Gentleman and Benevolence Confucian Benevolence

Gentleman and Benevolence

Confucian Benevolence and the Perfect Gentleman

For Confucius, a gentleman always attempts to behave in a virtuous manner. Benevolence is not merely kindness, as its English interpretation might suggest. Benevolence means to be trustworthy and loyal, and to be selfless. An example of benevolence might be seen in Sophocles "Antigone." Antigone, although female, would stand as an excellent example of Confucian piety. She sacrifices her life so that her brother may be honored according to the dictates of the gods. She only desires that tradition and the gods might be pleased. She is open about her sacrifice to society, even though it will not bring her any earthly glory, given that her brother was a traitor. She is true to her principles and reveres and cultivates morality within her heart, rather than pleasure for her own ends.

Benevolence and obedience for Confucius are intertwined. However, it should be noted that Confucius does not provide as much easy comfort and guidance in his writings as Antigone might like, given that he tends to see ancestral and religious law and the commandments of the state as the same. The play "Antigone," of course, hinges between a conflict between loyalty to the commands of the state and loyalty to familial dictates. But for Confucius, a good leader labored under what he called the 'Mandate of Heaven.' Confucius did not say that all leaders should be obeyed simply and without question, rather her delineated a complex network of relationships that were based in mutual obligations. A good emperor had an obligation to honor obedient subjects, and a subject owed obedience to a good emperor under the Mandate of Heaven, and should not rebel because of self-aggrandizing feelings.

Thus Creon was right to protect the city of Thebes against rebelling soldiers, and Antigone's brother was wrong to resist the king. However, Creon lost the Mandate of Heaven when he took religious law upon himself and supplanted the will of the gods. By prohibiting the burial of a man, even a traitor, Creon was making himself judge and jury of that man's soul on earth. He was also severing his bond to his subjects like Antigone, whose rights to act in a morally pious fashion were part of their rights as his citizens.

A good king thus must act with benevolence, and according to the rules that are put upon him in his position, just like a subject must act kindly towards the king. Creon's actions also put his own son in a terrible position. His son forced to choose between his obligations to his father and his bride. In violating his proper duties as a father as well as a king, Creon is also violating the dictates of being a gentleman in the spirit of benevolence.