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 other people. It should be considered as a mutual or reciprocal action. People should show their Ren to others as one of their natural characteristics, rather than acting or forcing. Ren also means that to show kindness and respect to bad person and guide him back to the normal trail. In other words, having Ren is similar to a circulation where one individual is the society shows Ren to another, and the second person also shows Ren to a third person, so on and on; ultimately a society that is full of human heartedness will be created. However, it is never easy to possess Ren as an attribute, it often requires lots of efforts and works with a clear objective. The second main concept is Virtue. It means a moral principle that people should comply. It requires people to be able to judge what is wrong and what is right, and behave correspondingly. In order to comply with this concept, balance is the key, virtue wants people to act in a balanced way, which means thinks or acting in an extreme is prohibited. Once the individual can behave in a balanced way, it is called to have the excellence of behavior. However, achieving virtue is not easy, because one should have the spontaneous judgement regarding the situation the once faces or the way to behave. Furthermore, virtue should be complied in both short and long run, which means that one should also be on his best effort to judge any circumstance he meets each day, and perform the best. Once virtue is achieved, it is considered as a spectacular achievement for not only the one self but also for others. The third concept is family. It is developed from the basic relationships within a family. For instance, the relationship between father and son is described as regardful and obedient; the relationship between elder brother and younger brother represents gentle and respectful; husband and wife’s relationship should be loyal and loving etc. Confucianism suggests that the society is similar to a giant family where each individual is a family member, therefore, each one should consider others as their family members and treat them with respect and love. So the individual family is being expanded and eventually became the ecological family, and with the stabilized ecological family people can generate future hopes. Because according to Confucianism, family
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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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