Confucianism

Describe the Life of Confucius, the First Teacher: When and Where Was He Born? Describe His Career and What He May Have Been Like as a Person. 

Confucius, also known as Zhong Ni, or, Kong Qiu was born in 551 B.C., in Zou, a village in the country of Lu. Confucius’s original name was K’ung Ch’iu. As a youngster, Confucius held imaginary temple rites, and subsequently, worked as a market keeper. He later worked as a farm worker taking care of parks as well as farm animals. He worked for a district administrator at the age of 20 years. As a youthful adult, he rapidly earned repute for politeness, fairness, and devotion to knowledge. Confucius started his profession as a teacher, frequently traveling around and teaching the small body of followers.

Confucius lived in the last half of the Chou (Zhou) dynasty, in 1027-256 BC, at a time when feudalism disintegrated in China and vice and intrigue were rampant. Confucius condemned the contemporary anarchy and lack of ethical values. He believed that the only cure was to convert the populace once again to the precepts and principles of the sages of ancient times. He consequently taught his disciples the olden traditions. His reputation as a man of character and learning and his respect for Chinese customs and ideals soon spread by means of Lu’s principality.

Describe the Central Problem that Confucius Faced. What Were the Rival Realist and Mohist Answers to the Problem? What Was Confucius’ Alternative Answer? 

The central problem that faced Confucius was the problem of societal anarchy. Early China was neither less nor more chaotic than other regions. The 8th to the 3rd centuries B.C., though, witnessed a disintegration the Chou Dynasty’s influential power. Adversary baronies ruled under their own strategies. In Confucius’ time, though, the interminable conflict had degenerated from graciousness toward the unreserved terror of the era of the hostile States.

Realist and Mohist Answers to the Problem

The appliance of the Realists’ philosophy proceeded through an elaborate system of rewards and penalties. Those who chose to comply by the state were rewarded, while those who chose to disobey were punished. According to the Realists, an enlightened leader, when he formulates his laws, ensures that every eventuality is stipulated in detail.

Mohist proposed that the resolution to China’s societal problem was universal love (chien ai), rather than force. The Mohists proposed that one ought to feel consider all persons under heaven precisely as one would feel toward their own people. People should also consider other states precisely the same way as one regards their own state.

Confucius’ Alternative Answer

Confucius discarded the Realists’ answer that proposed force, on the grounds that it was external and clumsy. According to Confucius, when force is regulated by the law, it sets restrictions to peoples’ transactions, but it is extremely crude to encourage their everyday face-to-face interactions. In regard to the Mohists’ confidence on universal love, Confucius concurred with the Realists in disregarding it as Utopian. Confucius’ observed in retrospect that Mohism has the outward show of being alien, not only to Confucian philosophy, but also to the entire of Chinese civilization.

Name and Describe the 5 Key Terms Described By Smith in the Section Entitled the Content of Deliberate Tradition

The 5 key terms are:

Jen. Jen is etymologically a blending of the character for humanity and for two, names the idyllic relationship that ought to pertain among people. Variously interpreted as love, goodness, and benevolence, it is conceivably most appropriately rendered as human-heartedness.

Chun Tzu.  Chun Tzu denotes the idyllic term in regard to the interactions endorsed by Jen. It has been interpreted as the superior personality and humanity-at-its-best. The Chun Tzu is the reverse of a petty individual, a mean personality, a small-spirited human being.

Li.  This is the third concept, which means propriety, the way things ought to be done. Confucius considered it unrealistic to believe that people might wisely decide on their own the way things ought to be done. People required models, and he desired to direct their awareness to the most excellent models available in social history, so that all might watch, memorize, as well as duplicate.

Те. This is the fourth fundamental concept Confucius endeavored to devise for his people. Literally it meant power, particularly the power through which humanity is ruled.

Wen. This is the ultimate concept in Confucian gestalt. This denotes the arts of tranquility, in as contrast to the arts of warfare. It embraces music, poetry, art, the summation of culture in its spiritual and aesthetic mode.

Is Confucianism an Ethics or Religion? Explain.

Whether Confucianism is an ethic or a religion would depend on how one may define religion. With its Confucianism’s close attention to individual behavior as well as moral order, it approaches existence from an unusual angle than other religions do. Nevertheless, that does not automatically exclude Confucianism religiously. In the event that religion is considered in its broadest sense, as a lifestyle woven around people’s definitive concerns, then Confucianism would clearly qualify as a religion. Even when religion is considered in a narrower perspective, as a concern to sustain humankind with the transcendental position of its existence, then Confucianism would still be a religion, though a muted one.