Confucism

 

Confucius Quotes:

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” ― Confucius

 

The Analects of Confucius Book III:

1The Ji familyhad eight ranks of danc-ers perform in the court of their family com-pound.Confucius said of this, “If one can tolerate this, one can tolerate anything!”3.2The three great families of Lu had the ode Peaceperformed at the clearing of sac-rificial dishes in their family temples.The Master said of this, “Just how does the lyric, The lords of the realm come to assist,The Son of Heaven stands all solemnpertain to the halls of the three families?”3.3The Master said:If a man is not ren, what can he do with li?If a man in not ren, what can he do with music?3.4Lin Fang asked about the root of li. The Master said, “An important question! In liit would be better to be frugal than to be extravagant. In funeral ritual it would be bet-ter to be guided by one’s grief than simply to attend to the ritual stipulations.”3.5The Master said: The nomad and for-est peoples who have rulers do not come up to the people of the civilized realm who do not.3.6The Ji family performed the great Lü sacrifice to mountains and rivers at Mt. Tai. The Master said to Ran Yǒu, “You were un-able to prevent this?” Ran Yǒu replied, “I was unable.” The Master said, “Alas! Do they think Mt. Tai less perceptive than Lin Fang?”Notes3.1 On the Ji family, see the note to 2.20.It was a great concern to Confucius that power in Lu 魯(his home state) had devolved from the legitimate ruling duke into the hands of threewarlord clans (the Ji, the Meng, and the Shusun), descendents of an earlier duke.The usurpation of power is linked to the matters of ritual usurpation discussed in 3.1-2.It should be understood that the ultimate prob-lem concerns the loss of power by theZhoukings themselves, whose control of the Zhoustate passed into the hands of regional lords after 771 BCEIn 3.2, and else-where, “Son of Heaven” refers to the Zhou king.3.4 Lin Fang 林放was a disciple known for his rather slow witted-ness.3.5 Some commentary takes the phrase rendered here as ‘do not come up to’ simply to mean ‘un-like’, and read the message as cen-sorious of the Zhou cultural realm.3.6 The senior disciple Jan Yǒu(often referred to as Ran Qiu 冉求) was a court minister to the Ji fami-ly.Mt.Tai, the most prominent mountain in Northeast China, was a sacred place; only the Zhoukings and theirdeputies, the dukes of Lu, had the right to perform sacrificial rituals there.NOTE: There is an unfor-tunate overlap of names between The Analects of Confucius103.7The Master said: The junzidoes not compete. Yet there is always archery, is there not? They mount the dais bowing and yield-ing, they descend and toast one another. They compete at being junzis!”3.8Zixia asked, “What is the meaning of the lines from the Poetry, The fine smile dimpled, The lovely eyes flashing, The plain ground brings out the color?” The Master said, “Painting follows af-ter plain silk.” Zixiasaid, “Then is it that licomes after?” The Master said, “How Shang lifts me up! At last I have someone to discuss the Poetrywith!” 3.9The Master said: I can describe the liof the Xia Dynasty, but my description can’t be verified by its descendants in the state of Qĭ. I can describe the liof the Yin Dynasty, but my description can’t be verified by its descendants in the state of Song. Not enough documents survive; if they did, I could verify what I say.3.10The Master said: The way the great di-sacrificeis performed, from the point of the libation on I can’t bear to watch!3.11Someone asked about the explanation of the di-sacrifice. The Master said, “I don’t know. A person who knew that could man-age the world as though it was open to his view right here.” And he pointed to his open palm.3.12“Sacrificeas though present” –sacri-two major senior disciples who are often discussed together. One is most often called Ran Qiu, the other Zilu. Ran Qiu’s personal name was Qiu, but his public style name was Yǒu (有), and he is fre-quently referred to as Ran Yǒu. The family name of Zilu (a public style name) was Zhong and his personal name was Yóu(由). At times, the text speaks together of Ran Yǒu, whom Confucius ad-dresses as Qiu, and Zilu, whom Confucius addresses as Yóu. I have added the modern Mandarin tonal diacritics to the otherwise indistinguishable names of these two disciples to try to minimize confusion.3.7 This refers to the ceremonial archerycompetition, a commonpatrician ritual occasion.3.8 Zixia’s personal name wasShang商.This passage can be compared to 1.15.3.9 The descendants of the ruling clans of the Xia and Yin (Shang) dynasties were settled on lands that provided enough income for them to continue sacrifices to their royal ancestors.These lands became the statesof Qĭand Song.Qĭ杞was a minor state, different from Qi齊,Lu’s power-ful neighbor to the north.3.10-11 The nature of the di-sacrifice is unclear, but it appears to have been connected to worship of the deity Di (帝), sometimes pictured as a high god, or alterna-tive term for Tian.3.12The most basic form of reli-gious practices in ancient ChinaThe Analects of Confucius11fice to the spirits as though the spirits were present.The Master said: If I don’t participate in a sacrifice, it is as though there were no sacrifice.3.13Wangsun Jia asked, “What is the sense of that saying: ‘Better to appeal to the kitch-en god than the god of the dark corner?’” The Master said, “Not so! If one offends against Tian, one will have no place at which to pray.”3.14The Master said: The Zhou could view itself in the mirror of the two previous ruling dynasties. How splendid was its pattern! And we follow the Zhou.3.15The Master entered the Grand Temple and asked about every matter. Someone said, “Who says this son of a man from Zou knows about li? Entering the Grand Temple, he asked about every matter.” Hearing of this, the Master said, “That is li.”3.16The Master said: The rule, “In archery, penetrating the target is not the object,” re-flects the fact that men’s physical strengths differ.3.17Zigong wished to dispense with the sacrificial lamb offered at the ritual report of the new moon. The Master said, “Si, you be-grudge the lamb, I begrudge the li.”3.18The Master said: If one were to serve one’s lord according to the full extent of li, others would take one to be a toady.were ceremonies offering food and drink to the spirits of one’s ances-tors, which were pictured in semi-corporeal form, descending to par-take.Commentators sometimes stress the phrase “as though” in the first clause, taking it to imply skepticism that spirits actually arepresent. The latter clause appears to be interpolated commentary on the first.3.13 After failing to succeed in reforming the politics of his home state of Lu, Confucius journey-ed from state to state in search of a worthy ruler.Here, he is in the state of Wei, and the powerful minister of war is suggesting by means of analogy with customary ideas of household gods, that he, rather than the dukeof Wei, is the key to political access in Wei.(See 6.28.)3.15 Confucius’s father was from the tiny state of Zou, just south ofLu. Lu was viewed as a repository of authoritative knowledge of Zhoucustoms, while Zou had, un-til recently, been a non-Zhou cul-tural region. Here we see Confu-cius’s cultural authoritybeing questionedon the basis of his family background.(See also 10.18.)The Analects of Confucius123.19Duke Ding asked, “How should a lord direct his minister and the minister serve his lord?” Confucius replied, “If the lord directs his minister with li, the minister will serve his lord with loyalty.”3.20The Master said: The poem Ospreys: happiness without license, anguish without injury.3.21Duke Ai questioned Zai Wo about the earthen alter of state. Zai Wo replied, “The lords of the Xia Dynasty planted a pine tree beside it; the people of the Yin Dynasty planted a cypress. The people of the Chou planted a chestnut (lì) tree, saying, ‘Let the people be fearful (lì).’” When the Master heard of this he said, “One does not plead against actions already done; one does not remonstrate about affairs that have conclud-ed. One does not assign blame concerning matters of the past.”3.22The Master said, “Guan Zhong was a man of small capacities.” Someone said, “But wasn’t Guan Zhong frugal?” The Master said, “Guan Zhong main-tained three residences and allowed no con-solidation of responsibilities among state of-ficers. Wherein was thisfrugal?” “Well, but did he not know li?”The Master said, “When the lord of his state set up a screen at court, Guan Zhong gated his family courtyard with a screen. Be-cause an earthen drinking platform is built when lords of states meet together to en-hance their congeniality, Guan Zhong also built an earthen drinking platform. If Guan Zhong knew li, who does not know li?”3.19Duke Ding was the ruler of Lu prior to Duke Ai, whom we encountered in 2.19 and again be-low in 3.21.Some commentators read Confucius’s reply simply as two positive prescriptions, without any conditional relation.3.20 The Poetryopens with the song Ospreys, which links the im-age of those birds to a lover’s longing for an ideal woman.3.21 Zai Wo 宰我was a disciple.He plays a minor role in the Ana-lects, but is unique in that his role is unremittingly negative.He died in abortive coup attempt in his na-tive state of Qi, and his treatment in the text may be connected to that.The name of the chestnuttree (lì栗), happens to be part of a compound word that means ‘fear-ful’(lì慄).3.22 Guan Zhongwas the prime minister of the state of Qi during the seventh century BCE. His wise counsel was said to have made his ruler the first of the great ‘hegemons’ of the chaotic ‘Spring and Autumn’ period of history (722-489 BCE).He was a hero to later generations in Northeast Chi-na, but Confucians were ambiva-lent about him, becausethey viewed the hegemonic power of the Duke of Qi and others like him as depriving the Zhou king of his rightful authority as Tian’sdesig-nated ruler.Guan Zhong’s historical status and the intellectual im-portance of evaluating that role may be analogized to an American figure like Jefferson.

 

Confuciusim Facts:

Confucius (551–479 BC) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a system known as Confucianism. Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death. Confucius's principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives. He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", an early version of the Golden Rule.