Smeared Type

As a follow-up to my previous blog and having read more about the state sanctioned reinstatement of Confucius by the Chinese government, I’ve been intrigued by the ideals and teaching of this great sage.

He was born in 551 BC in northeast China, in the small state of Lu, into a poor but noble family.  At the age of 53, he became the State’s Justice Minister.  But he was quickly disappointed by corruption in his own state, and then spent 12 years journeying around China, seeking a worthy new master but without success.  He died in 479 BC with no hope for the future of civilization. 

 It appears that he never actually wrote anything down, but his teachings were passed down by his disciples.  These, like western religions, probably included considerable poetic license, and extra contributions.  What was eventually written down were small fragments of his teachings and selected sayings written hundreds of years after his death. 

Confucius was not a religious leader, but he stressed the ideals of harmony and obedience and the concepts of virtue, which included honoring one’s family, conducting one’s life in total honesty and obeying one’s social superiors.

He believed society would benefit when learning, study, and ceremony was put before pleasure, profit, and power.  Therefore his ideal system of government would be one run by an honest bureaucracy under a benevolent prince committed to public duty, honesty, and compassion.  He also believed that government rule should be based on customs and historical rites, and should reject at all times bribery, coercion, or laws that would promote shameless self interest.

The Confucian ideas were adopted by the Han Emperors (206 BC to 220 AD).  They particularly valued his emphasis on a hierarchy of obedience, and that bureaucratic positions should be filled by scholars with adequate qualifications rather than nobles who had done nothing to deserve recognition. 

This gave rise to the Mandarins, a group of civil servants selected by grueling exams, who had to memorize reams of facts as well as arithmetic and knowledge of ritual and ceremonies.  Even today, it is thought that this is the reason that Chinese parents have always been so strict with their children and that the Chinese in general have been excessively deferential to authority.

With the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China, Chairman Mao condemned Confucius as a feudal thinker.  During the Cultural Revolution Red Guards destroyed many Confucian temples and monuments, including his family home, grave, and personal temple.  But it is now recognized that Confucian teachings of ethics, harmony, obedience, plain living and public service are ideals that can be followed by all societies.

While the Chinese Communist government is now trying to fill the ethical vacuums brought about by their economic explosion, Confucius’s teachings are relevant to much of 21st Century western society and governments.

Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com

Tags: Cultural Revolution, Han Emperors, Mandarins

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 7:02 am and is filed under Ellis Goodman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.