Confucianism: Ethics, Origins, and Modern Chinese Society

What Is Confucianism?

This paper examines Confucianism, its origins, its founder, the moral and ethical aspects of its philosophy, and how it is used and interpreted in modern Chinese society. This paper takes the position that the central and original features of Confucianism are valid and should be applied to moral and ethical problems in the 21st century. The modern Chinese emphasis on the subordination of women—one of three key tenets in how Confucianism is interpreted and practiced today—is, however, not something this paper endorses.

Confucianism is a philosophy that was founded by Confucius. He lived from 551 to 479 B.C., and his Chinese name was "Kongzi" (or "Kong Qiu"). He was above all a reformer, and there was definitely a need for reform in his era because there was great "political, social, and spiritual crisis" in China, according to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy. That crisis was ruining the traditional way that people lived in China. At that time, China operated under a feudal system (Zhou) that had plunged into "decay," which opened the door to a "new social mobility" and helped create a new but small middle class (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

This emerging middle class hired private teachers to educate the young. The trend at that time was to build up individuals through knowledge rather than simply have people continue the way of life their families and forebears had lived. Confucius was one such teacher. It is believed that he taught what were known as the "six arts": mathematics, music, charioteering, archery, writing, and "ritual propriety" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

What Confucius actually believed and taught was rooted in social morality, and he dedicated his life to the discussion of morality within the context of education. He believed that getting an education "transcends the social boundaries"—in other words, no matter what class one comes from, with an education a person becomes a gentleman (if male) and, regardless of gender, "a truly moral person in solidarity with the community and rooted in self-respect" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). What Confucius wanted to do, essentially, was to change the world because he believed society had "lost the dao, the right way" and was in crisis (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

In his "Collected Words" (called the Lunyu), Confucius emphasized that the ethical life is one in which the individual "internalizes" a sense of "self-reference"—meaning that one must constantly be aware of how important an ethical life should be in society (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Every human being is perfectly capable of cultivating the moral side of life, and that belief set Confucius' philosophy apart from the Daoist view of a return to nature.

According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Confucius identified three concepts that a person must understand in order to become ethical. First, a "gentleman" who begins to distrust society turns away from it, showing that he no longer "trusts public reputation and the opinions of the majority"; he also understands that his motives and actions will not be understood or trusted by others. Second, that gentleman "turns into his inner self" in order to recover his self-respect; in seclusion he may neglect religion and ethics, which in Confucius' view represents "the ultimate reason for being moral."

Nevertheless, the person undergoes a process of "self-reflection and critical self-examination" in order to preserve the "purity" of his intentions. In the third step, the individual "overcomes himself" and returns to society. When he leaves his isolation, he accepts his responsibility as a moral authority, because more important than any individual action is the "common good" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Within the return to society, there must be rules governing how people should live. The person returning to society accepts that without those rules in a hierarchical world there would be no moral standing and no humaneness. The Lunyu explains that the "most conspicuous variants" of humaneness involve love and the golden rule ("Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you"); that humaneness must be practiced throughout one's life; and that a person can keep the faith and remain humane without "surrendering to it" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Confucius Did Not Try to Create a New Religion

Judith Berling writes in the peer-reviewed Focus on Asian Studies that Confucius did not want to create a new religion, but he did want to reinterpret the old religion of the Chou dynasty. The people of the Chou dynasty had come to regard rule by ancient religious belief as "bankrupt," because those gods had clearly failed to prevent "social upheavals" (Berling, 1996). Confucius sought to answer the "burning issue of the day" by asking his followers to embody the "civilized and cultured patterns of behavior developed through generations of human wisdom" (Berling, p. 5).

While this may sound general and vague, it is deliberately so. One can distill Confucius' many views into a broad approach to morality and humaneness. "Only when things are investigated is knowledge extended," he wrote in "The Great Learning" section of his Classic of Rituals (Berling, p. 5). In describing needed rituals, he presents a chain of events in which each step must follow the one before it in order to arrive at a good society—one where people are humane and where shared values create unity and conformity.

"Only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere," he continued in that same passage. Thinking deeply brings both knowledge and sincerity. He also wrote, "Only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified," and "Only when minds are rectified are the characters of persons cultivated" (Berling, p. 5). Once characters are cultivated, the family grows stronger; when families are stronger, states are also stronger and better governed. And in this "blueprint" of Confucianism, only when families and states are strong and well governed will there be "peace in the world" (Berling, p. 5).

The ruler of the nation, according to this framework, should act as a "father figure" and treat his people with respect, looking after their basic needs. Berling also notes (p. 6) that citizens should "criticize their rulers and refuse to serve the corrupt." This appears to anticipate the foundations of democratic governance. Through many centuries, Confucianism served as the ruling principle in China—but when Mao established the People's Republic of China, Confucianism was largely abandoned (Berling, p. 6).

Xinzhong Yao writes in An Introduction to Confucianism that Confucius did not himself create what today is called "Confucianism." Using that label is, in fact, a "misnomer," because all Confucius really did was play "a key role in the development of the tradition" (Yao, 2000). Confucius "reinterpreted the meaning and methods of learning and education in the ru tradition"—ru being the social school he founded, which emphasized the virtues of "humaneness [ren] and righteousness [yi]" (Yao, 17).

Because he placed such special emphasis on educating young people to be virtuous in government and to challenge corrupt leaders, he was asked why he never entered government himself. Although he did eventually serve as "magistrate of the district Zhongdu" at the age of fifty, and later as "Minister for Construction" (500 BCE) and "Chief Justice," he replied that simply by being a good "son and friendly to his brothers, a man can exert an influence upon government" (Yao, 24).

Conclusion

Several of the original Confucian values are worth affirming: the golden rule; moral self-cultivation; humaneness; and the belief that education should transcend socioeconomic conditions. People can become cultivated and educated, and this in turn has a positive effect on government. What cannot be accepted is the modern Chinese interpretation that places such heavy emphasis on the total subordination of women by men and by their parents. The empirical evidence connecting female subordination to fatalistic suicide in China makes plain that this particular tenet is a harmful distortion of Confucius's foundational vision of a humane and just society.

Works Cited

Berling, Judith A. "Confucianism." Focus on Asian Studies / Asian Religions, II.1, 5–7. 1996.

Encyclopedia of Philosophy. "Confucius." Retrieved December 13, 2014, from Biography in Context. Gale Group. 2003.

Historic World Leaders. "Confucius." Retrieved December 13, 2014, from Biography in Context. Gale Group. 2006.

Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2000.

Zhang, Jie, and Liu, Eric Y. "Confucianism and Youth Suicide in Rural China." Review of Religious Research, Volume 53, 93–111.