi-Confucian rationalizations for one-party dictatorship and imperial ambition. Journal of Contemporary China , 24 (96), 1032–1047.
• Hall, D. L. , & Ames, R. T. (1987). Thinking though Confucius . Albany: State University of New York.
• Hansen, C. (1989). Language in the heart-mind. In R. E. Allison (Ed.), Understanding the Chinese mind: The philosophical roots (pp. 75–124). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
• Kim, T. (2009). Confucianism, modernities and knowledge: China, South Korea and Japan. In R. Cowen & A. M. Kazamias (Eds.), International handbook of comparative education (pp. 857–872). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
• Lau, D. C. (Trans.) (1979). Confucius: The Analects . Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin.
• Legge, J. (1885). The sacred books of China: The texts of Confucianism. Part IV: The li ki , XI–XLVI . Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Li, C. (1999). The Tao encounters the West: Explorations in comparative philosophy . Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Ministry of Education (2014). Jiaoyubu guanyu yinfa “wanshan zhonghua youxiu chuantong wenhua jiaoyu zhidao gangyao” de tongzhi [Notice by the Ministry of Education on the issuance of the “Synopsis of the education guide on perfecting Chinese excellent traditional culture”].
• OECD . (2015). Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) .
• Slingerland, E. (Trans.) (2003). Confucius Analects: With selections from traditional commentaries . Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
• Tan, C. (2015a). Beyond rote-memorisation: Confucius’ concept of thinking . Educational Philosophy and Theory , 47 (5), 428–439.
• Tan, C. (2015b). Teacher-directed and learner-engaged: Exploring a Confucian conception of education . Ethics and Education , 10 (3), 302–312.
• Tan, C. (2015c). Education policy borrowing and cultural scripts for teaching in China . Comparative Education , 51 (2), 196–211.
• Tan, C. (2016a). Beyond “either-or” thinking: John Dewey and Confucius on the subject matter and the learner. Pedagogy, Culture and Society , 24 (1), 55–74.
• Tan, C. (2016b). Educational policy borrowing in China: Looking West or looking East? New York: Routledge.
• Tan, C. (2016c). Understanding creativity in East Asia: Insights from Confucius’ concept of junzi . International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation , 4 (1), 51–61.
• Tan, C. (2016d). A Confucian conception of critical thinking . Journal of Philosophy of Education , 51 (1), 1–12.
• Tan, C. (2016e). Teacher agency and school-based curriculum in China’s non-elite schools . Journal of Educational Change , 17 (3), 287–302.
• Tan, C. , Chua, C. S. K. , & Goh, O. (2015). Rethinking the framework for 21st-century education: Toward a communitarian conception . The Educational Forum , 79 (3), 307–320.
• Tan, S.-H. (2012). The pragmatic Confucian approach to tradition in modernising China. History and Theory , 51 (4), 23–44.
• TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Centre (2016). TIMSS 2015 and TIMSS advanced 2015 international results .
• Tu, W. (1985). Confucian thought: Selfhood as creative transformation . Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Wong, W. S. (1976). The Hsüeh Chi , an old Chinese document on education. History of Education Quarterly , 16 (2), 187–193.
• Wu, S. (2014). The revival of Confucianism and the CCP’s struggle for cultural leadership: A content analysis of the People ’ s Daily , 2000–2009. Journal of Contemporary China , 23 (89), 971–991.
• Xinhuashe (2014, September 24). Xijinping chuxi jinian Kongzi danchen 2565 zhounian guoji xueshu yantaohui bing fabiao zhongyao jianhua [Xi Jinping attended an international symposium to commemorate the 2565th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and delivered an important speech]. Available online .
• Yu, T. (2008). The revival of Confucianism in Chinese schools: A historical-political review. Asia Pacific Journal of Education , 28 (2), 113–129.

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Reflection on Confucianism Essay

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Introduction

The broader view of the philosophy, understanding confucianism from the societal context, what yi jing says about the role of a confucian, reference list.

Confucianism is considered as one of the philosophies that were developed in the ancient times yet it still asserts a significant influence on the contemporary society (Liu 2006, 47). One of the authors who have written widely on Confucianism is Yao. In his presentation of Confucianism, Yao (2005, 17) makes attempts to link the philosophy to its developer and the culture or tradition within which Confucianism developed. This paper looks into the conception of Confuciasm by Yao. The paper also assesses the classical development of Confucian, the Yi jing.

Yao reacts against the constricted view of the philosophy, which comes from failure to open into the historical development of the philosophy and the role of the Confucian tradition as a whole in advancing Confucianism. By opening up into this history, it becomes easier to establish the role and influence of Ru in the advancement of Confucian teachings (Yao 2005, 21).

Yao does not rule out the role of the founder of this philosophy. He tries to present a broader picture of the development of the philosophy by picturing it from his tradition and the society from which it developed, rather that basing on Confucius. This is achieved by focusing on the evolution of the philosophy of Confucianism.

By placing the philosophy in the context of the entire Chinese society, it emerges that Confucianism has grown within the traditional Chinese society has thus been influenced by the changes in the political and social demands of the society. The point that is brought out here is that Confucianism had an influence on the functionality of the society through learning and the exercise of the Confucian ethos.

By arguing that Confucianism was not solely developed by Confucius, Yao tries to present a broader view of how the philosophy of Confucianism has grown and spread across the world. Yao tries to present Confucianism, not merely as a philosophy, but also as a tradition. This is done through the linkage of Confucianism to the Ru tradition in China (Yao 2005, 17).

In order to link the development of the Confucian tradition to the development and enhancement of the Chinese society, its development is divided into two. There is the creative period of Confucian development, which depicts the formulation of the philosophy together with the development of the principles within the tradition.

The second part is the most valid part as it links the Confucian tradition to the social and political developments over the period of development of the philosophy. This puts the philosophy in the context of the tradition, thereby moving it away from the focus on the developer and picturing it from a wider perspective. Confucianism is further divided into three epochs.

These are the periods of development that are presented in a sequential manner in order to capture the developments in the philosophy and other historical happenings (Yao 2005, 18-20). The main aim of such a presentation of the historical development of Confucianism is to establish its tie with the developments in the contemporary globalized society.

The question that leads to this is whether Confucianism can be likened to global culture and spirituality. Yao seeks to present an understanding of the doctrines of Confucianism in the modern society. This cannot be attained by looking at philosophy from the developer perspective, but from the perspective of the tradition and society.

Apart from the founder of the philosophy of Confucianism, the tradition and society within which the philosophy has developed exerted a lot of influence on the philosophy. This justifies the exploration of diverse dimensions in the development of the tradition (Yao 2005, 6-8).

Of great importance to the development of Confucianism is the translation of the teachings and doctrines of Confucianism into other languages. This is known as Yi jing. Yin jing was a curriculum that was utilized in the study of Confucian philosophies. Yi jing falls within the main Confucian classics of China. Yi jing plays a significant role in advancing the Confucian commentary.

The concept of divination has been one of the core concepts in the doctrine of Confucianism. Therefore, translation of the ethical and philosophical commentaries in the Yi jing provides a background for understanding the conceptions of divination in Confucianism. Western conceptions of Confucian philosophies are highly founded in the binary translations (Engelfriet 1998, 98-99).

The translations in the Yi Jing can be likened to western Geomancy. These classical texts have portrayed a deeper sense of the role of Confucian in the society. However, the translation takes complex process, which makes it hard for one to translate the Confucian commentary. One needs a substantial amount of time in order to know how to make translations of the Confucian commentaries as posited in the Yi jing.

This is a negative implication as it portrays Confucian commentaries as difficult for translation and understanding (Little 2006, 165). The paper has profoundly implored the confines in the understanding of the philosophy of Confucianism. From the discussion, it has come out that a clear understanding of the philosophy, more so in the context of the contemporary world can only be attained through studying it within the context of the tradition and society in which it developed.

Engelfriet, Peter M. 1998. Euclid in China: The Genesis of the First Chinese Translation of Euclid’s Elements Books I – VI (Jihe Yuanben; Beijing, 1607) and its Reception up to 1723 . Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill.

Little, Reg. 2006. A Confucian-Daoist Millennium? Bacchus Marsh: Connor Court Publishing.

Liu, JeeLoo. 2006. An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Yao, Xinzhong. 2005. An Introduction to Confucianism . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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The Scholarly Tradition

The tradition described by the neologism “Confucianism,” first used by European scholars in the 19th century, is rooted in the “The Scholarly Tradition,” of which Confucius is the most well-known practitioner. Some scholars argue that the tradition is a humanistic system of ethics, emphasizing the purification of one’s heart and mind to actively engage in familial and societal matters. Others argue that Confucianism is indeed a humanistic religious tradition, since the completion of moral cultivation is said to lead to cosmological and spiritual transcendence. ... Read more about The Scholarly Tradition

“Confucius and Sons” in America

Confucian teaching and interpretation largely became based on four key texts called The Four Books: Analects , Book of Mencius , Great Learning , and Doctrine of the Mean . East Asian immigrant communities in the United States differ in the way they view Confucian teachings: Some deem the teachings irrelevant for scientific society and democratic governance, while others uphold the teachings as an integral component of their cultural traditions. ... Read more about “Confucius and Sons” in America

To Become a Sage

To find expressions of Confucian values in the United States one must look not so much at explicit ceremonial activities, but at underlying motives as they surface in everyday life. Confucian values are often expressed among many East Asian immigrants through an emphasis on education, family cohesiveness, and self-abnegation in support of others. ... Read more about To Become a Sage

The 21st Century: A Confucian Revival?

The late 20th century saw the rise of organizations that promote Confucianism in the United States and abroad. In 2004, for instance, the Chinese government opened the Confucius Institute, a partnership with many institutions to teach Chinese language, culture, and literature. In the United States, Boston Confucianism is a growing intellectual movement that asserts that anyone, not only East Asians, can participate and learn from the Confucian tradition. ... Read more about The 21st Century: A Confucian Revival?

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Confucianism Timeline

93d47c446711dda147dd775e4558d38c, confucianism timeline (text), 551 - 479 bce the life of confucius.

Confucius, also known as Kung Fuzi or Master Kong, was born in Qufu in 551 BCE. He emerged during the Warring States Period: a tumultuous time in Chinese history surrounding the collapse of the central government of the Zhou Dynasty. Confucius offered a way to help people make sense of the turmoil, by committing themselves to their local communities, families, schools, and political structures. Alongside the preservation of traditional rituals, he taught humaneness, moral and spiritual reformation, and cultivation of good virtues. Although most public leaders disregarded his teachings, Confucius taught a significant group of disciples who went on to spread his message. While Confucius today is often said to be the founder of Confucianism, he considered himself more of a transmitter or revitalizer of the original Zhou traditions, aiming to restore a just government and create a healthy, moral society. He died in 479 BCE.

479 BCE Temple of Confucius in Qufu

A Temple of Confucius was built in Confucius’ hometown, Qufu, nearly one year after his death in 479 BCE. The Temple has been expanded and re-built since then, and is today the oldest and largest Temple of Confucius.

ca. 500 BCE The Analects

The Analects was compiled around this time. It is the most-revered sacred scripture within the Confucian tradition and contains primarily Confucius’ sayings and teachings. It was likely developed as a corpus of the memory of Confucius by his disciples in the generations after his lifetime to transmit his teachings.

371- 289 BCE Mencius

Mencius, also known as Meng Tzu or Mengzi, is the second most important figure in Confucianism, hence his title “the Second Sage.” He was a moral philosopher, political activist, and social critic. His conversations with rulers, students, and other contemporaries regarding Confucian teachings are recorded in a work entitled Mencius, which was later canonized as one of the Four Books of the Confucian Canon.

ca. 300 BCE - 235 BCE The Life of Xunzi

Xunzi (Hun Kuang) is the last of the Five Great Sages of Confucianism. As a scholar, his interpretations of the Confucian philosophical system helped establish the Confucian school as a formidable political and social influence.

213 BCE Burning of the Books and Burying of Scholars

While the details of this event are uncertain, it is said that under a royal decree of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang, many books opposing the Legalist school of thought (a rival of Confucianism) were confiscated and burned, and many Confucian scholars were executed. This led to a loss in the preservation of Confucian classics, which were only recovered and re-propagated several decades later during the Han Dynasty. Some believe that the sixth classic, The Book of Music, was completely lost in this event.

206 BCE - 202 CE The Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty arose amidst a flourishing of Confucian thought and practice. Han Emperor Wu (141 BCE - 87 CE) abandoned Legalism in favor of Confucianism, which he established as state philosophy. As the empire expanded into Korean and Vietnamese territory, two schools of thought emerged: the Old Text School, entailing study of the classical canon and early figures, and the New Text School, which infuses theories of yin/yang, the Five Elements, and miraculous tales in order to emphasize supernatural notions of early texts and figures.

136 BCE Emperor Wu Establishes First Confucian Academy

During the Han Dynasty, Confucian ideals became deeply embedded into the government and legal system. As part of his efforts to adopt and promote Confucian thought, the Han Emperor Wu established an imperial university based on Confucian texts for teaching future state administrators. He also introduced the civil service examination, a mandatory exam on Confucian classics for all candidates for local office. This practice of requiring that applicants for government positions pass an examination in Confucian texts persisted until the 20th century.

136 BCE Formation of the Five Classics

In 136 BCE, Emperor Han, under direction of Confucian scholar Tung Chung-shu (179-104 BCE), grouped the Five Classics together to form the earliest canon of the Confucian tradition. The Five Classics are: I Ching (Book of Changes), Classic of Poetry, Book of Rites, Book of Documents, and Spring and Autumn Annals. According to tradition, Confucius wrote or compiled the Five Classics during his lifetime. Though there is little evidence of this, Confucius’ ideas may be reflected in some of the texts.

175 CE The Five Classics Become China’s Official Scriptures

Due to the anti-Confucian policies of the Qin Dynasty, Confucian scholars during the Han Dynasty worked to recover and restore the Confucian Classics. Their efforts culminated in the Five Classics being carved on stone tablets and displayed in the capital. This event symbolized both the finalization of the orthodox Confucian Canon and its adoption as China’s official scripture.

372 CE National Confucian Academy Established in Korea

Confucianism began to spread throughout the Korean peninsula in the 3rd century CE. Goguryeo (Koguryo) was one of the three major kingdoms that ruled the Korean peninsula from the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE. In 372 CE, King Sosurim of Goguryeo established the Tae Hak (“Great Learning”), a national academy for the study and training of elites in Confucian thought and practice.

489 CE First Northern Confucian Temple Outside of Qufu

The first northern Confucian temple outside of Confucius’ hometown (Qufu) is built by King Xiaowen of the Northern Wei in China.

604 CE The 17 Article Constitution

Though Confucianism is said to have been first introduced to Japan by Wani of Paekche (of Korea) at the end of the 3rd century CE, it did not gain wider prominence until the 6th and 7th centuries. In 604 CE, Prince Shotoku Taishi established a 17 Article Constitution for the ruling class based on Buddhist and Confucian thought, especially the Analects of Confucius. It emphasized the responsibilities of both the sovereign and the ruled for a unified and harmonious state.

618 - 906 CE The Tang Dynasty

To promote the growth of education in Confucian thought and values, the Tang Dynasty established many schools and issued versions of the Five Classics that included commentaries. In 630 CE, The Tang government decreed that all schools should have a Confucian temple, leading to a rapid spread in Confucian temples throughout China. The Dynasty also developed official liturgy for worship and sacrifices at these temples.

682 CE Confucianism and Government in Korea

A National Confucian Academy was built in the United Silla Kingdom (Korea) in 682 CE. In 788, the Kingdom introduced an exam for state administrators based on Confucianism, though the exam initially had little effect on government. In 958 CE, the exams would become more influential and systematic under King Gwangjong of the Goryeo Kingdom.

700s CE - 1130 CE Neo-Confucianism in China

Neo-Confucianism began to develop as a response to Buddhism and Daoism in China. The first formulators included Han Yu (768-824 CE), Li Ao (772-841 CE), and later Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073), as well as its most important synthesizer, Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Thanks to Zhu Xi’s work, Neo-Confucianism was later adopted as the orthodox and state religion of China. The thinkers of the Confucian revival developed a comprehensive humanist vision that meshed Confucian ideas about self-cultivation with social ethics and moral philosophy. This Neo-Confucian philosophy applied classical Confucian principles to the concerns of the time.

1100s CE Neo-Confucianism in Japan

Neo-Confucian thought commentaries were introduced in Japan in the late medieval period. However, as a form of thought, Neo-Confucianism did not become prominent in Japan until the seventeenth century CE.

Late 1200s CE Neo-Confucianism Introduced to the Korean Peninsula

As a result of the efforts of An Hyang, a leading Confucian scholar, Neo-Confucianism was introduced to the Goryeo kingdom in the Korean peninsula. With the rise of Neo-Confucianism, Confucian thought and values began to take on even greater significance in Korean culture and government.

1313 CE The Four Books in China

The Four Books (Analects, Book of Mencius, Great Learning, and Doctrine of the Mean) became state orthodoxy of China in 1313 CE, when they were designated as the basis for Chinese civil service examinations.

1392 CE Confucianism Becomes State Religion of Korea

Though the Goryeo kingdom adopted Buddhism as its state orthodoxy, the Sejong and Joseon kingdoms adopted Neo-Confucianism as state religion and the official code of practice for administrators. This largely occurred as a result of the rise of Neo-Confucianism and the efforts of its scholars. During this time, Confucian values became strongly ingrained in Korean politics, culture, legal practice, education, and activism — a tradition that persists today in South Korea.

Late 1400s CE onward Wang Yang-Ming and the Lu-Wang School

Wang Yang-Ming, born in 1472, became the leading Neo-Confucian of the Ming dynasty. He played a significant role in reviving the philosophy of Lu Jiuyuan, leading to the development of the school of the universal mind, or the Lu-Wang school. His Neo-Confucian school of thought emphasized moral education and every human’s innate knowledge of good (liangzhi). The Lu-Wang school’s influence spread beyond China, becoming especially influential in Japan.

1603 CE Government Based on Neo-Confucian Thought in Japan

Japan’s Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu established a bureaucratic government that drew inspiration from some Neo-Confucian teachings.

1644 CE - 1912 CE The Qing Dynasty and New Schools

During the Qing Dynasty, new schools of Confucianism began to emerge, including Shih Hsueh (Practical Learning), which focuses on moral learning and addressing worldly issues, and Kao Cheng (Evidential Research) which focuses on the study of the canonical texts.

1800s CE Confucianism Syncretizing with Various East Asian Traditions

The growth of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Daoism, shamanism, and Shinto in East Asia did not undermine the continuing relevance and strength of Confucianism in many aspects of life -- including government, ritual, family life, ethics, and education. Rather, Confucian values coexisted and syncretized with other East Asian traditions.

1830 - early 1900s CE First American Accounts of Confucianism

American Christian missionaries traveled to China and wrote their accounts of Confucianism. In the 1870s, institutions such as Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of California began to devote themselves to the study of Chinese history and culture and Confucianism.

1862 CE First Use of the Term "Confucianism"

First use of the term “Confucianism.” It first came into use in the West following encounters between Jesuit missionaries and Chinese scholars. However, for centuries there had been an understanding of Confucianism among East Asian intellectuals that was not directly tied to Confucius but rather to those who followed or studied his teachings.

1919 CE May 4th Movement

The May 4th Movement developed as an initiative to bring about modernization and Westernization in China. The movement targeted and denounced Chinese traditions such as Confucianism. The 1905 abandonment of the civil service examination system, as well as the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the New Culture Movement, dealt a blow to Confucianism and traditional Chinese values and practices. Many figures, however, continued to defend Confucianism, believing it could offer ways to remedy China’s problems, and many Chinese people retained Confucian modes of thought.

1961 CE Qufu Confucius Temple Listed as National Cultural Heritage Site

The Confucius Temple in Qufu was added to the National Cultural Heritage Sites list.

1966 CE - 1976 CE The Cultural Revolution

Mao Zedong came to power in 1949 and established the People’s Republic of China. He was especially hostile to the “old thought” of Confucianism, which he saw as the governing ideology of China before the Communist Revolution. This led to the Cultural Revolution, a campaign to eradicate traditional elements from Chinese life and practice, including the destruction of traditional religious sites in China.

1976 CE Renewed Tolerance and the New Confucianism Movement

After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, subsequent governments were more tolerant toward Confucianism and other traditions of China. Though scores of Chinese people in this period grew up knowing little about Confucianism, the New Confucianism movement emerged aiming to adapt traditional Confucian thought and practice to the contemporary age.

1988 CE Beijing Confucius Temple Listed as National Cultural Heritage Site

The Beijing Confucius Temple was added to the National Cultural Heritage Sites list.

Late 20th Century New Emphasis on Confucian Study in the U.S.

Many Chinese scholars of Confucianism emigrated to the United States, bringing with them a renewed emphasis on Confucian study in the U.S. American interest in Confucianism and Chinese culture also continued to grow alongside various geopolitical events involving China. Many Confucian scholars in the US engaged with Western philosophy, re-interpreting classical Confucian texts in the context of contemporary crises.

The Present and Future of Confucianism

Confucian scholarship thrived during the later years of the 20th century. Confucian studies has seen a revival in universities across the world, and remains particularly strong in Japan; Confucian philosophy continues to have a significant influence in scholarship on ethics, moral philosophy, psychology, and social criticism. Though many modern geopolitical influences — particularly modern Chinese state powers — were hostile to Confucianism, the commitments, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the Confucian tradition remain vital in the consciousnesses and practices of many people in China and throughout the world.

Explore Confucianism in Greater Boston

Though there are significant Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean immigrant communities in Greater Boston, East Asian traditions such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Shintō are difficult to survey as there are very few religious centers. These traditions are deeply imbedded in the unique history, geography, and culture of their native countries and are often practiced in forms that are not limited to institutional or communal settings.

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17 Confucianism in Mainland China

Tongdong Bai is Professor of Philosophy and the director of an English-based MA program in Chinese philosophy at Fudan University in China. His publications in English include Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case (Princeton, 2019) and China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom (Zed Books, 2012).

• Published: 26 January 2023
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Although Confucianism has been on the defensive for much of the past 150 years, it has experienced renewal and growth in the past 40 years in mainland China. This essay will contextualize the attacks of Confucianism in the early People’s Republic of China, the beginnings of a Confucian revival in the 1980s, and the factors that have led to new modes of Confucianism in the past several decades, including works by the older generations and their students, the influence of Overseas New Confucianism, and since the new millennium, a growing minority among mainland Confucian sympathizers, the so-called Mainland New Confucians. This essay looks in particular at the Mainland New Confucianism, arguing that it may be more promising than Overseas New Confucianism in offering critical and constructive ideas relevant not only to China, but to the wider world.

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Junzi or the Exemplary Man: An Introduction to the Confucian Gentleman

This rough essay is compiled from the notes for a short lecture presented to the Esoteika Lodge No. 227 of Oregon on February 18, 2015. This essay introduces the original meaning of the word "junzi" (the Gentleman) and explores the role and characteristics of such ideal person.

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This article explicates self psychological connotations of junzi (君子) in the Analects of Confucius. Junzi is a noble person who attempts to actualize Confucian cardinal virtues in concrete human relationships at any cost. Kohut argues that a tragic person is faithful to the psychologically structured ideals even at the expense of death. Like a tragic person, a junzi follows his or her ideals and values, which are deeply anchored in the nuclear self. In the Analects, a junzi remarkably resembles a tragic person. A junzi in the Analects shows the characteristics of a tragic person: empathy, creativity, humor, and wisdom.

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In this paper, I attempt to reread Michael Puett's theory on ritual space by employing the " set model ". The purpose of this rereading is not so much to challenge the theory's validity or question its premises, but to inject new impetus into its existing hypothetical structure by reorganizing the propositions and arguments into a model I believe to be less abstract and more illustrative. In the course of explaining how the " set model " works, three key strategies will be employed. The first strategy reintroduces the important distinction between the exemplary person 君子 and the petty person 小人 into the discussion on ritual space, focusing mainly on their contrasting forms of interaction with ritual. The second strategy identifies the dialectical structures underlying the exemplary person's movements in and out of the ritual space. The final strategy investigates the intricate connections between ritual and the theme of self-cultivation in the Confucian context, culminating in a more profound appreciation of how the " set model " is conceived. My interpretation of Puett's theory will be based primarily on his two recent articles on the subject of ritual in ancient China, namely Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity and Ritual and Ritual Obligations: Perspectives on Normativity from Classical China.

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My study explores the thorny question of (in)equality in Confucian thought. It revolves around two pivotal concepts in Confucius’s ethical and social thought: that of a “noble man” (junzi 君子), and of a “petty man” (xiaoren 小人). By comparing the usages of both terms in the Analects with earlier texts, primarily the Zuo zhuan 左傳 (Zuo Commentary), I demonstrate that Confucius had revolutionized the usage of the former term, expanding it to include members of his own shi 士 stratum. The more flexible conceptualization of the elite belonging coupled with persistently rigid emphasis on sociopolitical hierarchy became the effective recipe for preserving highly stratified society on the one hand, and maintaining potential for social mobility on the other. This legacy made Chinese social structure incomparably more flexible than the European ancien régime against which the notion of equality emerged as one of the fundamental ideas of Occidental modernity.

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The aim of this article is to show the Confucian virtue of li as the highest embodiment of the Jun zi as found in the Lun yu. While ren remains the most primary and most important of the virtues, it is an inner goodness which can only find its expression or manifestation in the virtue of li, while such manifestation is made possible only through an external ontological ideal that is the virtue of yi. As such, the interplay of ren and yi, which finds its harmony in li, is made possible only through the embodiment of li as a dynamic moral principle given substance by ren and given form by li, and perfected by the Jun zi.

Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, Ambedkar University Agra U.P (INDIA). Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 294-305. ISSN 2249-7315.

Adetoro O Banwo

Laozi lived in a time of turmoil and political strife, he was stricken by the political decay of his town and decided to move on, however in the process, he decided to live yet one of the most controversial documents that sets out the way to live an ideal life even in an unjust society. The Dao de jing, a controversial document of its authorship provides an insight of achieving the ideal man that Laozi characterizes, he also sets out a precise philosophical ideal for the government to rule the state. He propounds a theory that uses nature to understand human nature and personal events; he sees nature as an impartial judge that treats everything equally. He therefore tried to provide a collaboration of the concept of nature to that of the human life. In view of this he tries to symbolize what the ideal man in this natural phenomenon would be, an ideal man would be that puts himself last and others first, one who welcomes any situation and values everything around him and acts in the simplicity of form but precious at heart This work sets to examine the core concepts of Laozi, his moral claims, his philosophical ideas, political views and make a comparison with an important Chinese Ideology.

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How to Write a Hook: Powerful Openers for Your Essay

Have you ever thought about how to grab your readers' attention right from the start of your essay? A good hook can really make a difference. It can pull your readers in and set the stage for an interesting piece of writing. This guide will help you understand what is a hook in an essay and give you ways to create strong openings that will keep your readers interested until the end.

What Is a Hook in an Essay?

A hook is the opening sentence or group of sentences that serves as an attention-grabbing introduction to your essay. Its primary purpose is to pique the reader's interest and create a specific tone for your writing. Good hooks are essential for academic papers, as they set the stage for your argument and encourage readers to continue exploring your ideas.

Some hook examples for essays are:

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These hook examples can be tailored to suit various essay types and subjects, making them versatile tools for writers.

Placing Hooks in Your Essay Introductions and Conclusions

While hooks are typically associated with introductions, they can also be effectively used in conclusions to bring your essay full circle and leave a lasting impression on your readers.

Introduction Hooks

In the introduction, your hook should:

• Grab attention immediately
• Provide context for your topic
• Lead smoothly into your thesis statement

Hook sentence examples for introductions:

"In the time it takes you to read this sentence, about 100 stars will have died in our universe."

"What if I told you that the most dangerous animal in the world isn't a shark, a lion, or even a human—but something so tiny, you can't even see it?"

Conclusion Hook

Hook ideas for conclusions:

• Revisit the opening hook with new insight
• Pose a challenge or call to action
• End with a provocative question or statement

Hook sentence examples for conclusions:

"As we close this chapter on climate change, the question remains: will our grandchildren inherit a planet of possibilities or a world of what-ifs?"

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Writing good hooks for essays needs creativity and an understanding of who will read your work. Here are some tips to help you write strong openings:

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• Make sure your hook fits with the overall feel of your essay, whether it's formal, funny, or serious.
• A hook should be short and clear, usually no more than one or two sentences.
• Using an active voice in your hook makes your writing more engaging and direct.
• Stay away from common sayings or ideas that might bore your readers.
• Your hook should connect directly to your essay's main topic or main idea.
• Don't be afraid to rewrite your hook several times to make it better.

Remember, the goal is to create an opening that naturally leads into your essay's main content while piquing the reader's curiosity.

Step-by-Step Hook Creation Process

Follow these steps to come up with hook ideas that work:

• Different kinds of essays (like argumentative, narrative, and descriptive) might benefit from different types of hooks.
• Come up with several hook ideas based on your topic and essay type.
• Definitions
• Metaphors or similes
• Write a few versions of your chosen hook type.
• Look over your drafts, thinking about how well they fit with your essay's purpose and tone.
• Share your hook with others to see how effective it is.
• Make sure your hook flows naturally into the rest of your introduction.

Remember, the key to how to write a good hook is practice and improvement. Don't be afraid to change and make your hook better as you write your essay.

Types of Hooks

There are several types of hooks you can use to begin your essay. Here are some popular options:

Question Hook 

"Ever wondered why your dog tilts its head when you speak? The answer might surprise you – and reveal more about human-canine communication than you'd expect."

Anecdotal Hook 

"The first time I tasted durian, I thought I'd accidentally eaten something that had gone bad in the tropical heat. Little did I know, this pungent fruit would become my obsession and lead me on a culinary adventure across Southeast Asia."

Statistic Hook 

"In the time it takes you to read this sentence, over 700 hours of video will have been uploaded to YouTube. The digital content explosion is reshaping how we consume information, and it's happening faster than you might think."

Quotation Hook 

"'The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.' Dorothy Parker's words ring truer than ever in our age of endless information — but is our curiosity leading us to knowledge, or just more distraction?"

Description Hook 

"The air shimmers like a mirage, heat radiating from the cracked earth. In the distance, a lone tree stands defiant against the barren landscape. This is the face of climate change — stark, unforgiving, and impossible to ignore."

Metaphor or Simile Hook 

"Learning a new language is like trying to navigate a foreign city without a map. At first, every street corner looks the same, every sign is indecipherable. But slowly, patterns emerge, landmarks become familiar, and suddenly you're no longer lost — you're on an adventure."

Each of these hook examples for essays can be effective when used appropriately. The key is to choose a hook that aligns with your essay's tone and purpose.

Wrapping Up: The Impact of a Strong Essay Hook

A well-written hook can make the difference between an essay that keeps readers interested and one that doesn't. By understanding what a hook in an essay is and how to create one effectively, you can improve your writing and leave a lasting impression on your readers.

Remember, the best hooks not only grab attention but also fit well with your essay's main ideas. They should give a taste of what's to come, encouraging readers to keep reading your work.

For those looking to further enhance their essay-writing skills, try writing tools like Aithor . Aithor can give extra insights and suggestions to help you write even more engaging hooks and essays. By combining your own creativity with advanced writing help, you can make your essays even better and really connect with your readers.

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Understanding IELTS Task 2 Essay Structures

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• 2nd September 2024

Introduction to IELTS Task 2 Essay Structures

• 1 Introduction to IELTS Task 2 Essay Structures
• 2 Key Components of a Successful IELTS Task 2 Essay
• 3 Common IELTS Task 2 Essay Types and Their Structures
• 4 Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your IELTS Task 2 Essay
• 5 Tips and Strategies for Mastering IELTS Task 2 Essay Structures

Welcome to our guide on IELTS Task 2 essay structures , where we aim to demystify the different formats and strategies involved in crafting an effective essay. Understanding the structure is essential, as it forms the backbone of our response and allows us to communicate our ideas clearly and persuasively. In this section, we’ll explore the primary structures used in the IELTS Task 2 essay , ensuring we are well-prepared for the exam.

When approaching the IELTS Task 2 essay , it’s vital to recognize that there are four main types of essays we might encounter:

• Opinion Essays – Where we state our viewpoint on a particular issue.
• Discussion Essays – In which we examine various perspectives surrounding a topic.
• Problem-Solution Essays – Focused on identifying problems and proposing solutions.
• Advantages and Disadvantages Essays – Where we weigh the pros and cons of a specific situation.

Each of these essay types has its unique requirements, but all share a common structure that includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In the introduction, we will introduce the topic and present our thesis statement. The body paragraphs will be dedicated to elaborating our arguments, providing supporting evidence, and analyzing different viewpoints if necessary. Finally, in the conclusion, we will summarize our main points and restate our position regarding the question posed. Mastering these essential components of IELTS Task 2 essay structures is crucial for achieving a high score in the writing section.

Key Components of a Successful IELTS Task 2 Essay

In our journey to master the IELTS, understanding the key components of a successful IELTS Task 2 essay is crucial. Each component plays a significant role in creating a coherent and compelling argument while adhering to the assessment criteria set by the examiners. Let’s explore these essential elements together.

Firstly, a clear and concise thesis statement sets the foundation of our essay. This statement should encapsulate our main argument or viewpoint and help guide the reader through our thoughts. It’s vital to make our stance evident from the beginning, allowing us to stay focused throughout the essay.

Next, we focus on developing well-structured paragraphs that support our thesis. Each paragraph must contain a topic sentence that introduces the main idea, followed by evidence, examples, and explanations. This structure not only boosts the clarity of our writing but also enhances the logical flow, which is essential for achieving a high score.

• Coherence and Cohesion: Using transitional phrases and linking words is essential to connect our ideas smoothly.
• Addressing the Task Properly: We need to ensure that we fully understand and address all parts of the prompt.
• Variety of Vocabulary and Sentence Structures: Demonstrating a range of vocabulary and grammatical accuracy is crucial for scoring high.

By mastering these key components of a successful IELTS Task 2 essay , we can significantly enhance our writing skills and our chances of securing a favorable score in the IELTS exam.

Common IELTS Task 2 Essay Types and Their Structures

As we prepare for the IELTS exam, understanding the common IELTS Task 2 essay types and their structures becomes essential for success. There are several distinct types of essays that candidates may encounter, each with its own specific requirements and characteristics. Below, we’ll explore these types in detail, helping us to grasp their structures and enhancing our writing skills.

The primary common IELTS Task 2 essay types include:

• Opinion Essays : These essays require us to express our viewpoint on a particular issue. The structure typically follows a clear introductory paragraph, followed by two or three body paragraphs that provide supporting arguments, and concludes with a summary of our stance.
• Discuss Both Views Essays : In this format, we need to discuss two conflicting perspectives on a topic. The structure should include an introduction outlining the issue, separate body paragraphs dedicated to each view, and a conclusion that may also express our personal opinion.
• Problem-Solution Essays : These essays focus on identifying a problem and proposing one or more solutions. We start with an introduction that introduces the problem, followed by paragraphs that elaborate on the problem and its significance, and conclude with a discussion on potential solutions.
• Advantages and Disadvantages Essays : In this type, we analyze the positives and negatives of a particular issue. We can structure it with an introduction, followed by two body paragraphs—one for advantages and another for disadvantages—and a conclusion that summarizes our findings.

By familiarizing ourselves with these common IELTS Task 2 essay types and their respective structures, we bolster our chances of achieving a higher score. Effective practice and understanding the demands of each type will enable us to articulate our thoughts clearly and cohesively in the exam.

Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your IELTS Task 2 Essay

Creating a successful IELTS Task 2 essay can be a daunting challenge, but with the right approach, we can simplify the process. This step-by-step guide will assist us in organizing our thoughts and structuring our essays effectively, ensuring we meet the examiners’ requirements while clearly articulating our arguments.

To start, let’s outline our essay with a clear plan. We should follow these essential steps:

• Understand the prompt: Analyze the question to identify what is being asked.
• Brainstorm ideas: Jot down our thoughts on the topic, focusing on relevant arguments.
• Structure our essay: Organize our ideas into a coherent outline, typically consisting of an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
• Write the essay: Begin with the introduction, followed by well-developed body paragraphs, and wrap it up with a compelling conclusion.
• Review and revise: Allocate time to proofread our essay, checking for grammatical errors and clarity.

Using this straightforward step-by-step guide , we can tackle our IELTS Task 2 essay with confidence. Each stage in this process builds upon the previous one, leading us toward crafting a well-structured and persuasive essay that showcases our skills and knowledge effectively.

Tips and Strategies for Mastering IELTS Task 2 Essay Structures

In our journey to excel in the IELTS Task 2 essay, understanding the structure is crucial. A well-organized essay not only helps in conveying our ideas effectively but also adheres to the assessment criteria that examiners use. Here are some essential tips and strategies we can implement to master the IELTS Task 2 essay structures.

• Familiarize ourselves with different essay types: It’s important to recognize that IELTS Task 2 includes various essay types such as opinion essays, discussion essays, and problem-solution essays. Each type has a unique structure that we need to follow.
• Craft a strong thesis statement: Our introduction should include a clear thesis statement that outlines our main argument or stance. This statement will guide the reader through our essay, setting the tone for the discussion.
• Utilize topic sentences: Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that clearly presents the main idea of that paragraph. This strategy adds cohesion and helps us stay focused on the point we are making.
• Plan and outline: Before we start writing, it’s helpful to spend a few minutes organizing our thoughts. An outline can serve as a roadmap, ensuring that our arguments flow logically and coherently throughout the essay.

By adopting these strategies and continually practicing, we enhance our writing skills and boost our confidence in tackling the IELTS Task 2 essay. Remember, consistent practice will lead us to discover our unique writing style, making us more effective communicators in the exam.

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