Confucianism

How do you become as good a person as possible? And how does life become good for as many as possible? That’s what this man is thinking about. This is master Kong. Kongfuzi as he is called in China or Confucius as he is most often called in the western world.

Confucius lives in China in the sixth century Before Common Era, and he thinks that the country has developed in a totally wrong way. The previous kingdom has been divided into smaller states, where rich people from a few families have inherited the power, and misuse it. But Confucius is hopeful about the world becoming better, and figures out how this shall come to be. He regards five relationships —bonds between people —to be more important than the others. The first relationship is the one between the country’s ruler and the people.

The ruler must take care of the people —the subjects—in the best manner. And each subject must obey and trust the leader. If the leader is cruel or unfair, the people will not obey, and if the leader is too weak the people will rebel. The second bond is between a husband and his wife. The third between parents and children, the fourth between an older sibling and a younger one, and the fifth is between an older friend and a younger one.

These five relationships need to be balanced in order for life and society to be good according to Confucius. The ruler needs to take good care of the subject, the husband of his wife, the parents of their children, the older sibling of the younger and the older friend of the younger. And those being taken care of must show respect and obedience in return. Confucius believes that all humans are able to learn to be good by developing good traits: virtues. The two most important virtues are: [1] Benevolence or compassion: Rén. [2]The understanding of what is good, together with the will and ability to do it: Yí.

In the society that Confucius envisages it’s important that everyone makes an effort to fulfill their duties, and their functions in the five relationships. If they do, the balance of society and family will work. As Confucius’s collection of teachings—Confucianism —is spreading across China, another religion and philosophy is spreading too: Daoism. Both of these teachings say that balance is important, and both mention the concept of opposites: yin and yang. Without either one of these opposites, the other can’t exist.

There must be a balance in everything. This is true for all opposites —like light and darkness, or masculine and feminine. To the Confucians this balance is related to the duties in society and family. Many see Confucianism as a philosophy rather than a religion. But it is both.

Confucius’s view on a ruler and his subject is much like his view on heaven and a human. By ‘heaven’ or Tian as Confucius calls it, he means an impersonal divine force that is everything. Very similar to what the Daoists call Dao: the road. How is balance in the relationship between heaven and humanity maintained? You perform certain rituals, make offerings of incense, or worship gods and ancestors.

In Confucianism there are several books that are considered important, The Book of Changes: I Ching. I Ching consists of predictions of future patterns of events. You throw special coins or stalks from a plant, observe the pattern they make, and consult the texts to interpret this pattern. I Ching is also used by Daoists, and is considered to be the oldest book of Chinese culture. The Analects, or the Conversations These describe the ideas of Confucius in the form of conversations between Confucius and his disciples.

One of the things Confucius is supposed to have said is: “Don’t do to others what you don’t want others to do to you.” This is called “The Golden Rule” and exists in different versions throughout different religions. But Confusius’s version is considered to be the first written version.