| | Confucius is his Latin name, but he was known as Ch’iu Chung-Ni or K’ung Fu Tzu, his title of honor, shortened to “Master Kung.” He was born in 551 B.C.E. near Chufu, in the province of Shantung, to a family which lived in humble circumstances. He had many menial jobs but sought government posts. When he was fifty, it is said he became prime minister of the state of Lu, but a neighboring state, it is told, sent a group of female dancers to distract him and cause him to neglect his duties. So, he resigned and wandered, in 497, becoming an itinerant teacher, like the Buddha or Socrates, and his Analects, a collection of his teachings by his students, are what we have of his thoughts and sayings.
Confucius seemed to be the very model of a reactionary conservative. He lived in a time of turbulence, of war and uncertainty, and he longed for a return to a “golden age” when things were more organized, stable, and people were happy; although this was probably an idealized image he carried in his head, as we often think things in the past were better than they are now. We forget the problems which existed then.
He did disagree with the idea that nobility should be a matter of heredity. He thought people could earn their stations in life rather than being born into them. However, he was a stickler for convention, for protocol and ritual. He thought the ceremonies in society had a civilizing affect. People should learn decorum. If they don’t, then they will have problems. It is like the tradition of shaking hands when meeting someone for the first time. This has a harmonizing influencing on the meeting. It sets a tone. Someone who is not aware of this custom or who doesn’t want to participate in it will disrupt proceedings somewhat.
Some people may go through the motions of an established practice, but Confucius advocated that they be sincere. Nothing is worse than seeing a wedding ceremony or a funeral where the participants seemed to do what they are required but not really feel it matters to them. There is a purpose for these rituals. A funeral, whether one believes in a supernatural force or not, is a way of dealing with grief, of respecting the one dead and making final good-byes, coming to closure. It’s a compassionate thing to do.
The Taoists thought Confucius was placing too much emphasis on artificial, man-made, rules of protocol. They thought his concern with ritual was too much on form and not substance, on external behavior and appearance and not on internal feelings. However, Confucius would disagree. He did think the behavior should be authentic, that people should feel it and not just go through the motions.
(I have my own suspicions about some rituals. I’ve read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, and see that some practices are not good just because they have been established by tradition. Even Martin Luther, when he went against the established customs of the Roman Catholic Church, was right to do so. So, there may be some reason to not subjugate one’s self entirely to protocols.)
A leader, according to Confucius, should have a lot of moral authority, ethos, not merely physical force. A leader who leads only by force may get people to do things for awhile, but they will plot to betray or get away from such a leader. They will gladly follow, however, a leader who is moral, who has integrity. So, ethos has more power than physical threats and force.
From his Analects:
| Quote: | | Lead the people by laws and regulate them by penalties, and the people will try to avoid offenses and punishments, but will have no shame; lead the people on moral principles and educate them with rules of decorum, and the people will not only have a sense of shame, but also behave well. |
| Quote: | | A sovereign who exercises government on moral principles may be likened to a polestar, which holds its place while all the lesser stars revolve around it. |
Confucius put great emphasis on family relationships and respect of children for their elders. The leader of a country should also act as a parent to those he rules over. The country should be a large family. A ruler who merely takes over property but doesn’t concern himself with the proper role of a ruler will not be successful.
| Quote: | | Zigong asked: “What would you say of a man who is loved by all the people of the whole village?” Confucius said: “This is not so good.” Zigong asked again: “What would you say of a man who is hated by all people of the whole village?” Confucius said: “That is not so good either. It would be better that all the good people of the whole village love him, and all the bad people there hate him.”… |
The most important moral principle associated with Confucius is an adaptation of the golden rule, some call it the negative version: “Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.” This has one try on the other person’s shoes. It promotes empathy. If one knows he or she would not want to be tortured and killed, then one can safely assume others do not enjoy that either, and one can know not to treat others in that way.
| Quote: | | Zigong asked Confucius: “Is there any one word that can serve as a lasting principle for the conduct of one’s whole life?” Confucius said: “Perhaps it is the word ‘reciprocity.’ Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you.”… |
(As I said in the beginning, Confucius seemed to be a conservative. He was interested in categories and proper places and roles. He would be a well dressed logician or a well disciplined military man. This is opposed to the Taoists, who were often unkempt and not concerned with man-made conventions. Even their language did not follow the categories of logic, as they said many things could not be expressed by language. If Confucius was the well-dressed conservative, the Taoists were the intellectual Hippies, the counter-cultural, even anti-establishment types. However, they both seemed concerned with authenticity and compassion, being good.)
bis bald,
Nick
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