This is specially for..
Yes this post is for Peishan who wishes to know more about Confucianism.
The reason I chose to type this out because you do not need to visit a temple/church/places of worship to profess confucian values and beliefs. Most of the ideas and philosophy of confucianism comes from the Analects(the records put together by his students on his teachings after his death) itself. Also, many people would agree that confucianism is not so much a religion, including me, believe that its more of an ethnic or ethical tradition. Confucianism also does not enforce the belief in Gods and spirits as confucius was described in the Analects"The subjects on which the Master(Confucius) did not talk, were-extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings." although there are many accounts in the analects itself that points to confucius respecting the "spirits" especially of his ancestors... I view this as part of his practice of respect more than a statement of the presence of Gods. Somesort of a rememberance to the past ancestors.
Confucianism is different from Neo-confucianism which has been "mixed" with taoist and buddhist beliefs, which is not the type of confucianism I am explaining here.
History
(A bit of a history lesson here ... I try to keep it VERY short.)
Confucianism is an integral part of the ancient chinese world especially with the Han Dynasty. During the Qin dynasty however it was forbidden and was seen as opposite to the then mainstream Legalist thoughts. It has always been a part of the lives of the chinese people in those times and is now starting to see a revival among the people of this fast advancing technological world.
Values
There are a few values in which confucianism teaches.
1)li / Ritual. (More towards ceremony and showing politeness, another way to explain this is protocol)
2)Xiao / Filial Piety
3)Zhong / Loyalty
4)Ren / Benevolence
5)Jun Zi / The Gentleman (Noble men of morals rather than of birth)
To type everything out will make this blog soon to be a textbook of somesort. So I will just briefly touch on each one. Ritual according to confucius has very much to do with behaviour, the proper ways to do certain things. Something like protocol or ettiquette of today. Though we cannot apply all confucius did today (some things like where to stand when ceremonies are conducted by villages are mentioned by the master, but of course there arent villages in singapore anymore haha!), we can still draw some sense of respect from the texts.
In filial piety, this is very easy to explain and say but might be hard to do. To respect the parents and grandparents and ancestors. These are very traditional thoughts that you may find extremely familiar because in our society we are constantly taught to do such things.
Loyalty spells out for loyalty to the nation, another very familiar notion. Again this in confucian times means loyalty to the lord(not God the lord of christian and monothesic religions but rather the ruler of a certain kingdom), but we can still draw the moral values out to be applied in today's world.
Ren or benevolence is very confusing, which even I have problems understanding. Its an extremely complex idea. I guess I have to read more to explain this.
And Jun Zi or the Gentlemen is the described behaviour of a man of morals. How to act in situations, what does the gentlemen do, what the gentlemen should study and so on.
Confucius believed the gentlemen was not a nobleman by birth, but a nobleman by his morals and his benevolence.
Important Books
In addition to all that there are many books mentioned or associated by confucius other than the analects which are the chinese classics. Four books and Five classics (shi shu wu jing) consisting of ....
Four books
1)Doctrine of the Mean (chapter in Li Ji - Rites Classic)
2)The Great Learning (chapter in Li Ji - Rites Classic)
3)The Confucian Analects
4)Mencius
Five Classics
1)Book of Odes/poetry
2)Music Classic .... which is currently lost
3)Li Ji, Classic of the Rites
4)Classic of History
5)Spring Autum annals
6)I ching (a divination book of antiquity)
My own comments
The journey of learning is never ending, and I did what I best to explain some very important points of confucianism. For the books, I havent read ANY of those 4 books or 5 classics as they are very hard to get in english and expensive to purchase. I am also still continuing to read and explore the world of confucian ethics. If you have time just go to the library and find his Analects(which should be avaliable easily) and get a taste of what its like. Wow took me 20 minutes to type this post, longest ever! Happy learning though!
The reason I chose to type this out because you do not need to visit a temple/church/places of worship to profess confucian values and beliefs. Most of the ideas and philosophy of confucianism comes from the Analects(the records put together by his students on his teachings after his death) itself. Also, many people would agree that confucianism is not so much a religion, including me, believe that its more of an ethnic or ethical tradition. Confucianism also does not enforce the belief in Gods and spirits as confucius was described in the Analects"The subjects on which the Master(Confucius) did not talk, were-extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings." although there are many accounts in the analects itself that points to confucius respecting the "spirits" especially of his ancestors... I view this as part of his practice of respect more than a statement of the presence of Gods. Somesort of a rememberance to the past ancestors.
Confucianism is different from Neo-confucianism which has been "mixed" with taoist and buddhist beliefs, which is not the type of confucianism I am explaining here.
History
(A bit of a history lesson here ... I try to keep it VERY short.)
Confucianism is an integral part of the ancient chinese world especially with the Han Dynasty. During the Qin dynasty however it was forbidden and was seen as opposite to the then mainstream Legalist thoughts. It has always been a part of the lives of the chinese people in those times and is now starting to see a revival among the people of this fast advancing technological world.
Values
There are a few values in which confucianism teaches.
1)li / Ritual. (More towards ceremony and showing politeness, another way to explain this is protocol)
2)Xiao / Filial Piety
3)Zhong / Loyalty
4)Ren / Benevolence
5)Jun Zi / The Gentleman (Noble men of morals rather than of birth)
To type everything out will make this blog soon to be a textbook of somesort. So I will just briefly touch on each one. Ritual according to confucius has very much to do with behaviour, the proper ways to do certain things. Something like protocol or ettiquette of today. Though we cannot apply all confucius did today (some things like where to stand when ceremonies are conducted by villages are mentioned by the master, but of course there arent villages in singapore anymore haha!), we can still draw some sense of respect from the texts.
In filial piety, this is very easy to explain and say but might be hard to do. To respect the parents and grandparents and ancestors. These are very traditional thoughts that you may find extremely familiar because in our society we are constantly taught to do such things.
Loyalty spells out for loyalty to the nation, another very familiar notion. Again this in confucian times means loyalty to the lord(not God the lord of christian and monothesic religions but rather the ruler of a certain kingdom), but we can still draw the moral values out to be applied in today's world.
Ren or benevolence is very confusing, which even I have problems understanding. Its an extremely complex idea. I guess I have to read more to explain this.
And Jun Zi or the Gentlemen is the described behaviour of a man of morals. How to act in situations, what does the gentlemen do, what the gentlemen should study and so on.
Confucius believed the gentlemen was not a nobleman by birth, but a nobleman by his morals and his benevolence.
Important Books
In addition to all that there are many books mentioned or associated by confucius other than the analects which are the chinese classics. Four books and Five classics (shi shu wu jing) consisting of ....
Four books
1)Doctrine of the Mean (chapter in Li Ji - Rites Classic)
2)The Great Learning (chapter in Li Ji - Rites Classic)
3)The Confucian Analects
4)Mencius
Five Classics
1)Book of Odes/poetry
2)Music Classic .... which is currently lost
3)Li Ji, Classic of the Rites
4)Classic of History
5)Spring Autum annals
6)I ching (a divination book of antiquity)
My own comments
The journey of learning is never ending, and I did what I best to explain some very important points of confucianism. For the books, I havent read ANY of those 4 books or 5 classics as they are very hard to get in english and expensive to purchase. I am also still continuing to read and explore the world of confucian ethics. If you have time just go to the library and find his Analects(which should be avaliable easily) and get a taste of what its like. Wow took me 20 minutes to type this post, longest ever! Happy learning though!
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