Six Core Confucian Concepts Analysis

Improved Essays
Siwei Xie
A91088106
Poli 113A
Prof. Magagna
Midterm
Six Core Confucian Concepts
In the East Asian conception of politics, the very essential idea is that the government should be established to serve the people, not just by people. To be more specific, leaders of the people should be in the same role of the leaders of a single family. In other words, just as a family leader always leads his family generously and kindly, the leader of the people is ought to be in the same way to rule the society. Including cooperate with every individual or group fairly without considering whether getting benefits from doing so. This series of actions would eventually lead to innovations and revolutions. From the basis of ancient Confucianism, there are six core concepts were derived. There are Ren, Virtue, Family, Harmony, Knowledge and Action, and finally the Ontological Independence. The very first concept is “Ren”, which is the fundamental to Confucianism, is always translated as humanness or goodness in a human. However, it is not just a word, there is no English word that can translate it accurately. The most precise description is Ren is what makes a human a human, or the attribute that differentiates human from normal creatures. Although as much as Ren might be sounded like being selfless and devoting oneself to others, it is the opposite. Ren means that individuals should act highly self-interest, but with respect to help and love
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Between the body and the mind, to be more specific. One’s body is composed by rational part, emotional part and physical part, those parts are interrelated and hence have effects to each other. One with mature chi controlling is able to use his rational part to suppress the emotional part and to control the physical part, which is our body. Hence one’s action is totally being controlled by his rational part of the body, and therefore all of his behaviors are

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